Miserable but counting my blessings :)

I woke up and felt really tired today.  I finally got out of bed, showered, got dressed and felt fine.  I cut up strawberries to put in my dahi and sat down to eat it.  I couldn't even get it to my mouth - the thought of eating it was repulsive.  But I still didn't feel sick.  I didn't have a first block class so I decided to wait a bit before I left for school.  10 minutes later I was throwing up!  I still didn't feel sick until that moment. So weird.

So even though I was miserably sick all day - here are some positives.

1) All my kids have computers so it is really easy to email to tell them what I wanted them to do today.
The substitute emailed me to tell me the kids were good for her and several students emailed me to wish me well and to tell me how they did today.

2) I TEXTED my doctor to and he replied in 5 minutes.  Last year I had 4 vomiting incidents.  This is my 7th one this school year.  In December I was sick and the doctor came over - it was the 5th day in two months that I had vomited.  Sometimes it is so bad, a doctor has to come over and give me a shot to get it to stop. It is so easy for people to chalk it up to food poisoning because, well, we are in India.   :) But it was happening so often, I was convinced there was another cause.  He said I could be producing too much stomach acid so he told me to limit my intake of tea, coffee, and alcohol.  EASY.  I never ever drink alcohol or coffee and I have green tea maybe two or three times a month.  He also gave me meds to take each night to see if that helped.  I haven't been sick for 6 weeks - until today :(  So I texted him to see if I should continue the meds or if we should look into another cause.  He said to give it 3 more weeks.  BAM.  Got my answer - Didn't have to go to a doctor's office or pay a single rupee!!

3) The school office told the school nurse I was sick so she called!  and asked how I was feeling and if I'd seen a doctor. etc.  Told me to call her if I got sicker or needed anything. awesome!

4) in the US If I was sick I couldn't drive to go get medicine and the thought of leaving home to go see a doctor was horrible.  Here, the doctor will come to me.  You can get medicine delivered.  If I choose to walk to the chemist and I get tired or need to throw up - I can just rest on the curb and no one cares :)

I was wondering how long I can be on these meds so I looked up side effects.  It is likely I would get a false positive for TCH!!  HA!  luckily my school doesn't do drug testing otherwise I'd be labeled a pot head even though I have never touch the stuff!   It also says that using the medicine can make you more likely to develop food and drug allergies.  great!!  that is another possibility of why I get sick.  The doctor says it could be something they cook with here.  so even if I wasn't allergic to something before, I might become allergic with this medicine.  Nice.

I was thankful for all the positive things in the midst of a day of illness.  Hopefully I will be better tomorrow :)

People Always ask me....

Since I moved to Mumbai, many people ask if I feel safe here.  The gang rape case in Delhi has been international news and more people have been asking me about my safety.  I generally feel safe in Mumbai and many parts of India. The only place I didn't feel as safe was in Delhi - I've been there twice and I didn't like it much either time.

In the US, I felt like I always had to have my guard up - if a car was following me when I was walking,  if I was in an elevator alone with several men, at crowded movies theaters, dark parking lots - always the possibility someone is dangerous. I don't feel that way here.  I walk on the street even at night without a second thought.  

But, feeling safe doesn't mean I'm always comfortable.  Beggars harass me on the street and they reach inside rickshaws to grab at me.  I get stared at so much I think I have holes bored into me!  I get harassed, grabbed, yelled at when I don't talk to men who think it is my duty to speak to them.  

Other kinds of safety are a different story!!  In the states, I wear a seatbelt - ALWAYS.  I have never had a traffic ticket or accident (besides sliding on ice when I was 16 and taking out a fence).  I follow basic safety precautions in every area of life.  Here, there aren't a lot of rules and regulations.  Most vehicles don't have seat belts - rickshaws don't even have doors or sides!!  It unnerved me when I got here.  Traffic laws are loosely held here so driving in general is scary and it  felt so dangerous to sit in that thing with nothing holding me in!!  But you can't be anxious and scared all the time.  It is amazing to me how calm I can be now.  There will be three lanes of traffic painted on a road, but cars, rickshaws, busses, and motorcycles will form SEVEN lanes across!  they go whichever way they want, at whatever speed they want etc.  I have to just put my mind somewhere else and pretend it isn't happening - It helps to have someone in the rickshaw with you to talk to!  Crossing the street is a exercise in agility and speed :)  You can't ever take a leisurely walk here.  You have to be "ON" constantly looking for bicycles, rickshaws, motorcycles, cars, busses, ox carts, people pulled carts, dogs, goats, cows, roosters, crows, people,  garbage in the street, holes in the sidewalk - the list goes on :) 

At school I always feel safe!  We have amazing guards and security precautions.  I feel far safer there than than in crowded US schools with kids who are a little nuts.  My kids here are basically sweet and fun :) 

So don't worry about me - I'm safe in India :)  

Exciting Epiphany Day in Rome

My Last day in Rome was January 6th, which is the Epiphany - the day celebrating the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus.  Christmas is Celebrated until then so all the decorations were still up in Rome :)  My family often tried to do this, but because we had a live tree, it didn't always survive until the 6th.

I scheduled a Crypt and Catacomb tour for the afternoon.  In the morning I decided to walk to the Vatican.  There is a Castle near there, on the Tiber River that I wanted to take pictures of.  On my way there I noticed some roads were closed, I saw a lot of bicyclists - I thought maybe there was a race.  As I got closer to the Castle, I heard drumming.  I wandered into a great Epiphany Day Parade.  They were dressed in crazy costumes and walking straight to St. Peter's Basilica.  Some were dressed as witches. La Befana is an old woman in Italian folklore who delivers gifts to kids in Italy on Epiphany Eve - similar to Santa Claus.  There are icecream shops everywhere in Rome, but I hadn't had any - until today.  I got some near St. Peter's and ate it with my gloves on at the parade - it was so cold.

In the afternoon I went on a Crypt and Catacomb Tour with Dark Rome Tours (the same company that I joined for Pompeii and the Vatican) We went to one of the Roman Catacombs.  We went through the winding tunnels and learned all the history.  We weren't allowed to take pictures :( They call Rome an Archeological Lasagna - there are layers of history.  We went to Basillica San Clemente where the sound of running water drove a clergyman to dig through the tiles.  Layers of history were discovered.  You start in a 12th Century church then walk down to where remains of a 4th century church were,  a 2nd century church remains of a Mithraic temple, and 1st century Roman Street.  (57 feet below the surface)  Then we went to the Capuchin Crypt and Museum where the remains of 4,000 Capuchin monks rest.  Their remains were used to decorate - vertebrae chandeliers etc..  Again, we were not allowed to take pictures - so I looked up some on the internet.   It was so cool the way the bones were laid out.  There are laws now that you cannot decorate with human parts anymore so if a piece of bone falls of, no one is allowed to put it back up.

As I was walking back to my hotel -The Mecenate Palace (next to the Santa maria Basilica)  I saw another parade - it was quieter, solemn, and more religious.

A great way to end my trip to Rome :)

Naples, Herculaneum ruins and Pompeii

The last port on the cruise was Naples.  I took a half day tour of the ruins of Herculaneum.  It was a small town nearer to Vesuvius than Pompeii - They were found with their mouths open - the gas killed them immediately - whereas the bodies were curled up in Pompeii because they were trying to protect themselves from ash.  Our tour guide was an archeologist. At one point she bent down and told us she had something brand new to show us.  She picked up a leaf that was covering an ancient coin.  She had found it the previous day, but NYE and New Years day are bank holidays in Italy and she couldn't formally report the coin until the next day - so she was hiding it so others wouldn't find it.

People say the ruins of Herculaneum are better preserved and nicer than Pompeii.  I had planned to go to Pompeii a few days later and almost cancelled - I'm glad I didn't :)

After the ruins we went back to Naples - the area near the port is nice.  Many things were closed since it was New Years Day.  There were four ships in port but they were probably there as a last resort like us because of problems with Egypt and Israel.   I wandered around and got some Napoli pizza :)  and went back on the ship.

The next day we arrived in Civitavecchia and I took a NCL bus to Rome.  Instead of dropping us at the Coloseum like he was supposed to the driver took us to our hotels for 10 Euro which was better than finding a cab etc.  It was nice to drive all around Rome since the hotels were all over.  We passed a Fab India!!! I met a couple on the bus that has what I feared would happen to me happen to them.  They were delayed due to weather in chicago and missed the ship leaving and had to fly to turkey to meet it at the next port.

I spent the afternoon wandering around and just looking at the wonder that is Rome.  My tour to Pompeii the next day left from Piazza de Popolo and the hotel said it was too far to walk, but I scouted it out and it was 40 minutes and I got to see a lot of things along the way.  I wandered to the this place that had over 100 creches on display.  I wasn't allowed to take pictures but they were amazing.  People made Nativity scenes reflecting different cultures.  Some were just Mary, Joseph, and Jesus.  Some had a few more pieces and some had 100s of pieces - a whole town.  Some were made of wood, wire, paper, pinecones, ceramic etc.  They were beautiful.

The next morning I walked to the Piazza and joined others for a 3 hour bus drive to Pompeii.  We I told them my name was Staley, they couldn't find my reservation.  Then I saw it listed as "jo Bobbi"  ha!  no Staley at all!  Jo was the last name.  This happens often in foreign countries.  I was so glad I didn't cancel!!  Pompeii was awesome!  Our guide told us lots of things about the areas we drove through.  Italy is famous for its wine of course. One kind is translates as the Tears of Christ.  When Lucifer fell he brought a piece of Heaven with him - it was Vesuvius.  When Jesus saw Vesuvius He recognized it and wept.  The tears made grapes grow and this kind of wine can only come from grapes that actually grow on the sides of the volcano.

It has taken 200 years for them to dig out what they have of Pompeii.  Our guide was really knowledgeable and funny especially when it came to the brothels :)  After Pompeii we went to Naples to the Archeologial museum that has most of the Pompeii artifacts.  People say Naples is sketchy, but it wasn't by the port.  We drove through it to get to the museum and it was bad!!  It is definitely a poor city and it shows.  The guides told us not to leave the safety of the museum for any reason.  I obeyed :)

Vatican and 4 papal Basilicas

I booked an all day tour of the Vatican.  I walked for an hour to get to the Vatican at 8:30 and we spent 3 hours going through the Vatican museums and St. Peter's Basilica.  Then we got some time to get lunch on our own then in the afternoon we went to the other three Papal Basilicas.   Long day but great! I learned so much and tried to take notes on my phone, but there was just so much!  I will do my best to give you important information.

So Vatican city is the 13th country I've been to!  It is also the smallest country in the world. You can walk around it quickly. 0.44 K  It has 900 citizens - all people who work for the pope or who are diplomats etc.  The military- they basically just guard the pope -  is Swiss guards - they have to be Catholic and really tall.  They wear the same uniforms they did 500 years ago.  About 2000 Italians work for the Vatican and it is a coveted job.  Italians pay 55% tax plus sales tax etc.  If they work for the Vatican - which is another country - they don't have to pay Italian taxes.  Much like me working overseas.  Vatican City has no income tax or Sales tax.  They make 65 million Euro in money from museum tickets - they also get a lot of money in donations.  The US catholic church give 30% of the donations.  Souveneirs were cheaper in VC because of no sales tax.



 It is a monarchy - the pope is king, but he is a king that is elected.  When the current pope dies a group of cardinals lock themselves up in the Sistine Chapel to elect the next pope out of a pool of candidates.  They cannot leave until one is elected.  I guess sometimes it would take weeks or months, so now they only give them enough food for 8 or so days.  When I mean locked in, I mean locked in.  Absolutely no contact with the outside world.  If a cardinal has a hear attack or something in there, the room cannot be opened for medical care unless a pope has been elected.   I guess there is a short list of people and they know who they are.  Once they are elected they cannot turn it down because it is God ordained. Only one man in history refused to be put in the pool of candidates.  There is a room off the side of the chapel called the "room of tears".  I guess every pope has cried when he was elected because this is the job he will have until the day of his death - there is no hope for any other life. The emerge from there and have to go to the San Giovanni in Laterano Basilica/Cathedral and sit on the seat and conduct Mass there.  THEN he is pope.  I always thought the words Basilica and Cathedral were synonyms for church.  Not true.  Basilica is just a certain shape of building - many other types of buildings were basilicas in ancient times. Cathedrals are churches that are the seat of the bishop in a diocese.  So there is one cathedral in each diocese. The pope is also the Bishop of Rome and this St. John church is the Cathedral of the diocese.  Interesting.

We went to all the Vatican museums - it would probably mean a lot more to an art major or architecture person - me I just looked at all the pretty things and said wow and then went on with my day :)  The guide explained all kinds of things about the art, artists, styles, architecture etc.  It was really fascinating.  There were paintings, sculptures, frescos, tapestries etc.  Each time a pope came in they would bring in different art and make new rules etc.  Pope Pius is the one responsible for saying that Mary was born without original sin.  He also had a problem with all the naked statutes other popes had allowed.  He took a hammer and broke all the Penises off the statues.  Then he kept them in boxes!!!  The penises have not been reattached because it is difficult to tell which belongs to whom :) We could take pictures of everything but the Sistine Chapel.  Apparently a Japanese company paid for the cleaning of the art in 1980 or something $100 million or so.  In return they wanted the rights to the art - which they have for 10 more years.  So if you go back after 2023 you can take pictures.  It was horrible the way people were taking pictures anyway and getting yelled at by the guards and ruining the peaceful atmosphere.  It was fascinating they way he depicted all the Bible stories. It was smaller than I thought it would be.

We went to St. Peter's Basilica and saw St. Peter's Square.  No building in Rome can be taller than St. Peter's dome.  Only the pope can give Mass in the center with the big alter.  There are chapels off to the side where regular Masses can be given.  They were preparing the big part for Mass on Sunday Jan 6th - the Epiphany.  Just like the other three papal basilicas I will tell you about later, this one has a papal door in the center that only the pope can go through so it is closed most of the time.  and on the right is the holy door (on the Mary church it is on the left).  These doors are only open once every 25 years.  So they will be open on Christmas eve 2024 and will close on Christmas Eve 2025. They are open for a year and pilgrims from all over the world come.  If you walk through the holy doors on all four papal basilicas your sins will be forgiven.  Um.  Isn't the whole point of being a Christian and following Christ is that He forgives your sins?  This kind of craziness is why I left the Catholic church.  Anyway the doors are beautiful albeit weird.  The church is built over st. Peter's grave - he was the first pope.  The church started out well - we know Peter loved Jesus and founded the church on good status.  It was the weird power they gave popes later and how they were allowed to just decide things whether it said so in the Bible or not.

We went to "st. Paul's outside the walls"  San Paolo Fuori le Mura  - the church was build outside Roman City walls.  It was less ornate than the others - quiet and beautiful.  Most on the tour loved this one more than the others.  We learned that when you see statutes Peter is always the one with keys in his hand - gold the key to Heaven and Silver the key to Earth.  Paul always has a sword.

The we went to St. John's.  San Giovanni in Laterano - most important church in Catholocism because this is the seat of the Bishop and sitting her is what makes him pope.

The oldest obelisque in the world sits outside this church - 36 centuries old.  It was brought over from Egypt.  The Holy Stairs are in a building nearby the church.  They are the marble stairs that used to lead to Pontious Pilate.  You have to climb them on your knees and the guide said they are covered with different material and you can see the original marble through slats.  she said no one is Holy enough to walk on the stairs He walked on.  Weird.  I've been to Jerusalem twice and you can walk all over where He walked, touch stones and trees that He probably touched.  Walk the Via Dolorosa.  It doesn't get much more holy ground than that.

The last church we went to was Santa Maria Maggiore - a papal church dedicated to Mary.  It's holy door is on the left and they actually had to label it.   People that come on the Jubilee year to walk through the doors to get their sins forgiven were walking through the right door - which is the holy door in the other three basilicas and were *gasp*  not getting their sins removed.

This church is right next to my hotel so it was great to end there :)

Crete

Crete

Every night we get a pamphlet that tells us what is going on the next day.  It said to turn our clocks back an hour so I did and went to bed.

I have to set my alarm for 1 and a half to two hours before I have to actually leave.  Even though I am in remission, my body still deals with chronic illness and I have to kind of ease it into the day.  My Sjogrens disease makes my eyes feel like sandpaper – it takes a good half hour of blinking etc. before I can see anything or put my contacts in.  It also makes me feel like I’m choking because my mouth is so dry – it takes awhile to be able to speak etc.  Because of my Lupus my joints and muscles hurt and it is hard to get moving in the morning.  So I have this routine I do in the morning so that I can move fairly normally by the time I get to school.

As I’m in the shower it occurs to me that the time change was for TONIGHT not LAST night.  Boogers!  I try to hurry the best I can.  My hands hurt and my feet were hurting and were not happy about being shoved into shoes.  I looked at my clock and it was 7:02 or really 8:02 – time for my tour!!  Good thing I was up over an hour early – My Lupus saved the day J  I grab my stuff and go to the auditorium for my tour.  I start snacking on some Pringles I bought since I didn’t get to eat blueberries and cottage cheese L They called my tour and as I get up to get in line I realize I don’t have my room key card.  Augh!  Not my morning!!  I run upstairs to the front desk to get a new key card so I can get back on the ship.  I barely it make it to the line to get my tour.  I had a rough time walking all day and my hands hurt.  It could have been that it wasn't going to be one of my "bad" days anyway but I think it was because I didn't get warmed up properly. 

We went to Knossos to see a Minoan palace – supposedly it was the seat of King Minos.  Supposedly there was a labyrinth there to distract intruders. There is a mountain nearby in the shape of a face and people say that is where Zeus is buried and that Minos would go up to get advice.  We got to see a lot of the ruins.  It was a beautiful day  - cooler than it has been, I had to pull out my gloves J 

After the palace ruins we went to a village to see a museum that depicted early village life.  They had these metal things that they carved body parts into and took it up to the Zeus mountain for him to heal them.  Much like the wax body parts that are sold near my house that people offer to the Virgin Mary at the Catholic Mount Mary church nearby.  We had a little snack at the village and then drove back to the ship.  Not my favorite tour but it was nice to see a little of Crete.

Last night the cruise had their “famous chocolate buffet”.  It was up at the buffet lunch/dinner place.  I thought just a section of the buffet would be some chocolate desserts.  No.  They took away all the other food and the whole place was covered in desserts – mostly chocolate.  The lights were low and there were ice sculptures etc.  Really nice.

Tomorrow is a day at sea then we are going Naples then the cruise is over when we get to Rome.

Home sweet Israel day 2

Home Sweet Israel 2

We were supposed to port in Haifa for one day then move south and port in Ashdod.  Well Ashdod is precariously close to Egypt and it is Israel’s biggest port so it is a major target so the ship stayed in Haifa.  They continued all the tours people had signed up for in Ashdod but instead of a 45 min drive to Jerusalem, it was over 2 hours.  It is always lovely to see the Israeli countryside though.  We took road 1 down the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and then turned inland near Tel Aviv.  We drove through Ein Kerem – the village where John the Baptist was born – before we arrived in Jerusalem.

We took a short tour of the newer part of Jerusalem.  We drove by the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, the Shrine of the Book, and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.  I went to the museum last year.  It is a place that is hard to be in but interesting and powerful. 

We went to the Church of Gethsemane or the Church of Agony – also called the Church of All Nations.  It is one of my favorite churches.  12 nations participated in the building of it – nice that people got along!  The windows aren’t glass – they are made from a transparent purple rock.  It gives the church a mood of darkness and gloom. 

There is a slab of rock at the front that is supposedly the rock He wept on.  Gethsemane translates into something like olive factory.  It was a place to process olive oil.  There are ancient olive trees there – ones they know for a fact are over 1500 years old and could reasonably be the ones that Jesus actually walked among and touched.  Many people visit this church and it is a famous sight that commemorates the Garden of Gethsemane.  When you view the church from the hill by the old city walls you can see the largest Jewish cemetery – over a third of a million people are buried there – all facing the Temple Mount.  The Jews believe that when the Messiah comes to the temple they will be raised from the dead – body and all. 

There are so many places that could be the actual spot where something happened.  They do a lot of research and find places that are reasonable, but there is always a doubt as to whether that is THE place.  The same is true for Gethsemane. There is a place nearby that I went to last year that is run by Protestants and they have not built a huge church.  They say there aren’t going to fight about where the garden actually was and they feel the Church of Agony is a great way to honor the event, but they have created a place that feels more like it would have back then.  Quiet, peaceful gardens and a cave nearby that looks like a skull – definitely could be Golgatha.

We arrived at Mount Scopus to take pictures of the city and the Temple Mount.  Seeing the view of Jerusalem with the Dome of the Rock.. it really does take your breath away.  We did not get to go to the temple mount this time.  There is only one gate that non Muslims can enter through.  Security takes forever – you cannot be wearing a cross or have a Bible on you etc.  They screen for weapons and bombs – it is one of the most contested pieces of land in the world.   There is a foot bridge that goes to that gate and it is in desperate need of repair and everyone wants it to be repaired but no one will let anyone repair it!  The Muslims feel if the Jews or Christians fix the bridge then they control it.  The bridge goes right over the Western Wall (or Wailing wall) – the Jews already control that.  The Jews don’t want the Muslims fixing it because then they’d control part of their Wailing Wall territory.  Throw the Christian in there arguing about the same thing and you have a mess!  I went to the Temple Mount last year.  It is amazing.  There is a Mosque there that is the third holiest site for the Muslims.  The Dome of the Rock is not a mosque.  It is a Dome… over a Rock.  Said to be the rock that Abraham laid Issac on to slaughter.  Also it is where Mohammed ascended ( I think) and it has something to do with Adam.  Very popular rock!

We went through Zion gate and visited the room of the Last Supper.  It is built over what they think is the original building.  There are carvings of a falcon feeding it’s young with its own flesh – symbolically representing the body and blood of Christ at the Last Supper.  The tomb of King David is nearby but she said we couldn’t go in because of security and not being Jewish etc.  but Last year we saw it and walked right in.  It is weird how things change here.  We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the Wailing Wall either.  They said we could really far away but not near religious people – they are all religious people there!  I managed to get a few in then was scolded by a man.  But when I got up really close to the wall people were taking pictures and no one said anything.  Last year I took a ton of pictures.  I don’t know if it was because it was near sunset on Friday which is the start of their Sabbath or what.   It was disappointing.  I did get up close enough to touch it and put my piece of paper with a prayer on it in a crack. There are all these different sects of Jews.  Some have coats to their knees, some to their ankles.  Some have fur hats, some regular.  Some tall hats, some short, some just have the beanies (I don’t know the word for it – yumaka?) Some have really long curls in front of their ears, some short.  Etc. etc.  the guide said each thing meant something.  People that are not Hasidic Jews barely notice these differences, but each detail means something to them. 

Last year I got to go through the entire Via Deloraosa and see every station of the cross.  I got to put my hand in the handprint that they say is where Jesus braced himself when He stumbled.  I didn’t get to see any of that this year L  We did get to go through Old Jerusalem through the Jewish Quarter, Muslim Quarter and Christian Quarter.  The Armenian Quarter is not open to the public – there is a church that is open an hour or so a day.  Old City Jerusalem is much like it was then.  Many narrow corridors with shops and stalls on the sides.  It is crowded and loud and easy to get lost. 

We did get to see the Holy Sepulcher.  It is a magnificent church built over the crucifixion site.  I always think of the cross being mounted in dirt, but Israel is a very rocky place.  There is a rectangular hole in the rock where you can put your hand in – it is supposedly the hole that Jesus’s cross stood in.   It is highly decorated – a beautiful chapel.  The church is built on a hill – the hole is in the upper floor of the church (top of the hill) and on the ground floor there is a rock slab that is said to be where they laid His body when they took Him off the cross.  It makes sense because it is a little ways down the hill.  Then a little ways further is the grave – the cave they say His body was laid in when He rose.  It is covered in a chapel and people wait hours to go inside.  I went inside last year.  It is really hard to experience peace and religious feelings when there are thousands of people all trying to touch the same thing for a few seconds.  The church has several sections – Catholic, Greek orthodox, Armenian etc.  It is divided up and no one can touch anything that is in another section.  It is so sad.  All these churches are there because they want to honor Christ’s death etc. but all they do is fight over who has control over what.  What a way to honor the fact that Jesus came to save us ALL.  No one wants to allow anyone else to open the church up every day or close it.  Guess who has the keys to the church and has the responsibility/power to open it every day????  A MUSLIM family.  For hundreds of years this family has been responsible for that task.  We saw a ladder under a window that has been there for 130 years.  (I don’t know which belonged to which so I’m just going to give an example of who did what)  An Armenian used a ladder that belonged to the Catholics to go fix a window on a balcony on the orthodox side.  He came back in and forgot the ladder.  He was not allowed to get it back.  The orthodox won’t let the Catholics get the ladder and theyOrthodox won’t bring the ladder in because it belongs to the Catholics.  RIDICULOUS.  There are many other churches touching the Holy Sepulcher – several Ethiopian churches – they built a small African village next to the church.  They fast 270 days of the year. 

Our guide had this thing she called a whisper system.  It allowed her to talk softly into a microphone and it projected into our headsets.  So we could wander around and take pictures and still hear her.  Fabulous.  It started to get chilly as the sun set.  We ended the day at the Wailing Wall.  She told us to meet her at the exit sign when we were done.  I am a great person on a tour – I do what I’m told, I follow directions, I’m on time.  But for once I was one of THOSE people.  I got lost!!  I went to the wall and went to the bathroom and went to the sign like she said.  My group wasn’t there.  I found other tour guides and asked them to call her – I had her number.  She never answered.  Occasionally I could hear her on the whisper system.  It was like playing “hot and cold”  If I couldn’t hear her voice I knew I was getting farther away from her.  I’m wandering around the Western wall trying to figure out where she was.  It was getting dark and I knew I was holding up the whole bus and was hoping she would leave me there!!  Another guide told me this was the only way out so she would have to go through there.  Well I’d been standing there the whole time so I thought maybe she was waiting OUTSIDE the gate.  I walked out and saw three of my bus mates beam with excitement when they saw me!  I make it a point to introduce myself to a few people so they notice I’m missing when I travel by myself.  It was this cute Asian family from Toronto and they said “We kept telling her the teacher is missing!”  ha!  I felt terrible but the many of the others said they didn’t understand we were supposed to go out of the gate.  We drove back to Haifa on road 6 through the country since it was dark. 

It was amazing to go back to Israel but there were so many places that I didn’t get to go back to – that I got to see last year but have no pictures.  Masada, Bethlehem, the place where Armageddon is supposed to happen, the dead sea, all the stations of the cross, etc. 

As we drive up to the ship, Israeli security gets on the bus and looks us over.  They ask us if anyone gave us anything, if we watched all our purchases be packed in front of us.  She said it only takes a few minutes usually but if someone makes a joke, it could take hours.  People are idiots.  We are in Israel!  Don’t make jokes.  I saw a guy walking around all day with an Egypt shirt on.  Are you kidding me?!?  I am very careful with what I wear in foreign places.  I don’t wear anything with America on it unless I’m in Ireland or Israel or somewhere that I know it won’t cause problems.  I saw some beautiful purses and bags but won’t buy anything with the words Israel or Jerusalem on it (unless it is just for my house like magnets or coasters or Christmas ornaments)  - it could be a safety issue in some countries that I go to.

Security let us through and they took my passport for when we go to Greece.

Today is Dec 29^th and we are at sea on our way to Crete.  We have been at a port for 4 days in a row so it was nice to sleep in, get caught up on blogs and labeling pictures etc.