Hello my pretties,
Recently I have been receiving various complaints concerning my inattention to this journal.
So, here I am. ALIVE!
Again I apologize for my failure to keep up but it's a busy place here.
Now, hopefully you haven't gotten the idea that I'm going to be so responsible as to present you with a full entry today. It'll be more of an unorganized ramble.
Today I moved out of Har Nof and into Beit Sefafa with our favorite dig directors--the intrepid Shimon, the adorable Mareike (she'd probably kill me for that) and the epic Egon. (I just liked the alliteration there.)
Har Nof to Beit Sefafa is kind of a weird move, if you know the Jerusalem neighborhoods. I'll let you go on a little internet exploration to figure out why. (Here at J-Town blog incorporated we make our entries interactive.)
...ANYWAY. I'm here now and really excited to help with sorting and cataloguing and so forth, but I do miss Har Nof (though it sure as hell doesn't miss me and my propensity to wear trousers.) I REALLY miss Karen and Benjamin and Baila and the baby.
*sigh*
Excavation really did come to a close today, with final brushing up of the site. The progress since was last there has been AMAZING. Three more ovens found, the vault opened, some mosaic floors uncovered, etc...
I will say, though, that trying to brush the outdoors is similar to (though not exactly like) using one of those water squeegee s on the ocean. I mean seriously folks, how exactly does one pick up all the dirt when there’s dirt UNDER IT.
Anyway we do what we can.
ALSO they found a phosphorous bomb. Yep. Dad's last day, we went to visit the site and everybody was up on top of the hill! Apparently Egon and Rafi were in the vault and Rafi, who served in the Israeli army and knows what a bomb looks like was the lucky finder of the little devil.
Obviously a bomb squad was called it (who sorted things out after a lunch break. Typical.) and so the last day was even more eventful than one might have thought.
In other news, someone in Yusef's shop offerred to buy me from my father with camels.
Also, according to your average Israeli, I am a Philipino 20-some year old whose name is Anat.
Now, this is not to say that Israelis are bad at guessing, but in America people usually distinguish at least one piece of my background, can figure out how old I am, and can pronounce my name.
Moving on...
I have two weeks left which is distressing because I never want to leave! There were of course some things that I found difficult to adjust to but the quality of fruit alone is enough to make me get over myself.
Things I like about Israelis:
...pretty much anything that does not appear in the list bellow. They're pretty awesome people.
Things I do not like about Israelis:
--Many will somehow manage to crash into you as they walk by EVEN WHEN YOU MOVE OUT OF THEIR WAY.
--They think I'm older than I am, which makes it harder to get away with the 18 and under bus pass. (To be fair they all thought I was 15 in Mexico.)
--The taxi drivers are really cheeky.
On to another subject, the toilet paper here seems either to be non-existent, or of a frou-frou variety (pink, or with puppies on it).
I guess I’ll go see the family again soon (in case you didn’t know we found the relatives! Lots to say on that later.) and maybe they’ll expand my imaginary Arabic vocab.
Being here, I realize how limited my knowledge of Christianity is, how non-existent my knowledge of Islam is, and how many random facts I know about Judaism. It’s funny how that worked out.
Religion is a strange thing, if you think about it—there are so many factors that determine what we subscribe to, from background to exposure to personal preference to associations. Loyalty, guilt, need, current environment and habit can be added to the list.
Some people are driven by what makes sense to them, and can’t accept things that don’t. Marin from Ireland, for example, was raised Catholic. When the dig team went to Bethlehem (bate-lahem: house of meat) to see the church of the Nativity, she told me she just didn’t believe because it just didn’t work in her head.
Very valid, and a sharp contrast from a lot of people here.
Anyway I’m enjoying learning all sorts of things about Judaism, trying to reconcile the many things I like about Jewish culture (and the occasional thing I find difficult) along with some people’s habit of openly expressing feelings about the Arabs. (Sometimes the best way to stay friends with someone is to bite your own tongue. It’s a choice—what’s more important in the long run.)
I am however relatively sure that if I was brought up with Judaism I would not find it interesting, and might even have rejected it all together. Christianity is only palatable to me in my own interpretations and I certainly don’t care about the culture surrounding it.
Rick the awesome youth leader and minister in training left me a book called "More Than a Carpenter". It's very short and seeks to prove the validity of Christ. Should be interesting.
Okay that was a digression.
I guess that’s all I got.
Shalom
Peace
Salaam
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