8.02.2008

Tara-the-slacker

Hello again! Sorry I’ve been such a bum about updating lately, but for some reason it’s been difficult to find the time to do this. I’ve missed a lot of stuff on this blog, and it’d take me forever to completely update it, so I’m just going to hit the high points by listing 10 things I’ve done in the past few weeks. Mind you, I’ve traveled to Jordan and Bethlehem, and am currently in Galilee…so there’s a lot that I’ve seen and done. I’ll try not to leave anything out!

1 - First and foremost – I saw another “wonder of the world”…Petra. Rack your brains back to the last time you watched Indiana Jones and you just might recognize this place. It’s the fortress where he has to pick the right cup at the very end of the movie. Ha ha. I was amazed to see how big it is. You hike for about a mile down, not seeing anything but mountains, and then all the sudden it opens up and there it is. I loved it. There were a bunch of other ruins, but this temple was my favorite.


2 – I have now ridden a donkey! We got to take a little ride up this huge canyon in Petra, but it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. There were definitely times when I thought I was for sure going off a cliff (since my donkey would trot about 6 inches away from it) but I made it safe and sound. Mine must’ve been some sort of Olympian, however, because He literally ran up the entire thing, leaving me at the top by myself for a good 5 minutes before my friends showed up. And the best thing about it – it was $5! :)

(See these stairs? There was 900-somethin of them, and my donkey ran up the entire thing! You would've been scared too...)


3 – Funny story. I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but I was told I looked like a sister missionary by a few people. I’m not sure if it was my mid-calf length skirt, my need for makeup, my carefree hair, my baggy shirt, my lack of romance, or my “constant smile” – but I’ll take it as a compliment. Ha ha. This picture was right after the first comment, so you can all be the judges. :) Do I look ready to serve a mission?


4 – I decided it was time to dye my hair, once again. Mom talked me into bringing some dye from the States, and it definitely came to good use. Paige dyed my hair, and then I decided to use my straight iron for the first time. Clearly I forgot what I was doing, because I plugged it right into the wall instead of using a converter. Minutes later my apartment was smoking, and I barley turned off the thing before it started on fire. FYI - American straight irons definitely don't work the same in Israel. Sorry Mom. ;)

5 – After Jordan we came back to Jerusalem to what’s known as “lock down”. I guess there were a few other “terrorist-related” attacks, and the city wasn’t the safest. Needless to say we came up with some crazy things to do in the JC for those 3 days we weren’t allowed to leave, but it was fun.

(One of the crazy things that went on while on lock down. Strange talents were discovered...)

6 – Bethlehem was an amazing place, and I really loved the feeling there. We went to a church built over what is believed to be the stable where Christ was born and sang a bunch of Christmas songs together. It was really powerful, and I realized how terrible the conditions were at the time of his birth. We went to a shepherd’s field after and had a big program about Christ, which was possibly my favorite thing here. Wow.

7 – I got attacked by a bug in my bed a few weeks back…bad experience. I woke up to bites all over my knees and ankles, and later that day I found the source of it all. This little critter pictured below fell on the floor when I shook out my sheets. I now look under my covers every night…I hate bugs. :(

8 – Galilee is amazing. We’re staying in a little kibbutz right on the shore of the Sea. We’ve taken a bunch of pictures playing in the water, and the sunsets are unreal. The pictures definitely don’t do it justice, but they still look pretty cool. I absolutely love it here, though. The spirit is so strong. With the humidity included, it's around 110 degrees everyday. Quite miserable, to say the least, but it's nice to cool off in the Sea of Galilee after that. :)


9 – Not so much a highlight, but I happened to break my camera (just like Ali) the day we went to the Dead Sea (once again like Ali). We went to see Batman, which I loved, that night and I turned it on to see florescent lines all over my screen. Now I’m camera-less, but I’m getting by. I have a few named-cameramen who take my pictures, so I’m dealing with it okay. Sad story, though. Ugh.

10 – We’ve officially discovered a way to make music videos in the bus. We bought a splitter, and we put headphones over the speakers on the camera, while the person in the video has another set in their ears. The time goes by so much quicker, and we’ve had a lot of good laughs since the discovery. I wish I could post videos, but you’ll all just have to see them when I get back…they’re incredible. Youtube, here I come!
Overall, time is flying by quicker than expected. We're all savoring every minute we have here in the Holy Land, hoping we won't forget too much about this experience. I'm sure I'll be ready to go home when it's all said and done, but this is definitely the coolest thing I've done. As for now, we'll just keep going on hot field trips, learning lots and lots while getting ice cream anywhere we can. ;) Bad habit, I know, but it keeps us going here.