Day 14, June 16

Today began by working on our presentation that we were all giving about our common product later. Jessica decide what our talking points should be and created our PowerPoint. After a quick impromptu lunch and some tidying in expectation of the professor’s visit the grad students began arriving followed by the professors. The geology group presented first. It was extremely interesting to see what everyone had been working on for the past week. They had some really interesting points that fed into my own observations and questions. There seems to be an interesting correlation between the old and new alluvial soil boundary and where we have been finding sites. The New alluvial soil is located on the south slope where we identifies the most features. It isn’t particularly surprising considering the fact that the soil would have been much better for any agricultural practices. We then did our own and the professors brought up some interesting points. After we had presented our findings of the survey the other groups went. They were fantastic and enlightening. They had told us that the presentation should be about ten minutes each, but everyone ended up closer to half an hour. There was just so much information to get through. After everyone had gone we broke for lunch. As we reconvened the profs discussed what sorts of questions they were interested in answering which was very insightful. I think I’ve decided what I want to research. I have noticed certain trends in where we are finding sites, particularly those that are agricultural in nature. I hope to delve into answering what factors provide a suitable site for precontact people to cultivate food. I think there will be a distinct soil type, hydrological pattern, elevation, and whatnot. I still need to refine my actual question but it’s a place to start. We also signed up for dinner duty. Courtney, Julianna, and I are in a group so that’ll be fun when it’s our turn to cook. After all of that was over by way of Kerry’s suggestion Courtney, Julianna, Jessica, Kerry, Gordon, and I decided that we had been inside for too long and needed to get some blood flowing to our legs so we decided to walk. It was pitch black outside and we took our flashlights with us encountering some ridiculous spiders, frogs, centipedes, and cows along the way. WE ended up walking along the coast for about five miles. I am now exhausted and ready for bed. I’m going to try to get back to blogging like usual since the last few days have been so rushed. More adventures tomorrow I’m sure!