E is for...

Elat

The Red Sea. Moses parted it, we snorkeled it. It was awesome. All of us students planned a trip to Elat on a free day this past week. It was a four hour drive down to the sea so we left pretty early and stayed on the beach all day. I have never snorkeled before so it was an interesting experience. I learned that I am actually really scared of being underwater when I can’t touch the ground. For the first few minutes after getting into the water I had a hard time getting myself to breathe through my mouth. But once I figured it out I was more relaxed. At first everything I saw was a little disappointing because I expected to see a scene right out of “Finding Nemo” which was not the case. But once I got past the fact that everything was not as bright or vibrant as I pictured, then it was a cool experience. There were tons of fish and coral. I saw a sting ray, some tiger fish, trumpet fish, and other fish that I don’t know the names of. I played paddle ball on the beach, read, and took a nap. It was so much fun. It is always nice to get away from the center to do fun things that don’t involve the professors or homework. Then we went to a restaurant for dinner that the center had paid for so that was nice. It was pretty good food. Then we had a four hour bus ride back. On the bus we were matching people with their Disney characters. We came up with several peoples, but I won’t go into that because you won’t know the people, but everyone decided that my Disney/animated movie character match is Agnes from Despicable Me. 

Exams

Midterms are never ending. It is so frustrating. This week we are finishing up midterms only to have finals NEXT WEEK!!!  This week we had our ANES midterm. To say the least there were many late nights and early mornings trying to cram in study time. Our professor gave us a study guide, but it was thirteen pages long and the test was only eighty questions. I felt pretty prepared. I can tell you almost everything you need to know in history from the Sumerians to the Akkadians to the Babylonians to the Egyptians to the Assyrians to the Hittites to the Philistines to the Phoenicians to the Israelites to the Canaanites. I could tell you all about different artifacts that were found that give details of the Assyrian Conquest, the Pharaohs, and the Israelites. I can name all the countries that surround Israel as well as their biblical names and the list goes on and on and on. So I felt prepared. For the most part I think I did pretty well. We were told it would be a multiple choice test. However there were a lot of short answer questions and ONE multiple choice question. But, oh well. There are a lot of people that are frustrated with the professor, but now I know what to focus on for the final.

Elias

We had a special guest come today. Elias Feinzilberg is a ninety-six year old man who is a survivor of the Holocaust. He told us his story, some of the things he went through, and his feelings about the experience. He grew up in Poland and had six brothers and sisters. He was twenty-two when he was first taken by the SS to work and his town was turned into a ghetto. He was taken all over to work in different places. He survived nine different concentration camps. He later found out that his father starved to death in the ghetto and his mother and siblings where all burned to death. He told of his experience with Dr. Mengele and with the horrible living conditions. In closing he stressed that the reason he survived is because God needed witnesses.  He doesn’t know how else to explain why he is alive which is why he tells his story.

It was a very moving story. I was able to hold it together for the entire story, but then at the end we all lined up and got to hug him. When it was my turn, I stood more than a head taller than him so he was a cute little guy, he wouldn’t let go for a while. I don’t know what he was thinking, but for me I felt the weight, or at least a very small portion of the weight, that he has been caring all these years. It was so amazing to see him. He was the happiest, cutest, and funniest old man. Many asked why he was so happy after everything that had happened to him. He said, “I have my family and that makes me happy.” I loved that. Despite everything that went wrong in his life, he was able to find true happiness.

My family is a great blessing to me. I am so grateful for the love that I feel from my parents, my siblings, my aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins. I don't know how to thank you all for being there for me and loving me. I love you all so much.