Jordan Journal 7/17/12- 7/21/12

7/17/12 Tuesday night

     Last two days of work were Monday and today. Monday we got to pull out all the ruble we found in our square. Several highlights included taking two naps during our breaks and Rachel's confusion as to her square. Since she had been sick, she hadn't been for over a week and was really confused as to what should happen and what already had. We came back and I took a third nap [obviously I was very tired from the Jerusalem trip], went into town with Alyssa and Krista, then went to one of our workers house. We showed up at 7:00, Pepsi at 8:00, tea at 9:00, dinner at 9:30, coffee at 10:30, home at 11:00 -_-. Court, Emma, Rachel, and I spent the night talking about nerdy things. Work today was much better than yesterday. [we only had to remove a little rubble in the three hours we had and Peter gave us permission] Court and I slept in our square, resting from the late night last night, and finished by second breakfast. We had a party under the tent. After lunch, Emma left with Dr. David to pick up her parents [Dr Pollard, her dad, is the president of John Brown University] so she allowed me to use her laptop, which means I could finally catch up on Facebook. I read also got to read all of Alisha's and Gabrielle's blog posts! They are such great writers. I hope I can write like that one day. After posting a blog post [see post "life on the tell"], Luke and I played chess under the tree with some lemonade. We both wished we had discovered both the lemonade and the tree earlier in the dig season.He won though 2-1. At least I am getting better. After chess we had pottery reading then journal. I'm about to go sleep on the roof then call Alex at 3:30 in the morning. Should be good!

7/18/12 Wednesday night

     Talked a lot with Krista last night while waiting for the Pollards to show up then I talked to Alex in the morning. I really enjoyed both conversations. It was great hearing Alex's voice even though my phone ran out of minutes and hung up on him. We went to the dig site to make top plans and bulk plans. Emma and I finished early so we joined Dr. David and Emma's parents on a tour of some of the tombs at the dig site. Played some chess, did some more top plans, napped, read, talked, then dinner at the Department of Antiquates Representative for Abila house. Talked with Court and Liz for awhile then it switched to religion. I have very little faith that God would use me to save someone =/ I'm not very good at explaining things so when Luke joined the conversation, he made much more sense though it seemed to fall on deaf ears... On the bright side, Luke and I are becoming better friends. We talk and share more with each other and hangout some. 

7/21/12 Saturday Afternoon [partial post because it is a good time to tie it up]

     Wednesday night, Luke, Hannah, Jennifer, and I all slept on the roof again. Had a nice little sleepover, just talked then slept. Thursday we packed  a lot of the day. It was tough work. Had some good talks though. Aaron and I rode in the back of a truck with all the barrels on the way to their two year home until next dig season and we talked a lot then. I got to call my mom later but that's really all the excitement for that afternoon. That night we went to Um Quays (Gadara) [we went earlier in the trip too] for dinner at another DOA rep. We also got to see to see the sea of Galilee just after sunset. Beautiful  Dinner was good but many of us were just ready for bed. We woke up Friday and packed everything else [like our beds] up and left Hartha. [Here is the start of a week or so long trip visiting sites around Jordan. This next section is the highlight of my trip! I'll continue the rest of Saturday's journal starting with Friday afternoon in the next post]

Jordan Journal 7/14/12-7/15/12

[Jerusalem trip!!!!!]

7/14/12- Saturday night
     So Thursday us JBU kids planned our Israel trip. We also had class that night which was really good! It was about God being great and good then a bit on the trinity as well. Friday morning we left on the bus for Israel. The border was insane! There was a long line to get on a bus that took us twenty feet across the border but took an hour to cover that distance. Then there was lots of security in Israel. We then had to find a taxi to Jerusalem. Israel is so different from Jordan! Topography, humidity, and people. Nobody is friendly and you can definitely see the mixture of the Jewish and Palestinian cultures. Our hotel is right outside Herod's gate of the old city. Really great spot! The old city itself is amazing!! Houses tower above walkways and tin roofs block out the sun so it seems like you are underground at times. It's so dark that you hardly notice when you go into a tunnel (and there are a lot) or outside. There are also shops everywhere. It would be really interesting to live in there. [For those unfamiliar, as I was, with the sections of the old city, it is split into four districts and, as a whole, takes only about half an hour, maybe an hour, to cross from one side to the other. the four districts are the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Armenian quarters]. We finally were able to explore the old city Friday evening. We wandered through the Christian quarter and were able to see the the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which was absolutely incredible!!! [This church is placed both were Jesus' tomb is believed to be as well as the mount where he was crucified (which has really strong evidence for both)]. It is a massive building and you can really feel the tradition there. I nearly broke down crying when I saw the spot where Jesus died. It was all just a very emotional experience and I'm glad God gave it to me. That night we watched Hercules then went to bed around midnight. Saturday we got up at seven and into the city at nine. (as a side note, I bought a chess set the night before). We walked around the Muslim quarter then saw the wailing wall during the Jewish Sabbath! It was a little sad to see all the Jews worshiping there though with me knowing they are missing the messiah... The temple mount was closed too. We wandered towards the Jaffa gate and I bought a silver candlestick holder depicting Jerusalem for a wedding gift for Robbie and Ariel on the way. After falafels for lunch [which are amazing on the street by the way], I took a nap in the hotel then we decided to go to Bethlehem. We found a taxi to the border, which we didn't know existed. Apparently Israel put up a huge wall to separate the Palestine state from Israel. Another tour guide offered to take us across the border and on a tour, then back to our hotel. He smuggled us across because Luke and I didn't bring our passports [well we didn't know we were crossing a border].  He showed us a lot of graffiti along the wall and a really nice shop. It was an elaborate building with lots of old artifacts, necklaces, and olive wood carvings. He told us that the Christians of the city carve the, (apparently Bethlehem is predominately Christian) so I wanted to support them. Oddly, there was a really nice peace in there. I wasn't pressured to buy anything and everything just seemed nice and legit. God is good. After that we went to the Church of the Nazarene which was beautiful! Our guide kind of rushed us through since it was so crowded though. We then went back to the hotel then walked through the park of David to the pool of Siloam. We walked around looking for it for a couple hours only to find it locked then had to walk across the old city back to the hotel. Such a long walk for no pay off and a lot of grumpy people. Once we finally got back to the hotel (with no deaths!) we calmed down a lot and got along the rest of the night. We all hung out in my room till bed time. I'm so tired but I need to journal. still missing my friends but I'll see them soon. Tomorrow we head back to Jordan. I'll miss Jerusalem...

7/15/12- Sunday night
     Today was great but super stressful. Nice morning, left for the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at 8. We rushed along and I had a fun time being tour guide to different people [For some reason I knew more about the church and it's stories than the the rest of the group. I guess I explored it more the first time]. Then we got lost in the Jewish quarter as we tried to find the temple mount. Sadly the line to reach the temple mount was longer than the time we had, Back at the hotel, we checked out at 9:30 then our tour guide from yesterday picked us up at 10:00. We saw the Garden of Gethsemane and two possible locations of Jesus' ascension. We also saw a great view of the entire old city and the dome of the Rock. I also sat on a donkey named Peter. We headed off towards the border with a quick stop in Jericho which ended up lasting an hour and a half. We saw the supposed sycamore tree that Zacchaeus climbed (the tree is over 2000 years old) and the spring of Elijah. The border was, again, nuts. Took a bus to security, got my knife taken away, then more waiting, then a bus, then more waiting, then it took an hour to get our passports in Jordan [they took them on the bus]. We then took taxis to Irbid then a bus to Hartha. Made it back at 6:00. Made it just in time for dinner =) Luke and two of the girls stopped at McDonald in Irbid but my group was to tired and just wanted to get to the school.  We had vespers at area E [the spot of our food fight] but that day was so long that my brain was fried and I didn't understand anything. Hung out on the roof for thirty minutes just thinking about what God wants from my life. I would love for God to tell me what to for but He wants me to trust Him with that secret so I will. One reason I want to know is to see if I'll be going over seas or not. I'll trust God because His plan is sweeter and greater.

Jordan Journal 7/10/12-7/12/12

7/10/12- Tuesday night
     Luke cut me short from journaling last night since he waned to go to bed =/ [So this is an extension from the 9th, should have included them in the same blog]. Basically the last thing I had to say was that Alyssa has been reminding me not to be judgmental [towards the one person I'm not happy with on the trip]. It's hard but I know it is what God is saying too and He's helped me with it today. Had an extremely hard time sleeping last night. Part of it was the 3 hour nap, the other part was my imagination. I kept running over scenario of how I would react if Lauren got engaged [she recently started dating Matt and that kind of threw me through a loop] as well as fear as to how our friendship would change once we all go back to school. Today God calmed them. Not by saying our friendship wouldn't change but by telling me there isn't anything I can do about it, it is for her best, and she will always be my friend [which by far was my biggest worry, I have a fear of losing people]. Just because it is change doesn't mean it is bad. SO God has given me piece about it. Today was extremely hot. We sat around the last hour of work because it was so hot. I tanned on the roof for a bit, I've been getting a really bad farmers tan. Sadly it got so hot that I gave up after twenty minutes. I napped, then finished reading "Cross and the Crescent . It was a great book that I recommend to EVERYONE!! =). [don't ask, was in a goofy mood] Had some chess matches, a trip into town with Alyssa (note, be cautious not to lead her on), finally got to use a laptop!! I have so much to catch up on, I only got Facebook done, nothing else. Also, I'm probably going to call Alex next week =D I've missed texting him!!! Well and hanging out with him.We text a lot since we live in different states. Finally, odd moment of the day. one of the girls got proposed to by one of the workers! [follow half page long description and reaction that is best not put on the internet].

7/12/12- Thursday afternoon
     Work was difficult Wednesday, super hot. After 2nd breakfast Peter told everyone to go back to work and a couple of the guys complained and refused and some drama ensued. I skipped Arabic lessons and pottery reading for a nap, then read a lot. We took group photos then went to our bus drivers house for dinner at 8... dinner at 8... However, the food was great! Liz, Court, Aaron, Dr. Bob, and I ate together and debated a bunch of different issues and still came out friends! Went to bed at 11, felt sick so I walked around outside till 12:15 then fell asleep. Rachel was sick again so Jennifer and her missed both the last to days and will miss tomorrow as well (the JBU kids, including Rachel and Jennifer, are skipping work tomorrow for Jerusalem). Emma and I also finished our square today... kinda. We hit a layer of ruble =/. We have to wait for Dr. Cheryl's call on Monday but we only have two days left so chances are we are done there. Richard also left for home today =/ well now for a nap!

[The next segment will be my weekend trip to Jerusalem! It is a bit of a long one. To give you an idea, the normal blog post is about 4 of my journal pages, maybe 5. the Jerusalem section is 6-7 depending on how much I need to cut out. Also in case the timeline hasn't been clear, we are nearing the end of the dig season. We spent a good 4-5 weeks digging but after this weekend, we only have one day of digging, one of cleaning, one day of packing then we spend two weeks traveling around Jordan.]

Jordan Journal 7/5/12-7/9/12

7/5/12- Thursday Night [This is three eventful days. Sorry, it is a long one]
     Registry makes things busy -_-. Alyssa is doing better [Her grandma, I believe, died and she found out on the second. She had been away from everyone in isolation since then]. She was going to come to work today but Krista felt sick so she went with Krista to the hospital. Not much happened Tuesday  Dr. Cheryl left our area of the dig which meant Peter gave us a lot of breaks. Registry [labeling and recording of artifacts kept] was short so I decided it would be a movie day. I watched an episode of Sherlock then went to bed. The 4th of Just was probably the worst day I've had here. In the morning, there were bombings and gunfights in Syria [which would continue the remainder of my stay in Jordan] which was awful. Work was boring and a little tedious with the workers. After a not so good lunch, I did registry till five but took a break at four. I plugged in my laptop but noticed it wasn't charging. It appears that the charger has died, probably couldn't cope with the different power levels despite the converter. So with the last of my battery, I updated my blog sharing the news, quickly ran to pottery reading, then did registry on it till it died.  No more laptop =(. I fell asleep at five and Luke woke me up at seven. I missed most of the 4th of July banquet and only got a hamburger, the last one with no fries. I'm glad Luke woke me up though. At 8:30 we had cake and fireworks up on the roof. Today was tough. As I said, Krista got sick but today was all about [a person. Here goes a long frustrated rant about the day, probably part of my anger from the day before, and I took it out all on one person. It would not be ok for me to share this here]. I am trying to not be rude, that's why I am journaling all this. I had class today which was ok. I also took a two hour nap after Arabic lessons. I was supposed to get up for registry but my group thought I deserved to sleep in, I should probably get them some candy =). I came in [slight comment about the person I was angry at the entire day]. Ready for the half work day tomorrow, then rest, then the weekend trip to the desert castles!!

7/7/12- Saturday evening
     Friday was nice. Dug a probe [a deep square within the square to figure out what is in the square] and finally found something: a rock wall!! [that was dripping with sarcasm by the way] After work, group G, my group, had a food fight with group E. We had collected tomatoes since Monday then stood on top of a cliff looking down on their area and started throwing on them. I even got out on the ledge to announce like it was a war =). As retaliation, Dr. Bob sat on me while I was taking a nap outside in the courtyard. I fell asleep while waiting on Court to head over to one of the workers house but he never showed up. It ended up being a chill day. Last night I had a nightmare that one of my friends got kidnapped and my imagination kind of went to town with it. Several times today I've been tempted to call and see if they are ok. I think I'll borrow Luke's laptop to check facebook for news. Today we left the school at 6:30 for the desert castles. They were pretty cool. The first one was a basalt city that was just amazing [for a second, I thought I wrote annoying! I was really confused because I remember the city and how cool it was! The only reason I could think of it being annoying is that I was wearing flip flops and got a good cut on my foot while climbing around a reservoir]. The second was a mosque and a palace on top of a hill. The preservation was really quite amazing! [I remember standing in the tower with Krista, Liz, and Court and telling them how this tower was used so they could find dragons, then continuing the dragon rants throughout the day]. Next was a castle which was legit! It had lots of impossible stairs! [These are stairs which weren't meant or are no longer meant to be stairs and therefore require jumping or climbing to complete]. After that we went to a bath house which was interesting, then another castle with a lot of secret rooms and such. Now we are back in Madaba at the Mariam hotel. [This is the same hotel we stayed in when we flew in, this is also really about the half-way point of the trip].

7/9/12- Monday night
     Saturday night I had a really good talk with Court and Liz. We talked a lot about morals, or tried at least. Sunday we went to a Greek Orthodox service in St. George's Cathedral. The little bit we saw was interesting though. Alyssa, Rachel, and I walked around Madaba after that. It was mostly Alyssa and I talking. I did find some souvenirs for Gabrielle, Alisha, and Lauren though! Can't wait to give them to them =). We visited Mt. Nebo [where Moses' last spent the last minutes of his life] which was amazing. I could see the Jordan River and a bit of Jericho! Emotionally, yesterday was hard. I really miss my friends =/. Without my laptop, it is a lot harder too. I did call home last night and talked to my family for awhile. I did have a good night though! I played some chess with Samuel and Aaron. Today was difficult. [By this point you have probably realized my vocabulary is pretty thin when I journal. I  have a hard time writing my thoughts so I apologize]. My chest was a monster [problems with coping]. Emma ended up doing a lot of the work for me then we drew a top plan. I had Arabic lessons this afternoon, then a three hour nap (no more registry!), then reading, dinner, meeting about Jerusalem, more reading, and finally getting ice cream with Alyssa in town [girls can't go into town alone and I like walking around, we did this a lot together and with others]. I called my mom again because Joey's birthday is Saturday and I wanted to make sure I could call him. I may end up calling Alisha, Lauren, or Robbie soon if I can get online to tell them I want to call.

Sanctioned by Shane: Fullmetal Alchemist

So I've decided to take a break from translating my Jordan Journal onto the blog and start a new segment: Sanctioned by Shane. Here I review/talk about shows, movies, books, and other types of entertainment. Today I'm going to talk about the anime Fullmetal Alchemist. I have been aware of this show for a couple months and it seems to be the casual anime watchers anime of choice. For those of you who don't know, anime is a style of cartoon animation practiced in Japan. Most of American anime is brought over from Japan and simply re-voices everyone, fixing the animation for the new voices, and editing for culturally inappropriate scenes.

As of this post, I've watched the first six episodes of FMA so far and I have to say, I've possibly fallen in love with the show! [warning spoilers may follow, depending on your definition of spoilers] The show is about two brothers who practice alchemy  a type of science where one can turn one thing into another as long as all the ingredients are there. Taking trees and water, you can instantly create a papermache hot air hydrogen balloon. These boys' mother die and they attempt the forbidden practice of human alchemy to bring her back but in the procces the younger brother, Al, loses his body and his brother. Ed, loses a leg. In order to save Al, Ed sacrifices his arm to put Al in a suit of armor for a body. The show continues showing their quest to get their bodies back. 

The concept of alchemy had me worried at first because it has a very close association with witchcraft, however, the show pushes very strongly the science of alchemy and the many things that alchemy can't do. However, there does seem to be a mystic element slowly creeping into the show. For one, there are three "things" that appear to be demons or something. they are called lust, gluttony  and envy. They can do amazing feats of alchemy, or magic?, and clearly relate to the seven deadly sins of the catholic church. Ed himself can also produce amazing feats of alchemy that has yet to be explained so we shall see. 

This show excels at humor. I have laughed out loud multiple times and have had to stop it before so I could calm down. What's best is that the action and drama work with the drama rather than against it. Everything is perfectly timed and the animation really works well with both. However, I don't like how obvious the bad guys are. You meet a misguided or evil alchemist and you instantly know that he is evil or is causing harm, even when it is supposed to be a surprise for later in the episode. My favorite part, however, is a running gag on the show. Ed is consistently made fun of for being short... I can relate to that.

I really look forward to watching the rest of the 51 episodes, and I'm actually going to start #7 right now. Bye everyone!!!!