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Goodbye Jerusalem :( this is my last post from Israel as I sit here in the airport in the few minutes before boarding. Security wasn't as horrible as last year, for one thing i was expecting it, but also, there were 1 or 2 less bag searches, so that was good. Everything is now done and over, we finished with all our work and cleaned up the office and covered up the areas, it was a sad sight. We left early in the morning Friday for Jerusalem. Spent most of the day at the center, slept and tv and lunch/dinner, it was a good recovery day. Stayed at the Citadel on the rooftop, i love the beautiful view, especially of the center lit up on the Mount. Saturday I went to the church of the Holy Sepulchre and walked around a little before church. It was a wonderful last Sabbath in the Holy Land, I will definitely miss church and the spirit that is there. I stayed again at the center with the Chadwicks until the fireside by Bro. Judd, it was very good. Going in to the gate at night was fun, as all the lights have begun to be put up for Ramadan which starts on Monday, I'm sad I'll miss that. My last day here I tried to get in what I could, a little shopping, some last goodbyes to places like the churches of the Redeemer and Holy Sepulchre (FYI if you do take flyers that are in arabic, hide them a little in your luggage or the security people at the airport won't be too happy if they see them) and the western wall and some shops in East Jerusalem. Then Jeff and Kim picked me up for the airport. He took us to a delicious Lebanese restaurant on the way, Abu Ghosh, delicious falafel, a good last meal in the country. And now I am here, waiting to board a flight that i think is delayed, either that or i am totally in the wrong place :) either way, at some point I will be home. As sad and hard as it is to leave this year, it is not quite as bad as last summer. I know now that I will be coming back, that this place isn't so far off as I once dreamed it to be. so Shalom and l'hitraot Israel until I return.

my life has been altered (yeah, another cheesy quote from another cheesy archaeologist; it seems to be a job requirement)

Check out the dig blog. This is our exciting news that i haven't been able to say anything about! http://gath.wordpress.com/
(and the third picture down of the cooking vessel-- i got to dig that one out and carry it all the way back to the kibbutz, so awesome)

it's the reason for all the double days i've been doing, going down and helping with that area. i'll get some more pics up soon of the cool things there and what i've been doing. we finally got it out today and have finished up with pretty much everything up on the Tel. Yesterday we took down the shades so we all our work out in the nice hot sun that wasn't very nice :) today as well a few of us went up to do some last minute cleaning and photos and definitely got a little tanner (don't worry, they made me wear a hat).

this too- http://www.foundationstone.org/
and look tomorrow on haaretz.com i think an article is supposed to be coming out on it, it's that most popular news site in israel.

A Might Fortress is our Gat (to quote a famous mormon)

We are officially done with all the main digging for the season, :( sad (except for the extra work we'll be doing in area D on Sunday, but that doesn't really count). this last has been furious and crazy and my hands and arms are pretty much dead, love it! we finished with my small square,getting down to what is most probably the earliest Iron Age surface, next year they'll take it down to the LB floor, which i will be very sad to miss. In the next square over, where I did all the pick axeing (great fun!) we were able to get to the LB floor, that was exciting, and there's a very strong possibility it could be a cultic area! i am so excited to see the pictures at the end of the season. It's all been so wonderful! Did another double day, it's crazy how different the areas are, i was digging in the destruction level of haziel, basically vessels everywhere you walk. There was a whole corner of like 10 all clumped together including a petaled chalice, it was, to use the expression- איזה בלגן 'ezzeh baligon'!! It made me grateful for where I am working, but it was also pretty cool do be digging there on the side. For this weekend's stay i got upgraded on my room, that was pretty awesome. actually i don't really know how you get assigned a dorm room, but this one actually has a sink inside and the internet extends into it, don't know how i warranted it, but I'm not complaining. Last night I walked around some and did a little shopping near Jaffa, ended up getting a free date bread and water and talking with one of the food cart guys that was deaf and mute, that was interesting, and the one kid who was kinda helping to interpret kept getting shooed away by the old man, it was pretty funny, but don't worry i pretty got a new boyfriend out of it all :) I am getting a little better on my bargaining, i managed to get everything i wanted for less than half the starting price, except for one thing, i thought that was doing pretty good. Went to church today, it was great to have the students back, it was quiet without them, and i had had to go to regular sunday school. As every week, going to the center is wonderful, a totally different atmosphere and spirit that fills you for the week and reminds me of what's most important in life.

I love digging... especially with a pickaxe :)

Yep, still alive and everything's going great! I finally get to hack away with my pick axe, these last couples days have been so fun, exhausting, but super fun. Today was my second day doing a second, afternoon shift, it makes for crazy time, but i love it and we have some exciting things going on. and right now there are like 4 flies flying around on my computer, it's very annoying. Last weekend i had some more adventures. I stayed at the citadel youth hostel right off Jaffa road in the Old City. It was decent, all you really need is a place to sleep. I slept on the roof, they give you a small mattress, blankets, if you're lucky you can find a pillow (which I did the second night) and has an amazing, amazing view, especially and sunrise and sunset. you also get a wonderful concert of church bells ringing from the buildings right to you that wake you up every hour or something like it starting at 5 in the morning. yep good thing the sunrises are pretty. At church on saturday i met a girl visiting for a couple of days and then later that night saw her at the citadel, turns out she had slept and was sleeping there the same nights up on the roof with two friends, funny how things work. I actually had to walk to and back from church, the students were all up at the Galilee, lucky. reminded of how grateful i am for a ride every weekend. Coming in and out from the dig to jerusalem too. I had to do the buses for, it wasn't horrible, but i definitely missed our nice air conditioned, fast car rides. Didn't do much the rest of the weekend, but rest and sleep, and show a few friends around a little. Saturday night we went to Ben Yehuda street, where there's a party every weekend at the end of shabbat, so that was fun. And i got some super delicious, expensive food, and some of the most delicious ice cream in the world, i love it! We had a field trip to Lachish, a tel not too far from Gath, it's a pretty famous one that i've been wanting to go to, so that was great, you could still see the huge palace and temple structures from the canaanite and judahite periods, and the remains of the huge siege ramp the assyrians built when they attacked, awesome! Only a week and a half left, crazy, it's gone by so fast, I'm not ready to leave.

Happy Day!!!

I dug up my pot!!!!!!! after a year of waiting and thinking about it every single day, i finally got it out of the ground :) needless to say, there were a lot of pictures (which got old very quick...) to be added soon. though if you want to see one, I think i made the dig blog http://gath.wordpress.com/

Digging!!!

We started our first week digging!!! it is so great to be back, despite all the weeding and surface cleaning. Our area is very different this year, with Israelis, Americans, and a German. She's so cute, and i am now learning German, at least a couple words every day. we had a field trip Gezer with the director giving us a tour, amazing! We actually started the really excavating a day earlier than usual, so it was pretty great. unfortunately the pot is not out of the ground yet :( I got put on another project, which, though hard to leave the pot, was still cool. i worked on revealing a whole side of the brick that divides two of our squares which the pot is placed near to. i got to pound at some dirt a little, so that was good. i finally got to start digging my pot Fri. it was super exciting, but then science got in the way... we had to stop for someone to take samples and then it was decided that we had to dig a section around the pot, so i started that, got a little ways, still haven't reached the bottom yet, which means it's a pretty big storage jar. But we will definitely have it out by the end of the season! Today i woke up still on super early dig time, and went up to the roof to watch the Hung out at the Jerusalem Center again today after church. It was so nice to rest and the Chadwicks are awesome. I had dinner and went to the fireside. The fireside was great, Sahar. the RS president spoke on charity. Then I sat around on their couch for a while longer till they brought me back to the old city and now i'm back at the austrian, ready to go to bed. yep, pretty exciting day :) it was very restful at least and next week i actually have some real plans.

life

So basically I've just been taking life easy and working on the whole no stress, no need to rush thing. it's kinda sorta working, sometimes it kinda drives me crazy not having to do anything. In the last couple days I've walked around a little, k actually a lot, have i ever said how thankful i am to live on flat ground, it's wonderful. and if I ever complain about walking up the hill to campus, just remind me that at least it's not 10 billion. The walk to the center is the worst, having to walk down into the kidron is fine, but walking up the mount of olives is crazy, i don't know how the students do it almost everyday! granted i did take the long way around, walking through gethsemane and hyde park and then up and around to the front instead of just the bottom gate they go through, so I'm probably giving them a little too much credit. But anyways, I did make it to the Hebrew U (on the right bus there and back, i might add) and did some research for a couple hours. The next day i went to the Rockefeller to study pots, that was pretty exciting, and then went over to the Jewish quarter. It was kinda one of my main reasons for coming earlier (or at least main excuse) and i am very glad i got over there, so peaceful, just everyday life there, not full of tourists. I had a delicious super expensive milkshake there, it was totally worth it. This morning I went to the Garden Tomb, probably still one of my (many) favorite places here. It is just so peaceful and calm and you can listen to the asian church groups singing (there's always at least one asian group having a service thing and singing a lot, its great). After sitting there for a while I walked over to the center to do some research there, again-crazy walk, my whole back was sweating. Since then I've been hanging out with the Chadwicks and some of the JC students, had dinner then a party. We had to get ready to start digging, so of course it was Indiana Jones :) and popcorn, it's so wonderful to have something so American sometimes, especially if it's popcorn! Yep that's pretty much it, nothing too exciting like being kidnapped or hitching rides with strangers, and even if there was i probably wouldn't say anything anyways. Goodnight! :)

here's a new slideshow of pics

Advice to...whoever wants it

So after my adventures these last couple of days, I decided i would share a helpful list of things that would help anyone wanting to travel, ok mostly if you wanted to travel to Israel, but some could apply elsewhere:

1. At a bus stop always sit on the side of the road going in the direction you want to go, if it's facing the opposite way it means the bus has already come from there and you'll have to ride around for an hour until you realize you have to change bus routes to get back where you wanted, or until they kick you off at their last stop, then you know for sure you have to change routes.
2. Don't stay at the new palm hostel across from Damascus gate, unless you are a boy or in a group, and don't care about what's in your luggage... or have no luggage
3. Pandora does not work outside the USA... sad.
4. Sometimes places close by about 5 or 6, even though their website says 11pm
5. Don't eat your cold leftovers for breakfast at the bus stop on the way to the Hebrew U, they have microwaves in the common areas
6. Don't have batteries in your luggage, they will search your bag, open the package, and delay your luggage
7. Going to libraries to research is the same all over the world: you still fall asleep half the time and end up only getting about half of what you want done
8. Become a boy, its basically better (definitely easier) everywhere exept maybe the airport
9. Find a Genie so they will magically make you able to speak hebrew and arabic fluently
10. Sometimes they food right from the street guys isn't always the most sanitary, don't inspect it, just eat :)

Don't worry, if I ever discover any more I will let you know.

Whoa, so I finally figured out how to post after clicking enough links, the page is all in hebrew and i don't know computer hebrew yet. So back by popular request (ok actually like 3 people) i'm continuing by blog once again (though there's really nothing to do with Egypt or Africa, except maybe that i've met a couple people from there). I finally made it here to Israel after 2 days and 2 transfers and 3 days of no sleep and a lost bag! And yep, i still love it here!! I got a sherut (van taxi thing) straight to the center for church on Saturday and managed not to fall asleep during sacrament, definitely a great feat. Crazy enough, as i was sitting outside the center I happened to meet a tour group which turned out to be the Naegles'. So I got to tour around with their group for the next three days. It was wonderful, I went to quite a bit of places around Jerusalem I hadn't been able to go to last year like the baptismal site on the Jordan, Wadi Qelt (traditional site of the good samaritan), hezekiah's tunnel ( so cool, imagine slot canyons with water and a roof that half that time makes you bend over), the pool of bethesda, rabbinical tunnel (amazing, tunnel that runs alongside the western wall underneath the city to much of the original stones form herod's time, yad Vashem (holocaust museum), and some sites of the Via Dolorosa. The group were so nice, buying me lunch and for some of the places, and it was nice to go to places with other people, to be able to discuss spiritual insights and learn more of the gospel together. I also made a new best friend, i started speaking to the driver in hebrew and now he loves me, he gave me gum every time i left the bus, free water, and bought me a popsicle (that is if he actually bought it, i don't really know if he did...), and spoke very slowly for me to understand him. Yesterday I went to the Tell with Jeff to help a little, i didn't do much, but at least i got to hear what was going on this summer. Yesterday I had to go into the New City, Givat Shaul, to pick up my phone. I was very excited that I succeeded in getting there and back, figuring out the bus system and not getting on the wrong one once !!! It is pretty great, and I even managed to fool a few people into thinking I was Israeli (or at least that I knew Hebrew). Today I'm going to the Hebrew U to do some research, at some point I'll have internet on my own computer and put up some pictures. Congrats Erica, that's exciting!!!!! Mozel Tov!!! -lahitraot