jim, jim, brian, and bill

This is for the guys us students never got to know:

Walking to lunch Saturday, Cameron, Kristina, Amanda and I spotted four men standing by the parking lot, luggage in tow. Cameron said, "Are those guys with us?!" Of course, it only stood to reason they were the last of our team to arrive; Jim, Jim, Brian and Bill. So we approached them in welcome...and I was able to give Jim Rogers a hug, since I knew him from last year. I was introduced by Jim as the "infamous Andrea" and Brian approached Cameron saying, "You must be Cameron. I read your blog, it's been very helpful." The Drs. Schuler were found inside the dining hall and they replaced us with welcoming and getting the men settled as we went to eat.

And then katyushas hit Tiberias. And an emergency meeting was called. And so, we said hello and goodbye to the men we just met.

But...had we stayed, I am convinced we would have had wonderful times together. So this is a tribute at least to the day we met. Well guys, I know you are having a dirty and wonderful time...we all wish we could be there. We'd better still get lots of pictures from you all...and one of you should really start a blog to help keep us in the states updated.

time

Having had time to sleep, watch cartoons, and eat pizza, I have been able to sort out my feelings about all of this (well...kind of).

There are so many different emotions to feel in this case. I wasn't planning on leaving after two weeks, so I wasn't ready for it. I wasn't packed, I didn't take all the pictures I wanted, I didn't buy gifts for people like I was planning, I didn't steal any pottery...and there was no "saying goodbye" to the church or the Sea of Galilee. In many ways, there was just no closure to leaving.

But...it's not like we were only there for a few days...we did have two wonderful weeks. In two weeks, we had the chance to dig and swim and get dirty and clean pottery and see Jerusalem and even go to the pub. And I suppose I'm "luckier" than the other students on the trip, considering I was there last year.

It was such an amazing place and such an amazing adventure, that it's hard to leave so unexpectedly as we did...I might've stayed if I had been able to. I don't regret going and I will most definately get back someday...it's hard to have it end this way, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't worth going at all. Hey...at least none of us signed up for just the last two weeks!

(Well, Jim, Jim, Bryan, and Bill signed up for those two weeks...but they're still there, after having arrived Saturday just about an hour and a half before Tiberias was hit...how's it goin, guys?!)

andrea's apprentice

It has occurred to me (many times, actually) that Dr. Schuler knew what I was capable of before I did. I'm referring, of course, to the world of technical illustrations. Last year, I did not even know what he was talking about, but he brought me to Israel anyways and I was forced to quickly learn what was required of an in-scale, accurate drawing of a wall or floor, or whatever. This year, he presented new challenges when he asked me to draw what I couldn't even see--the stalibate (kind of like a sidewalk of large paving stones)--which only had parts of it visible, the rest remaining hidden under layers of dirt that had not yet been removed. And in the time I spent there this year, there was also the square that had about 3 different walls inside, all from different times and made for who-knows-what purposes and it was the silliest, most random conglomeration of rocks I had ever seen...but I had to draw it! However, now that I'm gone, Dr. Schuler has presented the greatest technical illustrating challenge of them all...leaving behind an apprentice.

Before I got on the bus to leave on Saturday, Dr. Schuler stopped me..."Andrea! I need your graph paper and bungee cord, I'm going to have to do the drawings!" I told him I could just stay...but he insisted that I just give him the materials needed. I dug through my suitcase and recovered graph paper, rulers, chaining pins (for tying bungee cord to) and bungee cord (for making straight lines) and handed them off to...my apprentice. Dr. Schuler will copy my method of drawing, make--as he put it--very bad drawings, supplemented by lots of pictures, and then hand off to me when I return to St. Paul to fix. Via e-mail, he has already reported that he has done one drawing, of the street, that he says when I see it will be sure to make me wince.

It's ok, Dr. Schuler...one does not learn to be a technical illustrator overnight...

Guess I'll just have to return next year, eh?

children's songs

Ok, so this goes in the category of "something we were planning to do in the next two weeks but didn't get the chance to..."

As you most likely already know, every 25 minutes on the dig was "water break" time--the alarm on Dr. Schuler's watch would beep and someone would yell "WATER BREAK!" and everyone was supposed to have something to drink. Dr. Schuler wanted to make sure we were drinking enough water while working under the hot sun. He told us that we should have to use the bathroom while on the dig, and if we didn't ever go to the bathroom, then we must not be drinking enough.

Well, the very first day on the site, Stephanie and I were making up songs about the dig...singing about picking and moving buckets and getting dirty and anything else we could think of. We were using old songs we sang as kids for the tune and just putting different words to it. One such song was the "Water Break" song. Dr. Pratt told us her favorite song when she was younger was "Frere Jacques." The big plan we had for this song was that we were going to teach it to everyone except Dr. Schuler. Then, at a scheduled time, when a water break was called, everybody would stop their work and start singing the song...hopefully in order to receive the so desired eye roll and head shake from Dr. Schuler. So, if you can read the following words to the tune of "Frere Jacques," you can imagine how entertaining it would've been...

Are you peeing? Are you peeing?
You should be! You should be!
Better drink more water, better drink more water!
Take a break. Take a break.

I'm sorry you never got to hear us sing to you, Dr. Schuler...I'm sure you must be terribly upset about it!

who's counting?

charter bus to Jerusalem
taxi to the bus stop
bus to Tel Aviv
2 busses to the airport
(some students leave)
taxi to a "lovely" 5 star hotel (well, maybe 5 negative stars...)
taxi to the airport
plane to athens
plane to New York City (in American dollars, I paid "911" to fly to New York City...)
taxi to Penn Station in downtown Manhatten (I've never been to New York before...cool!)
Amtrak train to Philadelphia (hey...it was only 2 hours late!)
My older sister and her soon to be father-in-law drive Cameron and me to her house (my older sister never looked so good!)

12 modes of transportation (and a partridge in a pear tree) later...I'm sitting in my pajamas and ready to eat some pepperoni pizza tonight...

And what can we say from all of this? God has gone overboard in a lesson on patience...

who's to say i'm lying?!

So here's the thing. I may not be at the dig anymore, but that doesn't mean I can't make up stories about what I did and found and accomplished there. I mean, none of you can verify whether or not the story is true (unless you are one of the adult volunteers or Dr. Schuler still in Ein Gev) and since I'm not there, even I won't know that I'm lying if I tell a convincing enough story. So...here goes nothing...

Spent a pretty relaxing day yesterday. Since it was the first day back on the dig after our first weekend off, I took it easy. I forgot how much I love getting up at 4 in the morning to use my body to do physically exhausting work. So...after getting down the mountain and enjoying a routinely interesting lunch of rice and some sort of breaded, deep fried chicken, I took a quick dip in the Sea of Galilee and then made a sand castle on the beach. It was one of my goals of the trip...make a sand castle. There's plenty of sand, might as well put it to good use. Then I went to the lab and checked e-mail but was too lazy to post anything which is why I'm now writing about yesterday today. Then of course it was pottery cleaning, a lovely cucumber-tomato filled dinner, devotions and off to an early bedtime...

haha, you can tell I'm lying because in all the other posts, I've never actually told anything about my day. I just tell stupid stories all the time. Guess I can't even fool me with this fake-posting stuff. Oh well. It was entertaining for a bit at least in the midst of an exciting life on the floor at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.

Anyone who is still reading this post, send me an e-mail...I don't even care what you say.

chandlea@csp.edu

And Cameron says to send him one, too...we've still got quite a few hours here!

heiligec@csp.edu

basic needs

Sitting in the airport at Tel Aviv
We're tired, and probably stinky and just ready to leave...
So we wait.

haha...nice short poem. There's 4 students left and one adult waiting to get on a plane. It's been a long couple days, I'll admit...but really, we've got it pretty good here. We're not alone since there's a group of us. There's a bar just down the hall. There's a McDonald's with hot french fries. And there's wireless access to feed our college student internet hungry addiction to the computer. What more could I ask for?

an interesting challenge

Here's where it all started...Thursday night at the pub when our group joined together to wish Nancy a happy birthday, say farewell to the Canadians and Drs. Pratt and Anders, and of course to celebrate the end of a work week...Read on:

(Me) "Dr. Schuler, remember how last year my biggest goal was to get you to take a funny picture with me? And remember how you wouldn't? Well...there's NO cameras around, how about you just really quick make a funny face for me, just so I can see?" (said in a very pleading voice)

(Dr. Schuler) Insert head shake and eye roll. "Imagination is a good thing. If I do it, it would take all the fun out of it. But remember, there is photo shop."

(Me) "Don't you think you'd be better off if you just made a funny face for me really quick than inviting me to mess with your picture on photoshop? Won't that be worse?!"

(Dr. Schuler) "Just remember, we're in Israel, retaliation is a given."

So it ended there with a type of open-ended challenge of who could do the most "interesting" thing with one another's picture through photo shop and a computer.

The next day (Friday, for those of you who need a reminder)...

While sitting in the lab working on the compter, Dr. Schuler walked behind me...

(Me) "Dr. Schuler, I think I might take you up on your little photoshop challenge..."

(Dr. Schuler) "Just remember, I have photoshop, too."

(Me) "Just remember, I may not be as easy to embarrass as you..."

(Dr. Schuler) "Embarrassment may not be the goal..."

Just when I think I got the last word in, Dr. Schuler goes and one-ups me! Like he said, you can't argue with him, he's a professor. But no matter...I've got something in mind for him.



Our small group is now sitting at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv...and with nothing to do, what better option do we have than to blog and keep ourselves entertained and all you other folks reassured that we are alright? And so, since I had planned on posting this yesterday...I posted it today. It's been an interesting couple of days, but we have all made it through safe and now are just ready to come home, I believe. (Unless, of course by some miracle, we could go back and sweat and dig!)

Hope someone is still reading this...!

another poem...

Four weeks of the year in the heat of July
Some crazy man, a ticket to Israel does buy
His workboots and passport, he sits at the gate
Waiting for a group that he hopes won't be late

His summer is spent in the hot desert sun
Picking dirt, moving rocks--doesn't it sound fun?
Unveiling church mysteries, he uses such skill
In the ruins of Hippos, the city on a hill

He eats the same food for each meal of the day
And by the sea with his "family," encourages them to pray
He puts up with students who constantly try
To make his eyes roll and his mind wonder "Why?!"

But his passion is contagious, it catches on fast
His excitement makes us all eager to learn of the past
He works us quite hard, and early we wake
Sweat, dig, dirt, bugs, and the familiar, "WATER BREAK!"

His church follows no rules, it's hard to unravel
But I'm sure that still here next year he'll travel
I'm sure you know now that no one could be cooler
Than the man, the myth, the legend...the one true Doc. Schuler!



Dedicated to our fearless leader...who puts up with a lot from the students and still smiles at the end of the day...and who we really do have a lot of respect for (more than we sometimes show!).

dates from above, byzantine bottle opener, and a church on wheels

A title composed of three seemingly random and unrelated objects? Or a wonderful story just waiting to be explained?...

Probably the former.

On the beautiful shore of the Sea of Galilee, the green grass is lined with palm trees. It is really rather lovely. At the tops of most of these trees grow dates. Some people like to eat dates, although I myself have never eaten a date...perhaps I will someday. At any rate, I don't ever remember anyone ever having a problem with these date palm trees until this year. You see, sometimes dates fall from the trees. This year, these dates have so obviously targeted Jessica. I don't think they fall unless she's in the area, and it would seem they have conspired against her so that they plan on falling on her head whenever possible. I'm not sure how many she's gotten hit with, but it's been at least two or three. You won't believe me, but I'm pretty positive that the trees actually smile and laugh whenever she cries out in pain at the newest sore spot on her head. It's true--if you watch, you can see all the branches curve upwards which clearly gives the appearance of a grinning palm tree. I think there's a small furry palm tree creature that just sits in the trees and waits for her to get comfortable beneath them...and then...BAM! There goes the date! I wouldn't have thought it so necessary a story to share, except that I was just sitting outside about five minutes ago when beside me, from the sky flying as gracefully as any date thrown by a palm tree monster flies...I was nearly hit. At least I'm not Jessica or I might've been.

Next, the Byzantine bottle opener. My big cistern find (Cameron found gold, Kristina found a coin) was a rusted iron circle looking thing with a handle looking thing extended from it. It was clearly only part of a larger picture, but the piece was obviously (as suggested by Arny) a bottle opener. I absolutely agree. After all, if this church was indeed a woman's monastery (which is one of the theories) and if the room where Cistern D lies was indeed a holy room (which is quite probable) then it only stands to reason that one of the necessary items to keep in the room would be a device useful for opening any bottle containing a refreshing liquid. It must have been the room to entertain guests, and the cistern was right next to the styrofoam cooler.

Today we got to take a tour of the Northwest Church in Hippos which is being excavated by the Polish team. It is a very big, very beautiful church with lots and lots of mosaic floors (including three inscriptions) and several other features which made it very interesting to see. I loved the church. On the northern outside of the church, we could see all the stones used to build the wall. All lined up as the bottom row of the building were reused column drums used on their sides. The drums are huge...I think maybe 3 feet or so in diameter. So to see them all lined up, underneath the church like that...the first thought that came into my head was that the church looked like it was on wheels, and I could just imagine people trying to move the entire structure. Sure would change the meaning of house calls, I bet!

Anyways, just thought I'd share all that with you...I'm sure you're absolutely thrilled for having taken the time to read this post now.