the south

We've been on the move this past week. Last Sunday we drove two hours from the kibbutz to Jerusalem. We stopped by the Albright to drop off a box of rocks for Susan, and saw Jill, Norma, Dorothy, Sy, Sarah and Helena during our brief visit. I hadn't been there in two years, but not much had changed (except for the construction of a new improved building where the Wright lab once stood). We then drove across town to the Givat Ram campus of Hebrew U so I could check in with the Lady Davis office (they are graciously supporting my research this summer) and have lunch with Natalie, whom we hadn't seen in years. Then we drove 1 1/2 hours south to Kibbutz Lahav, which is north of Beersheva, so I could work on the ground stone from Oded's excavations at Tel Halif from the past two seasons. Lahav was great - very laid-back, great weather (even cool at night), and, best of all, Jimmy and Glenda were there. I saw Jimmy for probably 1/2 hour the entire three days we were there, but I spent more time with Glenda, which was great. There is a bedouin museum there and so we went one day to check it out. It was pretty hot, but there were some awesome, somewhat creepy dioramas of life in the desert. There was also a forest with pistachio trees nearby (they weren't ripe).

On Wednesday, after two days of hardcore ground stone analysis (heh), we went to Arad for a bit. I had never been there before. Before we hit the big city (not) we visited the tel, which I had also never seen before, amazingly. Our visit was pretty good, although it was hot so there were complaints from the small member of our party, who wanted to be carried a lot. She also had to 'use the bathroom' a lot while we were there, which was pretty easy to manage because we were the only creatures around except for a guard who was snoozing in his SUV and the lizards who were darting in and out of the stones of the walls of the Early Bronze Age houses.

First we went to the Iron Age temple, which I was pretty excited to finally see in person. The lay reader may be interested to know that this is the best-preserved temple from the 'Old Testament' period, when there was only supposed to be one temple - in Jerusalem. Weirdly, considering it's such an important site, the signage was pretty badly done in English.

And although I have some guilt about this, we posed in the Holy of Holies in this temple - where there are reconstructions of the two standing stones found there (Yahweh and Asherah?) as well as the two incense altars that once stood in front of them. But I have been wanting to do this since W.G. Dever struck such a pose in one of my favorite Biblical Archaeology films, in which he debates C. Meyers about the goddess Asherah (I can't remember the title of this one - which I think was done for TLC - but I have it on tape if you missed it).

And look what was standing just outside the HOH, not far from the mudbrick altar - a grinding slab? Is it in situ? Is it meaningful in some way? Who knows.

By noon it was way too hot so we went to the 'city' of Arad to do something. We of course ended up in the mall, which was kind of cool because it is truly on the edge of the desert. I think we are actually doing a mall tour of Israel this summer, but what else can you do when it's so hot during the day? I think this action shot conveys the high-energy feeling of the Arad Mall.
Then we drove another half-hour to the part of the Dead Sea with all the resort hotels. I somehow convinced M that we needed to stay there that evening despite the price. We stayed in the crappiest resort hotel in the area (don't believe the pictures on their website - it is a bit decrepit but whatever), and we did get two good meals included in the fairly high price. Here's Lilah at the 'salad bar' - M's dream buffet of hummus, eggplant salads, cabbagey things, tehina, olives, etc. etc.

Lilah had scratched her back a bit during an outdoor toileting expedition at the tel earlier in the day, so when M carried her into the indoor salt pool she let out a shriek like you wouldn't believe (the Dead Sea water burns all fresh wounds, hangnails, freshly-shaven skin, etc.). So we hung out in the kiddie pool outside in an attempt not to bake in the 100+++ heat. In the evening, M went with all the Scandinavian tourists to the sea itself, where he floated for you.

Ah, science (as Aaron once said)

Finally, the reason we're here: ground stone. Susan brought up some material the other day and Lilah and I got to work on it this morning in front of Safta's house.

Lilah learns from a master (ha!) and gets to work measuring all by herself. No, this didn't slow me down at all.

Look how seriously she (and I) take this. It is science, after all.

Despite the great contributions we are making to the field, it gets boring quickly.

Haifa and Binyamina

While in Haifa we went to the Maritime Museum and saw all kinds of boats, things related to boats, pirates, and artifacts from Shiqmona. Here we are with the ram found at Athlit:

The mosaics from Shiqmona were lovely too.

We spent the night in Binyamina, and visited friends Lior and Adi and their 4 kids, which include 2-year-old twins:

The good old Agalul was perfect for a stroll to the library. Lilah is still wary of dogs.

Baha'i Gardens

Yesterday we went to the Baha'i Shrine and Gardens in Haifa, which were amazing. I had never actually been on the grounds before, and the last time M was there was when he was a kid and it was very different. Of course it was extremely hot and it was high noon when our English tour started (such as it was) so we were soaked within minutes. Lilah was appeased with the promise of a lollipop at the bottom. We descended something like 500 steps and today we're feeling it (truly pathetic). Seeing the gardens up close was great, and the sun was so bright and the Mediterranean Sea beyond so clear that it was impossible to take a bad picture, although pictures don't do it justice at all.

What you see on this tray cost $8

Seriously - it's regular fries, a sundae and a cappucino from a machine. Although McDonald's here was always expensive, now that the dollar is so weak everything is exorbitant. We were in a traffic jam on the way back from Haifa last night and we thought to sit it out rather than have Lilah scream in the car for an hour for no reason. This was the only "food" open at this junction.

Restaurants with playgrounds

You have got to love restaurants with playgrounds (and I don't mean McDonald's). We went out to eat at Tsel Tamar - a beautiful restaurant not far from here that is all jungle-like with grape vines and fish ponds - and Lilah was really only interested in playing and eating ice cream.

One from the archives - we ate here two years ago too.

Yesterday we went to Afiqim - another nearby kibbutz - and ate falafel for dinner (yummy) and got coffee and cookies at the coffee shop next to it (coffee not so exciting and way too expensive, as is everything here I guess). More things to play on outside the restaurant:

Sometimes there are even cows nearby to entertain you. We tried to go to a new "chocolate farm" at the kibbutz next door - Degania B - the other day but it was full of people so we left (we'll have to go back). While trying to wait out the crowds we visited cows. There is still some hesitancy concerning cows, large dogs, etc., but I think it's already getting better.

It's not quite as hot here, well at least in the evening. We spend our days thusly: Lilah and Abba go to "school" for awhile in the morning while I attempt to work, we eat and buy stuff in the kibbutz store around noon, we stay indoors and play or whatever in the afternoon while everyone else naps, then we go to the pool, then we go out and about among the kibbutzim in the area and find things to do, we eat, then take a walk around the kibbutz once it gets dark, try to avoid watching Lady and the Tramp, and attempt to get Lilah to bed before midnight.

First, weird days

Weird because we're really jetlagged and so basically nocturnal. Actually, we've been getting up in the afternoon and staying up through the wee hours, every day getting up a little bit earlier.
On our first day (Thursday) we got up at 3 pm, got our luggage at 5, and went to Tiberias at 6 in a failed attempt to open a bank account. Arriving so close to closing (more than 1/2 hour?) made it impossible to complete the loads of paperwork apparently required. We did get our inaugural falafel in Tiberias, though.


Note the sweatiness. It is SO HOT here. Tiberias was horrible, even in the evening. We attempted to entertain Lilah in the shuk (market) and on the waterfront, but she just wanted to eat these disgusting, brightly-colored snowball-like slushy drinks that come out of giant vats.
Friday was better, as we woke up in time to get some food for lunch and then get to the pool. Lilah tried to fight the sun with her umbrella.


The kiddie pool here is amazing - shallow, covered, and teeming with kids and their grandparents. It is the only respite in this heat. Talia found us there and befriended Lilah pretty quickly.

Then we went back to Safta's house in preparation for exciting shabbat dinner in the dining room.