I'm realizing that I'm taking far too long to update this blog with the rest of Jerusalem. (Give me a break! Each one takes me a few hours to write. Where am I supposed to find that kind of time? And no, I won't sacrifice on detail... this was my journal for those three months.) So... I still plan on finishing Jerusalem, but I'm going to post them as I get them done. And update my current life as it comes.
So... current update.
I got home from Jerusalem and the very next day (maybe 14 hours after I got off the plane) my bishop called me to be the Relief Society President. Wow... that's been an adventure. I had no idea what I was doing for the first little while. I'm finally getting a handle on it, though... 5 months later. It's quite the learning experience, and I'm grateful for it. But I won't be sad when my time is up, and I move on to the next calling. For now, I'll embrace it and make the best of it that I can. It'll be fun, really. If nothing else, it convinced me to get a food storage. (Thanks, mom, for letting me raid your pantry! ... I also bought my own food storage, thank you very much.)
I also started dating a guy when I got home. I had been friends with him since October and we had jokingly got "engaged" while I was in Jerusalem. It was very easy to start doing things with him and move straight into dating. What a wonderful boy. I learned so many things dating him. I will never, ever regret this relationship. I learned the importance of trust, communication and honesty. I learned how to sacrifice things that I want in exchange for the whole. I learned that relationships are give and take. I learned that it is possible for a guy to be able to hold me and make everything all better. I learned that I cook in order to make things all better... and that I have a Save-the-World complex. I learned that the good opinion of someone I care for can do more to make me a better person and to change the faults I have than any other persuasion. I've learned that it takes two people to build perfection... one can't do it alone. I learned that I am not limited to two-week relationships. I learned that a boy can like me despite all my flaws. I relearned that God loves me dearly. Although we're not currently dating, I will always cherish the few months we had together. Thank you for building me to where I am. Thank you for helping me learn.
Although I finished my classes in April, I postponed graduation until August so I could go to Jerusalem with BYU. Yay! I finally graduated! I got my B.A. in Ancient Near Eastern Studies. A few weeks before actual graduation (about 3 weeks after I got home), I got a job with the Church up in Salt Lake in the Church Office Building. I continued on with what I did in the Digital Lab at BYU as a student and now digitize Family History books and put them online. I'm also currently working on a special project, a favor for Church History, to put The Liahona, The Elders Journal, and The Liahona, the Elders Journal (three titles... one project) online. Currently we only have The Liahona online... and it's only one volume. But hey, you can't have everything. I'll bet if you look back in a month or two, there will be many, many more volumes up there. It's been fun working here. I've always secretly dreamed of living in Utah and working in the COB. And look, here I am, fulfilling my dreams. Who knew I would do it so early in life? The biggest problem is the commute. I leave before 6:30 am and don't get home until 5:30 pm. Such long days... Luckily, we have a remote site in Orem, so I get to spend half of my time down there. What a blessing. :)
Overall, my life is going great. Christmas was wonderful... a much needed reprieve. I'm ready to face the world again. Perfect attitude to have with the New Year approaching. I need to start writing down some new year's resolutions. Hopefully I'll be better at keeping y'all updated on my life... and in shorter posts to boot. And hopefully I'll get the last week of Israel written soon!
Happy Holidays!
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Saturday, July 14, 2007
July 14, 2007
Last day! I can't believe it. A) At the time I couldn't believe I was actually about to leave Jerusalem (though I was missing home quite a lot) and B) Now I can't believe I'm actually finally writing the last blog post.
Like I said in the last post, Travis wanted to be up for sunrise. So we got up far too early for our own good and headed up on the Mount of Olives to take pictures of the Old City as the sun rose. Rather, it turned out more that I slept in the car while Travis took pictures of the Old City as the sun rose. He came and woke me up long enough to get our self-portrait with the Old City as our backdrop.
The amazing thing of this photo shoot was that there were actually clouds in the sky! Travis had been bemoaning the lack of clouds because it takes the color out of the sky, and lo and behold, our last morning here, we got clouds. Merry Christmas, Trav.
We did some figuring and discovered that from this sunrise until we next saw the sun set (as we'd be flying with the sun) would be 24 hours. What an incredibly long day.
We drove to the airport, not even getting lost once (you should be proud of us) and got the carw returned. We tried to send some postcards from the airport, but alas, it was Saturday (read: Sabbath) so the airport post office was closed. A fruit smoothie later, we were in the airport, awaiting our flight back.
I shan't get into details of the flight. Just know there was some listening to Harry Potter (me), watching the Simpsons and playing poker on the seat in front (Travis), and much sleeping.
After we finally got back, Travis whipped out his phone and texted his roommate, Casey, wondering where he was, since he was "supposed" to pick us up. We were trying to put a bit of fear in him, making him think he was supposed to pick us up from the airport and forgot... but he lamely texted back just saying, "I thought that was tomorrow. I'm in a movie now." [rolls eyes] What kind of a lame response to a prank is that?
We finally met up with our real ride (Mom, Dad, Jessica, and my friend, Briton). Mom almost didn't recognize Travis with him actually having hair on his head and a beard. It was fantastic.
And this, my friends, finally ends the saga (over a year later) of my sojourns in the Middle East. Hope you enjoyed!
Like I said in the last post, Travis wanted to be up for sunrise. So we got up far too early for our own good and headed up on the Mount of Olives to take pictures of the Old City as the sun rose. Rather, it turned out more that I slept in the car while Travis took pictures of the Old City as the sun rose. He came and woke me up long enough to get our self-portrait with the Old City as our backdrop.
The amazing thing of this photo shoot was that there were actually clouds in the sky! Travis had been bemoaning the lack of clouds because it takes the color out of the sky, and lo and behold, our last morning here, we got clouds. Merry Christmas, Trav.
We did some figuring and discovered that from this sunrise until we next saw the sun set (as we'd be flying with the sun) would be 24 hours. What an incredibly long day.
We drove to the airport, not even getting lost once (you should be proud of us) and got the carw returned. We tried to send some postcards from the airport, but alas, it was Saturday (read: Sabbath) so the airport post office was closed. A fruit smoothie later, we were in the airport, awaiting our flight back.
I shan't get into details of the flight. Just know there was some listening to Harry Potter (me), watching the Simpsons and playing poker on the seat in front (Travis), and much sleeping.
After we finally got back, Travis whipped out his phone and texted his roommate, Casey, wondering where he was, since he was "supposed" to pick us up. We were trying to put a bit of fear in him, making him think he was supposed to pick us up from the airport and forgot... but he lamely texted back just saying, "I thought that was tomorrow. I'm in a movie now." [rolls eyes] What kind of a lame response to a prank is that?
We finally met up with our real ride (Mom, Dad, Jessica, and my friend, Briton). Mom almost didn't recognize Travis with him actually having hair on his head and a beard. It was fantastic.
And this, my friends, finally ends the saga (over a year later) of my sojourns in the Middle East. Hope you enjoyed!
Friday, July 13, 2007
July 13, 2007
Breakfast at this hotel truly is divine. After stuffing ourselves full we headed back up to the room to find that the camera battery was dead. Uh-oh! So we plugged it in and let it charge as we packed. Travis went downstairs to pay the hotel bill. I followed him down after a bit to find him still there. Turns out we owed $134 for our phone bill. Whoopsies! No one told us that using the phone (while also using a calling card) cost money. Weirdos. Plus, they didn't charge us for the phone on our last stay at that hotel. Perhaps I shouldn't have talked to Mom for so long? Well, the person at the desk was very nice and decided not to charge us for it. Whew!
Our first stop was at the brook where David picked out stones to sling at Goliath. Having purchased slings back in Jerusalem for the express purpose of having a photo shoot for David and Goliath, we decided to have a go at it. Well, Travis did anyway. Well, let's just say that he tried hard. The two young shepherd boys over yonder had pity on him and came on over, abandoning their flocks, in exchange for giving Travis a lesson. Imagine these two little boys, no older than 14, teaching a ... ummm... much older Travis how to throw a rock. It was a gleeful thing to witness. Travis also got a photo shoot out of them after they finally went back to their flock. (Something of interest: they don't cut the tails of their sheep in Israel. Did you know that sheep tails actually get quite long and curl? Which makes me wonder, why do we cut the tails off of our sheep?)
Next stop, Bet Guvrion. These are the bell caves. Very photogenic, but for the first time of my trip with Travis, I became bored out of my mind. Typically his photo shoots intrigue me, but I think I was getting a little trunky and wanting to go home while sitting in a cave with nothing to do. At least it was cool inside the cave. Of course, as soon as Travis finally said we could go (days later), Bro. Huntington and his class showed up in the cave. So, of course, I changed my mind about wanting to scurry out. We stayed and talked for awhile, happy that we ran into them on one of their field trips (since we weren't allowed to tag along on them). (Ok, so maybe I happened to know that this was the day that they were going to Bet Guvrion. But I didn't know what time they'd be there!)
As we headed back to Jerusalem we stopped at a gas station. Travis stayed outside to fill up the car with gas while I went inside to fill us up with food. I waited and waited and waited for him (he had the money) before he finally came inside. We bought our sandwiches then went outside on a picnic table to eat. It was then that he confessed why he took so long. He didn't know how to fill the car up with gas. Bahahaha! After how many decades of filling up his own car with gas, he couldn't do it in a foreign country. So, remember how the last time we filled up in Galilee a serviceman did it for us? And remember how he typed in our license plate? Turns out you always have to do that. Heaven only knows why. But since all of the instructions were in Hebrew, Travis had no idea that's what the machine wanted him to enter. Thank goodness for friendly English speaking bikers. (Never thought you would here me say that did ya?)
Then it was back to the hotel where we went to bed early, since Travis is crazy and wanted to wake up for sunrise.
Our only quote for today is kind of lame. I remember it being hilarious and starting to write it down, only to get interrupted. Over and over again. This is as far as I got... lame, huh?
Tianna: "Would it have killed a giant?"
Travis: "If I ...."
Our first stop was at the brook where David picked out stones to sling at Goliath. Having purchased slings back in Jerusalem for the express purpose of having a photo shoot for David and Goliath, we decided to have a go at it. Well, Travis did anyway. Well, let's just say that he tried hard. The two young shepherd boys over yonder had pity on him and came on over, abandoning their flocks, in exchange for giving Travis a lesson. Imagine these two little boys, no older than 14, teaching a ... ummm... much older Travis how to throw a rock. It was a gleeful thing to witness. Travis also got a photo shoot out of them after they finally went back to their flock. (Something of interest: they don't cut the tails of their sheep in Israel. Did you know that sheep tails actually get quite long and curl? Which makes me wonder, why do we cut the tails off of our sheep?)
Next stop, Bet Guvrion. These are the bell caves. Very photogenic, but for the first time of my trip with Travis, I became bored out of my mind. Typically his photo shoots intrigue me, but I think I was getting a little trunky and wanting to go home while sitting in a cave with nothing to do. At least it was cool inside the cave. Of course, as soon as Travis finally said we could go (days later), Bro. Huntington and his class showed up in the cave. So, of course, I changed my mind about wanting to scurry out. We stayed and talked for awhile, happy that we ran into them on one of their field trips (since we weren't allowed to tag along on them). (Ok, so maybe I happened to know that this was the day that they were going to Bet Guvrion. But I didn't know what time they'd be there!)
As we headed back to Jerusalem we stopped at a gas station. Travis stayed outside to fill up the car with gas while I went inside to fill us up with food. I waited and waited and waited for him (he had the money) before he finally came inside. We bought our sandwiches then went outside on a picnic table to eat. It was then that he confessed why he took so long. He didn't know how to fill the car up with gas. Bahahaha! After how many decades of filling up his own car with gas, he couldn't do it in a foreign country. So, remember how the last time we filled up in Galilee a serviceman did it for us? And remember how he typed in our license plate? Turns out you always have to do that. Heaven only knows why. But since all of the instructions were in Hebrew, Travis had no idea that's what the machine wanted him to enter. Thank goodness for friendly English speaking bikers. (Never thought you would here me say that did ya?)
Then it was back to the hotel where we went to bed early, since Travis is crazy and wanted to wake up for sunrise.
Our only quote for today is kind of lame. I remember it being hilarious and starting to write it down, only to get interrupted. Over and over again. This is as far as I got... lame, huh?
Tianna: "Would it have killed a giant?"
Travis: "If I ...."
Thursday, July 12, 2007
July 12, 2007
Wake up. Call Mom. Good start to the day. Then it was downstairs for another yummy breakfast. We took it nice and leisurely in the morning and ended up getting a late start.
First stop? Shopping! We started in the Old City, armed with a list of things that we wanted to buy, but had never gotten around to buying. It took us a long walk through to finally get everything we wanted at the price we wanted, but we managed. Everything, that is, except one CD that I had promised Carli I would get her. Since it was Israeli music and since most of the music shops in the Old City were Muslim, we had no luck. She had suggested Ben Yehuda Street, so we went over there. Enter crazy driving in Jerusalem. Did you know that there are actually several lanes, distinguished by color, that are designated solely for taxis and buses? In fact, sometimes entire roads are set aside solely for them. We learned this the hard way when we were driving down Jaffa and actually got pulled over (waved over?) by a cop standing in the road. She finally gave up trying to explain to us what we did wrong when Travis pulled out his American driver's license. Instead, she sighed exasperatedly, and waved us on, warning us not to do it again.
We finally made it to Ben Yehuda street, but the street isn't for driving; it's for walking. And since Travis couldn't find a parking spot, he decided to [Mom, this would be a good time for you to skip a few sentences] sit in the car while I went to find a music shop. I wandered up and down that stupid street with no luck. There were people everywhere playing instruments for tips, but no where that sold CDs. Finally I asked someone where I could find a music store and they pointed me just around the corner. Finally I found the store, and then the CD. And all was well in Zion.
On my way back to the car I spotted a display of amazing yamulkahs. Remembering Travis' promise that he would wear a yamulkah I bought him if it had a basketball or softball on it, I became giddy when I found an entire section dedicated to sports. I flipped the basketball over to check the price.... 80 shekels! (That's $20, my American friends.) Even if I justified spending that much, I didn't have that much cash with me. Thus, I didn't buy it. Travis has not let me live it down to this day. Apparently it's my fault that I didn't know how to pull 80 shekels out of thin air. [sigh]
Next stop: Ein Gedi. This is a beautiful oasis, hidden in the middle of desert. It's here that David hid from Saul. (Though, I would think that it would be the most obvious place to hide. "Hmm... I'm in the middle of a huge desert with no water. I don't think anyone will think to look in the oasis—the only place with water for miles and miles—where everything is green and there are many beautiful water falls." Yup. Seems logical to me.)
We started our hike up to the first set of falls. Here we found dozens of scantily clad teenage girls surrounded by an equal amount of hormonal teenage boys. Both having far too much fun for their own good. The place was seriously packed. Travis tried to take some pictures, but it was busy, distracting, and kind of uncomfortable. So we decided to keep hiking and stop at the falls on our way back down... hoping the hormones would have dissipated by then.
We made it to the second set of falls and, to our great pleasure and disbelief, it was empty! It was larger and more beautiful than the first, but apparently our group of friends down below were too impatient to keep climbing to see if there was anything better further up. After a bit we continued our trip up to find the final and most beautiful of the falls at the top of the trail. At this point I laid down on the ground where I could stare peacefully up at the waterfalls (have I ever mentioned that I love waterfalls?) and Travis took off to photograph the beauty. At one point he ended up looking down at me from above and was convinced I was sleeping. Nope! Definitely just gazing contentedly at the falls.
After awhile we realized that we had to get going soon as the park was going to be closing. On our way back down we ran across an entire herd of ibex! Of course Travis, who lugged all of his lenses around everywhere we went, decided to leave his telephoto lens in the car here. [rolls eyes] He still got some great pictures, though. Perhaps just not as close up as we would have liked.
We wanted to go to Masada and Qumran, but the hour was getting late, it was really hot, and we decided to put our priorities in order. The Dead Sea definitely was the most important. So instead we drove by Masada and I pointed out the distant plateau to Travis and we continued our journey to the Dead Sea.
Can I just mention, once again, how much I love the Dead Sea? There was a guy out there, relaxing on his back, reading a book. Travis taught me how to take really awesome pictures of people in water. (My 341st photography lesson of the trip.) Which means we've got some really fun pictures of both of us floating effortlessly in the water.
At one point Travis decided it was time for our self-portrait. Of course, we had to be in the water to take it. So here comes Travis, super-expensive camera in tow, into a giant body of salt water. Smart brother that I have. The problem with the Dead Sea is that if you're trying to stay upright, like, not in a lying down position, you tend to flip onto your side. So here is Travis, trying to go upright with a camera in his hand... and of course he tipped. I saw that camera going under, and it scared me to death. Sacrificing myself, I grabbed his falling arm and pushed up, pushing myself under. It was successful, though, making it worthwhile. Even if I did have to take a break to scramble up to shore to try and get the salt out of my eyes. 1) I did get the picture. 2)There was only one moment of extreme stress. Most of the time was quite effortless. 3) I actually spent a while in the water without a spotter taking pictures of myself. 4) Tianna is way too dramatic sometimes. 5) Thank you for saving the camera Tianna. :) You're welcome!
I headed down the beach to try and get some Dead Sea sand. This was probably the most difficult acquisition of them all. When Dead Sea mud dries out, it hardens into a pile worthy of a chainsaw. It's ridiculous. So I sat there with my little baggy and a rock I found, slowly chipping away at the mound of cement. It was ridiculously slow, though, so then I had a bright idea. What if I made it into mud?! So I poured water over my pile of sand, and it worked... but it made a really sloppy mess. I ended up figuring out a way of getting big chunks of sand and used that instead.
Travis took the opportunity to take more pictures and to just enjoy his swim. As I sat there on the beach waiting for him (I don't recall exactly what I was doing, this older man (white hair, beer belly, probably mid-50s) started talking to me. After he told me that they wouldn't let him get a visa to America and such, he started telling me that he'd love to come visit me. I laughed and pointed out the obvious flaw in his reasoning. In which he replied, "I would swim across the ocean for you." Can you say humorous awkwardness?! I took this opportunity to go find Travis again.
On our way back to Jerusalem we stopped at a parking lot so that Travis could get some distance shots of the Dead Sea and we heard the loudest BOOM! ever. After reassuring ourselves that we were not dead and there was no bomb nearby we looked into the sky and saw fighter jets speeding across the the blue. I have now officially heard a sonic boom for myself.
We finally made it back to Jerusalem... but got lost along the way. Sometimes it's difficult not being able to read Hebrew while navigating highways. Next thing we knew we were on the wrong side of the separation wall (you can tell because it was the poor side), we drove through neighborhoods that we decided it was better to stay in the car for, and we drove by parts of the separation wall that we had visited with the Center. Tragically, I hadn't paid enough attention to be able to get us back. Finally we just turned around and headed back to the highway until we were able to get back into the city. Of course, once inside we got lost on our way back to the hotel again. Go figure.
Once safely back inside the hotel we started to clean up for the day. Problem: we had wet swim suits and towels and no way to wash and dry them. So we hand washed them and left them spread out all over our apartment to dry. They were everywhere.
Next we needed to get dinner. Having spent the last several hours in the car, lost, we decided we didn't want to chance that again. There was nowhere nearby that we knew of that would still be open and we had lost the phone number to the bacon cheeseburger place. Plus the girl at the front desk who was so helpful previously in finding non-kosher eats on the sabbath was no longer at the front desk. We began to believe that she may have been too helpful for the liking of our Orthodox Jewish Hotel.We decided to revert back to childhood and eat the dinner we would have prepared for ourselves around the age of 6... pop rocks chocolate dipped in peanut butter.
I jumped in the shower that night to discover that our shower was quite amazing... it was sideways! Meaning, typically you have a long shower with the head at the end. This shower head was in the middle. So you had big empty spaces to the left and right where no water hit. Weird...
One phone call to Mom later... we slept.
First stop? Shopping! We started in the Old City, armed with a list of things that we wanted to buy, but had never gotten around to buying. It took us a long walk through to finally get everything we wanted at the price we wanted, but we managed. Everything, that is, except one CD that I had promised Carli I would get her. Since it was Israeli music and since most of the music shops in the Old City were Muslim, we had no luck. She had suggested Ben Yehuda Street, so we went over there. Enter crazy driving in Jerusalem. Did you know that there are actually several lanes, distinguished by color, that are designated solely for taxis and buses? In fact, sometimes entire roads are set aside solely for them. We learned this the hard way when we were driving down Jaffa and actually got pulled over (waved over?) by a cop standing in the road. She finally gave up trying to explain to us what we did wrong when Travis pulled out his American driver's license. Instead, she sighed exasperatedly, and waved us on, warning us not to do it again.
We finally made it to Ben Yehuda street, but the street isn't for driving; it's for walking. And since Travis couldn't find a parking spot, he decided to [Mom, this would be a good time for you to skip a few sentences] sit in the car while I went to find a music shop. I wandered up and down that stupid street with no luck. There were people everywhere playing instruments for tips, but no where that sold CDs. Finally I asked someone where I could find a music store and they pointed me just around the corner. Finally I found the store, and then the CD. And all was well in Zion.
On my way back to the car I spotted a display of amazing yamulkahs. Remembering Travis' promise that he would wear a yamulkah I bought him if it had a basketball or softball on it, I became giddy when I found an entire section dedicated to sports. I flipped the basketball over to check the price.... 80 shekels! (That's $20, my American friends.) Even if I justified spending that much, I didn't have that much cash with me. Thus, I didn't buy it. Travis has not let me live it down to this day. Apparently it's my fault that I didn't know how to pull 80 shekels out of thin air. [sigh]
Next stop: Ein Gedi. This is a beautiful oasis, hidden in the middle of desert. It's here that David hid from Saul. (Though, I would think that it would be the most obvious place to hide. "Hmm... I'm in the middle of a huge desert with no water. I don't think anyone will think to look in the oasis—the only place with water for miles and miles—where everything is green and there are many beautiful water falls." Yup. Seems logical to me.)
We started our hike up to the first set of falls. Here we found dozens of scantily clad teenage girls surrounded by an equal amount of hormonal teenage boys. Both having far too much fun for their own good. The place was seriously packed. Travis tried to take some pictures, but it was busy, distracting, and kind of uncomfortable. So we decided to keep hiking and stop at the falls on our way back down... hoping the hormones would have dissipated by then.
We made it to the second set of falls and, to our great pleasure and disbelief, it was empty! It was larger and more beautiful than the first, but apparently our group of friends down below were too impatient to keep climbing to see if there was anything better further up. After a bit we continued our trip up to find the final and most beautiful of the falls at the top of the trail. At this point I laid down on the ground where I could stare peacefully up at the waterfalls (have I ever mentioned that I love waterfalls?) and Travis took off to photograph the beauty. At one point he ended up looking down at me from above and was convinced I was sleeping. Nope! Definitely just gazing contentedly at the falls.
After awhile we realized that we had to get going soon as the park was going to be closing. On our way back down we ran across an entire herd of ibex! Of course Travis, who lugged all of his lenses around everywhere we went, decided to leave his telephoto lens in the car here. [rolls eyes] He still got some great pictures, though. Perhaps just not as close up as we would have liked.
We wanted to go to Masada and Qumran, but the hour was getting late, it was really hot, and we decided to put our priorities in order. The Dead Sea definitely was the most important. So instead we drove by Masada and I pointed out the distant plateau to Travis and we continued our journey to the Dead Sea.
Can I just mention, once again, how much I love the Dead Sea? There was a guy out there, relaxing on his back, reading a book. Travis taught me how to take really awesome pictures of people in water. (My 341st photography lesson of the trip.) Which means we've got some really fun pictures of both of us floating effortlessly in the water.
At one point Travis decided it was time for our self-portrait. Of course, we had to be in the water to take it. So here comes Travis, super-expensive camera in tow, into a giant body of salt water. Smart brother that I have. The problem with the Dead Sea is that if you're trying to stay upright, like, not in a lying down position, you tend to flip onto your side. So here is Travis, trying to go upright with a camera in his hand... and of course he tipped. I saw that camera going under, and it scared me to death. Sacrificing myself, I grabbed his falling arm and pushed up, pushing myself under. It was successful, though, making it worthwhile. Even if I did have to take a break to scramble up to shore to try and get the salt out of my eyes. 1) I did get the picture. 2)There was only one moment of extreme stress. Most of the time was quite effortless. 3) I actually spent a while in the water without a spotter taking pictures of myself. 4) Tianna is way too dramatic sometimes. 5) Thank you for saving the camera Tianna. :) You're welcome!
I headed down the beach to try and get some Dead Sea sand. This was probably the most difficult acquisition of them all. When Dead Sea mud dries out, it hardens into a pile worthy of a chainsaw. It's ridiculous. So I sat there with my little baggy and a rock I found, slowly chipping away at the mound of cement. It was ridiculously slow, though, so then I had a bright idea. What if I made it into mud?! So I poured water over my pile of sand, and it worked... but it made a really sloppy mess. I ended up figuring out a way of getting big chunks of sand and used that instead.
Travis took the opportunity to take more pictures and to just enjoy his swim. As I sat there on the beach waiting for him (I don't recall exactly what I was doing, this older man (white hair, beer belly, probably mid-50s) started talking to me. After he told me that they wouldn't let him get a visa to America and such, he started telling me that he'd love to come visit me. I laughed and pointed out the obvious flaw in his reasoning. In which he replied, "I would swim across the ocean for you." Can you say humorous awkwardness?! I took this opportunity to go find Travis again.
On our way back to Jerusalem we stopped at a parking lot so that Travis could get some distance shots of the Dead Sea and we heard the loudest BOOM! ever. After reassuring ourselves that we were not dead and there was no bomb nearby we looked into the sky and saw fighter jets speeding across the the blue. I have now officially heard a sonic boom for myself.
We finally made it back to Jerusalem... but got lost along the way. Sometimes it's difficult not being able to read Hebrew while navigating highways. Next thing we knew we were on the wrong side of the separation wall (you can tell because it was the poor side), we drove through neighborhoods that we decided it was better to stay in the car for, and we drove by parts of the separation wall that we had visited with the Center. Tragically, I hadn't paid enough attention to be able to get us back. Finally we just turned around and headed back to the highway until we were able to get back into the city. Of course, once inside we got lost on our way back to the hotel again. Go figure.
Once safely back inside the hotel we started to clean up for the day. Problem: we had wet swim suits and towels and no way to wash and dry them. So we hand washed them and left them spread out all over our apartment to dry. They were everywhere.
Next we needed to get dinner. Having spent the last several hours in the car, lost, we decided we didn't want to chance that again. There was nowhere nearby that we knew of that would still be open and we had lost the phone number to the bacon cheeseburger place. Plus the girl at the front desk who was so helpful previously in finding non-kosher eats on the sabbath was no longer at the front desk. We began to believe that she may have been too helpful for the liking of our Orthodox Jewish Hotel.We decided to revert back to childhood and eat the dinner we would have prepared for ourselves around the age of 6... pop rocks chocolate dipped in peanut butter.
I jumped in the shower that night to discover that our shower was quite amazing... it was sideways! Meaning, typically you have a long shower with the head at the end. This shower head was in the middle. So you had big empty spaces to the left and right where no water hit. Weird...
One phone call to Mom later... we slept.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
July 11, 2007
Good morning! It's our last day in Galilee. Today we head back down south. The morning was spent packing up the rest of our stuff, organized for easy retrieval, and headed down to Nazareth. With the Center we had visited a couple of really cool churches in Nazareth and so it was decided that we'd try to find them again. Especially since I had wanted to get better pictures of all the depictions of Mary that I couldn't do myself. Y'know, once upon a time, Nazareth was a podunk town. (Hence "No good thing cometh from Nazareth.") It would have been easy to find a church in it. Nowadays, Nazareth is a tourist town, and thus has grown quite large. We drove all over that place, up and down hills, through the most impossible of streets, and got utterly lost. Then, in a stroke of inspiration, we turned on one street and saw this giant billboard advertising Nazareth Village. (Check out the website to get a much better feel for this place) on the billboard were pictures of people dressed up in ancient garb. It looked promising, so we drove up and found the place.
We couldn't have asked for a more perfect place. Both of us were floored. Basically, this is a tourist spot where people could set up tours of 1st century AD. They had this hill that had all of the different important things. There was a grain field, threshing floor, sheep, wine press, oil press, vineyards and olive trees. There were buildings of various sorts, houses, a carpenter's shop, a synagogue, weaving looms, wine storage, etc. Then, they had volunteers (adults and children) that would come in and dress up in authentic garb and act as though they lived in this village. Sometimes even kids! We got a brief tour of the place, then left to go grab lunch and plan. We were scheduled to go back at 4:00 when a group was going through. Then we could take pictures to our heart's content.
We drove around for quite some time, trying to find a place to eat. Finally we maneuvered our way through several parking lots and found a KFC. It was a rather nice KFC except that the A/C was turned up way too high. I was freezing! (Anyone surprised? Doubtful.) Travis and I sat there with our scriptures and notebooks, trying to think of any stories/events that we could portray with this too-good-to-be-true set up. (Believe me, this is harder than you'd think...)
We finally left the icelandic wasteland of KFC and defrosted instantaneously upon entering our car. Still having some time to kill, we decided to look for an Internet Cafe. We had no luck, but did see a Playstation 3 store. Figuring they would be in the know, we stopped to ask if they knew where an Internet cafe was. Instead, they let us buy Internet time at their store! Nice people.
At last, we went up to the Village. We got there a wee bit before 4:00 so that Travis could set up and scope out the pictures he wanted to take. While he worked his magic, I set up shop in the winery where it was nice and cool and wrote in my blog. (I was rather behind at this point. I'll bet you'd never have guessed, huh?)
The group came... but the tour was in Portuguese! So not helpful. I understood not a word they spoke. Also, today was apparently a slow volunteer day. Only 4 adults showed up. Also, no kids nor sheep! Boring! Well, admittedly, it was still rather awesome. But not as cool as we had anticipated. While Travis set up his 4x5 camera to take real photos, I got his digital camera where I followed the group around and took pictures of whatever I wanted. I'm sure I was nowhere near the quality he shoots, but I still felt kind of cool walking around and taking pictures, as if I were someone important.
After the group finished up, we convinced a couple of the guys to stick around and model for some pictures, but they were in a hurry, so it didn't last long. To be honest, we were quite disappointed at how it turned out. It held so much promise... Oh well.
Though we had seen neither of the churches we originally set out to see, we decided it was getting late and wanted to head back to Jerusalem. At one point along the drive, we remembered that the closer we got to Jerusalem, the less fast food we'd find. So, seeing a McDonalds sign, we decided to break our vow never to eat McDonalds and pulled over. It was a large building with lots of stores around it, so we ended up driving and walking around a few times trying to find the McDonalds, to no avail. About to give up, we found a large food court right in the middle of the building. Turns out we had lots of options and didn't even have to eat McDonalds!
After lunch, on the way back to the car, we passed a book store with Harry Potter books in Hebrew on display. We backtracked to the front door and headed straight to the display. I am a devoted Harry Potter fan; how could I turn down such an opportunity? To tell you the truth, I had been wanting a Harry Potter book in Hebrew ever since I first saw them at Hebrew University. I even sent money with various people when they went to Hebrew U, but whenever I did, it was closed. I had finally given up hope that I'd ever get one. And now, here they were, right at my fingertips. I struggled deciding which one to buy. Should I get the first because it was the first? Should I get the sixth because it's my favorite? Also because it's the only one I didn't own? I had been debating this all summer. Travis helped me decide and the sixth was purchased.* As we were at the checkout, the cashier looked up surprised and asked if we spoke Hebrew. I laughed and said I read Biblical Hebrew a little bit. She smiled and said I should definitely try to read this. That's how she learned English, after all, was reading the Harry Potter books. So I should learn Hebrew the same way. Awesome.
We got back in the car and I decided to finish up one of my blogs before we took off. I was so close. Once I was done, we drove up to a cafe right next to the bookstore, to see if, by any random chance, it had free WiFi. It did. My battery was dying, however, so I quickly got online, posted the blog, saw BJ was online, so I quickly told him that I had blogged, and closed my computer. Then we took off to complete the last leg of our journey to Jerusalem.
Is anyone surprised that we got lost trying to find the hotel? We wanted to stay at the same place we had stayed before. We were tired of the hole in the wall in Galilee, and for the same price could stay in the nice hotel in Jewish Jerusalem. We finally found it, then was annoyed when, once again, our reservation didn't make it through due to the Sabbath. Finally, however, we got a room. We crashed and I tried to call Mom. There was no answer, however, so we went to bed instead.
*Here it should be noted that Travis is among the coolest brothers ever. He has bought for me all of the Harry Potter books (at this point not including 6), as well of all the Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites books. (Though, come to think of it, he still owes me the last one. [cough]) The fact that he bought me #6 in Hebrew technically completed my Harry Potter collection. Isn't he just awesome?
Quotes of the day:
- "Pass me some dirt! ... I've always wanted to say that, but I've never had a reason to... until now." Travis
- "People have always been saying they want to have dirt on me."
We couldn't have asked for a more perfect place. Both of us were floored. Basically, this is a tourist spot where people could set up tours of 1st century AD. They had this hill that had all of the different important things. There was a grain field, threshing floor, sheep, wine press, oil press, vineyards and olive trees. There were buildings of various sorts, houses, a carpenter's shop, a synagogue, weaving looms, wine storage, etc. Then, they had volunteers (adults and children) that would come in and dress up in authentic garb and act as though they lived in this village. Sometimes even kids! We got a brief tour of the place, then left to go grab lunch and plan. We were scheduled to go back at 4:00 when a group was going through. Then we could take pictures to our heart's content.
We drove around for quite some time, trying to find a place to eat. Finally we maneuvered our way through several parking lots and found a KFC. It was a rather nice KFC except that the A/C was turned up way too high. I was freezing! (Anyone surprised? Doubtful.) Travis and I sat there with our scriptures and notebooks, trying to think of any stories/events that we could portray with this too-good-to-be-true set up. (Believe me, this is harder than you'd think...)
We finally left the icelandic wasteland of KFC and defrosted instantaneously upon entering our car. Still having some time to kill, we decided to look for an Internet Cafe. We had no luck, but did see a Playstation 3 store. Figuring they would be in the know, we stopped to ask if they knew where an Internet cafe was. Instead, they let us buy Internet time at their store! Nice people.
At last, we went up to the Village. We got there a wee bit before 4:00 so that Travis could set up and scope out the pictures he wanted to take. While he worked his magic, I set up shop in the winery where it was nice and cool and wrote in my blog. (I was rather behind at this point. I'll bet you'd never have guessed, huh?)
The group came... but the tour was in Portuguese! So not helpful. I understood not a word they spoke. Also, today was apparently a slow volunteer day. Only 4 adults showed up. Also, no kids nor sheep! Boring! Well, admittedly, it was still rather awesome. But not as cool as we had anticipated. While Travis set up his 4x5 camera to take real photos, I got his digital camera where I followed the group around and took pictures of whatever I wanted. I'm sure I was nowhere near the quality he shoots, but I still felt kind of cool walking around and taking pictures, as if I were someone important.
After the group finished up, we convinced a couple of the guys to stick around and model for some pictures, but they were in a hurry, so it didn't last long. To be honest, we were quite disappointed at how it turned out. It held so much promise... Oh well.
Though we had seen neither of the churches we originally set out to see, we decided it was getting late and wanted to head back to Jerusalem. At one point along the drive, we remembered that the closer we got to Jerusalem, the less fast food we'd find. So, seeing a McDonalds sign, we decided to break our vow never to eat McDonalds and pulled over. It was a large building with lots of stores around it, so we ended up driving and walking around a few times trying to find the McDonalds, to no avail. About to give up, we found a large food court right in the middle of the building. Turns out we had lots of options and didn't even have to eat McDonalds!
After lunch, on the way back to the car, we passed a book store with Harry Potter books in Hebrew on display. We backtracked to the front door and headed straight to the display. I am a devoted Harry Potter fan; how could I turn down such an opportunity? To tell you the truth, I had been wanting a Harry Potter book in Hebrew ever since I first saw them at Hebrew University. I even sent money with various people when they went to Hebrew U, but whenever I did, it was closed. I had finally given up hope that I'd ever get one. And now, here they were, right at my fingertips. I struggled deciding which one to buy. Should I get the first because it was the first? Should I get the sixth because it's my favorite? Also because it's the only one I didn't own? I had been debating this all summer. Travis helped me decide and the sixth was purchased.* As we were at the checkout, the cashier looked up surprised and asked if we spoke Hebrew. I laughed and said I read Biblical Hebrew a little bit. She smiled and said I should definitely try to read this. That's how she learned English, after all, was reading the Harry Potter books. So I should learn Hebrew the same way. Awesome.
We got back in the car and I decided to finish up one of my blogs before we took off. I was so close. Once I was done, we drove up to a cafe right next to the bookstore, to see if, by any random chance, it had free WiFi. It did. My battery was dying, however, so I quickly got online, posted the blog, saw BJ was online, so I quickly told him that I had blogged, and closed my computer. Then we took off to complete the last leg of our journey to Jerusalem.
Is anyone surprised that we got lost trying to find the hotel? We wanted to stay at the same place we had stayed before. We were tired of the hole in the wall in Galilee, and for the same price could stay in the nice hotel in Jewish Jerusalem. We finally found it, then was annoyed when, once again, our reservation didn't make it through due to the Sabbath. Finally, however, we got a room. We crashed and I tried to call Mom. There was no answer, however, so we went to bed instead.
*Here it should be noted that Travis is among the coolest brothers ever. He has bought for me all of the Harry Potter books (at this point not including 6), as well of all the Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites books. (Though, come to think of it, he still owes me the last one. [cough]) The fact that he bought me #6 in Hebrew technically completed my Harry Potter collection. Isn't he just awesome?
Quotes of the day:
- "Pass me some dirt! ... I've always wanted to say that, but I've never had a reason to... until now." Travis
- "People have always been saying they want to have dirt on me."
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
July 10, 2007
First, I missed something very important in my last post! After lunch, we were driving around the building when I realized that I had been here before. This was the grocery store that we had stopped at with the Center! We couldn't turn down something as beautifully wonderful as a grocery store, so we parked and went inside. There we bought bread and peanut butter and juices and grapes and chips, and cereal and everything else that looked good. And the best purchase of all--pop rocks chocolate. Oh my goodness, you have never eaten anything so wonderful in your life. (Well, except those of you who have had a piece of this divinity.) It is simply a chocolate bar filled with "exploding candy" (more commonly known as pop rocks). The very taste of it will make your mouth dance and sing! Never should a person go to Israel without buying a bar of this. In fact, you should buy two and bring me back one. Or, if anyone can figure out how to order it on the Internet, I would be much obliged. Needless to say, we bought some. 8 bars of it, in fact. We brought it back to the hostel where, luckily, we had a little fridge. Which was good, because between the store and the hostel, the chocolate had already started to melt.
And now we return to this post.
Another morning at the hostel. By this time we had decided that as much as we wanted to sleep somewhere else, it was pointless to try to find another place. We had wasted so much time on it before and it just didn't seem worth it to do again. We woke up, then went out to the lobby, this time prepared for breakfast. Armed with the box of granola we had purchased the day before, we ate to our hearts content, taking back with us a handful of plastic knives to use with our peanut butter.
Next order of business, laundry and internet. The day before we had spotted a laundromat just a few doors down from the hostel. Up to this point, our only laundry services had consisted of a shower, shampoo, and a hair dryer. We were in desperate need of clean clothes. After dropping off our laundry, we headed a few more doors down to an internet cafe. It had been several days since we had communicated with anyone, and we figured Mom would want to know we were alive. Much to our dismay, the Internet was down in the Internet Cafe. Is that allowed? They gave us vague directions to get to another Internet Cafe and we left. Deciding our day would be better used in sight seeing than searching out Internet, we headed out to Dan.
Dan is one of the most beautiful places in all of Israel. In the middle of desert and brownness, Dan is green and lush. I was rather excited to go back. The great part of not being with a tour group is that we could go at our own pace. We could backtrack when we wanted. We could stop for 10 minutes to take pictures. And trust me, we did all of the above. It was here that Travis taught me about HDR. It's a method of taking a bunch of pictures (5 I believe) at different... exposures? (Oh goodness. It's been far too long and I obviously learned this really well... [rolls eyes]) But the point is, with each one, you get detail in different places. So, if you combine them, you can get detail in shadows as well as in the highlights. We got to see Winnie the Pooh's tree, which we didn't get to see when I went with the school. Also, many other places. We wandered around for most of the morning, backtracking when necessary to see everything, or simply because we missed a turn and got lost. Have I ever mentioned that I love hiking through trees and water and beautifulness? It kind of makes me want to go home and hike Cress Creek... simply for the reminiscing factor. Also, because now I'm kind of craving eating cress with Catalina dressing. Also, is it called Cress? Crest? ... I dunno. And maybe find some beautiful (yet relatively easy) hikes around here. I've been on a few since I moved down here. I should do that more this summer.
We finally left the park and found a picnic table by one of the buildings. Having gone to the grocery store the day before, and having raided the hostel of plastic knives, we came prepared for real peanut butter sandwiches. Also, grapes and chips. There were great stories there. Birds eating the bread crumbs, ants in the peanut butter and bread... yeah. We have bad luck with food, methinks. Needless to say, the food went up on higher ground that night... not on the floor. Or was it in the fridge? I think it spent some time in both places.
Then it was back to Galilee. As I unpacked stuff from the day, Travis went down and got our laundry. It wasn't until later that I realized he did not return with my pajama pants. The rest of the trip was spent with me sleeping in a skirt or the oversized pair of pants I would randomly borrow from Travis.
Next was an adventure to find Internet! We wandered down the street the closed Internet cafe told us to go down... at least the one we thought they told us to go down. We wandered aimlessly through a bunch of slightly underground shops... to no avail. Finally we took to just wandering the streets until lo and behold! An Internet cafe was found. I was well pleased to find all of the emails and Facebook wall posts all wishing me a happy birthday. You all love me. Thanks. :) Also, we finally got to report in to Mom that we were still alive and well.
Internet out of the way, it was back to touristy stuff! Next on the list was Bet Sh'ean. This was one of the ancient cities of the Acropolis. This is where Bro. Merrill sang to us in the amphitheater. This is where we find the public outhouse... with just slabs coming out of the wall to sit on. And a sign that tells you that instead of toilet paper, they used a stick and leaves. (Still, I just want to know how they know such a thing.) This is also where we took Travis' next project picture. Samson. Here we simply see the bottom of two pillars and their shadows. Between the two pillars, we see Travis' feet and his shadow stretching across. Y'know, when Samson was chained to the two pillars.
Next was Mt. Tabor. Well, by this point, the church was closed (it was nearing evening), so we couldn't go in. But we were at the top of a tall mountain, Travis couldn't let the opportunity go to waste, so it was off to take more pictures. So, an attempt was made of photographing the Mount of Transfiguration. It had a beautiful view but you could have just as easily made the argument to name it the Mount of Refuse. There was garbage everywhere. Heading home, we saw a Burger King, so we detoured to get dinner. Of course, knowing our luck, it was closed. So we kept going. The highway we were on was so dirty. It made me so sad. My recommendation is that the Center do a service project. Highway Cleanup! There... my idea is out there. Somehow, it will filter through cyberspace to the powers that be...
Further along the drive, we realized that it was finally time for our first fill-up on gas. We found a gas station and, as if we were in Oregon, an attendant came out and filled up our gas for us. Very nice of him. The only part I thought strange was that he entered our license plate number into this little device he carried. Who cares? Maybe they put a limit on how much gas a specific car can use in an allotted period of time? Maybe it's just for stats? If anyone knows, let me know.
For dinner, it was back to the Garfield-adorned burger shop where we decided to be brave and try one of the sandwiches pictured up on the wall. A long hot dog with french fries between the hot dog and the bun. Why not be adventurous? Sure, it's seemingly an American kind of food, but I've never eaten a hot dog with french fries in the US. Perfect for a foreign country adventure.
Finally, it was back to the hostel where we spent the time packing up everything, rearranging our stuff so that the things we needed were all in one or two bags, all while listening to our nightly Harry Potter and then it was off to bed.
And now we return to this post.
Another morning at the hostel. By this time we had decided that as much as we wanted to sleep somewhere else, it was pointless to try to find another place. We had wasted so much time on it before and it just didn't seem worth it to do again. We woke up, then went out to the lobby, this time prepared for breakfast. Armed with the box of granola we had purchased the day before, we ate to our hearts content, taking back with us a handful of plastic knives to use with our peanut butter.
Next order of business, laundry and internet. The day before we had spotted a laundromat just a few doors down from the hostel. Up to this point, our only laundry services had consisted of a shower, shampoo, and a hair dryer. We were in desperate need of clean clothes. After dropping off our laundry, we headed a few more doors down to an internet cafe. It had been several days since we had communicated with anyone, and we figured Mom would want to know we were alive. Much to our dismay, the Internet was down in the Internet Cafe. Is that allowed? They gave us vague directions to get to another Internet Cafe and we left. Deciding our day would be better used in sight seeing than searching out Internet, we headed out to Dan.
Dan is one of the most beautiful places in all of Israel. In the middle of desert and brownness, Dan is green and lush. I was rather excited to go back. The great part of not being with a tour group is that we could go at our own pace. We could backtrack when we wanted. We could stop for 10 minutes to take pictures. And trust me, we did all of the above. It was here that Travis taught me about HDR. It's a method of taking a bunch of pictures (5 I believe) at different... exposures? (Oh goodness. It's been far too long and I obviously learned this really well... [rolls eyes]) But the point is, with each one, you get detail in different places. So, if you combine them, you can get detail in shadows as well as in the highlights. We got to see Winnie the Pooh's tree, which we didn't get to see when I went with the school. Also, many other places. We wandered around for most of the morning, backtracking when necessary to see everything, or simply because we missed a turn and got lost. Have I ever mentioned that I love hiking through trees and water and beautifulness? It kind of makes me want to go home and hike Cress Creek... simply for the reminiscing factor. Also, because now I'm kind of craving eating cress with Catalina dressing. Also, is it called Cress? Crest? ... I dunno. And maybe find some beautiful (yet relatively easy) hikes around here. I've been on a few since I moved down here. I should do that more this summer.
We finally left the park and found a picnic table by one of the buildings. Having gone to the grocery store the day before, and having raided the hostel of plastic knives, we came prepared for real peanut butter sandwiches. Also, grapes and chips. There were great stories there. Birds eating the bread crumbs, ants in the peanut butter and bread... yeah. We have bad luck with food, methinks. Needless to say, the food went up on higher ground that night... not on the floor. Or was it in the fridge? I think it spent some time in both places.
Then it was back to Galilee. As I unpacked stuff from the day, Travis went down and got our laundry. It wasn't until later that I realized he did not return with my pajama pants. The rest of the trip was spent with me sleeping in a skirt or the oversized pair of pants I would randomly borrow from Travis.
Next was an adventure to find Internet! We wandered down the street the closed Internet cafe told us to go down... at least the one we thought they told us to go down. We wandered aimlessly through a bunch of slightly underground shops... to no avail. Finally we took to just wandering the streets until lo and behold! An Internet cafe was found. I was well pleased to find all of the emails and Facebook wall posts all wishing me a happy birthday. You all love me. Thanks. :) Also, we finally got to report in to Mom that we were still alive and well.
Internet out of the way, it was back to touristy stuff! Next on the list was Bet Sh'ean. This was one of the ancient cities of the Acropolis. This is where Bro. Merrill sang to us in the amphitheater. This is where we find the public outhouse... with just slabs coming out of the wall to sit on. And a sign that tells you that instead of toilet paper, they used a stick and leaves. (Still, I just want to know how they know such a thing.) This is also where we took Travis' next project picture. Samson. Here we simply see the bottom of two pillars and their shadows. Between the two pillars, we see Travis' feet and his shadow stretching across. Y'know, when Samson was chained to the two pillars.
Next was Mt. Tabor. Well, by this point, the church was closed (it was nearing evening), so we couldn't go in. But we were at the top of a tall mountain, Travis couldn't let the opportunity go to waste, so it was off to take more pictures. So, an attempt was made of photographing the Mount of Transfiguration. It had a beautiful view but you could have just as easily made the argument to name it the Mount of Refuse. There was garbage everywhere. Heading home, we saw a Burger King, so we detoured to get dinner. Of course, knowing our luck, it was closed. So we kept going. The highway we were on was so dirty. It made me so sad. My recommendation is that the Center do a service project. Highway Cleanup! There... my idea is out there. Somehow, it will filter through cyberspace to the powers that be...
Further along the drive, we realized that it was finally time for our first fill-up on gas. We found a gas station and, as if we were in Oregon, an attendant came out and filled up our gas for us. Very nice of him. The only part I thought strange was that he entered our license plate number into this little device he carried. Who cares? Maybe they put a limit on how much gas a specific car can use in an allotted period of time? Maybe it's just for stats? If anyone knows, let me know.
For dinner, it was back to the Garfield-adorned burger shop where we decided to be brave and try one of the sandwiches pictured up on the wall. A long hot dog with french fries between the hot dog and the bun. Why not be adventurous? Sure, it's seemingly an American kind of food, but I've never eaten a hot dog with french fries in the US. Perfect for a foreign country adventure.
Finally, it was back to the hostel where we spent the time packing up everything, rearranging our stuff so that the things we needed were all in one or two bags, all while listening to our nightly Harry Potter and then it was off to bed.
Monday, July 9, 2007
July 9, 2007
We woke up and headed out to the front desk to find out where the complimentary breakfast they promised us was. We were taken over to the other side of the lounge area where there was a small kitchen. Coffee and tea were, of course, offered and declined. Breakfast ended up consisting of cocoa and toast. Very reminiscent of breakfasts of my youth.
Our Galilee touring started. Getting to the sites around the Sea of Galilee isn't too hard. You just drive around the lake and look for signs pointing you to the next tourist attraction. It took awhile to figure out exactly where the Ginosaur Boat was housed. We found the parking complex, but ended up in a hotel (where we checked out the rates, of course) and wandering around a parking lot until we finally found the museum. Pictures were fun here. It was just dark enough that Travis had to use the tripod and long exposures to get really cool pictures. As we left, I made my customary peek into the ice cream freezer to see if there were any coconut Nok-Outs and ... sure enough, they had some! I started getting all giddy inside, but tried to suppress it. I mean, I felt slightly guilty that Travis was paying for everything. However, Travis saw the look in my eye and, being the good brother that he is, bought us each one. The thrill of this treat dims the other sites from my memory. I believe there were sites like where the Feed My Sheep sermon was given... but I honestly don't remember every place we hit that day. (And apparently my note taking skills slacked off)
Around 1:30 we decided we were really hungry and started driving around trying to find a place to eat. We followed a main road that took us away from the Sea of Galilee, but still looked promising. After awhile, we found a strip mall with one section labeled ברגר ארצ (except with a zadik sophit for anyone who cares... I just can't figure out how to do those on my computer) or, in English, Burger Land. This sounded promising. (Though, the butcher shop of the day before was still heavy in my memory.) Sure enough, this was a food court! Travis and I, wanting to fully immerse ourselves in the culture we were in decided to be bold and daring and get... no, not McDonalds... Chinese! Mmm... so good. We're such good tourists.
As we headed back to Tiberias, Travis spotted a spot we could pull off with lots of trees. Oh sure, there may have been a wee bit of off-roading, and sure the contract he signed saying he was responsible for any under-carraige damage kept running through my mind (and every once in awhile off my tongue). But we ended up in a nice little grove of trees which Travis deemed perfect for a Sermon on the Mount picture. I probably would have agreed had the wind not decided to come clear from Idaho to find us. Since Travis was our only male model, he had been teaching me how to take pictures with his 4x5 camera. So I'm sitting there with his dark cloth over my head, trying to hold it in place around my camera and my head, w/o disturbing the camera, and making sure the focus landed in the right place in the picture... the best being that the image you can see in the camera is upside down and backwards. So I had to actually think about where the focus should be, all the while fighting the flipping-flapping cloth around my head. Great fun. Pretty sure I double exposed a negative here as well. Oopsies!
Once again, we were on our way... but then, when you drive around a large lake, and it's nearing sunset, and there's places to pull off (even if it does try to eat the under carriage of your rented car) ... how do you keep driving? So of course we didn't. We pulled over and tried different ideas for a Walking on Water picture. Then Travis gave in to his love for scenic photography and photographed the sunset over the Sea of Galilee. Soooo pretty. While he set up all that jazz, I started gathering dirt for our dirt collection. (I don't think this has been mentioned previously because we were gathering it for Mom's Christmas present and couldn't spoil it. But all the major places we went to, we gathered a ziploc bag of soil/dirt/sand to bring home to layer in a jar.) Then I just sat there and watched the waves crash in on the shore. It being a windy day, the waves were quite fantastic. They got up to maybe 3 feet tall. Which is the tallest I've ever seen crashing waves. Watching them thrilled me. I was so mesmerized. It was just so... beautiful. Travis found it entertaining that I was so taken by these apparently itty bitty waves and told me that I really need to get out to the ocean sometime. I agree. Trip to California this summer anyone? I mean, really, I want to sit on a deserted beach with someone I care about and watch a sunset with gigantic waves crashing in around us. Doesn't that just sound romantic? :) I think there are just some scenarios that Anne Shirley herself would swoon over. The feeling is just overwhelming, even just in my imagination.
Ok... snapping back to reality.
For dinner, we drove around until we saw a Burger Ranch. It seemed safe enough. We laughed at the Garfield display for the kids toys. It was all translated into Hebrew, except the Christmas present (yes, in July) that was scanned in backwards, so the cursive writing on the tag was backwards and thus looked nothing like English, so it didn't get translated into Hebrew. Hahaha. A couple of burgers later, it was back to the crazy hostel where we had to pay for parking and climb Everest to get to our rooms. While Travis took a shower, I started planning for the next day. We had exhausted most of the easy to find sights around the lake, so we'd have to be more structured so we could get all the sites further away from the lake.
During our nightly Harry Potter bedtime story, we moved pictures from Travis' camera over to my computer so that we wouldn't run out of room on the camera the next day, then we drifted off to happy oblivion also known as sleep.
Our Galilee touring started. Getting to the sites around the Sea of Galilee isn't too hard. You just drive around the lake and look for signs pointing you to the next tourist attraction. It took awhile to figure out exactly where the Ginosaur Boat was housed. We found the parking complex, but ended up in a hotel (where we checked out the rates, of course) and wandering around a parking lot until we finally found the museum. Pictures were fun here. It was just dark enough that Travis had to use the tripod and long exposures to get really cool pictures. As we left, I made my customary peek into the ice cream freezer to see if there were any coconut Nok-Outs and ... sure enough, they had some! I started getting all giddy inside, but tried to suppress it. I mean, I felt slightly guilty that Travis was paying for everything. However, Travis saw the look in my eye and, being the good brother that he is, bought us each one. The thrill of this treat dims the other sites from my memory. I believe there were sites like where the Feed My Sheep sermon was given... but I honestly don't remember every place we hit that day. (And apparently my note taking skills slacked off)
Around 1:30 we decided we were really hungry and started driving around trying to find a place to eat. We followed a main road that took us away from the Sea of Galilee, but still looked promising. After awhile, we found a strip mall with one section labeled ברגר ארצ (except with a zadik sophit for anyone who cares... I just can't figure out how to do those on my computer) or, in English, Burger Land. This sounded promising. (Though, the butcher shop of the day before was still heavy in my memory.) Sure enough, this was a food court! Travis and I, wanting to fully immerse ourselves in the culture we were in decided to be bold and daring and get... no, not McDonalds... Chinese! Mmm... so good. We're such good tourists.
As we headed back to Tiberias, Travis spotted a spot we could pull off with lots of trees. Oh sure, there may have been a wee bit of off-roading, and sure the contract he signed saying he was responsible for any under-carraige damage kept running through my mind (and every once in awhile off my tongue). But we ended up in a nice little grove of trees which Travis deemed perfect for a Sermon on the Mount picture. I probably would have agreed had the wind not decided to come clear from Idaho to find us. Since Travis was our only male model, he had been teaching me how to take pictures with his 4x5 camera. So I'm sitting there with his dark cloth over my head, trying to hold it in place around my camera and my head, w/o disturbing the camera, and making sure the focus landed in the right place in the picture... the best being that the image you can see in the camera is upside down and backwards. So I had to actually think about where the focus should be, all the while fighting the flipping-flapping cloth around my head. Great fun. Pretty sure I double exposed a negative here as well. Oopsies!
Once again, we were on our way... but then, when you drive around a large lake, and it's nearing sunset, and there's places to pull off (even if it does try to eat the under carriage of your rented car) ... how do you keep driving? So of course we didn't. We pulled over and tried different ideas for a Walking on Water picture. Then Travis gave in to his love for scenic photography and photographed the sunset over the Sea of Galilee. Soooo pretty. While he set up all that jazz, I started gathering dirt for our dirt collection. (I don't think this has been mentioned previously because we were gathering it for Mom's Christmas present and couldn't spoil it. But all the major places we went to, we gathered a ziploc bag of soil/dirt/sand to bring home to layer in a jar.) Then I just sat there and watched the waves crash in on the shore. It being a windy day, the waves were quite fantastic. They got up to maybe 3 feet tall. Which is the tallest I've ever seen crashing waves. Watching them thrilled me. I was so mesmerized. It was just so... beautiful. Travis found it entertaining that I was so taken by these apparently itty bitty waves and told me that I really need to get out to the ocean sometime. I agree. Trip to California this summer anyone? I mean, really, I want to sit on a deserted beach with someone I care about and watch a sunset with gigantic waves crashing in around us. Doesn't that just sound romantic? :) I think there are just some scenarios that Anne Shirley herself would swoon over. The feeling is just overwhelming, even just in my imagination.
Ok... snapping back to reality.
For dinner, we drove around until we saw a Burger Ranch. It seemed safe enough. We laughed at the Garfield display for the kids toys. It was all translated into Hebrew, except the Christmas present (yes, in July) that was scanned in backwards, so the cursive writing on the tag was backwards and thus looked nothing like English, so it didn't get translated into Hebrew. Hahaha. A couple of burgers later, it was back to the crazy hostel where we had to pay for parking and climb Everest to get to our rooms. While Travis took a shower, I started planning for the next day. We had exhausted most of the easy to find sights around the lake, so we'd have to be more structured so we could get all the sites further away from the lake.
During our nightly Harry Potter bedtime story, we moved pictures from Travis' camera over to my computer so that we wouldn't run out of room on the camera the next day, then we drifted off to happy oblivion also known as sleep.
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