So, I forgot my notebook again. I think most of my stories will come after I get back from Israel.

But I do have a couple of fun stories. The second day of actual digging, I met the photographer for the dig. At lunch we were next to each other in line, and he asked me if I was Hawaiian. I told him that I was part Japanese. It turns out that he is teaching himself Japanese because he has been there before, his son lives there and he is returning to ride around the island following the path of a famous hiku (spelling?) poet and take pictures. He insisted that I need to learn Japanese and has been trying to teach me different phrases ever since then. There are times when I am not sure which language I am trying to learn. It gets kind of confusing, but it is fun. He told me I have two years to learn Japanese so I can go with him on his trip.

The dig is still dirty, and there are lots of rocks. We are finding lots and lots of pottery pieces. Most of them are shards and aren't good for much, but we did find an intact cosmetic bottle. That was really cool. The things we are most looking out for are handles, rims and coins. We find a fair number of those as well as some small animal bones. We have also found sardine cans. The Syrian army apparently ate lots of sardines. Digging isn't as boring now since I have gotten to know the other people who are digging with me a little better. Lauren and I are still on the look out for the Q-source. (I will explain what that is sometime later. Just know that it is important. If you absolutely can't wait for my scintillating description you can read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_document)

I went swimming in the Sea of Galilee again today. It was pretty fun. We're going floating down the Jordan next Wednesday.

But I need to go. I will update again when I can.