Today in the Homeland

It's sabbath today, so our digging won't start until tomorrow.  I am safely and happily in Haifa, and we took our day off to go to a maritime museum and go to the beach.  The beach was wonderful!  It had lots of little places to get drinks and beach volleyballers, paddle ballers, and lots of jellyfish.  I somehow managed not to get sunburned, but I did get some color as well as some jellyfish stings.  A group of us walked along the beach to get ice cream and fruit shakes, and I found an outdoor gym on the beach.  It looked like a colorful kids playground, only guys were working out on it.  There were bars for pull-ups so I went over and did three in a row and then sheepishly scurried over to my friends who were holding my wallet and drink.  Okay, I was a little proud, but the people here are in such good shape overall. Even the elderly men are pretty jacked and I saw a guy in his 80s doing pushups on the beach (they were not very low ones, but at age 80 something who cares).  The food here is interesting.  For breakfast this morning, I thought I put Greek yogurt on my plate, but apparently it was some cheesy sour cream sort of concoction.  They have a mix of cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes in olive oil and vinegar or something with every meal.  They do dairy or veggie in most meals, but so far we've had some chicken cutlet type things, baba ghannoug, these dark meat sort of weird flavored sausage things, potatoes, corn, pasta, bread, red juice (made with suger and red dye #40)? etc.  I was thinking we could do better by way of Israeli food, but I guess when you're feeding 16 or so people from another country you just try to give them a variety and some staples.  Our professor said it's some of the best dig food he's ever had.  If anyone ever hears me say I want to work on a dig again, please recommend I get a place with a kitchen or get a high budget for eating out.  We are about to have dinner and I'm hoping for something delicious, else I may be half the woman I was last week when I meet Kat in Vienna. Perhaps, it's just cause I'm used to eating a lot of whatever I want to cook or is there throughout the day.  We're going to the grocery store later so maybe I'll get some snacks.