Breakfast got an all-caps because it
was great. So. Much. Breakfast. Scrambled eggs and fruits and salads and
dessert-like things and citrus-y juices and yogurt and cereal and weird
cake-like things with the consistency of bread pudding. Brad (who’s here for
the third time) and I peered and poked at some light brown balls for a while
before I bit the bullet and took one, to discover that it was an entire apple, either
baked or boiled, and drizzled with chocolate. Anyhow. We breakfasted, then had
an orientation in the courtyard, under the tree. There were lots of
introductions, and much talk about safety and the daily routine and whatnot. We
got our work assignments; I’ll be working in Chad’s (Dr. Spigel, but I get to
call him Chad here, super duper cool beans) area, the ancient village. The
square supervisors there are Josh, Brad, and Jocelyn, and I'll be in Jocelyn's square, which is an old one we'll be reopening. Tomorrow we
begin work. We’ll spend the first few days clearing out the site for excavation;
apparently it’s been grown-over since last year or something. The first few
days are supposed to be the hardest because we’re prepping the site (I’m
guessing moving a lot of plants and rocks?), and we won’t have shade cloths, so
that’ll be way fun. Hopefully I’ll come out unscathed, or at least with a
minimal amount of sunburn or broken bones. I’m already a little pink, because….
…..we went to the Sea of Galilee today! It’s a lot smaller
than I expected. Actually, everything here is a lot smaller than I expected,
and a lot closer together. We can see the Sea of Galilee from the kibbutz, and
Tiberias from the beach we visited. It’s weird how things that seem far on the
map of Israel are about as close as neighborhoods in Houston are to each other.
Or…whatever. I’m pretty tired right now. Point is, Israel is way small. Back to
the Sea of Galilee. We (the students) took a bus, saw some cool scenery, and
got to this little beach that was pretty shady and windy. The water was very
pleasant, and everyone kind of ignored the rope boundary that signaled where we
weren’t supposed to swim. For a while, a few of us stubbornly remained on the
approved side, but eventually everyone crossed over. No one went in past their
shoulders, I don’t think. After swimming, I sat in the shade for a while, which
was really nice. We got back two hours ago, and are now about to go eat dinner, having just completed area meetings (synagogue and village). We in my room – Jennifer from Trinity, Allison from UNC, and Alaina from University of Toronto – napped for a bit before crawling out of bed and stepping outside for the meetings. Allison's in the village with me, and Alaina will be in the synagogue. Anyway, it’s food soon and bed right after, so the next time I write it will be after I’ve gotten a taste of
field work.
A little opinion here and less narration – I’m really
enjoying it so far. It’s been a lot easier to meet people than I expected.
People for the most part aren’t being cliquish with the folks from their
schools, so we’re all just hanging out and getting to know each other. I’m
having a much easier time making friends than I expected, so that’s been good. Mostly everyone is nice, and it seems like it's going to be fun. I'm excited to see the site and to start digging, although I'd like to work in a new square so we get to make new discoveries instead of digging up things that have already been found. Oh well. I'm sure it will be fun anyways. Food calls, must answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment