End of School, Citadel & Olive Wood

Wow, you guys are lucky. Two pictures posts in two days!

Just over a week ago the semester ended at the university and so the weekend before and leading up to the finals my classmates, teacher and I spent some time together. One day for breakfast we gathered to meet her fiance, and then the night after finals were over I, along with three other classmates met my teacher for supper, which was nice. 

Then last Friday my friend and I decided on a picnic at the Citadel, where there are lots of ruins from the Roman period, and the Islamic Empire period. We crazily went through with our plans even though Friday turned out to be the hottest day yet this year. 

And then Saturday I went with a couple of friends from church (the same ones I went paintballing with) and some of their colleagues to an olive wood factory, where they create hand-carved olive wood pieces.  We had a tour and then got to explore their small shop there too. One of the reasons I was glad to purchase things from them was because their goal is to mostly hire people who are disadvantaged, in order to help them. They have beautiful things and they also do online orders, as well as some wholesale, if any of you are interested in checking out their site.  

Me with my teacher, Afnan, and her fiance. They are getting married this summer and she's so excited she's almost giddy...it's so cute!

The famous mosque at the top of my jabel, or mountain. It's quite an uphill walk from my house, but it is beautiful up there, as well as having a nice view of the city.

The remains of a Hercules statue at the Citadel. The only other remaining piece is the elbow in the background. This thing is huge, in case you couldn't tell from the picture.

There are 4 or 5 columns left from the Hercules temple at the Citadel and it's pretty fascinating to stand directly below them and look up. 

One thing I love about this country...you can get up close and personal with the ruins. They aren't roped off and inaccessible. 

Trying to stay in the shade when at all possible

These are some of the roughly cut shepherd figurines at the factory. They are carved like this on a larger machine, and then someone carves the details into them, before they are sanded no less than 5 times, and then finished. The end result is beautiful!

Some of the men working on the pieces

This woman is sanding ornaments, and she's deaf. It was fun using sign language to communicate just a bit. And the camels at the bottom of the picture...super cute!

Pictures from A Month Ago...

Finally, finally, finally!

Here are the pictures I promised a long time ago from our afternoon of paintballing. :)

Enjoying the scenery between lunch and our "battle". :) Everything was still so green then! Now all that green has probably turned brown and dry.

Lunch with a good friend. She's from Chicago and actually went to the U of I! :) 

(Cue, "It's a Small World After All")

The group minus one.
We were trying to look tough...
I don't think any of us pulled it off.

Our team. That's my tough face...it actually makes me laugh instead :)

We've now added the protective gear...

The whole group with our paintball guns. 

I Have Some Changes To Propose

...To English vocabulary that is. 

I've found that as I continue to learn Arabic there are certain words or phrases that I use all the time, even when the rest of the conversation is in English. Somehow these words capture a thought or expression better than any word English has to offer. So I think that we should think about adding them to regular English vocabulary. Or at the very least, be prepared for me to have them in my vocabulary when I come home. :)

Here are the words I have thought of:

SHA-BOB

Literally translated this word means "youth" or "young men", but I use it to describe the teenage/post teenage young men who prowl the streets like they own them, using their profound grasp of the English language ("Hello! How are you?" in a strong accent) to attract any foreign woman they see, along with other catcalls and kissing noises. Really, what woman wouldn't be attracted to sounds like that? 

(please read this description with a heavy dose of sarcasm) 

I think the worst part is that any sign of acknowledgement (even a glare) on my part is tantamount to saying, "I want to sleep with you." I mean, really. 

I love how this one word sums up that whole description. In any conversation I can say, "Oh those shabob" and the other person knows exactly what I'm talking about. 

Brilliant!

YAL-LAH

This is basically like "let's go" or "come on". This a great little phrase that you can use as a response, a question or any time you want to move from one place to another. 

HUL-LAS

I think the literal translation is "enough" or "finished". I'm not sure I ever got the exact translation although I learned very quickly what it meant. :) I use it as a question, but also like, "...and then, hullas." Another time I use it is at the end of speaking in front class, sort of like a "the end" type of word. It's a fun word to say too. 

INS-SHA-AL-LAH

It means "if God wills it" but I use it more like "I hope..." Everyone here uses this phrase, all the time. Sometimes even in taxis, when I tell the driver where I want to go, he will respond, "Insha'allah". :) This phrase encapsulates the mentality of Arabs...only what God wills will happen. Whatever happens in life must be because God wills it, so they don't worry about it. 

I think independent, politically-correct West has lost sight of the truth within this phrase, because we think we can control our own destinies, forgetting how wrapped up they are within the Plan of our Father. 

Anyway, those are just a few I thought of this afternoon. There's one other I thought of, but it's more of a very descriptive sound that's too hard to put into words, so that one will have to wait 'til we meet in person. :)

Hullas.

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile...I just haven't had a lot to talk about I guess. I was hoping to get some pics from my friend of our paint balling adventure, but alas, her flash drive decided not to work right as she was trying to put them on to bring to church. So those will have to wait 'til next week. 

This is my last full week of classes, after which I will enjoy not getting up at 6 am every morning. :) But I will have things to keep me busy this summer. I will be teaching English two days a week and inshallah spending a few hours a week with a tutor, maybe spending a few evenings learning to cook Arab style, hanging out at the university with my friends during their summer classes and then if everything works out, I'll be heading back to the States on July 28th or 29th. :)

Oh, tomorrow I'm visiting Roa'a's house with my friend, and maybe on Thursday I'll visit Haneen. So, I'll try to remember my camera and then I'll actually have pictures to put on here.

Anyway, since ya'll didn't have questions, that's the best I can come up with... :)

100th Post!

I've been waiting until I had something exciting to write on here, to celebrate my 100th post...but I got nothin'. :)

Not that life has had it's fun times, but I don't have any pictures, and frankly, I've told you all about school and classes enough that it would probably bore you to tears.

It was a bit hard getting back into that school routine though this week, after being gone for a week...and then having the one and only holiday during this semester on Sunday. One change in the routine was that on Tuesday the Language Center fed us breakfast...bread, hummus, fool (a type of bean that they make into something similar to refried beans, but that doesn't taste anything like refried beans), falafel, cheese (not the good cheese from the Cheese Factory...this is a salty cheese that is pretty much contained to this region), and eggs that they baked in the oven with the shell still on, to make them like hard-boiled eggs...just with a bit of a different taste. Oh, and they had tea with mint, but I got there too late to get the mint so it was just tea. :)

In weather news...we had a thunderstorm last night, with lightning and everything! And for all you people who are experiencing that almost every week right now...this is definitely an occurrence that only happens a few times a year here. I'm grateful for any rain we get because it means that we're putting off the heat and dryness and barrenness that much longer. As soon as it stops raining here the temps will shoot up and we'll be dealing with 100 degree weather for the rest of the summer. Not so bad without humidity, but when I have to wear long pants, longer sleeves and hip covering shirts...well, I'm already not looking forward to it.

Wow...this post really is boring...

One other item out of the ordinary...I bought the book The Horse and His Boy on Tuesday...in Arabic. :) It will be my challenge and opportunity to keep improving my Arabic, especially after I return back to the States. I read the first paragraph, and could understand enough words, and by context and memory of the English version, to know what it meant! We'll have to wait and see how the rest of the book goes.

Anyway, since I'm not coming up with a lot of stuff to talk about, I was wondering if ya'll had any questions for me to answer on here. If so, please leave a comment or email me. I would love to know what you all want to read and hear about from my life here. :)

Nazareth and Jerusalem: Take Two

Okay, so there aren't as many pictures as I thought from my friend, so this will be a bit shorter...and I added a couple of mine to the end.

My friend's second host family in Nazareth welcomed us warmly and we spent a few hours with them. This is the father, and the daughter. They have a son as well. This family is so interesting to me because the father is a Russian Jew and the mother is Arab (I think Muslim background). The children speak Russian, Arabic, Hebrew and English with ease and the conversation flowed from one language to the next, sometimes in the same sentence!

They had a small kitten that was so cute! I enjoyed holding it and it made me miss the kittens from home. 

This is me in front of the Dome of the Rock

Jews from all streams, from very mainstream to Orthodox, praying at the Western Wall.

From the Mt. of Olives we observed some Orthodox Jews praying at a grave (or graves). It was interesting to watch and listen to them...at one point they pulled out shofars and were blowing them...I have it on video, but it's not really exciting enough to go to the effort of uploading. :)

Another close-up of their prayers...I think the earlocks would drive me nuts if I had to wear them like that. :)

Nazareth and Jerusalem: Take One

Here are my pictures from my trip these past few days. Just to warn you...there's a lot...and I'm going to add another post with pictures from my friend. :)

I'm not sure how much you all want to know about the details of the trip, so I'll just add a bit of explanation and if you want the full scoop, let me know and I'll email you instead. 

The streets in Old City Nazareth. You can just see the sign for the Fauzi Azar Inn, a pretty famous place to stay...at least among people I know. :) It's a pretty incredible place...right in the heart of the old city.

Inside the Fauzi Azar there is an incredible mural in the dining area, done by a woman I am privileged to know. We went into the inn and they graciously allowed us to go and see the mural, even though the room wasn't technically open. :)

The Orthodox Church of the Annunciation...or the Basilica as it is also called. It is supposedly on the site where the angel appeared to Mary telling her she would give birth to Jesus. Inside are pictures (mosaics and other media like that) of that announcement given by lots of countries from around the world. 

The doors to the Basilica

Inside a group from Ethiopia was there praying and carrying out a service. I think they were Coptics...and it was interesting to observe their way of worshipping. 

Looking out over the city of Nazareth...right behind my head is Mt. Precipice, where they say the story in Luke 4:16-30.

We spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday in Nazareth and then headed to Jerusalem Tuesday morning...

We stayed at a hostel right inside the Old City, and this was the view. :) Our "room" was actually the roof, and although it was a bit chilly last night, in reality it was an amazing place to spend our night in Jerusalem.

We walked and walked through the Old City, getting lost at times, but eventually making our way here, to the Western (Wailing) Wall. I got some pictures as we walked up the walkway onto the Temple Mount.

Some men placing their written prayers into the cracks. 

These men were having a Quranic study in the Temple Mount complex, right outside the Dome of the Rock...the man on the right is the teacher I believe.

The Dome of the Rock

A man studying in the Temple Mount complex

From the Temple Mount we made our way...eventually...to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is a bit blurry (sorry!) but these people are putting items on and kissing the stone believed to be the slab that Jesus' body was laid upon while he was in the grave. The people believe that the items they place on there will be blessed...fascinating and a bit sad.

From the Church we took the bus to East Jerusalem, up to the Mt. of Olives. Not really like what I pictured, but we did get a great view of the Old City. Directly below is a Jewish cemetery and I believe it's either the Kidron Vally or the Valley of Ben Himmon (I'm not sure on that spelling) between me and the Old City.

Here's the view without me in it. :)

This is where we slept last night...this is at 6 am as the sun was coming up. :)

And this was the sunrise...it was incredible to look over the Old City, because from where I was at, it looked so small...every important site to Christians, Muslims and Jews so close together, and yet worlds apart. From the catacomb of streets below it was a totally different story...it seemed like they went on forever. 

One of our "roofmates" woke up with the sun too, to pray. It was fascinating to observe the ritual prayers of the Jews.