Last night at the Artemis

Hey everybody! Yesterday was really fun and also really sad. I woke up and took my Paul test and made a B on it, but still have an A in the class!! Yea!! Also took my Humanities test, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up with a B in there, but there's no way I could have tried harder for that class. I probably tried 10 times harder for that class than any other one. After all the Finals studying and taking, I decided to chill and play some basketball with all the guys. It was a whole lot of fun. Then, at 8 oclock, we had a special devo on the basketball court, and we all anointed eachother with oil, and told the person we anointed anything we wanted to about them. It was sooo sad, and I am really sad I have to leave now. I feel like I just now got to know everybody and now we're leaving. After the anointing party, we had the slide show for DiMy and Captain. DiMy was crying the entire time. We got pictures from past huggers, with some of ours, and put them on the slide show-plus, we all made a thank you video however we wanted. They were all pretty funny. Anyway, I really need to go get ready for free travel. It's been great, and I'm sad it's over, but i knew this day would come sooner or later. I never really said this before, but I feel like all summer I haven't even been away from ya'll because everyone here reminds me of one of ya'll. DiMy reminds me of Mom and pretty much every girl here reminds me of Hannah and Ashton and Paul looks just like Levi and acts just like Kelsey and BRich definitely reminds me of Dad sooooo much, with all his corny jokes. But I am really going to miss everyone of these people, and I love them all so much. It's really sad, but I need to go get ready for free travel. I love you all, and I will write about free travel when I get HOME!!! Love, Ryan

Final Banquet

Hey, sorry it's taken me a while to write about the final banquet. It was Saturday night. I've just been crazy busy trying to get things ready to ship off, and I have a kind of free day today. No finals at least, but I still need to study for my 2 I have tomorrow. Anyway, about the Final Banquet. It was sooo much fun. We all dressed up in Togas, and we took pictures for about an hour before we ate dinner. Also, our Summer '08 board is done, and it looks amazing, and it's humongous. It's about 3 times bigger than all the other ones. The company did the dimensions wrong or something, so we're having trouble figuring out where to put it. We suggested in the lobby right when you walk in..lol..The set-up was really nice. The decorations were awesome. We ate dinner, and we had STEAK and BAKED POTATOES!! Best meal all summer..lol..and I also figured out that I've lost 30 pounds since we've been here..Is that not insane?? I weighed myself for weighing my bags, and i weighed exactly 100 kilos which is 220 pounds and i weighed 250 before we got here..I still can't believe it. All the girls are jealous..lol..At the dinner, Chad and Harrison and Chris played the guitars and sang some songs, and then Schrambo put on a "magic" show. They were all just stupid tricks to be funny, Then we played some games. Neely handed out the worksheets that we played at the beginning of the year where everyone wrote something about themselves and we had to guess which person it was, and then that night, we just had to write down how many we remembered, and I definitely remembered all of them. Jen and I were the only ones to get all of them. Then, we had a scavenger hunt around the Artemis that was pretty fun. but anyway..After the games, we watched the slideshow that Paul and Neely did. It was awesome!!! Captain and DiMy said it's probably the best one they've ever had. It seriously looked professionally done. It was amazing. Then after the slideshow, some of us watched Dances with Wolves. By the end of it, it was about 2 in the morning, so we all headed to bed. Well, that about wraps up the Final Banquet. Hope you enjoyed it! Keep writing on my blog so I know you're reading over there!! I love and miss you all. See ya'll in 13 days!!

Walking the Sand in the Holy Land

Monday July 14th, 2008

I had class and a test in Missionary Anthropology before we left for Israel at 6 p.m. It was a pretty stressful time, but I was just glad to get everything done and get on our way. Captain couldn't come to Israel with us because Katy Bills was sick, and I was pretty upset about that. I felt really bad for her. She even had to leave Greece to go home to continue to get better. She wrote us a really nice goodbye letter. I was hoping they could meet us in Jerusalem, but I figured it probably wouldn't happen. Anyway, when we got to the airport we stood in line for a while and then they interrogated all of us for a while asking all of us questions. It wasn't really that bad though. We got on the plane, and headed for Israel, and we got to Tel Aviv around 11:30, so I was pretty worn out, and slept all the way to the hotel, and got ready for a long week. My roommates for this trip were Chad Graham and Ross Riggs. Paul and Chad are roomates on campus, and he warned me that Chad talks in his sleep, but the first night was just crazy. He did it pretty much every night, but this night and the last night were by far the funniest. This night, he started screaming, "Come on!! Send the best one up here!! What?!? Come on!! Bring 'em up here!!" It was so funny..Then, that same night later, he just screamed four times and went back to sleep. It was the craziest thing. The last night was by far the best. He just busted out in "My Girl" out of nowhere in the middle of the night. I was asleep and all of a sudden, I hear, "I GUESS YOU"D SAY, WHAT CAN MAKE ME FEEL THIS WAY, MY GIRL, MY GIRL, MY GIRL, TALKIN BOUT MY GIRL. MY GIRL." Then he started laughing and fell back asleep. It was too perfect. I almost got my camera out and filmed it, but I was too tired. Our tour guide was Yosi. He was really cool. Pretty hardcore too. Hahah. Plays his flute well for an army man.

Tuesday July 15th, 2008

Yosi told us in the morning that Israel meant "struggling with God." I thought that was really interesting. We spent the morning in Caesarea. It was built by Herod the Great. It was SOOO HOTT every day. Yosi even said "Going through Israel in the summer is like shopping with your wife." I thought that was really funny..Hahaha. We saw the theater first. It's been reconstructed and people watched comedies here. Yosi played his flute here while Paul held his microphone. Next, we saw Herod the Great's Pool. It's the place where they would come and recite poetry. We saw the Pontius Pilate inscription which I thought was really neat. Caesarea is from Acts 10, and Paul in Caesarea is in Acts 25. I really like when they tell you where it is in the Bible, so it'll make it all more meaningful every time you read it. Next, we went to Megido and saw the Valley of Jezreal, which is also called the Valley of Armagedon. It has a really good view of Nazareth. It is also the best fortified city of King Ahab. It was abandoned in the 4th century B.C. and has never been resettled. There story of Armagedon is in Revelation 16:16. I was kind of hoping that we would look up and see millions of angels come out of the sky, and then millions of demons come from the ground and watch a huge fight there. Hahaha. Pretty crazy, I know, but it would have been AWESOME. Next, we went into Nazareth. It is the biggest Muslim city in Israel. We went to the Synagogue church. It is a really important place. It is where Jesus spoke to the people on the Sabbath in Nazareth in Luke 4:14. It was really special because Yosi said it IS where Jesus was and it just makes it so much more spiritual to know that Jesus was actually where we are standing. It's an amazing feeling, and it's so hard to describe. I just love it.

Wednesday July 16th, 2008

We started the day in Tiberius at the Sea of Galilee. This was probably one of my favorite things we did all week. They hung up the US flag on our boat, and we all sang the Star Spangled Banner which I thought was pretty funny. The Sea of Galilee represents the geographical heart of Jesus which made it very meaningful and spiritual to be floating on it. I didn't really feel very good so I was kind of bummed about that. It's in Matthew 14 where it talks about the feeding of the 5000, and in John 14 with the post-resurrection appearance of Jesus. We sang some songs on the boat, and it was really moving. Next, we went into the Ancient Boat Museum which was really neat. We saw a 2000 year old boat. It was made of cedar that came from Lebanon. After the Ancient Boat Museum, we headed off towards Mount Beattitudes. It is probably the view the people had when Jesus spoke. We're not for sure whether it is the same spot, but it's in the general vicinity of where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. We read the Sermon on the Mount here and it was very spiritual and emotional. We got to swim in the Sea of Galilee, but I didn't do it because I felt really bad. My stomach was just bothering me. It was sad because I really wanted to. Next, we all headed to Capernaum. It's 8 times larger than Nazareth. We saw a Basilica where Jesus was and then went to St. Peter's House from Luke 4:38. Next, we climbed up part of Mt. Tiberius ad saw Bernice's Palace over Tiberius. Titus fell in love with Bernice, but when he became emperor, people didn't want a Jewish lady to be Empress, so they mad him choose, and he chose to get rid of her, so he built her this palace. I thought it was a pretty interesting story. This is just simplified a little.

Thursday July 17th, 2008

We started the day in Bethsaida. It is the hometown of Peter, and it is the 3rd most mentioned town in the Bible. It is one of the five places below Galilee that was visited by Jesus. Bethsaida also has the biggest gate system. After we visited Bethsaida, we went kayaking on the Jordan River. It was sooo much fun. Leah was my partner. We weren't supposed to get in the water, but we "accidentally" fell in. Hey, Yosi told us to. hahah..It is definitely the most disgusting water I've ever been in, but at least it felt good. Haha. I'm pretty sure I was swimming next to a plastic bag and a dead rat half the time. We were behind these kids and it is against their religion to have girls and guys swim together, so we had to stay back while they went ahead, and they were taking forever!!! It was really annoying to have to wait all the time, but it was still tons of fun!!! After, we got cleaned up from the Jordan, we headed to Baniass. We hiked down to the waterfall which was really amazing!! We went into the Palace of Agrippa II, and Yosi played "Dance of the Seven Stars" on his flute inside the Palace. It was really pretty. I got a video of some of it.

Friday July 18th, 2008

We started the day by going to the Jordan River again and Yosi played his flute here. It was called "Love Song for the Jordan River." We also sang some songs here, and there was a guy camping out where we were, and he came out and talked to us. We called him John the Baptist. Hahaha. We drove past Jericho and we saw Mount Carantel which is where Jesus spent the 40 days, and we also saw Mount Temptal which is where Jesus was tempted by the devil. Next, we wandered through the desert for a while. It was really really really really hottt!! But it was still fun. I got a video of people walking through it. Enjoying the nice breeze..lol..After that, we took a sunset hike on the Judean Mountains which was really neat too.

Saturday July 19th, 2008

This was probably one of the hottest days of my life!!! We went to Qumeran first, which is the "hottest place in the entire world" and then we went to Masada, another one of the hottest places in the entire world. It was still a lot of fun though. Qumeran is where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls. They are the most ancient Biblical text in the world. They were written about the 2nd century B.C. Before I start talking about Masada, I just want to start off by saying that I'm really glad that we watched the movie. I can't believe I just said that, but it's true. It made it a whole lot more meaningful and I understood it more, and what happened there. It just made it a lot better, and if we hadn't have watched the movie before, I would have wanted to watch it afterwards. Masada is the place where they had they had the collective suicide of 960 people. Herod created Masada. The Battle between the Jews and the Romans made this place famous. The ramp was really cool. It was made of perishable material so we saw what was left of it. Paul climbed down it. I would have too, if I knew we were allowed to. Yosi showed us the Camp of Silva which was pretty cool. We also saw the Northern Palace. It was a fortress within a fortress. We roamed around Masada for an hour, and I went into a humongous cistern. When we got to the hotel, we got ready to go for a dip in the Dead Sea. I was so excited I just ran in, and it HURT SO BAD with the cuts on my feet. And it was SOOO HOTTT. It was hotter in the water than it was outside. I thought I would feel refreshed, but I just felt even more disgusting after getting in it. It was the weirdest feeling ever!! My head and feet were out of the water at the same time!! It was awesome!!

Sunday July 20th, 2008

We spent the rest of the trip in Jerusalem. We sang some songs while we were driving on the way in: I Will Enter His Gates, As the Mountains Surround Jerusalem, As You Pass Through the Waters, and We're Marching to Zion. It was really moving singing all those songs driving into the city. We went to the Church of Dominus Flavis, and guys have to wear pants in it, and Bryan, Adam, and I only had on shorts, so they gave us skirts to put on. It was pretty funny. Especially since Bryan's skirt was the same length as his shorts. hahaha..I didn't understand why that made a difference at all, but anyway, whatever makes them happy. We went to the Garden of Gethsemane which was by far my favorite thing on this trip. We took the Lord's Supper here, and then we went on our own to look around and meditated for a while. It was soo nice. I could have stayed there all day. I took some flowers from the Garden and put 'em in my moleskine. Next, we went into the city. We saw the Jerish Quarter which is the heart of Jerusalem. We went on top of the roof of the market. We saw people wearing filacteries on their heads which looked like little transmitters. Hahaha. Supposedly, it gives them a closer connection to God. I don't know. Whatever floats their boat. Next, we walked into the Muslim Quarters which is where we ate and shopped in the market. Then, after lunch, we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It's more like amaze or labrynth than a church though. Archeologists are pretty sure this is exactly where jesus died and was buried. We saw the stone of his tomb. It was really neat in my opinion.

Monday July 21st, 2008

We went to the Temple Mount which was really cool. We weren't allowed to take our Bibles in. We saw the Wailing Wall which is known as the Western Wall. It is where they would go and pray because it's the closest point accessible to the Holy of Holies or the Golden Dome. There were many people celebrating their Bar-Mitzfahs here, so it was a lot of fun to watch that. We also had to be divided into men and women. People would put their notes and prayers in the cracks and holes. We saw the Mosque of Tumal which is the Golden dome and the Commercial signal for Jerusalem. It was really beautiful. It's the oldest roof building in Jerusalem. Next to it was the Elaksa Mosque which is the silver dome. It's the biggest mosque in Jerusalem.The capacity of the Square is 250,000 people. Only Muslims are allowed on the Mount on Fridays. Next, we went to the City of David and went through Hezekiah's Tunnel. I wasn't about to go through the wet one. I already about died in the pyramid so I knew I would freak out in the tunnel with water in it, so Jordan, Yosi, and I all went through the dry one. I still almost freaked out in that thing. I could barely even fit through most of the passages. I definitely would have died if there was water in it. Next, we saw the Huldah Gates which is the only entrance to the Temple, so when Jesus came here, he had to have been in this exact spot. It's from Matthew 21:12. It was really moving to know that Jesus had to have been in that exact spot. It was really neat. Another one of my favorite things of the trip was Gordon's Garden Tomb. It is the possible sight for the crucifixion of Jesus. There was skull cut out of the side of the road, so that's what they think "Golgotha" was. They can't say it IS the place, but it can definitely give you a visual of what it looked like. This tomb fits every description in the book of John where Jesus was buried. We went into the tomb which was very neat. The first room is the weeping chamber, and Jesus was probably put in the back right corner. The Burial Chamber is to the right of the Weeping Room, so we cna imagine what Mary did or what happened to her. We had a devo here, and it was really emotional. Anna got up and told us some things about her family that were really sad that had been bothering her for a while, and it was really sad. We also had meditation time in the Garden which was really nice.

Tuesday July 22nd, 2008

We spent the morning in Bethesda, which is the place we were supposed to go to two days ago, but at least we fit it in. We saw the Bethesda Pool which is where Jesus worked miracles. This and the Siloam Pool were pools mentioned in the Bible where Jesus did miracles. We went into the Crusader Church, and Yosi played Magnificat on his flute and Mona Lee sang a song, and we sang the Greatest Commands and We Shall Assemble. It had the best acoustics I had ever heard in my life. It was definitely one of the best memories of this trip for me. I think if I can think of singing in Heaven, then that is what it would sound like. It was beautiful! Next, we went to the Israel Museum. There was a model of Jerusalem from Jesus' time there. It was really neat, and I liked it because we got to see all the places we had been in perspective to where it was to everything else. We also saw the Great Isaiah Scroll. It was really amazing because it was a new display. It wasn't even there the semester before, sorry Ashton. It is the real thing!! The last thing we did for the whole trip was the Holocaust Museum. I was really sad that we ended the trip on sort of a depressing note, but it was still really moving to go there. We saw the Children's Memorial which was soo sad. There were candles set up in glass, and if you stood in one spot, you can supposedly see 1.5 million stars for the 1.5 million children that died. Also, if that's not sad enough, the names are being read and it takes a month to read them all. It plays continuously and tells their age and place of birth too, and also where they died. It was really depressing. Next, we saw the Memorial fo the Places of the Concentration Camps. It had a list of the places Jews were killed during the 2nd and 3rd phases of the Holocaust on the ground with a fire in the back. It was really sad. I'm really glad we got to do it though.

Well, that about sums up the Israel trip. I hope you enjoyed reading about my experience in the Holy Land. I love and miss you all, and I can't wait to see you again!! Bye!! Love, Ryan

Athens Archeological Museum

July 10th, 2008

We went to the Athens Archeological Museum, and overall I really enjoyed it. We split up into different groups and answered some questions that DiMy gave us in a worksheet. It was sort of like a Scavenger Hunt. I really enjoyed doing it this way. We saw a whole lot of things here. We saw the Kouros found at Sounion. We also saw the Statue of a Kore and Kouros. The Kore was holding what I thought was a budding flower. It was really neat. One of my favorite statues here was the statue of Poseidon/Zeus. It was just amazing!!! Another one of my favorites is the Discus Thrower. I thought it would be a lot bigger though. It was just a small bronze statue. We also saw the Doryphorus. In another room, we saw the Statue of Athena. I thought it was very beautiful. Another favorite of mine from the museum is the Horse and Jockey. There's much debate over whether or not they actually belong together because they were found separately, but I think they belong together because they look really similar. We also went into the Santorini room which was really neat. It was just some amazing things from Santorini that remain from the Minoan period such as pottery, rhytons, and frescoes. The frescoes were of the Boxing Children, and Antelopes and the Spring Fresco. I thought they were really beautiful. We also saw the Colossal Arm of the Statue of Zeus. It was huge, and his muscles were humongous. I thought they looked like Paul's arm myself. Hahah. There was also some theater masks that were kind of creepy. Another one of my favorite statues is the Statue of Aphrodite, Pan, and Eros. It just makes me laugh every time I look at it. It's Pan trying to get Aphrodite's attention and Eros is trying to back him off. It seems playful though..Hahaha. We also saw some Zoomorphic vessels. The best one was of this little hedgehog. He was soooo adorable. Next, we walked in the Mycenae room and saw the Mask of Agamemnon. I thought it was really neat. It looked kind of funny though. It was cool, but I don't see why Heinrich Schliemann made such a huge deal about it. Hahaha. This is pretty much what I saw today. At least the highlights of the Museum for me. It was a really neat experience and I am really glad I'm here to enjoy all the wonderful art and sites that we get to see.
Well, that's about it for the Museum. Hope you all are having a great time, and I will see you in 15 days!! Love, Ryan

The Dark Knight

Hey everybody!! Yesterday was probably one of the funnest days on campus all semester. I woke up around 9 and watched Pirates 3, and then after lunch Jared, Paul, and I searched around Porto Rafti for something to use on our face to dress up like the Joker. They seriously had NOTHING. We searched for at least 2 hours, and couldn't find a thing, so we tried to concoct our own inventions at the Artemis with lotion and lard and it definitely didn't work, so we were getting pretty bummed because we definitely wanted to do this so bad. We searched and searched and tried and tried, but nothing seemed to work. Then, we saw the Turkish Delight. lol..We were definitely going to use the powdered sugar on the turkish delight, so we got the empty ones and even ate a few to finish some off, and spread the powdered sugar all over our faces. It worked really well actually, and then we used Anna's makeup for the black and red. We even resorted to using spray paint for our hair. I was really scared it wouldn't come out, but after about an hour and a half of scrubbing and washing, it came out, well most of it..lol..Still feels like paint too though..Then, earlier today Paul said that he put lard in his and it came out, so he definitely put lard in my hair and i washed it an hour later..its a lot better now..smooth too..lol..Jared didn't even do it after spending all that time looking. It ended up being Paul, Sterling, and I. We looked SOOO AMAZING at the beginning, but towards the end it started wearing off. We took so many pictures. It has to be one of the best things to ever happen in HUG history..lol..Dressing up like the Joker to go see Batman? Come on..lol..Also, we got some pretty weird looks on the way to the restaurant we were gonna eat at. Every time someone looked at me, I just busted out my Joker card..lol..When we got to the theater, the people working there loved it and we asked if we could get in free, and they were like..ehhh..lol..We took a lot of pics at the movies too. I was standing in line at the concession stand and 3 people wanted their picture with me..lol..It was awesome, and then while we were sitting there, Michelle and Katy Grant come dressed in as Batman. No one even knew they were doing it, but they made their own outfits and looked AWESOME!! So, we definitely took some pictures with them too.
It was a whole lot of fun. The movie was amazing too especially in the theater cause it's an outside theater and the weather was really cool, and it was tons of fun. After the movie was over, I turned around to these people behind us, and I went up to one of them and said, "Hey, here's my card" in my Joker voice and handed them the Joker card. They laughed like crazy..When we got back, I also made a video. It's pretty creepy if i say so myself. Frank videoed it of me saying, "Why so serious? eh? why so seriou-us? hehehehehe" It's soo crazy..I'm gonna try to put it up on facebook, and Neely said she would put it on the slideshow for DiMy and Captain if I put it on the M Drive and I definitely did that..lol..Anyway, Hope you all are having a great summer, and I will be there in a couple weeks!! Love, Ryan

Back from the Holy Land

Hello friends and family! We just got back from Israel about an hour ago, and I'm completely exhausted. I'm so glad we have a free day tomorrow. I think I might just sleep til 12..lol..Tomorrow night, a lot of the guys are thinking about dressing up like the Joker and going to watch Batman in Athens tomorrow. I'm definitely going to do that. I'll probably only be the real legit Joker since I'm the only one with long hair..lol..but Jared's got his voice down pretty good..hahaha..We're gonna get some pretty strange looks..But anyway, I am really tired, and I'm about to head to bed, so I'll write about Israel once we get our moleskines back so I don't leave out anything. Ashton, we had Yosi as a guide. He was still really good..Pretty funny too..And Mom and Dad, you're welcome for the letter. Every word of it was true. I love you all soo much and I can't wait to see you in 16 days!!! Bye!! Love, Ryan

Time for Israel!!!

Hey everybody!! I just wanted to write a quick note before we left. We're leaving in about an hour and half, but we have lunch in 30 minutes so I will try to do it fast. Today, we had a paper due in Missionary Anthropology, a reading due in Missionary Anthropology, and also a test in Missionary Anthropology...CRAZY!!! So, to say the least, I don't think I did that amazing on the test..lol..We had so much other homework in Paul and Humanities too. I'm pretty much getting overwhelmed. I'm about ready for our 8 day vacation in Israel..lol..Then, we get back, have 3 classes, with no tests!!! lol..and then the Finals start the Monday we get back. Thankfully I don't have any finals on Monday, so I can study for my tests on Tuesday which will probably be two of the hardest ones: Paul and Humanities. (I'm saving my Paul notes for you, Pop, in case you want to look at them as you prepare.. They're pretty good note taking if I do say so myself..) lol...Captain taught Humanities today. We went over Islam and how it came about and what they believe. It was pretty interesting. Well, I'm guess I'm going to go finish packing and make sure I have everything. I miss you all and I hope you're having a great summer! I guess I'll talk to you when I get back next Tuesday!! Oh yea..I also sent everybody an itinerary for Israel in case you wanted to know where I was and what I'm doing on each day..Hopefully we can stay with it and nothing prohibits us from doing what we want to do..Also, Katy is still really sick and so she can't go with us. I feel really bad for her. I would hate to have paid all that money and not get to do one of the best trips offered here. I think her and Captain might meet up with us in Jerusalem on Sunday if she feels better though, so that would be nice. Anyway, I'm gonna go now. . I love you all and I can't wait to see you in less than a month!! Love, Ryan

Almost There!!

Hey everybody!! Sorry it's been a day or so since I've written. Today has been pretty good. We had classes of course. Just 4 more to go!!! I'm super excited about that. We had probably the best lunch today too. It was definitely my favorite. We had shrimp with this amazing sauce, and calamari. (It was AMAZING!!) I wasn't sure at first, but I tried it and loved it!! It kinda tasted like chicken..lol..Anyway, after lunch, I studied for our LAST slide test!! At least before the Final. It's comprehensive slides..AHHH..lol..I guess I did alright on it. Just as good as I do on any other ones. After the slide test, Paul, Ross, Bryan, Jared, Chris, Jonny, Sterling, and I all played volleyball on the basketball court. We set up the net, and it was tons of fun. Almost as fun as basketball..lol..I'm not as good at volleyball...Btw, all my teams are still undefeated in basketball..lol..It has to be some sort of HUG record..Hahaha..After that, we ate pizza as usual for Saturday nights, and then Adam and I went and played ping pong. I finally beat him today!! I'm getting better..lol..Then, we started Kingdom of Heaven, but the screen was so dark, I couldn't even see what was going on, so I came up to the room, and started working on the photo project I have to do in Paul. We have to have a minimum of 25 photos that have to do with Paul's travels, and places he was and stuff. I have 23 picked out right now. I'm gonna wait til we go to Jerusalem and use some good pictures from there to wrap up the project. It shouldn't be too hard. It should be an easy A to help my grade. Hopefully..lol..Also, I'm still on the last exam for Biology because he hasn't opened it yet still..I emailed him twice, and the first time he wrote me back saying it's good to go, and I looked and it was still not open, so I emailed him the second time and he said Sorry, he'll do it today sometime. I'm just soo ready for that class to be over with. The last exam is due like 3 days after we get back from Israel so I might take it before or just wait until we get back. I'll probably do it before though so I don't have to worry about it with all the other tests we have to do. I have another test in Missionary Anthropology before we leave for Israel Monday. It's all moving too fast..lol..I was looking at all my pictures because I was picking them out for the Paul project and it seemed like just yesterday we were in Corinth and Mycenae. It's just insane!!! We had our third Humanities test the other day..I hope I did alright on it. I studied forever..No matter what I get, I can't say I didn't try. I seriously study for like 2 hours for every test..at least 2 hours..Mainly because there are not that many distractions here. It's nice in some ways, but I definitely miss Friends and The Office every now and then..lol..Anyway, I'm gonna go for now..Hope you're all still having a great summer, and I'll see you in 28 days, and 30 for Ashton/Mema/Papa..lol..Bye, Love yall!!

Day to Get Things Done/ Athens Archeological Museum

Hey everybody!! Today has been really crazy. It's pretty much just been a day to get things done. Today, I finished getting my airplane tickets for free travel. We still have to go through Hostel World and find out which hostels we want to stay at..Also, today I finished the rest of the Biology quizzes online!! Finally..lol..I still have Exam 4 to take. I wanted to do it and get all of it over with today, but it's not open yet. I sent him another email asking him if he could open it. I'm so tired of sending him emails. I wish he would just open them all up so I can do them. Everyone's getting pretty upset with the whole Biology situation. Anyway, we also went to the Archeological Museum today, and it was really interesting. I guess I'm going to write about it when I get my notes back...again..like always..lol..Alright, well when we got back, I started doing Paul homework, and got tired of doing that, so I went out and played basketball with Chad. We talked about High School Basketball. We were pretty much in the same situation. It was a lot of fun. Anyway, that's about all that happened today. Hope you all are having a great time, and I love and miss you all, and I'll see you in less than a month now!!! Bye!! Love, Ryan

The Greek Islands!!

Hey everybody!! I hope you all are enjoying your summer..Sorry it's taken a while to get this on here, but I've been so busy lately..I feel like I'm taking 18 hours..lol..Anyway, here's some stuff about the Greek Island cruise we went on..

My roommates for this trip were Paul Haebegger and Jared Morgan. It was definitely interesting in our room most of the time. I'll explain more later.

Friday July 4th
We spent the day on the island of Mykenos. We didn't take a tour on this island so I don't have that many notes, but when we first got there we saw Petros the Pelican. It was really funny. He was just sitting there, and then Bryan tried to stand by him for a picture and he just went crazy. So, I left there, and then came back later and he was biting some guy's arm. I thought that was pretty funny. I'm guessing he was the owner because he was just sitting there laughing and talking to all the people. Paul and I and a few other people just walked around for a while and then we went through the "Little Venice." It was really neat. We also saw the windmills which were really interesting and Paul and Katy decided to swim out to the rock in the sea. I just decided I would stay and watch their stuff. I really enjoyed Mykenos and I thought it was a very pretty island. That night, we went to the show. It was really cool. They did different dances from all the different countries that were on board the boat. There was also a magician and he did a whole bunch of crazy stuff. He nailed a nail THROUGH his face. I have no clue how in the world he did that, but he was hardcore, and definitely amazing!! He's probably the most focused person I've ever seen.

Saturday July 5th

We started off the day in Ephesus. We started to go to the Temple of Artemis, but the guard was late, so we had to bypass it and go straight to the Archeological Site. We saw an orchestra which would seat 1,400 people. I thought it was very neat. We also saw the Library. The Library was one of my favorite parts of the site. It was huge. It had about 12,000 books. Egypt even stopped sending them papyrus because they were jealous of the amount of books they had. After that, we went to the Domitian Square which had a wonderful view of the city. It was built in the 1st century after Christ. We saw a Palette of Nike which was really cool. Then, there were two pillars with Hercules' figure. He had a lion skin wrapped around his shoulders. I thought those were really neat. After that, we went down to the public toilets, latrines. They were made of marble and they were only for men. They would pay to use them and stay down there for a hours and hours. They'd play music and there was even a pool. I personally think they just went to use it for hours and hours to get a break from the women. It was a really "fancy bathroom." Next, we went to the Theater. This was definitely my favorite site in Ephesus. It could hold 25,000 people and it had 3 sections. It played an important role and still does today. It had great acoustics so of course we had to sing a few songs here. It was also very moving because it is the place of the riot in Acts 19:23 ff, so Paul was definitely there. I really love when we know for a fact that Paul was there because it just makes it so much more meaningful and I will always remember that. It really just makes the story in the Bible come alive. After the Arch. Site, we went back to the Temple of Artemis and took some pictures. Also, we went to the island of Patmos. It looks like a seahorse on the map, and it is the northernmost island in southeast part of Greece. It is very small: Only 34 square kilometers. We can be sure that John was here because of John 1. He came to the cave to pray and today, it is an everyday church. We then went to the Monastery of St. John. It was not a direct link with him. The monks would use 8 hours of prayer, 8 hours of sleep and 8 hours of assignments or duties to make up their day. After visiting the monastery, we went to the museum. There were 4 sections. 1-books 2-icons 3-ritual vessels 4-clothing of priests. They had lots of copies of the Bible on papyrus or paper and parchment. That night, we had Greek night on the boat, so we all dressed up like Greeks for supper, and then I was too tired to head to the party, so I just went to the room and passed out.

Sunday July 6th

Today, we started the day in Crete which is the 5th largest island in the Mediterranean. It has a population of 500,000. We went to the Palace of Knossos. I thought it was really neat, but it probably would have been a lot more amazing if we hadn't already seen the Temple of Karnak and Luxor in Egypt before it. It was excavated by Arthur Evans. The Minoans used big stones to build it. We saw the Bull Horns which was a lot smaller than I thought they would be. We saw many frescoes. One was of the Toreador or the Bull Jumping, and the other one was of The Ladies in Blue. We also saw the Queen's Apartment which had frescoes with dolphins, so I'm sure Ms. Schramm liked that a lot. There were also storage rooms with HUMONGOUS vases. Some were even taller than me. It was insane. I seriously wonder how they move that stuff around. Next, we went to the Iraklion Archeological Museum. They used olive leaves for burial ceremeonies. We saw the Phaestos Disk which I thought was really interesting. They still have yet to decipher it. There was also a Rhyton drinking vessel with a bull head. After that we went back on the boat, and Paul, Jared, and I watched National Geographic. It's pretty interesting the things you'll watch when it's the only thing in English. lol..It was so funny because we had just got done watching The Orangutan King, and it was the most awesome video ever!! Then, I asked Paul if he was going to go on top of the deck, and he said, "The only thing that will keep me in here is if The Crocodile King comes on," and not even 30 seconds later..The TV goes, "Now, King Croc." We seriously laughed for about 10 minutes straight. It wasn't near as good as the Orangutan King, so we definitely fell asleep. After we woke up, we were in Santorini!! We rode donkeys/mules up to the top of the island. Paul and I walked around the island until we met up with Neely, Lauren S, Shailer, Kayleigh, Tyler, and Audrey. Then I met up with Jack, Andrew, Bryan, Frank, Jen, Leah, Lacie, and Kim and stayed with them until the end. Santorini was really really pretty, but I really wished they would have dropped us off at the nice part of the island with all the houses and everything. I guess we could have taken a taxi, but I didn't have any money with me. It was a very beautiful island though. After we spent the day walking around Santorini, we rode cable cars back down which I thought was a lot of fun. It was Captain's Night on the boat, and so we all dressed up and headed to dinner. Earlier in the day, Chad had proposed to Jordan at one of the restaurants there, and so he announced the engagement at the end of dinner. Everyone knew it happened though so it wasn't really that big of a surprise, but still a happy time. That night at the show, it was soo hilarious. The magician came back out again, and made Sterling take a cigarette and start smoking it with him, and he was like, I don't smoke and then he was like I CAN'T smoke..lol..but he still made him, so he just went with it, and I was afraid he was going to get in huge trouble, but I looked over and Captain and DiMy and the Richardson's were just laughing soo hard. It was pretty awkward. Afterwards, they joked around with him for a while. After Sterling went up there, Jared had to go up there and do some tricks with him. I don't think he could have picked anyone better for that job. Jared was hilarious. It was probably the funniest thing I've seen in a looong time. He was just going with it, and afterwards, he said he thought the guy was mad at him because he thought he was taking the show away from him, but I thought it was alright. lol..He livened it up soo much.

Anyway, that was the Greek Islands Trip. Hope you enjoyed reading it, and I love and miss you all and I hope you are having a greeeaattt summer!! Love, Ryan

Back from the Islands!!

Hey everybody! I just wanted to write on here to tell you that we made it back to the Artemis from our Greek island excursion. Once again, I'm going to wait to get my moleskine back to write about it, but it was definitely a lot of fun..Santorini was amazing. It wasn't as awesome as I was expecting, but it was still really neat. Anyway, I'm gonna go enjoy our day off..probably by sleeping..lol..I'm also going to try to buy my plane tickets for free travel later today, once Andrew gives me a list of the flights he bought..Hopefully there's still seats open on it..lol..anyway, I love and miss ya'll..i'll write about the islands later on..Bye!!

4th of July Bash on the 3rd!!!

Hey everybody!! Sorry I haven't written on here the past couple days, but the internet has been down and just now got back up and everyone's fighting for it..lol..I'll just catch you up on some stuff. Yesterday, we had school as usual. We had our first Greek test. It wasn't too bad..Then, last night we watched another part of Masada. I wanted to die..I know that it'll help when we get there to know the story, but I really can't watch any more parts. lol..I just laugh to keep myself sane during those things..lol..Anyway, we got our grades for Humanites today, and i have a 91 in there, so hopefully i can keep it. It might be tough though down the home stretch with soooo much stuff to do..I'm really trying though..Also, all afternoon today we were working on getting the Artemis ready for the 4th of July Bash on the 3rd...lol..We had to do it today because we're leaving for our cruise tomorrow..which brings me to the next point I need to make, I won't be able to write on here until at least Monday night cause we're getting back Monday. Anyway, back to getting ready for the party,,,I pretty much just walked around seeing if anyone needed help..I kinda helped Paul and Audrey make the cake, then I cleaned up the floors and decorated some, and then helped a little with the burgers. I was just there in case people needed me..lol..The party was a whole lot of fun..We all ate and then we had a pool party..We all had to wear our clothes though..cause of Harding's regulations..We played a game that I had never heard of before. They throw a watermelon down to the bottom and then you dive in for it, and everyone fights for it until someone brings it out. It got pretty intense though. I'm pretty sure Paul almost drowned..lol..Also, the watermelon is extra slippery because you put oil on it first. No one really one because Sterling just threw it out of the pool, and then Paul picked it up and dropped it and it busted on the ground..lol...After that, we played a little basketball until it got dark, and then Schrambo (Chemistry teacher at Harding) put on a little "firework" show..It wasn't technically fireworks, but it was still completely awesome..He had Neely hold a sparkler and he climbed up the stairs, then dropped coffee creamer and it blew up and flamed and caught all the creamer on fire..It was intense!!! I wish i had taken a video of it..Anyway, people are waiting for me to get off of here so I guess I'll just talk to you all later.. I'll write back when we get back to the Artemis from the Greek islands!! I love and miss you all, and I hope you're still having a great summer..See ya'll in August!! Love, Ryan

Service Day

Hey everyone! Hope you're all enjoying yourselves..I know most of you won't be able to read this because some are at camps and some are traveling to London, but I guess I'll write tonight anyway. Today was pretty good. We had class in the morning as usual, then we ate lunch and after lunch, we all signed up for places to clean up around Porto Rafti yesterday. We spent from 2:30-5:30 walking around the city picking up trash. It wasn't really that bad. It was actually kind of fun because we all talked the whole time and had fun during the torture..lol..It was me, Adam, Neely, Tyler, Stephanie, Bryan, Jen, Michelle, and Ms. Schramm..We headed to the elementary school and cleaned all around it, and all the roads around it, and then up and down the road in front of the Artemis. There is sooo much trash in this city. I didn't really notice until today. Someone was nice enough to stop their car and tell us that they were glad we were doing it and to keep up the good work, so that made us all feel good. Afterwards, we ate supper and then some people are watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding right now. I started watching it, but then remembered how much I did not like that movie. lol..So, I came up here and did my Paul homework. I'm so glad there's only 12 more class days. That's pretty crazy..Also, I took Exam 3 in Biology today, so I just have one more set of quizzes to and another Exam, and then I'm done..I'm gonna try to do it before we leave for the cruise..Hopefully, I'll at least get to the Exam before then..That would make it where I have 4 days before Israel to take the Exam, and I should be able to do it in 4 days..lol...Anyway, there's not much else to say here, so I'm gonna go..I love and miss you all. Hope things are going good. See you all in a month!! Love, Ryan

Slow Down

Hey everybody!! Today has been pretty good. I wasn't really looking forward to starting classes again, but it wasn't really that bad. I can't believe we only have 13 more classes left. That is insane. When we were in the airport Thursday, I was like, man, it seems like we were just here arriving to Greece. It's just flown by so fast, and I wish it would slow down. I checked my checking account balance and it says I have 1,550 Euro left, so I don't know if that's good or what..I don't know how much I'm gonna need for free travel, but I'm pretty much done souvenir shopping, so I'm just gonna start buying things I actually need instead of want from now on..lol..We got our Humanities tests back today. I got 100 percent on both slide tests, and an 86 on the Midterm. Her tests are really thorough so I always study everything, and just go blank in the middle of it. I'm really trying though. We had to turn in our journals today, so I just copied and pasted off my blog all the trip stuff. Hopefully that's all she wanted. I couldn't remember, but anyway..Oh yea, and I also filled out the application for the Teacher Scholarship earlier today. Hopefully we'll get it. I don't know if that's the one you were talking about, dad, but I think this one gives you 500 dollars a semester. So, I figured it was worth a shot. lol..They hand one out every 3 months I think, so I don't know if I can just keep applying for it, or what the deal is. Anyway, hopefully I get it. They're supposed to email me about it later. Also, tonight, we watched the first part to the 4 part series of Masada. I pretty much wanted to die. It was the most boring movie EVER!!!! I am really not looking forward to the other 3 parts. It's mandatory to watch it too..It wouldn't be as bad if it wasn't 3000 degrees in the living room. I couldn't breathe, so that made it even less enjoyable..hahah..Anyway, I think I'm gonna go shoot some hoops before I head to bed. I love and miss you all, and I will see you in August!! Love, Ryan

Pharoh, Pharoh..Oh Baby, Let my people go..ugh..yayayayayaya

Hey everybody! I just wanted to let everyone know that we made it back safely from Egypt and it was completely and utterly amazing!! It far exceeded my expectations!!! I'll just tell you a couple pages worth of stuff that we did..hahaha..My roommates on this trip were Bryan Clifton and Ryan Hamling. So, it was Brian, Ryan, and Ryan..funny, huh? Our tour guide was Osman. He is the nicest man. I'll tell you more about him in the blog..

Thursday June 19th

We went to Alexandria. It is on the delta of the nile in lower egypt. Egypt means black soil, and now only 4 percent of today's Egypt is Biblical Egypt. We saw the Montazh Palace. It was very beautiful. Farouk was the last person to use it. We also saw the Library of Alexandria. It held 7000 volumes. The original was burned down so they had to rebuild it. Next, we went to the catacombs. We saw the comb of Shakafah. The ditch led to the main catacomb. People thought this place was 1 of the wonders of the world. There were about 200 bodies found here. They also used these catacombs as a hiding place. We saw some canopic jars which were jars for the innards except for the heart. This is a much bigger andd decorated catacomb than Rome and Paris'. The main tomb had lots of cubby holes to put the dead in. It kind of reminded me of when we were smaller and used to crawl into the cubby holes in the band room (good times). The Caracalla Hall had a straight staircase that they used on their way down and a palace staircase that they used on their way up. Osman told us about 3 ways to bury people. You could use a sarcoficus, cubbies, or build the coffin into the rock. I thought the way they built it into the rock was interesting. I really enjoyed seeing the Catacombs.

Friday June 20th
Friday was a very long day, but filled with tons of very interesting things. We started off the day in Giza in a museum built by a French man, Mariet. It was pretty much like a warehouse. No AC, and we couldn't even take our cameras in so I don't have any pictures of what I saw. The museum was constructed in 1901. The Rosetta Stone is up to chest high and very thick. It's double sided and a perfect rectangle, but the corners were chopped off. It was done in hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek. Howard Carter found the tomb of King Tut. There were two statues found in his tomb. We also learned that the Northern people wore red headress and the Southern people wore white headress. We learned that to know if you read the hieroglyphics right to left or left to right is determined by whatever way the birds are facing, so I thought that was pretty interesting. We saw a papyrus chair and boomerangs. The boomerangs proved that they were not invented in Australia so I thought that was an interesting point he made. We saw two beds made of gold. We also saw 3 funeral beds. The mummification process took 40 days, and 70 days for kings. We saw the mummy of the oldest man on earth. He died in 3000 B.C. He was buried in a coffin made of reeds in the fetus position. Next, I payed 50 pounds to go into the mummy room. This was probably my favorite part of the museum. It was so cool. We saw Tuthmosis IV, King Amenhotep II, King Tuthmosis, III, Tuthmosis II, Thuthmosis I, Princess Meritamun, King Amenhotep I, King Seqenere Taa II, King Ramses II, and King Seti I. We saw the sculpture of Rahotep and Nofret. It conveyed their attitude and had preserved painted surfaces. Then we saw the Meidum Geese. It was the oldest collection of colors and the most use of different colors at the time. The last thing we saw in the museum was the Palette of Narmer. It was double sided and showed Hathor and four army divisions.
After the museum, we went to the Pyramids. They were completely breathtaking. They were named Cheops for the father, Chephren for the son, and Mykanous for the great grandson in law. There were also 3 baby pyramids for the wives. We got out and took pictures by them, and even got a group picture in front of them. Next, we went to the Solar Boat Museum. It was pretty neat. We had to wear overshoes, so it was pretty funny. There were 23 crew members. There were 10 middle oars used for rowing and 2 in the back used for steering. Overall, there were 1,224 pieces to the boat. It was built for the same pharoh as all the pyramids (Cheops). After the Solar Boat, I payed 15 pounds to go inside the middle pyramid. It was insane! I had to literally bend over the entire time through because the passage was so small. My back was killing me by the time we got in there. Frank layed down in the coffin to try and scare people when they came in, but no one got scared. It was pretty funny. When we got back out, Osman said that inside the pyramids, it can range from 100-125 degrees (I think it was much hotter) and it is the highest, tallest, and oldest wonder of the ancient world. It is also the only original of the seven wonders. They each took at least 20 years to be built. After we burned in the pyramid, we went to see the Sphinx of Giza. It was really cool. It used to have a nose and beard, but they shaved the beard and it is now in the British Museum. We spent the night on a train, and it was really really cramped, but still fun.

Saturday June 21st
This was Andrew and Shailer's birthday, so all the guys stayed in Car 3, so when we got up we all ran into Andrew's room and party boy'd him. It was sooo funny. We started to day off in Aswan which is the southernmost city and it is called the "warm city." I decided to wear my white bandanna since the Southern Kingdom wore white headdresses. It has always been a part of Egypt. We saw the Aswan Dam. It was built in 1902. The dam was 4 km long and 1 km long. We got out to take pictures, and Paul decided to arm wrestle the guards. He whooped them both. It was hilarious. One of the guards was even pushing all of his weight on Paul's arm. It was crazy..haha.. Next, we saw the Temple of Philae. It came from underwater and it was pulled out in 1972. It was underwater for 70 years. It was the Temple of Love between Isis and Osiris. It had the 5 parts of a temple: Sanctuary, Vestibule, Hypostyle, Open court, and Pylon. The Open Court was the largest part of the temple. There was no roof. It had 10 columns. There were three sanctuaries here. The middle one was dedicated to Isis, the left one was dedicated to Osiris, and the right one was dedicated to Horus, the falcon god. After we saw the temple, we went back to the boat. That night was Cruise Night. We had a dinner on top of the boat. Since it was Andrew and Shailer's birthday, they made them a cake, and they had to stand there and hold it while they sang a song that lasted for seriously 10 minutes. After a minute or so, they made Andrew and Shailer dance, and it was definitely one of the funniest things I've ever seen. That was a really really fun night. This was also the day that we got to ride camels. It was awesome! So, Andrew and Shailer had a full day for their birthday, and it was tons of fun.

Sunday June 22nd
We started off the day in Kom Ombo at the "Crocodile" Temple which was dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile god. Here, we got to see mummified crocodiles which I thought was really really cool. The temple was Telomaic built in 290 B.C. The temples east of the Nile were schools or hospitals or both and the temples west of the Nile were funerary temples or storage houses. It had 3 vestibules. The second one has one of the oldest calendars in the world. There was no B.C. or A.D. They told years by adding up Pharoh ruling dates. Next, we went to Edfu and saw the Edfu Temple. It was covered in sand until 1881. There were 12 columns, so that meant there were 12 priests. It took 25 years to build and 160 years to decorate it. Early Christians came here as a hiding place. Sunday night was Egyptian Night on the boat. It was probably the funnest night on the trip. We all dressed up like Egyptians and had dinner, and then we had a dance afterwards. It was pretty crazy, but a whole lot of fun.

Monday June 23rd
This was also one of the really really long days. We started off in Luxor. It was named the "sun city." Here, we saw the Karnak Temple. It is the largest temple of Ancient Egypt. It was considered the 8th wonder of the world. It is 26 times larger than Ancient Jerusalem. That is insane! It had the Ram Avenue. They all had Ramses II on them. It took 2,000 years to construct this temple. It had 10 gates. They took all the bricks that were on a higher level by building mud brick ramps. I thought that was pretty interesting. We saw the Statue of Ramses II and his wife. He is in the death position and she is in the living position. There were 134 columns. The 12 in the middle were the biggest and fattest. They were 70 ft. high. We then saw the Obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut. I thought this was really amazing. All the inscriptions from top down talked about her. She was the only woman to rule Egypt and her statues depict her as a man. According to Theory 1, she would be Moses' mom. We also saw a Carab, and the theory of the carab is if you walk around it 3 times then you will be rich, if you walk around it 5 times, you will get married, and if you walk around it 7 times, then you will have a baby, so we all walked around it however many times we wanted up to 7. It was pretty funny. I felt really weird doing it. When we got back to the boat, Osman held a class that talked about Exodus, and then he gave us a Hieroglyphics lesson where we learned the shorthand for all the letters of hieroglyphics. It was really interesting. After that, we headed to the Temple of Luxor. We went and saw it at night so it was really really beautiful. It is the most beautiful temple in Egypt in my opinion. The Ram Avenue is 2 1/2 miles long. All the men's knees in their statues are big, and it wasn't until this temple that Osman told us why. It is because big knees is the fertility sign. If you have big knees, then it means you'll have children. So, when you went to meet your future father-in-law, he would begin asking you questions and then, slowly try to feel your knees. Osman acted it out with Ryan Hamling, and it was hilarious. There is still an active mosk in the temple. It is from the 10th century AD. The Vestibule was probably the best part. We sang songs as the sunset behind the temple. David Roberts once said, "There is nothing like the sunset on the Luxor Temple Vestibule." The open court is probably where Moses learned all his wisdom from the Egyptians. It also has the largest Sanctuary of any other temple. This night was Captain's Night on the boat, and we barely had enough time to go to our rooms and get changed. We were pretty much already late, but I didn't pack and lug around my humongous brown shoes all week for nothing!! I was going to wear my nice clothes. We had a really nice dinner and then afterwards, there was a belly dancer show in the common room. We all rushed down there, and I have to say I was pretty disappointed with her. Hahaha.. I stayed for a little while, and she made us all get up and do the Train with her, so I got in and when we reached the door, I got out. Haha..Then, I went up to the room and went to sleep.

Tuesday June 24---Happy Birthday, Ashton!!
We were still in Luxor and went to Valley of the Kings. The tombs began being found in the 17th century. There are 64 tombs, 9 are open, and we only got to see 3. Queen Hatshepsut was the first one to use the Valley of the Kings. I thought that was pretty ironic. We saw the Tomb of Ramses III, Tomb of Thutmes III, and Tomb of Queen Tausert. The Tomb of Thutmes III was my favorite one. He chose a weird spot for his. It was right in the middle of the mountain. It took 4-6 years to prepare a tomb. The Tomb of Queen Tausert waws very nice inside. It was the coolest temperature wise. After doing the Valley of the Kings, we went Alabaster shopping. I really wanted to buy some, but I wanted to save my money for papyrus. We saw Queen Hatshepsut's Tomb. It is behind the Valley of the Kings. It is the only monument in all of Egypt to be rebuilt. After seeing her tomb, we went to see the Tombs of the Workers. The first tomb we saw was Tomb of Anherkha. It was painted and very colorful. It was "60%" in the words of Osman. The next tomb was the Tomb of Sennutem. It was painted too and very colorful. This temple was "Over 100%" in the words of Osman again. It is 3,450 years old, but looked like it was painted yesterday. It was the first use of arched ceilings. I thought they were both really neat. Tuesday night, we stayed on the train again, and it was definitely one of the worst nights of my life. I slept for 1 hour, and woke up and couldn't breathe because it was so stuffy in the room. Our air conditioner didn't work, and so it felt like one of the tombs in our room. I couldn't go to sleep. I just stayed on top of my bed pouring water on myself all night. It was miserable. We woke up the next day, and Osman was pretty mad. He was like, "I didn't get any sleep. This is ridiculous." Hahaha.

Wednesday June 25th
We started the day in Cairo and had breakfast at Osman's home. He is so sweet. He invited us all over to his apartment to have some food and meet his family. His kids are adorable, and his wife is really pretty. We had a short service there. Osman loves it when we sing. There was some times when he was like, okay if you want to know about this, you have to sing me a song. I didn't mind it. It was a really emotional time because it is the last time that Captain and DiMy will be here with HUG, so they were pretty upset as was Osman and his family. After breakfast, we all went papyrus shopping, and I loved every single one. It was really hard to decide which ones to get. I got the huge Weighing of the Heart scene. So, I definitely won't be buying that much on the trips because that was pretty pricey. I'm really excited to put it up on my wall though. After the papyrus shop, we went to Memphis. It is the first capital of the world. Abraham came here, and it had the 1st clear writing of hieroglyphics. We saw the Alabaster Sphinx which had Hatshepsut's face and we saw 2 Ramses II statues outside. There was one inside which was the highlight of the Memphis Museum. It was 30 ft. long without feet. The museum was built over the statue. The largest Ramses II statues though are in Abu Simbal. They're 8 1/2 stories high. I really wanted to see them, but we never got the chance because of the boat schedule.
Next, we went to Sakkara which is the cemetery of Memphis. We saw the Tomb of Ptah-Hotep here. It is a mastaba, which is where rich people were buried. It had a middle chamber and 2 side chambers for him and his father. The son's was the most preserved place in Sakkara. After that, we saw the Steppe Pyramid. It was built in the Old Kingdom. It is 59 meters high with 6 steps that are 10 meters each. It was built by Pharoh Zoser. After we saw this, we went to a carpet school. The prices were insane. The cheapest one I saw that was actually worth buying was like 3,000 dollars. It was madness. There was one pink one that was 34,000 dollars. It's like hmm..buy the carpet, or the apartment to put it in? Hahaha. After the carpet school, we went to Cairo again and saw the Mosk. It was the oldest one in Africa and the 3rd in Islam. It was from 640 BC. There are 5 principles of Muslims: Only 1 god and Mohammad was the messenger, Prayers-5 times a day, Fasting, Charity, and Pilgrimage to Mecca if you could afford it. Overall, I thought the mosk was very interesting. There were people praying while Osman was talking to us. It was neat to watch them. After we were done, Osman took us all on a sailboat ride on the Nile. It was really nice of him, and it was a lot of fun.

Thursday June 26
We got up, and went to the airport and Osman was there to meet us. It was really good to get to say bye to him one more time. Really sad too. Once we got into Greece, we stood in the Customs line for at least 2 hours. I was getting really irritated. It was almost ridiculous. There were 3 whole things left alone, when there could have been 6 more lines. It just really made me mad. At least we had some good conversations in line. Hahah. Once we got back to the Artemis, I shaved my beard. It's not because it was too hot, I was just in a really weird mood, and decided to surprise everybody, so I definitely just shaved it all off. Hahaha. I'm still keeping the hair though. There's no way I'm losing both. Hahahha. All the girls were like, I need to touch your face, and saying it looked like 10 times better. They keep telling me to cut my hair, but there is no way. Anyway, last night we watched Prince of Egypt and it really made me want to go back soo bad. After that, I just came up to the room and went to sleep.

Alright, well, that about wraps it up. I hope you all enjoyed reading about the amazing Egypt trip. I love and miss you all, and I will see you in August! Bye! Love, Ryan

Northern Greece

Hey everybody! Sorry this entry is so late. I just haven't had that much time to do it until today. We have a free day today, so I'm gonna write about Northern Greece and Egypt. Have fun reading!!
Our guides name was Catarina, but it was a different one than the one we had for the Athens tour. My roommates on this trip were Adub and Jonathan Murray.
Thursday, June 5th
We started off the trip in Delphi. We saw an inaugora which was totally smooth and didn't have any friezes or capitals and it was in the Roman style. Next, we went to the Oracle. It was a place dedicated to Apollo. No one could stay inside except for priests. The road that led to the Temple of Apollo was called the "Sacred Way". Next, we stopped by the Treasury of the Athenians. This is where the pilgrims would place offerings based on their location. It was built before the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. This is also the place of the center of the universe. Catarina told us the story of how Zeus sent out two eagles in opposite directions to find out where they met and that would be the center of the universe, and this is where they met. I thought that story was pretty interesting. We then saw the Portacle which is where they would put their trophies from their victories. Next, we saw the Theater of Delphi. It was built in the 4th century B.C. They had musical contests here and sports events. It could hold up to 5000 people. I thought that the theater was very neat. We then saw the stadium. It wasn't near as big as the Olympic one, but still pretty impressive. It was 178 meters long, and could hold 5000 people as well.
After we saw the Stadium, we went into the Museum. We saw a sphynx with a woman's head, eagle's wings, and lion's body. I thought that was very neat. We then saw the Kylax of Apollo. It was symbolized as a girl and it was very well preserved. Next, we looked at Antinoos. I thought this piece was very interesting. It was a man about 19-20 years old, and he is famous for the beauty of his face. He was discovered in the Nile. It was a very beautiful piece. The next sculpture we saw was probably my favorite. It was of the Charioteer of Delphi. It was by far the highlight of the museum. It was made in the 5th century B.C. It was metalic statue, and it was the gift from a tyrant offered to Apollo. It used the "lost wax" technique. It's where you put a clay core, then wax over it, and then add clay over the wax. I thought that was pretty neat.

Friday June 6th
We woke up, and went to Meteora. It is the place of the monistaries. I thought they were astonishing. They were about 400 meters high and built in the 11th century. We looked at some of them from afar like St. Nicholas', but we actually got to go into The Great Meteoron. It was the main church and it was placed in the middle and it was founded by St. Atharoasis. The cellar was an old carpentry shop which I thought was pretty interesting. The next room was probably my favorite. It was the ossuary. It was filled with skulls from all the monks. It was really cool. Next, we went into the main church part. The Narthix is the room for unbaptised people and Catarina talked to us about it for a little while then we headed into the main room. It had the shape of a cross on top and the four corners depicted Matthew. I thought it was really neat to see.
After we looked at the monistaries, we headed to Vergina which is the place that had Phillip II's Tomb. It was discovered by Andronikas. It looked a whole lot like a temple. It had two chambers. I thought that the tomb was very astonishing. We saw the Tomb of the Prince in here too. Many think it is Alexander II's tomb. They know it is a prince and not a king because there are no golden artifacts in it. After Vergina, we headed to Berea. This is mentioned in Acts 17:11. I really like when Captain tells us where it is in the Bible because it just makes it that much more meaningful. We looked at Apostle Paul's Altar. It is the corner where Paul gave a speech. He didn't stay there long, and neither did we. That night, I had a dream that I wrote down in my moleskine because I didn't want to forget it and I wanted to share it with you all. Ashton, you're pretty good at interpreting dreams so maybe you can tell me what it means. Or maybe I can send it to Coach Coleman and pay him 27 cents to interpret it..hahaha..Anyway, Dimy and I were going to look at the house we were going to buy except it wasn't in Searcy, it was in Paragould, and it was right across the street from Jon's house. So, right before we walked in, I told her I wanted to go say hey to Jon. So, I ran over to his house and all of my friends were there. Even the ones that Jon doesn't really know, like from church and stuff. Even Sterling, which is a guy here at HUG was there playing poker with everybody. So, they were all surprised to see me. They thought it was too soon for me to be back, and it seemed like I had just left. So, we all hugged, and talked, and I told them I was looking at the house we were going to move into across the street and asked if any of them wanted to look at it with me, and they all refused except Sterling and that's when I woke up.

Saturday June 7th

On this day we went through Thessaloniki. It is the 2nd largest city in Greece. It has 2 provinces: Achaia and Macedonia. The city was liberated after the Balkan Wars. After we drove through Thessaloniki, we were in Philippi. This was probably the thing I was looking forward to the most on this trip mainly because Philippians is one of my favorite books in the Bible. Philippi was the first Christian community in Europe. We saw the commercial market which is probably the place that Acts 16:16 takes place in. Paul had a very special relationship with the church in Philippi. We saw Basilica B first. It was a standard church building. When it collapsed, they decided to use the old Narthyx as the main church. The Palestra is where they people learned and they also had public toilets here which I thought was really different. We all took pictures on them. It was pretty funny. We also saw the old baptistery in the basilica. Next, we walked on the Egnatian St. It was 560 miles long. Paul used it when he wanted to get to Macedonian cities, so I thought it was really neat to walk on the same road as Paul did. We saw an octagonal church that was built in the 5th century B.C. Next, we saw the Basilica A. It was pretty much the same as Basilica B. After Basilica A, we went and looked at the theater. It was built by Philipp II. The first row was abolished because it was turned into an arena. It also became more glamorous. After the theater, we drove over to Lydia's River. This was probably one of my favorite spots on this trip. It is where she was baptised in Acts 16:6. She was the first European woman to be baptised here, and the jailor was more than likely baptised here too. We sang a few songs here, and it was pretty moving. Other people sat beside us and listened and took pictures and videos, so that was pretty cool. Next, on the way to the hotel, we stopped by the Lion of Thepolis. It was built in the 4th century and it symbolized power and strength. It was a really awesome statue. We got a group picture by it making claws and growling at the camera. It was pretty funny.

Sunday June 8th

In the morning, we had a service in the TV room. It was very interesting. I really liked it a lot. After the service, we took a city tour of Thessaloniki where Catarina just told us some facts about it. It has 1.5 million people. We saw the Bayhamom, which is the oldest Muslim building. It was built in 1444. We saw the White Tower. This was an amazing tower. Some of us went into the city during the week and saw it. It was astonishing. It was built by the Phoenicians and it was the place for prisoners, so they called it the "Bloody Tower."
After the tour, we went to Pella, which is the birthplace of Alexander the Great. Here we saw the House of Dionysus. It had a garden and it was so luxurious. It had two yards and no windows. The floors were decorated with beautiful mosaics. We looked at a little bit of the Agora at Pella, but it had rained the night before, so they didn't want us to go too far back because it was so muddy. It was much bigger than the other agoras we've seen. The western side had workshops and the northern part was the administrative buildings. They used the Ipodamian system. It was the ideal system to build. It was definitely a planned neighborhood. We saw the House of Abduction of Helen. It had 2 mosaics. the first was a mosaic of deer hunting, and the next was a mosaic of the rape of Helen. It was very neat and very gorgeous. After the Agora, we headed to Thermopylae. This was probably my favorite spot of the whole trip. It was under Xerxes and it is where the Spartans came to fight the Persians. It is the place where the movie 300 takes place. Catarina told us the story about it. Philitas was the traitor of the Spartans who led the Persians around the mountain to catch the Spartans off guard. Leonidas was the leader of the Spartans and 300 of them stayed. Their motto was "Come home with your shield or on it." After she told us the story, we all went out and took pictures of the Leonidas statue. Paul listened to the 300 soundtrack on his iPod the whole time we were there. It was pretty funny. We then climbed up to the place where they had the dedication of the Spartans who fought. This part was just really neat and interesting. We then drove the 8 hours back to campus and went straight back to work.

Well, that pretty much sums up the Northern Greece trip. Hopefully you enjoyed reading about it. I miss and love you all. See you in about 40 days! Love, Ryan

Back from the Land of Os

Hey everyone!! It's been forever since i've been on here. I almost forgot my password. Haha..I just wanted to let everyone know that we made it back from Egypt safely. It was AMAZING!!! I loved every second of it. I don't really have very much time to write about it right now..Especially since I haven't even written about my Northern Greece trip but I will definitely write them tomorrow on our day off. I named this the Land of Os because our tour guide was Osman and he was the nicest man ever!!! He would do anything for us. I was really sad to leave. Anyway, I have to go eat supper, so I will get back on tomorrow night. I am really upset that I missed the US Open. I would have loved to have seen that. Anyway, Love you all, and miss you! See you in about 40 something days!!! Love, Ryan

Give me a break, Give me a break, Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat Bar

Hey everybody! I'm really sorry that I haven't written in a while..The internet has been down here, and since it's been on I haven't had time to write because we've had so many tests and quizzes and homeworks. I had a Paul test the other day which I got a 92 on and I have a 92 in the class..Then, I had a Humanities test yesterday that I studied for like 3 hours for and then I had a Missionary Anthropology and Humanities Slide Test today. So, I've pretty much been studying since 2 o'clock this afternoon, and my brain is fried..I really just need a huge break, and that is exactly what I'm gonna get in Egypt and I am completely and utterly excited!!! I guess I should probably tell you about the weekend I had off. It was really amazing!! Jack, Andrew, Amie, Stacey, Ryan Hamling, Dani, and I all went to the Aegina Sea. We drove a ferry out to the island and we stayed in a hostel in Marina. It was sooo pretty..The hostel was a whole lot nicer than I expected it to be, and it was only 17 euro to stay there. I was really surprised. The people there and gave us rides to town whenever we wanted, and rides to the beach. They had a rock beach that was right by the hotel so Saturday, we just decided to go there because we didn't want to bug him and make him take us to the sandy beach. There were sea urchins everywhere. I almost didn't even want to get in the water. Dani stepped on one, and her foot started bleeding. It was pretty bad. Also, every girl and their grandma was topless..It was almost gross..lol..They just acted so nonchalant about it. It's really weird..Anyway, Saturday night, we just stayed at the hotel and watched the Greek vs. Russia soccer game on the big screen on the outside porch. It was insane. the Greek people were going crazy. The Greeks lost though 1-0. I think it would be awesome to go to a professional soccer game. I've really kinda gotten hooked to watching it since it's pretty much the only sport on television here. hahaha..Except I did get to watch the 4th quarter of Game 5 of the Finals. That made me very happy..lol..Even though I don't care for the Celtics or the Lakers..lol..Sunday, we slept in and then checked out at like 11 or so, and went to the sandy beach and stayed there all afternoon. It was so beautiful..It was really crowded though because it was a 3 day weekend for the people in Athens so everyone and their mom was there. But it was still tons of fun! Then we got back Sunday night about 10:30. Most of the people were back from their trips, and then Monday, it was time for business again. I'm so glad that I'm through until we get back from Egypt though. I really want this break so bad. Even though, it isn't technically a break cause we have so much to learn there, and write in our moleskines. But we do have a rest day on the friday we get back. So, I'm definitely looking forward to that. Our journals are due that day, so I guess I'm going to be working on my journal the whole day though..lol..The school part of this is not very great, but I am definitely loving it here, and I'm really sad there's only like 40 something days left..Anyway, we're about to watch either the Prince of Egypt or The Mummy to get our hearts set on Egypt...lol...So, I will talk to you all later, and I love you and miss all of you..See ya!! In Him, Ryan

June 10th

I really had no clue what to use for the title of this blog, so I just used the date..lol..Today has been pretty good. We had class of course, Missionary Anthropology was really interesting. I really like that class even though it's pretty hard. I made a 25/25 on the first Reflection Paper though..Yea! lol..We had to write about the differences between Greek and American culture that we've noticed so far, and similarities. It was pretty easy to come up with differences, but the similarities were pretty difficult. We also had Greek today. We learned how to say my something and your something..Pretty awesome stuff...hahaha..I also took Exam 2 today for Biology. I made a 75 but it's alright cause I made a 70 on the first test, and I found out yesterday that he moved it up to an 88. I was like..wow..lol..He curves his tests, so pretty much if I make a 75 or so, then I can end up with an A in the class. Hopefully. I don't really know how much he curves each test. They're so insanely hard though. After that test, I took the 15th quiz, and got an 18/18 so that was good. Then, i played basketball of course. lol..After that, Clint showed me some card tricks. He's really good at them. He showed me some at camp last year. We had chapel outside today. It was really pretty. We did it outside because all the HUHAers are here, and there's not enough room in the living room. I'm so tired right now though. I have too much reading to do. I have to read like 30 pages in Paul, and then I have to read a whole Chapter in Humanities, and then read like 20 pages from Missionary Anthropology and answer like 30 questions on the homework sheet. I have to do homework for all my classes because we're doubling up tomorrow like I said. I'm really not looking for to it at all. But I am looking forward to the whole weekend off!!! We already changed our plans. I think we're going to some other place that is closer than the ship, and it is really really neat. I don't know that much about it, but Jack said you can like scuba dive and swim around. And you can take ferry rides around the sea. Pretty much just an all around great time..hahahah...Oh yea, Calin Caruthers decided to go ahead and finish her trip and go to Peru for 2 weeks even though all that stuff happened. So, I guess it's okay if that's what she really wants to do. Also, the Richardson's daughter is going to Venezuela today. I think she's already left, so hopefully everything will be fine with that. Anyway, I think I'm gonna go get ready for supper. I will talk to you all later. I love you and miss you all..See ya in 2 months or so..lol..In Him, Ryan

Rainy Days and Mondays

Hey everybody..Just thought I would get on and ramble for a little while. Today has been pretty good. I woke up this morning, and I thought my alarm clock was messed up because I woke up at 8, and nobody was in the room so I was freaking out pretty bad and wondering why no one woke me up, so I hurried up and took a shower, and then ran downstairs and they just decided to eat breakfast this morning for some weird reason because they never do. So, I was downstairs and ready for class at 8:10 this morning..hahah..It just gave me a few extra minutes to look back over the Paul reading. I made an 8/10 on the quiz...Then, in Humanities we were supposed to have a quiz, but for some reason the powerpoint wouldn't open, so we got off clean..lol..I'm sure we'll just have 2 quizzes on Wednesday though. Speaking of Wednesday, it is pretty much going to be the longest day of my life. We're doing double classes so that we can have Saturday off to do whatever we want. I'm pretty sure Jack, Kim, Jen, Lacie, Andrew, Brian, Paul, and I (maybe a few other people) are going to Pirate's Cove. I don't know if anyone went there last year, Ashton, but if you know anything, feel free to tell me about it. I think it will be a whole lot of fun. It's an old Pirate ship on an island and you go and stay the day on the ship or jump off and swim in the ocean, and swim to the shore and stay on the beach. It will just be a whole lot of fun. Hopefully it won't cost too much. I guess I should also mention that I'm halfway done with my Biology class. Yay..lol..It's pretty much annoying, but I'm just gonna keep pluggin til it's over. He won't just open up all the exams though, and it really irritates me.
Also, HUHA (Harding University Honors Abroad) came today. And I was really surprised because Clint Lambert is with them. Did any of you know he was coming here? I couldn't believe my eyes at first. I saw him on the piano and I was like ha, that kid looks a whole lot like Clint Lambert, then he stood up and I was like wow..lol...It was pretty funny. Also, Mrs. Davis is here. I had her for Math my freshman year. She's really nice..She actually called me Ryan instead of Trey this time. I was surprised. hahah..There's like 25 of them, but I don't think it will be that much different than when the Burk's were here..Probably a little bit better since there's not little bitty kids running around. But in a way, it's worse because they all use the computers..hahaha..Anyway, I talked to Paul today and told him that I told you all about his incident and he said he didn't care so I can get rid of my guilty conscience..lol...
After they showed up, I went to play basketball of course..It's way too fun. Probably my favorite thing to do at the Artemis. My team won..again..lol...I'm undefeated here. Every team I've been on this semester so far has won, so I'm not saying it's me or anything, but..lol..Also, it started pouring down rain today. It was insane. It's the first time it's rained and it didn't hold anything back. Captain said that he's never seen it rain like this in June. So, now it's pretty humid outside..Reminds me of home..hahah..
Also, before supper, Captain told us that some of the Harding students that are in Venezuela were inside a museum, and some prisoners had escaped from prison, and they followed them into the museum and kidnapped three of the girls and the lady that was with them who was like the wife of a military guy there in Venezuela. One of the girls is Calin Caruthers and she is in Choir with us so we were all pretty upset about it. They were kidnapped, and they held them at gunpoint and told them to get in the car, and they took them 2 1/2 hours away, and on the way, they were talking about killing just one or if they should kill 2 or 3 or all of the women. It was pretty intense. But by the grace of God, they just decided to let them all go, and so they're fine now, but I think everyone is still pretty scared about it. And the Richardsons' (Professors that are here with us) daughter was planning on going to Venezuela tomorrow I think, but they're trying to figure out what she should do...I know it would be hard to let my daughter go to Venezuela right after something like that happened. But anyway, hopefully I didn't scare any of you too bad.
Alright, well, I think me and a few other people are gonna go get some ice cream. I might get back on and write some more stuff later tonight if I have time. I hope you all are having fun! Can't wait to see you all in now less than 2 months!! lol..I can't believe we're already 1/3 of the way done. Captain told us that today, and we were all like, stop it..lol..It's pretty sad, but I'm also looking forward to being back home. Alright I love and miss you all!! Bye!! In Him, Ryan

Back Home..Well, the Artemis

Hey!! I just wanted to write and tell you all that we're back at the Artemis now from our Northern Greece trip. It was a whole lot of fun. A bunch of random things happened. Our tour guide was really smart. Almost too smart, she kept talking over the loud speakers of the bus, and it was pretty annoying after a while. I don't mind if they say a little something every now and then, but she would get on and talk for like 15 minutes every time. Captain and her would get in arguments a lot over what the group was gonna do. It was really funny and kind of awkward to watch sometimes. I think probably the funniest thing that happened on this trip is that while we were at the 5 star hotel in Thessaloniki, (Ashton, I'm just gonna tell you right now...You're going to LOVE this story)..Paul, (like it already?) lol..was out on the balcony of his room dancing in his underwear, but they were definitely pulled up to where it was turned into a manthong..lol..and Lauren Smith (the girl that goes to visit Becha with him) came outside and saw him, and she was just like stunned and couldn't say anything, and Paul screamed and ran back in his room..I seriously died when Paul told me about it this morning..I even told him that I would pay him 2 euro to go up to her and say "Hey, Lookings free, but touching's gonna cost ya" lol..He wouldn't do it though..He was afraid she wouldn't talk to him anymore..But I did get him to dedicate the song "Googly Moogly, That Thang is Juicy" to her on the way back to Athens. She just turned blood red...It was sooooo funny. Anyway, like normal, I have about 500 pages to read, so I will get back write more about the trip when I get my moleskine back as usual, and I love and miss you all, and hope you are having a great summer..See ya'll in 2 months!! In Him, Ryan

Corinth, Peloponnese, epidarus, mycenae, and olympia

Hey everybody!! Once again, I'm really sorry that it's taken me this long to write about my trip, but it is really long, and I haven't really had time until now to actually think about doing it. But anyway, I hope you enjoy reading it. On Monday, May 26th, we went to Corinth first. Our guides name was Dionysus (god of excess) which I thought was pretty funny. We saw the Ancient Theatre which is from the Roman period. We also saw a stone with Erastus' name carved in it, and I thought it was really cool because he is mentioned in Acts 19:22 and Romans 16:23 and even in 2 Tim. 4:20..So, this could have been where he was at that time, but there is not really any proof of it. We also saw the Roman Odeum. It was smaller than the theater. It was used for musical concerts. We also went in to the museum and saw many different things. We walked in and the first thing we saw were statues who were all beheaded. I thought it was pretty interesting. We also saw many of the pots had a meander pattern which goes up and down, and it was supposed to symbolize life because life has ups and downs. Many of the sculptors had the Archaic smile and almond eyes. Some believe the smile symbolized the dead were resting in peace, so I thought that was pretty interesting to find out. Corinthians also invented the helmets with the covers over the cheeks and above the nose and between the eyes. We saw many of those, and I thought they were really cool. Then we saw the Temple of Octavian. It was in Corinthian Style. I thought it was a pretty neat temple, but after seeing all the ones at the Acropolis, it wasn't that amazing..hahaha. We then went into the Agora. Paul visited here where there were many prostitutes and foreign nationality. He preached here and was accused by the Jews and stayed for a year and a half and then 3 months. Next, we saw the Temple of Apollo. It was destroyed by the Romans. This is where the people met with their friends to talk and it had many shops and a marketplace. Then, we saw the Corinthian Canal. It was so breathtaking because it was just this bridge and then a humongous drop off to the bottom of a creek that's only about 7 m deep. They said you can bungee jump off here, but I definitely would pass on that trip. hahaha..
Okay, the next part is probably my favorite spot in all of Corinth except maybe the Acrocorinth. We saw the Bema which is exactly where Paul stood and spoke to people and where he was tried. It's recorded in Acts 18:1. This is the court from vs. 12 that he stood in front of and I found it very moving that it Captain said we can be sure that Paul stood right where we were standing. I just thought that was the neatest thing, that we know for sure he stood there. We also sung songs here and many of the people stopped what they were doing and listened to us. I always feel really weird when we do that, but in the end, it makes me feel good if someone says something to us about how good it was or thanking us for doing it.
Next, we went to the Acrocorinth. This was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. It was so gorgeous. I do not even think my words can describe it. It was definitely a battle getting up there, but it was completely worth it. We ate a sack lunch on top of the Acrocorinth and then headed back down and went to Epidarus.
In Epidarus, we saw the Sanctuary of Asclepios. In Asclepios' statues, he is always shown witha snake. The Sanctuary of Asclepios was also a healing station (hospital). Then we saw the Temple of Artemis which was from the 5th century B.C. I thought it was pretty neat, but still after seeing Acropolis, it is going to be really hard to beat those in my mind. The theater in Epidarus was definitely one of the top places on this trip and probably in any trip we will take this semester. The theater was plain amazing. You could stand in the middle, and the people at the very top, if they were quiet, could hear you when you spoke in a normal voice. It was pretty awesome. All the choir members(Jack, Andrew, Jen, Kim, Lacie, Leah, and I) all sang The Lord Bless You and Keep You on the stage and pretty much everyone in the audience listened to us. It was so amazing, and then our whole group sang a couple songs for everybody. The theater was definitely one of the best things about this trip. The hotel that we stayed at Monday night was really nice. My roommates were Jarod and Sterling. We definitely had a crazy time. There was a beach, and I went to it twice. Once before supper and then after. I only swam afterwards though. It was so pretty.
On Tuesday, we started off going to Naphlion where the Palamidi Fortress is. The Palamidi Fortress was really cool. It was huge and was built in 4 years. There were also small fortresses inside. We saw the Gate of Andrew here. It had the Lion of Venice above the gate. There was also a hole so they could drop things on enemies and also the turns made it hard for enemies to see them before they got caught. On free time, Jack, Andrew, and I crawled into the Kolokotrone's Prison. It was really really cool in there. Add me a couch and some cable and internet and I'm good for a couple years. Very homey. lol..Next on Tuesday, we went to Mycenae where we saw the Tomb of Agamemnon. They thought it was the King's Tomb because it was so huge. There was s dromos, passage to the tomb. The stone above the doorway weighs 120 tons. That is amazing to me how they even got that up there. I really have no clue how in the world they do most of the things they did. They thought the side chamber in the Tomb was for the queen or just more of the King's belongings. The doorway was 13.5 m high. Inside the tomb, it was 40 feet tall and had a side chamber. It was built with the cabelling system. Captain also asked me to lead a couple songs in the Beehive Tomb. It was really neat and the acoustics were amazing in there too. Then, we went to the Archeological site. This is where we saw the Tomb of Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife. We also saw the Lion Gate here. I thought the Lion Gate was astonishing. It had Cyclopean walls, they were called this because the stones were so huge, they thought the Cyclops had to have built it. The lantel weighs 18 tons. The lions were supposed to symbolize the power of the royal family. We also saw Grave Circle A which was founded by Heinrich Schliemann. I thought it was very interesting. It had 18 skeletons and the Mask of Agamemenon. There were 5 masks altogether. Schliemann thought Grave Circle A was the burial site for Agamemnon and his family. Then we saw the remains of the Megaron. This is where the king lived and where he would meet people who had to ask him questions or if he needed to meet with foreign leaders. The last thing we did in Mycenae was go to the Cistern. It was the last extension of the citadel. I thought it was really cool. It was 18 meters deep, and very very dark. There was pretty much a wall of bugs in the air at the beginning and a couple definitely got in my mouth, but it was still worth it to go down there, and see it.
The last place we went on this trip was Olympia. We saw the Sanctuary dedicated to Zeus. It is where the first Olympic games were held in 776 A.D. The games were dedicated to Zeus and held in honor of him. I also thought it was interesting that they used the Olympic games as their dating system. The games lasted 5 days. On the first day, they would get ready, the second day, they had teenage games. The third day was horse races and pentathlon in the afternoon. On the fourth day, they would sacrifice cows for Zeus and did individual games like running and wrestling. And the last day was the closing ceremony in front of the Temple of Zeus. I thought that the penalty for cheating was really interesting. They had to pay for a bronze statue and the statue would have the name of the person who cheated, and their father's name on it, and it would be placed out front for everyone to see forever. I also thought that the Bronze Helmet of Miltiades was really really neat. It carried an inscription on it (Miltiades). It was dedicated to Zeus after his victory over the Persians at Marathon in 490 B.C. We also saw the Statue of Nike. It was really amazing I thought. She was supposedly coming from the sky to bring victory to the athletes. After Nike, we went and saw Hermes of Praxiteles. This statue was completely astonishing. I could not really believe my eyes. In the state, Hermes is carrying baby, Dionysus to the Nymphs to be taken care of. This is one of the few works of Praxiteles. It is made with the best quality of marble. We also saw some statues from the Temple of Zeus. They used to be colored back in ancient times. The East Pediment was a depiction fo Olympic games, and the West Pediment was of severe style, and it was a depiction of war.
In the Archeological site of Olympia, we saw the Philippion which was started by Philip the Great. It was built after the battle to show the Greeks that he was a Greek as well, and did not want to hurt them. Alexander the great finished it because Philip was assassinated. We also saw the Palestra, which was the place where they wrestled. It was a courtyard where they'd train for wrestling, and all the other rooms were used to spread olive oil, and dust on their body. The next room held one of teh first Roman baths discovered. We also saw Zeus' Temple. There was a hole in the middle of the columns to protect against earthquakes, which obviously didn't work too well because, an earthquake tore them down. (I love irony). There was an olive tree on the back side of the temple. This is also the temple where the closing ceremonies of the Olympics were held in front of.
We also saw the Temple of Hera. The altar in front is where they would light the Olympic flame. They would use a mirror to start the flame, then they would pass the torch to the athletes, then the athletes took it to Athens where it would stay the night in the Parthenon. Then, they would take it to the city where the Olympics was being held. They do this even today which I found very interesting. The last thing we saw was also definitely one of the coolest things of this trip. We went into the Stadium of Olympia. Some of the guys ran through chanting, I guess to act like they were Olympic athletes..haha..idk..but anyway, it was 192 meters long..thats like longer than 2 football fields. I was amazed. Some of the guys and girls raced down it, and Frank Bolling won, who is on Harding's track team..Big surprise, I know..lol..Anyway, this trip was definitely a whole lot of fun, and I can not wait to get to go to on the other trips. Hope you all are having a great time. Talk to ya'll later..Love and miss you all..In Him, Ryan

Test and then Fievel Goes West..

Hey everybody!! Today was a pretty good day. I woke up had Paul,,made a 4/5 on that quiz, and then i had humanities..i made a 4/5 on that quiz, and then i came up to the room and took an hour nap or so, and then we had chapel where Dino spoke to us. He's the preacher or the person in charge at the Greek church we go to. After that, I studied for our Humanities test we had. I'm pretty sure I did okay except for the word bank stuff we had on the moleskine. Most of the stuff, I had no clue what it was. I talked to her after the test, and she said she would probably just make them 1/2 a point each or drop the hardest 5, so that would be good. Tonight, we had pizza and we watched Fievel Goes West!!! I was so excited. I used to love that movie!! (in case no one remembers) lol..alright, then, i played basketball for a couple hours..of course..hahah..anyway, I'm pretty tired so I'm about to head to bed. I'll see you all in about 2 months!! I love and miss ya'll..Ryan

Back to the Normal Life

Hey!! well, since we've been back from corinth, we started class again, and it's pretty much the same 'ol same 'ol..Read-quiz..then, read-quiz..lol..i made a 4/5 on the bible one, and a 5/5 on the humanities one..first 5 this year in humanities..yea!!! hahah..anyway, i took two biology quizzes today too, and all that's open and left to take is Exam 2. I'm not really looking forward to that one..Plus, not counting that, I have a Greek quiz tomorrow and our first Humanities Exam Saturday..So, Ashton, if you can tell me BEFORE the test how hers are..I think you might have, I just don't really remember..lol..Hopefully they aren't too bad..Biology is about to wear me out..but i just have 11 more quizzes to take..ive done 14 out of 25..and ill probably take the second exam on sunday..Hopefully, he opens up the other quizzes and exams so i can just hurry up and do them..He needs to cause if he waits too long, i won't be able to take them because of trips..Anyway, enough about school...This afternoon, i played basketball for about 3 hours..First, Me and Dr. Wam Bam Schramm beat Lauren and Anna..It was pretty fun..They didn't want to touch me because i sweat so much..so i had a wide open shot every time..lol..My sweat is my best offense, and there's plenty of people who can attest to that..lol..and i don't even know if i used the right word there, but i'm just gonna go on anyway..haha..Alright, then Frank, Schramm Bam, Chris, Ross, and I played shoot-out...That's pretty much how my day has been...I hope you all are having a great summer..I love and miss you all!! see ya in 2 months..or something..kinda lose track of time and dates around here..haha..alright..Bye!! In Him, Ryan