news flash--- Typhoid outbreak at Kenan Tepe dighouse--12 people affected---don't worry I am not one of them.
Debbie announced to Bradley that she had changed her tickets to leave dismil Bismil early-regardless of the talk that she had with Bradley--result: Bradley is taking it personally and refuses to talk or even acknowlegde her presense.
Debbie returns home on the 6th of August. Yippy Skippy!
That is all for the moment- more at 11.

Well, well, well--so much to tell and not enough týme at the interent cafe... So I was pretty mad at Bradley for various reasons that I will not go into at the moment--so angry in fact that I was ready to pack my bags and leave for Diyarbakir--never to return. I was not the only person who was upset with him--early this week there were 12 people on Cathryn's balcony complaining. We all decided to talk to Andy first. The next day Bradley came into the depo and said "Do we need to talk?" I said, "I don't know, do we?" At that point he decided that we probably should. All in all he was hurt that I had not come to him earlier with my complaints-seeing that he saw me as a friend. When I was able to establish that we are on "friend" terms I was brutally honest with him. I could tell that he was hurt-but it did not seem to matter very much at the moment. Every one should be soo proud of me--I cried but did not sob--which meant that I was able to talk to him the whole time instead of having to stop-compose myself- and start again. I forgave him in the end-I am soo predictable sometimes.
So yesterday we went to Hasankeyf for a few hours and then on to Dýyarbakýr. We were pretty tipsy by the time we got to Hasankeyf and Bradley and I just hung out in this cafe that is half in the waters of the Tigris. It was nice just to let my feet sit in the water-Bradley floated for a while-and just about everyone got wet to some degree. It was fun. I was in the party van the entire time-which was fun until Jakob, who is a diabetic and should not be drinking anyway, gpt sick and started to upchuck in the back of the van. He then made Greer sick, who later got Jonathan sick. I get really mad at people who can not handle their alcohol and expect me to pick it up. I refused. Stupid people.
And I know that some people are wondering about the never ending Erol situation. This year we only hired people that were requested by the different excavators. Erol was not requested and therefore not hired. He had asked Aziz, one of our foremen, why we had not been hired yet. He was told that he was not welcome at the dig house becasue he was too familar with all of the women on the dig-not just me. If he agreed not to come to the dig house he could be hired--he then decided to come too the dig house to get clarifycation-and will not be hired. Again stupid people.
That is all for now
Until next time

whoo...sorry aout that-the last two posts were supposed to go up last week but the stupid server here did not work.
Unlike years past---I hate it here. Bradley has been pissing me off a lot and I feel isolated and frustrated and well...it is not a good situation. Needless to say, I can not wait until I can come home--55 days to go--I think that I am going to try and see if I can get a flight back earlier. I think that it is the monotomy of everything that is getting to me. I get ignored for days on end and then I have to jump whenever Bradley wants something. A lot of my anger at Bradley stems from a room promise that he made to me that fell though-and I got stuck in a room with 6 people--it was awful. But I moved to our 3rd apartment the other day--we have soo many people we had to get another one--this one has roof access and I sleep up there-it gets cold up there at night and you need a blanket to sleep. Everyone on the crew is here now-which is nice-and I have no problems what-so-ever with any of them--it is just Bradley at the moment. Hopefully things will improve.
Today is our day off---yeah! I went to the Bismil internet cafe earlier in the week and did not get anywhere with it--so it looks like I will only be able to update this page on Fridays when I am in Diyarbakir. Hopefully next time I will be in a better mood.
Until then

Not much else has been happening besides that of that. Bradley announced yesterday that the van will not be coming back to get breakfast every morning---which basically means that I will never get to leave the house too see the site unless I want to waste an entire day of work. Things have been progressing very well in the depo so far. I am almost caught up with last years stuff--and the new incoming stuff have already been dealt with---the new system seems to be working out well. All the small finds have been processed on a daily basis. Everthing seems to be going soo smoothly that it makes me a little uneasy. Could it really be possible that I could finish something that I had started? Could this also mean that some of my crackpot ideas do work? I will keep you updated.
Oh and on a last note note--twice someone has told me that they thought that I was a local---I am not sure if that is a compliment or not--especially with my Turkish.
Until next time

Well, I almost did not get to have a day off this week, but I had to put my foot down with Bradley Bey and make him give me one. So I spent last night in Diyarbakir. It was not too much fun however since I was midly sick, I ended up sleeping all day. I feel fine today.
So not too much has happened this week, but my Tuesday incident with the cockroaches was enough for me. Anyone who knows me well knows my absolute fear of cockroaches. When we originally came to Bismil, Lynn had told me to watch out for rats and cockroaches in the depo. Not what I had wanted to hear. No rats soo far, but plenty of cockroaches. To begin with I would come across the occasional one when I was back in the corner crates. I could handle those, you scream, back away, and let them run. It was a good policy. However, when I got around to fixing out the crates towards the front of the depo, where everone organizes their artifacts when they come in from the field---we found an entire nest of cockroaches. At first I had one of the little boys from next door helping me. You had to pull out every artifact and put them into a "clean" crate. By about the tenth cockroach that we had to kill he could not take it anymore and left. It is important to note that this is also the first time that I have ever killed a cockroach. I still had five stackes of crates to go. Then this other girl came and helped me. She was very proud of her not being afraid of them, in fact she felt it necessary to pick one up and show me how unafraid that she was. But then the Haji--our landlord--saw her in there with me and shooed her away. 3 stacks left to go. Now that I was by myself, I would take the crattes outside near the dumpster to "clean" them. The whole neighborhood thought that it was really funny to watch me stamp on them. By the time there was only two stacks left, there were so many cockroaches in the crates that I knew I needed help. The entire time durring this, I am crying and completelly grossed out and on the verge of freaking out. Drew came down to help me--he was my hero for that day--but when we got too the last crate I still do not think that either of us could have been prepared. We had kicked it a couple of times, and managed to kill 10-15 escapees---I was not prepared for the thirty or so cockroackes to come scrambling out from under that crate. If fact I screamed soo loud that four guys off the street rushed in to see if I was ok. When they saw the problem they all started to help us stamp them out. Afterwards the place looked awful---squeeshy bug býts everywhere. I had to wait 2 hours before I could even venture down to the depo again. When I cleaned up the mess--when the broom would run over some of the roaches they would start to twich again. So I would have to stamp them again. Most of the bits I had to scrap up. I did not want to have any mental breakdowns this year, but I totally lost it. After I calmed down, I could not sleep that night because each time I closed my eyes I would see the cockroaches. I stayed up until I fell asleep from exhaustion. Now I have no problem with killing the roaches. I still jump a little. We have started a daily kill count--the numbers are dwindling. 6 the day after, then four, then one. I think that the word has gotten out to the whole cockroach community to stay out of my way. Marco keeps calling me La Cocoracha.

My luggage came. that seems to be everyones main concern. However this internet cafe in Bismil really sucks, so I will hav eto be brief. I just lost an email that I sent to Dione.
So we start digging tomorrow. Howwever, I am in full dig mode---there is soo much stuff that I left behind in the depo. But I am almost finished. Finishing scares me a little, it sould be like the end of the world. But in doing soo much work I am really sore. Ibprofen and the occasional stiffy have been my friends.
For anyone that is curious,yes I have seen Erol. I have been barely civil to him, and so I think he has gotten the point, but you never know with that man.
Well, everyone in my group is ready to go. So I will leave you now. I will write again on Friday---my day off---I can not wait.
Until then.