So last night I read Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa. If you are at all interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you should read it too.

ISRAEL POST! (8 June 2009)

It is always amusing to look back and see what I thought was important to record.

June 8
Joan left so we no longer had two people on breakfast duty. Elizabeth asked me if I would cover breakfast that day, so I did. I listened to music while I cut bread, tomatoes and cucumbers. Listened to Oklahoma and then to Jesus Christ Superstar (very appropriate given the location). We split into two groups for breakfast because we had so many people. I only helped through the first group. (Last time Truman was there they had to split into different eating groups because they didn’t get along.)
Elizabeth taught us “Waltzing Matilda.” We sang “Run, Rabbit” and “Henry VIII.” I got complimented on my singing voice. That was nice.
I don’t remember where Elizabeth took us on our adventure that day.
Went swimming in the Sea of Galilee after lunch. Finn and Collette were there. Nic played whale/shark with Finn. It was fun to watch. Nic got melon with a couple of Kibbutzniks, and then Amber, Lauren, Nic and I talked to them for a while. After that I went back to my room and sat outside and talked with a few people. Another Kibbutznik named Daniel came by and talked to us for a while. He knew the owner of the Pub/ could get it opened for us so we asked him to open it up earlier for us so he said he could get it opened at 9:30.
Dr. Appold gave the evening lecture that day. It was originally going to be outside the dorms, so I went and set up all the chairs. Then the location changed to the roof… because it was cooler there.

June 7
A very good day. I was in a much better mood then I had been in the day before. Our first stop was Acco, a port city on the coast of the Mediterranean. Several famous people are associated with this town. Paul stayed here for a day, the knight’s templar ran a hospital, Marco Polo, saint Francis of Assisi and Napoleon were also associated with the city.
We got there and started walking towards the city. Some kid was walking past us and hit me on the leg with a tennis ball… I was in the lead because not very many of the people in our group walk as fast as I do. So I was out in front of everyone for a while. We stopped by this scenic outlook area that was pretty cool. There were ramparts. I ran up the part that was for the horses. THEN I SAW THE MEDITERRANEAN! It was beautiful. We walked up on the wall where we weren’t supposed to be. (Dr. Appold is pretty cool about letting us do what we want at places like this. Pretty sure he got up on the wall too. He didn’t cross over into Lebanon though).




After climbing on those walls and looking over the city and the Sea we moved closer to the sea and ran around/climbing on the rocks and this large whale (Jonah’s whale). It was fun, and I touched the Mediterranean. It was quite exciting. We relaxed over there for a while before heading to walk through the Knight’s Templar Tunnel. After that we walked through the town for a while until we got to another look out point where we had a short worship service. We wanted to leave shortly after that, but Nick had wondered off so we had to go look for him… As we were leaving, Nate led us down some very good interesting streets. I wanted to stop and look at the markets, but we couldn’t because we were in a hurry.



After that we drove to Zefat – interesting driving habits in the Middle East. They tend to make a third lane whenever they need to pass someone. It is fun to watch as long as I don’t have to drive.
Anyway, we got to Zefat where we got our first chance to walk around on our own. Laura Beth, Heidi and I walked around a bit before sitting down at a little falafel café for drinks and ice cream. Justin joined us and then a few others meandered in and out. A different group met this artist from Russia which was apparently pretty interesting.
After we left Zefat we went to Hatzor – It was a city-state during Joshua’s time. It was pretty cool. There was a dog that followed us around. The views were spectacular. I climbed a tree, then Laura Beth and Heidi joined us and I joked about defeating the people under the other tree. Justin was the first person to come over to where we were, which made my joke slightly funnier. He used to be in the army, and there is no way I could have taken him out…

I came across this picture in my Jerusalem album today. I thought it was pretty so I decided to share it.

And now for something completely different

AN ISRAEL POST! This was a busy day...
June 6
I got up early to watch the sun rise over the lake that day. It was beautiful. I wish I had had/taken more opportunities to do that. There was a dog that followed me down the beach. I was under the impression he wanted food. I had no food to give him.

Dog and sunrise.

This was an intense day. We saw everything. And hiked Gamla. Crazy. First we went to a place called Jacob’s Ford. There was a crusader fortress which had been built by Baldwin against Saladin. Saladin had offered to pay Baldwin to stop building it, but he refused. Saladin attacked the fortress with great success. He sent sappers in to weaken the walls of the fortress and attacked from both the Northeast and West. He was able to conquer the fortress in less than 5 days – had he taken longer than that, reinforcements would have appeared. This was the place where Kate, one of the archeologists working on our dig, had done work for her Ph.D. It was a treasure trove for bodies apparently. They found many human skeletons and at least 4 horse skeletons. One of the human’s had a cache of 160 coins! That was a really big find.
One of the biggest problems archeologists face is funding. This particular site had an interesting patron for its first couple of years. One of the geological organization (I don’t know exactly which one) funded it for the first few seasons because this site provided important information about the tectonic shifts occurring in Israel. There are two plates in this area (the Jordan River is on the fault line if I recall correctly). The eastern plate is moving to the north while the western plate is staying still. This means that Israel has large earthquakes every 100 years or so (unless it was 300 years or so – not sure). In any case, they are waiting for another big one. This fort is important in studies done about that because it was built along the fault line so there is a crack in the building that indicates how far the plates have moved. Since we know the exact date the fort was built (at least someone does. I am not that someone), we can figure out exactly how far the plates have moved in that given time period. We had to walk through prickly weeds to see the crack. That was an adventure.


The crack caused by the fault line.


Jacob's Ford - this is me trying to avoid getting pricked by the weeds.

Our next stop was supposed to be Qatzrim, but it was closed for Shabbat. It was important for something or other. I don’t remember what.
Next we went to Gamla. Probably one of my favorite spots despite the large amount of walking we did. We walked the ancient trail; the one most tourists DON’T do. It was rocky and steep. We climbed down and then up and then some of us climbed down further to see an extra area. That turned out to be a bad idea on my part. I almost did not make it to the top. I had to stop and pause for a while because my heart rate got a little too high. It was not comfortable, and I did not want to pass out. The view was really pretty when I did finally get there though. (We made the mistake of putting Justin in the front while we were climbing this thing. We didn’t know then how fast he walked…)
The historical significance of Gamla is pretty interesting. It was a place where Jewish people lived to stay away from the Romans. It has great natural defenses (would work well against Zombies), but the Romans were able to overcome them. When the Romans came, the citizens of Gamla ran to the highest point and then threw themselves off the cliff rather than become slaves to the Romans. (Not the choice I would have made, but whatever. I’m not being chased by Romans.) On the way back, we took a break, and I asked Nate read the Hebrew prayer for seeing the beauty of nature. That was pretty cool.

Gamla

After we hiked, we at lunch there and Lauren and I talked with the bus driver. He was a Palestinian Christian (I felt like all the Palestinians I met were Christians. I wonder how that was skewing our vision of what was happening.) Lauren launched into a string of questions about the issues between the Israelis and the Palestinians which he did his best to answer. His children were in private school, a goal most parents seemed to have for their children.
After Gamla, when we were all very tired, we went to two more places that had lots of rocks, Banias and Tel Dan. They are the locations for the streams that feed the Jordan River. Banias is also known as Caesarea Philippi. There were lots of rocks, and Nate got scolded for something or other. I was really tired and hot. That is what I remember most from these places. And we just kept walking. We went to see the waterfall. That was cool except there were more rocks and more stairs, and I had a splinter.
After that we went to Tel Dan. That got to be a bit of a problem because we were on a tight schedule and some of us didn’t get started right away. We had a bit of a communication gap going on during this trip. I was hot, tired and in general had kind of a bad attitude. (I would like to state that everything we did at Tel Dan was completely legal and did not involve sneaking over boarders or Lebanon.) We also went to a scenic lookout via Syrian bunker. That was also pretty cool. THEN, we got to leave. Nate and I booked it out of there whilst everyone else took their time.

Tel Dan - notice the rocks...

After that we got back, and it was time for dinner. I finally met Haley (a girl who had come on Wednesday, but I didn’t get a change to meet until Saturday.) She is really cool. She went to a small, Christian college in Indiana and studied to be a worship leader (kind of like a DCE it sounds like). Pretty much doing what I thought I wanted to do at one point. She had been granted a fellowship to come dig and then she was spending sometime in Jerusalem and then her dad was coming up to visit. (I found out later her mom had died about 5 weeks before she left on this trip.)
That night was probably the best night I spent at the Kibbutz. We went down to the Sea as usual for drinks and conversation. Eventually a group of us ended up sitting in the Sea (on chairs with our feet in the water.) We started out listing our favorite memories from the first week of digging (Elizabeth and Nic were popular answers). Then we decided to have a bible study in which we went around the circle, said what our favorite bible passages were and why. Eventually it dwindled down to Nick, Tony, Nic, Lauren and I in the water and Johnny and Justin on the beach. Later still Nick, Johnny and Justin left. Then the real fun began.
Definitely the best conversation of my life. We talked about so many important things. We shared our struggles and our faith stories. I talked about things I haven’t shared with people all year. Mom’s surgery, all the people who died this year, the time God locked me into my dorm room. It was a liberating and healing experience to talk about God and his faithfulness with these people. I was absolutely not being judged nor was I judging. I was finally comfortable enough to embrace the vulnerability idea that the LSF girls had been harping on. I think being on the “Ocean of Freaken Galilee” with a full moon helped. It was so wonderful to see where these other people were on their faith journey. Tony had come with no expectations faith-wise. He was there as an academic. (This conversation was a pleasant surprise for him.) Nic, on the other hand, is about as far away from academics as you can get. He was there because he heard about the trip from Elizabeth during a Bible Study and “got the bug.” He sold his horse and his dog to get there (though he kept saying he was going to sell them anyway. He was thinking about moving to New Mexico so he may have been telling the truth. He was super humble though; hated talking about himself.) I don’t know what Lauren was expecting, but I know she took away a lot as well.
It was just an intense, overwhelming, but peaceful and calming, beautiful and wonderful time. We sang songs: worship songs, Christmas songs, children’s songs. It was awesome. There was a couple from Germany down there as well and we talked to time for a few minutes before leaving.
The conversation wasn’t completely serious. Nic did give Lauren tips for peeing outside. She actually did. I waited until we were in Jordan to make use of that information…
It was over all really cool. We were out until 1 a.m. and we had to be on the bus by 7 the next day. Yep.

June 5

(Picture of my friend Amy and I at the Pub)

Not such a good day. Called home in the morning, but didn’t get a hold of my parents. I was having a really hard time with the phone card, but finally got through to my mom’s cell phone. At that point I was no longer able to deny that I had missed grandpa’s funeral because I was out of the country. I asked mom why they weren’t at home, and she said, “We’re in Kirksville, sweetie.” I had figured out that might have happened but had done a pretty good job of telling myself that perhaps it hadn’t. Oh well. So it goes.
So that was not a particularly good start to my day. After that, I slid down the wall of our dig site, Elizabeth stepped on my hand and some kid dropped a rock on my foot. I was also a little afraid that Rami was going to move me to a different site. Laura and Michaela had been moved because their locus wasn’t yielding anything. Nick from Truman got moved. I wasn’t doing a whole lot of work that day since I wasn’t feeling very good about life. I was mostly standing around taking buckets from the diggers to the sifters and back again. (Nic and Lauren had taken over sifting for the day.) So, I wasn’t in a very good mood, and a few people picked up on it. Nic did and tried to make me feel better, but it didn’t work very well. I really just didn’t want to be around people so during breakfast I went down and weeded the Nebraska chapel area.
I got annoyed again later on because we had to clean up early and go around to all the other dig loci for show and tell. Each group told us what they were doing at their sites and what they had found. I did not want to go. I walked with Lauren and Nic who were calling me Hannah Montana, but I walked quietly enough with my “I am going to be patient with you and you had better appreciate it” look. They did try to cheer me up, which was as successful as possible considering the circumstances.
After digging that day I went swimming in the Sea of Galilee and then sat around talking to people for a while. Since my day had been pretty crappy, I wasn’t too surprised that my head felt terrible during dinner. I took a short nap before we all headed over the Kibbutz Pub. That was definitely an interesting experience. I don’t really like drinking too much so I wasn’t there for the alcohol. I was hoping to dance, but when we first got there, nobody really wanted to do much other than sit around and drink. Eventually Amber got Nic to swing dance with her, and when she was finished, I danced with him a little bit. I taught him how to waltz. To a rap song. That was interesting… We had to be up early to go site-seeing the next day, so I left with the first group who headed out

June 4 (Israel)

Another day at the dig. Ate breakfast with Hanan, Nic, Elizabeth and Dr. Appold. Hanan asked what my name was and I told him it was Hanna. He said, “That’s not Japanese.” I said, “no, it’s Hebrew.” He tried teaching me Japanese again and said I should know the language of my heritage. I told him I was mostly German. He told me the Japanese genes show through and turns to Elizabeth and says “Isn’t she beautiful?” to which Elizabeth replied, “well of course she is beautiful. And intelligent and hard working.” And Dr. Appold chimes in with, “I can attest to that.” It was nice ego-boosting experience.
By this time, Lauren and I were being made fun of for not having found Q yet. One of the Loci (5714) on our site was closed because they weren’t finding much. Our other Locus (5715) was split into two loci because the dirt was different colors. The lighter dirt was more ancient, according to Rami. We found a Roman pin that day which supposedly came from my bucket. Elizabeth had quite an interesting story about what the Roman soldier was doing with the woman whose bead we found in locus 5714…
We took a field trip down to a small chapel area. It was really pretty. It was donated to area by the Archdiocese of Nebraska. It had been built around the same time as the chapel area donated by the Vatican so it was not used as much. It was also off the beaten track so people didn’t know it was there. It was made because once there was a group of blind pilgrims that came to visit Bethsaida (because that is where Jesus healed the blind man on the outskirts of town.) The Israeli tour guides, however, did not allow the people to pray at the site. This story reached the ears of some higher ups in the Catholic Church so they did something about it. The chapel area is pretty cool because you have to walk past a Syrian bunker to get down there. (Goes along with all the sardine cans we kept finding.) Elizabeth was not happy because there were lots of weeds, and no one ever did anything about it.
So, on this trip there was a little boy named Finn whom I shall take this opportunity to talk about. He was pretty much adorable, and everyone loved him. Mostly because he was the only person under 18, and he had everyone wrapped around his little finger. He had this huge sombrero that he wore all the time so he looked like a little Mexican running around (except that he had blond hair and blue eyes. At this point in the trip, he was pretty quiet, but that would change all too soon…
Despite the fact that pottery reading was optional, I decided to go that day anyway. I ended up with a job. I turned the light for the photo box on and off for Hanan. Nic ran the pieces to the other side of the table for bagging. It was good times.

Wow, I am really bad about updating...

June 3 (The rest of the stuff from the dig kind of runs together after this point. I will do my best to keep in chronological order, but my main task is to write down what I remember.)

Second Day of Digging. I found a really cool piece of Crusader Era pottery that I was not able to keep. I did get a couple of pictures of it though. I was hoping to keep it because it actually had a glaze on it, which the pieces from the Roman time did not. I found some other pieces of glass that may have been Roman, and a large piece of pottery rim. (These were all listed in my journal. I was still keeping track of what I found at that point. I wasn’t tired of the freaking rocks and dirt and pottery shards yet…).
More tourists came by as they did most days. They took pictures of us. That always made me feel funny. These people seemed to get the idea that we were what Archeology is. And I guess we are/were. Undergrads and non-Academics doing the grunt work. It was still kind of funny. (Later on in during the dig, Katherine managed to make some money off of one of the tourists. He asked if he could take her picture and she told him, “10 shekels.” He pulled out the change he had in his pocket and gave her 7.)
Elizabeth told us about the cobblestones during Popsicle break this day. It was the only place where it is known for certain that Jesus may have stood. They were from the Roman time period and it was the road of the main entrance into Bethsaida. Jesus was known to have visited Bethsaida pretty often since several of his disciples were from there. So I have stood where Jesus stood…
After we got done digging each day, we would return to the Kibbutz for lunch. We ate in the dining hall for lunch, though for dinner we would eat in the hotel. (I am really glad it worked out that way. The food was not as good in the dining hall.) I don’t remember exactly what day this happened, but I am going to relate this story here. While I was in line to get some humus for my bread (the humus was AMAZING), there was a man in line behind me. He looks at me and then asks, “Are you Hawaiian?” I told him no, I am part Japanese. He then starts talking to me in Japanese, which really started to throw me off. I was trying to learn Hebrew! I told him I didn’t know any Japanese, and he told me he would teach me. He was in the process of teaching himself Japanese because he is planning a trip there. His son and his family live there currently so he has been before. So, for the rest of the time I was there, Hanan’s goal was to teach me Japanese while my goal was to learn more Hebrew…
We had the first pottery reading. It was supposed to start at 4, but Elizabeth announced that it was going to start at 4:30. It was long and boring and Mappold wasn’t even there. Turns out it was required. I still ended up going at least part of the time most days, but I never really paid attention to what was going on. I just went to talk to people. There was a pretty cool flight of birds that day. People stopped to take pictures.
This was the first night that I went down to the Sea of Galilee to hang out with people. It was beautiful and the people were fantastic. I finally found a type of wine that I liked, but I may only have liked it because of the situation. I don’t remember at all what we talked about, but I remember that Nate, Nic, Eugene, Tony, Laura, Lauren and I were there, as were several other people, but I can’t recall who. I think Jordan was there, and we hopped the fence to get in because we were too lazy to walk around the hotel. After that, Lauren, Nate and I saw a few Truman people in the lobby of the hotel so we stopped to talk to them for a little while. Then I went to bed.

Sorry it's been so long since I updated...

June 2

First Day of Digging. We were on the bus by 5:30. When we got to the dig site, we divided into the groups we would be digging with for the rest of time. Lauren and I had been joking about finding the Q source all semester, so we asked Elizabeth if we could work in Area C. She said of course and we were joined by various other people with whom we would become very close, very soon. Members of our group included: Tony, Eugene, Cowboy Nic, Michaela, Laura, Wilde, Joan, Katie, Ingrid, Katherine, Lauren and I. And Elizabeth.
To begin, we weeded and cleared leaves. After that we set up tarps and sifters. Then, then we finally got to start digging. This is so much less exciting than it sounds. What we did was this: loosened up the dirt, swept the dirt up into buckets, sift the buckets, repeat. We were not supposed to move larger rocks right away because they might make up a wall. (Rami thought that what we were digging might be a wall, but the results were still inconclusive by the time we left.) We cleared the dirt from around them, photographed the rocks and then moved them. And then we started the whole process again. I am very annoyed with myself for not getting before and after pictures of this.
Since this was our first day digging, we didn’t have everything straightened out as well as we did later. We were still sifting our own dirt this day (Tony, Eugene and Lauren took over this job later. We developed a system.) I only sifted about 2 buckets though; the system was starting to develop. Nic helped me with one of them. Pretty sure he was laughing at me because I was having trouble dumping the remaining rocks out of the sifter.
That day we followed what would become our normal routine in Area C. We would get to the site and set up the tarps and steal tools from the other groups. We would work until around 7:30 and then Wilde and Joan would leave to go set up breakfast. The rest of us would keep working until about 8:15 and then go down for breakfast. Breakfast consisted of hard boiled eggs, meat or cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, bread, this really delicious chocolate spread (like nutella) and fruit. We would have about 45-60 minutes to eat before going back to work. We worked again until about 11:15 at which time we would have a Popsicle break, and Elizabeth would take us on our missions/secret adventures around the dig site. Tourists also came by every once in a while and would take pictures. That was kind of cool.
This was also the day that Elizabeth began to teach us songs which eventually helped turn us into the most musical of the sites. “Run Rabbit” was the song she taught us the first day; later on she would also teach us “Waltzing Matilda.”
After digging that day, I went down to the Lake to swim. Nate, Lauren and a few other people from Truman as well as the other groups were down there. I walked out to where Lauren, Nate and Nic were talking to the life guard Israel. Israel did not know English very well so it was an interesting experience. We were trying to learn Hebrew, and he was trying to learn more English. This created some interesting communication problems especially when we tried to figure out how to describe silly so Israel could tell us how to say it in Hebrew. I don’t think we ever managed to get that one. Nic was very interested in learning the Hebrew word for Beautiful (Yafeh or something along those lines.)
After swimming, I went over the museum where we finally got to see the Jesus boat (since the museum was actually open at this time.) I was also able to use the computers there, which was nice. I emailed my parents and updated my web log. The boat was not as exciting as I was hoping. There was a picture of it in our book for Mappold’s class this semester and frankly, that was enough. The process they used for getting the boat out of the lake was interesting, though. It took a lot of work and some polymer stuff to get it out of the lake without it disintegrating.
After seeing the Jesus boat, a couple of us went to the Kibbutz store. On the way there we saw a dog that looked like the offspring of a lion and a golden retriever. I decided to call it a digon. After not recognizing the front of the store, I lead everyone around the building before we actually went inside. It was pretty cool. Lots of food, labeled in Hebrew (who would have thought…). I bought some amazingly delicious chocolate truffle wafer bars. I also saw this really cool stroller that a lady had. It was a play pen on wheels.
At this point in the journal I was keeping I wrote “Quick dry clothes = amazing!” And they were. With the Amazing Israeli sun and very little humidity, my clothes could be washed and dried in under an hour.

Picture Link

For pictures of the Kibbutz and the dig-site see

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016216&id=1308540045&l=a5c4313152

June 1

Orientation day. We didn’t have to get up as early as we were going to have to the rest of the trip. We had to be on the bus by 8 or 8:30, so we had time to eat breakfast at the Kibbutz hotel. I sat with a couple of people from the Truman group and two people from West Virginia, Becky and Brandon. As the week went on, we ended up being back of the bus buddies. The three of us and Lauren Greenspan would sit in the back of the bus every day to and from the dig-site. Occasionally other people would join us.
The introduction to the dig was interesting at first, but got to be a bit boring. First, they introduced all of the professors and then handed out name tags before going around the circle and having everyone say their names. Rami, the man in charge of the dig, gave us a brief history of both the site and the excavation. Turns out, the site is much older than the New Testament period. It was the main city of a kingdom during 8 and 9 centuries B.C.E. and was home of one of David’s wives. By the time of Jesus, it was a small fishing village and anywhere from 5 to 7 of his apostles were from this town. Gradually, however, as time when on, the lake receded and finally the shore was too far away for the village to be fruitful. People moved away, and the village was abandoned. It was completely lost for a while until some priest found it. He followed cows up a hill, I think, because there were land mines from the 1967 war between Syria and Israel. (Bethsaida used to be in Syria, but Israel took that land from them in 1967. So the dig might not be part of Israel anymore depending on how things work out over there…).
Having a history lesson by the Sea of Galilee was pretty cool. I definitely heard music coming from over the lake while Rami was talking. It was pretty moving to be sitting in a city Jesus visited often, looking over the Sea of Galilee and hearing music playing. Much more moving than the tank fire we heard from training camps during the rest of the week.
After the history lesson, Rami led us around the site showing us various places of interest. He showed us the high places in front of the city gates, the city gates and the roads. He explained part of what people would be working on during the next two weeks. A couple of groups would be working on making the area of the city gates more accessible for tourists. Another group would be working on the area in front of the city gates and a third group of about 10 would be working in the Roman Era Area under the direction of Dr. Elizabeth McNamer.
I kind of stopped paying attention by this point because it was hot, and I was tired and bored. We went back to Kibbutz for lunch, and in theory an afternoon to ourselves since pottery readings would not start until Wednesday afternoon (there was not enough pottery to warrant a reading at this point.) Instead of being given time to ourselves, Dr. Appold decided we should see the Jesus boat at 4. We were to meet in the lobby of the hotel and then go over to the Museum to see the boat. Very few people wanted to go that afternoon. We wanted to go on our own to see the boat when we wanted to instead of having our one free afternoon taken by him. He was, I think, actually late and we did not get away from the hotel until 4:45. By the time we got to the Museum, it was supposed to be closed. They did open up the gift shop for us but then Dr. Appold had us walk around the dark, closed museum for which most of the media presentations were not on.
There was a good side to all of this. We did manage to find free internet. We used a computer we probably shouldn’t have, and realized that there was a wireless router. This came in handy since several people in our group had brought laptops and the Kibbutz hotel charged an outrageous amount to use the internet over there.
A few of us hung out by the computer for a while, and then even fewer went up to the top of the museum to the look out area. It was really beautiful to look out over the Sea of Galilee. Then we had dinner and a lecture about Kibbutz living.

May 30/31

The day we flew out! I got up early and arranged my bags so the things that I wanted for the flight were in my carry-on bag. I had two bags, the one I used as my purse for the trip and my purple on, which I checked. I did very well as far as space I must say. Anyway, I arranged my bags, got dressed, ate breakfast and Grandma and I left for the airport. We got there and found everyone congregating around the Delta check in area. Dr. Appold handed out our books, T-shirts and tickets. We got our luggage checked in and made sure that everyone was there. We were all assigned numbers so we would make sure to stay together while we were abroad. I was number 7. We then waited around before boarding the plane to Atlanta. I sat next to Nate on this flight, and it was short and pretty boring. The cookies were good though.
When we got to Atlanta, we had about a two hour layover. Several of us got lunch at Wall Street Deli. The sandwiches were good but very big. Most of us saved the other half to eat later. We waited around and then found out they changed our gate so we ran to the new one just in time to get on and fly to New York. (Don’t ask me why we had to fly from St. Louis to Atlanta and then to New York. It’s cheaper for some reason…). I didn’t sit next to anyone I knew on that flight. I was next to a lady and her daughter from Alabama, who were on a family vacation to New York. This little girl was a very good traveler. She sat quietly and didn’t disturb anyone. I wish I could say the same for the children sitting behind me. There were a boy and girl who were really loud and kept hitting the back of my chair. Oh, it was annoying…
The view when we flew into New York was absolutely stunning. The clouds were pink with the reflection of the sun and the water was shimmering and there was a small strip of land visible in the distance. It was so beautiful.
We had another layover of about 2 hours in New York. I finished my sandwich and studied my Hebrew phrasebook. We talked to a couple from Tel Aviv while we were waiting. Laura Beth and I decided to fill up our water bottles also. That turned out to be a bad idea because we had to go through security again before getting on the flight. We had to drink our water fast. So much for drinking less to keep from having to go to the bathroom…
It turned out to be okay, though, because I was on the aisle. I sat across from Nate and next to Jordan. The flight was long and boring. I did finally get to see Slumdog Millionaire. It was really good. Dinner was okay. I had chicken. I then tried to sleep, but it didn’t work out to well. Eventually I figured out that it was okay to stand in the back, which was good because my legs were starting to hurt. I went and stood with Lauren Greenspan as she talked to two people, one girl and a guy. The guy was interesting to listen to; he was very well educated. Not going to lie, I didn’t follow their conversation very well, but it sounded like it was interesting. There were snacks in the back, so I had a little something for breakfast. They fed us a second meal just before we landed. It was pizza, I think, and was not very good. Oh, I had a glass of wine with the dinner, and it was disgusting. The bottle was cute, however, but I did not keep it.
We finally landed in Tel Aviv. We got in a long line to get our passports stamped and then went to retrieve our luggage. DELTA RIPPED MY BAG! And it got pretty beat up. I was annoyed. Dr. Appold thought that his bag had been lost and went over to talk to the Delta representatives, but we found while he was gone, and Nate took it over to him. Why he didn’t just leave it and go get Mappold, I do not know, but whatever. It was fine.
Customs was a joke. We just walked through. (We did pass this really cool fountain after we got off the plane. I didn’t get a picture of it unfortunately, but it had water that dripped from the ceiling into a pool of water at the bottom.) After breezing through customs, we had to wait for a while before the bus came to take us to the Kibbutz. We also had to wait for Justin who was coming in on another flight to join us. This was the first I had heard that someone else was coming along. We each changed $20 into shekels (exchange was about 3.8 or 3.9) and debated about whether or not to get SIM cards for cell phones. It was really expensive to get them at the airport, so we decided not to get one. Laura Beth bought a phone card for NIS 50, but I decided I didn’t want to. I wasn’t quite ready to spend money yet, and I didn’t plan on using 300 minutes. I didn’t plan on calling home too much.
We all just sat around after that. I emailed my parents, talked to Laura Beth, and noticed there was a boy wearing a KU shirt in the Tel Aviv Airport. (Turns out he was a boy who would be working on the dig with us: Johnny Dunn). It was fun times.
Eventually we got all of our people plus a few more. A girl from Georgia who was going to be working on the dig join us for the bus ride to the Kibbutz. Her name was Ingrid, and she had been granted a fellowship to work on a couple of projects in the Middle East for a while. We got our own bus to the Kibbutz and did not have to share with the other groups who apparently came in on Justin’s flight.
We all piled on to this little tour bus and began the two hour drive to Kibbutz Ginossar. I tried my best to stay awake to see the scenery, but it just wasn’t happening. I listened to my MP3 player for a little while and took a couple of pictures, but I kept dozing off. The billboards made me laugh. The Pillsbury Doughboy was on one, and there were Smurfs on another one. The scenery was pretty cool; it was a lot different than at home. There was a lot of trash and the buildings looked run down, but maybe that was just because I wasn’t used to the architecture they have over there. Anyway, we drove. The cacti were fun to see. They looked exactly like the cardboard cut out ones that people use for school plays.
We finally got to the Kibbutz and went to have dinner. I was really tired; I was kind of dizzy during the meal. I wanted to try new food, but I wasn’t feeling quite up to it yet, so I stuck with stuff I recognized. I did not eat the St. Peter’s fish at all on the trip, though I found out later it was tilapia. It still looked too fishy. They pretty much just bake the fish. Don’t skin it (scale?) or anything. Just bake it. It still has eyes… I did enjoy the salad that night at least. I also remember seeing a guy in a cowboy hat and having less than positive thoughts regarding his choice of attire. I changed my mind later on…
Our group had made the decision not to stay in the dorms at the Kibbutz. We stayed in 3 person rooms in a two story building. The rooms were nice. 3 beds, a fridge, a desk, a closet, a sink and a bathroom. The shower was a bit ridiculous and flooded the bathroom every time it was used. I was in a room with Laura Beth and Anna. We were all pretty exhausted so we went to bed.

Okay, so as I said, I am back in the United States. I have spent the past couple of days catching up with my family and getting used to being home. I started sorting pictures and uploading them to facebook. I am also working on typing up the journal notes I took while I was gone as well as adding other things that I remember. My current plan right now is to post one of my journal entries about one or two days. Please remember that these are not edited so this is by no means a sample of my best writings. My only goal is that they make enough sense for me to remember what happened.

So here for your reading pleasure is my first day of Travel.

May 29

I began my Israel journey not on an airplane but on a good old fashion train. Around 10 a.m. my mother and I loaded my suitcase into her car and drove to the train station. The weather was breezy and cool, perfect for waiting outside on a bench for a train I assumed would probably be late. (The last time I took the train to St. Louis it was 3 hours late. I could have driven there faster.) Mom did not have anything planned for the day, so at least she would be able to wait until it got there this time. I wouldn’t have to wait by myself.
Shortly after we got there, we saw Dad walking down to where we were. He had taken off work for a little while to come and see me off. We sat for a while discussing the places I would be seeing and talking about what time it was in Israel. I had changed my watch about 2 weeks before hand since I generally used my cell phone for U.S. time. This meant that while I was traveling I had no idea what the local time was. I turned my cell phone off to conserve the battery. I wasn’t going to be using my cell phone while I was gone, but I needed it when I got back so I had to take it along. I didn’t want to cart the charger over there, so I just left my phone off.
Surprisingly enough, the train was on time! It was actually a little early (there was a point were it had to move off the tracks for another train, which did end up putting us a little behind schedule. An Ozark shuffle or something like that. They had to move the train backwards.) I boarded the train and began to look for a seat. I wanted to be able to sit by myself, but that clearly was not going to be an option. The train was crowded, and every seat already had at least one person sitting in it. I found an open aisle seat. A little boy had been sitting there, but he had moved to sit in the lap of one of his grandparents so I thought it was okay to sit there. When the conductor came by to take tickets, however, he skipped me. When I got his attention, he told me the seat was already taken, and that I would need to move. Turns out, everyone has to be in an assigned seat, whether or not they are actually sitting in it. I got up and moved to an empty seat next to a blond woman a few rows back. I remember being slightly intimidated because I was not dressed as nicely as she was. (I did not want to take anything I would be upset about losing to Israel.) That was, of course, very silly. She was very pleasant, and we chatted at various intervals during the trip. If I remember correctly, her name was Jennifer, and she was traveling to St. Louis to meet her husband for an Air Force function (a retirement party, I think). She had recently graduated with an Air History degree and was/is considering going to grad school eventually for Museum Studies. She wasn’t sure exactly when that would happen because her family was moving to Louisiana for her husband’s residency. We discussed some other things, like history (Mayans and Aztecs and Incas) and the economy. We passed by a coal train that had derailed. It was mangled and there was coal everywhere.
We got to St. Louis pretty much on time, despite the short delay for the other train. Grandma was waiting to pick me up. We went out to lunch because she said she did not have much food in the house because she was getting ready for her trip to Maine. After lunch we went to Walgreen’s to pick up pictures and ran into Hajime. Grandma and I had plans to eat dinner with him and his wife Clare that evening. I had a choice between Chinese and Italian and I was having a hard time deciding what I wanted to have. They both sounded super delicious. After picking up pictures at Walgreen’s, we went to the grocery store to pick up an apple and granola bars (for breakfast and a snack for my trip.) Then we stopped by a Border’s and bought a Hebrew phrasebook (had I been thinking more, I would have gotten an Arabic phrasebook as well. We were in Jordan for a couple of days and in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem.)
After running those errands, we went to Grandma’s house. I finally got to see the Sun Room she and Sue had built out of their deck. It was very cool. There was a big chair, a couch, a table and a T.V. I eventually decided on Italian for dinner, and we left around 5:15 to meet Hajime and Clare for dinner. It was very nice to see them, and Clare gave me a little bag for my trip. Hajime and I order the same thing for dinner, but since I ate several slices of bread, a bowl of soup and part of a salad before my meal came, I sent the leftovers home with him. Grandma wouldn’t eat them because it was too hot.
After dinner, Grandma and I went back to her house. I called my parents and then grandma and I watched a movie (Raising Helen). I went to bed after that because I had to get up early to go to the airport to get on a plane to ISRAEL!

Well, I have returned home from Israel. Now the real fun begins :) Over the next few days I will be trying to organize my pictures and flesh out the journal I kept while I was there. Sometime soon, I will put pictures up here and describe each days events with a little more detail than I could while I was gone. I also will be deciding on a paper topic and beginning my research paper. Fun, fun.

So, I am in Bethlehem. It is pretty cool. I miss the Sea of Galilee. I went to a concert tonight. It was fun.

this one is going to be short. I'm sorry. I'll update when I can, but I don't know how my internet access will be for the next week or so.

Okay, so the other day we went floating down the Jordan River. It was hilarious. So, originally I was going to be in a two person raft with Nate. That really wasn't a good idea on my part since Nate flipped his boat over the last time I saw him in one. It all turned out okay though because we ended up joining Justin, Jordan and Dr. Appold in a 5 person raft. I was pretty cool with that because I didn't have to do too much. I didn't really want to have to row.
Considering I was in a boat with 4 men, I foolishly thought I would be safe on this voyage down the Jordan. These men, however, including the Reverand Doctor Mark Appold, possess an adventurous (and rather mean) streak. Our raft was given two less than steller paddles to use, and Nate noticed that Loren and Richard had been given two very nice paddles for their two person raft. So, our raft snuck up on their raft and Nate jumped in and attacked them and stole on of their paddles. (All this time people are splashing each other as much as possible, with Dr. Appold's encouragement and Nate is trying to act like the captian of our raft.) So we now have three paddles, and they have one. At this point, Jordan turns around and sees that we have another paddle. He says, "oh, when did we get a new paddle?" Dr. Appold responce was, "haha, we're really in shape now."
Needless to say, Loren and Richard were not okay that we stole their paddle so as their creeped closer to ours, Richard jumped out to to try to get it back. This left Loren in their raft by herself. Nate then jumped out of our raft, pulled Loren out of their raft, jumped into it himself and rowed down the river in their boat. (Yep, we commandeered a boat on the river where Jesus was baptized.) Loren and Richard had no raft, so we let them into ours for a while. Eventually Nate came back and Richard joined him in the two person raft.
After this exciting episode, we got into small skirmishes with other rafts. Jordan and Justin jumped out to defend our raft, but took their paddles with them. So Loren, Dr. Appold and I are stuck in a 5 person raft, by ourselves, with only one paddle. We then got stuck by on a rock, and Dr. Appold fell out of the boat. So Loren and I are trying to 1. Get Dr. Appold back into the boat and 2. Get the boat unstuck. While all of this is going on, Jordan, Justin, Nate and Richard are just floating along in the two person raft we stole from Richard and Loren in the first place. Justin and Jordan did return to our boat so we didn't have to stay by ourselves. Or maybe the two person raft was just too crowded with 4 men.
A little while later, our boat hit the bottom of the river. (The Jordan is not very deep. It is only 4-5 ft deep at the most usually.) We all got out of the boat to get it to move and then attempted to jump back in. Loren and Dr. Appold made it back onto the boat in time, but Jordan and I did not. The river suddenly decided to get deeper, and then turned out to be (probably) the only part of the river that was too deep for me to touch the bottom. And I was not on the raft and had no way of pushing myself into the raft... (Jordan tried to tell me that I could touch, but then discovered the river was too deep for him to reach the bottom as well. That shut him up pretty quick :)) Loren tried to help me back into the raft, but the life jacket I had gotten didn't have a back she could grab onto. So she grabbed me by the seat of my shorts and dragged me in. It was not very comfortable, but I did get back into the boat...
Then we got everyone back in the boat, fought a few more battles over people's hats, and then returned to the Kibbutz for lunch. It was pretty cool.

And that was my Jordan River adventure. Pretty much the best thing that has happened to me on this trip.

Except, I bartered yesterday! It was pretty cool. I am ready to get to Jerusalem and practice some more.

So I rafted down the Jordan River today. Pretty much the best thing ever! I have decided traveling by Pirate Battle Raft is the only way to go. It was a blast, and something I will describe in more detail when I have more time on the computer.

Have a wonderful day!

(I apologize for misspelt words. The spell check isn't working on this computer, and I am terrible at spelling.)

Wow, so intense weekend. We walked and looked at rocks, and then walked and looked at more rocks, and when we were done with that, we walked a looked at more rocks. It was glorious. And exhausting.

To be more specific about the walking and rock admiring, Saturday morning we hiked up Gamla (an ancient Jewish city of Zealots on the side of a mountian. Easily defended against Zombies, but apparently not Romans). It was long and arduious and we did it in two hours. I very nearly did not make it to the top. And I fell on my butt in a pile of weeds on the way back. After Gamla we went to two other places, Baniass (also Ceaseria Phillipi) and Tel Dan. There was more walking involved, and more piles of ancient rocks. Yeah.

Saturday night was a lot of fun though. A bunch of people from the dig went to the pub on the kibbutz. I taught Nic how to waltz. to a rap song. And he taught me how to swing dance, but I don't think it was a rap song at that point. It was fun.

Oh, wait, that was Friday night. Saturday night was the night we had a bible study on the Sea of Galilee. A group of about 9 of us started out talking about our favorite bible passages and why (we had our chairs out in the water). I talked about Joshua 1:9 which is my confirmation verse. I talked about how I get really stressed about things, and how that verse is a good reminder that God is always with me. Other people shared and left to go to bed, but four of us, myself, Lauren, Tony and Nic stayed to talk a little longer. We shared stories of how God has been working in our lives, our struggles and how those have brought us to where we are on our walks with God. It was great because I was able to talk to them about things I have really brought up with anyone else. We were all being vulnerable and no one was judging anyone else. It was beautiful. Then we sang songs including Oh Come all Ye Faithful and Oh Little Town of Bethlehem. Then I sang I will Make You Fishers of Men. We left around 1 a.m. and as we were leaving, we saw a star directly above a town accross the lake, and we decided it was Bethlehem. Probably the best evening I have ever had in my life.

Which is good, because I had to be up and on the bus by 7:30 the next morning for another full day of touring. First thing in the morning we went to Akko, a port city on the Mediteranian Sea. Several important people have been asociated with that place including Paul, St. Francis of Assisi, Nepolian, and Marco Polo (not in chronological order). I touched the Mediteranian!!!! It was glorious. We had a short worship service overlooking the sea before we left. Some kid also threw a tennis ball at my leg.

After that we went to a few more places, but I don't remember what they were. They were cool :). But I am going to wrap this up now. Bye.

So, I forgot my notebook again. I think most of my stories will come after I get back from Israel.

But I do have a couple of fun stories. The second day of actual digging, I met the photographer for the dig. At lunch we were next to each other in line, and he asked me if I was Hawaiian. I told him that I was part Japanese. It turns out that he is teaching himself Japanese because he has been there before, his son lives there and he is returning to ride around the island following the path of a famous hiku (spelling?) poet and take pictures. He insisted that I need to learn Japanese and has been trying to teach me different phrases ever since then. There are times when I am not sure which language I am trying to learn. It gets kind of confusing, but it is fun. He told me I have two years to learn Japanese so I can go with him on his trip.

The dig is still dirty, and there are lots of rocks. We are finding lots and lots of pottery pieces. Most of them are shards and aren't good for much, but we did find an intact cosmetic bottle. That was really cool. The things we are most looking out for are handles, rims and coins. We find a fair number of those as well as some small animal bones. We have also found sardine cans. The Syrian army apparently ate lots of sardines. Digging isn't as boring now since I have gotten to know the other people who are digging with me a little better. Lauren and I are still on the look out for the Q-source. (I will explain what that is sometime later. Just know that it is important. If you absolutely can't wait for my scintillating description you can read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_document)

I went swimming in the Sea of Galilee again today. It was pretty fun. We're going floating down the Jordan next Wednesday.

But I need to go. I will update again when I can.

okay, so being the brillant person i am, i left my notebook in my room so everything i tell you here will be from memory. But I did just figure out the shift key so at least I can use capital letters :) And make smilies.

So, I am in Israel working on a dig. I am working with a group of people digging up stuff from the Roman period. That is when Jesus would have been there. I have now stood on the only place where it is known for certian that Jesus walked. Like on the actual stones he touched. Pretty awesome. I keep thinking about how the pottery shards I have been finding could have been used by Jesus. Kind of mind boogling.

Speaking of mind boogling, yesterday I went swimming in the Sea of Galilee. That was amazing. A group of us, Lauren and Nate from Truman and Nick, a cowboy from Montana who is working on the dig for two weeks talked to the life guard. His name is Israel, and he is trying to learn English. We had some funny miscommunications as we were trying to teach each other the words of our languages. We had an especially fun time trying to figure out how to describe the word "silly" so he could teach it to us in Hebrew. I do not think we were successful.

Going back to the dig, it is pretty hard work. We had to pull weeds when we first got there and clean up leaves. Then we set up tarps for shade and finally started digging. It was very dirty, and I didn't like it very much. It got better today after we got some rocks moved and started a finding a few more things. I have found some pottery shards, some bones (animal), and some glass. And lots of dirt and rocks. We dig only a few inches at a time; something to do with the layers and striation. I'll explain later. Then we put pieces of pottery we find into to buckets and put the dirt into buckets so it can be sifted if we miss anything. It is pretty tedious to tell the truth.

In the evenings we have a lecture series, and I don't really stay awake very well during those. They are right after dinner.

I think that is all I have for right now. I will have better things to report when I have my notebook with me.

Shalom!