Drs. Frau and Herr Schuler are off in Jerusalem for a kushy party thrown by the Israeli Antiquities Department for all the foreign excavators. It is held at the Rockefellar Center, where there is a tower overlooking the view of the Temple Mount and a huge reflecting pool. According to Eva (the polish conservator who also decided to forgo the party), it is quite an event with some people dressing to the nines and others coming straight from their digs. Dr. Herr Schuler was clearly not as excited to go this event as was his wife, but I think his memory is slightly tainted by being the only sober person in a car full of very tipsy Polish archaeologists singing patriotic songs for the entire 2 1/2 hour drive from Jerusalem to En Gev. Let us hope the evening was made more enjoyable by the presence of Dr. Frau Schuler.
As for me, another time (although part of me longed to fly the University of Cincinnati flag). Today it was more important that I get the pottery operation up and running, which isn't very easy when you are herding cats. We have an enormous team this year and although they are self-sufficient adults, there is a certain amount of preparation and organization to make sure that they are able to fulfil their roles on site. [I should add that at this point, my mother says, "Welcome to the world of parenting."].
For example, pottery washing. For some reason, I keep forgetting to remind people that THE TIME FOR POTTERY WASHING is 4:30. I think part of my brain relies on the fact that there IS a published schedule somewhere and kind of assumes people have read said schedule.
Abraham Lincoln said something slightly inappropriate about assuming.
People started showing up at 4:15 - which wasn't a problem, but it did lead to a bit of chaos on my end as I scrambled to get my two fairly self-motivated (thank God) lab slaves going, while at the same time organizing the chairs, the pottery buckets, the brushes and the strainers for everyone else. To top it all off, I had a meeting with Eva the conservator at 5:00 to continue working on a the Beduin pendant (which I finished cleaning today!!! Pictures soon!!!) and also the Byzantine cross found last Thursday by the careful girls of square F5. And then, as I'm on the way out of pottery washing to rush over to Eva's (who lives on the OTHER SIDE of the kibbutz in the Beverly Hills region next to the harbor), a man wanders in who asks to speak to the director. As acting director (until Dr. Schuler gets back), I dealt with him. Ends up he is a Tour Guide who lives at the kibbutz and wanted to offer his services. I took down his information, promising to pass it on to my director, then sped off to Eva's.
And now, after a fairly productive evening of pottery reading, I can now, FINALLY sleep a bit. There is a bit of the graduate school high going, where lack of sleep leads to MORE adrenaline. My hope is that this house of cards can wait to fall until I'm on a plane back to the states.
Till then, to the wife of Darryl, he moved some REALLY big rocks today and patiently listened when I told him to no longer try to heave them over his head and up the bulk. He also found a whole series of Byzantine door nails (massive iron nails with the ends bent) and with the care of a crime scene cop (which he is), measured and recorded every detail. To the wife of Arnie, he's quite the nuisance (affectionately, of course), keeping me on task and together to do the pottery - I have dubbed him "Sir Arnie", for his efforts in keeping me organized. Many thanks for loaning him.
Leave a comment