I WANNA GO TO THE TEL NOW!!!!

Waiting around for the MEN to come back from putting up the breakfast tent, because apparently the women folk can't do it. haha. But I wanna go up to the Tel to see how things are looking after the winter rains. AND to make sure none of the pots from my square last year were robbed out. We hid them, but you never know.

All the volunteers arrived yesterday and this morning they headed up to Jerusalem for their first tour. I slept poorly last night. I couldn't get to sleep right away and then I woke up real early and tried to fall back asleep. That nap in the afternoon was a bad idea...even if it was accidental. But everything is pretty much set up and ready - just need to get to the Tel. Though we don't know what our squares are yet - only what field we'll be in.

Steve gave us a very nice workshop yesterday, helping us get organized, figuring out our goals, tips for running a good square. It was extremely helpful! And he set up specific points for each week that we'll need to teach our volunteers so we're all teaching the same thing at the same time. That way if we need to switch around volunteers - which will most definitely happen because of the amount of dirt moving we'll need to be doing throughout the following weeks - they'll all be on the same page. Gezer is both a teaching dig and a real excavation, so we need to be organized and standardized but very willing to slow down and help.

Lesley, Marcella, and I are planning our weekend trips. We want to go to Haifa. It's on the coast, which means Lesley can do her scuba diving, and Marcella and I will probably try snorkeling. There's also a ZOO, and we really really want to go to a zoo. We are of course making our way back to Tel Aviv for a lovely day at the beach. Jason (and his new wifey Jessica!) invited us to go with them when he goes to visit his cousin who lives in Tel Aviv. Coolios! And of course, what would a trip to Israel be without a visit to Jerusalem. We're thinking of staying in the same hostel Jason was at a couple years back to get some taste of Jerusalem night life!

Ok, well...I can't really think of much else to write until something actually happens. You probably won't hear from me again until the end of the week when I finally have some time from not doing supervisor work. Till then!