Beach

Being here is like being in another bubble. Just not the Oxford bubble. This is the sleep late, eat everything, be lazy bubble. Time moves much faster here than in the Oxford bubble, and it is much more worthless. I think I'll be leaving here soon.

My father and sister just left, so I am here alone, at the beach. Sounds like a dream right? Apartment to myself, the weather is beautiful, a grill and meat to grill on it, books to read, rays to catch... What have I done with my time so far? Well, I watched The Graduate, I feel like it is appropriate since I can relate with Benjamin Braddock in his sense of being lost after college graduation. Except that older women are thankfully not trying to seduce me. What else can I do with my time? Read I guess...

Reading list:
Called to be Holy A Biblical Perspective John N. Oswalt (Thank you Smiths)
Of Time and the River Thomas Wolfe
On the Road Jack Kerouac
Foley's Luck Tom Chiarella
finally finish Mere Christianity CS Lewis

That's all for now, I guess

So what?

I sat in the dining hall of the ATO house on Wednesday night and typed the final word of my seminar paper for English 452. Then I typed ".". I looked up and around me and back at the computer screen and focused on what I had just written. I said aloud to myself, "That's the last bit of work I'll ever do again for the University of Mississippi." The feeling was surreal, and still is. I really have been trying to grasp onto some sort of way to describe how I feel about all of this, being done with college, with definitely the best four years of my life so far.

The lifestyle that I had so immortalized in my mind in high school is over, done. I guess I had always been looking forward to this, as in the past four years, and never thought about the years beyond. I think we are trained that way, to prepare ourselves for college in the hope that college will, in turn, automatically have us ready for life, a career, family, you know, America 101. I assumed exactly that, that I would not have to think about the future beyond which classes to take, that I would just be "ready". I'm not, honestly. I'm excited and interested to see what the future holds, but am I ready? No. I'm prepared but I will never be ready. Ready to give up studying subjects and taking classes of my choice which interest me, while being surrounded by the best friends who I will ever have, with the freedom to do almost anything I please within (almost always) the law? Never. But then again, if I did not leave now, when could I?

"No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God" -Luke 9:62

So I guess it is just that time. Time to hang up the college hat. Time to say goodbye. Time to make some new friends, I am starting to sound like Ecclesiastes here, but its true. It's just time.

The following are all pictures from the past four years from our camping to my pledge brothers to time at Julie's farm to our Korean friends to Mark's birthday to formals to geocaching to intramurals to bid day to last summer in Jordan to gatorbashes to snow in Oxford to my first trip to the Middle East to our dog Dexter on Christmas to the epic road trip with Michael, Brady and Markus to more fraternity parties to Rome spring break to even more fraternity antics to Peru with dad and finally to pictures at the house before I left for college:

(From the most recent):

The past week has been a roller coaster and in one more I will have graduated from college. It is strange that it is so close, I have not even fully realized it yet. My birthday was on Tuesday and it was the best birthday I have ever had by far. I finished my first 15-page paper, I ate at Rice & Spice for lunch with Brady and Lacey, got a couple of shirts from my dad, a bible from my mom, drank the methusalem of St. Bernadus Belgian ale with my pledge class at our senior dinner, ate a thick steak at senior dinner, experienced the best worship I have ever heard at Crusade, hung out with my pledge class on the square, got pulled into going to Tunica to celebrate, put $10 on number 22 at the roulette table and it hit for $350.

What a day.

And of course, then school struck. Arabic presentation on Wednesday, Geology test and revised English paper due Thursday, and Arabic paper due Friday. All on barely any sleep.


Then we had a brother/sister campout in Sardis, but the mosquitoes eventually forced us back to Oxford.

Then the crazy dancing marathon with international students at Mr. Bill's Saturday afternoon.

Then cookout with lot's of Sot's at Josh's.

Today: church, running, quick picnic and now time for 15 page paper round 2.

Tuesday: 2 tests

Wednesday: 1 test, paintball with Arabic class, paper due

Saturday: graduation/ move out

Sunday: new chapter of life

Also: Cancelled the internship for this summer. I need to focus on support for next year with Crusade. (By the way I am 40% raised, hallelujah!) So this summer I will be in Tuscaloosa, Honduras for a week in June, Indian Springs ten days in July and Chicago one week in August, other than that I'll be pretty free.

I am beginning to desire my lifestyle next year. The culture, language, the team I will be with, the food, the day-to-day schedule, my role there. I am becoming ready to just focus on one thing and be out of the role as an undergraduate student in the U.S. It will be nice to just have to work on my relationship with the Lord, Arabic, and my relationships with others. Period. Not Geology 105 or Contemporary Native American Literature. Just the things that matter.

Love God, Love People

أحب الرب إلهك بكل قلبك وكل نفسك وكل فكرك...وأحب قريبك كنفسك

(pictures to come)

I will have a ton to blog about...

...this summer and next year. This summer it looks like I will be an intern with 3.0 ministries in Mobile, Al. I will be helping refugees from the Middle East and Africa by teaching them English and with daily activities such as grocery store visits, doctor appointments, etc. 


In fact, I am about to get a quick preview of that in about 25 minutes as I am about to meet my friend from Oman. He wants to get a Mississippi driver's license and he must do so in order to drive legally here in the great US of A. He doesn't really speak English so I will be learning as much as he will during this experience. What will he be driving? 


Your guess is as good as mine.


Darn Omanis:

As far as next year it is looking like I will be back overseas so I am sure I will have plenty of blogging fodder then.


I really need more practice at this.

Tuggles Bolden

Our Rush video for Intramural's 2011 (a spoof of Brandon Bolden's 'Preparation' video):

Jerusalem 3rd, 4th, and 5th day

So the day after the night of bad decisions (Wednesday I think) we decided to just sleep late and then take a bus to Bethlehem. We did as such and arrived in Bethlehem in the early afternoon and decided to hire a cab to take us to the sites. We were really only there to see two things: the wall that separates the West Bank from Israel and the famous graffiti renderings of Banksy in Bethlehem and on the walls. The taxi driver knew all of the paintings and took us to each one. The wall is extensive and very long and is covered in anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian propaganda.

After that he took us to the church over the place that Jesus was born. It is the oldest known originally Christian church in the world. Behind the altar there are stairs that lead down into the caves under the church in which it is believed that Jesus was born. It was pretty cool, I could definitely imagine the whole scene happening in that cave. I was unable to take a good picture because it was dark and filled to the brim with people.

Crowded place of His birth

Church

Outdoor market in Bethlehem

Our taxi driver was Palestinian and we spoke with him in Arabic for most of the journey and at the end he offered a lower price than we had originally agreed upon because our Arabic was so good and he enjoyed speaking with us. Who ever said that Arabic never got me anywhere?

Thursday

Next day was our full day of going on top of the Dome of the Rock, going into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Israel Museum, and Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Museum) We woke up early and walked directly to the Temple Mount and got in without waiting in line. We walked into a very clean area around the base of the Dome of the Rock and could walk around without difficulty and see the entire Temple Mount. Well about 20 minutes in I lost Gideon, because I headed immediately to the Eastern Gate, that Jesus is prophesied to return to his temple through. The Muslims bricked it up a while ago and prophecy says that He will break through the barrier when he returns. 

Anyways I lost Gideon and I wondered around the Muslim Quarter for a while after that and got lost but eventually made my way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is built over the sight that was traditionally Golgatha. I was skeptical at first, but after doing some research I found that actually there is a really good chance that it was in fact Golgatha and that Jesus' tomb is on the same premises is also very possible. After spending lots of time in front of the rocky outcrop that traditionally held the cross and the tomb of Joseph of Arimethea, and near the crack in the mountain from when Jesus died, I made my way back to the hostel and lunch. 

I grabbed a bus to the Israel Museum and after paying an arm and a leg I saw numerous archaeological evidence from the first humans in Canaan and weapons from the Romans, mummies, scarab beetles, coffins, and Greek pottery. Then great works of art from the likes of Van Gogh, Picasso, Gaugin, Monet, and Rodin. Also would have seen the Dead Sea Scrolls but the exhibit was closed for the day.

Then I jumped on a bus and headed to Yad Vashem which was a very sobering experience to say the least. And if you want to know my true opinion about it, ask me in person because I don't think it would be wise to post it on the internet. Besides that, some of the impressive things I witnessed (that I remember because there was just so much) are: a whole gallery of anti-semite Nazi programs, stickers, board games, pictures, banners, books; a circular room about two stories high with the walls made of book shelves and filled from top to bottom with books filled with names of the deceased from the Holocaust and that was only half of the total Jewish victims; a case filled with shoes; halls filled with possessions of victims; pictures and pictures and pictures; exhibits about the criminals and there fate; and a particularly powerful collection of videos that related personal accounts of survivors.

I ran into Gideon at Yad Vashem and we agreed that it was the most sobering experience of the day. After that went and ate and fell asleep pretty early actually. 

Friday

So we slept in a bit and we split up again, I headed straight for Succat Hallel, a 24/7 Christian prayer and worship center in Jerusalem near the old city. I walked in and the first song playing was Fire Fall Down by Chris Quilala off of the Jesus Culture soundtrack. I have this song on my iTunes and it is one of my favorites, anyway I worshipped and the music continued with what I think was the rest of the Jesus Culture soundtrack. There were several people there, but the stayed in the back for most of it. I read a lot of Psalms and the ends of the four Gospels and parts of Job after some worship. After that awesome experience I basically grabbed a slice of pizza, some pastries, and went back to the hostel to chill out.

I am ready to go back home. Originally we were going to the Sea of Galilee but it turned out to be pretty expensive, so we decided to take it easy today, but today during worship I had the strongest desire to go to Galilee. It was, however, too late by then for the buses to Galilee and tomorrow everything is shut down because it is the Sabbath. So tomorrow we are going to Tel Aviv to kick it on the beach for the day. Shared taxis are still running tomorrow and I just want to do whatever I can to help pass the time to get back to the U.S.

See everybody soon I hope (59 hours to go by my count)...

Jerusalem 2nd day

So yesterday was really interesting. I slept in as long as I could to finally grab a full night's rest (which is impossible in Irbid). We did not go to the museums as planned, because it was still part of that holiday, so they were closed. Instead we walked to and up the Mount of Olives to try and find the Garden of Gethsemane. After walking around the old city, we climbed the thousands of steps and hills beside the cemetery of Jerusalem with its rows and rows of grave markers. At the top is a spectacular view of all of Jerusalem. After that we made our way along the top of the mountain towards the large steeples that seemed to say, "Hey look at me, I am the Garden of Gethsemane. They weren't. Eventually we gave up and asked a man in Arabic where the garden was located. He kindly informed us that it was down the mountain. We descended the mountain passing small villas and large gardens, not expecting to find Gethsemane, but woe upon our expectations we saw an engraved sign that said "Hortus Gethsemane". (Right next to the Lion's Gate of the Old City. We could have avoided all of that mountain climbing business) With olive trees that are aged at being there at Jesus' time of prayer, that was definitely the best experience that I have had here.

The 2000 year old Olive tree

We were pretty tired after all of this because we had just climbed a mountain and descended so we decided to mosey on back through the old city and grab a bite near the hostel. On the way I found an Ole Miss shirt in Arabic, Coca-Cola shirt in Arabic and a few surprises for the fam.

Also stumbled upon some pro-Palestinian graffiti in a part of the city, was quite beautiful.

Backgammon in the Old City

So we got back to the hostel and decided to try and find a bar to get a couple of beers, eventually we settled on one about five minutes from our hostel. And it became one of those nights...

One of those nights where the only guy sitting in the bar has a mohawk and is really friendly and speaks Hebrew, Arabic, Finnish, and English fluently and he is only 18 and he runs his own business and he graduated from the Culinary Institute of America at age 16 and where it is happy hour for 7 hours and you drink two pints of beer because the second one is free and the Finnish guy thinks you are funny Americans and buys you a glass of Finlandia, his favorite vodka and you drink it to be polite but he says the conditions for him buying is that you have a second vodka and keep up the conversation and you don't want to be rude so you indeed drink a second one and he invites you to a bar near your hostel where Israeli blues is playing where they have free shots and you go and have a beer and with the beer comes two free shots of something foul but everyone around insists that you take them so you don't want to be rude so you take them and you realize that you never ate dinner and all of this is on an empty stomach so you begin to feel really drunk and you smartly make your way back to the hostel and pass out feeling like a loser...

Yay Jerusalem