"We Are Still Pioneers."

We rolled back into Porto Rafti Thursday evening after a 4-day/3-night trip up through Northern Greece. This included stops at Delphi, Meteora, Vergina, Berea, Thessaloniki, Philippi, Dion and Thermopylae. To see all these places required a lot of driving. Did I say a lot, because I mean A LOT!

Greece is roughly the size of Alabama, my home state. The last day of our trip has us diving from Thessaloniki (only 30 miles from the border of Macedonia) all the way back to Porto Rafti (only 15 miles north of Attica’s southern most point). That means with no stops the final day is about 6 hours of pure driving.

Hear me out, 6 hours is not terrible at all! I know terribly long road trips. As a kid, my family used to take two-week long vacations by car all over America. My parents had divided the country into 5 parts corresponding to 5 trips. Before I detail these trips let me tell you one important fact: these weren’t fun trips. Well, they were fun, but not in the sense of waterparks and theme parks. No, they were educational- which was still fun…. most of the time. Here’s what I mean. I’ve been to every state east of the Rockies and almost all of their capitals by car. I’ve also been to pretty much every presidential library, boyhood home, birthplace, burial site, famous museums, natural wonders, monuments, quirky exhibits, etc. east of the Rockies. If it’s important to our nation’s history and it’s east of the Rockies, I’ve probably been there!

We did one trip each summer, staring after first grade for me and they went as follows:

1. I don’t believe the first one was two weeks. It was our baby trip, probably lasting a little over one week. From Alabama we drove to Washington D.C. and other places close by.
    
2. The next year we attacked all of New England. My family loves to tell a story of me from this trip. We arrived at our hotel in Freeport, Maine around midnight. As an 8 year-old, I was asleep/dead tired. My dad and sister asked the hotel receptionist how late L.L. Bean was open. When we were told it never closes, my bed time got pushed even further back as my family shook me awake and nearly threw water on me to get me up and going. Before I knew it, the four of us were exploring L.L. Bean at 1 am. I remember thinking those tents looked mighty enticing to crawl into a sleep. (Don’t be deceived; my family is always up for a crazy adventure!)
    
3. The next year was a trip up through the Midwest and even briefly into Canada- my first international experience.
    
4. The next year was a trip was out west, but not beyond the Rockies. This meant through Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, on up into the Dakotas and so on until we looped all the way back home to Alabama. I’m particularly proud of this trip because we were going up to South Dakota where I knew Mount Rushmore was and my family wasn’t planning on visiting it! Honestly, we were hours away from it but as a kid I practiced my future PR persuasion tactics and kept telling them how I couldn’t believe we would go all the way to South Dakota by car and not see Mount Rushmore. It’s the same speech I give HUGers all the time over here: You didn’t come all this way to not (fill in the black with whatever they are thinking about skipping). Anyways, I pulled it off and we saw the four stone heads.

As I got older we would repeat the Washington trip a few times, the New England trip another time and even another somewhat repeat by driving up to Chicago and some surrounding states for a second time.

I love driving and riding in the car! I like to see where I’m at and how we got there. So during all of our many hours in a bus last week it got me to think about travel and roads. We live in a time where travel is so easy! So many barriers that kept man from traveling (or made it difficult) are falling.

As you know, I travel Greece, Egypt, Israel and Turkey a lot. Most of our stops are to tour the archaeological sites and ruins from older civilizations. What is interesting is that most of these archaeological sites were discovered in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. In many cases we knew the sites were there for centuries, we just didn’t uncover them until the last 200-ish years.

I asked our guide why this was, why archaeology was a relatively new discipline. After all, cities like Corinth, Philippi and Thessaloniki have been important to Christians for two thousand years, why didn’t we uncover them sooner? Our guide confirmed my theory. See, until recently man had to work to live. You may say, “we still do.” It’s not the same. People literally had to work just to survive. When was the last time you only ate food you grew, cultivated, killed and cooked? How much of your wardrobe did you sew together? When was the last time you built your tools or even your house? See my point? There was some trade, but it’s not like it is today. Today, as long as we have access to our bank accounts we can pick up and move ANYWHERE and start a new life because we can buy things like clothes, a house, tools and food. We still have to work to live. Only now, we don’t have to work for EVERYTHING- only money.

By the 19^th century people could travel to “ancient” lands and dig because they could use their money to buy what they needed. They didn’t have to work at creating every meal, a shelter, tools and clothing. Because of industrialization and the ability to buy anything and everything we now have free time and money to do other things.   

My mom has often made the statement that my grandparent’s generation has lived in probably the most revolutionary period in human technology. Being born right around 1920, they saw some of the largest leaps of change in human history. Let’s just focus on technology pertaining to travel.

• The Ford Model T was the first real affordable automobile to the masses. It was in production from 1908-1927. I remember hearing some of my grandparents talk about when cars started to really come into their towns.
• I was visiting with my last living grandfather 2 months ago. He lives in the same city he grew up in. One morning, we drove out to the old homestead and farm grounds he was raised on. He talked about how he used to go into town by having one of their animals pull their cart. 
  
  
• The Wright brothers had their first powered flights in 1903. My grandparents just barely missed the birth of aviation but they have surely seen its ramifications.
• The Wright brothers had 4 powered flights on their first day. The first three flights each covered a distance of 120, 175 and 200 feet. The fourth and final flight of the day was for 852 feet. By the way, the average wingspan of a Boeing 747 is 200 ft!
  

  

  I took this in the summer of 2007. This is where the Wright brothers had they first manned flights- Kill Devil Hills, NC.

  
  
• The first human spaceflight was in 1961.
  
  
• Just 8 years later on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon.

I want to throw in a small video here. It’s actually a teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming movie Interstellar.  Christopher Nolan is the director of the Dark Knight trilogy, Inception and The Prestige- 5 of my favorite movies. I’ve just listed 5 of the 8 movies he has directed. Interstellar will be his 9^th movie. Simply put, the guy only knows how to make amazing movies- both financially and critically!

Nolan likes to keep things close to the chest. So this teaser appears to only really have one scene from the movie. The entire trailer is composed of news clips documenting mankind’s pursuit of aviation and space exploration (the movie appears to be about a new era of space exploration). Combine that with Matthew McConaughey’s narration and it is simply inspirational. If you don’t want to watch the trailer at least read the written narration below the video; it's integral to the rest of the post.

“We’ve always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments…these moments when we dared to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown, known. We count these moments as our proudest achievement. But we lost all that. And perhaps we’ve just forgotten that we are still pioneers and we’ve barely begun. And that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us but our destiny lies above us.”

I love that video! Obviously you could make an a great spiritual application from the final line about “our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us but our destiny lies above us.” However, for the sake of finishing up this post and keeping with the theme or travel and exploration I want to redirect you to the line “And perhaps we’ve just forgotten that we are still pioneers and we’ve barely begun.”

We truly live in an unparalleled time! I traversed nearly the entire length of Greece by van in about 6 hours! Don’t forget to marvel at what we consider commonplace now!

I really hate flying. Not because I fear flying but because I have to sit on a transatlantic flight for about 9 hours at a time. It seems like forever! However, it’s a small sacrifice that affords me the ability to travel to far away lands in a fraction of the time!

Whenever I become fatigued with travel I just think, “The Apostle Paul would have LOVED to be able to travel so quickly to places all over the Earth!” I can make his month long journeys in just a few hours! In fact, you can get almost anywhere in the world within 2 days. Isn’t that amazing? And when Paul got to a new place, he had to support himself in some way. Now we can show up with a backpack and a credit card and do anything!

I’ve read Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years a couple of times. He has quite a few lines I’ve underlined in my Kindle edition. The following is a favorite of mine. To give you some context: much of this book is Miller talking about how he biked (that’s bicycle) across America. This is one of the epiphanies he had from that experience.

“When you fly across the country in an airplane the country seems vast, but it isn’t vast. It’s all connected by roads one can ride a bike down. If you watch the news and there’s a tragedy at a house in Kansas, that guy’s driveway connects with yours, and you’d be surprised how few roads it takes to get there.” Miller, Donald (2009-08-26). A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: How I Learned to Live a BetterStory (p. 238). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

Miller understands something I am realizing more and more each day: the world is not as vast and disconnected as you might want to think. Roads and airplanes bring us together and make it easier to see and explore new places. And that “perhaps we’ve just forgotten that we are still pioneers and we’ve barely begun.”

By the way, less than a month from now, I’m going to have to travel all the way back up to Northern Greece one day and then back home the next. However, it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make! You see, this group of HUGers has decided to hike Mt. Olympus and I’m joining them for my first hike up the mountain home of the mythological Greek gods. I’m excited! It’s time to be a pioneer once more.

Do you remember at the beginning when I said my parents divided the country up to 5 sections to visit by car? I listed each trip we went on and said that I’ve been to every state, by car, east of the Rockies. Did you notice something off? The list ended with the number 4. We never made the West Coast trip. Katie went on to college and life just got in the way.

In college, my friends and I used to talk about how we planned to take a road trip to California after graduation. We talked about this for years! But, I left college early to live in Greece and now these friends have jobs, some are married and one even had a baby just a few weeks ago! Once again life got in the way. However, this December I’m hoping to go to California! And if not December then sometime within the next year. In a previous post, I mentioned that my dad and I like to take trips together when I’m home. For years I’ve lobbied for a trip to California but it’s just never come to fruition. This year I have a new/specific motivation. But that aside, I’m ready to explore new places. The opportunity and means to travel are there; I just have to keep reminding myself “we are still pioneers!”

Just some bonus pictures!
 

We couldn't lick the Liberty Bell (HIMYM refernce) but we did touch it!

Taken in 2010 from the roof of the Newseum with the grandfather I mentioned in the post.

One of our many trips to DC. Taken in 2000

3 Years Later...Here's What You Missed

I'm finally returning to my blog a few days shy of 3 years since my last post! I know in some of my last posts I made promises to write more often but I did exactly the opposite of that. I struggled with what to write. At first I wrote almost like an itinerary of what we had done here over the past few days. By the time I reached my third semester it was essentially the same thing over and over.

Now I'm doing something different. I've realized you (the audience) don't have to know EVERYTHING that happens EVERYDAY. This blog is going to be more conversational and just kind of what's going on in my life- whether that's traveling to Israel or hanging around and reading a book.

It's been 3 years since my last post! Chances are if you're reading this you've got an idea of what I've been up to during the past three years. Maybe you don't. Maybe you've forgotten. So, for those that care let me catch you up.

 

• This semester marks my 12th as the assistant to the director here at HUG. Don't forget my one semester as a student in the Summer of 2009! And the two weeks I was here in 2007 for HUHA. 
   
• 232 HUGers have come through the program since my last blog post and each has left an impact on my life. Add that to my first 3 semesters and that makes a grand total of 316 HUGers during my time here. Wow!
   
• I've been to Egypt 3 more times and got a Salmonella-like disease the last time.
   
   
  

  

  With Mike and Beth at the Giza pyramids during Spring 2013.

• I went to Turkey lead the group my first time there. Now I've been to Turkey 5 times, one of which was with my parents.
   
• I've been to Israel another 7 times and it never gets old, none of these do.  
   

• My parents have visited me 3 times in Greece. I've taken them to the Peloponnese, Northern Greece, a Greek Island Cruise and even to Amsterdam, Netherlands and Istanbul, Turkey (as already mentioned).
   
  

  

  Mom and I at the Keukenhof Tulip Gardens of Amsterdam. It was cold!

• A number of friends have come to visit me here in Greece and I hope more will do so before I'm done here. 
     
  

  

  Jessica, Jenna and I at Mycenae, Greece.

• I've been to countless Greek soccer games and even a Final Four Greek Basketball game that eventually lead to that team winning the European Basketball Championship a few weeks later!
      
• Shortly after I quit blogging, I went to Florence, Italy to visit Harding's program there (HUF). This was my first time to Florence and I even managed to visit Pisa one afternoon, all thanks to then-assistant to the director of HUF, Kyle.
     
  

  

  Goofing around with the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

• April of 2012 I discovered I have a love for comic books and have been reading ever since.
       
• In the Summer of 2012, Katie (my sister, only sibling) and I visited Oslo, Norway and Copenhagen, Denmark on our way home to America.
      
  

  

  Katie and I on the external spiral stairs around a church's spire in Copenhagen, Denmark.

• A few days after arriving home from the previous trip, Dad, Chris (a good friend of mine) and I flew to St. Paul, MN for a 36-hour trip to see Coldplay in concert. This was their last American tour stop for 3 years. Hmmm...Seems to be a theme here.  
   
  

  

  Eating lunch at the Mall of America before the Coldplay concert in St. Paul.

  
  

• 2013 began with a quick trip to Miami, FL with my father to cheer on Alabama to their 15th National Championship over Notre Dame.
   
  

  

  Roll Tide from Miami, Florida in January of 2013! The game is over and the seats across the way are empty because
  the Notre Dame fans left.

  
  

• Some of my college roommates and I spent a weekend together at my family's cabin in Gatlinburg in the summer of 2013. By the way, we all had to rock mustaches for the entire weekend.
  
  

  

  You know I was going to include this picture! Don't worry, the fedora wasn't meant to be taken seriously either.

   
• During the Fall of 2013, I skipped a trip with HUG to Turkey and instead visited Harding's England campus in London (HUE) for a few days.
   
  

  

  Straddling the Prime Meridian with the HUE Director.

  
  

• 2013 came to a close with a visit to Disney World (and Universal Studios) to see one of my best friends, Caleb. This was my first time to Disney World (not counting a visit at 8 months of age) and it was....dare I say, magical!
    
  

  

  Hanging around EPCOT with Caleb

• After a successful LOST blog 4 years ago and by high demand- I built a website (www.mythsfortoday.com) where I review and analyze the movies, television, books and comic books I read/watch.
     
• In June 2014 my sister got married and I finally got a brother in my life. He's cool and I approve.
     
  

  

  Katie and Jonathan's first dance.

• Last but not least in this 3-year highlight reel, I got to sit in a Batmobile. 
     

One of the five Batmobiles used in the 1966 television show!

Plenty more has happened in the meantime. I've met many great new friends and lost touch with many great old friends. I've lost many important people in my life. Friends have gotten married and even had kids. Three of the four members of my immediate family (that's including me) have had surgeries during this time; some of us have had multiple surgeries. In the last three years I've learned simply that life goes on- good or bad, it doesn't stop. All we can do is try and live a good story.

I look back on the last 3 years and I can see that I'm very blessed. (I promise I'll refrain from using that word from now on. I agree, it's WAY over used! But what else can be said to accurately sum this up?)

So there, you're all caught up...mostly anyways. Hang with me and I'll keep you updated from this point on, promise!

P.S. Here are a few extra pictures from the adventures I listed!

Hogwarts Castle at Harry Potter World!

Mickey actually talks to you here!

Inside the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey with Mom and Dad.

Cruising the Greek Islands

Knock the Greek Island Cruise off the list of trips for this semester.  I guess you could say that is a little bit of a misnomer because we also dock in Turkey, right near ancient Ephesus.  But I’ll get to that.

The trip started on Friday where we arrived very early at the Port of Piraeus in Athens to depart.  We sailed through the afternoon and arrived at Mykonos for the evening.  There, we were able to enjoy free time to just roam the island for a few hours. 

Students walking through the pedestrian streets of Mykonos.

To get to and from the island of Mykonos from our cruise ship we had to take tender boats.  When I was going back to the ship from Mykonos, my sunglasses flew off out of my shirt and into the sea.  I tell you this story because I bought the sunglasses there, on Mykonos, back in the spring semester of this year and I lost them there 6 months later.  I guess it’s poetic in some way.  Anyways…

Saturday began with an early morning visit to the archaeological site of ancient Ephesus.  We docked in the port of Kusadasi, Turkey and grabbed our bus on over to Ephesus.   On the way to the site we saw a fun little extra thing out the window.  We passed by the only remaining standing pillar belonging to the famous Temple to Artemis (one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World).  Ephesus is quite a big site, compared to the other places we go.  After Ephesus, we drove back to the port and went into a rug factory store.  They tried to sell us on rugs, but let’s be honest, no college kid is going to buy a $500 rug.

HUG Fall 2011 in front of the Library of Celsus at Ephesus.

After Ephesus, we had time to chill until we arrived at Patmos that afternoon.  Yup, another biblical place to scratch off the list.  The group toured the alleged cave where John received his revelation.  After that, the group continued on up the mountain to tour a very old monastery that was built on Patmos.  Instead of going up to the monastery this time (I’ve been there 3 other times already) I sat at a coffee shop with all the adults, just admiring the scenic view we had from way up on top of the island. 

Sunday was the last day of actual cruising with a morning stop to Crete and an afternoon visit to Santorini.  This time we did something different at Crete.  Instead of taking the group on the usual tour of the Palace of Knossos we just gave everyone free time to explore Crete.  I took this opportunity to sleep-in a little because the past two days of leaving the boat at 7 was starting to get to me.  I got up and out of the boat around 9:15 and walked around Crete for a while.

While walking around Crete I managed to run into some students and we continued to explore the island together.  I was able to find and show the couple of students with me a church that I visited when I was here as a student back in the summer of 2009.  It is a church built to honor Titus.  Inside, they claim to have the skull of Titus that you can look at.  Now, the way that have it sitting in a box only allows you to see the top of the skull.  So, it could be just a rock, or another random skull.  Who knows?

The Church on Crete that claims to have the skull
belonging to Titus.

Santorini was the final stop of the cruise.  This was probably the best visit I’ve had to Santorini.  We got on the Island early and were able to visit in sunlight, during sunset and even at night.  We were able to see Santorini in all of its beauty, with all different lighting.  Here, I replaced the sunglasses that I lost two days earlier at the first stop of the cruise.  And with that triumphant purchase my Greek Island Cruise came to a close for this semester.

Santorini just before sunset.

We returned back to the Artemis early Monday morning to begin another week of just average Greek life and studying.  No big deal…

Next time I’ll cover our trip to the Peloponnese.  See you guys then…metaphorically of course.   

Santorini just after sunset.

Beautiful, isn't it?

Something to Hold You Over

As I promised, I am trying to be a more frequent and consistent blogger.  However, this post is going to be short because nothing incredibly significant has happened yet.  We have not had any big trips this semester, but that is about to change.  Today is Tuesday, and on Friday of this week we set sail for our Mediterranean Cruise.  I'll post about that when we return.  After the cruise, we will be pretty busy at a steady pace going to and from places.  Until then I wanted to leave you with a little something. 

Last week the Bison (Harding University's student newspaper) asked me to write an opinion article about HUG.  Many of you may have already read my article, but I decided to let it serve as this week's blog post.  Next week I will have more to say, but for now I hope you enjoy reading more about what we do here at HUG and the impact it leaves on the students who come here.

Here is the link to my article, The Sword is Powerful Like His Master.  Enjoy.

A New Beginning (My 3rd Semester)

The fall semester has gotten off to a good start.  The students have been here for exactly one week and we have already done a lot.  We began with our traditional tour of Athens.  This included (all are hyper-linked if you want to know more about them):

• The Acropolis (the Parthenon)
• Mars Hill
• The Plaka
• The New Acropolis Museum
• The 1896 Olympic Stadium

HUG Fall 2011 Group Pic on the Acropolis.

Listening to Paul's Sermon to the Areopagus, while
sitting on Mars Hill.

This group is different from the past two groups I have been here for.  This group only has 21 students, whereas the last two groups had 31 and 32.  There is nothing wrong with a group this size and nothing wrong with bigger groups.  It's just interesting to see the different group dynamics that come along with the size of the groups.  It has been fun to see that for this group.  On their first free afternoon they all decided to go the beach together.  The group has already started to grow together as a family, which is great!  It's what we are all about here at HUG; becoming a family and seeing amazing things together.  I can't wait to see what is in store for this group as the semester progresses. 

Students following along with Pau's sermon in the Bible.

Today we went to the National Archaeological Museum and this past Saturday we went to Cape Sounion.  That's everything big we've been to.

Our Greek Island Cruise is coming up next and everyone is excited, me included, even if it is my 4th one.

I'll have more to post along the way but I'm going for shorter blog posts so as to keep people engaged longer.  I will use this post, however, to promote HUG.  We have recently jumped into the world of social media with a Facebook Page and a Twitter account.  I hope you will follow along by "liking" our page, www.Facebook.com/HUGreece and following us on Twitter, @HUGreece.  It will give you even more, constantly updated content about HUG and our adventures. 

Poseidon's Temple at Cape Sounion during sunset.

One of the students has a great view of the sunset at Cape Sounion.

I hope you enjoy these shorter posts.  I will try to keep them this way and with lots of pictures.  I know I've made promises in the past about blogging and keeping them shorter but I figure now, at the start of a new semester, is a good place to start.  Stay tuned; we have big things coming here at HUG!

Egypt, I Thought There Were Only 10 Plagues

Egypt was great, despite the dreaded sickness that attacked 33 of our 42 travelers. And yes, I was one of them. We will get to that in a moment. Egypt was completely safe. I never felt in danger, not for a moment. In fact, many times as we drove through towns we could see people cheering and applauding our bus because they were glad tourists were there. Tourism is such a huge part of their country’s economy, they were glad to be getting business. It was fun getting to have most of the sites completely to our group, unlike when I was in Egypt during the summer of 2009. I know what a crowded tourist season in Egypt looks like. Let’s look at our trip chronologically. I’ll break it down day by day to make it easier to follow and read.

Me outside the Pyramids with the Sphinx.

Day 1: We arrived in Cairo and stayed in this ridiculously nice hotel. It was huge. It was like an oasis in the middle of the desert. No site-seeing today.

Day 2: We went to the Giza Pyramids, went in the Great Pyramid, stood in front of the Sphinx, went to Memphis and then took a night train to southern (Upper) Egypt. It’s called Upper Egypt because the Nile flows from south to north. I don’t think I had an actual mattress on my bed in my train car. I woke up the next day so sore in my shoulders and ribs. I stayed that way for the next four days, remember that.

Day 3: We got to our cruise boat after seeing the Temple of Philae. We were excited because our group was the only one on the cruise ship. We had it all to ourselves, not a single other person. Later that day we took about a 30-minute camel ride through the middle of the desert to a Nubian Village.

Giant Statue of Ramses II in Memphis.

Day 4: We cruised more and saw the Temple of Kom Ombo and Edfu. We got to Edfu via horse draw carriages, pretty fun.

Day 5: This was when the cruise started to attack. We had an early wake up call and went to the Valley of the Kings at 6 am so we could beat the heat. We went in 3 tombs there and they still had paint on many of the walls. Brilliant colors of red, yellow and blue served as a stark contrast to the brown hues that dominate Egypt and most of the other tombs. About 11 people had to stay behind on the boat because they were getting really sick. (I’m assuming the cruise did it, although I’m not 100% sure, just my theory.) In fact, that afternoon, I started to feel kind of sick as well. I was just ridiculously tired and could hardly move. I had a fever and was just hot the whole time in my room, and I couldn’t even sweat. I was miserable, like many, many others.

Camel Ride through the desert to the Nubian Village.

Day 6: I’m still not feeling great, but I wasn’t that bad. I never had to sit out on a site. There were plenty of people who were way worse off than me. We went through and toured the gigantic temple complex of Karnak and then Luxor. The Karnak temple complex is the size of a city; it is humongous. That day we ate McDonalds for lunch, a very welcome taste of home.

Statue of Egyptian god Horus at Temple of Edf

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I should also tell you that by today, I’m just now not sore from our over night train ride from Day 2 (yes, it took that long to get over the soreness). However, tonight, we were supposed to take our overnight train back up north to Lower Egypt, but then something happened. We were told that there were strikes at the train station, nothing political or having to do with the revolution; just usual strikes and we would not be able to take the train. Everyone on the bus cheered! So then we departed from Luxor about 3-4ish in the afternoon and got to our hotel that night in Cairo at 3:30 am. We also stopped a few times for bathrooms and dinner at a hotel. Most people were still glad we did the bus. I was glad because now the train wouldn’t make me sore for the rest of the trip the day I got over it’s previous attack on my body.

Mohammed Ali Mosque in Cairo.

Day 7: We visited the Mohammed Ali Mosque in Cairo and the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. In the museum we saw King Tut’s famous burial mask. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures because they were not allowed. I also paid a little extra, like most students, to go in the mummy rooms. We saw about 30 mummies of very famous pharaohs, like Akhenaten, Ramses II, some of the Tutmoses and so on. In fact, they had unwrapped many of the mummies so we could actually see their faces, skin, teeth, fingernails and even hair. I was able to look the mighty Ramses II in the face, possibly the same Pharaoh that Moses confronted, and I was looking him in the face! Unbelievable! There are big debates on when the Exodus happened. There are basically two big dates and I saw the Pharaoh that represented each date. No doubt I looked upon the face Moses did. Incredible! That day we even saw some of the buildings that were scorched from the revolution that took place this past January.

Temple of Edfu.

Day 8: We visited old Coptic Cairo and the oldest Mosque in Africa (that is still in work today, in fact, we were there during their noon day prayer time) and then we began to drive towards the Land of Goshen. We stayed at a hotel right next to the Suez Canal. By tonight at dinner I was just now feeling back to 100% health. Which was good because I would need it 2 days from now, when we could climb Mt. Sinai.

Day 9: We basically just drove to get to the base of Mt. Sinai in the Sinai Peninsula. We went in a tunnel under the Suez Canal and came out in Asia. Yes, part of Sinai is in Asia. That night I ate dinner and went to bed about 9 because we were going to have a ridiculously early wake-up call, 1 am.

Sunrise on Mt. Sinai.

Day 10: I wake up and begin hiking up Mt. Sinai at 2 am. We are in the complete middle of the desert. There are no cities near by to give off light; it is total darkness. The stars are like sprinkles dotting a birthday cake. I can now understand how it would be impossible to count them. It is so dark that a cloudy arm of the Milky Way stretches across the sky for everyone to see. We began the slow ascent up the man-made trail. It is not very steep, just a continual zigzagging on a constant incline.

Me on the top of Mt. Sinai for Sunrise.

 About 4 am it is getting brighter, light began to glow on the horizon where the sun would soon rise. The last 20 minutes are stairs to the peak. That was where it got rough. Your legs would quake like Jell-O and make you stop every once and a while just to rest.

I got to the top and had to put on both my jackets, it is freezing and windy. I lay down on the massive rock on the top of the mountain and just took it all in. We rested there for about an hour and saw the disc of the sun quickly rise above the other mountains into view. Just 3 hours earlier I saw some of the darkest night I have ever seen and now it was so bright. I could see the entirety of the desert around me. Absolute desolation. Beautiful. And to think, Moses climbed this same mountain to meet with God. Incredible!

We had a brief devotional where we sang a few songs and prayed. The descent took less time than the climb and we were back at the hotel for an 8 am breakfast. Then we went back to the base of the mountain to visit St. Catherine’s monastery where we had a private tour by an American monk. After the tour, we drove all the way back to Cairo for our last night in Egypt.

Genuine Hieroglyphics in a temple.

Day 11: Slept in and left the hotel at 11 to head to the airport. Came home to Greece and it was great! Everything in Egypt is brown. From the sand to the buildings, it’s all brown. And everything is flat! As we flew over Greece it was great to see the shockingly blue Aegean followed by rolling green hills dotted with short silvery-green olive trees and tall, pencil thin, dark-green Cyprus trees. I was relieved to know my eyes could still process color. To top it off, as a group we ate at Dimitri’s (my favorite Taverna) for dinner that night. A gyro never tasted so good.

We saw many more Temples, Mosques, Churches and Sites, I just tried to shorten it to the highlights, but I guess all of Egypt is a highlight. Even though so many people were sick for much of the trip, it was still a great time and I know that no one regrets it, no matter how sick they got. It is truly a blessing to visit such an ancient and historically significant place. I know it impacted all of us in many ways.

We did go in a Pyramid after all. Scratch that off your bucket list.

I’m sorry this one ran for so long, but it was about as short as I could make it to effectively cover the Egypt trip. I’ll try to keep the other posts shorter. We’ll see how well that goal works.

Time For a Reboot

I know what you are thinking, “Wow, it’s been a ridiculously long time since the last blog post!”  And you are right.  I’ve been thinking, and I’m going to reformat how I write and present this blog.  It was too long before and thus it became almost a burden to write.  

Another reason I got behind was because I was getting used to my first semester here.  Things started to get really hectic at the end (finishing my last college class, trips, planning various activities, final banquets stuff, etc.).  However, my first semester as the assistant to the director was terrific.  We had a great group!  I couldn’t have asked for a better first group.  

Now we are 1 month into my second semester, a new group of students.  They are terrific as well!  Seriously.  Everything is going great.  We have already done our full day Athens tour, gone on our Peloponnese tour (Corinth, Mycenae, Epidaurus, Nafplion and Olympia) and we just returned from our trip to Egypt two days ago, Saturday, June 11.  

I will blog about Egypt in a few days.  Boy, do I have stories and pictures to share.  I hope you look forward to that post, because it is coming.  I promise.  I know you may doubt that since it’s been almost 3 months since my last post, but one of those months was a month we had no students (between semesters) so I’m cleared of that one.  

Get excited, this blog is going into season 2, and we’ve learned a lot since season 1.  It’s going to be good. This was just to let you know that I haven’t abandoned you and that I’m bringing this blog back to life.  See you in a few days.