Churches and Falafels

I'm getting settled into the grove here. Today was the first actual dig day, we awoke at 4am so that we could get to the dig site at 5:15, before it got too hot, then we were done at noon.

I'm digging in site E, which is just below Tel Abila (a hill where civilizations have been built on top of each other for centuries). The best part about the site is the lack of a breeze. Up top, there is a wonderful breeze, but down where I am, the tel blocks the breeze, and it gets pretty stuffy. The picture to the left is my site. There was an earthquake in the AD 600s which toppled the church, and all the pilars, they were replaced after they were dug up a few years ago, and continue to stand.

I feel a bit like a hobbit. Let me explain. We eat breakfast at 4:15am in the morning, then around 9am, we are hungry again. So, before we leave the madrassa, we grab a sack which has second breakfast in it. Therefore, we eat 4 main meals a day: breakfast, second breakfast, lunch and dinner (elevensies, afternoon tea, dinner, supper, he knows about them, doesn't he?).

This weekend, Sunday actually, we learned how to get around Jordan on our own. Dr. Vila showed us how to take the public busses to Irbid, and how to catch a taxi to the university area, then how to get back to the North Bus station, where we can catch a bus back to Hartha. It didn't go so well, my first time. As most of you know, I am not too good at foreign languages: hence the low grades in Greek. Arabic is even harder. I told the taxi driver the name of the North Bus station in Arabic, then I thought he asked where we were taking a bus to, and he nearly drove us the 30 minutes to Hartha, which would have been very expensive. But we got it all figured out, and he charged us 2 dinars (it should have only been 1 dinar).

While we were in Irbid, I bought my first falafel. It was WAY tasty. And, it was the first of many. After the falafel, we went to the cake shop, and I bought a great piece of cake. Tasty.