Respecting our conglomerate

The duality of the blacknesses in hoodie and blazer makes for an interesting composition.

Just like companies have quarterly meetings where they look over their checkbooks and decide who to lay off, we had our last Society for Trojan Archaeologists (STARC) meeting of the year today, over free pizza and soda from the ARC lab.  Fortunately it appears that we are doing a lot better than corporate America.  Thanks to the administrative genii who run the lab, we managed to secure funding for a lot of the trips and guest lectures that enhanced our program this year, and our WMD-sized bevy of research projects, conference papers, and symposium entries have detonated squarely in the line of sight of the Powers that Be.  We were unable, furthermore, to think of any other lab which was handed as much money for undergraduate activities in 2009 during a few moments of silence while everybody thoughtfully chewed their crust.  It might have been the carbohydrates going to our heads–but if you can think of just one, kindly leave a comment and I’ll definitely treat you to some leftover pepperoni slices.

No one was laid off this quarter–granted, a lot of us are volunteers but even those have gotten $$$ from said Powers–and we actually hope to hire more indentured servant-students in future.  With an archaeology minor in the works and open positions for work-study students, the lab is set to grow like a giant spaghetti monster, implying that it may consume your life BUT in a very delicious way!  Our funding officer Sarah, v.p. Aaron, and president Sarah received blue t-shirts and a black zip hoodie today with “Archaeological Research Collection” across the back, in commemoration of how much history the current Archaeological Research Center already has.  Sarah B. buried her face in the blue fabric and reported that it smelled of that school-which-shall-not-be-named.  No more are those dark days when Its evil sphere of influence seeps into our psyche!  (Although those Cotsen hats are kind of cool.)

So as the year is winding down, many of us are preparing for a life-transforming experience: the Field School.  Field schools are like the archaeological equivalent of an internship, except when you embark on the latter no one gives you the horrified, pitying shriek my best friend emitted into the phone when I told her I was going camping in the Alaskan Subarctic for five weeks.  Among the other destinations of our cadre are Peru, Belize, Menorca, Tuscany and Turkey.  Quite a host is going to Turkey since that’s where Professor Dodd works.  In the weeks forthcoming, look for posts from around the world about our new and exciting lives in the field.

–Tiffany Tsai