The bus ride turned out to be just fine. Though, I've discovered that sleeping on busses is not nearly as easy when I'm not drugged. :) Needless to say, I didn't sleep much for the first 2 hour portion of the drive. We then started hitting the sites. We started at Beth Shean. This place has relatively little scriptural significance, but was incredible nonetheless. It is a fabulously preserved archaeological site from the Roman era. This site actually started out really depressing. I went to take a picture and when I turned on my camera, all it did was beep at me and tell me, "Lens error. Restart Camera." Over and over and over again. I wanted to cry. I passed it around to several people to see if they could fix it. As Eli was looking at it, Kat told me that she'd pray for me. It still didn't work. I tried not to cry as we went through the site, looking at all the places I wanted pictures of.
We walked through the bath house. We could see the little pillars that held up the saunas so that coals from fires could be placed beneath it. We saw the mosaic floors that they had put immense time and effort into. I had Cambell take a few pictures for me. Half way through, one group climbed the enormous tell in the middle to take pictures while the rest of us sat at the bottom. I saw Brad. I asked him if he knew anything about cameras. He laughed, "I know lots about cameras!" "So make mine work!" I said as I handed him my camera. His face fell a little, "Well, I don't know anything about broken cameras. But he tried nonetheless. Kat, laying next to me, was on her third prayer. Brad pulled out the memory card and the battery—giving them to me. (I had already tried this 2-3 times) He put the battery back in, and it turned on. [IMG_1172]I was ecstatic! Thus, we decided that Brad and Kat make the perfect team. We call them Brat. Kat prays and Brad touches the broken item. Magic!
I'm so happy my camera got fixed. A few minutes later we came to an amphitheater. I've always wondered how good the acoustics are in there, really. Without microphones, how well could people, really hear the people on the stage? I was impressed. I was sitting rather high up, and Bro. Merrill started talking to us from the stage. Even when he was talking quietly, I could hear him really well. So, he decided to sing to us. I had no idea he could sing that well. He sang "The Impossible Dream." It was beautiful! Luckily, my camera worked, so I got it on the movie. 
Tragically, my memory card filled up 30 seconds from the end. Kenzie said she got the whole movie, but she moved her camera around to get the audience, too. Perhaps I'll get hers and splice her audio with my video for the last 30 seconds or so. I really want to make a movie of the Center. That song on there would be great, methinks. I should talk to the memory committee and see if they want to do that for the memory, or if I should just do it on my own. Either way, I should really clean some space off of my computer so I can get lots of people's pictures.
Next stop—Bet Alpha Synagogue. The name of this place makes me laugh. It's Hebrew meets Greek. Interestingly enough, that's what the mosaic on the floor does, too. (Hmmm... I didn't make that connection until just now...) It's a Jewish synagogue, but the mosaic on the floor (which is gorgeous) is centered around a Zodiak. Above it is the Ark of the Covenant and below is Abraham sacrificing Isaac. But a zodiak?! In a Jewish synagogue?! Craziness.
Next was Sepphoris. As we stood at the map at the beginning, Benyamin tied my fanny pack to a giant chain without my knowledge. I finally felt a little tug and turned my head, expecting to see Ryan M. who will randomly hold on to my strap and let me pull him up hills. Instead I saw Benyamin, so I just chuckled and turned back, not thinking anything of it. Benyamin, however, thought he had been caught, so he just let go of the chain in disappointment. Not expecting it at all, the weight of the chain jerked me backwards, giving us all a good laugh.We ended up getting lost here. Ha! I love it. Apparently everyone was falling asleep, so the teachers felt even worse for dragging us all around the tel, backtracking several times. But, to be honest, I loved it. Well, the first stop wasn't all that great. It was on a tower, which would have been cool if it hadn't been so hazy. Apparently, you can see the Sea of Galilee from there. We could barely see 30 feet away.
They did make the top part into a museum of sorts, and it had some authentic pottery and whatnot. I was surprised to see that the really fake looking oil lamps I find everywhere actually do look authentic. Craziness. So I took a picture of it, so if those are the only oil lamps I can find, I can prove that they look authentic. ;) hehehe. (It's the one on the bottom left) All the other places, however, were full of mosaics. I've decided that I'm in love with Mosaics. I want one of my own someday. In fact, as much as Bro. Merrill keeps saying that it has to be incredibly boring, I really want to lay one down myself. Granted, I'd want someone else to make the design, but I want to actually put it down. I wonder if I could find a Tile by Number... :D
Last was the Arbel Overlook. This was amazing. 90 degree cliffs. I love the thrill of standing on heights like that. I would have absolutely loved it were it not for the wind. Most places didn't have ledges and handrails; you could just sit on a rock and hang your legs over, or lay down on your belly and look out over the cliff. :) I love that thrill. But the wind was horrible. It would have easily rivaled a bad wind in Idaho. Yeah—it was that strong. And it came in gusts, too. So, you'd get used to the little breeze that was coming through, then BAM, a strong gust would hit and knock you off balance. So you couldn't trust yourself to sit on the edge. Pity, really. Don't worry, Mom, I didn't get close enough to the edge to have scared even you. (Although the picture may not look it... ehhh...) Again, I value my life. :) I may, perchance have balance myself precariously on a pointed rock in order to take pictures for people and get a good view of the cliffs behind them... but that's a different story. I'm sure Travis would agree that sometimes, a good picture is worth some sacrifice. :D Plus, I kept someone right there next to me to catch me if I fell. And I definitely reached out for balance a few times—waiting out a gust of wind before I took the picture. But even with the wind, the cliffs were amazing. They were worth the stop.Last stop—Ein Gev. This is the kibbutz we're staying at for the week. One reason that Galilee is much more pleasant than Egypt is that we have one place to stay. We can put our luggage in our room, and forget about it all day. We can unpack and spread our stuff around, and not have to worry about cleaning it up for days. hehehe. Egypt, we had a different hotel or train car every night. I really don't think we stayed in the same place more than one night in a row. Cairo... maybe two nights. But I don't think so. I should check on that. It's nice to have my own little "home." One weird part—new roommates. They split the rooms up alphabetically by class—the same roommates that I had last time we were up here. Now, I love these girls... they're all amazing. But I don't have the same comfort level with them as I do with my JC roommates. Hmmm... hopefully that'll change as the week progresses.
I got off the bus with a bad headache. I'm pretty sure it was a combination of not enough water and trying to sleep on a bus where the seats don't recline, so I definitely slept on my neck funny. I mentioned it to Sis. Huntington but reassured her that a good sleep would take care of it. And if it didn't, I had ibuprofen in my bag. She was really cute about it. It's nice to have little "mini-mothers" here. Someone who looks out for you. I've made a special little friendship with the Huntingtons. They sit right in front of me on the bus (I sit as close to the front as I can, and the teachers always take the front seats on either side. Hence, I'm always right behind either the Huntingtons or Bro. Merrill.) so I've been able to get to know them better. They are really entertaining people, that's for sure. I want to be a cute couple like them someday.
I went to my room and promptly took a nap. I woke up for dinner with a worse headache than I had left with. Dinner helped a little bit, so I convinced myself to go down to the bonfire for Ryan Morely's birthday. Everyone was just sitting around talking. My headache kept me from talking much, so I got bored rather fast, and finally decided that I'd rather sleep. So I went back to my room. However, the homework due the next day was pressing down upon me, so I decided to start that instead. Partway through, Bridget came home, carting Ashley Anne with her. So the three of us struck up a conversation. Partway through, I mentioned that I still had the headache and blamed it on sleeping on my neck funny. Immediately Ashley Anne jumped up and started giving me a back rub. Wow. I'm pretty sure it was better than many of the professional back rubs I've had. Really, she could make money off that talent. And honestly, I was in heaven. I didn't realize I hurt in so many places. And come to find out, it was my back that was throwing off my neck. She spent more time on my back than my neck, and by the time she was done, my headache had lessened dramatically. Bless her soul, that's all I have to say. She saved me that night. However, as soon as they left, I went to bed. I was so out of it, I didn't even hear everyone else come home, even though my bed is pressed up right next to Christina's. (I think it's made for couples, but is really only two twin beds.) Hmmm... Apparently I really needed sleep.
2 comments:
Loosing cam when needed most!!!!
Just like going blind when one wake up.
Ashley Anne has such a knack for ridiculously good back rubs. I'm jealous that you get to see her.
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