Moon Magic

Story #1:

Flashlights bobbed along the trail before and behind us.  It was a warm evening, and as we moved quickly up the hill, sweat beaded on our foreheads and our lungs were put to good use.  For about 20 minutes we hiked and then, as the light of several campfires came into view we stopped.  For they were not actual campfires.  Instead, holes in the earth allow a strange mixture of gases to leak out, and they combust when they reach the surface. The dancing flames are the remains of a phenomena that has awed travelers for millennia: the Chimera.

As we stopped to take in the flames, the star encrusted sky, and the black outlines of the mountains against the horizon, we looked also at the moon, struck by it's odd shape.  It had been almost full the previous night, but now it appeared to have decreased in size again - but in the wrong direction.  The conclusion was inescapable: and eclipse!  So we sat there, by ancient dancing flames and watched the moon be fully eclipsed by the earth's shadow.  Years ago there were pagans who worshiped on this mountain, at these flames, awed by the magic of fire from the earth.  What would they have thought on such a night, with the fires burning and the moon growing dark?  We, however, are blessed to know and are known by the God who ordained these wonders.

Story #2

Under a darkening sky we made our way down the road towards the beach.  Most of the tourists had left with the sun and anyone who might return after dark was still at dinner.  So it was that we were alone when we rounded a curve and came into sight of the bay.  A point of land stuck out, black against the twilight, and on the tip a campfire seemed to burn.  As we walked closer to the water, however, we realized that the yellow light was not that of a fire, but of a huge orange moon that hung just above the horizon.  The reflection in the water shimmered with the same orange glow as we sat down on the pebbled beach to watch it rise higher.

The frog's song, accompanied by the plunk of pebbles in the quiet waves made a perfect accompaniment to the silently, majestically rising moon.

Together with Innocent Smith, we celebrated being alive.   

The Ruins of Paradise

It is, perhaps, slightly off the beaten track, this ancient ruin at Olympos.  With no four or five star hotels in sight, the atmosphere could perhaps be best described as summer-camp-for-grownups.  Hammocks and cushion-lined booths dominate the scene,

and a dirt road (periodically crossed by a dry riverbed) leads sun-burnt travelers through Cair Paravel-like ruins to the pebbled beach.  

At some point during Greco-Roman times, this was a fairly important city, with a bath, a theatre, a port, and a couple necropolises.  Perhaps because of pirates, or perhaps because of earthquakes, or perhaps because of some other combination of reasons, the city went into decline.  Now the mostly unexcavated remains are overgrown and mainly visited by Europeans and Turks seeking a holiday but not wanting to pay resort prices.  

It's a great place to explore and to imagined among the ruins, without the aid of archaeological constructions (or misconstructions), what life might have been like.  

And one can understand why pirates seemed to prefer the place.  

Now the most ruthless inhabitants are the chickens which parade around regularly, crowing and cackling and searching for bugs and stray crumbs.   

This one seems like he could be a reincarnated pirate :)

It was a beach day.  

I have to say that one thing I really love about Israel is the variety of landscapes here.  You can start in Jerusalem (hill country) and within a couple hours be at the ocean, or the Dead Sea, or Galilee, or the Golan heights.  It would be like starting on the California coast, passing through Death Valley, driving through mid-west farm land, pausing at the Great Lakes, and ending in the Rockies.  All in one tiny, hotly contested piece of land.  I think that there must be something here (land-wise) that would remind anyone of the land of their nativity.  

So today six of us took the day and went to the beach by Tel Aviv.  Most of us took a car that one of the students here has rented for a while.  Some of us were thinking about visiting a museum, but that (unfortunately) didn't happen.  Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable, and mostly relaxing, day.  I was glad I wasn't driving - the traffic and twisting, convoluted mass of one-way or taxi-only roads would have surely frazzled my nerves.  Eventually, though, we always managed to get where we wanted to go.

We spent most of our time on the beach, sitting, laying, reading, talking, sleeping, walking, taking pictures, getting sand blown in our eyes, watching wind-surfers, laughing, dancing in the waves, trying to leave footprints in the sand.  I was even inspired to write a poem of sorts (it's rough, I know, but I'm too tired to put effort into editting it):

Footprints in the sand, some shells, a rock,

All quickly washed away.

The roving waves come wandering in each hour

To seize their rightful pay.

And in their wake the beach is renewed,

Purified each day.

Perhaps we need some days like these

To clarify our minds.

To sweep from them the cares and thoughts

With which our lives are lined.

To grow closer to one another and build

Some friendships that will bind.

And as we grow to better know the One who made this shore,

We'll continually come to know the plans for us He has in store.  

Anyway, it was an enjoyable day.  Given the  choice between Dahab and Tel Aviv...yeah, I'd definitley pick Dahab.  But for a short trip, Tel Aviv was fun.  

...and now I'm going to live in the library for the next two weeks before the end of the semester.  See you then. ;) 

Back to life

"Hey guys, we're in Egypt" was probably the most commonly heard phrase for me this weekend. We were indeed in Egypt. Not Egypt proper, but in the Sinai peninsula at a little town called Dahab.

We don't really have a spring break here at JUC, scheduling being what it is, but we do occasionally have the odd weekend off. This was one of those weekends. All of the new students were in Galilee for 4 days and us "old-timers" had some time to do something on our own. As an added bonus we had just finished midterms and were ready for a vacation. So it ended up that 4 of us headed down to Dahab for a long weekend.

I would recount all that we did while down there but I'm afraid that it would be terribly boring: "Today I sat and read and wrote and talked and thought and walked along the sea and listened to the wind and the waves and drank tea and played rook." It was lovely, but perhaps not all that interesting to hear about. :) Among all of the relaxing we did have a few adventures, though.
1. For me, coming from a state where public transportation is all but nonexistent, it was a new experience to ride buses and taxis. We had a few adventures in that department. Like the guy that gave us a ride from the bus station to the border crossing at Taba told us that he loved Saddam Hussein, I think because Saddam killed many womens' husbands...leaving more unattached women? Well, then. Or in Egypt trying to talk the taxi drivers into giving us a better price...and failing miserably. Or having problems figuring out what bus to take from the main station in Jerusalem to get back to campus. All sorts of little adventures. :)

2. Snorkeling. Words fail me. Years ago in sophomore gym class they taught us to snorkel. I guess it was a nice break from swimming laps, but I didn't think I'd ever get to snorkel anywhere as cool as the Red Sea (which, for the record, is supposedly something like the second snorkeling location in the world). We rented snorkel equipment for $3 a day and entered the water from the beach. Wow. It was incredible. I mean, for me, to be able to see and breath while (at least partially) submerged in water is amazing enough. And then I saw a fish swimming towards me! I'm pretty sure I squealed in excitement, which isn't necessarily a good idea in snorkeling gear. And THEN we actually started swimming along the reef, with all colors and shapes of coral, fish, and various other creatures. Sea anemones and urchins (echinoderms!) and mollusks of various types. It was absolutely incredible. We snorkeled twice on our second day there, and the wind and currents were fairly strong so we didn't go as far. The next day we snorkeled again, this time in much calmer water, and made it much farther along the reef. I've decided that I want to be a marine biologist when I grow up. Ok, well, not really. But I have decided that I need to learn more about the different sea creatures that I saw and that, given the chance, I would love to snorkel, or even scuba dive, more.

3. As it turned out, because of a couple last-minute cancellations, I was the only girl on the trip...that made for some interesting times...but really, in general, it was good. They were very kind and took very good care of me and even condescended to laugh at my jokes occasionally. It was also nice to get to know some people better in a smaller group. It takes less effort to add to a conversation if there aren't already lots of people taking part in it. I like people, but I think I do better with smaller groups, at least at first.
4. We had really cheap rooms ($4 per night per person) with rather lumpy beds, questionable sheets and towels, no blankets, and public bathrooms in the courtyard which occasionally had toilet paper. Not the most hygienic place I've stayed, but sufficient. It added to the adventure. There were also some pretty cool bugs that hung out in our rooms once or twice. :)
5. I think that this was perhaps the second real "vacation" of my adult life without my family, the first being the weekend my old roommates and I spent at my parents' house in Lewistown. This time, as then, the goal was not to see the sights or be busy doing anything. We did some things, but a lot of time was spent just sitting and thinking or reading or talking. It was lovely to get away from many things, including, of course, school and the work associated with it. In addition, I enjoyed getting away from my computer and the internet. We also avoided the tyranny of time. We had no set schedule. We went to bed when we were tired, woke when we were rested, ate when we were hungry, and sometimes refused to even look at a clock. I started reading Les Miserables which, well, I'm only about 150 pages into it, but it's very touching and thought provoking so far.
6. It was a good time to gain some perspective. This semester has been, well, different in many ways. So it was especially nice to take a step back. I think we humans like to avoid our problems. Which is probably why we like changing our location. We go somewhere else and we say, "Ah, this is the life. If only I could stay here forever." We forget that our problems eventually follow us (or we eventually get new ones). They just take a while to catch up. The newness is exciting and the any discomfort is different than the normal discomfort and is therefore easy to ignore for a while. So we go to our vacation spots and think that if we could stay there forever, then maybe life would be just perfect. But eventually we have to go back home, back to the daily grind, back to normal. And then, though we may be sad to leave our vacation spot, we realize that we are actually glad to get back to home, back to the normality and comfort we find there. We are glad to get back to work because God made us to work. We are, hopefully, even glad to get back to the same old problems, knowing that God allows them in our lives for a reason. So I enjoyed Dahab a lot, but I am glad to get back to Israel and Jerusalem, which I am learning to love more. I am glad to get back to school and have another chance to work diligently and learn a lot this semester and make the most of the time God has given me here.