Okay, so let me begin by saying, damn it is f***ing hot in Israel. Not that this is a surprise or anything, but I am just saying. Anytime my skin is in contact with anything it sticks to it, and as my grandmother would say, I'm "glistening". Actually, sorry, I'm just sweeting a lot. The shade that we put up the first day is actually very efficient in keeping us cool and shaded, but it still does not prevent the heat from wafting in and causing us to sigh and say "damn it's hot", and our square mates to go "yeah...it is".

No really...it's really hot and time seems to be going faster on the grand scale, but slower on the small sscale, this time has slipped by very quickly, despite the fact that we get up at 4 in the morning every day and drag ourselves to the bus and then up (in area Q's case) to the top of the tel to begin some invigorating 5 AM pick axing, this week seems to have gone pretty quickly. Well, most of it. There is something wrong with the time between 5AM and 8:30AM while we wait for breakfast. I am fairly certain that at some points, time actually STOPS. No matter how much time you spend staring at your square, or pointing out the gopher holes (our area gopher has been named Stanley) or just sitting on the balk when you are not supposed to, it remains 7:15 for about 45 minutes. No joke. We have attempted to keep the "do not announce the time" rule in effect, but when it starts to be about 8:15 and we get all excited (hell, even when it is 6:15 we get excited.....the sun is officially up!), we can't really help it. There are cheese and onion sandwiches waiting for us at the bottom. I must say, it was interesting the first couple of days to have the cheese/hummus/tuna sandwiches for breakfast, now, after two weeks, it has gotten kind of bland and ordinary. We need some pancakes.....no, I cannot, nay, will NOT think about tasty foods that are quite impossible to obtain in the near future. But really, we all need a good, hot, perfectly brewed cup of coffee and a lawn chair, rather than a wheelbarrow to recline in. After breakfast we go back up to our areas and continue the relentless pick axing and clearing. We have come a long way in area Q. We started with nothing but a rocky, grassy terrain and now have our 5 by 5 squares that are getting quite deep. My square (along with Christopher and Naomi from Norway and England respectively) has a very substantial wall and some impressive pottery pieces, though that is nothing to the whole pot, and grind stone with pestle that our neighboring squares have discovered. Whatever, they don't have walls like ours. Overall, area Q has gotten quite interesting Allow me to interrupt my little recap with an anecdote about my favorite Frenchman, Phillip. By now it is no secret that Phillip is pretty much the French Chuck Norris. Despite the fact that we are on an ancient site that has evidence of being inhabited by dead civilizations, Phillip's priority centers around his wheelbarrow path. Anything and everything in the way of his wheelbarrow path must go, rocks, walls, pits, Norma, bags....you name it, it must go. The other day I look over from my square and see Phillip, Ben, and Andy whacking away at these huge boulders that are very clearly part of a wall, and a pretty substantial one at that. Not only are these boulders NOT in any square, they are not even in our excavation area, but are instead off the the West of our area and should not be disturbed, they are part of the site and if further excavations come, they may intend to excavate further than we are. No matter, these are in the way of Phillip's wheelbarrow path and therefore there is no question as to what must happen--they must be annihilated. Phillip takes a sledge hammer and starts to pretty much destroy two of these huge boulders, it is no easy task. Ben and Andy are lookouts, it is a complicated operation, I admire its organization. All of a sudden, the operation is blown, Ian has spotted the insane removal and walks over to Norma..."Did you tell him to do that?". Norma looks over and yells "Phillip, NO!". Too late, the boulder has been pride from its resting place that it has been living in for possibly thousands of years. Without missing a beat Ben and Andy haul the stone onto a makeshift stone holder wheelbarrow and Phillip, as Norma is watching, fills in the hole with dirt and yells back "What? What?! I am not doing anything, I am just tiding up, it is nothing" as he pushes his foot around to make it flat. Norma's back turns and Phillip is working on the next boulder, it too is obstructing his precious path. Ben watches Norma and breathes quietly, "Phillip, she's turning, she's turning, quick, quick!!" and Philip, with out so much as a frighten look or hesitation, begins to smooth the earth again and grins up at Norma, "Nice, right?"....Oh Phillip. Norma laughs, "I have been digging with him since 2000 and he does this every year". Phillip....you are a legend. Now, as the week reaches an end and everyone is organizing the weekend, most are going to Jerusalem, and a good amount are first going on the field trip to Gezer and Ashkelon on Saturday to have a tour of their digs.

No matter where we are going, we are all just hoping that it cools down. We knew it was hot, but apparently it has been abnormally hot for Israel the past few days and especially the last couple of mornings we have been waking up to a cold damp haze that sits on our skin and prevents any cooling later in the day when the sun breaks through the hazy clouds. The humidity just sits on my skin and makes movement hard, much less pick axing. Regardless, we keep digging, keep on sweeping dirt (as crazy as that sounds) on the off chance that we find Josiah's diary, or Solomon's underwear. This weekend though is mainly just to enjoy Israel and explore Jerusalem, because sadly we only have one week left...what a shame.