Sorry it's been so long since I updated...

June 2

First Day of Digging. We were on the bus by 5:30. When we got to the dig site, we divided into the groups we would be digging with for the rest of time. Lauren and I had been joking about finding the Q source all semester, so we asked Elizabeth if we could work in Area C. She said of course and we were joined by various other people with whom we would become very close, very soon. Members of our group included: Tony, Eugene, Cowboy Nic, Michaela, Laura, Wilde, Joan, Katie, Ingrid, Katherine, Lauren and I. And Elizabeth.
To begin, we weeded and cleared leaves. After that we set up tarps and sifters. Then, then we finally got to start digging. This is so much less exciting than it sounds. What we did was this: loosened up the dirt, swept the dirt up into buckets, sift the buckets, repeat. We were not supposed to move larger rocks right away because they might make up a wall. (Rami thought that what we were digging might be a wall, but the results were still inconclusive by the time we left.) We cleared the dirt from around them, photographed the rocks and then moved them. And then we started the whole process again. I am very annoyed with myself for not getting before and after pictures of this.
Since this was our first day digging, we didn’t have everything straightened out as well as we did later. We were still sifting our own dirt this day (Tony, Eugene and Lauren took over this job later. We developed a system.) I only sifted about 2 buckets though; the system was starting to develop. Nic helped me with one of them. Pretty sure he was laughing at me because I was having trouble dumping the remaining rocks out of the sifter.
That day we followed what would become our normal routine in Area C. We would get to the site and set up the tarps and steal tools from the other groups. We would work until around 7:30 and then Wilde and Joan would leave to go set up breakfast. The rest of us would keep working until about 8:15 and then go down for breakfast. Breakfast consisted of hard boiled eggs, meat or cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, bread, this really delicious chocolate spread (like nutella) and fruit. We would have about 45-60 minutes to eat before going back to work. We worked again until about 11:15 at which time we would have a Popsicle break, and Elizabeth would take us on our missions/secret adventures around the dig site. Tourists also came by every once in a while and would take pictures. That was kind of cool.
This was also the day that Elizabeth began to teach us songs which eventually helped turn us into the most musical of the sites. “Run Rabbit” was the song she taught us the first day; later on she would also teach us “Waltzing Matilda.”
After digging that day, I went down to the Lake to swim. Nate, Lauren and a few other people from Truman as well as the other groups were down there. I walked out to where Lauren, Nate and Nic were talking to the life guard Israel. Israel did not know English very well so it was an interesting experience. We were trying to learn Hebrew, and he was trying to learn more English. This created some interesting communication problems especially when we tried to figure out how to describe silly so Israel could tell us how to say it in Hebrew. I don’t think we ever managed to get that one. Nic was very interested in learning the Hebrew word for Beautiful (Yafeh or something along those lines.)
After swimming, I went over the museum where we finally got to see the Jesus boat (since the museum was actually open at this time.) I was also able to use the computers there, which was nice. I emailed my parents and updated my web log. The boat was not as exciting as I was hoping. There was a picture of it in our book for Mappold’s class this semester and frankly, that was enough. The process they used for getting the boat out of the lake was interesting, though. It took a lot of work and some polymer stuff to get it out of the lake without it disintegrating.
After seeing the Jesus boat, a couple of us went to the Kibbutz store. On the way there we saw a dog that looked like the offspring of a lion and a golden retriever. I decided to call it a digon. After not recognizing the front of the store, I lead everyone around the building before we actually went inside. It was pretty cool. Lots of food, labeled in Hebrew (who would have thought…). I bought some amazingly delicious chocolate truffle wafer bars. I also saw this really cool stroller that a lady had. It was a play pen on wheels.
At this point in the journal I was keeping I wrote “Quick dry clothes = amazing!” And they were. With the Amazing Israeli sun and very little humidity, my clothes could be washed and dried in under an hour.

Picture Link

For pictures of the Kibbutz and the dig-site see

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016216&id=1308540045&l=a5c4313152

June 1

Orientation day. We didn’t have to get up as early as we were going to have to the rest of the trip. We had to be on the bus by 8 or 8:30, so we had time to eat breakfast at the Kibbutz hotel. I sat with a couple of people from the Truman group and two people from West Virginia, Becky and Brandon. As the week went on, we ended up being back of the bus buddies. The three of us and Lauren Greenspan would sit in the back of the bus every day to and from the dig-site. Occasionally other people would join us.
The introduction to the dig was interesting at first, but got to be a bit boring. First, they introduced all of the professors and then handed out name tags before going around the circle and having everyone say their names. Rami, the man in charge of the dig, gave us a brief history of both the site and the excavation. Turns out, the site is much older than the New Testament period. It was the main city of a kingdom during 8 and 9 centuries B.C.E. and was home of one of David’s wives. By the time of Jesus, it was a small fishing village and anywhere from 5 to 7 of his apostles were from this town. Gradually, however, as time when on, the lake receded and finally the shore was too far away for the village to be fruitful. People moved away, and the village was abandoned. It was completely lost for a while until some priest found it. He followed cows up a hill, I think, because there were land mines from the 1967 war between Syria and Israel. (Bethsaida used to be in Syria, but Israel took that land from them in 1967. So the dig might not be part of Israel anymore depending on how things work out over there…).
Having a history lesson by the Sea of Galilee was pretty cool. I definitely heard music coming from over the lake while Rami was talking. It was pretty moving to be sitting in a city Jesus visited often, looking over the Sea of Galilee and hearing music playing. Much more moving than the tank fire we heard from training camps during the rest of the week.
After the history lesson, Rami led us around the site showing us various places of interest. He showed us the high places in front of the city gates, the city gates and the roads. He explained part of what people would be working on during the next two weeks. A couple of groups would be working on making the area of the city gates more accessible for tourists. Another group would be working on the area in front of the city gates and a third group of about 10 would be working in the Roman Era Area under the direction of Dr. Elizabeth McNamer.
I kind of stopped paying attention by this point because it was hot, and I was tired and bored. We went back to Kibbutz for lunch, and in theory an afternoon to ourselves since pottery readings would not start until Wednesday afternoon (there was not enough pottery to warrant a reading at this point.) Instead of being given time to ourselves, Dr. Appold decided we should see the Jesus boat at 4. We were to meet in the lobby of the hotel and then go over to the Museum to see the boat. Very few people wanted to go that afternoon. We wanted to go on our own to see the boat when we wanted to instead of having our one free afternoon taken by him. He was, I think, actually late and we did not get away from the hotel until 4:45. By the time we got to the Museum, it was supposed to be closed. They did open up the gift shop for us but then Dr. Appold had us walk around the dark, closed museum for which most of the media presentations were not on.
There was a good side to all of this. We did manage to find free internet. We used a computer we probably shouldn’t have, and realized that there was a wireless router. This came in handy since several people in our group had brought laptops and the Kibbutz hotel charged an outrageous amount to use the internet over there.
A few of us hung out by the computer for a while, and then even fewer went up to the top of the museum to the look out area. It was really beautiful to look out over the Sea of Galilee. Then we had dinner and a lecture about Kibbutz living.

May 30/31

The day we flew out! I got up early and arranged my bags so the things that I wanted for the flight were in my carry-on bag. I had two bags, the one I used as my purse for the trip and my purple on, which I checked. I did very well as far as space I must say. Anyway, I arranged my bags, got dressed, ate breakfast and Grandma and I left for the airport. We got there and found everyone congregating around the Delta check in area. Dr. Appold handed out our books, T-shirts and tickets. We got our luggage checked in and made sure that everyone was there. We were all assigned numbers so we would make sure to stay together while we were abroad. I was number 7. We then waited around before boarding the plane to Atlanta. I sat next to Nate on this flight, and it was short and pretty boring. The cookies were good though.
When we got to Atlanta, we had about a two hour layover. Several of us got lunch at Wall Street Deli. The sandwiches were good but very big. Most of us saved the other half to eat later. We waited around and then found out they changed our gate so we ran to the new one just in time to get on and fly to New York. (Don’t ask me why we had to fly from St. Louis to Atlanta and then to New York. It’s cheaper for some reason…). I didn’t sit next to anyone I knew on that flight. I was next to a lady and her daughter from Alabama, who were on a family vacation to New York. This little girl was a very good traveler. She sat quietly and didn’t disturb anyone. I wish I could say the same for the children sitting behind me. There were a boy and girl who were really loud and kept hitting the back of my chair. Oh, it was annoying…
The view when we flew into New York was absolutely stunning. The clouds were pink with the reflection of the sun and the water was shimmering and there was a small strip of land visible in the distance. It was so beautiful.
We had another layover of about 2 hours in New York. I finished my sandwich and studied my Hebrew phrasebook. We talked to a couple from Tel Aviv while we were waiting. Laura Beth and I decided to fill up our water bottles also. That turned out to be a bad idea because we had to go through security again before getting on the flight. We had to drink our water fast. So much for drinking less to keep from having to go to the bathroom…
It turned out to be okay, though, because I was on the aisle. I sat across from Nate and next to Jordan. The flight was long and boring. I did finally get to see Slumdog Millionaire. It was really good. Dinner was okay. I had chicken. I then tried to sleep, but it didn’t work out to well. Eventually I figured out that it was okay to stand in the back, which was good because my legs were starting to hurt. I went and stood with Lauren Greenspan as she talked to two people, one girl and a guy. The guy was interesting to listen to; he was very well educated. Not going to lie, I didn’t follow their conversation very well, but it sounded like it was interesting. There were snacks in the back, so I had a little something for breakfast. They fed us a second meal just before we landed. It was pizza, I think, and was not very good. Oh, I had a glass of wine with the dinner, and it was disgusting. The bottle was cute, however, but I did not keep it.
We finally landed in Tel Aviv. We got in a long line to get our passports stamped and then went to retrieve our luggage. DELTA RIPPED MY BAG! And it got pretty beat up. I was annoyed. Dr. Appold thought that his bag had been lost and went over to talk to the Delta representatives, but we found while he was gone, and Nate took it over to him. Why he didn’t just leave it and go get Mappold, I do not know, but whatever. It was fine.
Customs was a joke. We just walked through. (We did pass this really cool fountain after we got off the plane. I didn’t get a picture of it unfortunately, but it had water that dripped from the ceiling into a pool of water at the bottom.) After breezing through customs, we had to wait for a while before the bus came to take us to the Kibbutz. We also had to wait for Justin who was coming in on another flight to join us. This was the first I had heard that someone else was coming along. We each changed $20 into shekels (exchange was about 3.8 or 3.9) and debated about whether or not to get SIM cards for cell phones. It was really expensive to get them at the airport, so we decided not to get one. Laura Beth bought a phone card for NIS 50, but I decided I didn’t want to. I wasn’t quite ready to spend money yet, and I didn’t plan on using 300 minutes. I didn’t plan on calling home too much.
We all just sat around after that. I emailed my parents, talked to Laura Beth, and noticed there was a boy wearing a KU shirt in the Tel Aviv Airport. (Turns out he was a boy who would be working on the dig with us: Johnny Dunn). It was fun times.
Eventually we got all of our people plus a few more. A girl from Georgia who was going to be working on the dig join us for the bus ride to the Kibbutz. Her name was Ingrid, and she had been granted a fellowship to work on a couple of projects in the Middle East for a while. We got our own bus to the Kibbutz and did not have to share with the other groups who apparently came in on Justin’s flight.
We all piled on to this little tour bus and began the two hour drive to Kibbutz Ginossar. I tried my best to stay awake to see the scenery, but it just wasn’t happening. I listened to my MP3 player for a little while and took a couple of pictures, but I kept dozing off. The billboards made me laugh. The Pillsbury Doughboy was on one, and there were Smurfs on another one. The scenery was pretty cool; it was a lot different than at home. There was a lot of trash and the buildings looked run down, but maybe that was just because I wasn’t used to the architecture they have over there. Anyway, we drove. The cacti were fun to see. They looked exactly like the cardboard cut out ones that people use for school plays.
We finally got to the Kibbutz and went to have dinner. I was really tired; I was kind of dizzy during the meal. I wanted to try new food, but I wasn’t feeling quite up to it yet, so I stuck with stuff I recognized. I did not eat the St. Peter’s fish at all on the trip, though I found out later it was tilapia. It still looked too fishy. They pretty much just bake the fish. Don’t skin it (scale?) or anything. Just bake it. It still has eyes… I did enjoy the salad that night at least. I also remember seeing a guy in a cowboy hat and having less than positive thoughts regarding his choice of attire. I changed my mind later on…
Our group had made the decision not to stay in the dorms at the Kibbutz. We stayed in 3 person rooms in a two story building. The rooms were nice. 3 beds, a fridge, a desk, a closet, a sink and a bathroom. The shower was a bit ridiculous and flooded the bathroom every time it was used. I was in a room with Laura Beth and Anna. We were all pretty exhausted so we went to bed.