All good intentions

I had such good intentions for this week. Each night I would go back to my room and type out my adventures. I would also upload my pictures to my computer for safe keeping. 

Oh well.

I have two hours until dinner and will try to type up some early thoughts. 

Each day I have been posting a selfie. That will probably stop now that life is settling into a routine.

The schedule for the next four weeks:
4 am wake up
4:30 am breakfast #1
4:55 am on the bus to drive to the dig site (30-minute ride)
5:30 am climb up the mountain
9 am second breakfast delivered to us, we will dine under the olive trees 
12 noon fruit break 
12:30 pm start cleaning up
1 pm 30-minute drive back to the kibbutz
1:30 pm lunch
2:00 pm-4:30 pm free time
4:30 pm-6 pm clean some of our findings
6 pm-7 pm lectures on most nights
7 pm dinner
8 pm crash to get up at 4 the next day

Saturdays are completely free time.

Sundays are optional field trips to nearby dig sites.
(probably butchering these names, will fix later)
July 7: Tell Kavrie -- studying the Bronze Age about 45 minutes away.
July 14: Meggiddo -- a big University of Chicago project (as is Tell Keison) and Legio -- big Roman legions
July 21: Bet Shan spectacular to Bet Mar Cruss, then to the Sea of Galilee for swimming, but many opt to go to Jerusalem or Tel Aviv that weekend.

I plan to go to Akko one of the days. Should have today since we have oodles of free time (about 6 hours), but after nearly a week of traveling I opted to stroll the grounds and hand wash clothes. I miss my washer and dryer already. Time will tell how I spend my weekends.

Before I hit save again, a note about living conditions. I am in a quad (reminds me of college) -- two rooms with two beds in each. I am sharing with Julie, the seminarian who told me about the trip. We have two toilets and two sinks, but only one shower for the four of us (and we are all on the same schedule). The others, Connor and Mary seem nice. Mary also went to Princeton Theological Seminary (as did Julie). She is a world traveler who makes my travels seem trivial. I haven't talked to Connor much, yet.

Within a day or so Connor moved out to be with the "masters girls" (those going to college to earn a masters degree, as opposed to the young 'uns still in undergraduate, or us old people). We were spoiled, and we knew it. The younger people had many more people to a bathroom. Some had bunk beds. The rooms were definitely smaller.

Though the rooms were Spartan (the kindest description possible), they were quiet and the air conditioning worked. I later heard the bunk beds were more comfortable than our beds, which had a thin mattress on a plywood board. Neither Julie nor I would have wanted the top bunk.

Food was mighty miserable. We either had a meat meal (with several types of meat) or a dairy meal (with 6-10 types of dairy). When there were vegetables the vitamins were cooked out of them. Of course (no surprise to anyone who has ever traveled to Israel) tomatoes and cucumbers were at every meal --breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Drinks were either water, orange juice, or hot water (to make tea or coffee). There was often fruit and sometimes an ice cream bar (or ice milk). 

On the Kibbutz is a grocery store that was often hit for alcohol and snack food runs. We did not have access to a microwave or stove, though our room did have a refrigerator.

I'm thinking I might not get another chance to type updates until next weekend!