First Day of Digging!

Shalom!

Last night we went to the mall and I bought a sun hat and towels for the beach.  The stores kind of all looked like Forvever 21 material, and I'm hoping to get some cool cultural stuff when we go to Jerusalem one of these weekends.  We're getting used to our hostel and the mall that is about a ten/fifteen minute walk away.  Today, we woke up at 5:30am, had breakfast at 6 (which included pancakes!), and got on the bus at 6:30 to get to the site.  We prepared the site by getting things organized first, measuring out the 15'x15' square test pits, filling bags with dirt and laying them around our test pits, tying strings, wheelbarrowing, etc.  They added a tent of breathable tarp type thing over the squares that we made so that we weren't getting completely direct sunlight out there.  I still wore my hat and applied sunscreen five times, which resulted in layers of caked sand and sunscreen.  My white tee turned brown.  My square was able to uncover part of a wall and lots of pottery shards, and I found two small bones which were probably just a recent rat's or something but it was still fun.  It was extremely hot, but we stayed hydrated and it was fun.  We had a picnic type lunch that was delicious with bread, hummus, some red sauce (slightly spicy marinara type?), avocado, cheese, etc.  It was pretty darn good.  The watermelon was a special treat afterwards.  I was in a horrid state with all the dirt and sweat, but the shower I finally had after was TERRIFIC.  We were all happy to relish in the AC that we have, even if the one in our room leaks a puddle.  Dinner is starting in 10 minutes, but stay tuned!