Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Chronicles of the Holy Land: Part 1

Rocking the boat on the Sea of Galilee


Chronicles of the Holy Land. Stories in which I impart wisdom to those that stayed behind. Stories in which I attempt to convey to you, dear reader, what you missed. Stories that will resonate through your very soul.

We begin with Part 1: Rocking the boat on the Sea of Galilee.

It was a dark and stormy morning. Our travelers had chosen this day to take part in an epic adventure out to the semi-deep waters of the Sea of Galilee. Or Lake Kinneret, as I found out it sometimes uses as an alias when it wants to lay low. Ha! Get it?! Lay low? It's conveniently located 209 meters below sea level, making it the lowest freshwater lake in town.

Seriously. Back to the adventure. The darkness and the storms....

Half way out to sea, the captain starts playing some, ahem, oldies. Christian oldies. Circa 1985. We were touched.

It was about this time that Tiffany and I chose to have a little fun. I took a look at the planks of the deck, and thought to myself, "Hey, wouldn't it be funny to try to walk in a straight line whilst sailing on the Sea of Galilee?"

Tiffany was up to the challenge, and we began our feable attempts at walking in straight lines. Soon enough, the whole crew had turned its attention to us, as apparetnly we were making quite a spectacle.

We got a little bored of walking the plank after awhile, and the captain could sense our unrest. It was at that moment that he made the best decision in his life: to play Hava Nagila. Bam! The whole boat became a floating party.

Several of us made our way to the center of the deck, joined by 1/2 the crew and our tour guide, and we took off. Dancing our way through the song, singing at the top of our lungs, and trying to copy what the Jewish people in the circle were doing, since many of us Americans had never learned the proper dance.

Tremendous.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Israel - the pictures

Well my friends, you can stop twiddling your thumbs now. I have finally gotten around to posting some pictures from our trip to Israel. Here are some to wet your whistle:



This is a picture of a hillside in Jerusalem, taken from near the Temple Mount.

*Bible scholars, take note: the words "temple" and "mount" when paired together should ring a bell.





This is downtown J-town (my pet name for Jerusalem) at night.

*Bible scholars, take note: J-town is where it's at. All of it.





This is the fabulous Tiffany, giving a tour of the Valley of Elah.

*Bible scholars, take note: This is where David gave Goliath the smack down. For real.





This is one of the characters at the top of the Mount of Olives, posing with his donkey, Dr. Peter. Yes, that is the donkey's real name. I saw his driver's license. This guy will also sell you 20 postcards of Jerusalem for $3.

*Bible scholars, take note: Cool things have happened at the Mount of Olives.

As always, more pictures available at theramas.smugmug.com. More updates regarding the trip in general are soon to come.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

I'm back, and have triumphed over jet lag

Yes.

There has been a severe shortage of posts lately.

But I have a good reason: VACATION!!!

Yep, Amar and I just got back from a 2 week trip to Israel. So, I promise that you shall soon be seeing posts again.

So for now, it's back to the office. Speaking of which, I came across this fantastic Dilbert cartoon. Those of you in corporate America - I feel your pain (and so does Scott Adams). Those of you not in corporate America - I know you must be green with envy: