field frolicking

its official. im an aussie field virgin no more!

...although it is the worst heat wave in western australia since 1933 and thats the week we choose to have our field training haha.

headed to a quarry site to do some hands on field training

lets just say our walk in was prefaced with "oi, watch out for tiger snakes they'll get yeh. oh yea and keep an eye out for roo ticks. leetle buggas go for yer sweateh moyst areas" (thats me typing with an australian accent lol). thank cheesus we didnt see any!

the archaeological record here in australia is totally mind boggling. in the states i rarely see sites older than 6,000 years old, although the record goes back 14,000ish years; here, you can encounter sites going back 60,000 years. my pea brain is still trying to comprehend it (its almost as crazy as me trying to convert kilo grams to pounds or liters to gallons. sure glad all of that is reliant on my non-existent math skills...fark!) anyway, sidetracked...

this is what an australian prehistoric lithic site looks like

and for all you who dont know what the hell a lithic flake is, click here :) at any given time walking around out in the desert youre bound to come across a mangled animal of some sort and their associated bones. in my experience its usually juicy deer bits like this

but today i got to see my first set of kangaroo bones! it was nerdtastic :)

so even though the archaeological record here is 4x older than what im used to (which is BADASS), the stone tools themselves arent extremely impressive, and are very few and far between. thus, every lithic flake is treated like its a tool (measurements, photos, the works). for my american archaeologist friends you realize how ridiculous this is lol. for everyone else, youre probably stumped and want to look at more pictures. how about this one of an irish girl standing in front of a eucalyptus tree silently cursing the 43 degree heat?

on our way back out we hiked past the swan river. it was quite purdy, but im definitely not brave enough to get into aussie water yet (got sharks attacking people near the beaches, stands to reason that a croc was probably laying in there waiting to munch hungrily on my legs. its only logical?)

p.s. apparently crocs and gators arent the same thing. ive been using the term interchangeably for years. woops? came home and consulted the wise prophet google, and found out they are different in the following ways:

1. ) Shape of the jaw— Alligators tend to have wide, U-shaped, rounded snouts, while crocodiles tend to have longer, more pointed, V-shaped snouts.
2.) Teeth—The fourth tooth on the lower jaw sticks up over the upper lip on crocodiles, so you can see it when their mouths are closed. In alligators, this fourth tooth is covered up.
3.) Habitat— Crocodiles also have special glands in their tongues that can get rid of excess salt, so they tend to live in saltwater habitats. Alligators have these glands, too, but they don't work as well as the crocodiles', so alligators prefer to live in freshwater habitats.

who the hell knew?

got back to the car and was given a refreshing rehydrating beverage. i had a giggle that it was called "staminade". WAY cooler name than powerade! although maybe "gator"-ade wouldve been appropriate? (oh god, that was a terrible pun on the aforementioned croc/gator convo)

a successful first foray into the field i say! cant wait till february 20th when i get to head out on my first 12-day session.

noirin and i got dropped off in west perth so we could get to the immigration department before they closed (which is at 4:00pm. who the hell can get anywhere before 4:00 pm? totally ridiculous. but thats neither here nor there). in order to do anything here you have to have a squillion forms of personal identification. needed to get a visa sticker put inside my passport. why you might ask? i need it so can finish filling out my tfn documents so i can get paid. i also needed it to get my drivers license, however, in order to get that i need like 4 other forms of id!...including an age card to prove i'm me. $25 and 5 business days later, i'm halfway there

i posted this photo on facebook when i first got the card, and got so much shit for my signature. my favorite comments were: "you sign your name like a bar code.  hahaa" and "is that a signature?? dear god.". who knew people were so passionate about penmanship? lol. hopefully after i promise to give my left ovary and a urine sample to the australian government i'll get my drivers license before the world ends in december.

anyway, just want you all to know that not having a car is liberating!....and a huge pain in the ass haha. had to take a bus, this train...

...and walk for 2 k's to get home. but at least i get to see some great stuff along the way. i got to see my bus driver honk at a jafi who was blocking the road, got to see the beautiful indian ocean from the train, and saw a fight between two hammered bogans on my walk home (if you clicked on the link, read the second definition, although the first one is quite funny. and while youre at it, look up the word "paunch". it provided me and my norwegian friend tonje with about 15 min worth of quality entertainment. "you sir! show me your paunch!" lol).

gearing up for my first australian day tomorrow. woohoo for dingos and emus!