Making the most of each day...

I could not be more content with the decision to extend my stay here in Nazareth if even for just a few more precious weeks. Time here is flying by more and more as I find myself sufficiently immersed in what is now a pretty routine schedule. Guiding tours, while at times somewhat exhausting, is getting easier and easier. I was happily surprised with how quick I was able to master the script and content for the hour and a half long tour. It’s such a pleasure to meet all of the different people that come daily to the Village.

My favorite tours are the smaller groups as they are much more interactive and I get to know the travelers a little better than in a larger group. Today I had a group of about 60 and it was an adventure to try and lead them through small first-century homes and structures. Luckily they happened to be a lively group with a good sense of humor. Leading tours can be pretty comical as well. It’s always fun to laugh with the other tour guides about the more “interesting” travelers and experiences we have while leading groups. It’s amazing what sort of questions you get as a tour guide…things I never thought I would be asked, or worse, expected to know just because I have the label “guide.”  I also never thought I’d be learning about as many different cultures as I am while here in Israel. There is a huge contrast between the different groups depending on which country they’re from. For instance, to lead a group from Indonesia is world’s different from leading a group from Holland. I now know exactly what to do if I ever want to impress a large group of Chinese people… who knew farm animals could be so fascinating and that people would want so many pictures with what I think are quite smelly sheep. I will admit, however, that they baby donkeys are incredibly adorable. I finally remembered to take my camera with me to the Village today and was able to take some fun shots of the friendly beasts. More are on the way! This is the most beautiful time of the year in the Galilee as flowers begin to bloom and everything is so green (so rare in this dry country).

I am looking forward to a more quiet rest of the week and weekend as I’m staying in Nazareth to help out at the Village on Saturday evening (a special evening tour coming through). Last weekend was a lot of fun traveling south to Be’er Sheva and spending time with friends at the Medical School of Ben Gurion University. Be’er Sheva was incredibly ugly and I failed to take a single picture of the bare and dry/dusty city. I plan to be back there in a couple weeks to see the same friends once more before I leave the country. This evening will be attempting to make Mexican food (even trying my hand at homemade fresh tortillas!) with my roommates and some new medical student friends. Should be a fun! Please pray that my time here goes slowly and that I would focus on enjoying every minute of this awesome trip and time here

P.S. Happy Birthday (the BIG 30!!) to Lars!! Miss you!

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” Psalm 119:105

Happy Late Valentine's Day! =)

Friends at the Village

First-century bread: delicious. 

One of the baby donkeys at the Village who is extremely friendly

View from my flat

local demonstrations

More friends

Inside the Village at the Synagogue

Shway Shway

Shway Shway! "slowly slowly" One of the many useful phrases I'm learning while trying to acquire a few Arabic phrases here and there. Sometimes it helps to have the word repeated slowwwly and other times it does no good whatsoever because as hard as I try, I cannot master the extremely difficult throat pronunciations in either Arabic or Hebrew. Luckily, for me, I still have some time left before the trip comes to a close! I have decided to stay here another three and a half weeks beyond my original departure date (now I have about 6 weeks left of the trip) and I'm so excited about this extra time. Several small excursions are already in the works (Petra, Jordan, Southern Israel - to name a few) and I'm also looking forward to furthering some awesome friendships I have going here in Nazareth.

This evening I enjoyed another delicious home-cooked traditional Arabic meal at a co-worker's home. I cannot pronounce or even really begin to describe it, but I'll post pictures soon! Last weekend and this week has just flown by. Over the weekend I enjoyed seeing more of the Galilee and spending time with some local Arab Christian friends and was invited to their extended family's home on Sunday after church. Family is extremely important in this culture as families generally live all in the same building or within the same town.

I'm just off to bed to try and get a good night's sleep in preparation for another long day of leading tours and teaching English in the evening. I have recently started doing more work on the side for the Village (marketing, writing, etc.), so I am as busy as ever. I plan to limit my volunteering the last few weeks while I'm here so I can travel and relax more before heading home. One more quick update before I sign off: I accepted the job in Peru and plan to move there (Lord willing) late April or early May. If anyone has good tips for travel in South America, send them my way! =)

Here are a few pics from recent days

On the right is a new friend and fellow tour guide, Betsy. Her and her husband have been living here for about five months and plan to stay through the summer. On the left is Daniel, a manager at the Village. 

This was Daniel's daughter's 18th birthday party. Very very fun. All kids from their local youth group. 

We made Mexican!

Max enjoyed our cooking

There are literally thousands of stray cats here in Nazareth. I took this photo because I thought "Goose x 3 " and I was pretty excited... 

Flying By

With this week I am already beyond the “halfway point” of my planned trip here in Israel. I have been here about five weeks now and I cannot believe how fast time has flown by. There is so much I have yet to see and explore. Without a doubt, I plan to come back again in the future (hopefully the near future) to do more traveling and site seeing around this area and beyond. Although I haven’t done as much traveling around the country as I originally anticipated, I am making up for it by developing some truly wonderful friendships both with locals and fellow travelers here in Nazareth. I am so thankful for the way God brings blessings and learning into my life daily.

Among many great memories of the last couple of weeks, a highlight was eating two dinners at two separate households on one evening (by my mistake – of course). I was leading tours at the village and a friend at work asked if I wanted to come over for lunch at his house. His wife (who also helped train me for leading tours) was going to cook a delicious meal and they were excited for me to meet their two young sons as well. Of course I didn’t hesitate in accepting the invitation. As the day progressed, again the friend confirmed plans for lunch and said he would text me when he was outside with his car. The hours continued to roll on by, and as it got later in the afternoon, I thought to myself (as I continued to get hungrier and hungrier),  “I guess people just eat lunch late here like they tend to do in Spain.” Finally, at 4:30, I got the text to run outside and catch my ride. By the time we started to eat, it was obvious they had meant dinner and not lunch. The food was fantastic and we had a wonderful time visiting, however, I had to cut the evening a bit short because I had previously accepted a prior dinner invitation at another household for the same evening! My hosts dropped me back off at the hospital and within minutes I was off to the next meal. Needless to say, I was considerably stuffed by the end of the night, but all was delicious, and to me, the scenario was quite entertaining.

I continue to love life as a tour guide and English teacher. This week I also helped represent the Village at the 17^th International Mediterranean Tourism Exhibition. It was a blast to get to know co-workers better as we spent two very long days in Tel Aviv for the event. We bonded over a love for the Swedish band Abba and laughing at some of the more “interesting” visitors to our booth.

On Thursday I took the day off and traveled by myself to Akko on the northern coast of Israel. Akko, also known as Acre, is a gorgeous little port town and has some of the best preserved medieval structures in the country. I had fun meeting new people and spent the day leisurely taking in the sites and relaxing by the sea. I did my best to practice my Arabic, which often surprises people, and allows for fun conversation (apparently it’s not common for a blonde haired, blue eyed girl to pursue this endeavor). I’m also trying to learn a little Hebrew, but I find Arabic a bit more fun to use.

It's hard not to look life a goof when you're taking pictures of yourself by yourself. 

I seem to find myself in small claustrophobic places here in Israel

yum fish

More sights on the bus ride there. Gorgeous area. 

This weekend has been sufficiently relaxing as I recover from the busy schedule of the previous week. One of my roommates, Monty, who is a doctor from Scotland, has been cooped up in our flat for the last couple of days with a severe foot infection (she learned the hard way not to wear flip flops through rainy Jerusalem). I have enjoyed keeping her company here and there and learning some hilarious Scottish lingo. Tomorrow I will attend an Arabic church service with co-workers and then I’m invited to spend lunch (actually lunch this time I hope) with their family. I still continue to pray about extending my trip here and wonder if it’s not a good idea. For those of you who don’t yet know, I have also accepted a job in Lima which I plan to start early this spring. This blog should be continuing through that adventure as well! I’ll be sure to keep you updated with plans and new trips!

Miss you all! Thank you for the many emails and keep em’ coming!

“Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.” Psalm 143:8

one minor correction...

One small correction that my dad brought to my attention just now... I was actually slightly disappointed that I missed Mike Huckabee today at the village, but Tel Aviv was an adventure and I was able to practice more of my Hebrew.

Long day and off to sleep in preparation of another long day tomorrow!


I hope you enjoy this picture... it's from a sign that's posted all around the hospital. It's not meant to be comical by any means, but even the doctors and nurses who understand the Hebrew still think it's funny.

Just a quick update

Today marks the halfway point for my time here in Israel. It has been exactly four weeks here and I have loved pretty much every minute, if not every second, of the experience. This last week was wonderful and full of new memories (many of which I'll write more about later). The weekend was particularly fun as I spent Saturday with some medical student friends and hiked a bit around the area north of the Sea of Galilee. We hiked to a HUGE cave and actually went in quite far. Me and a friend were sharing a flashlight and it was a little rough going. I kept thinking of how terrified Krista (my mom) would be if she saw what I was doing. I thought that if I didn't make it out... it sure is a great way to go! haha, just kidding...it was safe (as long as your light worked and you didn't fall).  I have never been in a cave so deep or so small before. Quite an adventure and I tried very hard to not think about earthquakes, critters in the dark, or being claustrophobic. A VERY cool experience all in all.

We stopped by the town of Tzafat  (better known as Safed) on our way home and explored yet another cave and some interesting crusader ruins. Everywhere here seems to have SO much history. Even at a short pit stop on our way up to the cave we happened across some ancient church ruins. I think someone could spend a lifetime here and STILL have so much to learn and explore. We ended the day with a delicious group cooked meal (a common and wonderful occurrence at the hospital compound).

Today was a relaxing Sunday as almost everything is closed in Nazareth. I spent the day enjoying the sunshine and exploring more of the city with a good friend. I'm looking forward to a busy week with work and more travels. On Tuesday and Wednesday I'm headed to Tel Aviv for work and really have no clue what I'll be doing there... I'll be sure to fill you in. All I know is that I'll have to be in costume and will miss Mike Huckabee coming to the village (I'm not too disappointed).

I probably won't stay up for the Super Bowl tonight, but Go Packers!! =)

Some pictures which I'll describe later!

A hiking adventure... these pictures are not in order but you get the idea... 

 We found ourselves a very deep and beautiful cave north of the Sea of Galilee.

So dark and small inside! 

At a nearby town, we happened upon ANOTHER cave! This time, however, we weren't alone. Some Orthodox Jews made use of the awesome acoustics to sing songs celebrating Shabbat .

The Sea of Galilee

The market in Nazareth on a quiet Sunday afternoon

Shalom!

Life as a first century village tour guide is going great! So far, I have only had a handful of tours but I’m enjoying the job immensely. It’s quite fun to meet travelers from all over the world and I do my best to explain life as it would have been in Nazareth at the time of Jesus. The greatest part about being a tour guide: having people believe anything you say (don’t worry, unlike some guides out there, I make sure and stick to the facts!) and making answers to questions seem that much wiser by simply saying “well, some scholars think…” I thought I might proudly add that not a single person has asked me to speak louder yet! Maybe I do have the ability of a loud speaking voice after all!

The weekend in Nazareth was a relaxing one as heavy rains kept me indoors for the majority of the time and with Shabbat on Saturday, nothing much is open in town. I did, however, enjoy a very fun outing on Saturday evening attending a local Messianic Jewish youth meeting. It was so encouraging to meet all these youth who are going very against the grain in the state of Israel by believing Jesus to be their Messiah. I continue to fall in love with not only the beautiful region, but also the incredible people I meet and get to know weekly. The youth meeting also inspired me to start learning a few phrases in Hebrew as well as add more to my Arabic. So much to learn and so little time! I’m praying that if there is a way for me to stay here longer, that a door will be opened. I’ll keep you all updated if that turns out to be the case…

This week we had two new roommates join us in our apartment at the hospital; two girls who just finished their medical degrees from Manchester University in England. They’re 22 and officially doctors! So young compared to the States! One of the girls, “Monty,” is from Scotland and I have to say, I absolutely love the way she speaks and hope I can pick up a wee bit of her talk before I head home. The week has already been full of activity and time spent with new friends. Monday is a favorite evening of mine as I share dinner every week with other Christian volunteers (people from all parts of the world) who are currently living and serving in Nazareth. It’s an awesome time of learning and laughter as we share any comical cultural catastrophes or language shortcomings from the previous week. The rest of this week I’ll spend leading more tours at Nazareth Village and teaching English on Thursday evening. Our English class continues to grow with new students and I really look forward to it. I haven’t decided final plans for the weekend yet, but it will likely include a hike or two and/or travels into the Galilee region which gets more gorgeous as the rains make everything green and lush this time of year.

Another highlight of the week: finding the BEST shawarma bar in town AND discovering a bakery adjacent that sells fresh baked pita bread for less than a dollar. I can also successfully count to ten in Arabic and I’m feeling a little more confident of the difficult pronunciation of other key words. Or so I think… =) Some of the staff at the village are fond of practical jokes and they discovered last week that I’m a VERY gullible target.

I can’t believe how fast time is flying by. I continue to feel blessed more and more each day I as develop new friendships and learn more in faith and understanding of this area. Miss you and will write more of life in Nazareth soon!

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

This chocolate... amazing. I'm just going to let you guess the flavor by the picture. I'll be bringing home lots!

The Lord's prayer in Estonian!

new friends at a movie in Haifa

Of course I take pictures with anything Swedish.