The very first full day of excavation work was hot, sweaty, and tiring. I was up for the challenge well before I arrived, but on that first day, as the hours under the sun trickled on, the others and myself noticed how sluggish and seemly unwell I was. It only kept getting worse as the work day came to a close. I jumped on the first transport back to our accommodations, figuring that I was just dehydrated, lacking in sleep from the night before (4:00 am wake ups are brutal), and needed some calories in my stomach. After some time passed as I laid in bed, I noticed I was not cooling off, I was starting to have cramps in my back, and the pit in my stomach was not subsiding. Then the vomiting began. I have medical experience and after thinking through everything related to signs of heat exhaustion and dehydration, I finally bit the bullet and pulled out a COVID-19 rapid test.

I managed to go through the entire pandemic without catching it once, even working in a COVID ICU in New York City during the height of the first wave. But I had to catch it on my first week of real archeology work. I was crushed. Thankfully, no one else ever tested positive or showed symptoms despite the proximity they spent with me in vehicles, apartments, elevators, and dining. Those vaccinations are pretty effective at shielding, not just reducing severity.

I had to isolate for the rest of the day in the room I was already in, forcing my bunkmate to live on the couch in the living room for the night. My professors arranged to have my move to a private studio apartment for several days, which was quite the chore to locate while masked up in 95 degree humid heat, lugging 45lbs worth of backpacks, coughing my lungs out, and feeling like a truck ran over me. My isolation was extended for precautionary reasons, but I had to switch apartments two more times, each one thankfully nicer than the last one. I had the chance to see the standards for hostel stays in Larnaca over this period of time, which made me realize how uniquely a lot of the refurbished architecture practices in Cyprus are accomplished. I will definitely follow this up with a blog post about those idiosyncrasies.

Several of the other students took pity on me and made sure to drop food and fluids off for me. They even kept in contact with me over Whatsapp which honestly really helped me get through the whole thing without losing my mind. That is the longest I’ve ever spent just trapped in a room. I’d never survive prison with my sanity intact. Thanks Tristan and some of the Reed College kids for making sure I didn’t feel forgotten. They even sent me a photo from when they went to visit my friend Petros and called me so I could talk to him on the phone. I totally didn’t have tears in my eyes from that, it was my sinuses burning up…

You’ve got to be flexible with the demands of a field school like this, especially so in a world that has COVID still rearing it ugly head. I missed out on some precious dig time, but that it just how the cookie crumbles sometimes. I hope, dear reader, if you join the 2023 PKAP excavation, you are living in a world where the daily concern and threat of contagious viruses is behind us. No COVID, no monkeypox, no <insert whatever is next>.

Take care of yourselves and get vaccinated.

-Adam E.