June 4 (Israel)

Another day at the dig. Ate breakfast with Hanan, Nic, Elizabeth and Dr. Appold. Hanan asked what my name was and I told him it was Hanna. He said, “That’s not Japanese.” I said, “no, it’s Hebrew.” He tried teaching me Japanese again and said I should know the language of my heritage. I told him I was mostly German. He told me the Japanese genes show through and turns to Elizabeth and says “Isn’t she beautiful?” to which Elizabeth replied, “well of course she is beautiful. And intelligent and hard working.” And Dr. Appold chimes in with, “I can attest to that.” It was nice ego-boosting experience.
By this time, Lauren and I were being made fun of for not having found Q yet. One of the Loci (5714) on our site was closed because they weren’t finding much. Our other Locus (5715) was split into two loci because the dirt was different colors. The lighter dirt was more ancient, according to Rami. We found a Roman pin that day which supposedly came from my bucket. Elizabeth had quite an interesting story about what the Roman soldier was doing with the woman whose bead we found in locus 5714…
We took a field trip down to a small chapel area. It was really pretty. It was donated to area by the Archdiocese of Nebraska. It had been built around the same time as the chapel area donated by the Vatican so it was not used as much. It was also off the beaten track so people didn’t know it was there. It was made because once there was a group of blind pilgrims that came to visit Bethsaida (because that is where Jesus healed the blind man on the outskirts of town.) The Israeli tour guides, however, did not allow the people to pray at the site. This story reached the ears of some higher ups in the Catholic Church so they did something about it. The chapel area is pretty cool because you have to walk past a Syrian bunker to get down there. (Goes along with all the sardine cans we kept finding.) Elizabeth was not happy because there were lots of weeds, and no one ever did anything about it.
So, on this trip there was a little boy named Finn whom I shall take this opportunity to talk about. He was pretty much adorable, and everyone loved him. Mostly because he was the only person under 18, and he had everyone wrapped around his little finger. He had this huge sombrero that he wore all the time so he looked like a little Mexican running around (except that he had blond hair and blue eyes. At this point in the trip, he was pretty quiet, but that would change all too soon…
Despite the fact that pottery reading was optional, I decided to go that day anyway. I ended up with a job. I turned the light for the photo box on and off for Hanan. Nic ran the pieces to the other side of the table for bagging. It was good times.