Egypt and Africa too: 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.