I have never been this worn out. It's ridiculous. I even worked in the lab yesterday and went on field trips today, so I haven't actually done field work in two days. And I'm still exhausted. In all fairness, everyone here is petering out too - bus rides are getting quieter and afternoons in the courtyard are becoming steadily less-attended due to people opting to nap instead. Maybe it's the fact that the tail end of this week has been invaded by a pretty torturous heat wave. Maybe it's the fact that our weeks have six days of working instead of five like in the States. Whatever the cause, everyone is tired.
Not much has happened this week. On Wednesday (I think), I spotted a snake on the edge of my square and started yelling, and an uproar ensued in the ancient village area. Apparently it wasn't venomous, but the snake was pretty long - at least, I thought so - and certainly scared the senses out of me and Chad, who was in my square and is apparently as bad with reptiles as I am. Miki caught it and people petted it and whatever, and that was it. The other day, we finished excavating my square, so we closed it and my group moved to one of the squares that was finished last year, so we can excavate one more layer to see if we can find the base of a wall. Yesterday I was assigned to work in the lab with one of my roommates (Alaina) and my fellow Trinity student (Sara). We worked on bones and data entry, went to the site for breakfast, and came back to work on bones and pottery until everyone else came back. And last night we had a movie night and stayed up late since we could sleep in until 7:30 this morning (SEVEN THIRTY, can you believe it?!?! Who needs THAT much sleep, amiright?).
Today we went to a Crusader castle on the south side of the Sea of Galilee. The site is called Belvoir, French for "beautiful view" - and very aptly named, if I may say so. It sits on a mountain overlooking the Jordan valley, and the view is breathtaking, even though today it was slightly obscured by mist. We wandered around the castle for a while, then went to the synagogue in Beit Alfa. The mosaic floor is wonderfully preserved, and we watched a short film about it that was so bad it was just incredible. The mosaic was clearly not made as skillfully as any of the other mosaics I've seen from that time period, but at least it was well preserved and we could see practically all of it. After that, we were all worn out from the heat, so we went very happily to Sachne - a gorgeous natural water park - for lunch and swimming. The sandwiches were good (mainly because they didn't have schnitzel in them), and the water was gorgeous. It was clear and cool and pretty clean, and there were caves and waterfalls and large open pools, and everything went swimmingly until I swam into a giant underwater rock and bashed my left foot and leg. Josh and Jeremy (our bones specialist) and Alaina and I sat in a cave for a while, but after I kicked another rock with my other foot, we figured it was time to not swim anymore. My foot started bleeding as soon as I got out of the water, so I limped to our picnic area, and Josh got me ice cream.
The bus ride back was longer than any bus ride ever, but it was nice to not have to move or walk around in the hot sun. We're now back at the kibbutz, and I'm sitting under a tree with a bandaged foot, surrounded by people all relaxing in their own respective ways.
Dinner is in an hour, and then sleep. It's back to the field tomorrow.
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