why is August 3rd going to be the best day of August this year? three words...
The Bourne Ultimatum

i haven't been up to too much since getting back from Israel. my little brother was here for a week from Albuquerque and that was fun. i'm still waiting to hear from Children's Hunger Fund about my schedule and everything, and i'm thinking about applying to Cal Lutheran for a part-time administrative job. hm what else...i have jury duty again Monday. my life isn't that exciting right now...

being home has been nice but i definitely need to start working or something. it's nice having time to just relax, but it does get old after awhile. i've also been contemplating moving out of state somewhere just for the heck of it. i love California and being near my family and friends, but the idea of starting over somewhere is exciting too. we'll see...

a true photo blog

Israel really does have every landscape imaginable. these are just some of my favorite pictures i've taken throughout the trip.

this trip really was amazing. i didn't have too many expectations going into it, but it was infinitely above and beyond anything i thought it could be. IBEX is definitely the way to go if you're going to Israel. the trip is much longer than any other tour you could go on, and it's more intense mentally and physically than any other tour. Nate did an absolutely phenomenal job teaching us the history, the land, and the Bible. it's so true that the Bible comes to life once you've been. now as i'm reading through things i can picture how the story unfolds geographically. i also enjoyed getting to know all the people that went too. we are all very different, but somehow God orchestrated it that a large majority of us are in a transitional stage in life, not sure what the next step is. it was neat to be able to encourage each other in what we're going through.

there were so many highlights-swimming in the Sea of Galilee, the Banyas hike, getting to know Erica a lot better, hanging out with people, tackling Masada, long and tiring yet richly packed days...but i think i will overall take from the trip a renewed appreciation of God's awesome grace and faithfulness over time. He truly is an eternal God that doesn't change and is always faithful to an unfaithful people. Selah.

Israel photo blog pt. III

Sea of Galilee taken from the bus

it's Aldrich Park in Israel! haha this is near Aphek

Arbel Cliffs - we literally climbed and hiked down from the top

beautiful Banyas waterfall hike

Banyas waterfall

Nate (leader) & Na-El. Na-El was our bus driver. he's a Bedouin and had to leave his village when he became a Christian.

Laura and I at the Sheraton in Tel Aviv on our long journey home.

the Sea of Galilee is perhaps the best body of water i've ever had the privilege of swimming in. in the evenings the winds pick up and you get some good sized waves. the great part is that it's fresh water and it's the PERFECT temperature. so you go swim and have fun in the waves and everything, but when you come out you're not salty and gross. it's great.

on the cardo at Bet She'an, a huge Roman city

Shechem/modern-day Nablus

Scott playing Israeli Pac-Man at our final dinner

beautiful Yad Hashmonah where we stayed for 4 days

gorgeous Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean coast

lunch @ Na-El's house.

thanks and Israeli military in the Golan Heights

4000 year old Sea of Galilee boat pulled out of the mud

4th of July BBQ!!! (you can't see it in the picture but we had country music too :)

Still not back...

so anyone want to guess where i am right now? a holiday inn in new york. am i saying this with a smile on my face? not so much! why you ask? therein lies the tale...

so our group was slated to leave saturday night/sunday morning at 12:04 a.m. well as happens with many flights, El Al overbooked and gave the option to passengers to give up their seat in return for a flight the next day and either some monetary compensation or a free round trip ticket to Israel. myself and 4 others said, what the heck, we don't have to be back right away and promptly volunteered to possibly give up our seats. of us five, myself and Laura were the only two that ended up randomly being selected to stay. so Laura and i thought, what a fun adventure. and for the first half, it was. El Al put us up in a beautiful beachfront Sheraton Hotel in Tel Aviv and provided breakfast and transportation back to the airport. we hop on our flight and have a lovely time watching "300" and that (surely) drug-induced story "the last mimzy" among others. then the tides turned...

we ended up getting to JFK in new york a little after 4:00 p.m. what time is our connecting flight to LAX? 5:00 p.m. let's do some math...

sitting in literally the LAST row of seats/last to get off the plane + going through customs and immigration + finding out we have to claim and recheck our luggage + JFK being the most inefficient airport i've ever been to = definitely missed flight. after that we got to wait around for 4 hours while connecting flights for tomorrow and hotel arrangements were made, all the while with extremely frustrated people yelling. it was lovely.

the compensation i received for giving up my seat on the El Al flight was worth it when i was set to arrive back in LA the same day a mere 14 hours later. as of now, it's just turning into a story i'll be able to tell people (aaaand yeah, you're right, it's not even a good story).

in any case i feel like i've been tested to the max (in a good way) in the areas of faith and patience over the last two days.

i'm not super tired right now, just physically exhausted. i'll post another blog with more pictures of Israel and commentary on the trip over the next few days or so.