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These stories contain far too many references to the distasteful weather, and I probably sound more obsessive and fixated than usual, but rain has fallen every day I arrived in this sunshine-deprived land of incessant precipitation, and I’m beginning to crack. Some permanent images from my current life include:

Falling water from the sky, spraying, spitting, hissing. Prolonged vitriolic cries of disgruntled seagulls. Outrageously frigid wind in the summer. Settling cold infiltrating the tender marrow. A mere four channels of televised crap Water-logged jeans adopting the form of permanent leg adhesive. Falling water from the sky.

From 1990, when I first arrived in London as a student and stayed there for four months, until this present trip, I have never experienced rain like this, and that includes my trip to Scotland in 1997.

On Friday morning, the sun beamed into my window, so I eschewed my usual long sleeved base layer of clothing, electing a short-sleeved t-shirt as the bottom layer. This clothing choice proved to be an absolute jinx because even though our walk to and first 20 minutes at the site were precipitation-free, after Katherine and I finished taking the levels, the rain roared in. A violent downpour battered the site, defiling the area of the site we had only just refined (this holds significance because a dirty site must be cleaned again). We huddled in the barracks doorways awaiting our subsequent instructions, watching tremendous puddles grow exponentially in the site. Finally, the archaeologists, probably equally frustrated, instructed us to take a tea break until they could decide what task we could complete next.

After a half hour, the sun tentatively emerged, and we hurriedly scrambled to take a group photo on part of the finished site, well away from where we work, which was under water. I convinced the entire group to insert the backs of their hands in their mouths for my personal photo (a joke from one of the slides in one of the lectures).\n\u003cbr\>\nFollowing 48 photographs snapped with 24 cameras, we were given the morning off on account of the site’s fragility as a result of the excessive rain. Katherine and I scampered to the center of South Shields before the site leaders changed their minds and visited the marketplace, which is really a flea market more than anything. We bought small presents for our site leaders: a giant trowel for Roger, a giant Cadbury Egg for Graeme (who loves chocolate), and a Sugababes mug for Eddie (though we thought it was the Spice Girls when we made that inspired purchase).\u003cbr\>\n\u003cbr\>\nIn the afternoon, we commenced excavation of the channel on Intervallum Street, an interesting feature despite the fact that it doesn’t seem to reveal much of anything in terms of finds. This labor continued until Roger asked us to clean up our area and traverse the site to where the other half of the Earthwatch team has been excavating. Eddie, their team leader, wanted to photograph his side, and that meant we needed to speedily scour it before the rain resumed. Every member of the team took a meter length section of Eddie’s site and hauled ass (there is no other way to describe it) to render it photograph-worthy except for one, who stood around pathetically attempting to flirt with the archaeologists. \u003cbr\>\n\u003cbr\>\nAfter I recorded the photograph information in the record book, I left for the day (Katherine had gone on ahead), and after quick showers at home, the two of us set out to find Marsden Rock. There was brief sun, so, inspired, we trekked up the grassy leas at the edge of the sea, took photographs at the verge of the cliffs, then tramped back to the main road where, inevitably, a deluge thundered down. Literally dripping water, we sprinted to the nearest pub/restaurant which actually refused to serve us dinner even after we stuck our heads under the air dryer in their bathroom, so we returned to our main strip and settled on pizza.\u003cbr\>\n\u003cbr\>\n\u003c/div\>\n\n\u003cdiv\> \u003cbr\>\n\u003c/div\>\n\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"clear:both\"\>---\u003cbr\>\nI get up every morning determined both to change the world and to have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning the day difficult.",1] ); //-->

Following 48 photographs snapped with 24 cameras, we were given the morning off on account of the site’s fragility as a result of the excessive rain. Katherine and I scampered to the center of South Shields before the site leaders changed their minds and visited the marketplace, which is really a flea market more than anything. We bought small presents for our site leaders: a giant trowel for Roger, a giant Cadbury Egg for Graeme (who loves chocolate), and a Sugababes mug for Eddie (though we thought it was the Spice Girls when we made that inspired purchase).

In the afternoon, we commenced excavation of the channel on Intervallum Street, an interesting feature despite the fact that it doesn’t seem to reveal much of anything in terms of finds. This labor continued until Roger asked us to clean up our area and traverse the site to where the other half of the Earthwatch team has been excavating. Eddie, their team leader, wanted to photograph his side, and that meant we needed to speedily scour it before the rain resumed. Every member of the team took a meter length section of Eddie’s site and hauled ass (there is no other way to describe it) to render it photograph-worthy except for one, who stood around pathetically attempting to flirt with the archaeologists.

After I recorded the photograph information in the record book, I left for the day (Katherine had gone on ahead), and after quick showers at home, the two of us set out to find Marsden Rock. There was brief sun, so, inspired, we trekked up the grassy leas at the edge of the sea, took photographs at the verge of the cliffs, then tramped back to the main road where, inevitably, a deluge thundered down. Literally dripping water, we sprinted to the nearest pub/restaurant which actually refused to serve us dinner even after we stuck our heads under the air dryer in their bathroom, so we returned to our main strip and settled on pizza.