Finding a Balance

So.....It sounds like my last post created quite the storm! This is part of the e-mail mom sent me...

 

"What a poignant blog post. People kept coming up to me last night at Business Mtg.
wanting to give me a hug for my daughter because her blog post made them
cry, and I hadn't read it yet and wasn't exactly sure what you said..."

 

Honestly, I sat there and laughed....maybe I came across a little too strong. I mean it certainly wouldn't be the first time. So just to let you all know I"M NOT DYING!!! At the same time I'm not looking to take back anything that was said in the last post. Because every square inch of it was true. But that was one evening. The isolated feeling is not a 24/7, on going gloom. It has it's moments when it can feel overwhelming, but there is plenty of joy and things to be grateful for in the day to day events. It's all part of what is called 'culture shock'. It has it's moments. But they are only moments.

So (sorry Dad), I'm not pining to come home on the next plane back to the States. I wouldn't say that I'm homesick, and sitting around wondering if the clouds will ever lift! I just occasionally suffer from culture shock!

 

Alright. Enough of that. On to the weekend. This has definitely been a July 4th weekend to remember. Not necessarily because the holiday, more so because of how different it was from all the other years. This is the first year that I can remember not going to the Cabin with the Martin side of the family! Horrors! I know, it's a dreadful thing! It's always been a highlight of the summer...but not this year. While my family was making there way to the cabin, we were staying close to home because the funeral for the Palestinian teen was taking place. A number of streets were blocked off due to riots and unrest, part of the railway was shut down, as well as the Temple Mount. Despite the horrific images on the news we haven't come close to seeing anything of the sort, even though its very close.

 

Some little kiddos got there first lesson in jump roping!

 

Daddy showing Princess how to jump!

Friday evening we went for a walk and saw a pretty nice view.

You can just so see the Dome of the Rock, and then the mountain on the right would be where the Mount of Olives is.

 

Saturday was relaxing, and again we didn't go far.

Sunday morning I learned that the 'youth group' is going hiking for the morning. DeLora and I have been able to get to know four other youth that are here. The girl is a native here, and then two of the guys are from the states and the other one is from Romania.

 

Both of us girls were pretty excited about the opportunity to do something with everyone and get to know them a little better. I thought hiking would be you know......well anyway I wasn't prepared for what the day would hold. At first it was pretty relaxing walking around, finding caves.

But then again we are in Jerusalem, where everything goes either up or down. The first half of our hike was mostly down hill, not a whole lot of climbing. And although we were in direct sunlight most of the time there was a nice breeze going so it wasn't totally unbearable.

And then we came to this.......

It felt like you were climbing up the face of a cliff! 300+ steps straight up! I don't remember ever pushing myself that hard while hiking, or being so drenched with sweat. I thought it was kind of funny. We go to hang out with these people we don't really know all that well. And instead of having a game night, or going to a coffee shop or something, we sweat it out together in the wilderness of Israel! What we thought would only be a morning hike, ended up being about a 6 hour intense hike. DeLora and I were both exhausted and sore when we got home. I would love to do it again sometime now that I know what to expect, and what exactly I would be getting myself into!

So there's my weekend...and it was fun, a lot of fun :)!