Halfway

     Today is week 4, day 2.  We have officially made it past the halfway point and are now accustomed to digging and each other.   Last Saturday the first set of three weekers left and a new set arrived.  So far, everyone seems to be fitting in just fine.  We also switched squares.  Now I'm working in an ancient street and drain.  Everything we find is an odd greenish color due to sewage- it's lovely. 

Casey and Ben's fruit break shenanigans

     We've also settled into a routine here.  We wake up at 4:30 a.m., get ready and go to first breakfast, which usually consists of bread, butter, and coffee.  By 5, we're on the bus to the site (about a five minute ride).  We arrive at the pottery compound, take out all of our tools and carry them to the grid.  We dig until 9a.m., when we have second breakfast.  All three grids meet outside of grid 47 (where Roman columns are strewn about a field) for second breakfast, which usually consists of bread, cheese, veggies, and usually eggs of some kind.  By 9:30, we have to return to the grid to dig some more.  At 11a.m. we get fruit break, which generally consists of fruit and other food we stole from second breakfast.  Occasionally, we're rewarded with popsicles for fruit break if we've done something especially awesome.  I've found there's little I won't do for a popsicle.  We usually clean up around 12:30 and are on the bus back to the hotel by 1. 

Relaxing in the grid during fruit break

     After digging, there is nothing more refreshing than hall beers.   Supervisors and volunteers alike sit on the floor near the elevators to drink and relax.  It's a lot of fun and probably drives the hotel crazy, but it's great bonding time.  Afterwards we shower, eat lunch, and have some free time until 4 when we return to the pottery compound for pottery washing.  Nobody likes pottery washing.  It's probably one of the most mind numbing tasks.  We stand around tables and scrub all of the pottery we collected that day.  We have random conversations with each other and ask probing questions like "what's your biggest insecurity?"  or "what was the biggest lie you've ever told?"  Sometimes it feels like I'm taking a group psychology test.  After pottery washing, we return to the hotel for a lecture.  The lectures are usually pretty interesting, but everybody is so tired at this point that a lot of people fall asleep.  After lecture, we go to dinner- which tends to be leftovers from lunch. 
    By the end of the day we're all pretty wiped out.  Sometimes I'll go on a walk down to the beach with friends or go up to the roof where we like to hang out and watch the sunset.  Most nights I'm in bed before 9, preferably asleep by 8.  It's amazing how easily my sleep schedule has adjusted to the hours here.  Typically, we're asleep before the sun has totally set and awake before the sun is up.  It's a little backwards.  For all of the hard work, frustrations and minor injuries (I'm covered in cuts and bruises), I feel like my time here is flying by and I'm sad that we're already more than halfway through.