6 days and a couple of proposals later...

From left to right: Josh, Yuliya, me

I just got back from an awesome trip to Jordan and Egypt. My friend Yuliya and I went took a day trip to Jordan and saw Petra. We spent less than 10 hours in Jordan from border crossing to border crossing. We had a blast. The next day we met our friend, Josh, and crossed the border on the other side of Israel into Egypt. After haggling with a taxi driver for a while, we started our 6+ hour ride to Cairo. From Cairo we immediately bought train tickets for that night and went down to Luxor. After touring Luxor for two days and seeing beautiful temples and tombs, hanging out on boats on the Nile, and drinking tea with the locals, we got back on another night train back to Cairo.
We arrived early in the morning, got a cab, and went to see the pyramids and the Cairo Museum. The pyramids were amazing and the Cairo museum had the coolest ancient Egyptian treasures you could imagine (think Tut's treasure, the mummy of the Pharoah of the Exodus, stuff like that). That night we caught a cab and spent the whole night (10pm-7am) driving down the Sinai penninsula to Mt. Sinai (or so some scholars think). We hiked up Sinai (3,700 steps) and then ran down on a camel path. All of that took about 3 hours...giving our cab driver some time for some much needed sleep. Then back up to the Egypt/Israel border and home again. The trip was fast but amazing. I saw everything I really wanted to see. The friends I went with were totally awesome too! :)
Now its back to the books. Finals are next week. Final finals for me. Hard to believe honestly. So, in case this is my last post from Israel...thanks for reading. Ask me for more stories and pictures when I get back. ~ Liz

Handel's Messiah in Hebrew

Last week I was privileged to attend Handel's Messiah the first time it was performed in Hebrew. The translation was done by a Messianic believer that lives on the same moshav as myself. It was a privilege to be there and was very well done. It was also fun to be able to follow along with the little bit of Hebrew I have learned. As you watch the video you will find that the word "Hallelujah" is the same...that is because it is a Hebrew word...not English. Enjoy! (I did not take this video, and was actually at the concert the night before this was filmed).

Way too long...

...the last post has long since gotten boring. So, here is another one that will hopefully keep you at least still checking my blog every once in a while. Who knows what will happen when I get back to the States...I'm sure that the posts probably won't be as interesting as they are now...hopefully they will be more frequent...it is so busy right now here.
We just got back from a week in the Galilee. Our little cabins were right on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (which is really more like a lake). It was a fun, exhausting trip. We learned a lot and all got nice tans/sunburns. We had two days off school while we were there...one of which most of us spent hiking through a wadi and watching live war exercises...(don't worry, they were just shooting off shells on the other side of the wadi). The noise from the shelling was tremendous...especially as it echoed through the wadi. I wish my brothers could have been there. If you watched on the other side you could see a cloud of smoke before you heard any noise at all. After the cloud of smoke the noise was that of a plane flying really low right over your head. I don't have any pictures of that because the hike we were on was one where you had to swim part of it, so we did not take our cameras with us lest we ruin them completely.
Now we are back on the moshav for another two weeks of classes before spring break. I will be heading to Egypt and Jordan with some friends. After that its back to classes for another week or so and we are done. It is really hard to believe my college education will be over in just a few weeks. Time really does fly. I think I have learned a lot...mostly how much I don't know and how much I have to learn. I have made some great friends and been blessed with amazing experiences. I am thankful to have a full-time job waiting for me at the other end of the stage, it helps to know at least a little of what is next in life.