so many pictures, so much information, so little time...

picture taken from a little ways down Masada, a Herodian fortress where some Jews killed themselves to avoid being taken by the Romans in 73 AD. yes, we hiked up.

everyone else took the tram down. Erica and i ran down and made it in 12 minutes 32 seconds. it's a 1000 foot ascent/descent with 700 uneven rock stairs and switchbacks. i'm proud of us.

the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) building

the Western Wall at night

we did some exploring in these caves. definitely not for anyone who's claustrophobic.

Qumran cave - one of the caves where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls and other scrolls.

Hezekiah's tunnel. long story but it's basically a tunnel running underneath part of Jerusalem. there's about a foot of water running through it and you just walk through it. it was refreshing after a hot day outside.

beautiful Eilat on the Red Sea. we snorkeled there.

Laura and I with the Elah Valley behind us. The story of David and Goliath happened took place right behind us.

Red Canyon hike; a cool little hike Nate took us on

Dome of the Rock

Judean Wilderness. It's BLAZING hot here, especially in the wildernesses we've been to. 100+ degrees F.

Nate took us to a watering hole type place and we got in. And then we saw this sign. Contaminated water really is healthy for you.

these pictures are in no particular order, and don't really summarize what i've been doing for the past week and a half because we've done SO much. every day is completely packed and we pull 10 hour days every day. to summarize though, the past 4 days or so we were in the south of Israel, going through the major valleys and wildernesses, and ending up at the Red Sea in the south. then we made our way back up to the Dead Sea and Masada. we're at a Christian kibbutz in Jerusalem right now and tomorrow we head off to the north. i really like that it's way more intense than any other normal tour group though. i feel like it's so much more informational and it pushes us physically too.

i'm having SO much fun and it's been great getting to know other people on the trip. i've been learning so much about God and the Bible through seeing these places, and Nate has been good with making us reflect on what we're seeing and learning so that it doesn't become just a whirlwind tour of sites. i'm kinda dreading coming back to real life after all this is over. it's weird, i was realizing that when i go back home, it's not like i'm just going back to a vacation before school starts again, i'm going back to the rest of my life. weird, but adventurous i suppose. i wish i could better express how much i am enjoying this trip and learning, but today is our day off and we had our second test this morning so my brain doesn't want to do much of anything right now. thanks to all of you that have been keeping in touch with me. i'll hopefully be getting back to all of you that have been emailing me sometime soon. until next time...

flight, day 1

So first off, we all know that long plane rides can be detrimental to your physical health. Therefore El Al Airlines has been wonderful enough to provide us passengers with informational exercise videos on how to stretch on the plane. Notice the lovely cloud background and clear green screen usage.

The flight was long (direction from LAX to Ben Gurion) and i think i watched "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" about 1000 times because there weren't that many good movies. Still, the flight was fine and the food was decent.

Here we have the standard Jerusalem shot with the Dome of the Rock to the right.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre which houses the supposed crucifixon and burial places of Jesus.

Pool of Bethesda from John 5.
The building where the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) meets.
This lovely sign greeted us coming into the Israel Museum. Yeah, i was pretty bummed i couldn't take my weapons in, but what can you do?
A picture of some of the people in the group, stalker/paparazzi style
Okay the next few shots are of random "art" around the Israel Museum. it's clearly modern/crazy art. just look at these two happy kids. my apologies to anyone who wanted to see dramatic pictures of Israel. i'll upload some of those sometime.
Laura, Erica, and Mallory playing some sweet tunes on bottles.

me, Mallory, and Laura sitting in hand chairs reminiscent of that "Arrested Development" episode where Buster is haunted by memories of losing his hand to the seal with the yellow bow tie.
it's an upside-down bird chocolate popsicle that's melting...statue. wowzers!

so yeah, all in all things have been great so far. it's neat being back again and having some background so i'm not completely lost. Nate our leader/teacher has thrown a lot of information at us so far, but it's really interesting. i didn't realize the "study" component was going to be as intense as it is, but it's good because i feel like i'm learning more and it'll push me to not be mentally lazy. anyway more pictures to come...

p.s. thanks to all of you that sent birthday wishes and such! i am so blessed by all of you. :)

ana fee israel until July 7

back to Israel i go!

graduation and my college experience are behind me...

today was graduation. it was as boring as i thought it'd be but it was thankfully a really quick ceremony. then my parents, my brother, his wife, and i went to this place called "the boiling crab" for linner in Garden Grove. i first heard about it from Courtney who went a few weeks ago. it's a seafood place where you order seafood by the pound, they bring it out to you in a bag, and you eat with your hands. it was fun. then we went to Yogurt Land and got some of that amazing goodness. it was a good food day, and we all know how high food/eating ranks in my life priorities.

i don't have too many deep thoughts or reflections on finishing college. i just figure since school is the only life routine i've ever known, i can't be really sad or really happy for the next phase because i just have no clue what that's going to be like. i am excited for whatever's next, though. i don't really know where God is going to take me but i love that life and trusting Him seems kinda adventurous right now. it's just crazy to think that only a few short years from now i could be married or single, working some dream job or jobless, in california or not, dead or alive, etc. or some combination of those things. hm...hopefully the combination won't be jobless, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and dead. haha.

anway maybe at some point i'll post pictures from today. right now i'm going to sleep though.

one final down for today, two to go...

the past couple of weeks have been pretty intense. just a lot of stuff going on. unfortunately i haven't had much time to just sit and process everything. i guess i can use the long flight from LAX to Ben Gurion to do some thinking. i'm really really looking forward to Israel but it's weird that i haven't had time to think about packing or leaving, and i'm going in 3 days. i'm kinda tired right now...

Yesterday it hit me

two things hit me yesterday...

#1: i am incredibly, completely, totally lame and ungrateful for my college education. the realization began to dawn when i was talking to my boss and coworker yesterday morning, and they were saying how proud i should be that i'm finishing college. i waved them off and thought, what the heck it's not that big a deal. then later i realized, wow...myself and most people i know have college degrees, but i definitely take that for granted. i feel like the past four years i've just complained about how badly i want to be done with school without realizing what an incredible blessing it is to have parents that can pay for my education and the opportunity to go to college. most people in the world do not get that opportunity and would love to have it.

i am unbelievably blessed.

#2: i am leaving irvine and some pretty amazing people. yesterday was the navs end of year luau at cdm. it's so weird saying goodbye to people you may never see again in your entire life; people that were a big part of your life. granted most of the people at navs are brothers and sisters in Christ and if nothing else we'll see each other when we die and go to be with Jesus, but still...anyway i have grown and learned and been blessed so much by the people in navs. even if i never see them again in this life, i am grateful for the friendships and good times we've had. i'll definitely miss lots of other people from my 4 years at uci, but navs has been such an integral part of my relationship with God and with people. it will be strange to leave it...

i am unbelievably blessed.

welcome to blogspot...and my post graduation plans

so obviously i've switched to blogspot...

23 minutes ago i completed my last paper for the University of California, Irvine. it's a good feeling.

i was supposed to go to San Luis Obispo today with Children's Hunger Fund (the non-profit i'll be interning with post grad.). it fell through and i didn't end up going, but it worked out that i went back to Simi because i was able to take Max to the mechanic. poor car, he needed $600 worth of work done on him. i can't complain though because he's a '98 and hasn't given me a single problem in the 5 years i've had him. good job, Max.

8 days until grad., 10 until Israel! i can't wait. so to answer everyone's burning "what are you doing afterward" question, i'll be first going to Israel for 3 weeks (06/17-07/07) on a study tour, moving back home to Simi Valley, working part time for $, and interning/working/volunteering (i'm not sure which one yet) at this Christian non-profit called Children's Hunger Fund. true, i have connections there which helped me get in, but it's also an amazing organization that i'd want to be involved with anyway. they have a unique operating approach (they utilize local networks of churches and NGOs in the countries they work in to distribute aid instead of just showing up as foreigners and dumping aid on the people and leaving. it promotes sustainability and builds better relationships. they also partner with corporations like Target and Office Depot to get donations sent out.) and they have absolutely outstanding financial accountability, which is really important to me. they spend less than 1% on overhead, so over 99 cents of every dollar goes to their programs, and in 2006, they were the only charity assessed by Forbes.com to receive a 100% in all three of their rating categories. and all the people there seem really great. i'm really thankful that i get the privilege of working with one of the best non-profits out there.

so there you have it. i'm still working on long-term plans and waiting to see where God will lead me, but that's just part of the adventure.

okay now i'm going to post this and play around with blogspot features...