Today was our first full day.
We woke up at 4:00 am (then got called to prayer, again), freshened up, dressed ever-so-sexily for the occassion, ate breakfast (cereal, pita, apricot jam, tomatoes and cucumbers, goat cheese, mango juice) and left.
The bus ride was significantly shorter driving out there- 10 or 15 minutes as opposed to the 45minutes or hour it takes with traffic.
(Have I mentioned traffic is crazy here? Because it is.)

During the ride to Madaba, I rocked out to some Queen, then Rachel and I skanked to Reel Big Fish and eventually ended the journey with some Kesha "blah blah blah".... which we got stuck in everyone's heads. :)

Soooo.
Today, we set up our sifters.
Poles with a wooden sifting pan in between tied with twine, basically that we sift out our findings.
Then we got a short cave tour--- see also: Dr Walker gets really jazzed about talking to us about this stuff- so we hypothesized a lot, and she showed us where we/she thinks the caves actually end.
Which was pretty neat.
(And then the boys chased lizards.... true story. I went searching for hidden caves... and the boys chased lizards.)

Our group is very chill, which is awesome.
But I think it may cause some problems eventually... Because we all like to jack around.
Our fieldsoup (field supervisor...) has another field he's looking after, so he's away about half the time.
He's kind of showing us the ropes and hoping we pick it up quickly.
Which I think we will...

After we set up the sifters, we had second breakfast. (Yes. Like hobbits. I love this place.)
We had warm sweet tea and "egg pie" (bread baked halfway, taken out, cut in half, three eggs are broken in the middle, the bread is closed, and cheese is put on top), and we had another type of bread with olive oil and seasoning on it-- all made by the neighbors. (people who live next to the site) Delicious.
The best part was the fresh watermelon.
We leaned over the balcony and spit seeds and enjoyed the sunshine and the Jordanian breeze.

After second breakfast, we all headed back to our fields and tried to make sense of our afternoons.
[In other news- I got a 3.01... four Bs and an A. I think this major is a keeper... right after I finish my horrible music degree.)
Quite honestly, the cave dwellers didn't get much done.
We set up one square (thankfully... it was MY square)... and learned some stuff. Picked up trash. But that was about it.
I'm sure the hard work will start soon.

OH.
Remember how I complained about not getting any sun?
No worries.
The picture at the top indicates exactly where my square is located: right under a hole. haha It has a grid on top of it, but the sun shines right through.
I mean... sure, chances are I still won't get much sun, but at least I'm not in the part where I need a hard hat at hat-light.
Right where the person in the white shirt is standing is where my square is. (Mine and Wes's square. Wes is the one with the trash bag in the photo....)

AND we found out a bit more about our "cat".
Apparently it's not a cat at all- but a martin (?) or even a jackyl.
I maintain that it's a cat of sorts, still, however....
Yeah... disregard that statement... Our fieldsoup thinks it's a martin/jackyl. And I think he is silly- because what we found is CLEARLY feline.
I'm taking my camera tomorrow to take pictures of it.
(Today, we all argued over what to name it. I voted Optimus Prime. No one else agreed.)

Welp.
Time for showering and then pottery washing, and then my roommate and a friend of ours and I will be heading to the market. (we need bottled water and I need full size shower things- not travel size.)