Week ONE, in the bag...

Week ONE is OVAH!!! It started slowly, but 18 meals later, I'm home (still wearing pajamas) eating a Baker's egg and cheese burrito (in other words, I survived). The students are GREAT! I was so worried that because the students last year were so incredible, I thought we were doomed karmic-ally to inherit 20 vegetarians with lactose and nut issues (we have a few, but they're easy)... But no, the students get along really well, are helpful in the kitchen and around camp, and most importantly (to my little black heart) appreciative of the food we churn out of our camp kitchen.



I forgot my camera in our kitchen, so the photos I'm posting this weekend are thanks to two very skilled paparazzo, Frank Lyu and Richie Cruz. Thanks, eses!

Mike and I made our way up to the campsite Saturday afternoon. It is a beautiful part of the world. The site has a sag pond, a meadow, and tons of juniper and pine trees (Jeffrey and Pinyon (I think)). During the first weekend, many former students return to help set up the camp kitchen and army tent that serves as a classroom in the first week. It was great to see them, and we had a lot of fun with all these guest chefs. Tim and Matt from last year unsuccessfully attempted to bake brownies... It really wasn't their fault... We bake everything- muffins, cookies, sourdough biscuits in a little banged-up, crooked BBQ. The brownies started out fine, but fell to the ground the first time they opened the Q to check on them. They rebounded by baking an amazing cinnamon apple cake with caramel frosting. This is how serious we were about NOT dropping the second cake:



The caramel apple cake was the bomb. Good job, guys.

Mark Woodson came out the first weekend as our guest chef (and forever friend). He jumped out of his underwear with an amazing Vietnamese meal of barbecued pork, glass noodles, and cucumber salad. Here's a picture of me telling the new students how we do dinner "the table works on both sides, kids!"



New and old students alike enjoyed a fire on Saturday night, it was great getting to know some of the newbies and catching up with Kara my favorite Greek from Long Island, Thalia the field school's "star" (according to Dr. Sapp and everyone who knows her), Tim the Villanova rugby player/dirt collector, Matt the U of A frat guy sweetheart, Richie the quiet paparazzi, Gina the angel from heaven/historical can goddess, and Henry the Tab drinking giant/illusive man of mystery.



After lemon blueberry pancakes, sandwiches, cheesy grits, chicken al orange, and a few other meals, Wednesday came. It was maybe my favorite day of the week. I did miss this guy a lot though:



But on Wednesday, I had a shower(!), got to cook one of my own recipes (kielbasa, white bean, and kale soup), and heard a lecture from one of my former teachers, Dr. Ernest Siva. Dr. Siva is a Serrano/Cahuilla indian, a bird singer, musician, and one of the last speakers of the Serrano language. He sang bird songs, big horn sheep songs, and lullabies. Dr. Siva also told some really cool stories I hadn't yet heard. I'm not sure if everyone there knew what a big deal it was, but I know I loved it. Here's a pic of the man I stole from the internets:



I'm excited about week two. The students will go into the field for some real archaeology, we have great meals already planned, and I'll get to know everyone a little bit better (the crazy comes out in week two (eeek, I hope not)... Please keep reading, I miss all of you guys!!!