My final week in Italy is offically over, and I have now returned to Britain, and am currently revelling in the luxury of having a double bed and a room to myself while I break up my journey in a Gatwick Travelodge. Returning home has proved more difficult than I imagined, the travelling itself has been smooth and easy-going, the actual act of leaving, on the other hand, brought about many tears. Never did I think that I would become so attached to this project and the people that I would actually cry, but 6 weeks is a significant period of time to spend in a new place. I threw myself into this project and was determined to get as much out of it as possible, I was not aware how much of an impact it would have on me and how much I would not want to leave. It would be a dream to have been able to stay for the rest of the project to see the final result before closing all the trenches, however, normality beckons and reality creeps upon me.

This last week was incredible. After a new rule change, only supervisors and trainee supervisors are allowed in trench in the afternoon, meaning I get to spend my afternoons learning even more one - on - one. My training was in full swing, and I started writing a field journal of all the things that we accomplished in a day. We closed our trench which has the ramp in it, and opened a new one - trench 12 East. It's quite disappointing to know that I won't be able to see this trench through like I did the last, however I feel I've had my fair share of opening and closing trenches during my three blocks. I did get to try my hand at pick axing again - something which I never thought I'd be any good at, nor enjoy, after my last encounter with one left me sweating and with blisters all over my hand. I'll admit that I'm still not a fan of pick axing through volcanic rock, and I'll happily leave that to those who are strong enough and willing enough to offer, however on my last day I got into the swing of pick axing through the rocks and soil of our context and found myself feeling empowered.

After having a super weekend in Ischia, where I bonded with all the people in our group, the dynamics of the house changed a little to suit the closer relationships. I didn't have a single sober night this week (this seems to be turning into a 'drinks diary' rather than a 'dig diary'!) and spent time relaxing while playing many card games on the roof, cards against humanity in the lab, and yet another barbecue at the supervisors house - this time with some amazing seafood dishes as well! It really made for the perfect end to an amazing summer. As I looked out over the bay of naples from our roof late Thursday night, I couldn't help but shed a tear - which proved to be the opening of the flood gates for the whole of Friday.

 I can't thank the people who I've met enough for making me feel so comfortable, and really helping me come into myself. This experience was daunting and scary, as soon as I stepped off the plane at the end of June I was starting to doubt whether I could do it and wanted to hop back on a plane to the familiarity of Scotland. But persevering and swallowing all those fears paid off and I feel I've come away with amazing friends, new found confidence, and a whole bunch of stories to tell everyone back home about.



And that's it for my week by week run down of my dig, thank you for persevering with this although I couldn't post them in actual time and have seemingly neglected my blog over this summer. If you're reading these posts after seeing my status on facebook, then thank you for following me on this adventure as I like to call it! If you're an older reader wondering what the heck has happened to this blog, and where all the regular posts have gone, then fear not as they will return when I get back to uni, as will a regular posting schedule. As you can imagine, this summer has been a little out of the ordinary and it would be a sin not to post about this experience on my wee blog - after all this is an 'everything' blog, all about what I get up to. I can only hope you new readers will keep reading even when I return to my mundane life, and you can always look forward to when I return to Italia and The Apolline Project next summer.



Here's all the previous week's posts if you haven't had a chance to read them yet:

• The Apolline Project | Week One
• The Apolline Project | Week Two
• The Apolline Project | Week Three
• The Apolline Project | Week Four
• The Apolline Project | Week Five

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