Postscript - I wish I was still there Part 2

I have been home for a week now, and each day I been waking up later. The first couple nights i woke up at 4am now I'm waking up at 7am, meaning I'm and slowing getting back into the things here in the States. But I still want to be in Israel and in Jerusalem. I miss the warm dry weather, the Hebrew and Arabic languages, and just being a 10 minute walk from the Old City and 15 to the New City. What I really mean miss is going shopping and being able to bargain, I got really good at it, and saved me lots of money. 


Since I have been home, I have done chores around the house, and other things on the "to -do" list. I really don't like it, I miss the slow lifestyle of the Middle East. But being is anice and quiet and I do like the American food, too. Getting kind of sick of rice and chicken, or a strange Arab pizza. Another matter that I am having difficulty with, is trying to understand why people dont wanted to know about my time in Israel. They just ask me whats going on, but they don't want to have to the time for me to tell them a long story of 4 months of information, but a summary of my favorite thing over there. Thats close to impossible. Or if these people do show some interest in my stories, they just don't understand whats going on in the world. So I'am teaching them more than I want to. But others show no interest at all. They want to tell me their story of the past 4 months but when I try talking they are not interested, and too be honest its more interesting than some of their stories. From my time in the Middle East, I have grown more of global politics, the fear of war not ending, and just my understanding that American are very close-minded in the whole grand scheme of things in the world. That my three time overseas, I seen that i am very privilege to understand this world better than most of the West (just USA mainly), and this knowledge makes me to work, and live outside the US even more. I am looking forward to when I graduate and then I can get a job overseas and grow in a global experience, filled with adventure, many new cultures, customs, places, people. I love it and can't wait to do it again. The I would like to come back to the US later and teach students proper history in subjective view of all subjects and make them more knowledgeable in world history and geopolitical events.


But thats the future now, I'll have to go back to reality and work at finishing my degree, and getting a career, and all the other things that will happen in my normal American life. But I don't want that normal life, so I'm looking forward to a more adventurous life in the huge world God gave us. 

Postscript - Reminiscing my adventures in Israel and Jordan Part 1

Back home greeted by my parents and grand parents at MSP

Well, I am back in the good  ole' United States of America. My home sweet home. To be honest I dont really miss it; I have a more mixed emotions of being "home". JUC and Israel itself was a good home to me for the past 4 months. I loved it, the people, the culture, the history, the land - all of it, I loved it all and hated just some things (checkpoints, honking vehicles in all hours of the day, SO many people, music playing at random times). My faith has grown more, as I wanted it to but in a different way. I grew in a more empirical sense with biblical geography and better interpretation of the Scripture, as the two subjects I learned. Along with the learning of the Eastern world that we the West doesn't know much if anything about it. Such as all the Eastern churches that are persecuted and trying to survive and some are growing in Israel but everywhere else they are declining.


My last weeks in the Holy Land was busy and stressful. Finishing my final papers and studying for tests. In total I typed 40 papes for essays and also did poorly on my Church of the East test - as everyone else did bad too, thank you Dr. Petra Heldt. Though, I still love you as a sister in Christ. Aslo to add to the finals we had to clean the dorms and pack up our belongings AND also pack for our 6 day trip into Jordan for our Cultural Backgrounds trip with the Bedouin and the Wadi Rum desert.

Lot's wife - pillar of salt

(Saturday, May 5) So for 6 days we first left on the bus at 6:00am, and we each got a bag breakfast that consisted of two pita, turkey, cheese, hard boil egg, cucumber, and tomato, with Halava (protein bar that is close to fiberglass with a really funky flavor). We drove 2 hours to the north to the Sheik Hussein crossing in Beth Shean; as we were heading south, we stopped and dropped Ian McGregor off in Jordan for he was going to Amman to see his sister and then meet his brother for backpacking around the Levant. We, though, continued on to the south to Wadi Dana in Edom. Here we met and learned about the various villagres in village Dana and they taught us traditional village life. We stayed overnight at the Dana camp at the edge of the great Edom scrap, sleeping in tents, I shared the tent with Sam Knutson. Here there was no electricity and the showers were solar powered. But that night was amazing with the great sunset and seeing all the stars and a huge moon.

Dana Village

Plowing with a donkey (included Peter P)

(Sunday, May 6) I woke up early, because my back was sore but I got out of the tent and climbed a huge rock where I saw a great sunrise. We had breakfast and then took a shuttle up the cliff to the bus and prepared for a whole day hike through the Wadi Dana. We waled down a ten mile hike dropping 6000 feet from the top at Dana village to the Finyan Camp/copper mines. The nature walk was wonderful we got to see the limestone top through the sandstone then passing through granite "its the rock sandwich". The hike was long, hot, and tiring. We then got to the Finyan EcoLodge, a beautiful lodge that is built by American help and is totally powered by solar and the lights are candles, So dinner/bedtime was very, dare I say "romantic". We went in small trucks and did offloading around the desert; looking at the copper mines from King Solomon's times to ruins of Byzantine churches, right in the middle of the desert, kinda weird. We enjoyed a very nice hot water and delicious food, afterwards we went to the roof and stargazed seeing moon, Saturn, Mars. Saturan was just beautiful, got tot see the stripes on the planet and the rings along with two moons.

Dana Wadi camp

We hiked this whole this down to our new camp

Trucking to the copper mines

A time for learning on the ruins of a Byzantine church

(Monday, May 7) We then packed up and left or nice Ecolodge to drive north to Showbak where we were hosted at the Jaya Camp by Saleh Rawashah and his family. He taught us how to grind grain for our dinner, make coffee, plow a field with a donkey, etc. We had a lazy day just enjoying each others company, talking and sharing stories. Listening to Dr. Wright and his stories fo the past were really fun (girl who burnt her hair story, ha) and just enjoying the Bedouin lifestyle fo leisure in the hot fo the day. We slept in tents and had no shower but we did having toilets. We back up and drove down to Wadi Rum.

Showbak village (old part)

Spending our time n the tet and watching people grind grain for our dinner

(Tuesday, May 8) We drove down to Wadi Rum, its also called the Valley of the Moon. The name rum comes from the Aramaic word meaning "high or elevated"; its a valley made out of sandstone and granite. Its 30 miles from the Red Sea port of Aqaba and about 40 miles from the Saudi border. We left the bus with our belongings and jumped in jeeps/small trucks going across the sand to a place beyond which tourists normally go; to spend time with a real Bedouin family (Abu Faad's family), still living in a traditional Bedouin lives. We were able to relax in the hot of the day, kill sheep for dinner, and cook the food in the and, drinking lots of sugary tea, and continued to tells stories, philosophizing, and other academic or asking faith questions and bouncing them back to one another. I talked to Peter P, he is a philosophy major, very smart, he wanted to know more of the modern implications of the British Empire and I wanted to know about existentialism; so we talked about it for couple of hours. To be honest I loved not doing anything and just talking about stuff. That night we took our mattresses and slept under the stars on the sand dunes and enjoyed each other's company talking till we all fall asleep. Also to note, there is no electricity, no toilets, no showers, no running water. Noting but our group, the slaughtered sheep, the goat haired tent, and the millions of stars and sand (Genesis 15).

Our camp #1 in Wadi Rum

Having fun taking pictures after the slaughter

Sand at Sunset

(Wednesday, May 9) In the morning we woke up and we unpacked the tent and loaded it on the truck and then we jumped on our camels with joy and rode off into the desert for about 4 hours and spend our next night at a new "campsite" We even got to pitch the huge Bedouin goat haired tent, and the same with a sheep slaughter for dinner. While dinner was cooking, we played a dice game, talked, laughed took pictures of our last day in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and preparing ourselves to say goodbye to our new and good friends. Then at night we ate dinner, late, I was sitting with Dr. Wright and others (Amber S, Peter P, Aaron J, Sam K, Anna W) and we were honored with a communal plate for dinner with a great center piece - the sheep's head with the liver int he mouth. What one does is take the liver and eat it, pull out the tongue and eat it, the pry out the eyeballs and eat them, next its the brain. Lets just say we didn't each much that night because it was 10:30 and we are kinda getting sick of this style of sheep. But we then went to bed, I slept in the tent and some others did too. But most slept under the stars again. 

About to ride the camels

After 3 hours of riding the camel

Our dinner - rice, lamb, including lamb's head

(Thursday, May 10) We woke up ate our last Bedouin breakfast (flatbread, yogurt with spices, hard boiled eggs, and tomato), we then packed up, got in some pictures, when we were cleaning up some buddies picked up my mattress and then found that I was sleeping on a huge black scorpion; James, our tour guide burned it to death for our safety. With mixed emotions we packed up and jumped on the bus to head back north to Jerusalem. On the bus we enjoyed more story time of our first love, first kisses, and other funny stories. We then got to see 6 apache helicopters fly over and James said that the middle one was King Abdullah II of Jordan , he was probably going to Wadi Rum. Ah, we were so close on seeing the King. We got to the Jericho crossing of Allenby bridge and went throughout he checkpoint and then jumped our our beloved NET bus back to campus/ Jerusalem; home sweet home.

The roommates (Josh C, David P, me)

King Abdullah II's helicopter convoy heading to Wadi Rum

We got to campus had our last dinner at JUC and started the long goodbyes to our many new and good friends throughout the night as the sherut came at different times to match up for the peoples planes tickets in Tel Aviv.  A group of us JUCers went to get some yogurt and also celebrate my and Clara's birthday at Zolli's Pub - our favorite pub in Jerusalem. Clara and I got a free birthday yogurt, glass of champagne, and also a Hebrew birthday blessing. I will truly miss Jerusalem and my friends.

Clara R, Steve B, David P, Trevor, Lori at Zollis Pub

Aaron J, Josh C, Chandler

Sam K, Karen, me, Peter P

Back at campus we all packed and got done did some rounds of the basketball game of lightning. The next morning we finished saying goodbyes to the last group before mine at 7:45 pm. So Sam K, Rachel C, and I went around the Old City to do some last minute shopping and then have our last Shawarma at Damascus Gate, and oh it was good. This was my birthday, having my last day in Jerusalem, and it was great. Then, we (Sam K, Ben R, Lori C, myself, and Elizabeth's mom) got our luggage down to the gate on campus and said our goodbyes, with pictures and jumped on our sherut to Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport.

A birthday present from Israel Delta Airlines to me...drinks

Done with Finals - An end to the Adventure in Israel

At the Temple Mount Gates

The Eastern/Golden Gate where Jesus will enter the city, when he returns.

Dome of the Rock

...

Well, the end of my semester abroad at Jerusalem University College in Israel is coming up. I leave on Saturday (5-5-2012) morning for five days, camping and riding camel around the desert in Jordan for my Cultural Backgrounds class. I get to have the opportunity to ride camels, sleep in a Bedouin tent, eat traditional Bedouin food, and play in the sand with the scorpions and other desert critters. But before that great fun in the sun, I had to finish my finals that included a papers, which all the pages added totaled 40 pages and also exams. One exam, the History of the Church in the East, well lets just say I am hoping my grade doesn't transfer over, just my credit back to Northwestern College. All the other finals were more or less better. After my field study in Jordan I will leave for the States/home on May 11, my birthday, what a great birthday present, being back home in Minnesota and seeing my family and friends.

So, I'm writing what I think will be my last blog while in Israel, I will blog a postscript of my adventure in the Holy Land when I return to the States.

Today, I had a semi-free day with shopping in the Old City and going to the bar (Zollis) one last time with a good friend, Hannah and the the rest of the bar gang. I will miss these new friends that I have grown and learned with. I am lucky to call them friends, but most of all brothers and sisters in Christ.

I'll post pictures when I get back home. If you have been reading my posts thanks and I hope your able to visit this awesome land filled with history, great culture, nice people, and an old world feel. I know I will miss this place.