Monday, June 11, 2007

Clapping on Planes

Kalypso and I are back in Israel as we begin our excavating season at Tel Zeitah. We seem to have a good group of volunteers this year. Many are older, which is OK with me, as it makes me feel and look young. Archaeology is sort of like meditation for me. I don't have to deal with insurance agents or the political bureacrats, I just have to carry rocks, fill out locus tags, measure, and record. It's like a giant puzzle. I have to admit that I'm finding being away from New Orleans quite healthy, even though being in Israel, not too far from Gaza, brings along with it another type of stressful baggage. But for the first time in a long time, nobody clapped when the plane landed at Ben Gurion airport. I was happy about that. I was never very patriotic, and the whole idea of "school pride" made me ill. It's tough to be away though, especially from Therese and Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh lost his first tooth last Friday. He was very impressed with the whole tooth fairy setup, getting money for a tooth and all. I told him that he could get much more money by selling a kidney.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

So glad to see you're blogging during the dig. Is anyone else blogging?

Wish I could be there too....

Andrea R (2004 season)

Michael Homan said...

Andrea, Dale and I were just talking about you today. I mentioned to Dale and Ron that some girl from Chicago worked almost as hard as Andrea. Dale said he keeps in touch with you now and then, and that you're working on translating the Bible or something. Great to hear from you, and I'll ask if anyone else is blogging. I think I heard John Rodkey is, but I don't know the address as of yet

Anonymous said...

I just saw some of the pics. Wow is that a mess! Are you going to have to burn the tell again?

As for my job...I'm going to be working with language survey, but I'm not there yet. If you want to know more I'll email you sometime. For now I'm still working at an office in Indiana.

Andrea R.

mominem said...

Whats with the clapping thing?

Every time I go to or from Europe it seems to happen. Worst was Greece to NY many years ago.

A. Lin said...

I worked on a dig in Jordan 6 years ago. I loved every minute of it. So I read your post, and I wish I was digging this summer. Alas, I am at home taking care of my preschoolers. Maybe when they are older I can dig again. Of course, I'll be older then, too.

Happy digging! I hope you find something really amazing.

Anonymous said...

We always clapped when we landed in Mexico. I thought it meant "job well done Maestro, and I am glad we didn't skid off the runway and die"

John Rodkey said...

I always thought the clapping was release of pent-up tension of the white-knuckle fliers who are glad to be on the ground again in one piece.

My blog is http://zeitahdata.blogspot.com

But I haven't been very prolific this season.

John Rodkey