1. It's beautiful. We are staying on an oasis (called a kibbutz) which is green with palm trees and flowers and a beautiful river with the clearest water I've ever seen. We walked to the spring yesterday to swim and the water comes out of the spring at 82 degrees. It's amazing! Will post pics later. I conquered my fear of heights and went cliff jumping. SO fun! 

2. Our cabins are very cute and air conditioned. We even have a jacuzzi tub. Unfortunately, after digging we are too dirty to take baths, but it works well to wash our clothes!

3. We had our first day of digging today. It's hot(VERY hot), it's dirty, it's hard to drink enough water to keep hydrated and it's hard on your back. But it's fun and we have dug up tons of bones and pottery already! We are hoping to be at the apiaries by the end of our time here.

4. Jet lag wasn't bad at all this trip! We are both doing and feeling well! The water doesn't seem to be affecting us at all, although I have been trying to avoid the tap, which isn't entirely impossible, but I have been mixing it with powdered gatorade to mask the taste. 

5. The kibbutz is located at the bottom of Mt. Gilboa, which is where King Saul met his death, and right near the town of Beth Shean, where he was buried! It's amazing to be walking on last to old and so full of history. We were walking on land where incredible battles took place. I would love to find the Cherith Ravine, just to see my namesake, but I'm not sure if that is going to be possible.

6. That's all for now. Will write more later.

... is a really cool city. In a way, it's laid out a little like Lexington. All roads lead to the center of the city. The state capitol building is amazing! It's like a miniature Capitol Hill! I walked down the side streets tonight and the streets are lined with museums and really cute shops and restaurants. I ended up eating dinner at a really cute sandwich shop before coming back to the room and finishing up some work for the week that I needed to get done before I leave on Friday. I also bought Wisconsin Cheese (mmm!) thinking that I could just keep it in the mini-fridge in my room. But low and behold... MY ROOM DOESN"T HAVE A MINI-FRIDGE. So I have it sitting in a bucket of ice. It was expensive cheese (and really yummy!) and I don't want it to go bad.

After I finished my work I went for a run and a swim! Soooo nice and relaxing. I have met the nicest people so far. I met a molecular biologist from Finland and a retired Coast Guard Commander, and a guy who just graduated from college and is in Madison for an interview... pretty cool. AND I got window seats on all my flights. I almost missed my flight to Madison. Our plane left Lexington late and I made it to Chicago just as they were finishing boarding. Phew! So all in all, not a bad trip so far.

The only thing that has been remotely unpleasant was the lady who worked at the information desk at the Madison Airport. She was super super rude and NOT someone that I would want representing my city. There was a big sign over this phone that said "Courtesy Phone" and she was like "that is NOT a courtesy phone." I was a little confused since it SAID "courtesy phone" but whatever. I got my ride to the hotel and everything was cool. :)

So that's that so far. My meeting starts tomorrow at 10! I'll looking forward to it, actually. I think it will be very informative and interesting.

Ciao!

June is flying by! So much has been happening! Last weekend Charles went to NYC with a friend for a baseball game (that got rained out) and I stayed home. I was worried that I would be bored, but that was definitely not the case. Friday I saw "The Incredible Hulk" with a couple of my co-workers. Saturday I hung out with Shane and Aimee and we went to "It's a Grand Night for Singing" in Lexington. I was quite impressed. Then I stayed over at their house that night (sleepover!!!!) and we hung out on Sunday in our pj's watching moveis, baking cookies, eating Shane's AMAZING buffalo wing pizza... mmm! To top it all off, Sunday night a few of our friends dropped by and I ended up going to their house for snowcones! I haven't seen much of them lately so it was really good to catch up! It is wonderful to have such good friends!
This is my last full week of work for a month! Next week I will be in Wisconsin Tuesday - Thursday for business and we leave for Israel on FRIDAY! Pretty crazy! I have quite a few things left to do and I'll have to get them done this weekend.
But first things first, I'm going to spend some quality time with my HUSBAND. Seriously, we never see each other these days. I go to work at 7:30 and he's not awake yet. I have off for lunch and he works from 12-1. I get off at 5pm and he works 4pm-11. I go to bed at 10:30. Yuck. So I see him in the library and in my office. Very romantic. So we will probably go on a movie date this weekend. Maybe to celebrate my birthday! But then it's pack! pack! pack!! :)
I'm getting pretty stinkin excited!

I had a 4 day weekend this week so Charles and I went to NY to spend a couple days with my family and get our car inspected. PTL - it passed inspection with no problems!!! Not bad for a car with over 141,000 miles! We were able to see my grandparents, most of my aunts, uncles and cousins who are in NY, the Hoyts, my brother, my dog... :) It was very busy and very fun! I went to the chiropractor for the first time and he gave my back a good crack, but overall it didnt' seem to help a whole lot. We ate a Bugaboo Creek (my fave steakhouse) to celebrate my birthday, Chuck's good grades and Fathers Day! We went swimming at my Uncles house (it was SO hot when we were there!). We also ate a ton of good food on our travels - Steak and Shake, Quaker Steak and Lube, Bugaboo... mmmm! And Charles convinced me to stop at the Gap Outlet on our way home, just outside Columbus, and that was fun too!

I really miss NY. It was hot, but it is so beautiful. We walked around the park at the lake one day and the water was so blue and clear and the sky was blue and the flowers were all in bloom (spring comes so much later in NY) and it smelled like home. I wish I could live there in the summer and fall and move south for the winter (minus Christmas. I like snow on Christmas).

In 3 weeks from today I'll be in Israel. Wow!

I just got back from a 6-day Financial Aid Conference. It was a lot of good info, but 6 days is a long time... especially when it is more like a youth camp combined with a 6-day frat party. Seriously. We had team competitions and made banners (I skipped out on that one) and a talent show (I came in 2nd place for playing the piano backwards), but then every night they would bring out cases of wine and beer, and the last night they through in a dance to top it all off. I wonder how much of our registration funds went to pay for "Hospitality." There was also pizza every night and candy, and tons of junk food. On TOP of all the other food we ate every day. Thank goodness the guy I went with (it's our new guy, Jon), brought a baseball glove. That gave us a little bit of exercise. Apparently they drank the whole weeks worth of beer the first night, so every night they had to go buy more. Pretty insane.



The dance was pretty funny. You had tons of people on the floor doing the electric slide (including me) and Cotton-Eyed Joe, and then all the older folk got up and did the YMCA...

We got certificates for completing the course. They look very official, with a gold seal and everything, but we left them in the rental car... oops! But I did make it home with our class mascot, a big blow-up horse. :)



So now it's back to work for 2 days, trying to get caught up, and then tomorrow Charles and I head for NY to get our car inspected and spend a couple days with my parents. Before we go, I need to go pay my SPEEDING TICKET. Yes, I got my first speeding ticket. My dad always told me to never get a ticket before I turned 25, and I was 24 with ONE MONTH TO GO. Grrrr. My court date is June 11, but I really can't afford to take time off to go to court. So I'm just gonna pay it and then I'll go to traffic school when I get back from Israel. I'm just REALLY hoping our insurance won't sky-rocket.

Anyhow, enough of that. Back to work. Ciao.