A nice layer of dust has settled on my skin since the first day digging and I think it will stay there until well after I leave Israel. If I were to bottle this trip it would be a combination of dirt, sweat, sunblock, hummus, and the fresh damp air that can only exist at 4AM. Now, after a good week of digging and sleep deprivation we have all gotten used to the swing of things. Our bodies seem to have grown accustomed to the 4 to 5 hours of sleep and 15-20 hours of hard labor, followed by 1-2 hours of lectures. Area Q is starting to take shape a bit more, and more and more cool finds are surfacing. Pots that are almost fully formed, soot from fires, and walls so sturdy and deep, they had to have been built by the Assyrians. Today we found some olive pits in a pit of ash--kind of cool if you think about the last time those saw daylight.

This weekend has been so busy and exciting I don't even know where to start. Well, actually I do. To begin with, if you didn't know, Jews take Saturday off, starting sun down on Friday and NOTHING happens on Saturdays. Everywhere shuts down. Because the dig started on Monday, we had to make up for losing Sunday (it is strange that Sunday is like a regular business day here, nothing special about it) so we worked on Friday and only had Saturday free to do what we wanted. So, after digging on Friday at 2PM 15 of us hopped in a cab (that was well planned thanks to Amy) that took us 2 hours South to Jerusalem where we then stayed the night. It was a little touch and go for a while when we got lost and the driver did not speak ONE word of English. About halfway there we had to stop and pull over and let the car cool down as it was over heating in the Israeli sun. At least it looked like that was the issue. For all I know he was just taking a cigarette break. When we arrived it was amazing, the old city is breathtaking, there are simply no words for how ancient it looks. It just FEELS old, the walls, the streets, the tiny little shops selling spices. It is everything you would think a city should be.

Our hostel, for some reason called Petra Hostel, was right by the city walls and was wicked cheap, only about 30 shequels a night, which is roughly 10 bucks. We slept on the roof (even at night, though it cools down, it is still quite warm ...and it was 10 shequels cheaper!). It was, without a doubt, one of the coolest things I have ever done in my entire life. The view from the top of the hostel was amazing. There are really no words to describe it. The Dome of the Rock was clear and amazing, the city walls were behind us and you could see every major area. We slept under the stars in Jerusalem and I really didn't think I could top that.

Well, first, before going to bed we went out and tried to find dinner, although it being Shabbat it was a bit difficult to find an open cafe, but after some controlled wandering we found one, and I got my glass coke bottle for my collection. After dinner we went to a pub...Irish for some reason, that had the BIGGEST beer glasses ever. I was reminded of Lord of the Rings "it comes in pints?!"... Yes, I know that is incredibly pathetic, but I got a kick out of it. After a beer, we went back to the hostel, though at this point I started to regret coming with so many people. Some of the guys and particularly many of the girls started to act...for lack of a better word American. Yelling, being loud and disrespectful and all around embarrassing to be with. Anyway....got back to the hostel and passed out....for an hour, then we had to wake up (at 2AM) for the taxi to Massada. At the time I was a little upset at having to get up so early, when it would have been so much cooler to sleep "in" and be awoken by the call to prayer, but let me tell you....I have never been happier to be up in the morning than when we started to climb Massada at 4 in the morning. The bus ride over was uneventful, except that we all passed out--kind of without any choice because we were all so tired. Even at 4AM it was FREAKING hot climbing up the snake path, and it was daunting to see how much more there was to climb. 1200 above sea level. Just keep going, thats all we could do. I made it to the top with JUST enough time to watch the sun rise over the Dead Sea (see pic)....and I think it might have been as cool as sleeping on a roof in Jerusalem. After looking around at the cool ruins, we went down again.

Okay, so there are these little orange stations at the bottom before you go up... oranges just sitting there in crates. There were no signs, no indications of any kind about who was in charge of these oranges, we thought it was very kind of them to give hikers free oranges on their way up--I figured they get a lot of dehydration cases. Anyway, on the way down, around 8AM, there was a guy making smoothies and we walked over to get some more oranges, to which the guy yelled in Hebrew at us. "Not free" was what we gathered eventually.... oops. My b.

Later, in the little gift shop at the bottom where I asked for the millionth time since getting to Israel if they sold stamps and got a no I started to just browse the store. A guy popped out of no where and in a thick Israeli accent said "I have stamp, you need stamp?" and when I told him that "Oh, yeah, YES! Brilliant!" he led me to a back room where a formidable looking woman was keeping logs in a book. Without a doubt that is the strangest way that I have gotten stamps in my life. (I got back to the kibbutz and FINALLY located a post office only to find out that a) I need 10 cents more for each stamp and b) there is a post workers strike)

THEN, we went to the Dead Sea...pretty freaking cool, floating and all that, I have a feeling that will be the last time I go though....it burns. It is wicked pretty though, have to say that although there is nothing living in it, it is amazingly peaceful and clear.

THEN, we hopped back on our bus (note, because it was Shabbat, we had to get Arab drivers to drive us around all day...which became a bit of an issue later...) to go to our final stop of the day, Qumran, the place of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which was really cool to see, but I was tired and they didn't let you climb into the caves so....was not AS cool as the other places...though still pretty f***ing awesome.

Originally, we were going to be brought back to Jerusalem where we would have to sort out transportation back to the kibbutz ourselves (and probably have to wait until sundown to get a taxi) but our drivers (really nice guys who provided us with the best watermelon I have ever had) offered, for an additional fee of course, to drive us back to the kibbutz. As it happens, it is surprisingly easy to get IN to the West Bank (Jerusalem is right on the edge, but Massada and Qumran are in it) but much more difficult to get OUT...especially when your drivers are Arab. We were escorted to a searching station after we were stopped at the road block but once our passports were checked and they realized we were just American tourists they did not seem to have a problem, but we did get to witness the searching of other cars with some pretty formidable looking dogs and quite a few guys with guns (calm down everyone who is reading this, my life was never in danger, and the guns were never trained on anyone, in fact, I was talking to our guard at the dig site and he said they are more to scare people and are usually not loaded) but nothing happened, and we were on our way again. After asking for more directions for getting back (as it turns out, most kibbutsim look a LOT a like) and paying our drivers and thanking them profusely (they got us some student discounts at some of the sites) we got back to our kibbutz.

The story does not end there. We were told that dinner would be served on Saturday at 8:30, but apparently the kibbutz made it at the usual 7 and when no one showed up, threw out the food. So, we arrive, hungry from a day and half of travel with minimum food to conserve money (even though our group of 15 hiked a freaking mountain... others went to Nazareth--visible from the top of the tel-- or Haifa) and show up for dinner.....to find no food. They broke out some hummus and bread, but that was barely enough to serve all 50 or 60 of us....so we all waited for breakfast today at 8AM--let me tell you, waking up at 4AM, hungry, to go pick ax and dig in the heat is no picnic....but they promised to make it up to us with a pizza party on Thursday-I feel like I'm twelve.

So...I will detail the digging on another day because this is getting long, but in the end, after some pretty good adventures f, I am glad that I chose to explore rather than to stay at the kibbutz and sleep, it was well worth it, and hey.... I can rest any other time in my life, when else am I going to get the opportunity to see the sun rise over the Dead Sea while standing on the top of Massada, site of one of the most amazing battles and stories in history?