T-1 Day (Roughly)

It's sunny in England, but the wind's somehow making a gusting sound through the cracks in my window frame. I have a hangover (I should probably get some water) and I'm still wearing my suit (Martini party...). Have a picture!

So, here's the story: I'm Tom Catterall, 18 year old student, just finished A Levels in Latin (A*), Greek (A) and Physics (A). I'm going to St Anne's College, Oxford in October to study Rather Humane Literature. I have Twitter (@tomcatterall), Facebook (thomas.catterall) and consequently no life. None of those are really safe for work either, kids.

It's not sunny anymore.

Call that backstory. The story is that tomorrow I'm going to Romania for a month, working on archaeology at Porolissum (darkest Transylvania). I'm going to be based in Brasov, which is A, and Porolissum is B, on this map. I can't really tell you anymore. If I had been better organized I would have bought books on the subject... but throwing oneself headlong at something works, right?

Right?

So, I gotta pack, make sure the world isn't going to explode in the month I'm away, photocopy travel documents and have lunch with a friend. This blog will hopefully get a Monday-Wednesday-Friday update routine, but it depends on the Internet access. I'm bringing one of our many netbooks (don't ask) so I can hopefully blog offline and upload dump when necessary.

This is going to be big. Not only am I digging but I'm also studying. I was set a monstrous quantity of Greek reading to do over the summer which I keep attacking and then losing morale and stopping on. Holidays disrupt and encumber. I've picked it up a little recently and it should breeze quite quickly once I'm on a roll, but I come back and then I'm straight into uni. This is no holiday! Dig in the day, study all night.

All right, back to work. Traveller's Cheques just arrived!

Tom