Concluding Week

Well, this is it! The last week of the group program. Next week starts our individual practicum. This was our last week all together, and now we are dispersed.

Sunday morning we did a run-through of our final presentations before the official ones so that we could get feedback and fix things. Then we had the rest of the day off until the afternoon when the last Hebrew lesson was scheduled. Monday we had an agricultural tour of the Western Galilee with an archaeologist who works closely with the farmers. He knows everyone that lives and works on the farms, so he was a good tour guide to talk about life out there. We went to several different farms, learned about the produce, and then were given bags of vegetables to take home. We ended up with a bag of cucumbers, tomatoes, zuccini, and a head of lettuce each, plus a communal bag of potatoes. It was way too much for the last days of the program, and even after giving some of it away as a gift and using a lot for salads, a good portion will still go bad. We also had an extravagant lunch where we didn't finish half the food on the table. Everyone was very welcoming and hospitable. We had a lot of fun.

Tuesday was the "official" final day, the day we gave our presentations at the center. We presented to several of the experts we had worked with during our stay in Akko, as well as heads of areas in the Conservation Department. The presentations went well. They were very informal and short. I was expecting them to be formal, final presentations that were supposed to be sophisticated and professional, but they weren't. They were quick, sometimes humorous, and somewhat unprofessional. They weren't meant to be final presentations, but summaries of what we had done. After the presentations we each received a certificate of completion, and then ate a nice lunch. After lunch we filled out a long evaluation of the program, and then went home.

Wednesday we did one last thing with the program. We went to Tzippori and got a tour of the archaeological park there. First we met Ornit, who lives on the moshav, at a small spring at the entrance to the moshav. Then we went to her house and had a small breakfast. After our respite we went to Al Alim, a large herb garden in the moshav. We got a brief tour of their fields and processing facilities. After the gardens we went to a goat farm and had a cheese tasting. The cheeses were flavorful and delicious. A little bit after 12pm we went to the archaeological park and got a tour with one of the head archaeologists in the area. We saw the main attractions and talked about the conservation work that had been done. We saw the ancient synagogue with its famous zodiac mosaic, the theater, and mosaics in several public buildings. Three of their most famous mosaics are one of Orpheus playing his lyre, scenes of Dionysus beating Herakles at a drinking contest, and a depiction of the Nile River and the wilderness around it. In addition to learning the history of the site and the mosaics we learned about the different conservation techniques that have been done at the site. Some of the mosaics have been put back together to partially complete missing elements, while others were consolidated and strengthened without adding any new tiles. It was a very interesting tour, as well as a very interesting site. When we were done at the archaeological park we went back to Ornit's house and ate lunch before heading back to Akko.

That's it! The program is finished. Creighton leaves to return to Canada tomorrow so she and the other girls went to Tel Aviv today for a last hurrah. I have to stay in Akko to pick up some checks for the places at which we will be staying during the practicum. I will spend the rest of the weekend uploading pictures and getting ready to leave. My next post will come from Tel Aviv during the first part of the practicum.