A (belated) Year in Review: 2011

I fear that I have rather fallen out of the habit of blogging.  This will have to be remedied.  This also means that I never did my annual "Year in Review" summary of the previous year.  

So, about a month late, here's my highlights from 2011:

In the winter months I worked at odd jobs, like tutoring and cooking (lunch for 100+ at MBC):

I took a couple small trips, one to Arizona.  It was not as warm as one on vacation from Montana could have hoped.  

On Feburary 9th we celebrated my Grandad's 82nd birthday,

a month before he passed away, on March 9th.  While it was hard to say good-bye to him, it was a blessing to be able to spend time with various members on that side of the family.  I have a pretty great family.

 A week later my Great Uncle George passed away also.  I didn't know him very well, but we were able to join his family in remembering his life for a short time also.  

Probably the highlight of the year was the trip I took in May-June.

It started off in Greece, a couple hours drive from Athens, on a boat.  

After about a week on the boat, we ended up in the area of Ephesus (in Turkey) for a few days.

Then back on the boat, and headed back to Athens.  The Acropolis is truly spectacular.  

We took a day trip to Corinth.  This picture is from the top of Acrocorinth, with a good view of the Isthmus of Corinth (now the canal) separating the Aegean from the Ionian Sea.  

 From Athens I headed to Delphi, probably one of my favorite places in Greece (aside from some of the Islands I visited).  

 After other Greece adventures I ended up in Istanbul.  Here you can see the Golden Horn across the way, with both Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque visible.  The Blue Mosque is towards the right and has more minarets.  

 After an over-night bus ride from Istanbul I found myself in Goreme, Cappadocia, which has some of the most interesting and spectacular geology I've seen.  I enjoyed a few exploratory hikes in the area.

 After stops in Ankara and Antalya, I paused in Olympos, a magical and Care Paravel-like ruin.

The trip finished off with short stops in Finike and Hierapolis, before heading back to Istanbul and then home.  

Shortly after I arrived home, my uncle passed away on July 11th.  

Again, it was hard, but we took great comfort in knowing that he was home, with his Savior.  I also enjoyed re-connecting with cousins I hadn't seen in some time.  

At the end of July I went to a Family Reunion/50th Wedding Anniversary in beautiful eastern Montana.  We took the time to visit the old ranch, Sleepy Hollow.  (Yes, yes that is its name, and no, there are no headless horsemen.)

 We even flew some kites. :)

 We spent time with Uncle Walt and Aunt Arden at their family reunion.

 We cousins enjoyed playing some games together.  

Most of the rest of the summer I ended up spending at camp, helping in the kitchen and re-connecting with old friends.  This is some of my camp "family."

I even got to go on the annual rafting trip.  Most summers I would have missed it, but with the high water we had in the spring and early summer, it took much longer than usual to be safe enough.  

 I never get tired of the scenery up there.

After camp I celebrated my birthday...and somehow we all managed to wear just about the same color.  

And to go with all the purple...we had our first grape harvest.  Pretty exciting because grapes aren't really known to grow here...

This fall especially I started experimenting with various knitting techniques.   I'm getting better.

 

I've also tried to experiment more with cooking, like this lime cheesecake I made for my birthday:

or this lemon souffle I made, just to try a souffle:

We haven't had much snow, but I've tried to enjoy it a little.  (This is me building a fort.)

It wasn't all just fun and games.  I also worked at MBC, including starting to help in the library. I've cataloged...lots of books...

For the holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) we spent some time at our place in Lewistown.  (It's very cold at first.)

And, of course, we visit my Grandma when we get a chance.  (This picture isn't all that flattering...but the situation made me laugh.)

T

The year wouldn't be complete without a mention of the Christmas stroll and the Christmas spiders.

And, of course, throughout the year I've enjoyed experimenting with capturing various places, moods, and seasons in Montana with my camera.  (I've added some new lenses and filters to experiment with, which is fun.  If you want a bigger view, click on the picture.)
Lightening:

  Sunsets:

 Wild berries:

 Harvest:

Autumn:

 Stars and moon:

 And, of course, barns:

And now we are on to 2012, which I'm sure will be full of its own adventures, and I trust God will be at work through everything.  

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! :)