fireworks and popcorn

It being wedding and passing-monumental-tests season... and also summer... the fireworks in the area have gone insane. Usually this only happens on Friday. Now it's pretty much every night.

Hello everyone :)

It’s been close to another full week since our last blog post (maybe a little longer, but who’s really keeping track)… Woah! It’s almost been 2 weeks. That is a fail oooooooooonnnnnn… we’ll say Kasey’s part. Shame on Kasey. Everyone “boo” her right now.

Some updates on our last blog post (July 14): Both of us are trying to get our normal sleeping habits back—going to bed at a decent time and waking up early. Both of us have pretty much stopped playing on the piano. We had a good 7 days of excitement as a new thing was brought into our apartment and our lives, but we both kind of just drifted off of it. Jon is going to need a lot more push to learn the piano (maybe take piano lessons sometime in the far far future) he doesn’t have the passion to learn on his own just yet. AND we both got our visas hassle free! We can both stay in Israel for another year legally without any trouble. Thank God for that :) He really did provide for us here. Everything went smoothly and extremely fast. Thank you for all your prayers on that one.

On Sunday both of us went to The Coffee Bean (a very relaxing coffee shop… they have them in North America) for about 4 hours where Kasey wrote and Jon organized more photos—Jon goes through each of his pictures taken from field studies and writes down all the info about that site next to it (the info he was given on the field study day). It was extremely relaxing and very productive. After that we met up with one of our friends who joined us in visiting a church that we found: King of Kings (www.KKCJ.org).

Jon even found a couple of songs that he never heard before and wrote them on his hand so that he could get them later on… BUT one wash of the hands and it was all smudged and he was not able to get those songs… sad day I know, but whatcha gonna do…


This morning our landlady gave us a bunch of fresh grapes right off the vine in our backyard. They were delicious and it was very thoughtful :) And SOON we will be eating dinner. Don’t know what we are going to have yet.

We want to go back to The Coffee Bean.

Hello other side of the world.

It’s been about a week and we wanted to keep up with the blog updates.

In order to keep us amused this last week Jon decided to see how long he could stay up. He only stayed up for about 46 hours. Within those hours things started to happen. An example being that Jon started having micro naps – he would be sitting up then immediately fall asleep where he would have a dream (usually about Harry Potter for some reason) and then wake up like 15-30 seconds later. Other than just being really tired, that’s about all that happened to him.

We are taking care of an electric piano for the rest of the summer! Kasey is really excited as she has been playing since she was little but has not had the chance to play the piano in a while. She hoped on the piano and it would seem like she never took a break. Jon loves listening to her play.

Jon has wanted to relearn the piano for a long time now! SO he will

be able to start. Kasey has taught him some basic things to learn (learning the keys and getting use to moving your fingers around). He is going to practice everyday so we will see how it goes. It’s really REALLY annoying when you want to play an awesome song but can’t!! It’s driving Jon crazy. So he’s really going to try and learn.

Jon’s visa expires Friday (July 16^th) so we REALLY need to renew his visa. Kasey will be put as a dependant on Jon’s visa. We are going on Tuesday morning to sit in front of the door and try to get in (because our lawyer couldn’t get us an appointment… great lawyer hey?) so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pray that they let us in to get new visas that will allow us to legally stay in Israel for the next year.

Some really good news is that Kasey got her tax return! She got enough to pay her government loans for the next year, which really helps us. But sadly it did not decrease the amount that we need for Jon’s tuition and plane tickets… sad day, but it’s all good. If you would like to know our money situation then please look back to the previous post (July 6).

Thank you for all your prayers!

Year Update

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, we’ve been here in Israel for nearly a full year, and at times, it definitely feels like it! If you’ve been out of the loop, here’s the basic info: Jon is pursuing his M.A. degree at a very well recognized graduate school: Jerusalem University College (American Institute of Holy Land Studies -- http://juc.edu/ ). He will receive his degree in Biblical History and Geography, his main track focusing on Old Testament and 2^nd Temple History. Jon wants to pursue a career in teaching.

While Jon has been hard at work studying, Kasey has been teaching full time at The Jerusalem School, a K-12 school that teaches Palestinian children. Over the past year, she has taught grades 8-12 in a variety of subjects (Chemistry, Biology, Physical and Earth Sciences, American History, Finance, and Religion). Kasey had never taught in a formal setting before she was hired at The Jerusalem School, but she has found that it is not only something that she is good at, it is something she loves.

Since Jon has been entirely focused on his studies, it has fallen to Kasey to earn as much of an income as possible. The Jerusalem School is missions-based and while they have helped in finding us an apartment and giving Kasey employment, most of their workers are volunteers who receive a stipend. Kasey receives a monthly $400 (USD) when the school can manage it. This helps tremendously, but even living as frugally as possible, it does leave us wanting every month.

Living month-to-month as we have had to do has taught us a great deal about having faith in the Lord. We have had several occasions throughout the year when we did not know if we could continue on, but the Lord has always blessed us! At the end of the spring semester, we had run out of all shekels, and Jon was trapped at home, without bus money to go take his last final. We asked a neighboring couple if we could borrow 10 NIS (roughly $2.50 USD) for Jon to make it to school and back. A moment later they handed us 100 NIS and then brought over a huge meal and extras to fill our empty cupboards. In truth, without God, we would not have been able to make it this far, and would have run completely out of money a long time ago.

Jerusalem University College is a reputable school in the academic community, but because of its size and its location, it is not yet recognized by either the American or the Canadian governments. This makes it impossible to take out an educational loan through them, or to halt payments on previous student loans. Jon’s grades have been good enough that he has received a major scholarship for this coming semester, so we know that, barring unforeseen expenses, we will definitely make it until December. However, after that, we are entirely dependent on God. If Jon receives the same amount in scholarship money as he did this semester, we will need roughly $5,000. This will cover Jon’s remaining tuition, some bills we have still at home, and plane tickets back to America. God has provided for us so far, and we have faith that He will continue to provide.

We have been so blessed by your support and prayers over the past year! Please pray that God will provide and keep us safe in Israel.

In Christ,

Jonathan and Kasey Harkness

If you would like to donate, please email us at jkharkness5909@gmail.com , and we will provide you with the address you can send checks to.

July

Hello everyone!

Been a Loooooong time since we last posted. I hope you are getting use to it by now :P

We just finished up a very fun time with Kasey’s parents. They came for two weeks and we traveled the country visiting spots of the Bible and seeing the touristy areas of Israel. It was a blast. We are all very tired now (Terry and Karen more so as they JUST got home after being awake for 31 hours).

It was great seeing them and spending time with each other.

Some new news about Polly our cat. Our landlord/Kasey’s main boss finally made the decision that there are no animals allowed in any of the apartments. So we had to find another home for Polly in a short amount of time because he was kicking her out. Fortunately God knew this was going to happen and caused Kasey’s boss to make this decision when Terry and Karen got here.

Polly warmed right up to them (that was not like her with strangers) and they offered to take Polly home with them. She is now safe and sound in a VERY good home in San Diego. The shipping of Polly cost a bit more than we thought (almost double) but is was well worth it as she is a one of a kind cat. I even find myself missing her, which is not really like me (the whole emotional thing… especially with an animal). Don’t worry we plan to have Skype dates with Polly so that she will not forget our voices… oh ya and those other people that she is now in charge of :P

Saying good-bye was very hard for Kasey, as she had to see her parents again, say good-bye to them a second time (we will not see them for another year) and THEN to say goodbye to Polly who has grown to be part of our little family. It was a sad day.

Because Kasey’s parents visited during the last two weeks of June, Kasey and I are not able to teach summer school, because they booked summer school during those two weeks and into July. The funny thing is that the high school summer program was mainly depended on Kasey and I as the main teachers, they could have changed the dates I guess but they didn’t do that. Instead, I believe, they just give homework to the high school students to do at home or something, which sucks for them… but summer school just sucks in general.

Now that Terry and Karen are gone Kasey and I have about 1.5 months by ourselves… literally. So we shall become masters at entertaining ourselves in our apartment for that time :P

We will have A LOT more time on our hands now, so HOPEFULLY the blog will be updated a bit more. And maybe this next year we will try to post something once a week (that was our original plan) even if it’s just to say hello.

Some prayer requests:

-For our continuous protection while we are here

-For God to provide for our finances as the next tuition payment is due in about 2 months

-For our cat Polly who is now living in San Diego with the McHenry’s that she will love it there AND that she won’t forget Kasey and me

-That God will provide jobs for Kasey and I when we return (we are starting to apply to different jobs)

Praise reports:

-Polly found next to the perfect home and shipping her went extremely smooth with no problems that we have heard of yet. (she didn’t even cry when she was in the airport when we were saying goodbye to her)

-We got to spend 2 weeks with family and it was very refreshing

End of Semester

HELLO! This is Jon.

I JUST finished my second semester here at JUC and O MY GOSH. The last couple of weeks have been a tad scary :P I had my History paper worth 50% of my final grade, my Hebrew exam worth 40% (usual), but my Geography paper was worth 100% (apparently everyone gets either a B or an A, so they SAY I have nothing to worry about), AND my Archaeology exam was worth 100% of my grade. WHO in the world does this to students (I’m talking about the 100% worth)… it is insane… in the membrane.

BUT I finished and now I must wait till the end of May-ish to get my grades back and to see if I made it on to the next round… it’s kind of annoying. It is summer vacation though, although it’s going to be an extremely busy summer J But I’ll get to that a little later.

Some cool things that have happened lately with God providing for us. Kasey and I were a little lower in cash than usual (don’t worry we are always low on cash, haha), and were regularly having a simple pita, vegetables, pasta stuff (the usual food for students). But we ran out of cash and I needed 10 shekels for the bus for my last exam (about $2.50 U.S.). So we went to one of our nice old couple neighbors (yes we have more than one) and I asked for 10 shekels to get to and from my exam.

They came back and gave Kasey and I 100 shekels!! It was amazingly nice of them, and reminded me of that verse in the Bible that says “if someone asks you for your cloak, give him your hat too” (or something like that, I can’t really remember the exact words). It was very nice and blessed us a lot. THEN they called us on the phone and asked us if we would like the leftovers from a party they went to, we said sure thinking it was going to be little snacks. No. She literally gave us enough for two dinners between the both of us. It was great. AND it was Mexican food.

THEN our other old neighbor couple asked if we liked Watermelon, Kasey said yes (I’m not a huge fan of it) and they gave us a quarter of a watermelon! It was a good day for food!

(The rest of this blog has been updated a week after the above stuff was written… my bad) (and then Kasey went through this morning and fixed stuff)

It has only been a week since I finished my finals, but it seriously feels like it’s been 3 weeks. Oh well. I have started to read The Chronicles of Narnia (thanks to Kasey) I hope to have it all finished by the end of next week. It’s very enjoyable J Kasey has about 2 (3 including the week of exams and the DAY AND A HALF in which I have to grade around 70 exams) weeks left of school, which is nice for her cause then she gets about a month break before we teach summer school.

As for my summer plans, at the end of this week I have a friend and his buddy coming to stay with us and I’m going to give them the tour of Israel (they are renting a car which allows us to do this A LOT easier, instead of taking a bus everywhere). So that will be lots of fun. They are staying from May 22-June 3. This first trip allows me to perfect the tour experience for when my in-laws get here on June 15-June 30 (Terry and Karen McHenry). (don't worry, Mama, I am well aware that you actually come on the 16th)

The weather here is gradually getting hotter and hotter. Kasey and I are almost at the point where we sleep with just a sheet, and then soon after that we will need the fan on all night (directly on us). During the summer there is NO rain whatsoever and barely any clouds, which is AWESOME… if you were allowed to wear beach clothes. BUT we are not, we have to covered (jeans and t-shirts), so it’s not very fun to go outside unless you have a car to be in or you are going to the beach.

Kasey and I would like to think that we have adjusted the climate and culture enough that it doesn’t bother us anymore, but we will see when it gets even hotter here :P

Ummm… for those of you who enjoy the TV show “Firefly” I have almost finished the half season (in reality it aired nearly the full season and was only cut a couple of episodes short. They just had no warning before they had to stop filming.) that aired and am actually wanting to find the comic stuff that gives you more explanation about the different characters and their history/background.

That is about it for now. I’m sorry we suck at this blogging thing. I think we update our stuff SO MUCH on facebook that we tend to forget about it.

Please continue to pray that God provides for us in every way J

Thanks!

(Hey, cool, the Firefly episode where they get shipped a dead dude is on!)

EGYPT!! (brace yourselves, it's a long one)

Hello :D Jon and Kasey here…

Egypt. So much to tell. We started our trip right after Kasey’s work. Half of us took a taxi and the other got driven by the principal to the central bus station in Jerusalem. We had to go through security and long story short JON got pulled aside… out of all the people in line (not just our group, but the 40 people waiting to get through) JON got pulled aside (Kasey: hang on, when you hear it you’ll understand).

Jon had packed his camping knife that his dad gave him before he came here. You need to understand that this knife is REALLY big. Anyway, Jon gets pulled aside, gets questioned and then is escorted to the police office because apparently it is illegal to carry any knife in Jerusalem that is larger than your palm (just fyi). Jon thought it was kind of fun that all this was happening, but we only had about 45 min until our bus left and we didn’t know how long this would take. It didn’t take long, they looked at the knife, told Jon the rules and told him to put it back in his bag. We have learned that if you get pulled over for anything or questioned about anything by the authorities all you have to do is play the “stupid American” card. It always seems to work :D We made our bus and arrived 5 hours later in Eilat, around 9pm.

When we got there, from looking online at how to do this trip, we were under the impression that the Egyptian border was just 100 meters away. We went 100 meters and no border, so we asked a lot of random people and each person had a different answer: 20 miles, 11miles, 30 km, 1 km, etc… it was annoying because nobody really seemed to know how far the border was. But eventually we had to get a cab ($10) to drive us to the border (it was REALLY far away). We got to the border and first we had to go through all of the Israeli border control.

Jon did not get pulled aside this time. We had to pay around $30 each as a tax for getting out of the country and then had to go through about 2 more places where they looked at your passport. THEN we got to the Egyptian border, where we had to show our passports 2 times in order to get through. Around 11pm, we arrived in Egypt for the first time :D

Now came the difficult part: Bargaining for a taxi all the way to Dahab. You get into Egypt and there are like 20 big van taxis all ready to give you a ride, except there is no set price… it’s ALL bargaining! After about 10-20 min of haggling with these guys we finally agreed on $15 each. Before we took off a group of Jews joined us. We chatted for a while and later on in the trip one of the couples entertained us by making out in front of us for about 20 min straight… who knew Jews where so scandalous :P The ride down was pretty heart stopping… meaning your heart stopped all the time out of fear. It was pitch black outside because there were no lights on the highway and we were driving through the Sinai Mountains. On our way there we passed an identical taxi car that had flipped over and crashed… it looked bad but we did not stop. So that did not help us. By that time I’m pretty sure a bunch of us started praying for that taxi and our own lives as well. We made it to Dahab after 2 hours of crazy driving in the dark. We got to our rooms and were extremely surprised how nice the hostel was! We stayed at the Alaska Camp and Hotel, for $8 each/night. Kasey and I crashed.

(This is where Kasey takes over)

Just fyi, on the way to Dahab, all but one of the girls in the taxi completely passed out, so really it was the guys who suffered. I wasn’t awake to see the taxi that had flipped over, but I do know that on the way back a few days later, a delivery truck had flipped over the barrier and both the driver and passenger were killed.

When we arrived in Dahab, our first impression was one of dismay. For those of you who haven’t heard our current home in Beit Hanina described, it’s essentially 10 times worse than the “bad” parts of town back home. Everything is run down and looks like it was completely destroyed at one point. The streets are littered with garbage, and when it’s unfamiliar, you feel extremely unsafe.

Our first impression of Dahab was that it reminded us of Beit Hanina. The girls had woken by this point and we stared in dismay, wondering just how bad our vacation was going to be. Our driver, moreover, had no idea where anything was. He pulled up to a group of men and asked directions to our hostel. We were grateful to have arrived, but still slightly regretting our choice of vacation spots. Two of our friends (Nick and Angel) were staying at another hotel, and nobody had any clue where it was. Our Israeli friends seemed to leave the taxi at the same time as we did, but Nick and Angel had to go off into the distance on their own, and no one had any idea of how we’d get in touch with them over the next few days to coordinate our return.

I left Jon to worry about the bags and walked into the hostel. There was a small main gate through which I could see a flagstone path and plants. As I walked through, I could tell that the hostel was small, but it seemed peaceful and most importantly, clean. I found the office, we all got checked in, and went off to our rooms.

We were glad to see that the people who worked at the hostel were friendly, that nothing here resembled the main street, and that our room, while very simple, was very clean. We even had our own bathroom, which was unexpected. Jon and I looked around for a couple of minutes before, as he said, we crashed. It was about 3am.

Jon woke up super early and went out to check out our situation. He brought his camera and wandered out the side of the hostel opposite the gate we entered the night before. We didn’t realize it until the day before we left, but Dahab is one hour behind Israel, so it was about an hour before any of the shops or restaurants were going to open.

I slept a couple hours longer than Jon, until he came back and woke me up to show me the pictures.

Right outside of our hostel was the boardwalk of Dahab. Lining the boardwalk are shop after shop, and restaurant upon restaurant. The restaurants were all directly on the beach. Well… not so much a beach as a wall at which the ocean stopped. You literally could have jumped from your table into the ocean (which Jon and I did on several occasions).

I got up somewhere around 10 and we went to meet our friends at a restaurant called El Fanar, where our breakfast was 10 LE (about $2) with free Bedouin tea. Jon and I were excited to see an “American” breakfast, which included eggs, bacon, and toast, on their menu. By “toast” they meant plain white bread (untoasted) and by “bacon” they meant spam, but, you know….

After that we went our separate ways. Our friends Anna and Christie had been up since 6, napping in various spots along the beach, and they planned to do the same for the rest of the day. Anna’s brother and sister-in-law, Jesse and Aisha, wanted to go shopping. Jon and I wanted to walk down the boardwalk for about 35 minutes to “The Laguna,” where all the resort beaches were. Jesse and Aisha decided to go with us, and we took off walking.

Unfortunately I had decided to wear my new Croc heels, but my feet are so soft that after about 10 minutes I’d rubbed several blisters into my toes and feet. I walked the rest of the way barefoot, over crunchy dirt and scalding patches. That added a couple more blisters.

BUT at last we arrived at the Laguna, and it was awesome. If you’ve been on facebook you saw how bright blue the water was there. There was no guard at the post to the entrance, so we just walked right in and settled into some lounge chairs. We noticed that we were almost definitely not allowed, because everyone else had the same hotel-prescribed towel, but we decided to stay for as long as we would be allowed. Jesse and Aisha had expected more shopping, and Jesse had forgotten his swim shorts, so they only hung out for a little while before taking off to walk back.

Jon and I (of course) wanted to go swimming, so we waded into the water, which was much, MUCH colder than expected. We stood waist-deep for a while and then Jon took the plunge, swimming out a ways and videoing himself. I waited a while longer and then joined him, and then we laid on the lounge chairs for a while, drying off and enjoying the exposure to the vitamin D.

After a couple of hours someone from the hotel did notice that we didn’t belong and very politely asked us to leave. I couldn’t walk back with no shoes, though, because my feet were already too damaged, so we went to the hotel shop and picked up some cheap flip-flops. It took us around 40 minutes to get back to our hostel.

We relaxed for a while (and I washed off my feet), and then we went to see if the girls wanted to join us for dinner. They were napping in their room at this point, completely exhausted from all the sun.

When they finally emerged from their room, they were bright red all over – sunburned lobster red. Evidently this was their plan all along, but they were definitely in pain for a long while.

We went to dinner at Meya Meya. On our way back from the Laguna, Jon and I were stopped by a guy named Mohammad who worked there, and because we looked semi-skeptical, he kept throwing in free things. In the end we got five free things: starter, tea, bottled water, dessert, and a smile, and we promised to come back.

Eating in Dahab is a very relaxing experience. Meya Meya, like many of the other restaurants, was covered in pillows. You sat on a pillow and leaned on a pillow, with a tiny table in the middle. When it got dark and the wind got stronger, they pulled a giant carpet up as a wall and lit bonfires throughout the place. Jesse and Aisha, who had gone on a camel ride up a mountain to watch the sunset, joined us near the end and then we all decided to head to a restaurant called Yalla Bar, where one of the guys who worked at our hostel also worked at night. We sat around and played Phase 10 until we were all too tired to worry about getting 1 set of 5 and 1 set of 2, and then we went back to the hostel and to bed.

Jon and I woke up early to reserve lounge chairs for us all at Yalla. Most restaurants had lounge chairs lining the wall along the water. We got there at about 7 am, spread out our stuff to save 6 chairs, and lounged until the restaurant opened. We ordered a continental breakfast, which was the perfect start to the day, and actually included toast, and then Jon went to the scuba and snorkel shop across from Yalla to pick up snorkeling gear for the day for $2 each. Jesse and Aisha showed up about then, so we waited for them to have their breakfast and take over the chairs, and then we jumped in the water and took off the adjust to snorkeling again.

Aisha didn’t know how to swim but wanted to try snorkeling anyway. Jesse spent a few minutes in the water readjusting to how snorkels work, and then he helped Aisha wade in, life vest and all. We spent a while getting Aisha used to being in the water and lying on her stomach kicking, then we all took a break to lie on our lounge chairs. By then Anna and Christie were awake and wisely applied sunscreen. We all spent the day with a combination of swimming and sunbathing.

Around 2, Nick and Angel showed up. Their hotel had a shuttle running to “downtown Dahab,” which was the boardwalk, so they’d come to find us. Anna and Christie, Nick and Angel, went off to have a late lunch, while the rest of us snorkeled some more.

At about 4 we headed back to the hostel to shower, and then we went to El Mundo for dinner. We literally picked fresh fish from a cooler and had it cooked for us. Jon had spent so long in the sun that he was suffering from a little bit of heat exhaustion (the rest of us sat under an umbrella later in the day, but he refused), so he didn’t feel like eating at all. The fish was amazing, which he missed, but we also had milk shakes, which he made it most of the way through (Jon here—the milkshake was SO GOOD, but I could barely drink it. I finished about half of it and then Kasey had the rest).

After diner, Jesse and Aisha went off to do last-minute shopping. Jon headed back to the room, but Anna, Christie, and I went wandering from shop to shop, finally winding up at a crepe place to split a double chocolate crepe, and then going to a salon to have our nails done (um… worst mani/pedis ever).

Because Jesse and Aisha were heading back to America in the very early morning on Tuesday, and they still wanted to visit Ramallah (a town behind the wall next to Beit Hanina), they were going to leave on Sunday, which was not originally planned. When we had bought our bus tickets, we planned on being there till Monday. Before we had left Jerusalem, Jesse and Nick had spent our last minutes frantically arguing with the bus station to switch 3 of the tickets to Sunday (Jesse, Aisha, Anna). They repeatedly said they needed 3 tickets switched. The woman switched 4, and then said, “You’re going to miss your bus,” and they had to rush to make it on board.

This unfortunately meant that Christie had to leave early with them (Nick tried calling once we made it to Dahab, but the office was closed for the holiday), so this was their last night in Dahab. Anna, Christie, and I lounged in the pillowed area of our hostel, chatting, and then we all headed back to our rooms. They left before 8 the next morning.

Jon and I had a very lazy Sunday. We went to the Friends restaurant and lay on the benches to read and eat our breakfast. We spent the morning there and then went back to our room for a nap. We went back to Friends for dinner and played Phase 10 and read, and chatted with the little girls who came by to sell bracelets (we found it was quicker to decline by speaking Arabic instead of English [“La, habibti” or “La, shoukran”]. If you speak English they try even harder to sell you something). We went back and went to bed fairly early, enjoying the peace.

We woke up early the next morning and went to sit in the sun at Yalla to have breakfast and read. We’d worn our bathing suits, expecting to swim, but the wind was strong and the water was choppy, so we stayed on our benches, soaking up some last-minute sun and, again, enjoying the tranquility.

We headed back to our room at 9 to pack and shower. Nick and Angel met us at the hostel at around 10:30 and we went to wait for our taxi driver. Because the same drive took the other group the previous day at 8, he’d assumed we wanted to leave at 8 too, and had showed up at 8 and then left when we didn’t show up (we had a receipt clearing marking that we were leaving at 11, but oh well). We got there before 11 and he was called back, and arrived around 20 minutes late.

Our taxi ride back was fairly pleasant. There was no air conditioning so we had the windows rolled down, and our driver kept stopping along the way to show us specific mountains (“Look, it’s a camel!”). All in all, we arrived at the border 3 hours before our bus was to leave Eilat.

We had to walk a ways from where our taxi let us out and where the border was. Imagine our surprise when we ran into a very long, long line of hippies who were also intent on getting back into Israel.

The border consists of 8 checks: one to check your passport and Egyptian visa when you arrive, another to scan your luggage as you exit, another to review paperwork and claims, another as you leave the Egyptian border to make sure you’ve been processed… then a passport check as you enter the Israeli border, then a luggage scan, then the paperwork… and one more passport check so that you can leave the border. It took us 2 ½ hours to get through, and at that point we were a 10-minute taxi ride from the bus station, and it was 5 minutes AFTER when the bus was supposed to leave. We did what we could, but our taxi driver was an uncommonly safe one, and we arrived 15 minutes after our bus left.

Between talking with information, cashiers, managers, and almost the police when security spotted an unattended bag (we all wandered off to find a solution to our transportation and forgot to bring a suitcase), we finally managed to switch our tickets to a later bus that was going to Tel Aviv. We had about an hour and a half left, and we were all starving, so we wandered about a half-mile away from the bus station, luggage in tow, to find one of the only things open (since it was a holiday and everything shuts down): a convenience store. There we managed to pick up pita, hummus, some veggies and sandwich meat (plus the all-important road trip candy), which we then trekked back to the bus station to eat.

Our bus to Tel Aviv left at 7pm, and while that got us within about an hour/hour-and-a-half of Jerusalem, we still had to figure out how to make it. Nick made a few calls and Shane, our fearless principal, told us not to worry, that someone would be able to pick us up.

Then Nick managed to find out from some of our fellow passengers that we could get off in Beer Sheva and catch a bus from there to Jerusalem. Our bus let us off in Beer Sheva 5 minutes before the Jerusalem bus took off, and as soon as the Jerusalem bus opened its doors, it was a free-for-all to get inside. We all barely managed to squeeze in the doors ahead of some people, and while we had to sit apart, we at least had seats. Everyone who got on after us had to sit in the aisle.

Around 12:30am, we arrived in Jerusalem and Shane was there to pick us up. We got home not long after and were greeted by a very emotional kitty, who yelled at the top of her lungs to tell us what her life had been like while we were gone. We got to bed a little before 2, and miracle upon miracle, Kasey was not sick the morning and made it to work.

So that concludes our Egypt trip. Everything added up, for the two of us we spent $410. Pretty spiffy if you ask us.