The time has come for a few of us to say goodbye to Israel. My mother, Jim and I are currently waiting at the airport in Tel Aviv waiting for our 11:25pm flight to Atlanta. The airport is remarkably nice and we are relaxing under a wonderful fountain. On this last post from Israel – I want to take a moment and express my deep appreciation for Dr. Schuler. He is truly a remarkable man and I feel very privileged to have been able to share time with him and his project over these last two weeks. The work was hard – very hard at times, but always rewarding and under great leadership. Thank you Dr. Schuler.

Readers – Please continue to follow along with all of the important discoveries and important shenanigans at virtualdig.org.

Thank you for reading along with this great adventure. May peace prevail & God bless you!

Several of us were just working in the lab and in walked Dr. Schuler covered in dirt. He had been up on the site digging a couple of hours after most of us were back at the kibbutz. It was such a great scene that I had to document it!

Today we started to uncover more of the new wall in my square. The team is working well and we have been getting a good amount of work done at a good pace. I am finally getting adjusted to the 4am wakeup call and working in the heat. This morning was much better physically than the last several days. I’ve been stretching all throughout the day and it is really helping me to feel better onsite! Cliché, but I am now acclimated and really in the flow of this work and heat and tomorrow is my last day here. After work today the fellas and I had our usually swim/clothing washing session in the sea – then time for lunch. After lunch, while walking with mother, I was thinking about how much my brother would love it here. This evening my mother and will be leading a small devotion/prayer service. This international context is a wonderful place to consider the relationship between faith and diversity. I feel very deeply happy to be around so many different types of people here. My mother and I will dig again in the morning and will then be packing up to head back to the states. Several of us head home tomorrow – but many others will remain to finish the season. I hope to post a final entry before taking off at the airport. I am very thankful to Dr. Schuler for sharing his passions with us and I am looking forward to seeing loved ones soon!

Today was a good day on the dig site! Very hot – but good. Our new square is coming along nicely and we may have begun to uncover the south wall of the church. Dr. Schuler was excited to see the wall emerging in that portion of the space. I asked if we could name the wall after me – but that request was not met with equal enthusiasm ;). Last night I got to sneak off by myself for a little down time. I watched the sunset from the fish restaurant at the kibbutz. It was nice to have some time to be alone and reflect on this time in Israel. Life is good! Only a few days left of digging. I was really stiff today and need to keep stretched out for the remainder of my time here – I hope to finish the work here strong.

My mind is starting to drift back to work topics. I hope that any transfer students reading will remember to complete application and FAFSA processes ASAP in preparation for registration. This afternoon I am going to lay low. We will have out pottery washing at 4:30. I have the remaining part of the day free and hope to get some emails out!

Well…my body is sore in a way that could only indicate one thing – I am indeed back at the dig site. Today was a good day of digging. We have two new team members I have been working with one of them on a new square where we are beginning to uncover a wall. I seem to have hit a wall myself today – physically. I am very tired. This evening I will rest up for my final week on top on Hippos.

After digging, this afternoon a few of us ventured around the sea to visit Tiberias. It was nice to see the city that has been the distant light backdrop to our 4am wake up calls. A funny thing also happened while we were there – I met a young lady from Edina MN! What are the odds? She had just arrived for 10 days in the country financed by the Israeli government in a program for Jewish people to visit Israel. I looked around a few shops and had a nice visit. Dad – mom bought some new jewelry. Speaking of my mother – I almost forgot to say that she found two third or fourth century coins yesterday! The LaCroixs came to Israel to produce artifacts! Now, with our good work done, it is about time for dinner and a sunset swim in the Sea of Galilee before bed. (My guest bolgger – Andrea- is the little lady in the middle photo)

Thanks to Andrea for covering for me while I was gone. I’ve had more than a few positive comments about her witty little antics – thanks! I have even been getting some Andrea fan mail.

We just returned to the kibbutz from a weekend in Jerusalem. It was nearly unbelievable. To say only that Jerusalem is beautiful would ignore some of its tragic elements. In my very limited exposure of the city, it seems to be contradictions juxtaposed – modern & incomprehensibly old; holy & profane; tender & violent; extreme & casual. It is a city of passions – both good and bad in my mind. It is the greatest place I have ever been. It made me joyful and sad – I wish I was there now. We walked where Jesus did and wound our way though the tiny streets and alleys. The city is layer upon layer of human history including all of the culture, celebration, oppression and liberation that you could imagine. This trip helped me to peal another layer of ignorance off of my confusion about this nation and its political situation.

Jacob will be returning to you all soon, and I will be returning to only managing my own blog. But before I go, I thought I’d leave an “Ode to Food” in honor of the grocery shopping the three of us who stayed behind did and the ‘meal’ we just prepared for our Jerusalem traveling comrades.

We made 2 trips to the kibbutz store and spent almost 600 NIS on food (including ice cream bars for ourselves). We have pita bread, normal bread, tomatoes, onions, peppers, hummus, cookies, chips, pretzels, chocolate (candy bars and Nutella), fruit, granola bars, wine and lots of beer. And now the group has returned so it’s time to eat!

Hooray!

Bye bye!
Andrea

Here’s what Jacob missed by going to Jersualem: playing the bongos to Bob Marley music on the beach as the sun went down with people who speak a different language. I guess that’s what he gets for choosing to go and visit holy places instead of staying here for the weekend! (I’m sure they’re all having an amazing time there while we’re lazy and crazy here!)

The funnest part about joining in the festivities was that while it was a big cultural experience, it just reminded me of some kind of block party, or even a 4th of July party that I might attend back home – there were even fireworks at the end of the hour and a half long program! The party itself: people were eating and talking and having fun, instead of grilling burgers and brats they were serving falafel, and the program was made up of kids doing skits, a choir singing songs, and even a small ‘band’ playing all the music live. There was a stage with a homemade background and lights and just a whole lot of people. It was pretty groovy to be included, even though we had to guess at what was actually happening!

And now it’s obviously been an exhausting day and we must get our rest – tomorrow I have big plans to build a sand castle on the beach, so you can see why I will need all my energy for the day!

Maybe I’ll have time for one more guest post before Jacob returns and changes his password so I can’t do these anymore!

Andrea

Greetings from the kibbutz – this is Andrea Chandler and I will be guest posting on Jacob’s site until he and the rest of the group return from Jerusalem tomorrow (Saturday) evening. There were three of us on the team that stayed behind this weekend…so I offered to attempt to keep Jacob’s fans updated on what was happening on this side of the world at least for a couple of days. He was very trusting to let me do this…

Anyhoo – while the rest of the group runs around Jerusalem (not kidding about the running part – they do a LOT in 2 days), the three of us here are partying with the kibbutzniks in honor of the 70th birthday of the kibbutz. Today is a pretty big deal: we went to breakfast in the dining hall, where a buffet was set up with food and people were just milling around talking and looking at pictures, then we went for a boat ride on the sea – where a man sat and talked the whole time about the kibbutz and the mountain in Hebrew and we could only pick out words every once in a while, and then we had lunch at the fish restaurant. It was really good…and tonight they will feed us more (falafel, coffee and cake on the beach), let us do crafts (not sure what that entails) and there will be a program (in Hebrew, of course, so we will just have to laugh and clap according to what others are doing). At any rate – we’re having a fantastic time bumming around the kibbutz, being lazy, eating a lot, and trying to fit in!

So…until the next time you hear from me – which should be more today and as much tomorrow as I can fit in before Jacob gets back and bans me from his blog – farewell!

Andrea

Happy Fourth of July! Today was a bit grueling on the dig site – It was hot with very little wind blowing. Our group has been saying that we have been loving every minute here, but are getting physically exhausted. Dr. Schuler is a wonderful director of the site. His passion for his work is very obvious and is second only to his commitment to our safety and hydration. The other teams jokingly say that Dr. Schuler is famous throughout Israel for his stopwatch beeping rhythmically over the day indicating our mandatory water breaks. He is great to work with!

Quote of the day: John (while speaking to his fiancé on the phone): “Today we moved a pillar…and let me tell you…pillars are heavy”. Look for video of this crazy stunt soon at csp.edu. We will be trying to do several little videos for the site in the coming dig days.

Today and tomorrow morning are kibbutz laundry days – apparently our laundered things will all be in a huge pile in the complexes laundry room midday; we will be let into the room and each person must pick in the items to locate their things. Apparently it gets kind of funny to watch.

Tomorrow we will be digging and heading to Jerusalem in the afternoon. I will not be able to post for the next few days, but will update you ASAP! Thank you all for your thoughts, emails and prayers – it is much appreciated!