Step 1

I bought a book yesterday that's all about making the most out of life, by working less and setting different kinds of goals. I love self-help books, but this one has me scratching my head: some of the advice is a quite nonconformist. I'm only 50 pages into the book, but so far I assume the target audience is the middle-class because he assumes that everyone is able to survive on reduced income, while still planning fantastic trips to South America. I have no personal income, and any income that I might be able to obtain would be quickly depleted by day-to-day living, so a lot of the advice regarding vacations isn't currently useful to me. But other advice he gives, concerning life goals and such, could be useful to me, especially because I'll be graduating college next year.
I should also explain how I heard about this author. I follow several travel info accounts on Twitter, and a couple weeks ago I clicked on a link about "Round the World Tickets." The author of the book I'm reading is an expert on them. I didn't know that RTW's were real, but apparently you can just call American Airlines and ask for one and they'll set you up. They're not cheap, starting at $10,000 or so, but for the amount of travel and flexibility that comes with them, it sounds like a nice deal, if you have a month free and an extra $10,000 lying around...not to mention a few thousand more for hotels/food/ground transportation.
Okay, here's a few of the questions he asks on page 46. I thought they'd make for good blogging material. I've paraphrased liberally.
1. Define your nightmare, the absolute worst that could happen if you did what you were considering.
Being ugly and poor. I'm not sure what I'm planning on doing. 
2. What could you do to make things better, even if temporarily? 
Work a minimum wage job and exercise? I guess this applies to a point in the future when I'll have already been graduated. 
3. What are the probable outcomes or benefits? Have less intelligent people done this before and pulled it off? 
Having a comfortable living and not being ugly? YES. 
4. If you were fired from your (hypothetical) job today, what would you do to get things under financial control. Run through questions 1-3 above.
prostitute myself Get a different job?  Move in with someone? Donate plasma. Possible outcomes: shame, humiliation. Pretty intuitive stuff. 
5. What are you putting off out of fear? (What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do...A person's success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. Resolve to do one more thing every day that you fear.)
Improving my writing and sharing it with people. Getting in shape.
6. What is it costing you - financially, emotionally, and physcially - to postpone action.
Well, never developing my talents. Having progressively less confidence in my physical appearance. Probably accelerated aging. Less money than I'd have were I published. Less money than a person who's doing the exact same thing, but who is more attractive than me.
7. What are you waiting for?  "The right time" is a bad answer. 
Good question!

A new semester.

Hello world! It doesn't feel like it's been a month already since my last post. I've done so much in January, which is wonderful. I love being busy. When you're busy, life goes by faster, but when you look back, it really stretches out the time. When you're not busy, you look back and you can't remember anything! At least I can't. Like a lot of times at my previous college, when my brain's main activity was atrophying, I have no memory of what the hell I was doing, just the knowledge that I was probably bitching about some inconsequential flaw in northeastern Missouri's urban planning or watching a Stargate marathon. Thank goodness our dorms had cable. Anyway... I've been busy. My mom took me on a short cruise trip to the Bahamas, which was fantastic, but I went with the wrong expectations. I had never been on a cruise ship, so it took me the first day just to get used to every thing. It was so big! There were several restaurants, hundreds of activities, and lots of fun amenities to explore. We were still accidentally discovering things on the last day. We boarded the ship on Monday and disembarked on Friday. On Monday, with my jetlag, all I wanted to do was eat and sleep (and watch cruise ship TV, which is specially programmed for Royal Caribbean and for the most part is free of commercial advertisements), but by Friday I was wishing we could stay longer. It was a bit chilly, so no swimming or sunbathing. We actually needed jackets in the Bahamas; I got a bit windburned. Keywest was very pretty, and I would really like to go back and stay at one of the hotels. They have tons of shops and I love the buildings - they remind me of old New Orleans.

New Orleans. Pronunciation. I grew up saying New Or-LEANS. But many say New OR-lenz. But the original French pronunciation is like Noo-voe Or-Lee-Ahn... so, I'm going to say New Or-lee-enz. It sounds a little hyper-Southern at first, but it's closer to the original pronunciation.

My classes this semester have me excited. Advanced French, Comparative Political Systems, Intro to International Relations, Cultural Anthropology, and Microeconomics. I want to get A's this semester. My professor for Advanced French is actually French, which in my mind means better quality French instruction, provided they're bilingual. So far, she is the best French teacher I've ever had, and possibly also the most challenging. My teacher last year was from the Congo, and he'd occasionally rant about how kids learning English in other countries are already approaching fluency, while many of us still have the vocabulary of 5 year-olds. She's already telling us the same thing. "By this level of French, you should be able to write 2 pages double-spaced in French no problem [in addition to the 3 other assignments I've already given you all due in 2 days]. It's going to be interesting.

I've started looking at graduate school options. My parents and I can barely afford state tuition right now, so I don't know if graduate school is truly an option, without any extra support. More information on that later. And I'll be posting some pictures of the cruise.

It's Snowing!

It's Really Cold

Haha, I'm posting this December 10th, but it's about December 9th, yesterday. It was really cold. I wasn't properly prepared for the sudden drop in temperature. I have a nice new semi-wool coat (with Thinsulate!), that goes almost to my knees, but it was barely enough to keep me warm. I only left my apartment to take my final sociology test for the semester. I always park in the Hitt St. Parking Garage because it's pretty convenient to all of my classes as well as the library and Memorial Union. I was kinda in a hurry because I wanted to look over the review questions quickly before taking the test. So I parked...at the far end of the garage away from the ticket machine. I ran to the machine, only to find an elderly man had was doing maintenance on it. I experienced a quick moment of simultaneous frustration and concern that an old man was doing machine maintenance without gloves at subzero temperatures. Okay, I run back to my car, drive to the other side of the garage, this time closer to a machine. Only when I get to the machine, it doesn't have a place for my student ID. Damn, good thing I have a healthy stock of quarters in my car at all times for exactly this purpose. In the few seconds it takes me to jog back to my car, my fingers begin to hurt. It must be colder than I thought. Oh, crap I need another quarter! Back to the car again. But the machine has mistaken my delay for incompetence and issued me a ticket with an insufficient amount of time on it! NOOO! So I place two tickets on my dash, one with 15 minutes on it.
On my way to class, I comfort myself by picking out people who aren't dressed appropriately. Honestly, there was still at least one person wearing flip-flops. I checked the temperature when I got home.

Israel Digsite Clips

Online Friendships

This is Natalie's newest video, and it's come at the perfect time for me.


I was pitying myself because while I have tons of online friends, like on facebook and AIM, I only have a few who ever initiate conversation with me. I have a couple (two) of friends who regularly comment on my facebook updates, but out of 500 people, that's not saying much. And out of the three dozen people who are on my AIM buddy list, only two of them ever EVER initiate conversation with me, regardless of their online statuses. I suppose we don't really have that much to talk about. Those two people find me highly amusing, but I have to wonder what the rest think. Maybe they're just not that into me? Maybe they're not actually there? One of the two is actually a German, and I'm pretty sure half his motivation for talking to me is practicing his English.
Back to the video - I experience this situation frequently. A person ends the conversation somewhat abruptly, saying they have to go immediately, but they remain logged in, leaving me wondering if they really just didn't want to continue the conversation. It's even worse if you've only exchanged a couple of sentences, and the other person suddenly has to go....and then remains "available." It's awful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Twenty-six things that I am thankful for:


1. Awkward pictures of Hannah Fuerhoff (Hannah's in the background)

 















2. lolcats

 








3. Star Trek
4. my parents
5. internets
6. T9 word
7. credit cards
8. Hulu
9. my health
10. Buddha
11. Westboro Baptist Church
12. gentrification

13. Apple
14. Alias 

 
















15. German tourists
16. the fact that Pepsi/Coke can be bought anywhere in the world
17. Facebook
18. indoor plumbing and related inventions

 










19. my American citzenship!

 










20. Stephen Colbert
21. Celtic Woman
22. my 1990's childhood 
23. my travel experiences (thanks to my parents again!)

24. thunderstorms
25. having access to a plentiful water supply
26. this song

Hello, not much happening...

Nothing exciting in my life...  well, that's not true, but nothing I want to post about right now!

I have an irrational fear of spiders, as does Natalie. I have to say that Natalie's neurotic inner-monologue is exactly like my own. Every time I kill a spider, I'm afraid that another spider witnessed my crime and is going to try to take revenge.

Magical Security Guards

On Monday morning I went to campus early to ensure that I'd get a certain French assignment completed and turned in by 9 AM. I was sitting in the library with my computer and my books scattered across a desk for a couple of hours, working feverishly. For some reason, when I haven't gotten enough sleep, my allergies kick in, and Monday morning my nose was running like crazy. I had a pocket pack of tissues in my bag, but I quickly used all of them. There weren't but a handful of people (nothing compared to how many there are around noon), so I thought it'd be okay to run to a bathroom quickly to take care of my nose situation - without packing up my stuff of course. I actually jogged to and from - it couldn't have been more than three minutes that I was gone. But upon my return, I noticed a little card that had been placed on my keyboard. I looked around quickly like I was in an espionage movie or something. The only time I've seen security guards is when I'm on the 3rd floor late at night - they'll occasionally walk by the row of study desks with heavy footsteps and stern faces. They must have cameras...or magic!

Yelling at my dreams

Lately, I haven't much liked my dreams. They're awful! Last week, I had a dream that I was talking to my mom on the phone while driving at night. She was trying to help me figure out how to get somewhere, but when I saw a bridge in the distance, I declared, "Oh no, this can't be right." And then I crash in a huge concrete wall - obviously I thought I was in a real lane, but I wasn't!

Although that dream did startle me enough so that I had to wake up and turn my bedroom light on, I wouldn't say that it's the best example of how weird my dreams are lately. I have this thing, where as soon as I wake up, my internal dialogue will be "What the hell was that dream? Where the f*** are you pulling that shit from mind? Like what bizarre horror movie did I see when I was 12 that enables you to incorporate these images in my dreams?" I talk to dream like they're a human to whom I'm giving money for a service...if you didn't pick up on that. I wake up and basically get mad at my dreams, as if I'm have no power over them at all, like I'm just a paying consumer hoping for a good show. It takes me a few seconds to realize how ridiculous that is, but I do it anyway.

I woke up from my last dream out of annoyance because I was basically watching two people argue whether wine was better than beer. I listened to a lot of it before I said, "Why the hell am I dreaming this?" But that's pretty typical - me just watching people I don't know in painfully every day scenarios that don't interest me...but I watch them anyway.

There's another kind of dream that involves people I do know, usually the people who I think of as my best friends. It goes something like this. I find myself somewhere (basically anywhere that I've ever been), standing alone idly. The friend comes out of nowhere, briskly marching toward me. They've made obvious changes to their appearance that I don't care for. They'll have gotten a nose job to make their nose larger, or dyed their hair an unflattering color. But really the problem is that this person suddenly doesn't like me, and that's the reason they're in my dream. It's not so much that I've done anything (after all I'm just standing alone minding my own business, right), rather it's just that we don't get along anymore. Sometimes it's a basic personality change, other times it's that the person has seen the light and thinks that we never really should have been friends to begin with. This is usually such an unpleasant scenario that I wake up, after a brief stint of in-dream crying.

FAIL at posting updates

My last entry was evidently on September 17!  That's over a month ago.  Hence, my FAIL.

I started using my old LiveJournal again...  I'm just so used to divulging intimate information on LiveJournal, that it was hard to do it anywhere else. I was trying to use this journal/blog to write musings on things other than the trivialities of my own life, while also being more positive. I know that some people claim to be able to write better when they're in love, or when they're not happy, or after they've had a shot of whiskey. I was making an effort to prove that I'm not that kind of a person - that I can write about anything, no matter where I am in my life. I have to say, despite my best efforts, that it's not as easy as it sounds to just sit down and write about something. Those LiveJournal entries usually had some passion behind them, some chutzpah, which definitely helped my writing. I'm thinking the trick isn't so much practicing my writing as it is kindling my ability to become suddenly passionate about any selection of subjects.

I've decided my blog needs to be more visually interesting, so I plan to post more fun stuff...which will help the project seem to be less about me. Which is good.

Cursing Flies

I have to say that I cuss more when I'm alone, especially now that I'm living alone. Besides the obvious reason that I have the chance to cuss freely without the risk of offending anyone, I was trying to think of a reason why I cuss more. It's funny because - again because I'm alone so much - I can go almost an entire day without saying a thing, but when I do speak, there's a good chance that it will be "motherfucker" or "fuck my life" or maybe just a simple "damn." I've been running into spiders and houseflies a lot more, and that's definitely when it's the worst. I can easily spout off a long list of curse words if I see a fast-approaching spider. Worst-case scenario: the spider jumps. Ugh. A few days ago, I was working at my computer, when a moderately-sized spider crawled out from behind the monitor onto the top of the screen.  "FUCK."  That shit was close to my face.  That particular spider made a successful escape. I did not sleep well that night.
But as much as I loathe spiders, they typically keep to themselves. The real invaders are flies! Last week, a remarkably large fly found itself in my very small apartment. It kept flying at me kamikaze-style. I could feel my basic instincts kicking in, hastily deciding whether to risk my life in order to slay the beast or just leave for a few days and hope it starves to death. I turned the AC down, hoping that the cooler temperature might slow it down a little. I armed myself with a rolled-up GQ in one hand and a newspaper in the other. This was not a normal fly - it was like something from the Amazon, and it was in  for the kill. At one point I had it shut in my bedroom, but it figured out an escape through the vent and resumed torturing me with its unpredictably timed assaults. This is when I assumed I was dealing with an intelligent lifeform and began talking to the fly. I eventually opened the door to the hallway and allowed the fly to leave on his own accord, but it was still a very tense moment.

Neighbors

Is it weird to do google searches on your neighbors?  I met my upstairs neighbor today.  I figured it was a guy a while ago: he comes home pretty late, usually around eleven, when I'm getting ready for bed - he walks heavy.  He also drives a navy VW Golf, which is in my opinion a very guy car.  I haven't really figured out when he leaves for work.  I assume work is the reason he comes home about 11.  Well, I actually talked to him tonight!
I was heading out to the dumpster to get rid of a particularly disgusting bag of fast food that I couldn't finish.  He was sitting on the stoop, right outside the door.  It had been drizzling for a few hours; he was noticeably rained-upon. He was wearing a blue running outfit.    You could probably imagine the conversation.  I asked if he could ever hear me.  No.  I told him that I'm going to MU, that I'm a transfer from Truman.  He gave an "Oh" response, like "Oh, Truman..." which I'm not sure meant that he actually recognized the name.  He's a photographer for the Columbia Tribune.  For some reason, I got the sense that he wasn't a Columbia native.  I wanted to ask him a few more questions, but didn't want to impose on his quiet post-running stoop time.  I'd say he's an attractive guy.  He's also a Nick.
So, I searched him. Seems like he does mostly sports photography, but I've found at least one non-sports collection. So many photos come up - I feel like I've chanced upon some Columbia celebrity.

Working at the Bookstore

My temp job at the bookstore as a cashier is hit and miss: either I'm really busy or I'm standing around for hours with nothing to do. The time goes by so much faster when all I'm doing is scanning books and swiping credit cards. They asked me to come in 30 minutes earlier for Wednesday and today at 8 am. I'm not sure what their logic was because even when we were scheduled for 8:30, it seemed as if we didn't really start until 9:30, and the students didn't begin to come in in droves until after 11. We all arched our proverbial eyebrows, but gladly accepted 30 minutes worth of additional pay. I once got reprimanded for flipping through an O magazine during one of those hours of nothingness - my supervisor firmly took it out of my hands the way you would from a small child who's misbehaving. *sigh* There are slightly less registers than cashiers, so occasionally I am told to dust different parts of the store. Today I was trusted with money (promotion?), but then was promptly exiled to the outdoor cash register by myself. They had a special tent set up on the front patio with dorm furnishings. I don't even think I had a dozen transactions in 6 hours. Part of that time was spent helping with the set up (I was really proud of my rug display), but the majority of the time was lost to idle people watching and day dreaming. There were three university Christian groups set up around the bookstore. One was giving out freeze-pops... had to get one. I skillfully played the Israel card. I might actually go to one of their talks to see what it's like.

Now I'm going to the glorious MizzouRec... and trying not to feel like the most puny person there. :)

Single Single Life

Shame on me for not updating this blog more often.

I've been in my new apartment for two weeks now, and I'm loving it. I don't have many complaints. Learning to cook all of my meals on my own is challenging, but it's also an easy confidence boost when I do manage to figure things out. I have to say that it feels weird spending so much money on things that are just for me. Usually when I go out and buy a new spatula (luxury!) or a skillet, I know that other people will be using it, too, but I'll be the only one here for a good part of the time. I'm still a little short on furniture. My brother, Andy, gave me a nice TV that he had in his basement - definitely an upgrade from the tiny one I had had in my dorm room. And my parents pulled some other extra furniture out of the chaos of our basement, so I have a table to eat/work on. I also have a new mattress, which is so wonderful! My old mattress at home was seriously not doing good things for my back. I don't think that I want a couch, maybe just a big chair for TV watching. I'm afraid that too much furniture will make it feel too small. I like all of the floor space.

I'm still drinking the Mizzou kool-aid. I still think it's great. Amanda took me around to all of my class locations a couple days ago. Not bad at all. Two of my buildings are in close proximity to a Starbucks, which could definitely spell trouble for my checking account. I visited the rec center yesterday. It was beautiful. I might have cried a little. The treadmills...have touchscreen...TVs...and built-in iPod docks. Just beautiful. I don't have cable in my apartment, so I figure I might go to the rec to watch shows on certain days. Haha. It works... The complex was designed very well. When I walked in, it felt more like a hotel than a typical athletic facility. They also have designated quiet rooms with machines and weights, so you don't have to kill your ears. Even if I have to spend time finding a parking place, it's still a definite upgrade from any workout place I've been to before.

So far, I don't feel like transferring to Mizzou has greatly altered any of my relationships. I still plan on visiting my old university pretty frequently. My primary goal at Mizzou is to regain confidence in my academic ability, but I'm afraid it might be hard to focus in a new environment with so many new things to do and people to meet. I'm hoping that having a place to be alone will aid me in maintaining a sane perspective on my life. At Truman I felt like I was constantly being tugged in different directions, with the only hope of feeling normal being total escape. I definitely have no desire to ever feel those emotions again. Certain relationships, one in particular, I'm destined to maintain for a long time coming, and I'm quite happy about it. Now that I'm closer to being in my element again, it's easier to appreciate people for every thing they are, and also to see my own mistakes without completely condemning myself.

I got a job!

Hey, things are looking up! Today I went to a job interview in Columbia for a position in the university bookstore. Success. I took a sandwich with me for lunch and ate in the little park across the street from my future apartment building. I'm really excited about having my own space, though my only furniture for a few weeks is going to be Rubbermaid bins and an air mattress. It's like camping!... I had been figuring out my theoretical monthly expenses (effective procrastination activity) by planning to make $7.00 an hour, but I'm getting 25 cents more...per hour... which means... I don't know what it means. I won't even get my first paycheck until halfway through August.

I only have two more weeks to finish my Middle Eastern studies class. It's really not so bad, but I'm still putting off reading An Introduction to Biblical Archaeology. Ugh. When I was at Mizzou today I picked up my ID card before stopping by the library. I recruited a librarian to guide me through Mizzou's search engines. I mentioned that I was from Truman and she gave this, "Oh! Truman!" response... but oddly, she's one of a few people who've said anything at all. I'm so impressed with Mizzou. Every thing. I try not to beat myself up for not going to Mizzou to begin with. I'm excited about the new Harry Potter film. Joey said the ending was weird, but I don't remember how the book ended, so I won't be expecting anything. Probably for the best.

Summer Goings-On

I've been back in the US since June 25th, so sorry that this is my first blog post. I feel like I've been back longer than just the last 2 weeks. I guess I've had my plate full of things to do. Obviously I did not post regularly on this blog while I was in Israel. That was undoubtedly the most exhausting trip I've yet taken. Suffice to say I did not have any trouble falling asleep every night. It was all I could do to take notes each day, and hope that I remember enough to fill in the blanks when I get home. Not everyone was such a wimp though. Several people wrote their journals out on the bus, which is a good use of travel time, but is mostly just a fast-track to carsickness for me. I figured that my notes and my pictures would guide my words once I was rested back at home. It worked pretty well. I'm still not anywhere finished with this course though. There are still a couple of books that I need to read and summarize.

It's probably for the best that we didn't stay any longer than we did. I had found trouble effectively communicating with several of the people on the trip, and that's never fun. Israel was beautiful in its own way, and the warm, dry climate is very enjoyable, but I was more than ready to trade Roman ruins for the grassy green hills of Missouri. ...and for television that wasn't in Arabic or Hebrew. One night while in Bethlehem, I was watching TV alone in my room while making notes about the past day's events. I watched Al Jazeera in Arabic for a solid 30 minutes... I was probably very tired, but I was still perplexed with my own behavior when I realized what I'd done. If it was the night that I'm thinking of, I woke up at 3 in the morning to throw up and do other things until I was so weak that I couldn't pry myself off the bathroom floor. My roommate was Jordan Buchheit. I genuinely thought that I was going to blackout...possibly with my boxer briefs around my ankles, so I started yelling for Jordan. He got up and went to find Loren, the nursing major of our group who came to help me. Though by the time she came just a couple of minutes later, I had gotten half my sense back and completely regretted waking up Jordan. Ah, the joys of travel.

For the past week, my top priorities have had mostly to do with transferring to Mizzou. Except for financial aid, every thing is in order. My major now is "International Studies," which was a surprise to me when I logged onto MyZou. Clever name. Better than "TruView?" I think maybe, I filled out some form a while back on which I ranked my top choice majors...somehow Political Science got the boot, and International Studies won. Originally International Studies struck me as a poofy major, not a real major, like Gender and Women's Studies. But I took a look at the course listings and the International Studies classes are shared with several other majors: Poli Sci, Psychology, Sociology, Economics... It seems perfect for me at the moment.

My parents helped me find an apartment. My dad found a place just a few blocks from campus - I could ride my bike to class. The man who owns the place told Dad that he usually rents only to graduate students and adults, and that he'd have to meet me in person. I guess he liked me well enough. The rent is cheaper than other places we had looked at, and the location is so much better. It's a one bedroom with a good-sized living space and and a small kitchen. I think it's exactly what I was looking for. It's on the basement level, so not an abundance of natural light, but on the other hand, my utitlies should cost less. The neighborhood seems quiet and there's a park with a bike trail directly across the street. I'm letting myself have only positive thoughts about getting a good job to pay for my apartment and food costs....cause I have to.

First Friday in Israel

Today was our last day of digging for the week. I lost some of the steam that I had yesterday. Unfortunately, Rami asked me to leave Elizabeth's group to go join "A West," saying that Elizabeth's site was too crowded. I reluctantly complied. I didn't find my new site nearly as interesting. Elizabeth had been teaching us poems and songs, which honestly, I wouldn't have known existed. Her favorite was Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit...which goes something like: Run rabbit, run rabbit, run run run... Don't give the farmer his fun fun fun! He'll get by without his rabbit pie, so run rabbit run rabbit run run run. She had all of us singing. We didn't find very much today at our site, but we had fun digging nonetheless.

I'm not sure what we're doing tonight. I know we're having a special Sabbat dinner, which is supposed to be a bit more formal... Some people from the other groups are planning to climb Mt. Arbel this evening, but I think we've decided to try next weekend. I know that I can be very afraid of heights, but ...it'll be fun. I still have dirt on my arms from digging. It makes me look like I have a nice tan going. Tomorrow is going to be so busy. We're starting at six in the morning and then we'll be gone all day long, touring ancient sites.

We do have lectures every evening - last night's lecture was an overview of the Crusades in the Middle East. A woman we know as "Kate" is an expert on medieval architecture - she recently finished her doctorate at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. I thought I was already well versed on the basics of the Crusades, but I hadn't really been familiar with fortifications in Israel. I love her voice. Interstingly, scholars back in the day had come to believe that fortifications in the Middle East were positioned to defend borders, but in actuality they were placed wherever trade was lucrative or the land was fertile - it didn't really have anything to do with defending frontiers or laying out borders between kingdoms.

In Israel

Please ignore the seeming lack of concern for aesthetics on my blog page. It will get better.

Today is Wednesday, and my fourth day in Israel. Today I went swimming in the Galillee for the third time. The top portion of my back is fully sunburned, so much so that one of the girls suggested that I just wear a shirt in the sea instead of having someone else put sunscreen on me while I try to keep from flinching. I wore the shirt that I wore for the dig yesterday, which was filthy with sweat and dirt. The Galillee is beautiful - the color and the way the high, high hills rise up all around it. Mount Arbel is particularly striking, as it rises especially high, then ends in a dramatic cliff. Kinda Grand Canyon-esque. Lauren (Greenspan) has gotten all of us wanting to trek up there this weekend. One of the guys who joined our group in Tel Aviv, Justin, said that when he took the trip several years ago, the hike took over an hour and involved climbing up metal spikes that the Israelis had installed to facilliate climbing on the more vertical part of the mountain. We've had several people tell us that after climbing so far, it is nearly impossible to go back. Once you reach the summit (and taken loads of photos of the sea), you have to take a different trail for the descent. We already have a lot planned for Saturday, so if we wanted to climb it, we would have to start early. We have to walk to the mountain from the kibbutz first, which I imagine is what will take the longest. I shoud explain that Justin went on the trip with Dr. Appold in 2001, and graduated from college two years afterward. He's been on duty in Afghanistan, and is currently attending Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. He's shared many insights into Arabic customs and so forth that he's absorbed from his experience in the military as well as his own travels. It's interesting. He's also one of my roommates.

Sorry if I'm jumping around too much with this entry.

Today was my third day on the dig site at Bethsaida. Monday we were given a tour of Bethsaida, with explanations of the history, as well as all of the various levels of the city. Tuesday was the first day of actual digging. At the last moment, I chose to work with a group of students from West Virginia who I had been talking to. They were happy to have me. The most difficult part of the dig is arguably setting up the tarp at the very beginning, which serves to make shade for working. Israel is hot and dry. I felt like I was drinking tons of water, but strangely I didn't have to make a single trip to the restroom any of the days we have been on the site. Just fyi. So staying away from direct sunlight is very important if you want to avoid dehydration. In fact, the director of Bethsaida who shows us how to do every thing has told us that we are not allowed to work unless our site is under the tarp.
We wake up at 5 every morning and get on the bus by 5:30. We have breakfast at 9 o'clock on site. Breakfast is actually pretty wonerful; today there watermelon, boiled eggs, zucchini, tomatoes, and hazelnut spread to put on our bread, and this wonderful spiced coffee. It's curious that in Israel they sell 3% milk instead of 2% milk. Israelis just need an extra 1% I guess. More to come.

This is the first entry on my new blog. I'm leaving for Israel in less than two days. Hopefully every thing goes amazingly and my brain figuratively explodes. This trip is going to be awesome. I've been reading one of the required texts for the trip, a book about the Palestinian situation authored by President Jimmy Carter. It's really enhanced my view of what the Palestinians are up against. I've long been suspicious of Israeli political methods - it doesn't take too much NPR listening to understand how I could think of them as dangerous, reckless and impulsive. I do like the idea of Israel, but the political realities of the last few decades really do a lot to cast Israeli methods as simply criminal.