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annaliesejane
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Name: Anna
Country: Israel
Metro: Jerusalem
Birthday: 11/5/1984
Gender: Female
Interests: i like lots of things. Travel, Art, Photography, cities, forrests and lakes, camp, my friends and family, starcraft. ha no really im learning. :)
Expertise: um i dont think im an expert in anything. Im more of an aprentice type anyway.
Occupation: Student
Message: message meEmail: email me
AIM:  banana6690
Member Since:
1/10/2006
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| so some have called me a procrastinator.....
schools done, im officially a senior in college. approaching my final year at Calvin. but enough of thinking about that. im in cairo! yes, thats in africa, and yes i will now say ive been to africa. so backoff zep. traveling has been lots of fun, ive got a hour here at the cafe for 3 pounds and 1 dollar is 5.5 pounds so pretty cheap dont you think? so saw the pyramids and all those good things and then spent all day in the museum looking at old old things. like 5000 year old cloth. crazy i know. still in good shape though. like king tuts sash, its still pretty much in good condition. so were off to aswan on the train tonight and i know ive been nad posting pictures, again the heading but check zeps site- because he hasnt had finals or checkouts or papers or anything like that so hes put som up. www.xanga.com/joezep love you guys!!! ill be home soon!!! | | |
| hello. so this is Jordan desert style. lots of amazing and overwhelming beauty. i dont think i can ever really grasp it all, the Wadi Rum is the begining of the arabian desert, full of massive red sandstone cliffs. the life is hard and sheparding remains the main economic base as in the days of Job (who lived out here). Job is actually not a hebrew book, like all of the others in the OT, this land was given to Essau, later Ishmael and has typically been explained as a curse on him and his line. i mean we dont usually think of "you will be like the wild ass" as a compliment. but in fact we really should, Ishmael was compared to a wild and untamabel arabian horse and given a land that was equally wild and un- tame able. is that even a word? im sure zep will tell me. and often the descendants of ishmael (and ishmael is also who muslims see as the true bloodline of Ibrahim) are thought of as still cursed because we consider issac the true son. well anyway, the point of this that Ishmael was in fact not cursed and promised to be the first people to seek out and recognize the christ. so turns out the magi were from this land and the line of Ishmael. and they were the first to recognize the signs. so there you go, your little biblical historical geography lesson today.
in other news, i fell down the stairs today and it hurt. :( - see this is my sad face. stupid stone stairs.
but in way way more exciting and positive news---- can you guess? come on what else would it be? zep comes to israel exactly a week from today! thats right people 7 days. get excited. or maybe just me. and kara keeps harrassing me to update this so this is really because she keeps bothering me about it. and sidenote- kosher food during passover is gross. there is a reason bread is made from grain flour and not potatoes and large amounts of eggs. kids have 2 weeks off of school for this, and its pretty interesting to be around during it. although the post office hours are really messing me up, theres no system to it at all. i think they just leave when they feel like it. but anyway. heres some pictures....
so we need to prepare you for your trip into the desert. get used to seeing this.
so heres me and elly at the jordan crossing. i really felt like i was in the middle east coming through this. in isreal its still a very wealthy first world country and at times you dont feel that much different than if you were in a western nation. but jordan is very different. the landscape is so much drier and like what you would typically think of when you think of the middle east. and its also under islamic rule although much more relaxed than say saudi. but that difference is significant.
this is the Wadi Rum.
we took jeeps out to the bedouin tents we stayed in. and that formation in the background is the seven pillars of wisdom where TE Lawrence (of Arabia) had his camp. this made me think of marys dad actually. and mary- i saw a road sign that said "to saudi border" and totally thought of you.
lots of these too.
i got to alot of climbing all over rocks. it was so much fun.
more camels.
now i know at least one person out there ahem my boyfriend thinks camels are a disgusting and vicious breed of animal. but that same person maybe needs to stop juding that harsh exterior and look beyond appearences.... goodness.
inside the tent. although i didn sleep in here. most people did though.
i slept outside. it was a full moon and lite up the whole wadi. gorgeous. although there are more stars at camp tall turf.
so they cook food for special events uunder the ground. using juniper wood and a barrel so its a massive pressure cooker. the rice was really yummy. and i heard the chicken was good too.
trucks.
so then we went to a village to see the difference of the lifestlyes there. and this is what they eat.
and how they eat it. right handed of course. always hating the lefties.
and this was one of the wives. islam says you can have 4. this guy had 2.
and they dressed me up like them. this is as warm as it looks. and i really do hang out with other people besides elly she just seems to get in all my pictures.
so theres a bit for you kara. hope your satisified. im off to jordan for 4 days this weekend, i get to see petra. like the real one not the one that calvin had, and that class kristin and cece took. and then gave us that crazy tour. with the goat man and all that. and in other upcoming news... my best friend from highschool is getting married. yes people. ashley clare afman is engaged to eric holtrop. also from highschool. so thats the news from lake wobegone. where all the women are strong and the men are good looking.... :)
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| so my class was cancelled... my prof cant get into israel from the west bank because technically he doesnt have papers to be here since Hammas got power. and there was a shooting today in Beit sahur where one of the Fatah leaders was killed in a shootout with IDF soldiers. so theres some extra security. and instead of doing homework im doing this. although, i did get up early and acomplish quite a few things so chill out. and the countdown has begun.. officially i as i write this i have only 22 days to wait untill i see my boy in person! and you all probably are not as excited as i am about this fact but im going to officially begin the countdown for you anyway.... 22DAYS!!
i thought you might be interested in who im all here with. so heres the gang, without a few grad students plus a few visitors.
i was on spring break with the parents. it was so much fun. they are crazy, and we have crazy foreign fun together. and my dad ate alot of fish. big fish with heads and lots of bones. this one is a fish common in the Galilee, its called a st. Peters fish. but there was no money in it.
heres the greek orthodox church of st. barbi's. i guess jodi johannes would also like this one. its at capernaum. so its all seemingly normal outside besides the hidously pink domes......
and then inside is a fresco of SATAN!! freaky. and giant river of blood of course trailing him, and notice his baby??! what the heck is going on here....
my mom at the real capernaum. im not sure what shes doing..
i told my parents to look like they were doing something, and this is what they did. yeah, tourists to the max. disgustingly so.
and this little guy caused quite the uproar. so i go into our hotel room, and by my bed is the reading lamp and i moved the bulb so i would face down so i could get at the plug behind it when a little lizard fell onto the nightstand. now someof you know i can be a bit of a jumpy person so i freaked out at the suprize of seeing a heavy something fall out of a lamp and scurry around behind my bed. then my parents came in and i told them something was behind my bed and my mom went into exterminator mode and my father turned on his videocamera. so my mom handed me tools to catch the little guy, after we were sure it was a lizard and not some freaky poisonous scorpion or something. i did alot of lunging and missing and then moved the bed back and got him to climb up the wall into the open. my mom then handed me the soap dish to put him and after a few failed attempts to avoid touching him i just grabbed him by the tail.. and our reptilian friend then saw his oportunity to release his most skillfull defense mecanism. you would years of catching poolside lizards and toads in florida would have given me the forethough but alas it escaped me in the drama of the moment. our friend the lizard released his tail and darted past me. the tail wiggling in my hand and the lizard somewhere climbingup my arm.. it was drama. my moms screaming and laughing and my dad is doing nothing but videotaping and ive got a lizard all over me. so i dropped the wormlike tail and grabbed him again and put him outside on a bush. and now hes happy and started his own lizard family and has since avoided death by birds due to the absence of his tail.
heres the view from the roof of our building.that would be the sea of galilee.
the pool, also has fish in it, and a cave.
my initials again! cece, why are they everywhere? do they mean something in greek?
the church on the mount of beatitudes.
this is the typical galilean landscape. if i lived in ancient isreal i would want to live in the galilee.
heres a curious bird, maybe she wanted to eat my camera, but her head moved with it when i took her picture.
my parents tagged along to the palestinian refugee "camp" for my islam field trip to bethlehem.
its not so much of a camp as a extremely perminent and unchanging ghetto.
and its completely understandable as to why anti israeli sentiments run rampant here. because these people have clearly been wronged and displaced from their homes.
and on a lighter note, this is for you kristin.
shalom yall
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hello everyone. its been a while and ive been traveling with the parents and weve had an amazing time, if i can find some time ill post something about it but im getting really busy. but the important thing at the moment is this. http://go.sojo.net/campaign/immigration so please check this out and think about what our role is in caring for others, and using our privaledge and responability in Gods world to further the kingdom. and you can think about how our current government is actually taking steps away from this, way to go. | | |
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im tired but trying to stay awake for a little bit to see if i can talk to zep at all but i figured this was a good way for me to be productive while waiting. so i had a pretty amazing three days this weekend. the highlites were the dead sea, the negev wilderness, en gedi, qumran, the sorek valley system and the wildlife. so heres something more interesting that my words....
in the sorek the wadis accumulate enough water for farming to be possable, this is also the land of micah. and grapes for wine come in the late summer so they arent out yet.
the blossom of the almond tree
and at the site of david and goliath theres a cow family. how cute. until those horns get you that is.
elly heide and I same spot as the cows.
the medeteranian sea at ashgolan. it was cold. and i didnt have my suit with me. somehow neither of those things stopped me from getting in though. ashgolan is only about 5 miles outside of Gaza, and driving back on the highway i could see the city lights 2 miles from us.
this is the spot of the negev that you can hike through, and this is the kindof thing that calvin made me sign 8 forms releasing me from their responsability or leagal obligation because people die here.
and this straight up the side of the wadi 300 feet off the ground may have something to do with it.
im bring sacrificed on a horned altar. because im a goat, and its biblical times.
i feel like the ancients at Tel Arad where trying to ask us a question.. but i dont know what.
some old stuff at a nabatean stronghold
now what movie is this from? mom you should totally get this. even though i dont think its that same canyon. but it is the one i climbed out of.
i really like arches.
im on the egde of the worlds largest erosion crater at the edge of the negev desert. and my mother would have been sick if she were there to see how close i got to the edge. and zep probably wouldnt have been able to watch me go out there either, they both dont like heights.
herod the great was the first to ring mosaics to israel, and he did it at masada first.
the dead sea, its so salty it tastes like acid burning your mouth. but its so cool.
the salt and minerals build up on the rocks which makes it not so much fun to walk on when your getting in. and its an ecological crisis right now, its levels are dropping every month. and the israelis dont know if they want to even spend the money to pump in water from the red sea, as the finincial gain is in the mineral deposits that can be retreived if the water is all gone. its really sad. and global warming is a proven scientific fact people, wake up. the dead sea is also the lowest point on the earth. but its not like you can tell that being there.
and this is a totally lame picture but thats not to say it wasnt fun, because seriously this water is so cool, you dont have to try to stay above water at all.
its a baby ibex!
at engedi theres a ton of ibex, i feel these two are having a serious conversation.
david sure picked a good spot to hide from saul. considering that there a dry wasteland surrounding this place.
some cool flowers growing on the side of the rock
one of my favorite things ever, tall grass. :)
so zep told me he couldnt see the rock hyrax in my wadi kilt pictures, so i hope this is a better one.
look shes got an itch! i am so amused by wildlife.
this is cave number 4 which held the isiah texts at Qumran. the original openings are the two small ones at the top, that big one was put there during excavation.
there were no scrolls in this one, but i climbed up it anyway
so that was the weekend. pretty good if i do say so myself.
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