What is Jason up to?

Roger Water's "The Wall" was the best concert I have been to!

2010-10-14T15:03:00.013-04:00

This past Sunday (Oct 10, 2010), I was fortunate enough to have a ticket to see Roger Water's perform his masterpiece, "The Wall", in Washington DC's Verizon Center. For those of you that don't know, Roger Waters was the bass player and primary song writer for the band Pink Floyd. I have to assume that you have heard of them before because they are one of the greatest bands in history. Even if you don't like them, you know their music. Chants of "we don't need no education" probably sound familiar. Some other songs that you may know are "Wish You Were Here", "Comfortably Numb," and "Money". At least, those are the songs you'd hear on the radio. For a Floyd fan, those are merely "old standards".

In 1980, Pink Floyd went on their last tour, which only covered 4 cities I believe. This was the original "The Wall" tour. The production was so expensive and so massive that it almost put the band incredibly in debt just to put the show on. That's why it was limited to only 4 cities.

30 years later, Roger Waters has taken "The Wall" on a world tour and he has done an amazing job of it. He has world class musicians with him like GE Smith, who used to play guitar on Saturday Night Live in the 80s and 90s. I was fortunate to meet GE walking around on the street just before the show. He has the largest digital projector in the world. Now that I think about it, he probably has the largest mobile projector screen in the world as well, the Wall itself.

Being a huge Pink Floyd fan, the Wall was never one of my favorite albums. I guess because I was always just more into the long solos by David Gilmour and the Wall just always lacked a lot of those. But now, after I have seen the production myself, The Wall is a masterpiece. It was nothing short of epic and simply beautiful to watch.

The wall spanned the length of the entire arena. Throughout the show bricks are gradually added until, at the end of the first half, the entire wall is complete. The second part of the show is played primarily from behind the wall, which separates the band from the audience. During this time Roger Waters strolls in front of the wall singing his songs to the audience. The ending of the concert concludes with the destruction of the wall.

The visuals shown throughout the show were stunning and mostly geared towards anti-government and anti-war. The song "Vera" showed video clips of soldiers returning home to their children. It was very touching to watch and somehow very fitting with the music.

Here is a link to all of the videos that I shot during the show. My favorites are "Comfortably Numb", Vera", and "Hey You". Or you can just watch them on my website or right below.

Been working on a NEW website

2010-08-10T11:45:00.005-04:00

I'm working on a new website. Well, actually, it looks nearly the same in colors and design. What is different is what's under the hood. I'm using a Content Management System called Drupal to organize it a little better and add more functionality.

A year or so ago I discovered Drupal when I was researching Content Management Systems (CMS) for my job at Texas State University. I have known things like Drupal existed, but hadn't gotten my hands on it yet.

Drupal is free and takes a little getting used to. It's primarily held together with PHP and CSS. So if you know both of those, you'll be fine. It's fairly easy to learn to use, but to manipulate the structure of Drupal, you'll need to really dig into web programming a little.

I'm currently re-doing several of the sites I've managed in Drupal. I've also started on a website for my girl friend using Drupal so that she can post stories and articles she is writing online without having to go through anyone else to do it. She actually currently does that at her journalist job.

There will be several additions to the site. One will be a more dynamic layout for the site that I have done. I'm really not pleased with that layout and have never had time to work on it much, so I'll redo that. The other is THIS blog will be hosted entirely on my server. I'm writing some of the blog code myself and some of it is housed in Drupal.

One last addition that I want to mention is the embedding of Flickr photos on the bottom of my homepage. I've "rigged" my blackberry to send all the photos I take to Flickr. Then my website will randomly choose 6 pictures to post at the bottom under my "Recent Mobile Pics" heading. I will likely change that because not all of the pictures will be recent. So by the time I launch the site, it will likely just say Mobile Pics.

Anyway....
There is it. That's it, and that's all.

Got a job in DC!

2010-05-26T01:38:00.006-04:00

Well.....after waiting (and waiting, and waiting) for the Census Bureau to get back to me, I finally decided to start applying for other jobs. I think I probably applied for 150 jobs. One company was looking for someone with Web Design experience and Graphic Design experience. So I applied. Their name is ULLICO. They are an insurance company a few blocks from the White House in Washington DC.

Before going to the interview at ULLICO, I interviewed at The Atlantic Media company, Capital One HQ, and many others. ULLICO was the first to give me an offer. It was a very very good offer with better benefits than any other job could ever possibly offer. Probably better than any government job could offer.

I drove back and forth between my girlfriends house in Norfolk VA and Washington DC several times in one week. It was tough but it certainly was worth it. I think I have a good idea of how bad the traffic in Northern VA is now. Ugh!

So right now I am gearing up to move to Fredericksburg VA and start a real life with my girl friend. I've looked for some places in that area and have liked a lot of what I have found. There are a few that are close to the commuter rail station that I plan to use everyday to work. I'm actually looking forward to that.

While I'm on here, I'll tell you a little about Kristin, my girl friend. Well.......she's great!

We've known each other since we were around 14 or 15 years old. We went to high school together and knew each other through a mutual friend. She never knew that I thought she was incredibly beautiful or that I would have given anything just to talk to her for more than a few minutes. I can remember just being speechless around her. Not much has changed from how I felt then either.

Around January, I decided to get out of Texas and move back to the East Coast. My sister has a baby now, and I'd like to see her grow up. I've been going to school for nearly 10 years and I'm a little sick of it honestly. Don't get me wrong, I have A LOT to show for it, but I'm just done for the most part. I had already decided to move to VA. One day it hit me that Kristin is probably in VA as well. I recalled her telling me 10 years ago that she was going to try to get a job as a journalist in Washington. I remember where we were standing and what we said in the conversation. That's got to mean something if I remember it that well. So I emailed our mutual friend from high school and asked about Kristin's whereabouts.

After finding out a little about what was going on with her, I sent her a message on Facebook and just asked if she would be interested in having lunch when I fly to DC for my interview. AND SHE SAID YES! :-) I ended up flying out a few weeks earlier to visit my family and decided to rent a car and drive up to see her. We had a great time walking on the beach and catching up. I remember a guy yelled out at us "You guys look great!" That kind of made both of our days.

Eventually, against my friends advice, I broke down and told her all about how much I liked her in high school and how I remembered her after all of these years. I told her about all these small conversations we had 10+ years ago. And the rest is history.

She's a great girl. The best. She's an award winning journalist, smart, funny, and we are from the same hometown. Did I mention she is insanely beautiful? When it came time for me to come home from Texas, she flew out there and we drove back together and had the best time. We stopped in the mountains in Georgia and took in the sights there. After that we knew that we were really an item.

So the moral of the story is, God listens to prayers. I've prayed for this stuff starting in January. Everything fell into place just like He wanted it to. I prayed for a Christian woman, a wonderful job, and a lot of patience and God came through. Texas wasn't where I needed to be. I should have never have gone. But it was all in God's plan. If I hadn't had gone to Texas, I wouldn't have applied for this job in DC. I wouldn't have reconnected with Kristin. I wouldn't have been offered a really awesome job. And I wouldn't be as happy as I am right now.

Applying for DC jobs. Moving to VA!

2010-01-22T18:40:00.007-05:00

This place may be my new office. Its the US Government Census Building in Washington DC.

Let me explain.....

Last semester I decided I was extremely sick of living in Texas. It certainly wasn't what I thought it would be and some of the reasons I wanted to move there no longer existed. Texas State University overall is a great university and I have made lots of great contacts since I have been there. However, the anthropology department was a big disappointment. Very few professors seemed to really want to help the students. Often times they seem to only want to be obstructions only wanted to hold us back.A few bad situations developed between myself and the chair of the department, who seemed to have loath the very core of me from day one. I also had a lot of issues with several of the students who I knew were cheating and not doing their own work throughout the semester.

So after the semester ended, I decided to switch to a program called Interdisciplinary Studies. This way.....I could study archaeology from other universities and transfer it in. I could also study computers and history along with this. It would allow me to take only the classes that I see valuable to myself and what I plan to do in my future.

During Christmas vacation, however, I sent an email to a friend of mine that works for the governement asking him if he knew of any jobs available. I had decided that I would much rather start a job and/or a career and begin paying on my student loans. Fortunately, my friend in DC had contacted me years earlier when I worked for ABC Phones in Greenville NC about this same job. But now, my chances were much better of getting the job because of my background in computers and web development.

So.....next Monday or Tuesday I am getting a call from Washington to set up an interview. They are going to fly me out to Washington DC for a few days. I'll have an interview that last all day long. Suit Required! :-P

I've already been told the benefits and they are stellar. Government jobs often are I've heard. The pay would also be much much higher than I thought I would qualify for. I should be able to pay off my loans in 2 years or less if I get the job.
As for grad school....I've already looked into transferring my credit to another university and working on my masters when/if I move. So not all is lost. I just think, financially, it is going to be much better for me to start paying on my student loans now. Who knows......if this job turns into a career, which I have heard usually happens because everyone loves it so much, I may just stay there.

Right now I am looking at living in the area north of Fredericksburg VA near a National Forest area called Prince Williams Forest. Its not too far from the Appalachian mountains (1 1/2 hours nearly) so plenty of places for me to go hiking. Pretty close to the ocean too. Plus.....Washington DC. Come on......I love that city! Tons of stuff to do. It'd be about an hour commute by train. I'll feel like I'm in Germany again. :-P

I'm an UNCLE!!!!!!!

2009-12-19T01:13:00.007-05:00

That's right! :-D My sister had a beautiful baby girl. Her name is Addie Brynn Olson. She is named after my Great-Grandmother Addie Mae Anderson. "Brynn" is a Scottish word meaning "small hill". As some of you know, my sister and her husband, Greg, were hiking the Appalachian Trail when she found out she was pregnant. So the "hill" part of Addie's name is very fitting.

The first time I saw her, I couldn't believe it. She is SO cute!! My parents are so so happy to have a new addition to the family.

Jennifer, my sister, is doing well but very sore because of the C-Section she had to have. I think she was in labor for just at around 24 hours. We were all getting a bit worried about her, but everything worked out great. I wish I had been there with everyone, but I was still in school down in Texas.

What a great Christmas present for the whole family!! I'll try to post more pictures after Christmas on my photo page.

First Semester Down! 3 to go!

2009-12-19T00:42:00.010-05:00

Well......I've finished my first semester in graduate school. I am SO glad its over, however, some good things did come from it. I've become very good friends with several professors that I think will be great resources for me in the future. Recently, I finished a 22 page paper for one of my archaeology classes. The paper was read aloud, which made me very nervous. After my adviser read the paper, he suggested that I change that paper topic into my thesis. I'll explain that in a bit.

I've really started to like living in Texas. The people are great, the food is wonderful (Steak is WAY better in Texas), and there are plenty of things to do and see. Some of the smaller towns nearby are so nice. New Braunfels is one of them. he downtown area reminds me of some small German villages. Maybe that's because its German. They even have a Weinnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) there and things are labeled in German. Pretty neat-O.

My two jobs have become more and more interesting as the year has progressed. The Alumni Association has put there full trust in me with their website. We are in a transitional phase of the site right now, moving from one back-end web provider to another one. When I first started working there, the site was VERY archaic and we got weekly complaints about it. Now we have a new temporary site while we negotiate terms with our current provider. There are still lots and lots and LOTS of problems with it, but at least it looks updated. I wish I could spend more time working on it. Here is the site.

The other site I work on is Texas Beyond History. Here it is if you'd like to see it.
This is a HUGE website that a good friend of mine, Dr. Stephen Black, has set up as a virtual museum of Texas archaeology. The exhibit I am working on isn't up yet but it is called "Mission Dolores". It is a Spanish Mission that was set up when the Spanish ruled Texas in the 1600s and 1700s. The research is interesting and I get to work with a lot of old documents and interesting journals about the subject.

So my thesis topic has been narrowed down to the subject of Mayan Hieroglyphics. I had first planned on working with Mayan burials, but I was told that subject has been "done to death" ha ha ha. So the paper that I mentioned was on a group of symbols called the "Initial Series Introductory Glyph" or ISIG for short. These symbols are grouped together before calendar dates on monuments and nearly anything with a date called the Long Count date. Not a lot of work has been done on these symbols and my adviser was so impressed with my subject that he told me on the spot that this was gonna be my new thesis topic. I've received a few emails from other professors at other schools around the country telling me that this is research that has been needed for a while but no one has done it before. I hope I am up to the task.

My professors at ECU were certainly happy to hear about my thesis an the direction I am going. Without them, who knows what I'd be doing now. It was nice getting to see them all again at my late graduation. I actually was on the list of graduates in May 2009 but couldn't walk because I was in Germany. So I was told I should come and do the graduation this Dec. I'm so glad that I did. I talked to so many professors about my current work and about Texas State. That is Dr. Laura Mazow and myself. She always encouraged me to go into epigraphy and so far it seems like that is the field I belong in. It was GREAT getting to tell them how much of an impact they made on my career decisions.

Whats going on in Texas.

2009-10-07T09:49:00.013-04:00

Hey everyone! Its been a while since I have written on here and a few of you have emailed me wondering whats going on so let me see if I can recap the last month or so.

My dad and I drove down here (although he did nearly all the driving) in late August. Nearly had a few close call wrecks on the way as well. Boy....people sure do drive crazy here!!

The building here is called Old Main. Its the "old main" building that administrative offices use to be in. Its the central icon of the university and sits high on a hill overlooking everything. Its a very beautiful building. This is one of my favorite photos of it.

After I got settled in we had our first meeting of the grad students. Some of us had been emailing back and forth for a while so we already knew each other well. It almost felt like we were already friends when we first met so that was nice.

We listened to Dr McGee, the chair of our department, for a while. Soon a few other professors filtered in. One of them named Dr Reilly immediately pointed to me and said "I need to talk to you after the meeting. George Stuart sends his regards." As some of you know, Dr George Stuart was one of the most notable Mayan Archaeologist in the country. His son is the leading Mayan Hieroglyphic expert in the world, who works at the University of Texas at Austin, just down the road. So I was very pleased to hear that George had even remembered me. Apparently he had some very nice things to say. Dr Reilly told me that he knew that if Dr Stuart had written a letter of recommendation for me, that I must be something special. Ha ha!

Classes are going well. Right now I am taking an Anthropology Theory seminar, which is terribly awful. We are reading about 150 pages a week of the most boring stuff written in a very old style of writing. We also have several papers due for that class this semester. The chair of the department, Dr McGee, is a co-instructor together with Dr Warms in that class. Most of the time it seems that all they do is bicker like an old married couple.

I'm also taking an Archaeology seminar in which we have several archaeology problems that we have to solve. Most of them have to do with excavation strategy and things like that.

My last class is on that Dr Reilly teaches. Its Art and Archaeology of the Olmec. I love this class. Because it mostly deals with my area of expertise, I get put on the spot a lot in that class.....in front of about 70+ people. If there is a Mayan Glyph in the slideshow, he usually says "Mr Glisson, explain to everyone what we are looking at" or he just points to me with this commanding look and lets me know its my turn to speak. So most of the class I am on the edge of my seat but its sure is very interesting. Dr Reilly is likely one of the top experts in the world on the Olmec civilization. After hearing his name, I looked him up in my archaeology books and he is in most of them.

Right now I am working 2 jobs, and might be adding a third. My first job is working at the Alumni Association of Texas State. I love this job. Currently I am working with the head of Alumni Affairs and designing a new website for them. Here is my new design. Its not being used yet, but I am working on it. <http://www.txstatealumni.org/new_site/index.htm>
Their current one is ancient. They have been impressed by my work already and have asked me to make some new graphics for them to use in emails and things. The building I work in is an old house that's really nice on the inside (My office is upstairs.). Apparently the room that I work in is the room that Lyndon B Johnson use to live in when he was a Student at Texas State (then Southwest Texas Teaching College). It is neat going to a school that a president graduated from, but BOY! do they have pictures of him everywhere!!

My second job is working for one of the archaeologist doing a HUGE website called Texas Beyond History. It is a state-wide website about the history of Texas and the archaeology sites around the state. It is easily the largest website I have ever worked on. Its used A LOT by people all over the world and has been featured on a lot of news and TV programs. Here is the Texas Beyond History website. <http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/>

The third job, which I have yet to start, is teaching guitar lessons for one of my professors sons. Its been a while since I have taught guitar and I thought now would be a good time to get back into it.

The campus is really nice and has some beautiful spots. Its really well organized and easy to get around. I take the bus from my apartment everyday which is great because I never have to drive. I could actually take the bus anywhere I need to. The public transportation is fairly good here. Nothing like Germany, but its pretty good for the US. I think Texas is a little ahead of the other states in that area. The train station here is really nice too and has a bus station right there which is nice (just like most European cities).

Recently Dr Reilly told me that he wants me to fly to San Francisco to view someones private collection of Mayan artifacts. That is going to be interesting. I am not sure when that will be but I am looking forward to that. I have also been told that several of my papers will be published before I graduate so I am very excited about the way things are going.

This coming weekend we are having a Mayan Hieroglyphic conference and workshop. A guest speaker is coming to teach a hieroglyphic workshop and we will be viewing the movie "Breaking the Maya Code". I saw this last year at the University of Texas at Austin's Maya Meetings that they have every year. Its an excellent documentary. Most of the archaeologist that are in it I have had the pleasure of meeting and talking to. Dr George Stuart is in the movie as well.

The weather is certainly cooling off. When my dad and I first got here in was in the 100s for a few weeks. I think this week it is actually in the low 80s which is a BIG change.

The city of San Marcos is nice and quaint. It has a Greenville NC feel to it almost. Sometimes it seems like I didn't actually leave Greenville because it really does have that same feeling, except there are A LOT of hills here. Some of them very steep. There is a large lake called Aquarena nearby that people scuba dive in. I am going to try to get around to doing that soon. The river that flows through the town is fed from a spring. The water is crystal clear and usually crowded with people swimming all over the city (even on cold days) at the different parks. Some of the parks are very beautiful and very well maintained.

Ok....so lets talk about Barbecue. :-) First off....I really do miss Eastern NC BBQ. Nothing beats Wilbers. But down here....its an entirely different animal. All the BBQ is beef. The first week here we had a big catered dinner which was all BBQ. I had never heard of Brisket before but WOW....it is SO good. They also have smoked sausage and some other cuts of beef. Its all very good though. Every time I explain to Texans what BBQ is in NC, they just can't believe it.

That's about all I can think of right now. I'll write more soon, hopefully.

Last month in Germany!!!!

2009-07-04T18:14:00.002-04:00

So I have finally arrived at my last month in Germany. It has been a long LONG year here in Europe. Its been more difficult than I could have ever imagined being away from my my loved ones this long.

Having said that.....I know that I have learned more this past year than I could ever have dreamed. I have made new friendships, learned another language, saw some of the most wonderful sights of Europe with my girl friend and my family, and completed my bachelors degree in Anthropology.

It has been a very interesting experience getting to see another countries culture and also their viewpoints on so many topics. Over the past year I have gotten many reactions from people all over Europe when I tell them I am an American. Some people smile and greet you. Some people laugh and shake their head. Some people laugh and shake your hand. Some people treat you badly. And some people treat you VERY badly (like the guy in the Paris airport that purposely told me to go the wrong way so I would miss my flight). But.....it has become very apparent to me that even the people that say they don't like America.......still respect America.

So I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July no matter where you were. Hopefully you stopped and remembered why we celebrate this holiday. Over 230 years ago farmers, workers, businessmen, preachers, and common folk like yourselves all became traitors to the British Crown because they wanted freedom. Although it sometimes seems like we have less and less freedom in this country, we are still America.....home of the brave and land of the free and I realize that more now than I have.

A few weeks ago I finished working on a video of all my pictures from the past year. Its not ALL of my pictures......but it is a lot of them. I estimate that I have taken nearly 50,000 pictures here so it was difficult going through all of them and picking out all the right ones. I'm still not totally happy with it, but this is the final product. Make sure that you turn your audio up because there is music.

I'll be posting one more time before I leave for the US. Hope everyone had a good weekend. Talk to you soon!

Ah....Venice......and other places in Italy

2009-03-09T18:24:00.020-04:00

My sister Jennifer and her husband Greg came to visit me in Germany. Boy did we have a great time!!!

The day they got here we went for a walk and I took them to my favorite store Kaufland. :-) Afterwards, we went to eat at my favorite restaurant "Neckermuller" where all of my friends were to meet us later that night. It was sometime that day that things started getting a little crazy for Jennifer.

The next morning we started packing for our trip to Italy and Jennifer noticed that her passport was gone from her bag. We looked everywhere. Later that afternoon we walked to Javier and Rut's house, my friends from Spain. And no......her name is suppose to be spelled like that. Ruth in Spanish is "Rut". We explained the situation and Javier helped us look for the passport, but no luck. We tried to calm Jennifer down and make her not worry so much. For the rest of the day we enjoyed a large Spanish style dinner at my friends house with typical Spanish dishes. It was SO good.

The next morning, Javier and Rut picked us up early and drove us all the way to Dachau, near Munich, to the Concentration Camp there. D

achau was the first camp opened before the war began and was the only one opened through the entire war. It was a VERY large camp. I found it difficult at times to walk around there knowing what had happened to so many people. The gate entrance says in German "Work Makes You Free" but that was just to mislead the prisoners. So many people died in this camp, it was an strange feeling walking in their footsteps.

We walked through the building where they were processed and their heads shaved. We walked through the courtyard where they stood for hours sometimes as punishment. We walked through the small rooms they lived and slept in. Lastly we walked to the ovens that the human bodies were burned in. That was the most disturbing thing to see. Ashes were still inside some of these ovens, after so long. There are three memorials on the grounds of the camp, Jewish, Catholic, and Evangelistic. There is also a giant bell that rings at the exact time they were liberated by the US Army. What a moving experience.

The next day Jennifer, Greg, and I walked through the old city in Tubingen to the lost and found office. After asking the lady a few question in German, and her asking me a few questions in German, she ran upstairs and came back with the passport Jennifer had lost. Some kind soul had turned it in. It was filthy as if it had been in the dirt so we assumed we dropped it walking somewhere.

After that it was off the train station to head through the beautiful Swiss Alps into Italy. What a wonderful ride! The train was very comfortable and the views were amazing. We all wanted to sleep but we were afraid we would miss a great picture. Jennifer was up and down from here seat taking pictures at every nice view we had. The Alps really are majestic. I think they have been called "The Fingerprint of God" because they are so beautiful and amazing.

Later that day we arrived in Milan, Italy. After a good nights rest, we headed out to the Milano

Duomo, the Milan Cathedral. Its one of the largest in the world and probably one of the most decorated buildings I have ever seen. It was amazing. We read that it took nearly 500 years to complete. After touring the entire cathedral, and walking on the roof, you can totally understand why it took so long. We were all quite speechless about the place. Leaving the cathedral, we headed down towards the Milan castle. On our way we stopped and had a wonderful Italian lunch with one of the best desserts I have ever had. It was coffee, ice cream, and some kind of whipped cream. It was VERY good. I think Jennifer knows the name of it.

At the Milan Castle we were able to get in free because we got there just before they were starting to close. So we hurried through and looked at all of the art work and weapons they had on display. Some featured art was one painting done by Da Vinci and one of the last pieces that Michaelangelo did. It was a huge castle with a lot to see. Afterwards we headed back to our hotel to get our bags and board our train for Venice.

Ah.....Venice. You always see it in movies, and hear people talk about it. But to actually be there, its something else. It is like something out of a fantasy book. No cars anywhere, only boats. The architecture here is a mix of Italian, Turkish, and French........and its beautiful. There is a interesting church on every corner and waterways where there should be alleyways.
We walked around a bit and then toured the Doge's Palace. And what a Palace it was. We were impressed with every room we walked in. The rooms got bigger and more decorative as we neared the end of our visit. That night we boarded a train for Vicenza, where Greg was born.

Vicenza is NW of Venice. It was a short train ride. We walked around the next day looking around the city. We couldn't find a lot to see, but it was still very interesting walking around. The city was a bit smaller than it seemed on the map. Jennifer also started feeling bad so we wanted to look for a place to eat. The problem is that, in Italy, they also have a siesta like Spain. They eat early and then rest from 12:00pm to 2:00pm. This was about the time we started looking for lunch. There was no one open, and no one on the streets. But as soon as 2pm rolled around, the streets were packed and stores began to open again. It was amazing to me how everyone went on this schedule.....even businesses. After sitting down for a nice pizza lunch, Greg ordered some Tiramisu to-go. Vicenza is where tiramisu is suppose to have been created. We headed back to the hostel we stayed at (which wasn't a pleasant stay), got our bags, and headed to the train station to go to Conegliano......where Greg lived when he was very young.

Now.....I'm not a law breaker.....by no means. But when we got to Conegliano, I nearly got into a lot of trouble. After we arrived, we decided to walk to our hotel. It ended up being a longer walk than we thought it would be. Our backpacks were getting heavier and Jennifer wasn't feeling well either. After we turned a corner, I saw a hotel sign down

the road and figured that was the right place. So we crossed the road so we could stay on the sidewalk. After a few minutes, the sidewalk ended and we found ourself boxed in a car lot with a fence between us and where we needed to go. Greg suggested we turn back and go around....which is what I SHOULD have done. But me being the stubborn type....I said "I'm climbing over the fence". So I threw my pack over the fence and grabbed a flagpole that was on the other side to help me climb over. When I got over, the wire that was holding the pole up snapped and I started to fall right into a new car. I stopped the pole just before it slammed into the car. Jennifer and Greg stood there kind of shocked, and then we all let out a laugh. I looked around to see if anyone saw and then quickly laid the pole down on the ground.....ripping the flag that was on it as well. Jennifer just laughed at me as they walked away. :-P

After we finally got to our hotel we were all very tired and just wanted to rest a bit. Greg and I talked to the guy at the front desk for a bit named Deniz. He was very nice and helped Greg print out maps and things for our walk the next day. As we were just hanging out in our room, Greg and I heard a strange sound outside. After a few second we heard a very very loud explosion. We both looked at each other and Jennifer woke up and sat up. We thought we had been bombed or something. It was such a powerful explosion that things were rattling in the room and you could feel the shock wave in your chest. We found out later that it was an illegal firework that someone set off in the parking lot. Whew!

The next morning we walked around the city a bit and up to the castle. Unfortunately it was closed when we got there, but the walk was very nice. When we got to the top, we ate at a nice restaurant overlooking the vineyards. We weren't really sure if we were eating things in the right order, or using the right bowls and plates for different things because the owner kind of made some jokes about it. Later that night we headed back to Venice for just a few more days.

We stayed in the same room we stayed at the first time we came to Venice a few days before. It is very close to the train station and very convenient to walk to. We had such a great time here. We got to tour the Basilica of St Mark (San Marcos) where Mark from the Bible is said to be buried. The entire inside of the place is decorated with gold and multi colored mosaics. It was very impressive. There is so much to see that we just had to buy a book about it so we could read it later. While I was in Venice I also got to see a church that was used in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Its near the beginning of the movie. I was REALLY excited to see it in person. :-)

Our last night we got to attend a classical concert of Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart.....and one other guy that I can't remember the name of. It was in the church that Vivaldi himself was a choir director in. It was fantastic. It was Greg's first classical concert. What a great place to have a first classical concert!! The acoustics were great inside the church. We heard "The Four Seasons" and then Bach's 2 Violin Concerto which is beautiful.

Our train back to Tubingen Germany left Venice at 6:20 am. It was a rough morning. We woke up at 4:45. After riding through some beautiful mountains called the Dolomites and then the Austrian Alps, we arrived in Munich and caught our next train towards Tubingen.

That night we ate dinner with Javier and Rut one more time when we decided to try to call Delta and see about extending Jenn and Greg's stay a bit longer. Through a few loopholes, we were able to extend their stay by two days. They hadn't seen much of Tubingen yet so it was good that they were able to stay a bit longer. We went to the castle in Tubingen and the old market square. Their last day we went to the Botanical Gardens and spent a bit more time with Javier and Rut. They are super nice people that are so pleasant to be around.

The next morning Javier picked us all up very early to take us to the airport. It was tough saying goodbye to them because I won't see them for a while, and they are just about to start their adventure on the Appalachian Trail in less than a week. They are going to be walking for several months from Maine to Georgia, over 2100 miles. I wish them well and hope their trip is awesome!

Prague

2009-01-08T18:11:00.006-05:00

So at the drop of a hat, I decided to whisk myself off to another place before I went home. This time it was to the east of Germany in the Czech Republic. I decided to go to Prague for a few days. There are advertisements around Tubingen to visit Prague during the holidays, so I thought, well why not.

Prague is a beautiful city with many really interesting buildings. Some of them are very old and have a very unique style to them. This building to the right is part of an astronomical clock. The man that designed it was blinded by the king so that no one else could ever have one. I have a video of the clock if you check out my videos on You Tube.

Each corner of Prague had something interesting to see and I think I explored nearly every corner of the city to say the least. At night it was fun walking around because of all the incredible Christmas lights. In each of the major squares there was a Christmas tree and a lot of lights. Something that I also discovered is that the food in these squares was really really cheap. So I tried some of the local food. Chicken Kababs, Belgian Waffels with caramel between them, Polish Sausage, Fried dough with a sauce on it, all good stuff.

The best thing that I had was this cooked dessert that was basically dough that was cooked over coals. Here is a picture of it to the left, good luck pronouncing the name. It doesn't sound like it looks.
Anyway....the dough is wrapped around what looks like a rolling pin and then it is placed over hot coals on a rotisary machine so that it spins slowly. After it is cooked it is buttered and then placed in cinnamon and sugar. YUM!!!

Prague is a nice town to visit because of all of the neat buildings, but after you have seen them, there wasn't much more to do there. I don't think it would be as neat any other time but Christmas. In the main square there was a stage that had live music on it every night. That only happens at Christmas.

So after being there a day or so I decided to venture out of Prague by train (which was an adventure finding the right one to get on). I heard about this church that was decorated with bones about 2 hours outside of Prague. So I headed for the town of Kutna Hora.

The bones were moved inside the church during the early 1800s to make room for more graves outside. No one knew what to do with the bones that were left over so they began to come up with ways to decorate with them. This picture is a chandallier that is made of pelvic, skull, jaw, radius, ulna, and femur bones. You can see many more in the background. The church wasn't very big but had a lot of stuff to look at on the inside. I accidently touched a wire fense on the inside of the church that was labeled DO NOT TOUCH. A bunch of sirens and lights went off. :-/
Outside the church were lots of graves that mostly dated back to WWII oddly enough.

After seeing the church I wondered around the town a bit more trying to find something to do because I rode on a train for 2 hours to spend about 30 mins in this church. There had to be more in the town to see than just the church. Not really....
But I did find one more thing that was interesting.

There was a place called the Italian Court that the king built in the 1200s to start minting silver coins. He brought Italians there to mint these coins because they were very good at it apparently. The musuem of the place had some interesting items. The tour guide was very knowlegible though and knew all the history of the area. One of the coins that the Italians minted for the Czech king was called a Tolar. This monetary ammount was traded with the Germans and eventually was called the "Dollar". See where I am going with this??
This is what it looks like to the left.

So after touring around the mint a bit, I headed back to the train station and later that night stuffed my face with all kinds of treats from the Christmas square. Those Belgian Waffles with the caramel were sooooo good. I ate about 3 of them and got a little sick feeling but it was totally worth it.

Mais, oui! I'm back from Paris.

2008-12-08T16:30:00.014-05:00

Paris was much more incredible than I was expecting. I was there for a Mayan Hieroglyphic conference which was RIGHT outside the Eiffel Tower. It was kind of shocking at first to walk right outside our class room and see the Eiffel Tower. This picture is at the museum I was studying at. Those are Mayan Glyphs.

I started my week by doing a free tour took me all around Paris. It was put on by the hostel I was staying at which was, by far, the best hostel I have stayed at anywhere. I made a lot of really good friends and we hung out most of the week. I think I met mostly Australians than anyone else (and a few New Zealanders that I was told are called Kiwis). At one time there were 15 Australians and me at a table talking.

The free tour took us to Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre Museum (where the Winged Victory, Venus De Milo, and The Mona Lisa are all kept), around central Paris, and to a few other notable sites. The tour guide had some interesting stories to tell during our walk. Most were about history and so I listened very closely.

So throughout the week I went back to the places I saw on the tour and at the suggestion of my parents, I went to several other places. I have to say I was most in awe of the Louvre, Sacre Couer, and Versailles Palace.

At the Louvre I spent all day long walking around. That place is incredibly huge. I can't even fathom how many actually pieces of art and artifacts are in there. I was told by one person that if you stood in front of every work that they have on display (because that have another 30,000+ in the basement) it would take you 4 1/2 months! Thats a long time and a lot of art. So because time was pressing on me, I had to do a "quick" walk through of about 5 hours. The Egyptian stuff was great. But the Winged Victory statue and the Mona Lisa are just SO impressive to see with your own eyes. They really are just incredible works of art.

I got to see the Paris Opera house where the Phantom of the Opera book and musical are set. I have to thank my mom for telling me to try to get to this. What a beautiful building! I have been told so many times that you can really feel some sort of "Phantom" lurking in the shadows. Its very strange. I can't imagine designing a building like that. Its beautiful both on the outside and inside. I'd love to hear an opera in there. I looked into it but time (and money) prevented me from even thinking about trying to get an opera in during my trip.

My last full day I made my way out to Versailles Palace which is about 45 mins on the out skirts of Paris. A nice German couple sat next to me by chance and we spoke for a long time in German. It was actually kind of relieving to be able to talk a language I know (at least a little). They were very nice though.

Versailles has a long history. Many of France's kings and queens lived there including Marie Antoinette, Louis XIV, and Napoleon. This place was decked out from head to toe. Gold everywhere. The size of the palace was just insane. Living in a place like that would make a person feel like the master of the world. The Hall of Mirrors is a incredibly beautiful room with hundreds of mirrors making it seem like that room is endless. The gardens outside seem to go on forever and ever as well. Finally I just gave up trying to conquer them and went back to the train.

Another thing I saw that just was kind of awe inspiring was Napoleons tomb. Sure.....he was a dictator, and a tyrant, but whew.....what an incredible person. He took over nearly all of Europe and tried to invade Russia. He also took over Egypt. I just finished a book 2 weeks ago about Napoleon in Egypt. It was so interesting. Here is a story that I read about when Hitler visited Napoleons tomb. Because of the way that Napoleons tomb is situated below the viewing point, you have to look down on it and in essence "bow" to Napoleon the Emperor. Since Hitler was....well.....Hitler.......he refused to bow to look at the tomb and so he got several of his men to hold mirrors angled down to look at the tomb but they couldn't get the angle right from where they were standing. He started yelling at them and in the excitement of it all, he knocked his own hat off. Quickly, and without thinking, he stooped down to pick it up and before he realized it, he had gotten on his knee and bowed to Napoleon. The two men that were holding the mirrors were then shot. Insane huh?

So thats about it. I could go on and on about Paris, but you'd really have to go there to see it all and experience it.

Tips for staying at a hostel

2008-11-15T14:43:00.004-05:00

I have been thinking about this lately. The last few times I have stayed at a hostel, people seem surprised by the things that I do to make my stay much more enjoyable. Here are some tips you can do to save money, time, and make your stay more comfortable.

Bring ear plugs. I can't tell you how many times I have stayed at hostels and there have been kids running up and down the hall very late at night and people snoring extremely loud in the dorm rooms. You can get ear plugs very cheap in airports and travel stores.
Always make sure the place you have includes a free breakfast. If you can get up and make it to breakfast, you might be able to snag some food for lunch. You'll save a lot of money in expensive cities like London and Paris.
Also make sure that the hostel doesn't charge for sheets. Some do, others don't. Some also don't allow you to use sleeping bags. I have no clue why.
Bring your own towels. Most hostels do not supply them. I use a backpacking towel when I stay at hostels. They are light, take up little room, and dry quickly.
If you have a laptop, try to stay somewhere that has free internet. If you don't have a laptop, stay somewhere that has cheap internet usage. If you stay for more than 3 days you'll want to use the internet.
Whether you are traveling by air or train, plan out your route through the city to your hostel. Once you check in and scope out the area, you can ask the front desk how to get to and from the hostel the quickest. Also find out where the nearest train/bus station is.
Sleep on the bottom bunk. It will save you the hassle of climbing down a ladder in the morning or when you need to go to the bathroom. Some ladders are also not very stable. You'll also have more room to store things (i.e. under the bed).
Try to get a bed near a electric outlet. Some rooms only have one, so if you need it, you'll be closer. And don't forget a electric converter for the country you are going to.

Back from London....

2008-11-04T15:48:00.026-05:00

London was such a wonderful time. I can't believe how much there is to see and do there. The great part is that most of the museums are all free. So here is a run down of everything I did. I'll try to post pictures on here as well. The rest of the pictures on on my website Jasonglisson.com under "Pictures". There is a new file called "England".

The night that I arrived, I got to my hostel very late and had planned on going to a classical concert that night. So I threw my stuff down and and ran back to the Underground station (Subway). I finally arrived at the church St Martin-in-the-fields. Late....but I made it. I missed the first 2 songs which were Canon in D and a Mozart piece. The other pieces were Vivaldi and Bach.

After the concert I went back to my room and slept because I knew I had a long day the next day.

Friday, I spent nearly the entire day at the British Museum. It is mind boggling how much information and how many artifacts from all over the world they have there. I got to see the Rosetta Stone (the key to solving the Egyptian Hieroglyphics mystery), some very neat Mayan and Aztec artifacts which I took way to many pictures of, and some incredible artifacts from Japan, China, Iran, India, The Roman Empire, Greece, and most importantly Egypt.

There was so much to see at this museum that I will have to go back and finish the floors and side that I didn't even get to. I think I was most impressed by the Rosetta Stone, the Mayan Artifacts, and the Egyptian Mummies. But really......its tough to decide what was the most impressive. The entire museum is just incredibly large.

Later that night, Halloween night, I attended a concert of a British music group I like called Shpongle. They have a strange style of music and have been together for nearly 10 years but only played 2 concerts ever. This one was the 2nd concert they played.....so I was fortunate to hear them. They had a classical guitarist with them, a small orchestra, and two opera singers. The other instruments were 2 drums sets, key board, an electric guitar, bass, and two DJs that were mixing music and producing strange sounds from their laptops. It was a really good show. I learned about Shpongle from a song I hear on Youtube that was paired with some Mayan pictures. Then I found out that the man that records some of the music for Shpongle recorded music at some of the Mayan ruins and was using that on their CDs. So I was hooked after that. Here is a link if you'd like to give a listen. Just press the play button on the right side of the screen. Dorset Perception is one of my favorite songs. Dorset is a street and suburb in London.

Saturday I had planned on spending the day walking around London. Unfortunately, a bad storm blew through that day so I wasn't able to do so, and as a result, missed my chance to go inside Westminster Abbey. That was the only day I was able to fit it in. Instead of walking around London, I decided to do just a few things. One of them was go to the Tower of London. That ended up taking nearly all day.

While I was in line, I met some Germans who were standing in front of me. They were speaking German and I laughed at something they said. The woman turned to me and said "Verstehen Sie das?" That means "You understood that?". I said in German "Yes I understand German, but don't speak it very well. I'm a foreign exchange student living in German right now." They thought that was so cool and said my German is better than their English. That made me feel a little better. They also wanted to take pictures with me for some reason. It was strange but I laughed and then smiled for the pictures.

The Tower of London was interesting. Inside various towers in the castle (its not just 1 tower, its several towers) there is graffiti of the different people that were held captive there. Some of the carvings in the stone were impressive. They obviously had a lot of time on their hands. I also was able to see some of the torture devices they used. Yikes! That would certainly not feel well for 8 hours.

After the Tower of London, it was raining so hard and very windy, that I decided to go back to my hostel and rest a bit.

Sunday morning I left very early, around 6:30, to walk around London a bit and take pictures. I first walked to Buckingham Palace. Then to Big Ben and Parliament. Then I walked to the London Eye (which is a giant Ferris Wheel), but didn't have time to ride on it unfortunately. It was really amazing to see Big Ben though. It was beautifully carved all the way up to the clock at the top. And you recognize the tune every time it chimes (Westminster Chimes).
The Parliament building is just as beautiful.

Later in the day, I took a Beatles walk tour. If it weren't for my parents introducing me to the Beatles, I may not be playing guitar. My first song book ever was a Beatles Easy Guitar songbook. So I owe them a little. It was a very interesting tour. The tour guide (Richard) is known as the Beatle Brain of Britain. He knows A LOT about them and has met them several times. He took us around to so many sites. The theater where Beatle-Mania started. Paul Mccartney's London office. Apple Studios and the site of their famous unannounced rooftop concert. Abbey Road, one of the most famous album covers of all time and the most famous road crossing ever. Several people a year get hit in the road trying to take photos like the Beatles took. Ha! One girl in our group had a horn blown at her several times. So the whole tour was exciting and worth every dollar (or Pound rather, thats what they use there anyway).

For the rest of the day I walked around London and took more pictures. One thing that I wanted to see was the Peter Pan statue in Kennsington Gardens. There are 5 or 6 of them in the world just like this one, but this is the original statue. I love the story of Peter Pan. Always have and always will. Pirates, Indians, flying through the air, sword fighting, fairies, far away places. Its just a very neat story. So I finally found the statue with some help from a girl that was on my Beatles tour named Teneil. We asked so many people that LIVED in London and they never even knew there was a statue of Peter Pan there. You should have seen the looks on peoples faces when we asked....."Excuse me, but....where is Peter Pan?" :-P The author of Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie placed this statue here near a children's park. The statue was erected in secret during the night and 'magically' appeared on 1st May 1912. :-) Fitting isn't it? And its really quite beautiful too. There are animals and fairies all around it listening to Peter. Wendy is at the top closest to him.

Later that night I was suppose to go on a tour of London to hear ghost stories and visit the scenes of the Jack the Ripper murders, because it was just after Halloween. However, I also wrote a rather long paper on Jack the Ripper and Modern Forensics for an Anthropology class, so I was a little interested in the crimes. The tour never showed up and I waited 2 hours nearly. I read on the ticket that if there aren't enough people they will cancel to tour and refund my money. So that's what they did.

Monday was my last full day there but it was an exciting one. I got up early and met my tour group and headed out to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and the Roman Baths. What a day! The Queen was actually at Windsor Castle when I was there and I got to see her dog and I think her cat. It was a beautiful castle with armor from all of the kings that have lived there. Henry the 8th was buried there as well.

After that we headed to Stonehenge. I was so excited to see these pile of rocks. And thats what some people in our group thought of them. They just said "Rocks....ok....great." and got back on the bus. But I guess because I've always seen them in the National Geographic, on TV, and in every Archaeology book I have.....I was excited. They were incredibly large stones. Just the size and the surrounding hillside makes you stop and think "Why in the world???? And why here?"
It was really cold and windy out there too.

Lastly we visited the Roman Baths. These were built during the Roman occupation of Britain. They were very beautiful but we were warned NOT to touch the water because it has all kinds of terrible bacteria in it. It was beautiful with the flames lit around it and the steam rolling off the water. These are hot springs but they also had cold springs inside one of the buildings. The Romans really were ingenious to build such an amazing complex with running water, pipes, spas, saunas. The city it is near is appropriately called "Bath". We were told that Nicholas Cage has a house there among other international stars. Its a very beautiful city.

So that's about it. I could go on and on and on, but this is really long already. I have a TON of pictures on my website so go and check them out. If you have any questions about pictures, just send me an email with the number of the pictures. The number should be listed right under the pictures name. I would take the time to write what each one is, but there are just so many pictures, it would take me forever. Since I am in class and working on graduate school applications now my time is limited.

I am in Tübingen Germany......finally!!!!!

2008-08-29T15:29:00.005-04:00

I arrived yesterday around 2 or 3 pm. It was a LONG day. I didn't do much but sleep when I arrived at the hostel.

First....before I start rambling.....
Here are some pictures for you that I took walking around.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2192572&l=ccdec&id=22225658

I hope they turn out.

Its been a good day today. In the mid 70s for most of the day. There is a mexican guy named Sergio that is staying at the hostel I am at. We have been walking around alll day looking at the town. Its very beautiful. There are so many old buildings around. The town square is amazing. The fruits and veggies (gemüse und öbst) look very good. The flowers were incredible.

So far everyone has been very helpful and nice. We were walking around trying to find a store called 'Kaufland' (kaufen means 'to buy'). We forgot the name of it and stopped two women and asked them where 'laufkin' was. 'Laufen' means 'to walk'. The woman said 'Wo?' (Where?). Then we explained and they laughed and helped us find it. It was funny. We have been saying Kaufland all day and laughing because we called it 'walk land'. We bought bread, tuna salad that was pre mixed in a can (and quite good I might add), cookies, fruit, and chips that look like pringles. All of it is great but the bread is incredible because it was warm when I bought it.

I have not been able to get into my dorm room yet because the place I need to go is on the other side of town and not with in a walkable range so I have to take a bus on Monday to go and pay for it.

Right now I am limited to using the internet cafe because there is no internet in the hostel. But soon I will add more on here about whats going on. Most of the weekend I am going to just get aquanted with the city and area so I know what I am doing. I've already decided that I am going to Vienna Austria either next month or in October. I'll let everyone know when I do that. I plan to visit somewhere new at least once a month, but right now I don't know how much free time I am going to have......but I think it will be a lot.

So.....until I get my own internet, I'll have to keep this short.

Until next time!

Tschüss! (pleasent\friendly way of saying goodbye!)

You Better Belize It! I'm Back!

2008-06-25T11:16:00.008-04:00

So now I am back from the Belize Archaeology Field School. What a trip!!! I had a great time really getting into the field work experience and talking archaeology with some very interesting people. Before the field school...I went to Tikal and Copan, two of the largest and most important Mayan sites in central America. I also traveled to Antigua and Guatemala City. Antigua was a BEAUTIFUL Spanish Colonial city surrounded by awe inspiring volcanoes.

So....now on to more exciting things. During the field school, I inadvertently made a very incredible discovery. Here is the story:

Last year, the site director I worked for named Maria Martinez was working in a site called La Milpa. I love this site. It is a large Mayan site that is covered with jungle and is visited daily by Howler and Spider monkeys. Maria is working in a plaza called plaza 88. In the middle of this plaza, she had a 4 meter pit dug straight down to see if she could find the first occupation level of this site. While a worker was down there, he bumped the wall and a few rocks fell out of the profile of the unit he was in. When he looked at the hole the rocks fell out of.....it was a deep, dark, hole that seemed to go underground quite a way. After examining the hole, several people agreed that it was just a possible cavity in the limestone rock.

So this year....after we did a weeks worth of work, everyone wanted to go down in this pit to look in the hole that was found last year. I had to have my turn. When I got down there, I reached inside the hole to feel around. I noticed that I couldn't feel the ceiling or even see the ceiling. So I asked for someone to throw my digital camera down to me. I switched it to video and put the camera in the hole with a flashlight and pointed it up.

When I replayed the video, I saw a ROUND hole with a stone over it. It was a capstone. That is......a stone that had been carved to cover a hole for some reason or another. I showed the video to Maria and she couldn't believe it. A girl named Kelly also got down in the pit and took a video. After replaying hers, it looked like there certainly was a round hole there and it wasn't just light and shadow playing tricks on us.

So eventually, in the weeks to follow, the northern wall of the pit was taken down to about 2.5 meters and the capstone was removed. It left a hole about 45-50cm in diameter....just large enough to fit a person in. I was given the first opportunity to excavate inside the hole. There is a chamber inside that is nearly perfectly round and about 2 meters in diameter.

There were very large spiders inside as well called Scorpion Spiders. They are harmless but look very very strange. They are much larger than your hand.

In the days to follow I was moving a lot of dirt out of the chamber underground. Eventually, one of the buckets I handed to someone contained a finger bone. It was thought to be a monkey bone, but after more bones showed up and the project osteologist (Julie Sauls) was questioned she agreed that the bones were human and wanted to see them for herself. The first bone I found was a sternum. Later other bones were found by Angeliki, a Greek grad-student that ended up helping me out with her excavation and bone experience. The bones were anywhere from 900-1500 years old and thought to be from the late pre-classic Mayan era.

I had to leave before all of the excavation was carried out, but I was asked if I would be interested in writing a field report, which I am looking forward to doing. It was a very interesting experience and something that I will never forget. This last picture was taken the last day of digging. The entrance to the chamber is behind me.

In Central America........Again?!?!?!?!

2008-05-17T16:08:00.005-04:00

So.....here I am ....again....feeling the stress, frustration, and excitment of traveling in Central America. I started out rough with missing my flight from Greenville, but things turned around when I landed and got right on a bus for Chetumal, south of Cancun. It took about 7 hours to get there......2 more than I was planning. So I ended up sleeping in the bus station for a few hours before I got on what ended up being a VERY long mini-bus ride from Chetumal to Belize City to Tikal. We left Chetumal at 5am. I got in Tikal at 4pm. No air conditioning. No food. No sleep. It was rough. Mom....you would have hated it......because I sure did.

When I got to Tikal I met 4 British "chaps" that were very nice. All 4 were medical students. After chatting a bit, we decided it would be cheaper for all of us if we pitched in and got a room togethe at the Jungle Inn.....literally a few yards from the entrance of Tikal.

We had a nice dinner and then decided to go for a sunset tour of Tikal. If you buy your ticket after 3pm it allows you to use the same ticket the next day. We had the entire park to ourselves nearly. And after the British guys found out that I am studying the Maya and archaeology.....questions on top of questions came up. But I LOVED answering them. On our tour today.....they basically got a recap of everything I told them. One of them came up to me and said "You don't lie do you Jason. You know your stuff well." That made me feel good. A also talked to our tour guide and he ended up introducing me to the entire group as the Jungle Inn resident archaeologist. I laughed and had to disclaim that before people started asking too many questions.

So we did the sunrise tour at 4:30am. It was worth it. Monkeys were all in the trees, a nice cool breeze was around, and it was misty everywhere. Later on it got so hot that we just left and laid in the shade for the rest of the afternoon. There were Howler Monkeys everywhere. I took a few videos of them so you can hear what they sound like.

I'm about to leave Tikal and fly to Guatemala City and then a bus to Copan very early in the morning. Sorry this is so short, but you have to pay to use the internet here and its not very cheap so I am typing VERY fast. Hope everyone is doing great!!

I'll be putting more pictures up soon.

Maya Meetings in Austin TX

2008-03-14T12:00:00.011-04:00

I just returned from the Maya Meetings in Austin TX. It was a great time. I met some of the most interesting people in the field of Mayan Archaeology. Basically everyone that I have ever read an article by has authored a book that I have was there.

A few notable names:
- George Stuart, David Stuart, Michael Coe, Bill Fash and Barbra Fash, Stephen Houston, Fred Valdez, Karl Taube

The meetings started on Friday afternoon with a keynote by David Stuart. I was very interested in meeting him. He is basically "Mr. Mayan Hieroglyphic" and is responsible for discovering the meaning behind hundreds of glyphs.

Later that night came a lecture by Michael Coe. He was such a nice guy to talk to and has been working on Mayan Hieroglyphics for nearly 50 years if not more. In the picture here is Michaeol Coe (left) and David Stuart (right). I also asked Michael Coe to sign two of my books that I have read several times on the Maya.

Michael Coe spoke about all his work in Mayan iconography and identified some of the similarities in several cultures in Mesoamerica. I took a lot of notes. It was really awesome being able to say that I took notes on a lecture by Michael Coe.

The next day there were presentations starting very early in the morning. I had a quick breakfast at my hotel and walked to campus which was about a 25 min walk. Luckily, the weather was perfect.

Dario A. Euraque presented a very fascinating presentation on Honduras and how the people there are starting to get confused about their Mayan heritage. He showed some very funny slides of places around towns, newspapers, buildings, restaurants, etc that all had small Mayan drawings or objects placed here and there just to try to identify with the Maya. He also showed a church that had Mayan gods painted on the outside. To them its just pretty, but it really doesn't make much sense to have Mayan gods on a church, but again....most people have no clue what they mean.

Several lectures followed for the rest of the day. I became good friends with a guy named Alan that lives in Houston. We both had very similar interest and decided to have lunch that afternoon. We were both very happy with the meetings thus far and that we got to meet some of the most important people in the field.

That night we were treated to a movie. But not just any movie. The movie was called "Breaking the Maya Code" and it was the premier showing of it. The man that made the movie was there and spoke a little about it. It basically told the history of how the Mayan Glyphs were decoded. Most of the people in the movie were all there so it was very cool to watch for the first time together with hundreds of people that were just as excited about it as the next person.
The film was two hours long. It will be shown on NOVA on PBS April 7th I believe. Check your local listings. You don't want to miss this.

I took nearly 8 pages of notes at the conference and met some people that I have only read about for years. It is always so interesting to be able to start talking about some Mayan ruins or something related to the Yucatan and everyone there always knows what you are talking about.

I also got to meet up with George Stuart and his very nice wife Melinda. Both of them are so kind. We talked for a while off and on throughout the weekend. George is also in the "Breaking the Maya Code" movie as well as his son David. George got to tell everyone his stories of early archaeology in Mexico and the Yucatan. When he speaks....everyone always listens. Out of respect and because his stories are usually very amusing and funny.

For those of you that don't know, George Stuart was the staff archaeologist for National Geographic and made some incredible discoveries while working with them. I've learned a lot by corresponding with him for the last year and we have become good friends. He lives near Asheville and is constantly telling me to come up when I can. His book collection is incredible. He has hand written books by Spanish conquistadors and some books that are signed by the authors from the 1800s. Most all of them pertain the to Mayan. He is in the process of moving them all to UNC for safe keeping.

Caswell Memorial in Kinston NC

2008-03-14T11:49:00.003-04:00

About 2 weeks ago, a friend from my archaeology class and myself drove to Kinston NC to help some of our professors at the Gov. Caswell Memorial. The caretakers of the site have never been sure where his grave was. Caswell is the first governor of NC so it seems slightly important that we know where his grave is.

It was an interesting day. Bitterly cold wind blew through the site. There were several grad students out there. Most either ignored us or made very small talk. Dr Randy Daniel and Dr Charles Ewen were out there supervising. I asked if there was anything I could do and told Dr Daniel that I was very eager to learn and wanted to help in anyway. So he let me help survey the site with a total station. After that, we used a ground penetrating radar machine (that looked kinda like a lawnmower) to go across the site in a "Z" looking to see if there were any anomalies under the ground. When we found one, we marked it with a flag and then mapped the flag in to our grid.

Thats about all we did with the time that we had. Soon I think we may go back out there.

Sounds kinda boring to most people, but I enjoyed it a lot. I guess this was my first real archaeological survey.

Tulane University Maya Symposium and Workshops

2008-02-15T22:52:00.008-05:00

Its been a long day. I got on the road around 7:30 and got to the airport. Funny enough, I ran into a student from ECU that had just arrived as well. We had breakfast together and talked for a bit. She is also going to be going to the university in Germany that I have applied to, Tubingen.
So I landed in New Orleans a little early. I rushed through the terminal and got my bag and hailed a cab. e got me to Tulane as fast as he could. The traffic was AWFUL! The NBA All Star game is going on in New Orleans right now so there are "TONS of people here that shouldn't be here" to quote the cabbie.
I arrived at Tulane a little late. My workshop started at 1:30. I walked in at 1:45. I grabbed a seat in the back of the room, as the lecture had already started. This particular workshop examined the cave paintings and glyphs in the cave called Naj Tunich.
As I walked to the back, Dr George Stuart was sitting back there and just smiled as I walked towards him. We both greeted each other. The class was about 15 strong maybe.
The series of glyphs we looked at were examined first by Dr Stuart in late 1980. He published his findings in the Aug 1981 issue of National Geographic. The year and month that I was born. IRONIC!

Here are a few of the drawings we looked at. One of the more interesting is the one on the bottom. This was on the front cover of the Aug 1981. I was always curious as to what the figure was doing. Funny enough, the round object to his left was never really pictured before, so I didn't know it was there until today.

The round object is a ball. So the figure is thought to be a ballplayer. For anyone that doesn't know, the Maya played a ball game of life and death. Kinda like soccer, but a bit more intense. The figure also has knee pads on.

Above ball is a bar, and 4 dots. This, in Mayan number system, is the number 9. The bar equals 5 and the dots equal one each. We talked about what the numbers would mean, until finally the lecturer told us what he thought they probably where. He said they were the dimensions of the ball. 9 hand lengths in dimension. That is the tip of your pinky finger to the end of your thumb. Whether it was the diameter or radius, we never figured out. The only ball that I know of that has been found was brought up from the cenote near Chichen Itza, and it was in pretty bad shape.

The pictures continue through the cave system for a long ways. Dr Stuart shared with us that he found a foot print from the Post Classic Period (around 700 AD) in the back of the cave and he had one of those moments where you realize that you are the first person in that place for over 1000 years. I really long for that feeling. Must be pretty awesome. He said he actually started crying when he discovered some of the cave glyphs. They are very beautiful. The artist made no mistakes. They couldn't erase anything. Everything had to be perfect from start to finish. Pretty cool to think about it like that.

Later on today Dr Stuart presented a lecture on his 50 years in Mayan archaeology. It was a very impressive lecture. At the end of his lecture, he showed the picture from the cave that I have on this page. One this time, the glyphs were scratched up, smeared, and chiseled off. I gasped when I saw them. He had told me once that someone vandalized the glyphs in Naj Tunich, but I didn't think they had done anything like that. After the crowd groaned about the vandalism, Dr Stuart reminded us all that archaeology isn't just about finding neat stuff. Its about recording data. He said that every time we find something, we must record it. After the National Geographic published his story on the Cave Naj Tunich, the cave was on the map for looters and vandals.

Concluding his lecture, Dr Stuart said something that stuck with me. He said what we are doing is not just archaeology. Its recording data as perfectly as we can. Do not leave one detail out. If you do, it may be erased forever. When an archaeologist discovers something, that discovery is automatically in trouble. I often feel like archaeologist don't deserve to find these things so that they are never in danger. But then I think.......better us than someone who doesn't care or know what they have found. You can click on the picture of Dr Stuart if you want to read more about him.