Everyone loves my hair, and so do I. It's darkened a little into a rich almost wine-colored red. It should last for about a month.

My classes this semester are pretty interesting. I'm taking a lecture course on the decipherment of ancient writing systems, which is pretty easy, fun, and well-taught. My adviser is teaching a soil chemistry course where we go out into the forest where an old tannery sued to be and test the ground for chemicals to see if it's safe for future excavation. That should be fun. Then of course there is my lab project. I got my bone samples approved for lab today, and on Monday I'm going to saw them up and get ready to play scientist. XD Finally, I have to take the Method and Theory seminar which is required for my program. It's kind of fun because the prof is hilarious and everyone's in it together, but it is an inordinate amount of reading and meets from six to nine pm each Wednesday. D: I also just don't like to study theory, because it makes me feel like archaeology is futile and useless and impossible and irrelevant. So I went to bed last night full of doubts again about my motivation. It only got worse today when the librarian made me feel like an idiot (turns out he's like that to everyone) . Then I walked in on Tina and Karola, the fouth- and fifth-years in my lab, sitting around complaining about how our adviser never gives helpful feedback on our paper drafts and how unproductive they feel. I just...ugh. I was excited to be here again, but now I'm not so sure. And Tina later tried to comfort me, telling me not to freak out, and that the best thing for me to do now (totally counter to our adviser's advice) would be to take Chemistry classes if I really want to study residue analysis. She regrets not having a strong enough background in genetics for her work on ancient DNA, but if she wanted to take courses she would have to start from the beginning. She ALSO said it would be very math-intensive as well, which I had no idea. Math?? Oh hell no. Why does nobody tell me these things??? I don't even think I want to do residue analysis anymore if that's the case. This doesn't mean I have to drop out of the program; I could always just shift back over to standard field archaeology, iconography, and theory, but it scares and disappoints me, especially since I don't think I have what it takes to do those things either.

I am excited about living with Emma though, and possibly in a 4-bedroom with Philip and Matt. I'm definitely going to finish next year and get the Masters, and if I want to get a different kind of job then, at least I'll already have a place to live in Boston, and I can go right then from Harvard. It will be much easier to transition. For now, I just have to remember not too stress out by looking too far ahead. I'm being paid to do this after all, so I should at least play the game.