Friday, May 18, 2007

May 18, 2007

Ok, so I'm really far behind. Like, a week and a half. I'm so sorry. But a week in Egypt with very limited Internet access and w/o my laptop has proven detrimental to my blog writing skills. Now I'm in the rut of not wanting to write because I'm so far behind, so it'll just prove to be a huge project that I don't have time for. But every day I don't write, I end up further behind and more discouraged. So, for now, I'm just going to skip that week and keep up on the current day. Someday I'll go back and update the past week. Even if I just put in my site reports that I have to write up for class anyway.

So, I've had requests for a more Readers Digest blog. Apparently, my blogs are too long, detailed, and pictureless to be enjoyable for all. For the record, at least two of my entries now have pictures. If I had more time and energy, I would update faster, but alas, I'm about to fall asleep as I write even this. But I'll do my best to make them slightly less detailed and more entertaining.

So today was a crazy busy day. Alarm went off at 5 am. And every 3-5 mins after that for the next 20 or so minutes. (I still haven't taken the time to figure out how far apart my snoozes are.) I finally got up sometime before 5:30 with enough time to at least get dressed before heading up to breakfast, served from 5:30 to 6:15. After breakfast, I finished getting ready and headed up to the bus. Apparently, Bro. Huntington had made a little mistake, however, and told the bus drivers to be there at 7:20, not 6:20. Ahhhhh! So after 15 mins or so out there waiting, they told us that the busses were on their way, and we had 15 mins to kill, to do whatever we wanted. I chose the Internet. After answering a handful of emails and chatting with my dearest, Jessica, I went back to the bus.

The moment the bus started, a great fear hit me. I was car sick. I quickly pulled out my pseudo-Dramamine and closed my eyes, waiting for it to kick in. It didn't. It just got worse. Finally, I fled the three seats to the front of the bus and told Bro. Merrill that I was sick. He stuck me up in the "Co-pilot" seat and within 2 minutes, I grabbed the garbage can and relived the peach yogurt I had for breakfast. I'm considering not eating yogurt for awhile. :) The next bus ride was bad, too, but didn't last long. The two sites were really neat, though, and I felt better in the fresh air. I'm glad we went to these first. Lachish, which I have written many a paper about and Beit Guvrin, which had all these caves with dove cotes and an oil press. It was so neat! Then we had lunch, which I was, admittedly, a little scared to eat. For the last little while I had no food in my stomach and that had been helpful. I was a little worried about putting ammo in me for my stomach to use against me. But don't worry, after I ate, I felt much better. No nausea after that. But when one door closes.... Nausea left, drowsiness hit. Full force. I slept through one cave, and slept hiked through the rest of the tels. Needless to say, I was ready to get back to the Center. Dinner was amazing. Hungarian Goulash, Weinerschnizel, meatballs, mashed potatoes (that were absolutely amazing) and lemonade. I ate it all, going back for seconds on the mashed potatoes.

I'm still incredibly tired. I'm debating on taking a nap while I sit here on my computer with Aladin playing in the background. Wow, I haven't seen that movie for a long time. "Her mother wasn't nearly so picky." Ha! I love the things you don't catch as a child. :)

I've been thinking a lot about home lately. Is it odd that I'm finally in the city I've dreamed about being in for years, and part of me is becoming rather homesick? ~sigh. It's like, all this is a dream and not real, and I'm just ready to wake up and move on to real life. I really just have this desire to move on with life. To get a job, to have my own life, to do what I want with my time, to fall madly in love with some incredible guy and get married and settle down. I don't know... to finally live a real person's life--whatever that may be. Being here, playing all day (in a very tiring, stressful sort of way), no dating (which is actually rather nice as it relieves most guy/girl tension), etc. just makes me feel like I'm living in an alternate reality. Like, I'm at a standstill and not going where I should be going. Not that I don't feel like I shouldn't be here or anything, but like, when it's over, I have to move on. No more goofing off and playing for Tianna. No more procrastinating the real world.. And, to tell you the truth, I'm very ready for that. I've been anxiously awaiting this stage of life for a great while now. And it's almost here!

Don't get me wrong. I'm loving it here. I am thoroughly enjoying all my time and adventures here. My pictures will prove that. :) The people are amazing. I am more convinced of that the more I get to know them. Every once in awhile I get the chance to get to know someone new a little better. I'm trying to come out of my bubble and just let go and get to know everyone--to stop worrying that other people are looking down on me. I'm realizing that people like me for who I am here. It's a nice feeling. Perhaps it's just because I'm the "smart" one here (ha!), but who cares, really? Because I help people study, I then talk to them on field trips and feel comfortable sitting by them at dinner and whatnot. Everyone is so nice! Everyone really does just want to get to know everyone else. It's great.

And now I'm crazy tired. I must go.

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