QUE MAS!!!

Monday, February 28, 2005

Hey! Well, midterms are this morning, pray for me please. And some of you may know I've been a little stressed recently with different things going on, and last night was pretty rough knowing midterms start today and all. But I just wanted to say that I have a wonderful suitemate. Jess is so encouraging. She just sat and listened to me for so long last night. I'm definitely thankful to have her as a friend. So...today I'm feeling a lot better, I just have to make it through my first midterm this morning! But anyway, this is just a little note to say thank you to everyone who has been there for me. I appreciate you all! I hope you all have a wonderful day! Love and God bless, Katie

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Currently Playing Beautiful Soul By Jesse McCartney see related Hey! Well, we just got back from a 3-day trip to Corinth, Epidauras, Mycenae, and Olympia. It was a really good trip and now we're back to classes and midterms...of course. Christy's grandparents got in last night, which really makes me miss my mommy...but it was really good to have her here for a little while. So on Friday while we were in Corinth we saw the Temple of Apollo, the Erastus Inscription, the fountain of Glauke, the agora at Corinth, the Bema where Paul would have spoken from, Roman toilets, Lechaion Road, and climbed the Acrocorinth. It was cool to see the Erastus Inscription, which helps prove Erastus' existence in the New Testament period. It was all really cool, but I'm gonna try not to get too historical. It was really fun climbing up Acrocorinth. We all got a good workout. The Temple of Aphrodite is located on the top. In the afternoon we went and saw the Theater of Epidauras, which was really cool. It's a huge theater, seating 40,000 people, and it has perfect acoustics. Most of us went to the very top and had some people sing at the bottom and we could hear them perfectly, and they weren't even singing very loud. That was really cool. Then we checked into our hotel for the night. There was a mixup with the rooms at the hotel so I ended up staying with Rachel and Denise for the night, which was a lot of fun. They are so sweet and I was really glad I got to spend time with them and get to know them better on this trip. The next day we went to the Palamidi Castle. This doesn't really have any Biblical significance, but it does have to do with the history of Greece. Anyway, they let us wander around it and take pictures for about an hour. It was a lot of fun. I really like castles. Then...they let us walk the 900ish steps down. I don't know about everyone else, but I thought it was a lot of fun to walk down. After that we went and saw the Tomb of Agamemnon, also called the "Beehive Tomb". Then we went to another Acropolis. We did lots of driving and random stopping that day. It was a really good day, but I was definitely worn out by the time we got to the hotel, and I definitely went to bed at 10:30. The last day we were in Olympia and got to go to the very first Olympic stadium, where the first Olympics were held in 776 B.C. We learned all about the different games practiced on the different sites, and we got to pretend to race on first track ever competed on. We also had our Sunday worship service there. It was pretty ironic because we were there worshipping God, and their games were held to honor the gods. After that we went to the Museum and learned about all the different artifacts there. I'm really starting to see why I can get credit for art appreciation here. Anyway, after that we stopped for lunch and had a 5 hour drive back to the Artemis. I really enjoyed this trip. We didn't get to do any souvenir shopping or anything, but that might be for the better since I seem to have trouble leaving shops without buying something. But anyway, back to homework and reality until we leave for Northern Greece next Sunday night! God bless all! Love ya!

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Friday, February 25, 2005

Hey! So I figured that before I leave for Corinth (in like 20 minutes), that I should probably finish writing about my Egypt trip. =) It will be a quick summary, but you'll get main ideas, I hope. Anyway, so the next day we went to the High Dam, and then to the Temple of Philae, which is dedicated to the goddess Isis for her love and dedication to her husband, Osiris. We had to take a boat out the island it was on, which was really neat. So actually, I mixed something up. The day before this day was the camel ride, and today was the falucca ride. So anyway, we'll pretend like the camel ride was this day. So the camel ride was sooo much fun! It was like an hour or so long ride through the desert to a nubian village. We even got to hold the "reigns" of our own camels. It was soo cool! And I felt so tall! So anyway, we went to this Nubian village where a lady has tourists over for tea and stuff in her little house. It was a really neat experience. The Nubian village ws pretty much the first time I realized I was really in Africa. So anyway, the next day we were on the cruise ship and everything and we went to the Temple of Komombo in the morning. Then we crusied to Edfu and went to the Temple of Edfu, which is the most complete temple. We were on the boat for 3 nights. Oh yeah! One of the nights we had Egyptian night on the boat and we all got dressed up and took tons of fun pictures. I'll try to get some on here if I can sometime soon. But anyway, it was a great time! The next day we got to Luxor and went to the Temple of Karnak, which is massive! It has 10 shrines in it, and it absolutely amazing! We were still in Luxor the next day and we went to the Valley of the Kings (and went inside 3 tombs) and the Valley of the Workers. The insides of the tombs were so cool, especially the workers. I think they put more color effort into their own tombs. =) That night we went to the Temple of Luxor. It was beautiful at night. All the statues were all lit up and everything. Well, we're getting ready to leave, so the main points are that we went back to Cairo for 2 nights, I think. Osman (our wonderful tourguide) had us over to his house, which was so sweet of him! We also got to go to the land of Goshen, and the graineries, where Joseph probably was. Overall it was an absolutely amazing experience!!!

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Monday, February 21, 2005

Hey guys! Well, I finally have some time to give you an update on the wonderful Egypt trip! Well, I'll give as many details as I can before I head to Biblical World and Archaelogy. I know, so exciting. While I'm sitting in class, most of you will be dreaming the night away. Anyway, so Egypt was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. We started the week off by heading to the Giza Pyramids. They are absolutely amazing! But don't be deceived....they're in the middle of the city. It's like desert, city, desert, fertile land, desert...okay, so you get the picture. But they were still amazing! One block is like the size of me! But I'm going to TRY not to give too many historical details, because it would take forever, and I have class in 25 minutes. Anyway, so that day we also went to the Solar Boat Museum to see the oldest boat ever built. Then we headed to the Temple of the Sphinx, which was used for mummification. The Sphinx itself is not quite as big as I had thought it would be, but it was still really neat, especially being right by the pyramids. Later that day we went to the Cairo Museum, which was absolutely amazing! It has soooo much...ancient stuff! We learned about every big statue, inscription, etc. Actually, I could have spend all day there, but we only had like 3 hours. But we got to see some of King Tut's tombs and treasures, and lots of mummies. I've seen the mummy of Rameses II. Pretty neat huh? It's funny though, because when they were excavating him, his arm flew up, and if they try to put it back down it will break; so his arm is just kinda hanging out. The next day we headed to Memphis (the first capital of ancient Egypt) early in the morning. It was a very foggy morning, but we could still see everything. There a many statues of Rameses II there. There is a HUGE one inside that is so big they just built the building around it. There was also the Alabaster Sphinx of Memphis there, which is Queen Hatshepsut, who called herself a King. Next we went to the Step Pyramids of King Dzoser. After the Step Pyramids we went to the first Straight Pyramid. We got to go inside, which was totally awesome, except that you have to bend practically half way over to crawl in and out, and my legs hurt for like 2 days! The next day we got up at 2am!! We had a 5am flight from the Cairo airport to Aswan. Then we flew from Aswan to Abu Simbel. At Abu Simbel there are 2 HUGE temples of Rameses II which were carved out of the mountain. Rameses II was the only ruler from the New Kingdom to refer to himself as a "god". But anyway, so we went inside both of the temples, and the decoration inside was amazing. And if I thought the statue of Rameses in Memphis was large, these guys were like 100 or so feet tall! So anyway, after Abu Simbel we flew back to Aswan (soo much flying, and they don't even wait until everyone is in their seats before the plane starts rolling!), where we got on our little 100ish person cruise boat! We spend the afternoon relaxing, and in the early evening we took a Falucca ride down the Nile to the Botannical Gardens, which were beautiful! Then we took the Falucca rides back to the boat for dinner and sleep. Well, I still have many days to go, but I promise I will continue when I have more time. For now I must head to class. I know, you can't take the suspense as to what happens next, but I'll be back soon! Love and God bless!