Being accepted for the dig was just the beginning. There were a lot of things to do before we actually left, including a whole semester of college.
Perhaps I should have started keeping a journal right at that point, but, honestly, I didn't even think of it. There was a lot going on.
As I said in the last post, I found out on January 8th that I would be going on the dig. Just a few days later, on January 12th, a group of us went to see the Amonhotep III exhibit in Fort Worth. (Doing a quick internet search uncovered an article about the exhibit.) I believe that most, if not all, of us on the trip had been selected for the digs. It was archaeology related, plus I've always enjoyed ancient Egypt.
We had various meetings for dig participants during the spring semester. I can't tell you the dates or topics of most of these meetings. I know that at one meeting photos were taken for passports and visas. This was a good thing since I did not have a passport yet at this time.
One requirement for being selected as a dig participant was to enroll in the Introduction to Middle-Eastern Archaeology class. I still have the paper that I wrote on Biblical Hazor. I won't bother sharing it with everyone, but I am quite pleased that I received a 93 on it.
On April 5th I went to Longview and took care of getting my passport application submitted. I have a receipt showing that I paid $10 to the District Clerk, which was their processing fee. If I remember correctly the passport fee itself was only $60, far less than what it is today.
On April 26th we had a meeting to sign up for the required summer courses that were part of our dig participation. For those of us going to Hazor, we had to sign up for History 499 (Archaeological Fieldwork) and Theology 399 (Undergraduate Open Seminar: Biblical Archaeology and Geography). These courses consisted mainly of the work we were doing on the dig site and a few evening meetings and touring on Sundays.
At some point I learned that one of the additional duties that I would be helping with was videotaping the events of the dig. I had taken a Television Production class (and passed) during the fall semester, which apparently qualified me for this. There were four of us on the video crew, two of which had been on the dig the previous year.
After the end of the school year I began working for Dr. Germano, one of our group supervisors. I was doing some preparation for the video crew as well as some research projects. I distinctly remember working to put together a handout for a group that had a lot of information and photographs of Tel Hazor. I spent a lot of time in the library working on that. I was also in a position to do the video editing after the dig, a job which ultimately did not work out for me.
Finally, in late June, whether we were ready or not the preparations for the trip were done. We were to leave on June 24th. I had certainly been looking forward to it for several months. That will soon be the topic of a post on here as I delve into the contents of my journal.
The good news about getting to the point of divulging the contents of my journal is that there will also be some photos included. So far this has been a pretty plain blog, but that's all about to change. Stay with me.
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