Update on life

Well life has been crazy these past few months since I updated my blog. I finished my job as a nanny and am now employed by the William S. Hart school district here in SC as a substitute teacher. I have also applied to a credentialing program at a local university, but I have not heard back from them yet. So once I hear from the program I will be going to school full time and working full time as well as trying to balance a serious relationship. Justin and I have been dating for almost a year now. Each day is better than the previous. Even if we don't do anything but sit around and talk, I just love to be with him all the time. We have gone on a couple of cool trips recently though. We went up north to the Sacramento area for a friend's wedding a couple of weeks ago and then this last weekend we went to Newport Beach where Justin's grandparents were staying and hung out with them and his parents for the weekend. We did all sorts of fun stuff which included Joe's crab shack, skateboarding, fashion island, church, bicycling and stick biscuits. We've also done other cool things like going to a Dodger game with some friends and just hanging out with our friends. Now we are back and real life has resumed once again with jobs and other such fun activities . . . My parents also came up with Mary, Jacob and Rachel for the fourth of July. We all went out the the beach and hung out for the day and then went to a great seafood place for dinner, it was a lot of fun and always great to see my family. So, those are the most recent happenings in my life hope you all enjoyed cause it will prolly be another 6 months before I update the blog again but we'll see . . .

Fun Times

There has been much going on in my life recently. First of all, I have decided that I want to be a high school biology teacher so I am now looking to credential for a year before I can officially be a teacher. In the meantime, I am going to be taking my CBEST in order to be a substitute teacher while I work on my credential. I praise the Lord for the direction that He has given me in this decision. Also, life has been busy with getting together with friends, doing homework and hanging out with Justin. For Valentine's day, Justin took me to see Wicked, the broadway musical. It was amazing! One of the best musicals that I have ever seen in my life. I would go and see it again in a heartbeat. Most recently we went up to Washington for 5 days in order to relax and take a little vacation. We had a great time going to Pike's place market and hanging out in Seattle. We also went to Bodies, The Exhibition which was extremely fascinating. It is a huge display of real human bodies that were dissected to show different organ systems and then preserved in order to be viewed by the public. It was very interesting, but definitely not for those of a weak constitution. The Lord has blessed me greatly in all things and I can do nothing but give Him the praise and the glory for His abundant grace and blessings in my life.

Latest Happenings

At the Clippers vs. Warriors Game After a Chris Tomlin Concert

Snowboarding

So not too much has been going on in my life recently. I moved out of my parents house into an apartment with friends and have been hanging out with friends and my wonderful boyfriend. It has been great to get back into normal life although there are many things that I miss about Israel. I have also been on the job hunt recently, looking for a real life job using my biology degree. So far I have received two call backs after sending out about 20 resumes. We will see what the Lord has in store for me, I am praying that He will lead me to the place where I can be most effectively used for Him. So here are a few pictures of what I have been up to lately, hope you enjoy!

Wedding Pics

Ice Skating



Christina and I



The Four Cousins

Minnesota Trip

So, three days after I arrived back in the US, I flew out to Minnesota for my cousin's wedding. Becca and I flew back to go to the wedding on the 16th of December. We left VERY early in the morning on Thursday to catch a flight to Minneapolis. Once we arrived we were picked up by my cousin Donella who took us back to her house to wait for my grandfather to come and pick us up and take us up to Brainerd. We arrived in Brainerd in time to "help" decorate the church a little for the wedding. I don't think we helped much, we mostly stood around and wondered what we were supposed to be doing. That night, my cousin Christina, Becca and I all went to Crystal's (bride) apartment to stay the night. We slept in the next morning and then went to Seth's (groom) brother's house where we had a bonfire and roasted hot dogs. From there Christina, Becca and I went shopping while Crystal went to the rehersal and dinner. We met up with her again at the church where she and Seth opened their wedding and Christmas presents from the people that were present. The next day was the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding. Crystal was absolutely gorgeous! I am so excited for the two of them, they are going to be an amazing couple that brings much glory to God through their relationship. Congratulations you two! Once the wedding was over, we all went to Uncle Bernie's house for a dinner and to stay the night. After dinner we went ice skating on the frozen pond behind their house. That was a blast! It was a little difficult to see where we were skating, but it was awesome. The night was absolutely gorgeous, there were a million and one stars out and not a cloud in the sky. The next morning we went to church and then went back to the house where we had lunch and then went ice skating again that afternoon. Uncle Bernie also treated us to what they call "tornado rides." He hooked up a sledding saucer to the back of his 4-wheeler and then drug us behind the 4-wheeler on the ice. It was soooo much fun! We then played games and just hung out with everyone until it was time to go to bed. The next day we left to go to Minneapolis for our flight home. On the way down we stopped at Cabella's and then proceeded down to Donella's house where we had pizza with a bunch of our family and then headed to the airport for our flight home.
Becca and I had a great time, Thank you to everyone who hauled us around, fed us and gave us a place to stay we appreciate it very much. So, that is the summation of my travels in the past week. I am thouroughly sick of plane rides and traveling, but I praise the Lord that I have had the opportunity to go to Israel and then to Minnesota. Hopefully I will be staying put in California for a while, but we will see what the Lord has in mind . . .

Egypt Pictures 2

Abby and I on the Felucca ride



One of the pillars at the Karnak Temple



On top of Mount Siani

Egypt Pictures

Luxor Temple at night



At the Giza pyramids



After we first crossed the border

Egypt Trip

Here in amazing experience called IBEX we get 10 days off of school to travel to wherever we want (obviously within reason, I don't think our professors would approve of us going to the Gaza strip or Baghdad or some other such place) So Abby, Jen, Joe and I went to Egypt. There were 12 people total that went to Egypt, but we split into groups of 4 for convenience purposes (have you ever tried to decide where to go or eat in a group of 12 different opinions . . .) This trip was planned completely by the students and done by the students. In other words, our professors did not go with us and lead us around by the hand and tell us what to do and what not to do. So, the planning for our group consisted of well we have a sheruit picking us up at 6 am on Saturday morning and is taking us to the border, but after that we had no hotel reservations or any other planned transportation. This was purposeful on our part because in Egypt you never know what is going to happen and so you have to be VERY flexible. The first day of our trip was spent traveling down to Cairo. We were picked up by a sheruit at 6 am which then took us to the border between Eilat and Taba, this took us about 4 1/2 hours. We went across the border with relative ease, it took us about 2 hours to get all 12 of us across amidst security checks and having to show our passports to 25 different people. Once we were across the border it was kinda like, "Alright, well what do we do now?" We knew we had to get a sheruit to Cairo, but we didn't know where to go to get one, we don't speak Arabic and we have NO clue what the going rate is for a sheruit ride from Taba to Cairo is and in Egypt, you have to barter for EVERYTHING and the first 5 prices that they give you are pretty much ridiculous. So, we ended up getting a sheruit, by the grace of God for a very good price. The sheruit ride was about 6 hours from Taba to Cairo. With the help of a very nice Egyptian Tourist Policeman, we were able to find a nice hotel in Cairo and check in. By this time it is about 8 pm, but we hadn't really eaten anything since that morning so we went on a hunt for some food on the streets of Cairo. That was a very interesting experience. Cairo is loud, dirty, crowded with lots of nasty men staring. We were unsuccessful in our quest so we ended up coming back to the hotel restaurant where we had a great traditional Egyptian meal. We then played cards until it was time for bed. The next day we found our way to the Cairo Museum where we were able to see all sorts of amazing artifacts. We went into the mummy rooms and saw many of the different Pharaoh's that we had been learning about in our classes or had heard about from our history classes. We were also able to see all of the King Tut artifacts and much much more. We then caught a taxi ride to the Giza pyramids. Taxi rides in Cairo are . . . interesting . . . You pretty much fear for your life and crossing the street is definitely taking your life into your hands. Well, we got to the pyramids where we rented camels for 3 hours and took a camel ride around the pyramids with our guides. It was amazing to see the pyramids. They are HUGE! With a little bakshsish (bribe) we were able to climb part of the way up one of the small pyramids. We then went to TGI Fridays for dinner where we met up with one of the other groups. We ended up hanging out there for quite a while. After much laughter and some great food we navigated our way to the train station where we caught the all night train down to Luxor. I thought the train ride was pretty cool, but like everything in Egypt it was quite an experience, we took the first class cabin and even in first class we had mice running around at our feet and in the bathrooms . . .well let's just say that the floor moved with every movement of the train. Anyways, we arrived in Luxor at about noon the next day. With the help of another very nice Tourist Policeman we were able to find a 3 star hotel (by Egyptian standards)to stay in. The hotel was also quite an experience, that night Abby and I slept without moving and without the covers because we didn't want to touch them. Once we had checked into the hotel we walked to the Karnak temple. This was AMAZING! The temple covers 60 acres. In one part there are 135 columns, each of which would take about 10 people spreading out their arms to reach all the way around. We were able to explore the temple and managed to get yelled at by the people at the temple for climbing on something that we shouldn't have, but there wasn't a sign and the door was open . . . Once the Karnak temple closed, we split up and a few of us went to McDonalds for dinner. It is incredible how good McDonalds tastes when you haven't had American food for about 2 1/2 months! After dinner we went to the Luxor temple. It was dark by this time so they had the temple lit up and it was beautiful. We spent a couple of hours exploring and taking many pictures and again managed to get yelled at for climbing. Abby, Jen, Joe and I then went back to the hotel again and played cards until bedtime again. The next day, we took a motorboat across the Nile and got a taxi ride to the Valley of the Kings. That was really awesome as well. We were able to go into 3 different tombs and see all of the beautifully painted heiroglyphics. Once we were done exploring we hiked over the mountain that seperated us from Hatshepsut Temple on the other side. We then spent the rest of the morning there exploring and taking more pictures. We then walked from the Hatshepsut temple to Hatshepsut restaurant a couple of miles away where we had lunch. After lunch we went to Medinet Habu, which is another huge temple. There we again explored and took many pictures. We then walked to the Colosse which are two massive statues. Once we had seen them we walked back to the Nile where we took a Felucca ride (kind of like a sailboat) on the Nile during sunset. It was beautiful! That night we caught the all night bus from Luxor to Suez. This was a crazy experience! First of all, the bus is filthy, none of us wanted to touch anything. Second, the bus driver put on this 'fascinating' Jean Claude Van Dame movie. Third, the driver was all over the road, (we were going around blind corners on the opposite side of the road) also he would lay on the horn, which was super loud (so forget sleeping), all the time. Lastly, we would make frequent stops where everyone else who was on the bus would get off and smoke a couple of cigarettes. We finally made it to Suez safely at about 7 am. From there we caught a sheruit down to Mt. Siani. Once we were there we bought some snacks at a 'grocery' store and then proceeded to climb Mt. Siani. We found out later that this is the hardest hike in the Middle East because it is 3,750 steps straight up to the top. It was insane, but we made it! We watched the sunset from the top of the mountain and then hiked down a little ways to a bedouin 'campground' where we rented blankets and matresses. Mt. Siani is FREEZING, literally, so we needed these blankets and matresses for the night. However, these matresses were nasty and the blankets were, well they pretty much took them off the camels and gave them to us. So that night we all slept huddled together to try and preserve body heat because it was so cold. We slept so close that Jen was pretty much laying on top of me for most of the night, we literally couldn't roll over. The stars are incredible from up there though, so it was worth it. The next morning we watched the sunrise and read the passages from the Bible about Moses receiving the ten commandments and of Elijah running to Siani. We then hiked down the mountain and caught a sheruit to Taba where we crossed the border back into Israel. We were all excited to be back in Israel. After 3 days of not showering, 2 nights of not much sleep, smelly camel blankets and being fed up with the nasty men and tired of being hassled wherever we went, we were all excited to be back. That afternoon we caught the bus up to Jerusalem and then the bus back to the Moshav. So that was our crazy, exciting and tiring trip to Egypt. We saw the Lord's grace every day in keeping us safe when we had no idea what we were doing and bringing people in our path to help us. All the glory belongs to Him. Well thanks for reading I hope that I was able to communicate well the insanity. If you want to hear more, I would be happy to talk to you when I get home, which will be in one week. For now I have to go and study for finals. YIKES!

Galilee Pictures 2

At Belvoir



At Beit Shean



Lauren and I at the Jordan River

Galilee Pictures

Michelle, Emily and I at the Lebanese border with Mount Hermon in the background



In a first century Tomb



Sunset from the top of ancient Roman aqueducts in Cesarea

Galilee Trip

Well, I got an email from my aunt claiming that I never update my blog, so this is to prove her wrong ;)

We spent 8 days in Galilee from October 29th to November 5th. On the first day we left early in the morning and went to Aphek, where Paul was taken on the way to Cesarea to stand trial. We then went to the Ha'aretz Museum. It was really cool to see an amazing collection of ancient coins and glass as well as a section that showed us how things were made in ancient times. We then went to Cesarea on the coast of the Mediterranean sea. It was amazingly beautiful. I saw one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen in my life. That night we stayed near Dor on the Mediterranean Coast. The next day we went up onto Mount Carmel where we stopped at the place where Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal. We also did an overview of the Jezreel Valley. From there we went down into the Jezreel Valley and went to Megiddo. We also went to En Harod where Gideon chose his 300 men to defeat the Arameans (I believe it was the Arameans). The last stop of the day was Nazareth. It was amazing to see the place that Jesus grew up. While we were there we went to Nazareth Village where we were able to see how things would have been in the time of Christ. We then went to En Gedi where we stayed for the rest of our time in Galilee. The next day we went up to the border between Israel and Lebanon, where some of the war this summer was fought. We also went to ancient Dan where Jeroboam set up one of his rival worship centers to Jerusalem and where he put up one of the golden calves. We then went to the border with Syria where we could see the Damascus road at about the place where Paul had his conversion experience. The next day we went around the sea of Galilee. We went to Bethsaida, Capernaum, Chorazin and the Mt. of Beatitudes. Going to the place where Jesus gave the sermon on the Mount brought the sermon alive to me. While we were there we read most of the sermon. It was powerful and moving. We then went to the church of St. Peter's primacy, which is at the spot where Peter confessed Christ as Lord. We then drove to the top of Mt. Arbel where we did an overview of the life of Christ. From there we hiked down the mountain. Once we got past the point where we had to climb down ladders that were put into the rocks, a few of us decided that we were going to run the rest of the way down. It was a ton of fun, especially when it started to rain. When we got to the bottom we went and took a boat ride from Tiberas to the En Gev fish restaurant where most of us ordered St. Peter's fish, which is the kind of fish that Peter caught that had the Denarius in its mouth. It was probably the most ugly fish that I have seen, but it tasted good. In the middle of the boat ride over, we stopped the boat and Uncle Randy read us the accounts of Jesus walking on the water and also of Jesus calming the storm. It was an incredible experience to actually be on the sea of Galilee and be able to look out and see where these events occurred. On Thursday, I had the amazing priviledge of being baptized in the sea of Galilee. I was so excited to be able to finally proclaim my belief in Christ publicly. There were three of us that were baptized that morning. We then went on a hike through the Nahal Yehudiya. It was an amazing hike. At one point we stopped and got to jump off a 20 foot cliff into water. It was sooooo much fun. We had to climb down cliffs and then swim for a few hundred feet in a couple of places during the hike, it was freezing but completely worth it! Once we got back and got warmed up we had a half day field trip for my Modern Israel class. It was pretty cool, we got to go to different Kibbutzim that were part of the founding of the state of Israel. The next day Abby and I had a free day because the Regional Explorations class had an all day hike. So we were able to sleep in for a little bit. We then spent the rest of the morning playing with some of the professors children in the sea of Galilee. The second half of the day we layed in the sun and took naps and just relaxed, it was a great day. On Shabbat most of the IBEXers went and floated down the Jordan River for a couple of hours. It was a lot of fun, but was also freezing. The rest of the day we just hung out with people and played games and such. Sunday we left En Gev and went to Belvoir, where there was a crusader castle. It was a lot of fun to climb all over the castle since a lot of it was still fairly intact. The last stop in the trip was Beit Shean. From there we drove back to the Moshav and back to classes the next day. The Galilee trip was a lot of fun. I learned so much about the life of Christ and it really helped me to understand the New Testament better. I praise the Lord for the opportunity to be here and to learn about the land of the Bible and the understanding that I have gained from being here. I also praise the Lord for the lessons that He has taught me while I have been here. We did many other things and went to many other places, but if I were to write them all this blog entry would be forever long. I will post again soon and tell everyone all about our amazing and crazy trip to Egypt. Thanks for sticking with me and reading my fragmented thoughts.