Broke it Again

So I broke the 200 second mark with a 191 sec. score in Minesweeper. SCORE!! You have no idea how happy that makes me! Yes I know I'm a geek...it's ok.

Wedding Bells

So most of you have probably already heard but my friend and one-time roomie is getting married. Sherri and Jeff set the date for August 19, 2006 in Morden. I'm going to the wedding and staying with Laura P-atterson for the weekend (who is also coming to the wedding). I'll be chillin' with my "date"...Vicki at the wedding well. So congradulations my dear! Does this mean that Jeff is joining the Super Buddies club?

DAY SEVEN

Day Seven was the day that we started out at ICEJ - International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. We went for two lectures in the morning. The first one we had was by David Parsons. He spoke on the Great Covenants of the Bible. It was cool because we looked at the covenants God made with Israel from a different point of view - that of the Jewish people. I had never really considered what the covenants mean to the Jewish people, both the blessings and promises. The second lecture that we had was by Michael Hines. He spoke on Current Events and Intercession. His talk was looking at more than just Israel but world events and how it relates to Israel in endtimes. I found it interesting...perhaps the first time ever that I've been interested in endtimes stuff.

After the lectures and lunch we had lunch and then met with Rivka Regev. Rivka's parents are permanent residents at the Hansen Hospital, not as patients, her father was a doctor but has retired and they still live there. She is working to preserve the gardens on the site restoring them to their former glory. Hansen Hospital was build by German Moravians in the 1860s and was a leper hospital. It was originally called Jesus Hilfe. It is now called Hansen Hospital and is an outpatient clinic for those with leperousy. The gardens have been left for so long that there is a lot of work that needs to be done to restore them. It is a huge garden with many terraces. We spent the afternoon helping the gardeners who volunteer their time to the project. We were split into groups and worked on many different projects. The first one that I worked on was building walls in the compost area. That was fun because I got to use tools and didn't have to dig in the compost. After we were done that I helped with the gathering and dumping of leaves from one end of the property all the way down to the other where the compost was. The property is on a hill so it was a lot of stairs to climb. I'm glad I wasn't doing it all day! Others helped to build a pond, cleaned up rubbish and unwanted items from some of the areas of the garden, raking and weeding, and painting. It was hard work but a lot of fun.

DAY SIX

I have a disclaimer to add to this blog and any others about what we did for the rest of the tour. We switched things around on the schedule pretty much everyday and I had fallen behind in my travel journal so I don't remember exactly what we did on what day. I will however cover everything it just may not be in the exact order.

In the Day Five blog I started Day Six's morning because we did more gardening at the Youth Village. After gardening we rushed back to our room, showered and packed. We left the Youth Village that morning for Jerusalem. It was the first time that we were going to be in Jerusalem. We stayed in Jerusalem the rest of the time that we were in Israel.

On arriving in Jerusalem we went directly to the Old City to do some shopping. The Old City is the part of Jerusalem which is the oldest and still has the walls around it from the time of Jesus. The modern city of Jerusalem is much much bigger now and has extended way past the Old City. With in the old city their are market areas which are great for shopping at. In the far right picture at the top you can see the shops. The other two pictures are different pictures from around the Old City. The Old City is divided into different quarters. There is the Jewish, Arab and Christian Quarters. I don't know what the fourth one was. The Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock are both within the walls of the Old City. Below you can see the Dome of the Rock which is the golden dome. It is a Muslim holy site. The wall directly below the dome is the Western Wall. It was very eery being at the Western Wall praying and hearing the prayers from the Mosque. It really put into perspective the intensity and personal-ness of the issues are for the people who live in Israel. Both are the children of Abraham and both feel they have the right to Jerusalem.
Did you know that Jerusalem is an international city? It doesn't belong to anyone. We met a man there and his children were born in Jerusalem. On their passports it just says Jerusalem, no country of origin. The city is internationally disputed and that's why they can't say that it is Jerusalem, Israel or Jerusalem, Palestine. We know so little of the complexity of the issues here in the West. It's not as easy as just sitting down and hammering out a peace treaty. The Middle East is not the West and we need to understand that. I'll talk more about this kind of stuff in another blog.

After shopping we checked into our hotel which was the Grand Court. It was a new hotel on Olive Tree Drive. It was really nice and we had beautiful rooms. It was sooooo nice to finally be staying in one spot. Andrea and I immediately unpacked our suitcases and settled in. We had french doors off of our room which led to a large wrap-around patio. Unfortunately our room and Daniel's room next door were the only ones that had doors that opened onto the patio:(

We hung out and did some relaxing for the rest of the evening. Lisa and I discovered the espresso bar and were hooked for the rest of the trip. We met Abed and Asem. They both worked at the bar and were incredible funny and kind. We enjoyed getting to know them.

Pictures from Nanaimo

Frosty leaves

There were some trails that we went to where my sister walked her dogs all the time. Some of the trees were draped in moss and their branches looked like they were wearing green fringe.

This is a leaf that was plastered onto my sister's driveway by repeatedly being run over.

The last time that we went it was close to sunset and the sunlight was glowing through the trees.

Coombs Taxi

So I was starting to pack some of my books and stuff for when I move to Winnipeg and I came across a stack of pictures. I decided to sort them so I could put them away when I found this disc of pictures that I had totally forgotten that I had. It's from my trip to Nanaimo, BC in December. We went to Coombs one day because they have a really cool market there.
We found this little taxi that I'm sure was there for the children to play on but hey it made for some fun pictures. I have some other cool pictures that I took and maybe I'll post a few. The Island is a beautiful place but I don't think I could live there...too cloudy for me. Kalyn and Reg ended up moving back to Alberta a few months after my visit. They just moved into
their new house in Edmonton.

New Personal Best

I set a new personal best today in the game of minesweeper. For those of you who went to college with me know my obsession with the game... my new time is 219 seconds for the expert level. I know this isn't really blogging material but it made me happy:)

Yes I'm a geek sometimes

UPDATE: I set a new one today (Tues.) at 203 seconds. Yeah!

DAY FIVE: The Youth Village

On Day five we didn't do a ton of activities but we were very busy. After leaving the Bedouin oasis we headed for Hadassah Neurim Youth Village. We were there to be willing servants for the staff there. We ended up doing a variety of jobs around the property. You are all probably wondering what on earth a "youth village" is so I'm going to do my best to describe it.

Hadassah Neurim is really like a small village where 230 students between the ages of 14-18 go to boarding school along with another 270 students from surrounding villlages that attend the school as well. The students at this school are a varied group of people there for different reasons. the village takes in teens that have made aliya from Russia, Ethiopia and other countries. Aliya means that they are Jews returning to their homeland, Israel. Some of the students are from troubled backgrounds. The village's highschool offers a wide variety of academic and technological tracks for the students as well as many extra-cirricular activities.

The village is jointly owned by Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America and the Jewish Agency for Israel and is run by a non-profit organization. The boarding school has live in councilors, social workers, psychologists and teachers. They are constantly striving to make the Village a safe and supportive place for the students.

"New Immigrants and their children face tremendous challenges in Israel. Hadassah Neurim offers its students a bridge from the difficult circumstances of their childhoods to the responsibilities of independence and adulthood. In many cases this is the first safe and supportive home they have known. We have a tremendous responsibility to give our students new opportunities to make positifve chances in their lives and help them aspire to their greatest potential" (from info on Hadassah Neurim in our tour binders)

So I was on the "Kitchen Team". I didn't want to spend the day outside because the day before in the desert had been a lot of sun and I was feeling it. We ended up cleaning windows in the cafeteria. It sounds pretty easy but it was a huge job. There were 18 sections of 8 sliding windows and screens that came out as well as a row of stationary windows underneath. Dude that's a lot of windows...big windows. I ended up doing the dirty job of cleaning the tracking. It actually wasn't too bad, not many bugs, mostly sand. I also helped clean the bottom stationary windows. We didn't have it too bad though because there was a gardening team that unloaded something like 2 tons of garden rock!! Glad I wasn't there!

That night we had a BBQ with some of the youth which was cool but was difficult because most didn't speak any English. Lisa and I went for a walk that night and ended up sitting outside talking until 12:30a. There were others outside on the lawn at that time, which happened to be the time that the sprinklers came on! We laughed as everyone screamed and ran inside then realized that we had to either wait out the sprinklers or go through them to get inside! Luckily we didn't get too wet.

The next morning we had the opportunity to do some more work if we wanted to or we could go to the beach and swim, I volunteered to do some gardening, which was fun because we were planting flowers. We worked for about an hour and a half, then showered and piled back on the bus. We were off to our next destination...

DAY FOUR: Part 2

So after the Dead Sea we
headed off into the desert
to have a little 4x4 fun.
Our group was divided up
into jeeps. Some started
out in the Land Rover's getting
the tour of the desert and
others started out in the ATV's
cruising around. After an hour
and a half we met up and
switched vehicles. I went on
the tour portion first. In our
jeep we had Noelle, Heather,
Andi, Daniel, Amber, Janie,
Kevin, myself and our very
handsome driver, Ammi. We
stopped at different spots and
he would tell us different things about the desert. It was very interesting. The picture to the left is our driver and tour guide.

This is a picture of the ATVs taken from the lead jeep. It was a crazy fun ride. Our driver asked if we wanted to listen to some music, we said yes, so we listened to Mambo #5 as we drove through the desert.

We had been driving up on the top and then we drove down into the valley. It was a very very steep drive down. I was glad that I was in the jeep and not on one of the ATVs! It was an amazing view though. In the valley the walls are made mostly of chalk and they crumble at your touch.
After the jeep rides we started our trek to the Kfar HaNokdim Bedouin Oasis. It is an oasis in the desert that is a "tourist" spot where people can go to learn about the Bedouin people and experience some of their lifestyle first hand. In this picture of the desert, the dark patch on the left is a shepherd with his flock of goats, the small squares in the forefront are bales of hay and on the right hand side you can vaguely make out the highway winding out from the dunes. We were now in the Judean Desert. It was kinda crazy to think of it while we were there. We talk about Judea and Samaria in class and at church but to really be there was wild and kind of mind blowing. Not something that happens everyday.

When we first arrived we had the opportunity to ride camels. This is something that I had been looking forward to the whole trip. Ya...so...camels are scary...and the don't ride like horses at all. But it was fun and I guess that's one more thing that I can strike off of my list of things to do in my life:)

This is Lisa and a camel, she was brave to get so close. Lisa is from Ontario and was the seventh member of our Canadian team. Lisa and I hit it off right away becoming good friends ... I think it started over a cup of coffee in Tel Aviv.

Miss you.

On the camels saddle there was room for two people, Heather and I rode together. It was hard to get pictures while on top of the camel so I was stoked when this one turned out.



So here we are riding towards the Bedouin Oasis on our camels. It was a short ride but still really fun.
In the camp this was the tent that we ate supper in and the girls slept in. it was just like camping (except for the checking for scorpions)because we had a huge bonfire that night with worship and a time of personal ministry. It was an awesome time with God that night. I went off a ways and just gazed at the billions of stars that were out. It was amazing. God spoke to me a lot that night about illusions that we have about life, about ourselves and about Him. It was good and fit more pieces in the puzzle that I've been trying to figure out for awhile. So that was the end of Day four. It was a crazy, fun-filled day that we all enjoyed. Oh and incase Daniel is reading this, I guess that not washing your hands after you ride camels DOES make you stronger, I'm not dead yet:) Ya ya I know...GROOOSSSSSSS

DAY Four: Part One

DAY Four started
with Baptisms in the
Jordan River. There
were four people in
our group who had
never been baptized
before and a bunch
who were being
baptized again. It
was a really exciting
time. Each baptizee
wore a white gown over
their clothes and received
a certificate saying they
had been baptized in
the Jordan River.












Next we drove 2 hours to the Dead Sea. It was amazing leaving the greenness of the Sea of Galilee area to the rocky deadness of the Dead Sea. It reminded me of a lesson that I taught my students when I was in Sri Lanka. In the lesson we were talking about living a lifestyle where you give to others as well as receive from others...there's an ebb and flow. I gave them an analogy of the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Galilee takes in water but it also gives out water. It is surrounded by lush greenery and full of life...it receives from others but also gives out to others. The Dead Sea on the other hand only receives water, none is given away. The Dead Sea does not support life and the surrounding area is rocky and scrubby. It's a powerful depiction of life. I will say however that the Dead Sea is still a blast! We had fun floating around and covering ourselves with mud.
Andrea and I covered ourselves in awesome Dead Sea mud. The water feels like oil because there is such a high salt content. There are no living organisms in the water so the squishy mud at the bottom was tolerable knowing it wasn't algae. It was crazy how hard it was to actually get your legs underneath you in the water. We also visited the Ahava Factory Outlet while we were there. It's a company that makes wonderful beauty products from the minerals in the Dead Sea. Below is a picture taken from the water of the Dead Sea up the beach. The mountains in the background is the mountain range where the Dead Sea scrolls were found.

Redemption

So an amazing thing happened at church today. I witnessed something that was so personal I wanted to leave but was so encouraged that I had to stay. I'm going to give you just a shortened version of the sermon that he gave. There was much more to it and it was long so I don't really want to type it all out.

The pastor spoke on what I thought at first was going to be forgiveness which it was but it was more than that, it was about God's heart and purpose of redemption. He used the text of the parable in Matthew 18:21-35 and the story of the adulterous woman in John 8:3-11.

His main point was that there are so many times in our lives that we have the legal right to punish and condemn people for their actions against us but morally God calls us to a standard which is higher. In the parable of the forgiven servant he had every legal right to go to his fellow servant and demand that he pay his debt in full. On a solely legal ground he was completely within his right but as the other servants and the king himself attested that the forgiven servant was acting immorally. The forgiven servant had been given so much, his life as he knew it but when the situation was reversed he didn't extend that grace to his fellow servant. Jesus came to show us the way of first grace and then truth.

In the story of the adulterous woman the Pharisees proved that this woman, by law, could legally be punished for the act that she committed. They had the "right" and the truth about her to legally have her killed. Jesus reached out to her first with grace,
"Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
"No one Sir"
"Then niether do I condemn you,"
He doesn't stop with grace though, he brings the truth to her as well, the fact that she was living a sinful life.
"Go now and leave your life of sin."
The woman could have been condemned to death but Jesus' purpose was to redeem the woman to life. It's too often the other way around for us, we condemn, point out the flaws, reject people on the things that we see because it's the truth. We tattle to the Father about what our brothers and sisters do, and question whether or not they are really Christians.
We need to put grace first, forgiving those who repent of their sins....seventy times seven.

Now to the amazing thing. The pastor called a couple up to the stage and said that this couple was coming to publically confess, repent and ask for forgiveness of the church family. I was very scared at this moment because I had heard so many stories from people about this kind of thing but the pastor said that it was the couples choice to do it. I'm not going to tell what they were asking forgiveness for because it's not your business. I didn't even want to hear or be there because it had nothing to do with me. They both explained what they had done, how they had repented and God had dealt with them about the issue, what the pastoral staff had done and then asked the congregation for forgiveness. The pastor asked them to stand at the front of the church and asked the congregation to respond not just because they felt they had to give some sort of response but because God's Word tells us what we are to do when a brother or sister asks for forgiveness. The whole congregation rose to their feet and made their ways to the front and surrounded the couple. They broke down in heaving sobs. They all prayed together and then we had communion.

There was the most amazing presence of the Spirit there with us. I've never experienced anything like it before but I hope that it's not the last. Instead of letting rumor and gossip destroy relationships in the church they did as God's Word says, "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed" (James 5:16).

The lesson I learned today...

God's plan isn't for us to go and act only in truth or even truth first but we are to be first and foremost vessels of His grace. I need to practice this more.

On Fire

Ever since I've gotten back, well, no even before I got back, I've felt deeply that I went to Israel for a definite reason. God spoke to me about so many things while I was there. It was such a wide scope of things too. Everything from illuminating the Bible to personal issues to confirming plans. It was and is very overwhelming. I'm still digesting the things that I've learned. I feel like I'm standing on the edge of a cliff and there is nothing but mist in front of me. I can vaguely discern that there are lights here and there in the mist but that's it. I know that I'm supposed to go forward and I want to but I'm still scared.

I feel that my future is so open, so big I can't even fathome what God has for me. The only words that I've found that even begin to describe what I'm feeling is from the song "On Fire" by Switchfoot.

"I'm standing on the edge of me... Standing on the edge of everything that I've never been before. I've been standing on the edge of me. I'm standing on the edge and I'm on fire when You're near, I'm on fire when You speak. I'm on fire burning at these mysteries..."

I told my sister about this and she gave me some great advice. She said it's ok if I'm scared but I can't let it stop me. I don't usually let fear take over but I try so hard to deny that I'm afraid. I know that this next year is going to be a stretching time for me, I'm looking forward to it.

DAY THREE

Day three...it was a big day. We did a lot of traveling and sight-seeing on this day. We were up early and heading for the Galilee area. I was really excited to go there because it was were Jesus spent most of his time ministering and I was anxious to see it, experience it.

Statue of Elijah
View of the Valley of Meggedo from Mount Caramel
Our first leg of our journey landed us on top of Mount Caramel. That was crazy. The mountain where Elijah and the Prophets of Baal duked it out...the Mount that will have a front row seat at the final battle. It is such a strange feeling that I can't even describe. You have such a sense of the history, the oldness, of the place when you are there standing on top looking into the valley of Megedo (Armagedon). It's a quiet, still, knowing of the blood that was shed there and the blood that is yet to be shed there. Oh I have no idea how to explain it, you'll have to go there and experience it. We sang the "Days of Elijah" while we were up there. It was so amazing because it made it sooooo real.

Our next stop was at Tabgha which was on the coast of the Sea of Galilee. Tabgha is where it is believed that Jesus asked Peter to come and be a disciple. They have a statue depicting the event.
This site was a cool place to start because it was the beginning of Jesus' ministry, the calling of the disciples. It was also our first really good look at the Sea. I must say though to a Canadian it's a really small lake...really small. It's nice though because it was fresh water and I wouldn't be drinking in all the salt water like I did at the Mediterranean Sea. We didn't stay long until we were off to our next place which was lunch in Negev. There we went to a restaurant that served "St. Peter's Fish". It was a good meal of fried fish with the head on.

After lunch we headed out on a Sea crossing. I was worried that I would get seasick but I was totally ok...well minus when we were circling and circling trying to rescue Lior's hat. Lior was our guide on the tour. He was a funny guy but the circling for the hat had to end. It was an amazing trip. The waves crashed into the hull of the boat and sent spray over all of us. By the end of the crossing I was completely drenched. Mostly because Dan and I were at the very front of the boat and we were saying that it would be funny if we looked over the edge and a wave came up and smashed us in the face...so we both looked over the side just as a wave was breaking on the boat and we got our facewash! It wouldn't have been too bad but just as we were pulling ourselves out another wave crashed and I was absolutely soaked. Luckily it was only my front. I actually had to wring out the front of my shirt and shorts.

The trip took about an hour with all our "hat rescue" attempts. There were many moments of "Jesus did this". We talked about how bad the storm must have been for the disciples to be so scared. There were many times when we just went quiet, each one comtemplating the thoughts in their head, the feelings in their heart.

After the boat ride we went to the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. There was a beautiful garden there and a small circular, domed cathedral. As we entered the cathedral we had to be silent. It put me in a very reverent attitude as we spread out in the pews that followed the circumference of the room. We sang a couple of hymns acapella and the accoustics were amazing. The presence of God was so present there with us. So for those of you who know me you can imagine how much I was crying. It was almost unbearable. Unfortunately I was there with 49 people that didn't know me and many were concerned about me. A couple of the leadership came and talked with me. They said that I should take my time and so I did. When I left the cathedral I expected to see people walking through the gardens but no, they were all on the bus waiting for me!! I didn't really care though because I could still feel God's presence with us.

We left the Mount of Beatitudes and head for our hotel, the Ohalo which was in Tiberius. When we got there we went for a swim in the Galilee. The beach was made of crushed shells...not so fun and the first three feet going into the water was large, jagged, algae-covered rock. It wasn't so bad coming in but coming out was another story. I fell twice and still have the bruises to prove it. Thankfully Tim stuck around and helped me out.

After supper we had a talk from Jurgen Buehler. I had a really hard time staying awake - you'll remember that I'd been up since 2am that morning! Just sitting and not doing anything was hard for me. I think I did fall asleep for a bit, I hope I didn't snore! I'm sure Lisa would have elbowed me if I did. I do remember that he talked about our calling, what God wants us to do. Lisa and I went to find some bottled water and diet coke. The store at the hotel was closed because it was Shabbat but we found a gas station down the road that was open. When we got back I went to bed and fell asleep immediately...and according to Andrea I did snore:)

the Cloud Ninjas

They come at night, silently creeping through the city, spying on those with open windows.

Ok it was the weirdest thing. When I was so desparately trying to get to sleep the eve of Day Two I noticed the clouds coming in off of the sea. It was so unlike the clouds at home which are usually more wispy and move quickly with the wind. These clouds seemed like they were creeping into enemy territory and they needed to be stealthy like ninjas. They were big fluffy clouds that moved at a snails pace......maybe they were more like graceful giants.

View from Kibbutz Yad Hashmona

Here is the view from the Kibbutz Yad Hashmona. As you can see it is very green. We were up on a hill so we had a great view. Most of the towns and cities are build on the hills. It made me think of the story of David and Goliath because the to armies were on opposite hills and went into the valley to battle. I guess it's a good strategy.

Days One and Two

DAY ONE
So DAY 1 was mostly a travelling day. We flew a direct flight from Toronto to Tel Aviv which was about 11 hours. I'll tell you though...the security in the airport is crazy. When we were in Toronto we each had to have an interview with a security person, check our carry on luggage with them (to be returned when we boarded) and had our shoes X-rayed! We were allowed to keep our wallets, passports and boarding passes. We found our gate and then spent the time getting to know one another. When boarding time came our carry on luggage was wheeled to the gate on a cart. It wouldn't have been so bad except that it was only our 6 backpacks! They set up another metal detector and we had to go through, taking off our shoes again so they could be scanned. We then collected our bags and went directly to the plane...we did not pass go...we did not collect $200!

On the plane was ok but there were alot of small children which was bothersome when you were trying to sleep. Oh but just so you know, it all worked out...the meals were kosher and I have the papers to prove it! It was a pretty uneventful trip and when we arrived in the Ben Gurion Airport we didn't really have any problems, we met our driver, Ofer, and he took us to the Kibbutz Yad Hashmona. There were two other people who came in at the same time as us but on different flights who we met at the airport. One was Lisa who is also a Canadian (and became a "bosom buddy") and Noelle who was from New Zealand (she also became a friend). On the ride to the hotel Ofer asked if we minded a little music and we said no so we listened to Ricki Martin for the 15-20 minute drive! We quickly learned that the Kibbutz Yad Hashmona was our first of many hotels.

I expected Israel to be very deserty, rocky and dusty but I was completely surprised by the amount of vegitation that was there. Sure there were parts of the country that were that way...like the desert...but for the most part it was absolutely beautiful, lots of green and flowers everywhere in all colors.

So back at the Kibbutz Yad Hashmona...we found our roommates, mine was Andrea from Canada (she goes to Summit Pacific), we found our room, we had dinner and a meeting where we were told all kinds of things that our tired minds promptly forgot and met everyone else on the tour. There were people from Georgia, Florida, Washington, Tenesee, Finland, South Africa, Holland, New Zealand, Australia and England. I'll have to admit that the Finnish names went in and out of my brain that night...who am I kidding they didn't even make it in!

DAY TWO
Day two took us into Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and is a beautiful and modern city. We were going to Tel Aviv to visit the Dugit Messianic Outreach Centre. The Centre is an outreach which includes many types of ministry. They do not limit themselves to evangelism they also meet the needs of many poor people as well. Every Thursday night at the Centre they have a night of music, fellowship and coffee. They call it the Gospel Cafe. They have had wonderful success with this ministry because it allows them the opportunity to build relationships with the people that come in to the cafe.

Our purpose in going there was to help them in anyway possible. We cleaned, organized and did whatever they asked of us. With so many hands to help we finished everything that they had for us and found a few other things as well. We were fortunate enough to be there on a Thursday and had the opportunity to go to the cafe that evening if we wished. I did not go to the cafe but instead chose to catch up on some dearly needed sleep:)

After we were finished at Dugit we got to spend some time at the beach. It was great, the sun, the surf, the sand...the topless women...yikes. Actually that didn't bother me, I had more issues with the speedo-clad, George Hamilton tanned, old men that trolled the beach. So skantily-clad, golden, old boys aside the beach was great. I drank about a gallon of seawater which I will confess didn't sit well with me and I did reguritate it.

We stayed at the City Hotel that night. It was a nice hotel. The elevators were like closets and the first floor started two floors up so it really sucked for the people on the sixth floor. I would like to take this moment to thank the incredibly nice guys who helped the girls carry their luggage up the stairs. Justin, thanks for carrying mine.

There were a few of us that stayed behind that night and we decided to go for a walk along the beach. I witnessed the quickest setting of the sun that I have ever seen. The sun was a ball of firy orange and pink one moment and I got my camera out of it's holder, turned it on, set the flash, looked up and it was gone. It only took a few seconds and it was done. I guess I'm just used to the sun taking several hours to set. It is something that always surprises me when I'm near the equator.

Back at the hotel Lisa and I had our first of many many coffees together. It was a beautiful evening while we sat out on the patio of the hotel and had coffee. We didn't stay long because I was almost asleep in my chair and wanted to get to bed. I was in bed early but unfortunately only ended up getting about 4 hours of sleep. At about 2am Andrea and I realized that we were both awake so we got up for a little while. Andrea went back to sleep, I just went back to bed. I did everything I could think of to sleep but nothing worked so I got up and read for an hour on the bathroom floor. I didn't get back to sleep after 2am which was really not good. We had a long DAY THREE ahead of us but I did ok until our evening lecture but that's for another blog.

The Princess Bride?????

Ok so I know you are all thinking, "I thought she said that she was going to blog about nothing but Israel!" Well I am but this is just a fun little thing that I saw when I was there. So for all of my college and non-college friends who love the movie or don't love the movie the Princess Bride this is what we saw as our tour bus pulled up to a mall between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem...I don't even remember where any more. I'm not even going to explain the picture because it pretty much explains itself.