Late to Bed and Early to Rise...

...Makes a man Crabby and Sleepy and...Zzzzzz



Last night we had what sounded, on paper, like an amazing opportunity; visit the ancient city of Scythopolis at Bet She'an. Scythopolis is another city of the Decapolis, so a sort of "sister-city" of Hippos. The city was destroyed in 749 AD by the same earthquake that destroyed Hippos. A grand total of 46 acres of the site has been uncovered including the main street, Roman Bathhouses and Theatre (just to name a few) For a Biblical context of the site see 1 Samuel 31, and the story of the death of Saul, specifically verses 8-13.

The plan, as we heard it, was to leave the kibbutz around 8:00 (sundown) and arrive at Bet She'an sometime between 8:45 and 9:00. Part A - Check.
After arriving at Bet She'an we would have a chance to take part in their new nighttime tours. Part B - Check
We would have around 45 minutes to one hour and be back for bed around 11:00. This is where we got off track.

Staying up until 11:00 PM when you have to be up at 4:00 AM is already crazy enough, so we debated about whether we wanted to go or not. Ultimately, we decided that, since I had never seen it and the idea of a nighttime tour was intriguing (and it was free) we couldn't pass the opportunity up! However, after arriving at the site we were greeted by a tour guide...a long winded tour guide...

To make a long story short. I'm still glad we went. The site is amazing, and the short introductory video (which they cleverly projected on the back of the theater complex) was really cool. However, not getting back to the kibbutz until nearly midnight made for a short, short night of sleep.



Surprisingly, I was OK for most of the day, and didn't really feel the effects of how tired my body was until later in the morning when I was in the sun running the wheel-barrow.

Today was the last day for the group from Concordia University Irvine which means our team will be drastically different come Sunday morning. Eric and Will, the two other members of Arny's Army (along with Andrea and I) are leaving, but we can be proud of what we accomplished on our square. I am not sure where I will be placed next week, but I am hopeful of finding something worth winning a beer from Kristina...(I thought I had it in the bag with the perplexing piece of painted marble that I found early in the week, but Darryl's square won with a cache of 6 nails all sitting nicely on a door jam...)


Arny's Army


The Whole Group at it's largest point.


Eric is 6'2" - we took a lot of dirt (AND ROCKS) out of this square!


And, for good measure, here's the sunrise we enjoyed today.