Pre-lesson: When your dig supervisor rattles off in crazy fluent Spanish, sometimes you don't want to know what she is saying. It has been really interesting hanging out with my awesome, new friends from Mexico. I came to Israel knowing that everyone here pretty much speaks English so that shouldn't be an issue. It has only been since I have been hanging out with the Mexicans do I feel like I am in another country. The funniest part was when the Arab caretakers and the Mexican volunteers were all trying to speak in English to each other today. Neither of them could pronounce the English word vacuum and I just had to laugh. Here I am, the only native English speaker for possibly the first time in my life! Anyway, I digress... sort of.Today was another day of pottery marking which was totally cool with me. Not only do we sit in a nice tent and I don't have to wield a pickax, I also get to look at all this amazing pottery up close. They opened up a mosaic today too. How AMAZING! They have found glass, metal, ceramics, and most interesting... flint-stone... pre-historic tools... Looking forward to hearing more about that.Working on the edge pieces (the ones with a lip or a handle or something distinctive) is hard because even the tiniest piece has to be marked but it is very interesting. I got up close and personal with 1st century paint... amazing! Also, Rosaura has been helping me understand a bit of Spanish and I have been helping her with Hebrew. I know it is a daunting task but she is so excited to learn it. I have been showing her the Aleph Bet and teaching her a word here or there. Today's lesson was brought to us by the prefix l' or ל (which means to) and by the word l'tsalem (לצלם) which means to photograph.Today was a hard day on the dig for me. The 4:30am wake up calls are catching up to me and I haven't been sleeping great here. I was exhausted by the middle of the day and then we had a special excursion that turned out to be a bit longer than I expected. We went to Hula Valley to see the migrating birds. 100,000 cranes stop in Israel on their way to Africa for the winter. The Israelis have created this reserve for them to land and eat so they don't destroy the crops in the area. It was truly beautiful, I just wish I wasn't so exhausted so I could have enjoyed it more. We drove around the park for two hours in a GIANT golf cart (I mean seriously, it sat 19 people!) with a Padre, Father John, at the wheel. It was a good time.Then we headed back to Tiveria for showers and dinner and soon, bed. Tons of traffic made it a very long ride but with a good dinner of schnitzel in my tummy, I am ready to hit the sack soon.Tomorrow is my last day on the dig. I can't work Friday because I have to catch a bus out of town before they are back from the dig site to make it to Tzfat in time for shabbis. I am spending a very special shabbis with my friend Chani and her family in the very holy town of Tzfat.I have been looking forward to my time on this dig so much, I can't believe it is coming to an end. It has been such a great experience, I am so thankful to Notre Dame in Jerusalem and Fr. Eammon Kelly, and Marcela, and everyone here for allowing me to hang out, use a pickax and fountain pen. :)Here are some shots from today:
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