Oh no. We’re trying to finish off our site this week, and we were hoping to have it done yesterday, but it was so hot and everyone was so snippy that we didn’t get as much done as we needed to do. Everyone is ready to go home, and while there haven’t been any big fights yet, there has been a lot of people getting irritated. Today was better, mostly because it was the LAST DAY OF DIGGING! And we didn’t even really dig, just swept up all the loose dirt from the bedrock while the wind basically counteracted our progress… Sigh. Archaeology is sometimes just a huge lesson in futility and redundancy.
I have shoveled and hoed so much dirt… But I am definitely getting some muscle from it. I’ll hardly be recognizable when I get home, I’ll be so buff and tan. Josh commented on how defined my abs are, haha.
Now that I’ve been out here a few weeks, I remember why I love it so much. It takes a bit to get into it, but there’s something about digging that’s, well, fun. Especially when you have a site that yields cool things. Unfortunately, this last site did not, but how could you not enjoy swinging a pick and wielding a shovel and lugging 20 lbs of dirt in each hand across the entire site in 90+ degree heat? Strangely exhilerating, I must say
Some random things from Life In Jordan.
The family that owns the house lives on the floor below us, and someone down there is constantly smoking hashish (aka, pot, or its cousin). I can smell it right now as I’m typing. It comes randomly during the day. Isn’t that fun?
We all have assigned laundry days, and it takes a day or two to get your clothes back. Mine was on Saturday, and on Sunday I realized that I didn’t have any shirts, socks, or sports bras to wear. So I snuck into the backyard (we aren’t supposed to go there) and just took some of my clothes off the line. It’s kinda fun seeing everyone’s clothes hung up for the world to see. They’re all plainly visible from the upstairs window (somehow everyone knew that the bright red bra was mine…). And sometimes laundry gets mixed up and put in the wrong bag… Katie came into our room a couple weeks ago, holding a pair of Brittany’s underwear and laughing her head off. Apparently, Scott (one of the TA’s who is a tall, gangly, and slightly awkward redhead) had found it in his laundry and was super embarrassed, hahaha.
Remember how I mentioned that all of the houses here are technically still under construction? (So they don’t have to pay taxes). Well, they just leave the rebars up on the roof, sticking out all crazy-like. The other day I was distracted and walked right into one. I have a HUGE bruise on my shin, and the scrape looks like it has the imprint of the rebar. It’s kinda cool.
Our showers are three stalls all in the same room, so sometimes I’m in there with Caleb and Josh, and we always have great conversations as we’re showering, like about how they want to shave their entire bodies and using a hose instead of toilet paper. It’s definitely a different experience.
Sometimes for dessert we have these little baklava pastry things that come in a big red box and they are sooo good. Because our room is right next to the kitchen, sometimes we do roommate raids; peeking out to make sure no one is around, sneaking out the door, dashing to the kitchen and stealing some from the box, hehe. We don’t have to be sneaky or anything, but it’s fun.
My shirts fit all my roommates. None of them had a clean shirt for a special dinner we had the other night, so I let them all borrow one of mine, and they all fit and looked good. It was kinda fun =]
The special dinner was one hosted for us by a family in the village. It was absolutely delicious!!! There’s this traditional dish they make, where they cook huge quantities of rice with various vegetables mixed in, like eggplant, friend cauliflower, carrots, potatoes, peppers, etc. Then they cook chicken, put it all in one big pot and cook it some more, then turn it out onto a huge platter. We’ve had it for lunch a few times at the house, and usually one is more than enough to feed all 29 of us. This family showed the usually Arab hospitality and made us three. Plus there was a cucumber and tomato salad and amazing flat bread. And we had fresh fruit for dessert. We sat on cushions on the floor in the traditional style and ate until I literally felt like I was going to burst. It was so awesome. It’s one of my favorite experiences that I’ve had here.
There are wild cats everywhere here, and we’ve been hearing a couple of them fight a lot lately. One night last week, they were fighting in the stairwell, so it echoed like crazy (seeing as how everything here is built out of linolium and concrete). I finally got out of bed in the middle of the night (well, it was about 11:30, but we had all been in bed for two hours) and shooed them off. “Yalla, q’uta!!! Ya salaam!”.
Lots of times, we’ll see/hear trucks driving around the village, honking their horns really loudly, or kids will be shouting things from where they sit in the truck bed. It took us awhile to figure out that they were selling things, ranging from propane to shoes to watermelon. When I saw one that was selling watermelon, I ran downstairs and told Brittany, who chased it down. Fresh fruit is so sought after. I had a dream the other afternoon about eating a whole bunch of big, round, juicy grapes. Today I had an apple, and it was heaven.
My professor accidently walked in on me while I was just in my sports bra and shorts. That was awkward, hahahahahahahaha.
We are getting so many bug bites. I didn’t get any the first few weeks, but now I’m getting them everywhere, probably because we sleep with the window open because it’s getting so hot. Bug spray to bed!
I read another book today (well, I started it yesterday). Life of Pi by Yann Martel. It was really good and I would recommend it. It’s very different from most other books I’ve read, plot- and style-wise, but I liked it. It’s about a boy that survives at sea in a lifeboat for 227 days with a 450-pound Bengal tiger. And it’s a true story. Now I need to find something else to read… A never-ending quest…
Since we’re done digging, we just have a lot of write-ups and mapping and lab stuff to do. Ugh. They say that archaeology is 10% field work, and 90% research and lab work. If that’s the case, God help us all. Bismallah ir-rahman ir-rahiim…
But in less than a week we’ll be in Amman and in a week and a half I’ll be in Spain! YAY!!!!
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Scott and I actually were laughing out loud because of this post. You are great! We miss you and are very excited to see you again. Hopefully I don't go into labor before you come home. That would be so sad.
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