Wow, can I say that LETU suddenly feels very small and very quiet?

OK... maybe most places do compared with the University of Chicago, but still, this is the summer after all. And there was just a lot of people there.

My initial impressions? The campus is... old. It's clean, very distinguished looking, and the architecture is simply wow, but there just aren't any new buildings on campus. That's not a bad thing, but it's a very different feel. LeTourneau is a growing college, but Chicago is very content with where it is.



Nearly all of the buildings look like that. It would certainly be a very inspiring place to do graduate work. So much would change though, as apartment life and cooking for yourself and a graduate schedule are all so different than undergrad living in Longview. But that's OK too.

So, they usually takes on a grand total of five or so new PhD candidates for the archaeology program every year. Ouch. That kinda does limit my chance of success. I still think I could probably get in at this point, but I'm glad I went so that I have the next two years at LETU to really focus on shooting that way.

I would say I'm probably more excited about it at this point, at least until I get any major red lights.

Which means, after talking to a grad student and their department admin, that I need some kind of fieldwork next summer. Yup, archaeology school, onsite at some dig.

Sounds like a blast. :D There are like a jillion opportunities for it at the American archaeology institute's website. It's just a matter of money and where do I want to go.

Got an email back from a guy in France about a dig there. I have the qualifications (there wasn't much to them) but plane tickets to Europe are sooooo expensive. And that doesn't even cover a bus ride from Paris to this little bitty French village.

So back to Chicago. We talked to those two people basically, and just kinda walked around and looked at stuff.

Another example of the coolness of U of C... here's walking into their library.



Yeah. That's the library.

I stopped gawking at the roof and looked at some books, and found myself surrounded by one of the coolest collection of history books I had ever seen. The only downside is the building wasn't really designed for air conditioning, or else it was down for repairs... if it had not been for that, I might have wanted to spend a loooooooong time in there.

Archaeology seems to involve more math and computer skills than I had thought, which is fine by me. I suppose a lot more opinions on it will have to wait until I've gone and actually gotten my hands dirty doing some of it. Where to go, where to go...

The weather was delightfully warm but not crushingly humid for our visit to Chicago. I liked it, but I rather disliked the thought of how cold it would all get in the winter. Brrrrr. That made me really start thinking hard about some warmer place... maybe Rice or U of Texas. I have family in both of those towns, which is another plus.

We also got to try Chicago pizza! It was pan banked, so it was smaller and had a thicker crust. The ingredients were certainly finer and fresher than typical pizza, so it tasted awesome. But it was hard to eat without a fork and lots of napkins, and I can see why you wouldn't it every day for your Super Bowl party or something. Like you would Pizza Hut. :D