Here's a quick shot of me on the plane ...
Talia had to stash the camera before takeoff. We got nice seat behind the exit row with extra room. Boy were we lucky! And a big shout out to Talia for taking all these pics of me. Hoping that we can get some pics together soon.The flight was long but worth it. When we landed in Israel it was very hot but I immediately felt at home with the other dude with kippot and payis... except they aren't blue like me... Oh well, I still love being here.Stay tuned for more adventures.
Lesson #13 - Birds are cool but pottery is cooler or "I'm tired, do we really have to ride a golf cart around and look at birds?"
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:
Lesson #65 - How to write with a fountain pen and ink or "Do I really have to write on that tiny piece of pottery?"
This morning, I knew I was in for something different. Having requested not to use a pickax while my body recovered from the work, I was sent to the pottery cleaning and marking. It was a lot of fun but still hard work.
Here's my supposition... on a dig, there is nothing but hard work. You can't escape and really, I didn't want to.
Here's the deal with pottery marking. There are tons and tons of shards that have been found. Approx 300 BAGS of them at this point in the dig. All of those have to be washed and scrubbed, then marked. If they are edge pieces, like the lip of a jug or bowl or handle or spout... aka recognizable pieces, every single one has to be marked. If they are just random pieces of pottery, all of them above a certain size have to be marked. In this case, anything bigger than three of my thumbs... I don't actually have three thumbs therefore this is just an estimate.
Here comes the challenge (other than writing tiny)... You aren't using a sharpie to mark them... you are using a fountain pen and ink well (in this situation, the ink well is a bottle cap). I know a fountain pen sounds romantic but there very little control for a novice on the flow of ink... and you have to write really tiny. As the day progressed, my writing got more consistent and smaller. Thank goodness! Because one of the girls hasn't been feeling well and she was doing the tiny parts, the rim parts, and she had to go rest so I had to finish the tiny parts... yeah... For this work, you are hunched over a piece of pottery, trying to keep your hands steady. The bonus of this work was I had to stop to stretch my hand and arm and back frequently so I got a bunch of pictures. AND I got to go see the synagogue today. What a real thrill to walk down the main street from 1900 years ago! Truly amazing! The intact mosaics on the floor are incredible and you can see the plaster and paint (frescos) on the some of the walls. As they try to understand more about this synagogue, it will be facinating to watch.And here is another sunrise... a nice progression through the morning... for you!(To see all my pictures, go to THDpr Flickr)
Here's my supposition... on a dig, there is nothing but hard work. You can't escape and really, I didn't want to.
Here's the deal with pottery marking. There are tons and tons of shards that have been found. Approx 300 BAGS of them at this point in the dig. All of those have to be washed and scrubbed, then marked. If they are edge pieces, like the lip of a jug or bowl or handle or spout... aka recognizable pieces, every single one has to be marked. If they are just random pieces of pottery, all of them above a certain size have to be marked. In this case, anything bigger than three of my thumbs... I don't actually have three thumbs therefore this is just an estimate.
Here comes the challenge (other than writing tiny)... You aren't using a sharpie to mark them... you are using a fountain pen and ink well (in this situation, the ink well is a bottle cap). I know a fountain pen sounds romantic but there very little control for a novice on the flow of ink... and you have to write really tiny. As the day progressed, my writing got more consistent and smaller. Thank goodness! Because one of the girls hasn't been feeling well and she was doing the tiny parts, the rim parts, and she had to go rest so I had to finish the tiny parts... yeah... For this work, you are hunched over a piece of pottery, trying to keep your hands steady. The bonus of this work was I had to stop to stretch my hand and arm and back frequently so I got a bunch of pictures. AND I got to go see the synagogue today. What a real thrill to walk down the main street from 1900 years ago! Truly amazing! The intact mosaics on the floor are incredible and you can see the plaster and paint (frescos) on the some of the walls. As they try to understand more about this synagogue, it will be facinating to watch.And here is another sunrise... a nice progression through the morning... for you!(To see all my pictures, go to THDpr Flickr)
You speak Hebrew like my mother speaks Chinese...
Says the Israeli Arab man to me...Great. Thanks... at least I KNEW what you were asking... I knew to answer that I am from Colorado and achshav, gar b'yerushalim (and now I live in Jerusalem). And who taught me Hebrew? Ulpan v'abba sheli! (Hebrew class in Israel and my dad)...But Habibi... I appreciate you trying and helping me practice my Hebrew.Interesting experience. On a dig with a 10 Mexicans who can speak okay English, one Slovakian who also speaks okay English, in Israel with Israeli workers who speak Hebrew and Russian and me.Needless to say, I don't talk much here...
Lesson #42 - How to wield a pickax or "I am SO not built for this"
All in all day one was successful. I cleared a trench another 10 centimeters. It was hard work and took me the whole time we were at the site.
We got up at 4:45am... it came way too soon... Up and dressed... Off we went! We headed to the site but one girl got sick so we had to drive her back. Finally, we make it to the site to eat a small breakfast of cereal and watch the sunrise. Then we walked over to the dig site. The synagogue isn't being touched right now but instead we worked on a row of Jewish houses from the same time period. I sat in this trench from 6 until 1:30 digging up pieces of pots. Around me they found some coins and glass too. We were pulling up pieces of these people's lives!The routine was the same...
- Swing the pickax, chomp up the ground. If I got stuck on a rock, my kind neighbor, Carlos (an older gentleman from Mexico) would help me out.
- Sit on the ground and bend down with a small pickax and clear the sides that are more delicate than the middle... the sides near the wall that we don't want to collapse or the side near the string that marks the area we are digging.
- Then sit on your tush and break up the clumps to ensure that you don't have a tiny coin in there or a piece of pottery.
- If you find something, it goes in the appropriate bag. One big one for pottery, one for shells, animal bones, or glass. Coins get handed to the boss.
- Then use the bottom of a big broom and sweep up the dirt into a dust pan and dump it into a bucket.
- Repeat.
Once your bucket is full, call one of the Israelis or Russians over to dump the large rocks or sift the dirt to see if you missed anything.We broke at 10:30 for actual breakfast and then we took a breather at noon. We finished for the day at 1:30... and boy was I ready. My hands hurt to open or close and my back from stooping. It was quite an odd position to be in. We got back to the church where we are staying and had lunch at 2.All in all a good day... but I learned something today... maybe with practice I could do this every day but... wow! Chewing up the ground with a pickax is hard work for a small girl! I am totally not pulling the girl card... just that this sucker was heavy and even the small pickax became hard to hold. Hitting rocks with a pickax hurts your bones.Here is your lesson for the day -Wielding a pickax. Stand firmly with your dominant foot in front of the other. Don't bend over too much. Swing pick side into the hard packed, clay like earth. Straight down, just a bit towards you. Then let the tool pull up some earth. Don't stand there beating the ground like a mad person... it doesn't help. Thanks to Carlos for the lessons. And thanks to Carlos for helping me get out my big rocks.
And I am off!
What a whirlwind!I found out, quite literally, 10 minutes before shabbis began that I am leaving today to go to an archeological dig up north! How crazy!It has been a blur of grabbing supplies, packing and getting a lot of work done before I leave today. I have to go catch a bus at 3:30 to head up north tonight since the dig begins at 5:30am tomorrow (Monday).So I will be in Tiberias for the week, using my sleeping muscles and exercising my body rather than my brain. I can't wait!Forgive me if you don't hear from me often but I promise to take pictures and post when I can.In addition to the excitement of the dig, I have realized that this is a nice chance to overcome my need to control the situation. I have no idea where to get off the bus in Tiberias. I have no idea where I am sleeping (I believe it might be in a Greek Catholic church). I don't know what I am eating, when I will be sleeping, or anything else for the next 5 days. A little unnerving but as my mother keeps reminding me, a good test and chance to overcome this tendency of mine.Wish me luck!
Check, check, check (Totoro)
I had to make sure that we had everything. Talia found our checklist and I ran through it one more time...
Looks like we are all good!Guess it's time to set off for the big adventure!
Oh one more thing (Totoro)
I nearly forgot it! I just can't believe that!I almost walked out the door without my tzitzit! How could I even think of going to the Holy Land without my ritual fringes! Thank goodness Talia reminded me.
There they were, in the closet all ironed and hung up nicely. A big thank you to Talia for that!With the tzitzit, I knew I needed to check for one more thing... my passport...
Yup! Everything seems to be in order... now where is that pesky checklist?
Leaving for Israel with Talia (Totoro)
Before I get started, I really have to apologize. My shocking lack of blogs posts is terribly unforgivable. I must say that I have been very busy here in Jerusalem, without much time to write. And the fact that I only have round mitten paws and not fingers causes the blogging process to go a bit slower than usual.So! We were at the point when I was helping Talia pack up her apartment. It was quite a job but we made it happen. Then it was our last night in Denver. Quite an emotional night. But I woke up promptly and was ready to go!
Yawn! It was a great night sleep. I really enjoyed the last night in my comfortable bed before traveling and sleeping G-d knows where for the next few months. I even spent a few extra moments enjoying my bed.
But it was time to get up and go!
Guess it's time to get going...
I long for my mother's Jerusalem
When I told my mother I was going to be studying in Jerusalem for the fall, the first words out of her mouth were (and I kid you not), "After Sukkot? Bring rain boots!"Her advice was born out of her experience living in Israel with my father in the 70's where they were deluged with rain and she had to purchase wellies here in Jerusalem.And so I brought the less comfortable but more waterproof black boots with me on my adventure (rather than my go-to every(winter)day boots that I wanted to bring). Alas, I have not yet had cause to use them.Israel is in the midst of a rough seven year drought. A couple of years ago, some rabbis even took flight to end it, getting on a flight over Israel to pray for rain. Praying for rain is an ancient custom within Judaism. We have been praying for rain for a very long time. It is structured within our prayers. We are to start asking for rain around Sukkot time however, many don't start praying in earnest for about 10 days after the end of Sukkot (on the 7 of Cheshvan). If we are in such a drought, why not start immediately? Well the tradition stems from when all the Jews would make a pilgrimage to Israel for Sukkot, one of our Shalosh Regalim.Since we eat and hang out in our sukkahs for a week during sukkot (some even sleep in them), it isn't the best idea to then pray for rain, so it was agreed that we would wait until after Sukkot. However, there are all these pilgrims in Jerusalem for this holiday. Surely we don't want to make their journey back home harder or impossible by the land being flooded. So we wait 10 days until the furthest pilgrim is finally home (rough estimates on walking/camel time). It is at that point that we begin praying for rain in earnest.On the flip side of this, it is important to note that when we stop praying for rain, around Passover, we must have the rain stop. If the rain were to continue at that point, the wheat crops would be ruined.
At this point it is 27 days since we started praying for rain in Israel, perhaps it is too much to hope that we would have been washed with the cleansing rains from the heavens at this point... but I don't think so. And I don't think it is selfish to say so. I want the rain. I want the rain to quench the land. I want to wear my dusty rain boots. I want the Jerusalem weather of my mother's memory.Jews in Chutz L'aretz (the other lands) will begin praying for rain on December 5. Remember, this isn't rain for Brooklyn or Denver... this is rain for Israel. Israel where we are constantly aware of the unique agricultural aspects of the land and Judaism.Here's hoping I can break out my mother's rain boots soon! (and this 70-80 degree weather breaks!)[And mom... I really do miss those boots I left at home... :)]