The Last Of Israel! ...I Hope!

I'm so proud of myself. The other day I realized that I've been speaking German without even really thinking about it. I mean, it doesn't come out grammatically correct all the time, but I KNOW the words and I'm starting to think like a German! I mean in the language. Thinking in the language instead of thinking of what I want to say in English and then saying it in German. That makes speaking a language very difficult. It's getting to the point where I'm even talking to myself in German ALL THE TIME instead of trying to do it half the time. Yay!

Ok, wells, I'm putting up pictures now, so: First up, the free day in Jerusalem. This was also the day I got sick! Yay! Why does Jerusalem do this to me? *sigh* Oh wells...

This cute kitty looked like Sebastian (our stupid kitty who ran away) so I had to take a picture of it. So cuuuuute!

Haha, when I got sick, Lesley made me wear her silly hat (no picture of that, sorry) and Alex offered to carry all my stuff...even my purse. hahaha. What a gentleman.

Then...it was the last day on Tel Gezer:

Stupid camera flash, ruined my pretty exotic picture...I'm fairly certain that is NOT the sun, but the MOON.

If you look really really hard, you can make out the even darker outlines of people walking up to the Tel...

The clean up! Look! It's Jerry! HI JERRY! He's standing in between Field B (left) and Hebrew Union College/Dever excavtion from the 1960's Field VII (right and behind...see the columns?).

IT'S DAN!!!! Study his clothing carefully...you'll see these again later. He's standing in between Field B (foreground) and Field A (which is actually not seen in the photo, but is behind him).

Can you see those people on the other side of the stones? Yea...that's Dan's square. They're actually standing outside the square. If they were in the square, you would not be able to see them because they dug down 2.5m at least. Hey! Right in the foreground is Dr. Knauth's/Lindsay's square from 2007 season with the Hellenistic wall! You can actually see it IN THE BALK. See the line of stones where no sandbags are sitting on? And how there are more courses of stones underneath? IT'S A WALL! haha.

Field A and Fruit Break Tent! Look at our pile of wheel barrows. HEY! THAT'S MY FIRST SQUARE TO THE RIGHT! There was nothing in it. :(

Haha, Nate's taking a picture of the entire field and Mark is running up to tackle him...

Alex wanted to show off his manly, white thighs. Why did I take a picture of this? Gross... Aw, but look at Estrella! She wrapped herself in that towel so she wouldn't get sunburnt. We were taking inventory of all our tools. And there's Sara sitting under Alex's chair in the shade, away from the sun. OH MY GOD! AND EDDIE! IT'S EDDIE'S TRUCK! Man, everyone loves Eddie. He's so cool. I think he is actually Russian, but now he's an Israeli citizen and in the special forces, I think. Or was. And he has a dog...oh man, I forget its name. But it's a fuzzy dog and to keep him cool he shaves him like a sheep but leaves his head all fluffy. lol. I wish I had a picture of that dog, he was so cool.

THE CONTAINER! That's where we store all our tools...which are scattered all over the place for inventory. haha.

Yay! The Lyco people! Ok, left to right: Marcella, Sarah, (behind): Lesley, Kevin a.k.a. KMo, (front): Michelle, Kristina, Heather, ME, Alex. haha, and our pottery dump in the background with all the people grounded around...erm...studying the pottery...

Then we move on to photo day. I was one of the "gazelles" for the photos, so I got to go up...AGAIN! I did it last year, too.

Steve and Dan...

Yea! It's the blimp! That's what we use for our areal photos! Super cool...

There's our area...Field A near the bottom of the slope and Field B further north up the slope. And our dump sites: Dan's square is the smaller one closer and the large one behind it was for everyone else.

The Gazelles!!!! Oh yea, they said to wear bright shirts...I also wore bright pants. BOOYAH! I got made fun of, but that's what I was hoping for... hahaha.

Oooooh, yyyeeaaaaaa! That day a bunch of us went to ELVIS BURGER for lunch!!! *drools* Gianormous bacon cheese burgers with FRIES and a MILKSHAKE. ommmmmmgod it was fantastic. *drooooooooools*

Ghassan was leaving to go back to Jerusalem and he wanted a photo with me...but he didn't have his camera...so I used MY camera! We weight exactly the same: 50 kilos. One day, HE said that it was actually hot...we knew it was hot then.

Then there was the final dig party. Oh man, what amazing party it was. Neve Shalom made us all pizza and there was ice cream and this awesome stuff that I don't remember what it's called...um, it was a freaky orange color and it looked hairy, but the dough was super sweet and inside was super creamy cheese. *drools* It was amazing! However, I had to steal these photos from Marcella because I couldn't find my camera. I would have taken many many videos had I had my camera, but sadly, there shall be no video. Oh, it would have been video of our final skits. Yes, at the final dig party we always have skits. Talented and non-talented people alike get up in front of all of us and sing, show movies, share pictures, act out skits, read poems, etc. It's so much fun.

The beautiful sunset at Neve Shalom...

Hahahaha, the first skit of the evening. Jerry, Bonnie, Marie, and Josh did a skit that takes place 100 years from now and they were future archaeologists digging at Gezer. It was quite clever. They were "finding" all these things that we left behind or messed up during our diggings, and just as we always say, "AAAAAH! WE HATE YOU MACALASTER!" They were saying, "GRR!!! WOLFF AND ORTIZ!!!!!" Um...that purple shirt is Gary's...and it was the only shirt he wore during the entire dig up on the Tel. They're pretending that they found it buried up on the Tel. lol. Oh man, and petrified watermelon rinds. haha. It was so good...

Then Dr. Knauth, Sara, Bonnie, and "Hott" Rob did a spoof of "The Sound of Music" and changed it to "The Sounds of Gezer" and did a few songs, changing the words to fit Gezer. It was cute.

Haha, this one song was titled "Climb Every Mountain". The words didn't need to change too much for this one...haha.

YES! Alright, this was Dan's square's skit! OMG, all of them together is just the most hysterical thing in the world. Libby was doing her "hot dog dance" here... Wes was wondering whether or not we could "MC" the hot dog dance (note it down as a material culture, take it back to camp, and have our conservator Heather look at it). He wasn't sure, so he decided to ask DAN.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! THIS is why I told you to remember how Dan dresses. Alex dressed up perfectly as Dan: green muscle shirt, short shorts, hat, coffee cup, sun glasses hanging around the neck, trowel in the back pocket, and no socks. Wes and Alex were trying so hard not to laugh. And now, some quotes from Dan: "Hey, hey, you wanna hear a joke?" - 3 minutes later - "Dan, weren't you going to tell a joke?" "I just did! hahaha."

"Well you know, 10, 7, 8 seasons ago when I was in Ashqelon..."; "The sweat was just pouring out of my shoes, that's why I don't wear socks anymore."; "Hey, you wanna hear a joke? LIBBY! ah hahaha."; "*shaking and pinching your shoulders* I'm just messin' with ya, huh? huh?"

"Hey, you wanna see my trowel?"

AHAHAHAHA, then Nate came out dressed up like Elliot, complete with mustache! "Did somebody say BRONZE?" That's also a pun on his last name, which is Braun. His time period of specialty is Early Bronze Age, or EB...which are also his initials. And he finds this very funny. "What? What? What do we have here? Oh, Dan, you've got some interesting features. May be a Bronze Age wall or something." "Hot dog? What's a hot dog?" "Was your father a glassier?"

Then they came out as Sam (left) and Eddie (right). Eddie: "Oh, you got some pottery or MC? I take dee MC for you? Hot dog dance? What ees dees hot dog dance? Eh, Libby! You dee hot dog dance? I take all MC and pottery for you. Whatever you want, I get you. Huh? What you want, I get it."

Sam: "Well, I just came back from the pool and I heard you guys found something special, huh? What did you find?"

Wes: "Well, we're not sure, Sam, we were hoping you could tell us."

Sam: "Well you're guess is as good as mine. Eh, it could be...uh, a number of things. Back in Chicago...blah blah"

Eddie: "Oh, you want Libby as MC? I take her back for you, I do what ever you want. I do dees for you, whatever you want, I do."

Oh, why can't I remember these ladies' names?! *sigh* Ok, I think this is Lisa. She wrote a cute little poem and read it for us.

Yea, Matt! Oh man, ok, this thing was so awesome. I wish wish wish wish I had had my camera because I would have video taped this entire thing. Ok, that's his picture on the video screen with a rat scull...yea. lol. Ok, but Matt and James made this HYSTERICAL movie about Macalister. Ok, one day James shaved his beard so he had just a handlebar mustache...like Hulk Hogan's. Except in stead of looking all bad ass like the Hogan, he looked super British or super red neck, depending on what he was wearing. With his dig clothes, he looked British. So all day on the Tel, whenever Gary would call for fruit break or breakfast, he would call out in a British accent, "Sergent, my good man, what time do you believe it is?" And James would call back, "Why I do believe it is time for fruit break!" Rolling the r's and everything, it was hysterical. So they thought it a great idea to make him into Macalister (the British archaeologist who first dug at Gezer). I need to get a hold of this video somehow. But anyway, they made him really stupid and talked about his digging techniques (oh man, the link I posted, by the way, whoever wrote it, it totally makes me laugh). I can't explain it all here because it would go completely over everyone's head, you'll have to ask me to recite it for you. But a few quotes: "(when asked about his digging technique) DYNAMITE! Good ol' TNT! One gets such an interesting perspective on archaeological remains as they fly through the air!"; "(when asked how and where material cultures were collected and sent off for observation) Carrier pigeons! Yes, very reliable animals. Had a bit of trouble carrying off the larger collections, yes. Uh, we know they took everything to the same place, but where exactly that is, I can't really say. Fascinating animals, carrier pigeons. Quite loyal. However, we had a bit of trouble keeping the Bedouin workers from eating them, yes." aha. Oh.

Yea, Steve gave a speech at the end! Impromptu, even!

Ah, one last picture. My God, that was the best act. It's been a long time since I laughed that hard...and one of the few times I've ever laughed so hard I cried.

Then everyone left and I was the only person left at Neve Shalom. Ok ok, Steve, Dan, and Gary were still there. So I took the day to catch up on internetings and then wandered about the Kibbutz taking pictures. Here are the photos!

Ah, the dig house. This was where we washed pottery LAST season. We weren't allowed to wash pottery there this season. haha. But it's a gorgeous yard.

Down hill...

The sea, the sea! That shiny pink strip is the Mediterranean.

IT'S TEL AVIV! You can also see Tel Aviv's skyscrapers from Neve Shalom...

Neve Shalom is soooo pretty...

But yet again...it is Israel...and there is some brown...

But let's keep to the prettiness...as you can see, I discovered the micro-photo option on my camera....

OLIVES!!!!!

Olives and flower!

Purple and white flowers!

And strange hangy orangey berries!

And bluish-purplish little flowers!

PALM TREES!

This was how I felt about having to sit around and wait in the airport AGAIN for my flight. But it turned out to be awesome. I've never had so much fun in an airport.

And that is the end of my Israel photos!!!! Yay!!! Next up, the beginnings of Germany! Alright, my toe hurts because I tripped going up the steps into a museum today and my toe is all bleedy and hurty. :( I'm going to find a band aid now.