what I've learned this summer

Israel's Ikea serves hummus in its cafeteria (and no meatballs).

More Eilat and that's it

We departed Eilat yesterday morning at 6:30 and are now in Herzliya visiting Shlomit and Ilan! Here are a couple more Eilat pics (kind of random). This was taken at an abandoned army base on a mountain above Eilat that we visited one evening. It was really beautiful from up there, and Lilah is all into climbing hills and mountains these days.

This was taken by M at the Dan Hotel. There were several of these posters promoting Yoni's services (which apparently consist of making Israelis blonde) in the hotel.

And sandwiches and coffee at Cafe Hillel in the Queen of Sheba mall on the boardwalk. You can't even imagine what this paltry meal cost; we were probably blinded by the sun as we foolishly walked near the beach on our last day in Eilat in the crazy heat.

Mizpeh

Our hair blew in the breeze atop the observatory in Eilat this week. In addition to the view, the numerous aquariums with exotic fish and the underwater observatory (which Lilah visited when she was 3 months old and loved), one can play under the burning sun on the fish-themed playground.

Eilat - the beach

At some point during this past week we went to the beach one morning. We haven't gone more because it's just truly too hot (43 degrees celsius, which is around 109) most of the time. Why are we here in the summer again? Anyway, we went to the beach near Herod's and the Dan Hotel where Yoram works. The beach is pretty nice, with sand and even little fish swimming around in the COLD water. The people watching is amazing here.

Still life

Eilat part 1

I forgot one awesome picture from the Dead Sea (see previous post). This kid was getting the cast on his arm wrapped in Saran Wrap so he could enter the trashy kiddie pool at the Tsell Harim Hotel (note plastic chunks of pool at the water's edge). On Thursday we picked up Safta at the train station in Beersheva and drove 3+ hours to Eilat, which is the southern tip of Israel. It's basically a resort city on the Red Sea, bordering Sinai and Aqaba in Jordan. On the way we stopped at Hazeva and I took this pic of the branch of the Aroma Cafe there, which proves M's point (made to someone last week; I don't remember) that there is an Aroma in every hole in this country now. I guess one shouldn't complain as the only other food option at this rest stop was Burger Ranch.

M's brother and family live in Eilat and we're staying with them for about a week. One of the first things we did was go on a big food shopping spree on Friday. Here's Lilah drinking yummy strawberry goat's milk yogurt in the cart in front of apples and cheap red peppers (a little more than $1 a kilo - awesome!).
Lilah bonded instantly with her cousin Maya.
She has most certainly NOT bonded with Henry the bulldog or with any of the other 3 dogs here.

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.