2. Cat's timeline

October 11, 2020

Welcome to the second entry on my blog

While this is a new project, it is nonetheless something I have been pondering over for many years, and I am thrilled to finally launch it.

My 37-year long journey has brought quite many experiences. What you can expect will be stories about anything and everything I have ever encountered! – all presented at random, as I get around to actually write them down!

I want to begin with a brief timeline/layout of my life!

Since birth (August 1983), my parents have been married and divorced multiple times, and I have many siblings…

At 15 (Summer 1998), I finally went to England for a language school (STS). Living in England had been a dream of mine since I was a kid – and three weeks was a good start.

Shortly after I returned from England, I turned 16, and I went off to boarding school for 10th grade, which is very common in Denmark.

At 17, I didn’t know what I wanted to do! I had applied (a little too late) to get into my #1 choice of Gymnasium (slightly equivalent to senior years of High School!), but I got waitlisted. While waiting around, I slept a lot, prompting my boyfriend at the time to tell me that I slept my life away! Alright, time to do something. I signed up to become an Au Pair, and then, I returned to England. This time for nine months.

When I returned from England, I turned 18, and I was finally enrolled in the Gymnasium for a 2-year degree.

In 2003, at 20, I roamed around without any real sense of direction! I had finished my degree, got my driver’s license, and I was ready to backpack through Europe. I got a job working with disabled people (young and old, physically and mentally alike) to earn some money for this grand adventure, however, making money seems to have been a little too tempting for a 20-year-old girl, so I spent the money!

When December came, I hadn’t yet seen anything of Europe. I found a job in Ireland, living with a woman in a wheelchair for six months, beginning in January of 2004. Off I went. Did I have a good time? Sure! But it was also an exhausting experience!

August 2004, I am back from Ireland, enrolled in classes at Gymnasium level – as I once again seemed to not have a sense of direction (a reoccurring topic in my life, apparently!). My grandmother’s death (June 2004) had created quite a dramatic change to my granddad’s and my lives. I managed to pass my courses, and I enrolled at the university. I wanted to study Egyptology at the University of Copenhagen, and I began in 2005.

Before knowing if I got accepted to the university, I had booked a three-week trip to Egypt, backpacking through Egypt! I had a WONDERFUL time. I was about to turn 22 (which happened while I was in Alexandria!) and felt for the first time that my life had a sense of direction – I had been told a few days before departure that I had been accepted into the university, so that of course made the trip extra unique and vital.

Friday, February 16th, 2007 – my granddad died – I found him dead on our bathroom floor. Worst day of my life!

April 15th 2007, I moved to Copenhagen, into a student dorm (read: “summer vacation house” – it was the most luxury student dorm you can imagine!). I lived here for the next six years until I finished my master’s degree in 2013…

2008 my first field school experience – my first real encounter with archaeology – and I were about to transition onto a path of many years of fieldwork and archeological adventures.

2009 – one semester at the Free University in Berlin, Germany.

2009/2010 Spanish classes (attempted…)

2010, I went to Belize for the first time of six seasons as a supervisor for the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance project (BVAR!).

2014, I got accepted to the University of California, Riverside, to work with Karl Taube. A dream came true!

2019 – graduation – June 1st, commencement with my mom and two of my sisters, September 6th, I defended my dissertation!

Today, 13 months after I graduated, I once again am at a crossroads, needing to figure out what direction to take this time...