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?"

Reality Sets In

Wow...
I was just evacuated from a country at war...
After four days of going, going, going the reality of what has just happened has finally set in. How does one talk about an experience like this. Very few people could even understand.

I'll never forget the balls of fire we saw to the north on Friday night, the dozens of aircraft flying north and then later flying south on that same night or my last time at Hippos. On the way down Kristina asked Dr. Schuler what would happen to us. Essentially he said we would stay at the dig and keep doing what we were doing unless..."Tiberias is hit...that's too close for comfort. If Tiberias is hit then we'll get the students out of here." Who could have guessed that less than two hours later Tiberias would in fact be hit...

I'll never forget that Saturday afternoon. Sitting in the dining hall we heard the explosion and felt the repurcusions as the windows rattled. "Tiberias just got hit," was my gut reaction. "That was just a low-flying plane," was what my heart wanted. In the end my gut got the better of my mind and we were on our way to Jerusalem. The rest is a whirlwind...
After a taxi and three buses we were at the Tel Aviv airport. Hours later we watched Amanda and Jessica go through security. A few hours after that it was Kristina's turn. She was followed by Stephanie and then Arny. A little over 24 hours later we were all safely through security, but this didn't come without it's scares either...

As we sat in the airport waiting for our chance to finally go through the security check and get out tickets (you can't go through security until about 3 hours before your flight, so we had a long wait when we got to the airport at 7 PM and didn't fly out until 7 AM) we were swiftly approached by security who told us to get up and move back.
I'll never forget those words, "Please move back here...leave your bags...move back here...LEAVE YOUR BAGS AND MOVE BACK HERE PLEASE EVERYONE!!!"
My stomach dropped to the floor.
Thankfully nothing ever came from this scare which I'm assuming was from an abandoned car or piece of luggage.

Food For Thought:
Have you ever watched Ice Age in Greek?

Marathon

The marathon is over - 30 hours of being awake and I'm finally back in the states...Philadelphia to be exact.
At 7 AM on Tuesday morning (Israel time) we boarded our Olympic Air flight to Greece, by 4 PM Tuesday afternoon (Eastern Standard Time) we were in New York. Then we caught a cab from JFK to Penn Station in downtown Manhattan (I'm not sure it counts because I didn't do anything tourist-y, but at least I can now say that I have been to Manhattan). At Penn Station we bought two tickets on the Amtrak to Philadelphia. Our train was almost two hours late...very frustrating, but we're here and ready to rest...So - long story short, I have been up essentially since about 2 in the afternoon (Israel) on Monday. Let's do some math...
Approximate hours of sleep since Saturday Afternoon when we left - 15
Approximate full meals eaten - 2 or 3?
Approximate hours awake in a row - 40? (Slept for a few hours at the hotel in Tel Aviv, but have been essentially awake since 2 PM on Monday (Israel time) combine that with the fact that today was about 31 hours long for us (7 hour difference between here and there)
Today was a literal version of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles"

More stories to come later...

Food for Thought:
What is this water falling from the sky?

I confess

I confess...
even though this blog is called "don't forget your sunscreen" I haven't worn any since the second day of the dig...and the only time I got sunburned was when we went to Jerusalem and the shirt I was wearing had a slightly bigger neck-hole which didn't cover the same amount of area on my upper back. That is all.
Oh...wait...Andrea refused to wear it...she's so vain...

Food For Thought:














Have you ever seen a marmot?


Exhaustion is starting to set in...

Terminal

Our flight is finally up on the board...It's finally there...I can see when I'm leaving and it's ON TIME!!

In other news, a group of Polish Students who were on the Polish Team at Hippos have arrived here as well. One of them, Hubert, befriended us (Kody, Andrea, Jessica, Stephanie and I) the weekend before we left. They evacuated on Sunday night and are leaving here at 6 this morning...

Food For Thought:
In Israel, the hamburgers at McDonalds are about twice the size but the drinks and fries are smaller...interesting...

The Cold Airport Floor

Here we are in Ben Gurion airport. (I've already written most of this post once, but Andrea's computer is really touchy and turns off if it is unplugged so I lost it as I was being run into by people. Bare with me as I try to remember what it was that I said...) As of now we are down to five of us waiting to leave. Tabitha, Kody and Nancy fly out through Brussels, Belgium at 6 AM. Andrea and I fly out through Athens, Greece at 7 AM (this is all on Tuesday for those of you in the states). Right now it is 11:20, and we can't even start through security until 4 AM (edit, this previously said 4 PM - obviously a mistake, if this were true I think I would go crazy, or at least a little more crazy than I already am)...Oi...it's going to be a long night tonight and day tomorrow...
In other news, when we get to JFK another adventure begins! First we're going to catch the Cash Cab where we will win enough money to pay off this extra little expense. Then, we catch the Amtrak to Philadelphia. Finally in Philadelphia we will enjoy "steak prov's wit shrooms," Wawa MilkShakes, pepperoni pizza and Yuengling beer. All the necessities one visits the birthplace of the nation. Speaking of the birthplace of the nation. On Friday, after we've had ample time to relax and recover, we will go to downtown and take a walking tour with Debbie (Andrea's sister) and Jeff (Andrea's soon to be brother-in-law).
Finally, to round out this very interesting entry, as Rhoda, Andrea and I enjoyed our delicious Kosher McDonalds at the Ben Gurion airport I noticed a familiar face walking by. As I looked closer I realized it was Anderson Cooper from CNN. Oh the places you go and the people you see!

Food For Thought:
Do you like green eggs and ham?

"The Saddest Church Service I've Ever Been To"

Yesterday morning as I made the hour walk down the mountain that we had all come to know, and for some odd reason love, I was dreading going back up the next day (today) at 5 o'clock in the morning. Who would have thought, at that point in time, that barely over 24 hours later I would be praying to go back there. Praying that I could simply see that place one more time. Unfortunately, who knows when, or if, I will ever crest that hill again.
Andrea, Kristina, Dr. Schuler and I had just descended after a fairly successful, yet rare, Saturday trip up the mountain. As we were taping some informational scenes for the documentary Dr. Schuler had an epiphone. He realized, at that point, that instead of looking for the teminos (Spelling?), the area where a Roman temple would have once stood, to the west of the church, that perhaps the church was built ON the teminos. This would explain some of the irregularities of the church and a rogue column that Dr. Schuler could never quite identify. If this assessment is in fact true then it would have meant the most important discovery of our season thus far. Unfortunately, it may be a while before I know the truth about this theory.
After returning to the Kibbutz, Andrea and I went for a swim in the Sea and then met Kristina and some of the other students for lunch. After lunch we stopped at the lab to check email and blog, but just as my computer booted up Dr. Schuler told us to round up everyone for an emergency meeting in the lab. I guess I forgot to mention that at one point during lunch we heard some loud "Booms." I told myself, and Andrea, that it was just a jet flying overhead. Dr. Schuler would soon prove this theory to be false. "Tiberias has been hit," he said with tears in his eyes.
After everyone was rounded up he continued, "that's too close so I am envoking the clause which was in the contract you all signed. All the students are being moved south." He also gave some of the adults the chance to come along.
So, at 5 in the evening we were on our way to Jerusalem for safety - a slightly ironic idea. But we would not leave before first having one final meeting with the entire group, a church service... You see, we had been joined only hours before by a group of four more men from the states. One of them, Jim Rogers, is a pastor from the states who is in his fourth season at that dig. He performed a communion service which one student said was, "the saddest church service I've ever been to." I have to agree with this statement. As we sat, crowded and cramped in the small lab area we were all crying, wondering what came next and how our families would react. Most importantly though, we were crying out of sadness for leaving this place that we had all grown to love.
How ironic that this morning as I awoke at the hostel I wished and longed for a chance to climb that mountain at 5 AM just one more time...
Now we are at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv where Rhoda is doing everything in her power to get us on flights home, and to safety...I will never forget my time at Hippos, and as odd as it may sound, hope to make a reappearance there very soon!
Thank you to the Drs. Schuler, and to everyone on the dig, for everything...I will not soon forget any of it.
(this doesn't mean I'm done blogging - there are more stories to tell of course!!)
P.S. - My socks are all wet...I had only two clean pairs and no way of knowing how many I actually might need. Were we staying in Jerusalem for a day or a week? Therefore I had to hand wash some socks...they haven't dried out yet...good thing I had those two pair!


Food For Thought:
Are you worthy of the hatperson club? (Dr. Schuler is an honorary member)

Mr. Ed and the Beav Find Magic Hard Boiled Egg in Hippos Excavation Breakfast Line!

I have these two friends. Let’s, for the sake of discussion, call them Mr. Ed and the Beav. Now, these two, like all the rest of us, have been enduring the same kinds of food for breakfast and dinner now for two weeks. How lame, eh? Anyhow, this morning at 7:45 Dr. Schuler called us in for breakfast. As we were walking toward the mess hall (an old Israeli military building which was recently covered in pigeon crud, but is now nearly spotless, at least clean enough to eat in, because of Nancy’s amazing cleaning abilities) I heard a loud uproar from inside. As I approached the door I couldn’t help but notice the amazing yellow light emanating from inside the wooden portal.

As I walked nearer and nearer the noise became even louder. Upon entering I was amazed at what I saw. There standing near the container of hard boiled eggs stood a giant horse and a beaver. Looking at these two large animals I was astonished at their stature in comparison to the farm and woodland creatures that I had been taught about.

Apparently my two friends, who were now walking talking animals, had both reached for the same egg at the same time and upon touching it were transformed into great beasts the likes of which the world has never seen (unless sasquatch and Godzilla really exist, but I don’t know that I really believe that).

Anyhow, continuing with the story, Dr. Schuler came in slightly after me, and upon seeing to of his workers transformed into animals was shocked and amazed. We dubbed them Mr. Ed and the Beav, in recognition of the TV shows, and then went on with our work day. Mr. Ed was very useful when it came to moving large rocks and the Beav was actually pretty good at digging holes.

None of this actually happened, but I didn’t have much to Blog about today and thought that a nice story would help fill some space.

Jessica found an ancient egg shell in her giant pot today – obviously they were doomed to the same diet of hard-boiled eggs, cucumbers and tomatoes and bread as we are.

Not much to report from cistern duty – we found the floor and dug a trench all the way across the bottom. At its deepest point we have about 15-20 centimeters left to go. Most of our day was spent breaking up clumps of silt from the bottom. According to Dr. Schuler this is the most important part of our work because this silt is from the Byzantine period. However, by the end of the day one is left with sore thumbs (from breaking hard clumps of clay) and can be tired and weary from thoroughly looking through EVERYTHING! We have probably two more days of work, then we will measure it so that Andrea can do a drawing.

Some of us are going up to the site on Saturday morning. Andrea needs to draw the mosaic floor and Dr. Schuler asked Kristina and I if we would care to join them because he did not want just two people going up. We’ve (Andrea and I) have decided to use this time to get Dr. Schuler’s explanations of the church on camera*

Yes, these are some tense times in Israel. And, the rumors on Jessica’s blog are true. Occasionally on the mountain one can here the faint thunder of the shelling to the north. However, Dr. Schuler has assured us that we are safe here and that the United States Travel Board (I think that’s what it’s called) has not changed there stance on traveling in Israel.

*In case you did not already know, Andrea and I are making a documentary of the dig this year.

Food For Thought:
What would you do for a Klondike Bar?

Perils of a Pink Bandanna

Number One: Sifting Dirt; Number Two: Darryl (The Hulk?); Number Three: Ready and Waiting for Cistern Diving; Number Four: Yes, I am a Super Hero; Number Five: Pottery Scrubbing; Number Six: Looking through the rocks for anything worth keeping; Number Seven: Dr. Pratt having way to much fun - have a safe flight! See you in St. Paul



Now for the real post!
Wait...what to talk about...Didn't find much of anything to exciting in the cistern today, although we did find A LOT of tesera (the litte pieces of rock that were used to make mosaic), some more animal bones (a giraffe to be specific) and some more of this metal substance that we still haven't been able to identify.
Since we got here nearly two weeks ago we have been Dr. Schuler's largest group to date. However, over the past four days our number has grown slightly, and as of this afternoon it will start to dwindle. Dr. Michael Patella of St. John's University in Collegeville, MN departed today. President Holst is leaving tomorrow with the four Canadians and Drs. Pratt and Anders departing on Friday. However, on Saturday we have four more joining us. Did you catch all that? We have six leaving and four coming meaning really we only lose like two people?!
Yesterday whilst in the deep caverns of the cistern Kristina encountered a Goliath of a centipede with Andrea and I looking down upon her as she jumped with fear. Having no time to climb out, and no real way for us to calm her down we shouted "KILL IT...KILL IT!!!!" With much haste Kristina took the trusty hand-pick and chopped the centipede into tiny little pieces, pieces which we started finding today as we sifted through the dirt. In fact, one of those pieces came back to haunt Kristina as she was again down in the cistern. While scooping dirt into the bucket she encountered the disembodied head of the centipede. "It's antannae are still moving!" she screamed as I looked on. Then she proceeded to disfigure the centipede's former noggin even further. Guess it won't be bothering us anymore...
In other news - it's very hot in the cistern.
In other, other news - I have a farmer's tan.
In even more other news - The giraffe I mentioned earlier has not been verified by modern science.

Food for Thought:
Who took Dr. Schuler's atrium?!

What I did on Tuesday...

4:15 AM - Alarm (Curse you alarm!)
4:20 AM - Out of Bed, Get Dressed (Very important when digging - wouldn't want to go down a cistern in your underwear)
4:45 AM - Catch Bus (Bumpy)
5:00 (about) AM - Up the Mountain (Are you kidding, it's five AM, but I guess it's a good warm up)
5:15 AM -At the site, start work ("That screen fell over again?! How did it get all the way over there?!!)
5:30 - 8:00 AM - Fill, lift, sift buckets...(rinse and repeat)
8:00 AM - Breakfast (mmmmm, cucumbers and tomatoes - today I cut up my hardboiled egg on top of them - delicious...only two and a half more weeks to get creative...)
8:30 AM - Noon - See "5:30-8:00 AM"
12:15 PM - Come down the mountain (Try not to get ahead of yourself, it's very steep and rocky - a faceplant would be painful)
12:45 PM - Lunch (mmmm, finally some variety)
1:00 - 1:42 PM - I forgot...
1:42 - 3:00 PM - Nap (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)
3:30 PM - Visited the beautiful gift shop (Spent my life savings in sheckels which really made me feel rich)
3:30 - 4:30 PM - Lab...check email...(I didn't get any...)
4:30 - 5:30 PM - Pottery Cleaning (Must keep everything from the cistern = must clean everything from the cistern...)
5:30 - 7:00 PM - Change, Swim, Change again (Chair surfing anyone?)
7:00 PM - Dinner (Bread...tomatoes and cucumbers...hard-boiled eggs...strawberry jam and chocolate spread...see breakfast for my thoughts)
7:30 PM - Lecture (Did you know that the early monastic movement started in the "deserts" of Egypt?)
8:30 PM - Devotions (Pray for safety for those of us leaving this weekend)
9:04 PM - Post on Blog, Head to bed (Tomorrow = Rinse and Repeat)

Presidential Happenings

I know what you might be saying right now, "C'mon Cameron, two posts in one day. What are you thinking?!"
Well, you would be right, this does seem to buck my usual trend of waiting days before actually posting anything, but in light of recent events, i.e. President Holst's arrival last Wednesday afternoon, I thought it would be appropriate for me to share my thoughts on this amazing man who has overseen my college education for the past few years.
First off, I would like to say that the President's arrival was one that I was incredibly excited about from the beginning. Last year I got to know President Holst much better than I previously had because of my involvement in Student Senate. As the Student Body President I was invited to be part of each and every President's Cabinet meeting. Unfortunately I was unable to attend all of the meetings first semester because of class. However, this did not stop me from getting to the know the President. We (Student Senate Executive Board) were invited to visit the President's house for dinner fairly early on in first semester and while we were there we were heavily entertained by his antics along with his quick wit and great sense of humor. One story that none of us will ever forget is President Holst dropping some wax on his finger and exclaiming, "Oh...the old wax on the finger trick, eh!" as if he were Maxwell Smart from "Get Smart." Another saying that I took away from that night was "In everything you do, do it with confidence." This story came around the time the salad was being served. The President told us that once when he was at a formal dinner, but there was nothing with which to serve the salad, so, with confidence, the President reached in and grabbed his serving of salad.
So - that brings me finally to the President's arrival and movements over the past week. Some of my previous thoughts concerning the President have been reaffirmed over that past week. For example - his love and affection for his students.

I've also learned some new things about the President. For example, President Holst is one of the hardest working men that I have ever seen. Not only did he beat Andrea and I up the mountain this morning (a feat in itself as we are generally among the first up the mountain every morning) he also works hard all day long. It's interesting and amazing as a student to be in a situation such as this, but it proves, yet again, that we have an amazing President. How amazing that a man such as him would take time out of his busy schedule to work on a dig like this, and as you can see below, to work hard every minute.



I also found out that President Holst is a pretty cool guy - notice the backwards hat...
Keep up the good work.

Huh...looks like my toenail fell off...

Or at least that's what I thought Stephanie said as we were waiting for Andrea after lunch. Turns out she was just commenting on the small size of her pinky toenail, but the fact that I thought she said that made for quite an interesting conversation and quite a funny look as Andrea came up to meet us and we were laughing, or at least still smirking, about that fact.
Since the excitement of yesterday was hardly matched today it may be hard for me to write anything of utter significance or importance here. I am getting better at this though. At least, I feel like I am. I mean, consider this, since I started this blog not once have I posted on consecutive days, and now, even when I have nothing stunning to say, I am doing so.
Today was a typical day in the life of an archaeologist, as Dr. Schuler put it. Although that's not an exact quote. I believe what he said was, "this is what archaeology is supposed to be like, no big surprises. not like yesterday. yesterday was like some bad Indiana Jones movie with all the spiders and discovery of gold."
Another great quote today by Dr. Schuler came when we finished our work on the cistern slightly early so that Kristina could help Jessica with her surveying. I moved on to help Dr. Chambers' crew which included President Holst (below, hard at work). As I was standing waiting to move some buckets Dr. Schuler observed that there were two presidents working on this one square - "Isn't it interesting that the President of the University is down here picking while the Student Body President is standing there with his hands on his hips."
On to other things -
The cistern work continued today, and was not nearly as exciting as yesterday. Although, who knows if anything will live up to the archaeological high that one gets from finding a piece of 7th century Byzantine gold. I did find and destroy a small centipede. Although, half of it may still be alive down there somewhere. And, unfortunately, at the end of today we discovered that Dr. Schuler wasn't kidding when he told us there was a 5-6 inch centipede hiding in the dark places. Kristina discovered it while filling up the last bucket of the day. Time for Sir Cameron the Brave to take on another creature from the depths.
We also made a rather interesting discovery. As Kristina was uncovering an area near the southern part of the cistern she found a concentration of smaller bones, including some molers. After investigating, Dr. Anders identified them as canine. So, it appears that we have a dog in our cistern. One wonders whether a small carnivorous canine fell into our cistern while chasing after some kind of rodent. This archaeologist believes that perhaps the head nun's chihuahua became entirely to annoying and was thrown down the cistern by an angry neighbor.

Number One: Marc dumps some dirt; Number Two: Andrea - Pirate?; Number Three: Dr. Anders Hard at Work; Number Four: Jessica takes a water break

Food for thought:
Is that gorilla thumb size?

EDIT: In response to a question on my previous post - the Gold was probably some sort of decorative piece used on a belt or even a dress. The pot was not completely intact, although most of the bottom portion was recovered we have not found many other pieces of it - not enough to try and reconstruct it that is. The search continues tomorrow.

A trowel, A spider and Quite a Find

This will be a fairly long post, but believe me - it's worth it.
Well, this post comes after a blur of a weekend which I can barely remember but know was absolutely amazing. It started on Thursday after the dig. We drove from Ein Gev to Jerusalem and then entered the Old City at the "Lion's Gate," making our way to the Austrian Hospice which would be called home for the next two nights.
On Friday we spent our time visiting places which commemorated Christ's birth (Church of the Nativity) AND death (Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also where the resurrection is commemorated). Both of these churches, ornate and very "Catholic," a western protestant might say, were beautiful, and thought provoking. Even more amazing was being in the place where these things occured. As Dr. Schuler put it on Friday afternoon, "The Church of the Holy Sepulchre may not be THE place where it took place (the rock which is set apart as the place of the crucifiction is fairly small). However, the probability of it happening in that particular area is around 80-85% certain, and Christians have been worshipping there for hundreds of years." An absolutly perplexing thought.
On Saturday we Climbed the Mount of Olives which is quite steep, moreso than I expected anyways, and I even had Andrea telling me about it prior to going. We spent some time on the top seeing different churches and such. One of these churches, the Church of the Ascension, has actually been converted into a mosque. After taking some pictures (including a "family portrait" with the Drs. Schuler) at an observation point we headed down stopping along the way at Gethsemane and The Church of All Nations.
Of course we took some time in between to enjoy our Hostel which was located in the heart of the Old City. I discovered Shawerma, which is lamb, sliced off in the same fashion as a gyro, and then placed in a pita with some different toppings.
Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way let's move on to the most important part of this post, today!
The day started as any other has so far with everyone meeting the bus at 4:45. Andrea, Kristina and I however were feeling a bit excited (honestly, more than a bit) excited for our new endeavor of excavating Cistern D. We began the morning by preparing the site which included removing the cistern head, impvising a tarp for shade, attaching the rope ladder (which would later have to be reattached because the rope to which it was previously attached snapped) and finally listening to Dr. Schuler's instructions on what we should do.
In fact, our excitement was first peaked by Dr. Schuler's initial endeavor down the hole. As Kristina and I looked on Dr. Schuler made his way down, looked to his right and with some astonishment said that he had found a large intact portion of a Byzantine cooking pot. (Just an aside, I had told Kristina earlier in the morning that it would be cool to find an intact pot.) So, with Andrea finally joining us after drawing a couple of pictures, we began our work bringing up buckets of dirt, sifting them, pulling out the pieces worth keeping and then repeating the process.
While in the cistern we encountered many different kinds of creepy crawly things - mostly spiders, although Dr. Schuler found a fairly large centipede and I saw some silverfish and "rollie-pollies." It was one of these spiders that would lead to our most amazing find of the day, and, in my opinion, of the dig - but I'm biased.
When we first removed the cistern head we noticed a rather large spider scurrying away from where the rock had previously been. Then, only a short time later and while on her way back up after filling some buckets, Kristina noticed the same spider, which was striped white and black and was about the size of a 50 cent piece with all of it's legs spread wide. I was next in line to go down the cistern, but could not see the spider at the time. Then, later on we located the spider a second time. It was, again, Kristina who found the spider. We were waiting to use the screen to sift through our dirt, so I decided to go down myself and get rid of the nuisance. After dispatching that spider, as well as a few others, I leaned down to look at the piece of pottery and to show it to Andrea because I wasn't sure if she had seen it yet. As I was replacing the pot to it's spot I noticed something on the ground. As I picked it up I couldn't believe what I had found. I yelled at Andrea "GOLD!!!" to which she said, "Gold?!" to which I said..."GOOOLD!!!" and then I heard her yelling for Dr. Schuler who immediately came over, looked at it, told me to stay in the cistern to identify where it came from and then showed it to all the folks who were drawn by that simple four letter word.
So - in retrospect, we must thank Glenn and Dr. Anders for using the screen at that particular moment, that spider for simply existing so that I could kill it and sheer luck for an amazing start of week two at Hippos.
As the week goes on I will update you on what else we find in this not as deep as expected, not as dark as expected, 1300 year old hole in the ground.
Oh, PS - The Trowel mentioned in the title refers to my prefered spider extermination device.

One final note on this post which I seem to be constantly coming back to -- a story I promised I would post about, but somewhere in between the spiders and the gold seem to have forgotten about. Again, we go back to the hostel where I shared a room with 5 of the other men who were along in Jerusalem. Included in this group was the one and only President Holst who, the first night before going to bed, turned to me and said, "If I start to snore just whack me with a pillow and I will roll over..." Now, it's not often that one hears a phrase like this uttered by their university President, but it is even less often that one actually takes them up on the offer.


Food for Thought: What do you call a toothless bird?

WATER BREAK!!

Every 25 minutes or so at the North East Church digsite one will hear these words shouted by one of the Drs. Schuler. Water, on the dig, is of incredible importance as the heat can be intensely felt even in the shade.
Over the past five days I have been ripped from my element and thrown into a situation that I not only never expected but that I have become very grateful to have been a part of, so far that is. Last week while driving from my comfortable home in Billings, Montana I wondered what I was doing, and was astonished at the idea of flying across the ocean to a far off place where Jesus once stood, where he preached and where, eventually, he died for my sins. Now I am here and the excitement, while it has wained some in the wee hours of the morning on a busride up a mountain where I will soon spend a day of hot, sweaty, dirty, grimy intesive labor in the sun, has not decreased by any measurable margin. Every day I have the privelege of watching the sunrise over the Golan Heights and then, after cleaning pottery, chatting with new and old friends, and swimming in the Sea upon which Jesus once walked, I again watch the sun as it sets over that very Sea of Galilee.
Amazed is the only word that I can come up with to describe my experience so far. Amazed at the places we have gone and the things that we have done. (For more information on that Jessica has done a pretty good job, and since I am on her dig team I believe it would be just as appropriate to advise you to read it as it would be to re-type it here).
After two more days of digging on the Northeast Church we head for Jerusalem to spend a couple of days. I may or may not post again before then. If I don't expect a long post upon my return.

Food for thought:
Have you ever chairsurfed?