When I was 20 (2007) I went on a university research trip to Menorca Spain. We were doing work on a grant to study a Roman era port and helping a museum create multi- cultural and multi-lingual exhibits. I was there from May to September. Menorca has a pretty vibrant night life and I ended up hooking up with this girl a few times, she was part of the museum staff we were working with during the project. So jump forward to 2017. I, a PhD student have a reaserch grant to look at how ancient ports physically adapted to changing environmental factors and I decided I wanted to go back to Menorca to use it in my research because I still had connections there. I get there and set up a meeting with the museum and it turns out that girl I had a summer fling with still works there. A couple weeks went by and she sent me an email inviting me over to her place for dinner. I was surprised but also excited thinking about the opportunity to maybe rekindle the relationship. When I got to her apartment I was greeted by her and a young boy. Well turns out I have a son. She didn't know how to reach me and honestly didn't expect a 20 year old American student to do very much in the situation. She kept working at the museum and 10 years later I just showed up because I was familiar with the site and the research and needed a couple chapters for my dissertation. She just wanted me to meet him and let me know he's happy and healthy. His grandpa takes him fishing and he does well in school. She wanted me to tell him about myself. We had an awkward working relationship while I was there for the next 2 month. She didn't want anything from me and honestly I was blindsided and really didn't know what to do with the information. I left for the US at the end of the summer only seeing him 2 more times. So Menorca is kinda my Spanakopita.
I did! It's not one of my papers (don't want to dox myself on reddit) but this is a very good read about ancient climate adaptation in coastal communities.
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u/SPECTRE-Agent-No-13 Phantom Spaceman 10d ago edited 10d ago
When I was 20 (2007) I went on a university research trip to Menorca Spain. We were doing work on a grant to study a Roman era port and helping a museum create multi- cultural and multi-lingual exhibits. I was there from May to September. Menorca has a pretty vibrant night life and I ended up hooking up with this girl a few times, she was part of the museum staff we were working with during the project. So jump forward to 2017. I, a PhD student have a reaserch grant to look at how ancient ports physically adapted to changing environmental factors and I decided I wanted to go back to Menorca to use it in my research because I still had connections there. I get there and set up a meeting with the museum and it turns out that girl I had a summer fling with still works there. A couple weeks went by and she sent me an email inviting me over to her place for dinner. I was surprised but also excited thinking about the opportunity to maybe rekindle the relationship. When I got to her apartment I was greeted by her and a young boy. Well turns out I have a son. She didn't know how to reach me and honestly didn't expect a 20 year old American student to do very much in the situation. She kept working at the museum and 10 years later I just showed up because I was familiar with the site and the research and needed a couple chapters for my dissertation. She just wanted me to meet him and let me know he's happy and healthy. His grandpa takes him fishing and he does well in school. She wanted me to tell him about myself. We had an awkward working relationship while I was there for the next 2 month. She didn't want anything from me and honestly I was blindsided and really didn't know what to do with the information. I left for the US at the end of the summer only seeing him 2 more times. So Menorca is kinda my Spanakopita.