15 July 2011

Another Galilean day has come and gone. This trip is going by far too quickly...

After another granola-less breakfast, I popped downstairs for three hours of New Testament with Brother Judd. These three hours were just as simple as the last ones. I ended up buying a package of Peanut M&Ms at one of the breaks, though, because I definitely saw myself starting to fade. There is only so much you can do to keep yourself alert and awake before you have to rely on sugar to make up what you lack. The New Testament has always been one of my favorite parts in the LDS Canon, but I have grown to love it over the past couple of weeks. What isn't there to love? Everything in the New Testament deals with my Savior, Jesus Christ. Nothing can be better than that.

You can only imagine where I ended up when class was over: the beach! It was another wonderful day spent swimming in the Sea of Galilee. However, it didn't last all day. At 2:40 in the afternoon, I boarded a bus for another free day activity with many other students. We were to kayak down the Jordan River. The last time I went kayaking was in Kawaii three years ago with my parents and little sister, Rachel. My mom was my kayak buddy; we were the best kayakers in the world... We went in circles. We lost our paddles. We lost the race. My kayak skills had not improved much by the time I got into the Jordan River. Kymberly Stone (the one and only) was my Kayak partner for the next hour in the Jordan River. We were Kayak masters. We ran into trees; we ran into rocks; we got beached. But there is one important thing to remember, we did not tip over. That doesn't mean that we didn't get wet though. Within two or three minutes of being on the water, I barrel-rolled out of the kayak and into the water. At first, Kymberly had thought I had fallen in - against her better judgment. She then realized that there was no way I wouldn't jump into the water. After swimming around for a little bit, I hopped back into the kayak to give Kym a chance to swim. It was such a relaxing ride! The water was fairly calm (there were a couple of rapids) and we enjoyed floating/swimming along! There was one point that got a little risky, however. Both Kymber and I were swimming and the water sped up...fearing another rapid, we both swam back to the kayak only to find that it was too deep to stand (in order to hop into the kayak),our lifejackets were keeping us from climbing inside, and the kayak was threatening to tip over! I eventually got into the kayak and steadied it as Kymberly climbed inside; it was a thrill and definitely a highlight!

The river was much too short. We ended just as quickly as we started. We gathered as a class to wait for our bus to pick us up. And we waited. And we waited. But the bus never came. After about forty minutes, we decided to catch one of the company buses back to the parking lot to see if our bus was there; and what do you know...there it was! It was definitely a relief to see our bus. We got back to Ein Gev just in time for dinner - meaning that we all went to dinner in shorts...hehehe! (This became a continuing trend...whether we returned just in time for dinner or not...sometimes you just have to be a rebel in life!) Once dinner was over, we were all faced with the harsh realization that we had another class that evening. The good part of this class? THE CHADWICK'S!!! Everyone was excited to see the Chadwick's waltz into dinner; life isn't the same without them. Two hours with Dr. Chadwick telling stories about the Galilee was anything but brutal; he took far too many random tangents, telling us stories about his interactions with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and with Bruce R. McConkie (among other things), for anyone to get bored. It was a great two hours of class! :)

That night was another night spent on the beach! Where else would I have been? Haha after studying the scriptures and attempting to write in my journal, I ended up among friends for a friendly game of Mafia! Only, Mafia can't necessarily be friendly. Scott Rowley was the first to go, quickly followed by many others. In the end, the Mafia prevailed... I blame Morgan and Skylar. Both citizens. Both convinced that the other was in the Mafia. It was a sad way to end a game...and a sad way to end the night, but I had to get to bed. Tomorrow would be Sabbath, and I wanted to be able to stay awake in church!