Well, I have reached the end of the semester and it is time to rehash some of the lessons I have learned from this past semester as a student.  While I am generally good at studying I will be the first to admit that I lack many of the social graces that my peers have.  To counteract this and the often loneliness which accompanies it I have found that a simple walk to the beach as you can see above goes a long way to helping me clear my mind of the stressful thoughts of graduate school- namely, how in the hell will I continue to pay for this, but that is a subject for another forthcoming blog post.  The beach is also a great place to walk and learn about my discipline, both the geologic and in regards to material culture.  The beach from Esbjerg to Hjerting preserves many features of shore infrastructure such as piers and the occasional ship timbers which come ashore after storms.  The beach is also littered with pottery shards which date from the 19^th c. all the way back to the beginning of the Iron Age.  There is also a large secondary limonite deposit near Hjerting and its associated Iron Age settlements, which comes as no surprise to me.  The area is also littered with the German bunkers which made up the Atlantic Wall during World War II.

            Classes are enjoyable with this semester’s courses being Maritime Material Culture, Special Topics on Iron Age Logboats, and Information Technology.  Only one of these classes has been bringing me any grief, and that is the Special Topics course.  I have worked in independent study environment before and co-authored papers, but working with other students who may not share your interpretation of reference sources or writing style can often be frustrating for all.  Luckily the faculty have been very accommodating in scheduling deadlines for this semester as we all learn how to work in groups in a cohesive manner, putting our ego’s aside.  I am looking forward to finishing up this semester and working on recording material related to the Swedish Warship Vasa in two weeks.  There will be a blog post on this later this summer.  I am also looking forward to participating in field observations in Germany this summer on the 1715 Princessan Hedwig Sophia wreck in the Baltic, a large Swedish Frigate from the Great Northern Wars.

            With classes being interesting it is also nice in conjunction with other hands on activities provided by my university to actually handle pre-19^th c. ship timbers such as those which can be seen in the picture above.  These were dredged up from a wreck not far from the city of Esbjerg and the wreck will hopefully be examined better this fall.  It is nice to see and handle such timbers as this is valuable experience which goes beyond reading the narratives assigned in our courses reading list.  It is one thing to read about the different types of treenails in the literature; far better to see one in the light before your eyes.  I have to be amazed at the level of preservation in the Wadden Sea, there were still patches of pitched hemp caulking on these planks which could be up to 400 years old.  I have to apologize for the blurry picture.  It was also a great opportunity to practice albeit briefly my archaeological drawing skills and cut a dendro sample.  Many of my peers have complained of my poor drawing skills so I am taking the time to learn how to properly do so for the future. 

            Even with all this positive stimuli and gleaned knowledge many of my friends have noticed that I have been going to the beach more often as of late and I have been less demure on them harmlessly picking on my American origins.  It has been ten months since I walked on the beaches of my birth state and I sorely miss my own native land.  I will most likely, after spending some time with family and friends back home this summer realize that there is no difference, but as of this week I cannot convince my conscience of this.  I am also thinking about the goal of helping those in Virginia trying to bring back a sustained presence of submerged archaeology there.  I was recently in contact with the Department of Historic Resources and much has been accomplished in my absence while I have been studying in Europe.  I will be meeting in Williamsburg with colleagues this summer to try and see if I can assist in this endeavor as well as give my humble opinions.  With all this going on I have been honored by having some of the greatest friends a person could ever have; see the picture above.  It is nice to plan for things which might happen in the future but my friends have reminded me that it is also nice to live in the moment and enjoy every day of learning.