I drew this picture when I was five-years-old:
It’s a drawing of Hurricane Katrina. I drew it when we moved back from Omaha to New Orleans in January 2006. I stayed in Nebraska for four months. It was fun moving closer to my relatives, most of them are in Omaha. I don’t think about the Hurricane very much. I am glad I moved back to New Orleans because of the food, friends, and the Saints.
When we were at the pyramids a Tourist Police officer tried to scam us. He tried to get me to put my hand up and then take a picture so it would look like I was picking up one of the three pyramids. Then he asked for money. It was really odd because normally police officers are supposed to get you out of scams. We didn’t pay him anything.
I saw the Step Pyramid in Saqqara and the Bent Pyramid today. Here is a picture of me at the Bent Pyramid.
It’s bent because when they were building it the thing was too steep so they made the top go in. We also went to the pyramids at Giza. When I first saw them in the taxi I was very excited and said “Wow!”I also got to ride a camel today. When it gets up it leans forward so you fall forward then it leans backward and you go back. My camel’s name was Oscar.
Finally, I got to see the Sphinx. It was strange because you don’t see human heads with cat bodies, but it was exciting still to see it.
We went to Petra today. We walked to the Treasury first, and then to the Monastery up many steps. There were many donkeys. The city was carved out of rock. I learned about the Nabateans who lived there. I also learned that Agatha Christie stayed there. My legs are tired from walking. Tomorrow we relax, maybe eat ice cream, and then we head back to the dig in the afternoon.
I took some pictures of some camels when we were at our dig site. The camels walk by our dig site just about every day. They are being watched by a Bedouin in a white pickup truck. There is one white camel. It might be albino. Camels are a lot bigger than I thought they were. I thought they would be just a little bigger than a donkey. But they are way bigger. I hope to ride a camel in Egypt.
Last time I wrote I was in Israel. This time I am in Jordan. I went snorkeling in the Red Sea. Here is a picture:
When I went snorkeling I could see a bunch of coral and fish and three eels.Here is a picture of me at our archaeology camp.
One of my teammates on the dig found some painted pottery. We have tents that go along with the dig because they are called “Copper Canyon” and there is copper at our site. I am having a good time doing archaeology in Jordan. It’s fun.
I am in Israel and I’ve been here since Monday. I was born in Jerusalem in 2000 and haven’t been back since now. Tomorrow we leave for Jordan. We’re staying in Jerusalem at the Christmas Hotel. The first couple of days we walked around Jerusalem, mostly in the Old City. My favorite part was going to the Temple Mount and seeing the Dome of the Rock.
Then we rented a car. I was at the Dead Sea and when I was there instead of regular swimming you float. It was fun. There were a bunch of rocks in the bottom. Here is a picture of me floating in the Dead Sea.
I also went to several archaeological sites, including Megiddo, Arad, Zeitah, and Beth Shean which had a large Roman city. I went swimming in the Dead Sea, the Mediterranean, the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee. I ate dinner at the Bistro at Kibbutz Galon. Everyone there asked me about my sister who used to stay there when she did archaeology. Here is a picture of me at Beth Shean.
Today I was watching the World Cup soccer games. I saw Mexico play South Africa. It was a tie. Uruguay and France are playing now. I think I want France to win. It’s 0-0 now. I think France will score next. I love soccer. I think I’ve played for 3 years. Soccer is the most watched sport in the world. In some places they call it football. I think soccer is awesome.
Today me and my dad did something on triangulation. We made a square out of rope and then we put a compass in the square in a random spot. We would figure out with the triangulation where the compass was on a map that we made. We measured the distance from two corners to the compass, and then using a special ruler we put this on the map.
Me and my dad started archaeology training on Monday. Every day we walk to an outside gym and work with chin ups, push ups, and sit ups. Sometimes we use a compass and make a map of our walk. We carry back packs with big jars of water. It is fun. We leave for the Middle East in 9 days.
