just a little bit on israel.

i had lunch with some friends yesterday. one girl was especially excited to hear about israel. i still really haven't told anyone all about my trip. the experience hasn't found it's way into words yet, which is what i told her. she asked specific questions about the trip, which helped my mind deal with the vast amount of information floating around in my head. i told her that there were 400 pictures on facebook that would tell her all about the trip. she protested because she wanted to hear all the details and pictures only explain so much. my friends suggested i make a presentation where i can tell everyone about it and begin to process it more deeply. 

i think this might be one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

a great idea. but probably not a practical one. 

rose on the mount of beatitudes.

i really do want to talk about it. i am nervous about letting too much life happen in between israel and writing about israel. i don't want to lose all the details. i don't want to forget the funny things that happened or the people we met. towards the end of the trip, i got tired of taking pictures. all the piles of 2,000 year old rocks start looking the same after awhile and if you've seen one cistern, you've seen them all. but i really do want to remember what each pile of rocks once stood for. and i want to remember who each cistern once sustained. i'm just not quite sure how to do that quite yet. 

so, just more pictures for now. 

mount of beatitudes overlooking the sea of galilee.

the mediterranean sea. 

the church built over the place where "the Word became flesh," the cave where mary was told she would give birth to the Savior of the world.

from solomon's temple.

dome of the rock. the most beautiful yet terribly upsetting building i've ever seen. it's a mosque built over where the Holy of Holies used to stand.

the city of jerusalem. i love clouds.

words will come later. hopefully.

ko.

home sweet home.

well i'm back from israel. i took 2000 pictures. it is overwhelming to think about going through all of those and posting them, probably on facebook. 

israel was beautiful. i understand why Jesus picked to go there. beautiful weather, beautiful views, and kitties everywhere. a trio of perfection. 

i haven't quite processed all the information that i took in while i was there, so i don't have much to say  about the trip yet, other than the plane ride back was 9359235 times better than the one there. i took 2 dramamine and a melatonin, so i slept the entire 13 hours. unfortunately my luggage got lost on the way back, but it found its way back to me yesterday. i also lost my precious stuffed animal, moo moo. i am pretty sure i left him in the hotel room, but i've called several times and they don't have him. i'm pretty sad considering i've had him for 13 years. i have to stop talking about it because i am on the brink of crying. no lie. if you wanted to pray that he is found, i would be eternally grateful. 

anyway, i'm back at school and back in my normal routine again. i am going to brain dump everything from israel one of these days, i can't wait to tell you all about it. 

ko.

ps: if you get these posts in email and you aren't clicking the "allow pictures" button or something similar to that, you are missing out on lots of pictures! :)

day three | israel 13

we want to go explore the city that we are staying in tonight, i believe it is called arad, so no stories or explanations tonight. just a bunch of pictures! i mean it's pretty difficult for me to not explain all of these, but i have places to explore. yolo. sorry mommy.

peace in the middle east.

ko.

EDIT: annnnnnnnnnnnnnd we're back from exploring. there was really actually nothing to explore. yay for captions!

today we visited this hill thing that overlooked something about the ark. i don't actually remember and i don't have my guide book on me. buuuut, i took this picture to remember the verse that went along with it.

alex and i at the same hill thing. 

the girls.

all the iwu people.

these are from a little stream where david came and picked out the 5 smooth stones he would use to kill goliath.

alex and morgan on top of a mountain that overlooks the valley of elah. david killed goliath in that valley.

kaela, the girl on the left is my roommate for the trip. her family is here too.

audrey, on the left, is another precious new friend.

jess, can you read this?

coming down the mountain thing.

israeli coke!

we were at another place that i don't recall the name of when all of the sudden, all these sheep started coming our way out of nowhere. wilbur said he had never seen anything like it.

every where we go, he brings his bible and reads to us about the place where we are visiting.

next up was an old city. we had to wear hardhats. attractive.

the judge girls in front of the place where the judges sat.

this is out of order, but this was at a temple that rehoboam built. it was unauthorized because the only temple was supposed to be in jerusalem. we are standing in the holy of holies.

we climbed down this. it led to an ancient water system.

wilbur leading the way.

in the under ground water system.

oh this man. he was precious. this was at a sculpter's house. he sculpted 5 sculptures on IWU's campus. wilbur and him are good friends. unfortunately, he wasn't there, but his wife was and this sweet man who let us into the museum attached to their home. they explained all the pieces to us. he had a british accent and was so nice. 

safe and sound | israel 2013

hello hello hello!

we are here. we are tired. we are awake. we are confused about what day and time it is. we are excited. 

we left IWU at 8:30am yesterday (friday), and we arrived in tel aviv at 2:15pm today (saturday). so according to my calculations, that's about 23 hours of straight traveling. i've had the same clothes on for almost 48 hours and i don't even care. i cannot be held responsible if this blog doesn't make any senese. 

the trip has gone pretty smoothly so far. there was a minute of stress when my name was spelled wrong on my boarding pass. that ended up working out. we had a 5 hour lay over in new york at JFK. obviously we got manicures during that time. around 8:15pm last night we started boarding the flight. we had to go through a second security check point because israel is crazy strict. i was sort of freaking out because i was so nervous, but i was fine once i got on the plane. which was huge. it was 10 seats across and 395739853028 hundred seats long. it had an upstairs. they gave us food. it wasn't gross. there were tons of movies to pick from. it was better than netflix. and there was loads of good music. since the flight is overnight, pretty much everyone sleeps. morgan, alex, and i waited until after dinner to take our melatonin. brilliant in theory, except for it didn't make me sleepy at all. at one point i almost started crying cause i couldn't fall asleep. dramatic, i know. but i ended up being able to sleep the last couple hours of the flight and woke up to breakfast. i finally used the bathroom on a plane for the first time. it wasn't awful. i hate how long this paragraph is, so i'm just gonna post some pictures. 

today we went to joppa. but now it's called jaffa. i think. we were at the port that jonah left from when he was running away from God. naughty boy.

meet alex and morgan. they are sisters and they are precious. i sat with them on the plane. it was wonderful. except for the whole crying part.

meet dr. wilbur williams. the smartest man in the world. i swear he knows the history of every rock in israel. he is precious. and wise. and wonderful.

there are a gazillion stray cats. i'm not mad.

this is a potter's house. he is always closed cause he isn't into the tourist thing. this is also said to be the place where peter had that vision of the sheet coming down with all the animals on it. there are some places where we can know exactly where something happened and other places where it isn't quite as clear. but wilbur says that it is important to remember that it is more about what happened than where it happened. 

alex. sweet girl.

uh, hey mom? i'm moving here. this is the mediterranean sea. it was beautiful. our hotel is actually overlooking the sea as well. love. love. love.

all the buildings are beautfiul.

 i want to live in them.

 and they have beautiful things to buy. that's gonna be a problem.

alex and i are twins. well our outfits are matching at least. 

so yep. that is day 1 and 2. we just had the most delicious meal of my life. it's only 8:30pm and i am about to fall asleep. i'll probably wake up at 3am hungry for dinner. i can't wait. 

tomorrow we are off to a bunch of places i can't pronounce. it's supposed to be 77 degrees. i'm so excited. 

i'll be back with more tomorrow!

shalom!

ko.

EDIT: per my mother's request, i would like to give you details on dinner. we had a giant layout of food to choose from. there was 5-6 bowls of chilled vegetables with tasty herbs and stuff on them like carrots, tomatoes, and other stuff. there was several things of sautéed vegetables, too. like zucchini  squash, and potatoes. there was a bunch of meat that i was too scared to eat. there was rice. there was fresh bread and the best hummus i've ever had. there was also a bunch of stuff that i didn't recognize. i didn't really eat that. :) and then there was really yummy chocolate mousse-ish dessert. so. good.