The Sequel

http://dfys2.blogspot.com/

The new blog for those of you who are interested.

Cheyenne: The Final Frontier

Greetings from Cheyenne, WY. Finally, the final stage of my long journey home! My mom and I will be departing from here tomorrow morning and making the 7 hour drive north to Billings. I find it amazing that I was evacuated nearly two weeks ago and still haven't made it "home" yet.
In other news, Cheyenne (which is where my sister lives for those of you who were as yet unaware) is currently hosting "Cheyenne Frontier Days" which celebrates all things west. In other words; Western Expansion, Cowboys and Indians and of course, my favorite (I hope you can sense the sarcasm here) rootin' tootin' country music...
This morning we ventured to downtown to watch the parade, which is held four times a week during the festivities. I was not overly impressed, probably because of the lack of candy being thrown, but was amazed at how many horses were in the parade; literally hundreds! I have always had an interest in history, and the West is one area that I can never seem to get enough of. I love the stories of the the train robbers who hid out in the badlands of Wyoming and the gamblers who frequented Deadwood saloons. Cheyenne was a central hub of the west and is a perfect place to have such a celebration. Therefore, I declare Cheyenne Frontier Days something that everyone should try and experience...even with the country music...
If you're wondering what happened to my "Picture of the day" section, it will be back soon. Unfortunately the last two times I have posted I have either had a very sporadic connection or have been unable to post a picture because I was not on my own computer...

Food For Thought:
Pray for safe travel for the rest of our dig crew, leaving tomorrow (well, technically sometime tonight in the states if you would care to get specific).

"Stay in Town"

Many students, after a trip like this, have stories about the Professors or people held in high esteem with which they had contact. For instance, I have my nudging President Holst with a pillow because he was snoring story. When talking about this trip many students pride themselves on the “Dr. Schuler Eye-Roll Story.” For those who may not understand what I mean when I say the “Dr. Schuler Eye-Roll” I mean exactly that. On many occasions students will do things simply in order to get the eye roll or half laugh from Dr. Schuler. Andrea’s crowning achievement came on the first day of the cistern experience when she turned on her dinosaur headlamp.
Now that I have thoroughly explained the “Dr. Schuler Eye-Roll” it is time for me to elaborate upon my eye-roll experience. Mine came on the first week of the dig. As we (Jessica, Rhoda, Amanda and I) were digging in F4 and started talking about CSI: for some reason. I think it started with Jessica talking about forensic science or something like that, but then turned into a conversation about CSI: and all of it’s offshoots; CSI: Miami and CSI: NY. From there we started talking about the characters there-in, focusing on Horatio from CSI:Miami. I was discussing the fact that it seems like he has some of the most cliché lines ever written for a cop show and at one point I removed my glasses, dramatically, and spouted, “Stay in town,” merely as an example. Rhoda was on the floor. Well, not literally since we were ankle deep in a hole, but had we been somewhere with a floor, I’m sure that’s where she would have been. I think I repeated this four times that day; another time for Rhoda, once for Andrea and finally for Dr. Schuler (all at Rhoda Schuler’s request of course).
This, I’m proud to say, was my crowning achievement in receiving the Dr. Schuler eye roll, and I have since found out that it showed many on the dig that I wasn’t as shy as I made myself out to be at some points.

Food for Thought:
Who's on first.

Obscurity

Been to any obscure birthday parties lately?

I have...

My girlfriend's sister's fiance's brother-in-law's

Food For Thought:
I'm leavin' on a jet plane.

"France won in a shootout"

Monday July 10, 2006: A series of conversations...I do hope you can keep up...

4:35 AM:
Me (rather groggily): Kody, did you stay for the whole game last night?
Kody (Again, rather groggy): Yeah
Me: Who won?
Kody: France, in a shootout...they played both overtimes and no one scored, so then they went into a shootout and France won.
Me: Really?! Darn!!
(Explanation: The night before (Sunday July 9) a group of us had decided to sacrifice some small amount of sleep in order to enjoy the World Cup final. A small group of us had visited the Kibbutz pub a few nights earlier when there was a World Cup game and enjoyed it immensely. Who could pass up 5 sheckel (the exchange rate is about 4.5 sheckels = One Dollar) beers and hamburgers?! It was quite a deal, and really a lot of fun. So, continuing with the story, Jessica and I are both former soccer players and I had been watching just about as many World Cup games as I possibly could while I was still at home, so it seemed like an appropriate thing to do. It was quite an experience sitting there watching a soccer game in a foreign country with a group of not only Israelis but Polish folks as well. How many people can truly say they've done that? Not many, I'm sure. Fast forwarding a bit, regulation time came and went with France and Italy tied. Some of the American contingent had already started to scatter, and by the time the game was over we all (minus Kody) decided to leave as well. Kody joined a group from the Haifa team and, as evidenced by the conversation above, stayed for the whole game.)

5:00 AM - Waiting for the bus...
Me: France won...
Andrea: Really? That stinks, you were cheering for Italy, right?
Me: Yeah...I think a lot of the people there last night were...
(the bus showed up and we got on)

5:30 AM
President Holst: So, some of the students went to the World Cup Final last night...I didn't hear who won...
Dr. Chambers: Yeah, I haven't heard either...
Me: I didn't stay for the whole game, but I heard that France won...

6:00 AM - On the Dig...
I overheard Eva, one of the women from the Polish team who was helping with the mosaic, say "Italy won last night, it was a good game..."
Me: Hey Marc, did you watch the rest of the soccer game last night?
Marc H: No...
Me: Oh...did you happen to hear who won?
Marc H: Yeah, Italy...
Me: Hmmmm, it seems we have contradicting stories going around the North East Church...

This is pretty much how the day went. As I was lifting and sifting buckets from the cistern I was constantly wondering who had won the game. When we finally got down the mountain I found out the truth. Italy had won in a shootout, not the other way around. I have since forgiven Kody for his grave miscalculation, but I must say that it led to some unrest on the digsite that day...The greatest example coming from Dr. Michael Patella who was routing for Italy and was quite dissapointed at first hearing they lost.

Picture of the day:














Attention: No Canadians were harmed in the taking of this photograph...

Food for Thought:
Are you the Mythbuster?

Invisible Stephanie

This is Stephanie, also known in some circles as "Mr. Ed." Stephanie had been dreaming of going to Israel for five years, ever since Dr. Schuler first started going, well, five years ago... I met Stephanie through mutual friends (Andy Jones, Matt Griepentrog, Aaron Gerkhe and Greg Holz) during my freshman year. We hung out and had fun, but then Sophomore year she was on internship in Hawaii. Last year she returned to CSP, and, I will have to admit this now, for a very short (and I mean very short time Steph) I actually forgot who she was?! Ok, just kidding, I didn't really forget who she was, I mean who could forget Stephanie? Well, apparently as evidenced by the trip, a lot of people!
You see, whilst in the midst of Israeli adventures Andrea, Jessica and I (you see, I forgot Stephanie even right there?!) formed a bond of friendship which some could even call annoying. (Just ask them about dinner the first night at the youth hostel in Jerusalem, we laughed and laughed and laughed to the point that Dr. Schuler, the next night, said, "I would invite you to use your inside voices at dinner this evening" Ok, that's not exactly what he said, but it was something along those lines. So, the next night we decided that we would behave ourselves. This meant sitting up straight, talking about the weather and the economy and drinking our water with our pinkys in the air.) Getting on with the story, it got to the point where whenever anything happened in which the four of us were involved Andrea would either get the blame, or the credit, depending upon the circumstances. Eventually, along these same lines, Stephanie was almost completely left out of the mix! For example, Stephanie AND Andrea were involved in the "writing" of the Waterbreak Song (see Andrea's Blog). However, Andrea ultimately got the credit for this. In the same vain, Andrea was blamed for our apparently loud and disturbing antics at dinner the first night at the hostel. In reality, we were all to blame (some more than others). Finally, Stephanie emailed us this morning in regards to a comment made in Rhoda's blog. Rhoda states that Jessica wore Nancy's tiara that night at the pub, in reality, it was Stephanie who did so.
So, here we see the unfortunate outcome of being a sweet, kind and gentle person such as Stephanie. No matter how hard you try you can't get blamed for anything! Keep up the good work, this skill may come in handy some day. As long as people like Andrea are around to take the blame that is.

Pictures of the day:














Saying goodbye to Hippos - Saturday of evacuation.














Independence Hall in Philadelphia (duh...)















Carpenters' Hall - First Continental Congress

Food For Thought:
How many archaeologists does it take to change a lightbulb?

Goldstar, Pols and a Band that Played Half a Set

On our first, and only, free Thursday night a group of us went to the Kibbutz pub to celebrate Nancy's birthday. The Drs. Pratt and Anders and the Canadians were also leaving the next day, so I suppose we were also saying goodbye to them.
Anyhow, the first round was on the Schulers and I think everyone ended up ordering Goldstar (the Israeli Beer). So, with our beer in hand and two bottles of wine opened we toasted to the birthday girl, who hadn't even arrived yet! Apparently Nancy, Linda and Darryl had walked down to the pub just before 9 o'clock, when we were supposed to meet, and were told that the pub didn't open until 9:30. Therefore, they didn't show up until 9:30, but that's beside the point. The exciting part came later!
As all the "old people" left (I use this term to describe those who were not college students, and would ask that those to whom this statement applies would not take offense. I say it out of respect and really don't think that you are "old" persay, I mean, a majority of you are younger than my parents who are still as vibrant and "young at heart" as anyone I have ever met. Therefore, I say again, I am using this term simply to make it easier for myself and the reader to understand. If ever again I say "old people" please understand that I am simply talking about those who were no longer in college...or...in Stephanie's case, those who had just graduated...)
So, with all the old people gone those of us who stayed went outside where there was a band playing, or so we thought...
We sat down to watch the band who played many songs in English, but some in Hebrew. The biggest problem we had with this band is that they seemed to have a lot of trouble finishing a song. They would begin to play, play a few bars and then stop. Then they would start another song, stop, look at the sound tech guy, yell at him in Hebrew, start another song and then repeat the process with a different person in the band yelling at the guy each time. It was quite interesting and entertaining to watch. Some of the time they actually sang a verse, or even two, of the song before they quit.
Later on in the night after the band was done with there "half" set we saw a group of Polish students sitting in the corner. We decided to go sit with them, and boy am I glad we did! As we walked over we were greeted by Hubert, a college student from Warsaw (but not from Warsaw University as we would soon find out). He stood up and shook our hands and said, "You need beer?" The three girls (it was Andrea, Stephanie, Jessica and Me by this point) said "No thanks," but I said that I would take one since he offered. A few minutes later Hubert returned with 4 beers in hand. As we sat there talking we were introduced to Matchek (Don't know how it's spelled) and Jan (pronounced like yawn - and I'm not sure if that's really how he spelled it either). We talked about the band, school, beer (they didn't like Goldstar very much), life, the dig, etc...They even taught us a few words in Polish, we learned nosdrovia (Cheers) and chechst (hello). Again, I have no idea how these words are spelled, I only know what they sounded like when we said them, so phonetically they should be correct.
The next night we met Hubert down at the beach where we sat and talked about the differences between Poland and the States. We played guitar and laughed and had a great time. Unfortunately the next day was the Saturday that we left so we never got much more of a chance to get to know our new Polish friends. However, Hubert gave us his contact information and said that we should come visit him sometime in Poland, an offer that I might have to sometime take him up on...

Picture of the day:


















On the roof of the hostel in the Old City

Food for Thought:
Have you ever had a "steak prov wit shrooms?"