(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!

Travel Day

I took the train to St. Louis yesterday. I am spent the night at my grandmother's house before flying out this morning. I finally got a Hebrew phrase book. It crossed my mind around 8 o'clock Thursday night that it might be helpful to have one, but it was too late for me to get one that evening.

The train ride was fun. It was actually on time! It was pretty amazing :) It was crowded too; I was surprised. I had to share a seat. I ended up sitting next to a woman from Illinois who had just graduated with an Art History degree. It was really interesting to talk to her because she had such a different life from me but was still interested in doing the same kind of work that I am thinking about doing (museum studies). She is about 4 years older than I am but had just graduated because she got married and that spread her education out a bit. He is in the Air Force, so her education will be even more spread out. Her husband is a dentist so she doesn't have to worry too much about getting things done quickly. In fact, she can't because they are going to be in Louisiana for a while.

That is the fun thing about mass transportation. You never know who you are going to meet.

I need to go now. I have a few things to get ready before I head to the airport! It is going to be a long day of traveling. We fly to Atlanta, then to New York before getting on a 14 hour flight to Tel Aviv. Should be lots of fun.

Website

For more information about the dig-site visit:

http://www.unomaha.edu/bethsaida/default.htm

Israel Information!

So I guess the purpose of this blog can now be my trip to ISRAEL!  I will be gone from May 30 to June 25.  I am going with a group of about 16 from Truman, led by Dr. Appold.  I took a class with him last semester, and he is actually, for those who don’t know, the pastor who baptized me. 

 

A brief outline of our itinerary:

June 1-14

Working on the Bethsaida dig-site

            Bethsaida was a community located north of the Sea of Galilee.  According to Wikipedia (which means it may or may not be true…), Peter, Andrew and Philip resided in Bethsaida.  Peter was even born there (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethsaida). 

            There seems to be some debate about the actual number of Bethsaidas.  It is mentioned several times in the Bible, and some scholars argue that there were two Bethsaidas, one north of the Sea of Galilee and one east of the Jordan River.  If you want to read more about that issue, see the above article. 

            Each day we are working, we will arrive at the dig-site at 5:30 a.m.  We will work until 8 and then break for breakfast.  We continue working again until about 11 when we take another break before working until 12:30 before heading back for lunch and our afternoon activities.  These afternoon activities include swimming in the Sea of Galilee and floating on the Jordan River.  In the evenings we have a lecture series and will be doing pottery readings.  I don’t know what exactly that means yet, but I will let you know when I find out.

            In addition to working on this dig-site, we will be living in a kibbutz.  I am pretty sure the kibbutz is the only successful form of socialism, or socialist living (there might be a difference), in the world.  Probably because it is only on a community level, not a national level, and participation is voluntary. 

            The first kibbutz (again, according to Wikipedia (which is a fine source for a blog, but is inappropriate for academic papers)) was established in 1909, which I thought was very interesting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibbutz).  They have been around longer than I realized.  With my feeble math skills, I was able to deduce that they have been around for 100 years as of 2009.  (Fun Fact I just noticed in the article: The Hebrew word for husband ba’ali literally translates as “my owner.” In the 1920s and 30s, the women on the kibbutz used the ishi instead which means “my man.”)

            In addition to working on the dig and living on the kibbutz, we will be doing other fun things such as swimming in the Sea of Galilee, rafting on the Jordan River or visiting the museum which has a display of a first century fishing boat.  Also, on the weekends, we will tour places such as Qatzrin, Gamia, Nazarath, Cana, Caesarea Maritima (where Pilate lived) and Mount of the Beatitudes.  I will post pictures either here or on facebook when I return. 

June 15-25

            The next couple of weeks, we will be traveling around Israel and Jordan.  We spend a couple of days in Bethlehem; we will visit the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem University, and hopefully spend a day volunteering on a Palestinian farm.

            After Bethlehem, we are traveling to Jordan.  We are going to spend a couple of nights in Amman and travel to places such as Petra, Mt. Nebo and Machaerus.  (To be honest, I am not 100% what all of these places are.  I will have more detailed descriptions later, once I have been there.)  Of course, all of these are somewhat up in the air.  Weather conditions and time will factor into what we do when we are actually there. 

            The last leg of our trip consists of 5! days in Jerusalem.  We originally were scheduled to leave on the 23 June, but Dr. Appold found a cheaper flight that leaves on the 25 June.  So we get two extra days in Jerusalem.  While we are here, we are visiting places such as Church of the Redeemer, Dome of the Rock, the Wailing Wall, Mt. of Olives, Hezekiah’s Tunnel (something about walking a ½ mile through waist deep water was mentioned for this location as I recall) and the Holocaust Museum.

            We fly home June 25, when I will start on the three papers I get to write by the end of July.  Not the part I am looking forward to J.  

ISRAEL!  I leave in 11 days!