Cycles

My Granddad used to tell my Dad, "You're completing another cycle" every time they neared the town in which my Dad had been born.

I just returned from a trip to my birth-town myself...to find my Master's Diploma waiting on the front step.  Another "cycle" is complete, indeed.

What will this next "cycle" hold?  I'm excited to find out.

More weird things

1. Dishwashers.  I almost forgot about dishwashers.  I'll start doing dishes in the sink and look down and realize that there is a dish washer sitting there, ready to be used.  They really can be excessively useful.
2. Sugar is so SMALL!  And brown sugar is so...um...small and light?  I remember when I first started cooking in Israel, I was surprised by the size of the sugar grains in both white and brown sugar, and the brown sugar was fairly dark.  Apparently I got used to it, though, because here I am always surprised at how fine the sugar is.  Granulated sugar here is almost as finely ground as powdered sugar in Israel.  It's crazy.
3. The smell of freshly mowed grass.  I had almost forgotten about that too.  *ahhh*
4. Finally got around to making pita today.  I've missed it so!  For anyone who is interested, I posted the recipe and directions on my Other Blog, the one dedicated to things like cooking, sewing, crocheting, etc.  You know, just so I don't clutter this one up with recipes all the time.  If you like recipes, though, I will be trying to update that Other Blog more regularly.  (Yeah, the name is silly, but my old roommates and I used to joke about all our marriageable qualities.)

Dear Readers,

I thought you all might enjoy an approximate reproduction of the conversation I had with several people at church today.  If you were one of the people I spoke to, I enjoyed talking to you and I'm trying to include a few details below that I may  not have mentioned in case you want to know more.  If you were not one of the people I spoke to, feel free to ask these questions yourself in person later if you want.  Otherwise, maybe this will help fill you in on my past, present, and future.    

Church Friend (CF): Alana!  You haven't been here lately.

Me: Nope!

CF: Where have you been?

Me: I was in Israel!

CF: Oh, how fun!  What were you doing there?

Me: I was there for about 2 years total (it's been 11 months since I've been back here), working on a master's degree in Biblical History and Geography with an emphasis in Historical Geography.  

CF: Oh, how interesting.  Did you like it?  What school were you at? What did you learn?
Me: (*How do I sum up what it took me 2 years to learn?  Oh well, I'll try*)  I liked it a lot.  And I learned a lot.  I was at Jerusalem University College (JUC - highly recommended).  We basically try to integrate our understanding of the Bible with the history, geography, and culture of the land.  So we studied a lot of Biblical routes and how people lived and moved and got food and fought and how the land affected life and how those images are used in the Bible.  Uh...if you want more details, we'll sit down sometime and I'll give you some examples. :)

CF: That sounds really great.  Are you going back?

Me: Well, hopefully.  I finished my degree, but I'm hoping to go back to volunteer at the school and help out there for a year or two, if and when I get a visa.  (So, you know, if you want to pray for me, you can pray that I'll get a visa sooner rather than later or never.)

CF: So how long will you be here?

Me: Not really sure...It depends on when I can get the visa.  Probably a couple months at least, maybe more. (So you can also pray that I will have wisdom to use this time well, especially as it is hard to plan since I don't know how long it will be.)

This brings me to the second main point of this post.  I am not really sure how many people read this blog, between blogger and facebook, but I had a number of people tell me today something along the lines of, "Oh, I read your blog!"  I am very glad that people read my blog (after all, I write it to be read), but if you are one of those people, I have two favors to ask of you.  Ready? :)

1. Please forgive me if I don't know as much about you as you know about me.  You might feel like you know me quite well and  are familiar with my life, thoughts, plans, etc.  I will probably not feel the same way about you, unless you are really good at emailing me or keep up a blog of your own.  Which brings me to the second point.

2. Unless you are a creepy stalker, if you read this blog, I probably want to know you better.  There are a number of ways for this to happen.  If you live in Montana, maybe we could get together for coffee or dinner or something while I'm here.  I even have a phone now and am willing to give out the number to people I know, so let me know if you're interested.  If you don't live nearby and/or want to remain more anonymous and impersonal, you can still participate by leaving blog comments.  If you are extremely lazy, I even added buttons below the blog which you can click to mark that you've read it.  I mean, it's kind of no fair that you know all sorts of things about me and I don't even know who reads this...so some sort of response occasionally would be nice. :)

Thanks in advance! :)

And now, to conclude this eclectic post, here are a few more random observations and mini-adventures as I adjust to life back in the States.

1. Holy huge washers and driers and ovens!  I was blessed to have all three of those things in my apartment in Israel, but the appliances here are about 2 or 3 times their size.   

2.  On the same note, I guess it's been striking me a lot how much we do have here.  You always hear how people in other countries think all Americans are rich...and I can see their point a lot better now.  Stores are huge and filled with so much...stuff...  We have so much space - houses are bigger (to fit the larger appliances), kitchens, bedrooms, yards...So much space.  So much stuff.  We are so blessed, and yet we forget so easily.

3. I may have walked to and from church today.  You know, just for fun, just to keep my "Jerusalem legs" in some sort of shape, just to remember to not take easy transportation for granted.  Do you know how blessed we are to have cars?  Admittedly, in Israel you could get by without a car fairly easily.  Things are closer together and there is better public transportation.  In America, cars are much more of a necessity...but they are still a huge blessing.  I don't want to forget that.  

4. Whenever I go to the bathroom in a new place, I have to remember that I CAN throw the toilet paper IN the toilet.  Craziness.  Is that gross?  Sorry...I may have forgotten some social norms too. :)

5. Whenever I plug something in I'm still slightly surprised that I don't need to go find an adapter first.

6. Whenever I start a car I'm still slightly surprised that I don't have to punch a code in first (as was necessary in all the rental cars in Israel).

7. I do love the smells of Montana.  Ah...fresh, clear, mountain air.  Nothing like it.
8.  Still SO GREEN.  Still loving the greenness, clouds, even occasional rain.  Hooray for variations in weather!  Hooray for sunsets and rainbows!

9. My parents are great.  Really, my whole family is great.  Yeah.  I'm pretty blessed.

10. I'm still processing...trying to keep the good and avoid the bad in both worlds, so to speak.  So please be patient with me and I'll try to be humble and not bore you with too many tales of "In Israel, we..."

Thanks for reading and please click one of the reaction buttons below! :)

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig!

And so it is, after nearly a year (ok, 11 months) away, I find myself back in Montana.  Though the term "home" can mean several different things to me at this juncture, there are many ways in which Montana is still "home."

The familiar green, mountainous landscapes thrill the little parts of my heart that have been longing for these mountains.

I love the fact that it rains here in the summer, and I love the resulting rainbows. 

It's been good to be away, but it's good to be back.  I think in many ways my life in Montana prepared me to see and enjoy many of the different things in Israel.  And now, back in Montana, I am reminded of so many things that I love here that were missing in Israel.  The contrast reminds me to enjoy both places, to revel in the differences, to try to live life to the fullest, wherever I am.  

Lord, help me not to take any of your bountiful gifts for granted.

Application.

It was my first experience leading a tour.  And it wasn't even really a tour.  Really, I was just showing a couple friends around the country, trying to give them some insight into the land. 

Examining maps.

This whole last semester of school had been spent mostly trying to take knowledge I had gained in the last two years and put it in a format that I could pass on to others in a 15 day period.  This, of course, is impossible.  Thus, even lame attempts (such as mine) earn a passing grade.  That aside, it was a useful project, forcing me to think through the important aspects of each site.  However, it's difficult to design lessons without the chance to practice them on real people.  Thus, it was a blessing that about a week after the conclusion of the project these guests showed up and gave me the opportunity to put some of these hypothetical lessons into practice.

It was quite a week.  We went everywhere.  Well, almost everywhere.  We were severely limited by time...and exhaustion...but we made the most of the time we had.  The first day was spent exploring the Old City, City of David, and Mount of Olives.

Hanging out in Hezekiah's Tunnel

The next day we spent by the Dead Sea, visiting Masada, En Gedi, and Qumran (and, of course, pausing to smear mud on our bodies).  Saturday (the third day) was spent partially on an excursion to Bethlehem where we visited the Church of the Nativity, Stars and Bucks, an olive wood shop, and looked at some wall graffiti.  That took about half the day.  The other half was spent in the Old City, visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and shopping.  Lots of shopping.  

In Bethlehem, proudly displaying our Stars and Bucks purchases.

Sunday we headed north to Galilee, stopping at Caesarea on the way.  We visited the monastery on Mount Carmel, Megiddo, drove over Mount Gilboa, stopping at a couple places to admire the view.  We swung by Beit-Shean for a view of the tel and for a McDonald's ice cream cone before heading on to our campsite on the Sea of Galilee, just in time for a spectacular sunset.

After a rather sleepless night on the hard ground we arose to a scorcher of a day around the lake.  After visiting Capernaum, the Mount of Beatitudes, and Chorazin, we were ready for something cooler.

Visiting the Capernaum Synagogue.

Dan it was, and then Banias.  We drove through the Golan Heights, stopping at Har Bental for a view of Syria, before making our way to Tiberias for dinner.  Chinese.

At this point I should probably mention a small tour group that we kept running into.  I think we first saw them at Mt. Carmel.  No big deal.  Until they followed us to Megiddo.  And Banias.  And then, just as we sat down for dinner at the Chinese restaurant, guess who walked in the door?  We all had a good laugh about that.

We camped out again that night and slept better.  We were the first visitors of the morning at Mount Arbel.  Then to the Turan Ridge were I had heard of another great look-out point.  It was.  A stop at Sepphoris to talk about the life of Christ and Judaism after the destruction of the temple.  Our last stop (of almost the whole trip) was at Azekah, overlooking the Elah Valley were we considered the geographical context of David and Goliath.  We took the scenic route home and ended up wandering through Jerusalem a bit.  It turns out that I only know a very small section of the city well.  We made it home eventually, though, with relatively few problems.

Looking down at our car from the Turan Ridge look-out.

Their last full day was also my last full day, so I needed to pack and clean.  I dropped them off at Yad Veshem and went home to perform those necessary tasks.  And, of course, they ran into the same tour group there.  

Thursday we had a little time before their sherut was to come, so they helped me move stuff into storage at the school and then we went back to the Old City one last time.

Looking back on the "tour," I think I learned a lot.  I learned, for one thing, how exhausting it is to be constantly teaching and trying to answer questions - and I only had two people.  I learned that I have much left to learn and study and put in my notes if I ever want to do a good job as an instructor for a study course (maybe, hopefully, someday?).  I learned that it can be a great blessing, to help people understand the Bible better as they see the land where it took place.

There and Back Again

Having been back on US soil for a little over a day now, here are some of my "first" impression:
1.  They use ice?!  What's that?  I rarely saw ice in Israel.  On the plane from Israel, I'm pretty sure none of the drinks that I got had ice in them.  Maybe they would have put ice in the soda, but I didn't have any of that.  Then on the plane from Atlanta to Kentucky my drink was about half ice...Going to have to get used to that again.
2. Clouds!  Green!  Rain!  I was so excited to see rain yesterday when I landed.  I even went outside just to stand in it.  Pretty sure people thought I was crazy, but I haven't seen a good rain for months.  Also, the rain here is so warm.  The winter rains of Israel are not so enjoyable to dance in.
3.  No, really, it's GREEN.
4. Finally got to meet the new nephew :)
5. First "major" experience back here: dressing up like a cow so we could get free meals at Chick-fil-a.  Welcome back to America.

Nephew and I as cows.  Moo!!

6. Garage-saling this morning - I could look at people and talk to them without being afraid that they would make inappropriate comments or try really hard to make me pay too much for something I don't want.

Yes, I've missed garage saling...but look at the grass!  

7.  I can read all the signs.  At first glance.  And understand them.  

Of course, not everything is different.  I still run into the occasional, uh, camel?!