(no subject)
I have to post quickly, as I have a lot of work to do, a headache from a bit too much ouzo last night, and an internet full of screaming children driving me to contemplate the various possible ways to stuff them (or myself) into the air conditioning vent.
However, despite all of the above, I'm finding myself extremely content here. Yesterday was the last day of a very successful work week (my team may have found the entrance courtyard of the Middle Bronze Age palace. maybe. well, okay, we certainly found an exterior room with pebble packed floors. tune in next time for the thrilling continuation), and so a group of us (all those who didn't immediately head to Beirut to party) took to the beach. We tried to go see the Eshmoun temple just outside of Sidon, but it apparently has very irregular hours, governed at the whim of its ancient caretaker, and the gates were locked. So we went back to site, and sprawled on the beach below the tell, the beach I look at longingly every day from the top, sweating and sweltering in the dirt. It was quite satisfying to finally jump in. We couldn't swim very far out though, because we were told very firmly by the landowners that three people had just drowned there the day before yesterday due to riptides and rocks. And there definitely were some scary currents and rock action going on. So we kind of splashed about in the shallow areas, not going in past chest height, and lazed on the sand. I took a walk down the length of the beach, and picked up murex shells, and got the shivers. Murex shells, and the purple dye they were used to produce, were what gave the Phoenicians their name, what they and their predecessors were famous for, and standing there below the tell, in the exact spot where some Middle Bronze Age and then Iron Age Levantine stood four thousand years ago, picking up those shells and staring at the same sea, I was transfixed, transported, transcendant, and any other out-of-body adjectives you can think of.
In other news, Uno and ouzo seem to have become the standard evening fare in Sidon. Which is not such a bad deal, generally, except that the competition got so intense last night that we forgot entirely to go out to the Oud concert we'd planned on. Which might have been worth it had I won a single game. ;)
I've also been filling my time with intense political conversation, which I will try to fill in later, as my thoughts become more coherent. Everybody is so deeply enmeshed in politics, interwoven with daily existence to an extent that would be unimaginable in the U.S. It seems like such a luxury now, thinking of home where people are able to shrug off politics, policy and policy makers, and elections without any real risk of their lives being affected dramatically by their apathy. It's unsustainable though, this apathy, and I think that's starting to show. On the other hand, as is seen here, fanatical devotion to a cause, no matter how worthy the cause itself, is equally destructive. Anyway, these are fairly obvious musings, so I will let them go. Everyone else is off at Byblos today, but I stayed back since I've been there and it's not a disaster to miss it again to do all of this work for the Jordan project. So, off to it I go!
Oh, and pictures are coming as soon as I can remember to put them on a pen drive and bring them with me. Tomorrow, insha'allah!
However, despite all of the above, I'm finding myself extremely content here. Yesterday was the last day of a very successful work week (my team may have found the entrance courtyard of the Middle Bronze Age palace. maybe. well, okay, we certainly found an exterior room with pebble packed floors. tune in next time for the thrilling continuation), and so a group of us (all those who didn't immediately head to Beirut to party) took to the beach. We tried to go see the Eshmoun temple just outside of Sidon, but it apparently has very irregular hours, governed at the whim of its ancient caretaker, and the gates were locked. So we went back to site, and sprawled on the beach below the tell, the beach I look at longingly every day from the top, sweating and sweltering in the dirt. It was quite satisfying to finally jump in. We couldn't swim very far out though, because we were told very firmly by the landowners that three people had just drowned there the day before yesterday due to riptides and rocks. And there definitely were some scary currents and rock action going on. So we kind of splashed about in the shallow areas, not going in past chest height, and lazed on the sand. I took a walk down the length of the beach, and picked up murex shells, and got the shivers. Murex shells, and the purple dye they were used to produce, were what gave the Phoenicians their name, what they and their predecessors were famous for, and standing there below the tell, in the exact spot where some Middle Bronze Age and then Iron Age Levantine stood four thousand years ago, picking up those shells and staring at the same sea, I was transfixed, transported, transcendant, and any other out-of-body adjectives you can think of.
In other news, Uno and ouzo seem to have become the standard evening fare in Sidon. Which is not such a bad deal, generally, except that the competition got so intense last night that we forgot entirely to go out to the Oud concert we'd planned on. Which might have been worth it had I won a single game. ;)
I've also been filling my time with intense political conversation, which I will try to fill in later, as my thoughts become more coherent. Everybody is so deeply enmeshed in politics, interwoven with daily existence to an extent that would be unimaginable in the U.S. It seems like such a luxury now, thinking of home where people are able to shrug off politics, policy and policy makers, and elections without any real risk of their lives being affected dramatically by their apathy. It's unsustainable though, this apathy, and I think that's starting to show. On the other hand, as is seen here, fanatical devotion to a cause, no matter how worthy the cause itself, is equally destructive. Anyway, these are fairly obvious musings, so I will let them go. Everyone else is off at Byblos today, but I stayed back since I've been there and it's not a disaster to miss it again to do all of this work for the Jordan project. So, off to it I go!
Oh, and pictures are coming as soon as I can remember to put them on a pen drive and bring them with me. Tomorrow, insha'allah!