The Party Boat (That Wasn't)
We had a 1-hour rental on a 'party boat' - a boat on the Sea of Galilee that had a sound system, strings of lights, and plenty of room for partying on. Both our team and the Haifa team were in on the shindig - apparently this is a yearly thing. There was party music, wine, and... casual discussion. Seriously, there was no dancing or partying or whatever, which I found rather amusing, because I'd been led to believe that these Israelis are real party animals. As some of our returning volunteers said, this was the quietest, non-partiest group on the Party Boat they'd ever seen. Everyone seemed quite content to pass the wine and watermelon around and talk a lot. (Personally, this is my favorite way to spend the time.) Sarah, Dave, and Dylan did their socialite thing and fraternized with the locals, while the rest of us were content to hang out up top. It was nice to be out on a boat again, I really do like it.
(It's funny - I live near Lake Michigan, and some people would think that I spend a lot of time there, but I don't. The water's cold and we don't own a boat, nor are we close friends with someone who does. Seems a shame now, really!)
And I guess I shouldn't say there was NO dancing... Michael (second in command of the Haifa team) and some of the other Israelis broke into a little circle dance at the last minute while the boat was docking, and it was fun to watch! I think Sarah even got a video clip of it. It's short and cute.
Oh speaking of videos and photos, I haven't gotten those up yet for a few good reasons. The first is that I took thousands, and none of you actually WANT to see them all. So picking out the ones worth showing, or which you may possibly find the most interesting, will take time. Second, the place I originally intended to upload these pictures probably won't work unless I pay to have more space. (The free version always comes with limitations. Go figure!)
There will be pictures - they're not here yet, but I'm working on it. ;)
(Partially taken from a personal letter)
Today was one of the best days on the dig ever! It was such a ridiculously awesome day that I want
you to share in my joy vicariously! (By the way, 'vicarious' is the word of the day/week. Other words of the moment have included 'copious' and 'ridiculous'.)
Aside 2: I'm trying really hard to avoid typos, but I got a slew of new
blisters and cuts today, so my hands are wrapped up again. Kinda hard to type
right with them all wrapped up. Of course, now that I'm paying more attention,
I'll probably fix them all before I send this out. This note could be fairly
p=ointless. Oh look, there's one. I'll keep it. Point made!
I'm not sure I made it apparent in my blog - then again, perhaps I did -
yesterday just sucked. It wholly and irrevocably sucked. Dylan, Darryl, and
Anna were all home sick, and it was blasted hot, and nobody felt motivated, and
I had nothing left in me to give. It was the slowest, most miserable,
frustrating day of the dig so far, and I shake my fist at the memory.
Today was everything but! We had Anna and Darryl back (Dylan had a fever last
night, so he had to stay home.) Dr. Schuler picked about 9 of us to work in G9
(the room that we had to fill in with rocks and debris, just so that we would
have a path for clearing out the main room - what is it? F9? I suppose it was.)
We had John, Darryl, myself, David, Sarah, Jackie, Meghan, Anna, Kyle, Dinah
for some of it... so it was basically everyone except Schuler, Jim, Trevor, and Rachel.
(Trevor has been working on drawing the dig sites as per Schuler's request.) Schuler told us we might hit floor by the end of the week, or clean it
out if we were particularly industrious. We accepted the challenge.
It was kind of mellow before breakfast, but afterwards, things got hokey. Jackie
was lifting buckets to Meghan and I, both of us on wheelbarrows, while the others pickaxed and tariah'd and stuff. And then we started getting giggly.
(Maybe it was the fact that the three of us were together... maybe it was
because of the awesomeness of our team... maybe it was the strong iced coffee
we had at breakfast. We don't know. We don't care. :P) We started laughing
about anything and everything. And then the guy who has been interviewing us
sat Dr. Schuler down on a column piece behind the three of us, and was
recording him. Jackie, Meghan, and I made every attempt to be in the video - we
were flexing our muscles, striking poses, then we broke out into a fake fight.
I 'punched' Meghan, Meghan reciprocated, someone 'tackled' Jackie and she went
down to the floor, etc. And it was so funny, we kept at it. We're not entirely
sure we made it in the background of the video (we think it was pointed too
low, and focused closely on Schuler), so we might not be in it at all. But it
was awesome! Maybe our feet will show up.
Then there was the matter of the dirt ramp and passing buckets. I started
making sound effects (HUURGGUUBLUUHARRAAGH) every time I would lift a
particularly heavy bucket, which cracked the girls up, which made ME laugh, and
laugh, and laugh, until tears were mixed with my sweat and stung my eyes as I
took out my wheelbarrow, and I shouted about the burning. The ramp was awesome
because we were failing at it. We tried progressively heavier wheelbarrow loads
(which required even more sound effects and grunting to move), which was only
partially a good idea, because our new ramp was pretty pathetic and hard to
maneuver on. Every time someone came back with a wheelbarrow, we found
something funny to say. We started singing Greek or Hebrew alphabet songs or
paradigms from our classes; Jackie and I sang and danced to Father Abraham and
other Sunday school songs. I don't know where we got the energy, except that we
were feeding off of each other, and loved every minute of it.
(And we just kept going. We were driving Darryl and John NUTS, we made so much noise. It was kind of obnoxious. They still love having us, of course, but I would really, really like to know what's going through their heads about today, because they totally looked exasperated.) At lunch, Dr. Schuler stopped at our table and suggested that we take naps like kindergarteners so that we calm down. I thought the idea was to take a nap so that you would have more energy, not less...?
Other antics included sending Meghan to the ramp in the style one would send a naughty child to her room. I don't even remember why. But I know I sent her to the ramp like her mother, and Meghan went off pouting with "But I don't want to!!" and Dr. Schuler and company heard it clear across the dig sites. They were ready to pretend they didn't know us.
And at one point, Arthur, leader of the Haifa team, came by while I was on wheelbarrow. He took one look at me and said with a smile, "I take a picture of you and send it to your mum. She never let you coming here again!" (It is an established fact that we American students work harder than the Israelis. The Israeli team takes tea breaks, coffee breaks, random we-just-want-it breaks, they stop to watch the tractor, they stop to chat in the shade. We Americans are a little more hardcore (when led by such a fearless leader as we have), and we were complimented by Arthur on the sheer volume of work we did and earth we moved. Apparently, "No Israeli team could do what we did." And we're darn proud of it, too.
(So there you go, Mom. Your little American girl spend a month getting down and dirty like no Israeli girl would. :P) OK, prideful moment is over. On to other things.
Now, flash back to my home square, XX/YY0. We found the floor there, as well as
old piping on top. Here's the theory: The room was originally a foyer, or
entrance hall, because there's a blocked-off door near the outside door with
the lintel stone. Also, it has a lovely blue/white pattern, and an inscription.
WORDS ON OUR MOSAIC FLOOR, YAY! But because that doorway is blocked off, and
because there's a catch basin in the floor, and lots of piping was connected to
the floor, it seems that the room was converted to... something which needed
pipes. (Obviously.) Like an oil press or whatnot. Rest assured, the piping was
cool, but not as cool as the mosaic floor.
BUT EVEN BETTER - part of the mosaic floor was dug out, and someone over a
thousand years ago placed a jar in the hole in the dirt! They found the jar
peeking out today, and uncovered the top, but didn't have time to finish
getting it out. And why would someone tear out mosaic, dig a hole in the floor,
and put a jar to be hidden in there? We don't know what's in it yet, but wek're
REALLy excited, because there's probably gold or coinage in it. (It's both
unlikely, and yet logical. after all, we found 2 coins in that square. We can
hope, right??) Hopefully, we'll find out tomorrow what's in it. (Darryl is mad
that we've found 2 coins in that square. Poor guy, the coin collector, who has
been here like 5 years, and he's never found a single one! Then my square gets
2 in one dig season!)
And in the course of my writing this e-mail, Darryl, then a couple of the girls, then John, then Jim-jim, then Meghan all came by and asked me what in the world I'd done to my hands. The wrapping makes it look like I'm ready to get into a fist fight. I just might punch the next person who gawks at me to make it worthwhile.
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P.S. NO I haven't punched anyone yet. Don't worry about it.
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