In Eternal Catch-Up

Let’s try to knock all of this out in one blog post.  Ok, it might take two, but I will catch up and stay on top of this, especially next semester when I won’t have Geology taking up my free time.

Pretty soon after Israel, as in a few days, we had a rogue fire alarm go off at 4:30 in the morning.  I grabbed a shirt and ran out into the hallway about the time Dr. James was coming down from his floor.  He was going to the office, like I was, which, if you remember, is just 5 steps diagonally to the right across the hall when you walk out of my apartment.

Well, this fire alarm woke me up, but for some reason I immediately thought it was a burglary alarm.  So deep down I’m nervous cause I’m thinking there is a good chance we have people in the Artemis but, at the same time, I’m trying to get psyched-up to fight if I have to.  Ridiculous I know.  However, when Dr. J first saw me and said it was the fire alarm as we were both going into the office to shut it off I immediately realized that that made a whole lot more sense.

After turning the alarm off, Dr. J and I walked throughout the entire Artemis trying to find any signs of fire or smoke.  I even discovered a new room that I hadn’t been into.  I’m telling you, this place is like a maze, or Hogwarts; there is always something new to be found.  In fact, as I write this, on March 14, I just discovered a new room 3 days ago; kind of a sub-room in the laundry room that I didn’t know existed.  Crazy!  And I like to think I’m a very observant person. 

Ok, that covers the fire alarm fiasco. 

Next, sometime the week of the fire alarm, we threw a little surprise birthday for Mark.  We’ve been trying to do unique things for everyone on their birthday, things that fit their personality.  For Kelcey’s birthday we did a scavenger hunt.  For Mark, Mrs. Beth made this famous pasta recipe from the HUF program since he was a HUF student before.   After dinner, we arranged a bonfire down at the beach.  This meant I started shuttling students down via the large white van.  Oh, by the way, it’s the manual car I’ve been practicing on with Mark teaching me.  This was my first time to really be out on real roads, taking people.  At the beach we just chilled around the campfire and even sang some.  It was a great time all around.

Looking down at the Torch and Starting Blocks for the
Marathon race in Marathon, Greece. 

That weekend (at least I think it was, the timing is not important) we went to Vravrona and Marathon.  Both sites are only a little ways away.  Vravrona is only about 4 or 5 miles behind the Artemis, in fact, it’s where we (the people who built the hotel before us) get the name for our building, the Artemis.  Check this out, it’s really neat (at least I think so, being a huge Greek Mythology nerd).  As Agamemnon was sailing from Mycenae towards Troy, for the Trojan War, he was said to have stopped at Vravrona, just a handful of mile behind our building.  While out, he killed a stag sacred to Artemis, goddess of the hunt and nature and whatnot.  The only way he could make propitiation for this sin was to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia.  Until he sacrificed his daughter, Artemis made sure there were prevailing winds that kept him from launching back off to continue his journey for Troy (which is located in Turkey).  Vravrona had a temple to Artemis, and that is why our building is named the Artemis, because it’s so close to this site.

Unfortunately, when we arrived at Vravrona, the archaeological site was closed, only the museum was open.  You can see most of the site from the road just looking over the fence.  This is a site that I didn’t even go to as a student.  I reported on it for a project and had my professor take us, but we only looked over the fence then because it was closed then too.  Maybe one day I’ll be able to walk around Vravrona.

Marathon really only had two things, a giant burial mound for those that fought in the battle of Marathon and the starting blocks for the current Marathon.

Burial Mound in Marathon.

I’ll cut this post short at here.  I know you don’t want really long blog posts.  Next time I’ll talk about the Peloponnese (Southern Greece) trip.  

Spring Trip to Israel

I know, I have taken forever to resume this blog but things have been incredibly busy.  Now I’m trying to play catch up on a good many things.

Israel was amazing, of course.  About half the things we did were totally new to me.  We had the legendary Harding favorite guide for Israel, Yossi.  He truly made the trip what it was.  It was awesome to be able to be in Israel for a second time. I know many people go their entire lives without being able to travel there; I am truly blessed.    

To make this quick, I will just list some of the places I visited:

·      Tel Aviv

·      Mt. Carmel

·      Mt. Beatitudes

·      Mt. Tabor (possible sight of the transfiguration)

·      Nazareth

·      Jerusalem

o   The Western/Wailing Wall

o   The Temple Mount (including walking a tunnel under the wall)

o   The Dome of the Rock

Standing in front of the Dome of the Rock.

o   The Old Market (found a store there named “Alabama: The Heart of Dixie.”)

·      Garden of Gethsemane

·      Mt. of Olives

·      The Garden Tomb (what a tomb that Jesus would have been put in looked like)

·      Dan

·      Caesarea Philippi

·      Caesarea Maritime

·      Capernaum

·      Bet She’an

·      Floated in the Dead Sea

·      Took a boat on the Sea of Galilee

·      Stood on the banks of the Jordan River

·      Hikes through the beautifully empty Judean desert

·      Into Palestine for Bethlehem

The hikes through the Judean desert were awesome.  It was so empty and wide, it was crazy!  Definitely in my top favorite things we did.

Hiking through the Judean Desert

Staying in a kibbutz was a fun experience.  Each time I felt like I was living in the DHARMA barracks from LOST (you know I had to mention Lost in this blog).  

One of those rooms was mine in the kibbutz.

People in Israel were so friendly.  You could talk to anyone.  I talked to this private guard at our first hotel in Tel Aviv.  She was 21, my age, and came from a Jewish family.  She grew up in California but moved here when she graduated high school and joined the military to do her two years of service and was now out and working as a private guard.  She was currently with a Birthright Israel group from Hungary (I think they were from Hungary.  This is the problem with blogging a month out).  Talking to her was one of the highlights of my trip.  I really got to see and understand what the nation of Israel is and what it is like to someone of the Jewish faith. 

Being in Israel does not feel like a foreign country.  So many people speak English and the entire country is really, really nice.  There were so many times we were on the highway and you could have easily forgotten that you were not in America; it was beautiful.  Don’t think of Israel as desert; that’s only half right.  Northern Israel is very green and luscious.  Jerusalem is at about the middle of the country and that is where it starts to become like a desert.  If you keep traveling south, towards the Dead Sea, then it is very desert-like.  In fact, it is a desert.    

Our Muslim camel that gave our students rides. 

It was amazing how many other countries we saw visiting Israel.  There were tons of people from Nigeria.  The funny thing was that in Israel, the temperature was about 60 to low 70s everyday.  Well, the Nigerians that stayed in our Kibbutz were always wearing huge winter coats, gloves, scarves and toboggans, even inside at dinner.  I guess it felt that cold to them.  We also saw groups from China sitting around biblical sites reading out of their Bibles and listening to their tour guide. 

Standing on the Mount of Olives looking down on the
Old City of Jerusalem.

It’s amazing to see that such a small piece of land, Israel, about the size of New Jersey, can mean so much to so many people around the world.  Think about it, everyone is focused on this part of the world.  It is important to Jews, Christians, Muslims and even followers of Baha’i.  It was awesome to be there.  I’m so excited to be able to visit there three times a year; I am truly blessed.  I know this was a very short post that doesn't do Israel justice.  Hopefully, you'll still be reading the blog this summer when I go again.  You can also check out my album on Facebook for more pictures.