So, according to the Amtrak website, my train is 1 hours and 58 minutes late and we are going at 25mph. No one can really tell us why, but good news: the wifi is finally working! Bad news: They closed the cafe car. I guess no one is really worried about keeping a schedule on Friday night in the middle of Virginia. I wouldn’t be worried either, except my hosts are waiting for me at the train station.

It’s worth it though. I’m going to spend the next two weeks immersed in history. My senior project is Archaeology in Tidewater Virginia. I’ve been in love with history for the past ten years, but until now I’ve focused on learning it, teaching it, experiencing it in historical reenactments, never have I spent time discovering it. That’s new. I’m going to be working with a group called the Fairfield Foundation, a small independent group centered in the Tidewater area, which had its foundlings around the Fairfield plantation. Fairfield Plantation, like most of the sites they work on, is a colonial 17th-18th century plantation. The group also has ties to Yorktown and Jamestown as well as various other sites of the same era.

My internship officially starts on Monday and I can’t wait.

-Hope Lily