Sabbath touring

Saturday was so busy, I was too tired to do a blog post when we got back from touring...we saw three sites, and a lot of the countryside from the bus windows.

Here's me in the stadium/theatre at Bet Shean - you can get an idea of the scale of it...

At Zippori, also known as Sephoris, we saw a lot of well-preserved mosaics, but I think this was my favourite...we've been digging up a lot of shards of Roman fineware at Hippos, so it was really interesting to see it here, intact.

Then we went to Nazareth, to the Basilica of the Annuciation. The church was pretty neat, but Nazareth was basically just one big souk. There hasn't been much, if any, archeaological work done there, so it was really hard to look around and picture Jesus walking there. However, I did pick up a few nice things at this little store...

I've been keeping a sort of mental "critter count" on the trip. Yesterday was very exciting, because I saw sheep, goats, ducks, and a cute furry mamal of some sort that I've never seen before. When I came out from having dinner and was watching the ducks, it scuttled across the deck, and it was about the size of a small cat, was mottled brown, had a pointy face and a big fluffy tail that was as long as it's body. I have no idea what it was, but it sure was cute. I also saw the most pathetic cat I've ever seen - it was at the gift shop at Bet Shean, and she was hanging around. She was so friendly, but sooo sooo skinny. She was obviously nursing, but she wasn't very old herself and just as obviously wasn't getting enough to eat. I felt really bad leaving her there. :(

Today on the dig our team branched out, with two new recruits, to start exacvating another square a bit further over to see if the wall we found runs through there as well. We also continued with the square we've been working on up till now, trying to get it down to the same level as the floor in the next room. I'm really sore today! As soon as I'm done this, I'm going for a nap...

One of the new diggers to our square is this Southern gentelman named Gene, and I'm quite enjoying working with him. I wouldn't say he's old enough to be my grandfather, but he's got a generation or two on me. Anyway, the first time he called me "ma'am" I was a bit taken aback, and then I decided I liked it - it makes me feel old when the kid at the grocery store calls me ma'am, but when someone older then me does, it feels more respectful. He also called me girl, which makes me feel younger, and is also pretty cool. :) He's got a wicked sense of humour, and apparently he's preaching at the Sunday service tonight, so I'm looking forward to that!