Walking my Feet off

I really should get one of the shirts i see in the stores as i pass by that say, "I walked my feet off in Jerusalem" because i feel it. But i have a had a rather successful couple of days getting in everything i wanted, with the exception of a few, but hey i need to leave some for next year.
Today i am sitting in the beautiful home of my good friend Silvie who is wonderful and super nice to have invited me to stay. For one thing, it is so nice to be in an actual real home with a room to myself! And she has two very cute kids, Shai (who i would sometimes babysit at the kibbutz in '11) has become my new best friend and was so excited when he found out i was staying the night.

But going back, Monday was my second to last day in Jerusalem, and it was a good day. The itinerary ended up being:
Ramparts walk
You can go up onto the Old City walls and walk from Jaffa gate to Lion Gate along the Northern side. There were some really cool views. Also, between China and here, I am very tired of stairs, especially uneven ones.

Another one fro mom and dad. On the Ramparts with the YMCA tower and King David hotel in the background. (this is why i don't take selfies)

Being creepy and stalking a new friend from church walking on the street below.

Jaffa gate from above

Damascus gate from above

Herod's Gate from above

Lion Gate and in the background, Golden Gate. From above

Rockefeller museum
The walk finishes at Lion Gate, so i walked from there over to the museum. You know, it's really hard to find a place to get a cold drink during Ramadan, and it was hot! Really one of the greatest museums in the world. Such a great collection of pottery all categorized and awesome. I might have completely filled up my camera with pictures there... Here are some examples:

Tram up to Makhane Yehuda
For the first time I rode the new tram! It was really nice and way easier than trying to figure out buses. And it was super easy to know the right stop, it actually tells you. So i made it to the market and walked around for a while, it was fun. There was also a great selection of food places, i found a crowded, but super delicious pasta place. And then had a Re:bar smoothie (sort of like Jamba Juice), also very delicious, and very nice to get something other than falafel and shawarma (though i still love both very much). And, one of the highlights being in this area was that most people start of assuming you speak hebrew. So i for the most part spoke in my simple hebrew and people were pretty nice and let me, that was fun.

Tram

Pasta Pasta!

 Bus to Ketef Hinnom
Also another highlight: made it on the right bus, got off on the right spots, never got lost once, score. And even found the tombs here at Ketef Hinnom. It was rather tricky, though. These are 1st temple period tombs and a pretty significant place where they found some silver scrolls. And the only thing i could find on their location was that it was right next to St. Andrews church. So i went there, the receptionist guy had no idea what i was talking about, not even the name Ketef Hinnom (and that's hebrew!) Finally I went back down and around to a museum for some random guy on the hill below the church and was super lucky that at least one of the girls knew what i was talking about as far as looking for old caves/burials. To get to it you had to go through the building and around to the back where it's just hidden between fences and weeds. But i made it! And it was pretty darn cool.

Pretending to be dead where bodies would be lain to decompose before their secondary burial. :)

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Body spots to put their dead until only the bones would be left and then they would gather them up and dump them in the cave cavity underneath.

Walk up to Emek Refaim
Luckily, this place was near where we had walked on Fri, so i just took the bike path back up and went to my new favorite book store down that street. Also, i am running out of pictures because my memory card might have been filled with pictures of pottery...
Bus to Yafo st center
Made it back, without getting lost.
Russian Compound
The stop ended up being a little farther up the street and i had remembered Jeff pointing out the direction of the compound when we were on Yafo the other night. So i wandered around and found the area which i hadn't even planned on for that day. So pleasant side trip. Unfortunately the church was closed on Mondays (random) and the hospital was boarded up. But hey, at least I saw it.    Russian Hospital

                                                 Russian Orthodox Church
Mamilla Mall
I walked from there down to the Mamilla Mall to sit and relax some. I had also heard about the Aroma cafe sort of like Starbucks. So I tried it, which gave me a good excuse to sit down. That is one annoying thing here, you can't sit on any chairs or tables by a cafe/restaurant without them either making you order or kicking you out. The ice cream was really good though.
Hostel
And then I walked back.
Whew.

Tuesday, after two busy days, i decided to take it easy, relatively. I got some pastries and milkie and had breakfast at a little restaurant, the guy let me sit for just ordering a drink. We had a nice conversation, and he gave me the cheaper of the tourist prices, so that as kind. I hung out at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, found a cool cave niche to explore,but had no light do it, next time i'll come prepared and hopefully it will be open. There were a ton of Russian tour groups, so i had fun eavesdropping (what else do you do when people talk thinking no one else understand them?).Also, fun fact, the Garden Tomb is closed between 12 and 2 for quiet time, wish i knew that before i walked all the way over there, not fun. So i went and hung out at Zach's shop for a while, he always has pretty reliable news about everything going on and loves joking. I had my last falafel at a little place next to the hostel, run by cute older ladies who must be sisters and are super sweet. One of their sons came and talked to me, he lives in Sweden right now as a table tennis player, it was interesting. Then I went to lie on the grass at Teddy park right outside Jaffa gate. It was very pleasant just laying there and watching the kids play in the water, until some guy decided to come talk to me, luckily only the last half hour before i had to go. I don't know what it was with today that so many people felt like talking! He was Palestinian, and I told him I was Russian (sometimes i like to get away from the American stereotype), so english was out. So we had a passable conversation in Hebrew, that was interesting.
And then Jeff picked me up and we went to Hod Hasharon to Silvie's for dinner. And that's where i am now, just hanging out and relaxing.

No title because I fail at thinking of one

For those wondering, this is why watch at night. The Iron Dome working way out over Ashdod.

As usual when you wait a week to write again, there is way too much to write about. To finish last weekend's report, some of us had a picnic at the garden tomb saturday, then Darra and i ran over to the City of David and Hezekiah's tunnel sunday morning before we had to leave for the kibbutz. We got stuck with this huge tour group from we think Spain during the 3D movie section. You know those loud groups of oblivious, loud tourists and kids running all over? That was it. So as soon as the film got out we ran ahead of them as fast as possible to get to the tunnel. Success. Actually double success, we got there at the perfect time that there was no one else, so we were the only two going up the tunnel. Though probably if you were there too you would just be laughing at us. First of all, turns out phones don't work very well as flashlights, so all we had was a tiny pinlight Mark (another supervisor) had given us. I was in front with the light, and being slightly claustrophobic, tend to go much faster, especially in the small areas i have to bend way over. You would hear Darra coming behind, occasionally shouting out for me to slow down, she is very short and her legs don't go that fast. She also almost got a concussion, and we had a moment after turning off the light for a second of freaking out because the light wasn't turning on. Turns out I just fail at figuring out the button, but it was funny because i had been considering playing a trick like that on her, and it happened, not even on purpose. So that was really fun ( it was really) and we ended up having to run practically all around the old city and made to our spot right as Jeff as pulling up to pick us up to go .whew.

How high the water came up to Darra...

We made it to the inscription at the end of the tunnel!

This week was super small in numbers and we only got one final day of digging Monday until we had to take the canopies down and then just sweep everything like crazy on Tuesday. Thursday we went up for pictures with the drone this year (so awesome, and way better than the balloon we have used) and covered everything up to protect it for the year (always a fun day with stress way up and heat making people very snappy) But on a good note, Darra and I managed to fill Zach's bag almost halfway full of rocks throughout the morning until we had to basically make him open his bag on the bus to notice! we would stick some in everytime we passed it, it was pretty funny, people would watch us to, and not even say anything.
We also took a trip to the lab at Bar Ilan to store everything there. It was actually the first time I'd been, and it was awesome, so many beautiful ceramics everywhere! As you can see, my pot is displayed! and it was awesome, Darra was laughing at Eric and I at how excited we were getting with everything.

The vessel restoration area, i wish i had put it together

My pot!!

Beautiful sherds from our site, this is a philistine bird, it is awesome, just take my word for it

As you probably heard, there was some craziness with the airlines this week. It was really pointless and mostly political. So that was our excitement for a while, Darra ended up getting to stay the whole week (for free) because her flight got cancelled twice. She finally got to leave this weekend with everyone else as all the airlines came to their senses again. The rockets have gone down since the ground troops went in, and unfortunately it has turned into a war down in Gaza, with lives lost on both sides, it is very sad, we keep hoping that there will be peace soon.

This weekend was our last here, one change is that with everything going on we've had to change our usual spots, and explore other areas. Friday we went to Emek refaim street in West Jerusalem, which is just a fun cafe road and near a walking path and artificial beach (with no water, kinda odd), and finally ate at a waffle bar, delicious. We walked on the hill opposite the old city with an awesome view and beautiful houses, even found a shady grass area to nap.
                                

The funny thing is that the lion is the symbol for Jerusalem, and here he's riding a bike :)

Waterless beach in the middle of the city

Saturday was our last day at church here, it was very small with all the students gone, but nice, and only an hour long. We celebrated Jeff's bday by getting him brownies (a tradition we have on the tell for bdays). I ran all over with Jillian for her last minute things, and hung out at our shopkeeper friend, Zach, he always gets us "mormon" tea to drink, then we drove her to the airport. Saturday nights always the best night to be out, so coming back in we stopped at Jaffa gate and had a birthday meal for Jeff so at least he can say he did something. And oh man, that was one amazing burger, so good! even without cheese. It's fun to sit along that street and watch people go by as the street slowly gets more and more busy. And to hear all Jeff's stories and history lessons going along the area. He also took me down close enough to Damascus gate to at least see the Ramadan night festivities (i'm not supposed to go as a girl, lame), it was fun to see the lights and crowd.

I stayed on the rooftop last night, the view is definitely worth the less than comfortable mattress and sounds of the muezzins and church bells going off through the night. Always an adventure.

Night view of the Dome and Mt. of Olives from my bed

Morning view of the same thing.

Today I started on my list of places i haven't seen yet. Mostly over in the Jewish quarter. To the Wohl museum, where they have an amazing excavation of the 1st cent. palatial mansions, it was beautiful. And spent an hour with an old jewish guy who lived there his whole life and named himself my tour guide, i learned some pretty cool things. And then I spent several hours at the David's Tower museum, which was pretty darn awesome. It had a beautiful view from three different towers, and the main exhibit was on medicine throughout the land's history which was surprisingly, quite interesting. And I got to take as much time as I wanted everywhere I went and not have to worry about holding people up as i stared at old walls and artifacts and read every single sign :) So all in all, a very good, successful day.

Beautiful floor and awesome stone furniture/pots

what it would have looked like

Awesome random door when i got only semi lost today

Look, even put one in there with me, just for you mom and dad

At the David Tower excavation museum

Ballista stones still piled up from the siege (2nd cent bce)

View right next to the tower instead of just from the street

Hmm, black buckets and wooden trays, I guess archaeology hasn't really changed all the much since 1969

Tell Tal

I can't believe the season is already almost over, so crazy how fast it goes, especially when rockets mess up your schedule. But the days we have been able to work have been awesome, and this 1st actual complete week of digging has been very busy, but exciting. nothing super exciting in terms of huge finds, but we've been doing some good work, finding big rocks, floor surfaces, using pickaxes, cleaning rocks with spoons, finding destruction levels, watching rockets in the sky, brushing dirt, cleaning broken pottery trash pieces, finding more stratigraphy. It reminded me of why I want to keep coming back. So great!

We come in to Jerusalem exhausted on the weekends, only to run around the city with the kids who haven't seen anything yet. It's always a difficult battle with sleep at church, I think it won today... Especially after hiking up the Mt. of Olives. Also, I have a new best friend, she is awesome, we are twins basically, she also has all the pictures of us, look on facebook. Her name is Darra, and she is coming to San Diego for a slumber party during the ASOR conference. Also look on FB for pics of our area and people there. They have all left again, now we are back down to us 7 again, with my bff until Tuesday (somehow we convinced her to stay and work in the hot sun brushing dirt walls rather than tour around, don't know how, we just must be so awesome).

Our morning visitor on the Tell (using our handmade trails)

Slumber party in the bomb shelter ( i organized it for some of the girls who were nervous about sleeping through the sirens... I stayed until the movie was over and then went back to my bed after they all fell asleep. It was a success, though,quelled some nerves)

Safi Sunrise. enough said

I'm an archaeologist and I dig up dinosaurs... not! His name is Stagersaurus, He is sitting on my beautiful Iron Age I floor.

Iron Dome against rockets - כיפת ברזל תוצרת רפאל

The awesomeness of the Iron Dome and why we Iron Dome gaze at night. If you don't watch the whole thing, watch from about min 2:30-4:30 (especially at 4:00)

Rockets Red Glare, Bombs Bursting in Air...

Probably not funny for you guys, but it has been going through our heads...
Talk about crazy, this has been an absolutely random week, I don't even know the word for it, week. I can't believe it's only been about a week since it all started. For one thing, I have never been more thankful for warfare defense technology. You should watch the videos of the iron dome knocking stuff out of the air, it's awesome. Also, thank you for paying taxes, your tax dollars are going into keeping us safe, i appreciate it.
First of all, I am just fine. Everything is good here and as a general dig, not worried. We have had a bit of excitement since last monday night when the first bomb siren went off. We've had on average about two a day, one int he late afternoon, one at nighttime. And really they've just become so annoying. To have to get up from where you are and go to the shelter and and stand there and wait. Although it is fun to jump behind ancient bronze age fortifications to protect us from modern day barrage, and with a perfect view of the sky to see the blasts.
So, backing up, I don't know how much you've heard, and how much of the truth you've actually heard, because I've heard it's going pretty crazy there. Don't believe like 90% of the news. So it all started with the kidnapped and killed 3 Israeli boys, then the killed Palestinian boy in Shuafat, then some riots and protests, then Hamas decided to shoot some crappy shrapnel rockets they can't aim with. Then Israel brought out the Iron Dome, and we get awesome firework shows.
Really nothing has come too near us. the Iron Dome triangulates the rockets path in seconds and then issues the alarm for the area within a very large radius. So that very first alarm that went off last morning was a little unnerving in those first few seconds, i was definitely glad i knew basically what was going on as we tried rushing everyone into the shelter (they had only mentioned the siren plan to the staff as on off chance precaution a few days before). So there were definitely some worried and scared people. At the end of the week we lost about 30 people of our group in a hasty choice to leave. Though honestly once things settled in, it has just become a regularity and we go on doing our thing. Sometimes our nightly activity is sitting on the back lawn and watching the Iron Dome shoot up missiles to knock out rockets, it is a pretty awesome sight. We've seen about 10-12 tonight, one activity is counting from the flare to the sound of the boom to see how far it is. Every boom- another point for Israel, go team.
And yes it is serious, and very sad, especially for those who have suffered from it (it has mostly been the people in Gaza, many times from their own side making mistakes and misfiring their rockets, or dropping them in the wrong place). And we wish very much for it to stop. But it's one of those things that you either sit in a corner and be scared over something you can't control, or make jokes and live life and dig. Really the worst part for us was the first two days, Tue and Wed, when someone from the Homefront desk and mis-relayed information and we were stuck on the kibbutz with basically nothing to do, we were left with making up workshops- it felt like summer camp, and we lost two precious days on the tell. That was so annoying, darn Hamas. Luckily we got the real information and were able to go up Thurs and since and get back to being super busy (i will talk about dig life sometime later).
It has stayed about the same since, there was supposed to be a cease fire last night, but it didn't last very long. So, now worse, no better and we just keep waiting to hear if there is any new news. And honestly I haven't been worried or scared, we're aware of the situation, and smart about it, and will stay safe. I have felt the spirit this last week, many times at night, pretty much waking me up about a second before the siren goes off, so I'm ready to jump up and get out. I am grateful for that protection I know I have. Prayers are for Israel and the people of Gaza who are caught in this and that hearts will be softened. Thanks for all of your prays and concern.
I will try to put up some pics tomorrow-ish so my post will actually be interesting. Good night.

Trails, Dirt, and Weeds

Yes I am back at the dig, and it is great! And super hard work. But I love it. This week we were trailblazers, gardeners, and diggers. And all with only our staff of 7 people (we did get one volunteer by the last 2 days finally). Our area got the worst of the very wet winter- tall, prickly weeds covering the site and all around it, before we could even get to the site we had to wack away paths through the dense forest. And then we had to battle the weeds just to make a clean enough area to put up shades. Monday was a very hot day, especially with no cover. Finally by day two we had engineered and put up shades in both the upper and lower sections of area F.

What it all looked like

What it took us 3 days to look like in lower

Being so few in number was a little difficult as far as not having enough manpower to do everything we wanted, but we did pretty well with what we had. By the end of the week we were proud of what we were able to accomplish. We were able to start doing some excavation by wed/thur depending on the square. As for me, in our squares we were still rehabiliting until thursday, but finally were able to get down in some dirt. And in the best way: with pick-axes :) I love archaeology :) I even found a vessel base, which look somewhat like a pig mask. But more exciting than that, we got down to more of our big fortification wall and more evidence of an abutting terrace wall that connects with squares being dug in the section above us (F middle, original I know). So that is pretty darn cool.

Other than that, same old, same old on the dig. It's fun to re-meet lots of the people from before. 

And yes, Kinder in Israel as well! man America is just missing out

My new israeli friend, she was super sweet, we had a going conversation between Hebrew and english (her english was much better than my hebrew). She was awesome, and she shared her food with me. And I shared my jolly ranchers with her, she loves them.

1st real Jerusalem shwarma in 3 years, so good!!!!!