Turkey, Greece and Egypt on the Norwegian Jade

Mom and I recently returned from our 11 day cruise to Turkey, some of the Greek Isles and Egypt. The flight over was relatively uneventful, and when we arrived in Istanbul it was about 530 pm. We finally got through customs, and got on the shuttle to take us to the Jade and arrived at the Jade at about 9 pm. We were exhausted, but we signed up for our shore excursions and are dinner, and then went to bed. The next morning we went on a tour of Istanbul. We started with the Blue Mosque, or the Mosque of Sultan Ahmet. It is the only mosque that has 6 minarets. It was beautiful. It is called the blue mosque because of the large number of hand painted tiles on the interior using predominantly the same shade of blue, and making the inside seem to be mostly blue. It was beautiful and impressive. Then we went to the Topakapi palace. It was the residence of the Sultans of turkey for hundreds of years, and we got to tour through the Harem, and the treasure rooms. The kitchen was under renovations, so we didn't get to see it. In the Harem we saw the same hand painted tiles that decorated the inside of the blue mosque and got some really cool close up pics of the tiles. The walls were covered with these tiles. We also saw the treasure room, and all the riches of the sultans that are in there, including the dagger, and this diamond that was about the size of my fist. We also saw a whole lot of other jewels and jewel encrusted all sorts of things. Then we had the opportunity to go to the grand Bazaar. The bazaar is a large building that has hundreds of shops in it. All of the shops are very small. About 8 feet across, and 10 feet deep, so full of merchandise there is barely room to walk. All of them are selling things and call out, "Hey lady, buy a nice peshmina scarf/hand painted pottery/purse/bag/jewelry/etc, best price!" One scarf seller proceeded to use me as a model for his scarves in an effort to sell mom on the idea of buying one after she told him, "I don't wear scarves." "Then as gift." he says and ties scarf after scarf around my neck, finally topping my head with a hat for the picture. We laughed and finally worked our way through the maze of shops back to the bus that took us to the ship for departure. We took some time on deck to pose for pictures, as we were between two continents. The one side is Asia, the other is Europe.
The next day we were up ridiculously early and watched them dock the boat in Izmir, and then we made our way on a tour to Ephesus, and a carpet weaving place. Both were very cool. Ephesus is the ruins of an ancient city that was a thriving Roman city. The library has been reconstructed using as much original material as possible, and the marble paved streets have been excavated out to be able to be walked on. They had a water system running under their public toilets which effectively was a flushing system. There are 40 something side by side holes! Pretty impressive. We also stood in the theater where the apostle Paul taught the Ephesians. Then we went to the carpet weaving school where we learned how they get silk from the silk worms, how they dye the threads with natural dye, and how they weave carpets, as well as we saw hundreds and hundreds of hand woven carpets with brilliant colors. They were beautiful and soft and $150+. Less expensive than any you'll find in the states, but still more expensive than any of us could afford.
Our next port was Myconos. Myconos was built with narrow maze like streets to confuse the pirates that used to plague the Island. The streets certainly were maze like, and confusing to these two tourists, but it was a beautiful place, and the colors of the buildings were stunning. The buildings were painted white, with blue shutters, and doors. There were a few shutters and doors painted a green color, or a yellow color, but mostly blue. That shade of blue is believed to ward off evil, so it is used quite readily. We played in the Mediterranean sea there, and the blues in that sea are stunning.
Our next port was Santorini. Santorini is an island that is shaped like a crescent moon. It was a volcano that erupted and much of the volcano fell off into the sea. The volcano is still present on an island across the way. The bay where the Jade stopped was so deep it was impossible to lower the anchor. We stayed in place by using the jets that maneuver the ship. And we were ferried to shore aboard ships which they called tenders. The dock sits at the base of a very steep cliff that stairs have been carved into. Older houses were carved into the cliff face. We were ferried ashore to the dock where we had three options, ride a donkey to the top, where the town was, ride the tram, or walk. The donkey was 5 euros, the tram 4. The distance, about a mile. We were informed of an earlier planned departure than was scheduled because of an impending storm that they believed would shut down the tram. We chose to ride the tram up, and wander around the town for a while. We had planned to go to the beach, but with our time cut short we didn't think we could make it. Besides that it was rather windy and cloudy which made it a bit chilly if you were wet. It was a shame really, I would have liked to see the black sand beaches.
That night we had 4-7 foot swells. Mom woke up really tight. That day we were on Crete. We went to Knossos. The ruins of the ancient Minoan civilization, which is believed to have met its end by a natural disaster, namely the eruption of the volcano at Santorini. They had some really big pottery and there were some reconstructions of what the palace would have looked like. The minotaur gets its start here.
The next day was our day at sea, then we went to Alexandria. Our tour group picked us up and we had a whirl wind tour of Egypt that day and the next. We visited Giza where we saw the tomb at Saqqara, the first pyramid to be built, then we went to great Pyramid where we rode camels, and got to touch the pyramids, and see them up close, then we went and saw the Spinx. Where mom was offered 10 thousand camels for me. That night we had a Nile cruise, which was a bit of a disappointment, and we stayed at the Sheraton that night. The next day bright and early we went to the citadel, where we visited another mosque, and then we went to the Cairo museum. The mosque was impressive, but like the rest of Egypt in dire need of a good cleaning, and the museum was like no other I have ever been in. The museum was almost like a warehouse, with Egyptian artifacts scattered through the whole thing. There were sarcophagus in the middle of the floor with no rope or glass or anything exept a sign every so often saying, please don't touch. The museum needs updated, and there are supposedly plans for a new museum, but I don't see that happening at any fast rate. Egypt over all, very dirty, and I came back to the ship smelling horrid.
The next day we were at sea, and lazed about the ship all day, the next day we were in Katakalon. We rode the train to the ancient site of Olympia. We were told the museum didn't open until 130, but we later found out that it had opened earlier even though the sign said Mondays 130. The archeological site was cool, and we got pictures next to some really cool stuff. The pillars are huge, I got a picture of mom standing next to a section of a fallen one. It is wider across than she is tall.
The next stop was Napthlion, but we got hit with some type of Egyptian bug that mom was afraid to get off the ship and be ferried to port, so we just looked at the island from the ship, and we watched them put the ferry boats back on board at the end of the day.
The next day we disembarked in Piraeus where we took a taxi to Athens to our hotel. We then explored a bit of Athens. We saw the acropolis, the theater of Dionysus, the Accropolis museum, currently only 1 euro, and the temple of Zeus. Then we went to bed woke up really early and flew home.
We arrived in Jackson hole more than 24 hours later, and subsequently crashed in our beds, ready to sleep for a day. We had a blast, and enjoyed our time together. We also had a marvelous vacation, and came back ready to get to work preparing the house for the Holidays, after we had recovered from Jet Lag that is. :D

I miss naps

Or at least the benefits of cheerfulness resulting from the nap. A nap nowdays results in me feeling groggy for the rest of the day. I'm visiting Sky, Lacey Abi and Emmalyn right now, and when Emmalyn doesn't get a nap, she is definately not a cheerful little girl, which she is normally. I wish that all the world could be cheered up just by having a nap. On another note, my nieces are adorable, and very fun to play with.
I'm looking forward to my cruise with mom, and am really excited to get a few more stamps in my passport. :D Moving on.
GC was great, I really enjoyed it.
My Branch is a blast, and a half.
And my job search is still unsuccessful.
That's me updated in a nutshell.

Greetings Y'all

And Now for the grand update from the fascinating world of ME. Mom, me, Jake, Zac and Chelsey all headed to Martin's Cove on Thursday morning. The hike up into the cove was fun and it was very entertaining to see all the children playing together. Thursday night we drove to the Willie center, where we were nearly eaten alive by mosquitoes. Never have I ever seen so many mosquitoes in one place. With the wave of the hand you could hit 10-15, and that isn't counting the ones that flew away. When slapping someones back you could be garanteed to come away with at least five dead buggars. Every family went through at least one tall container of mosquito spray within the first 16 hours. Never have I had to apply squito spray every time I stopped. We hesitated to wash our faces because we knew that we would wash off the repellent and be bit at least 20 times from the bathroom to the tent. There were children who looked like they had a rash on their cheeks because they had so many bites. Friday morning we went for a ten mile trek with our handcarts. We had about two families per cart, and our family was teamed up with another family from our ward who also had left their dad at home. There were only three males in our group, Zac-9, Jake-11 and Jake-16. There were also four women and one girl to pull our handcart. We headed out trying to avoid the mud puddles at first, then we came to a puddle that there was no way to aviod. The boys headed through diligently pushing the cart, and getting wet up to the knees. We headed through several pastures, and crossed many high waters, several of the puddles were so deep they had a current. One such puddle hit me at about the crotch. We were all soaked before lunch, first because it was raining, and second because of the puddles we waded through with the handcarts. We got to the river crossing that afternoon and were told that they didn't want us to pull the handcarts across because it was still high water, about to the waist, and they didn't want us to be in water that covered the axle of the carts. The missionaries were a bit surprised when we told them that we had already traveled through several puddles that were to the axles on the carts, though their current wasn't enough to sweep the carts down stream like the river was. Though at the deepest point the river was only up to my waist. It still had a current that I was glad not to have to pull a handcart across. If I hadn't had a rope to hold onto I could have been swept off my feet. We had brought water shoes along, but by the time we reached the river, our feet had already been wet for about 8 hours, so a little clean water was refreshing. We also took the opportunity to take off our shoes and socks, and wring them out, to minimize the squishing of the water in our shoes.
We got back to camp, and to our joy found that they had fogged multiple times that day. The mosquitoes were few and far between, which was a great contrast to the entire hike, and the day before at camp. I think the rest of the night I only saw about 100 mosquitoes. It was fabulous. Loved watching and listening to the children play together. They had no electronics, and were entertained by playing red rover, tag, football, and frisbee. The parents could let their children wander, because everyone knew who the child was, and who they belonged to. It wasn't uncommon to see one of the older children leading a crying little one back to the child's parents.
The entire experience was a learning one for me. It really does take a village/community to raise a child. The ward supplies that community, and everyone looks out for everyone. This ward really was a family. In hearing the stories of those ancestors that left everything they had, thinned and thinned their belongings down to the point that everything they owned would fit into a handcart, and then pulled it across the plains all because they had a desire to join the saints in Zion, I was impressed to see that all these pioneers were willing to go through, and they wouldn't have changed the experience for anything. I remember a story about an 11 year old boy who carried his little brother who was 4. He carried his little brother all day, and even though they fell behind, he kept carrying him. He managed to get them into camp, where he collapsed. He had given everything he had to help his brother, even his life. That 11 year old boy died there in camp that night, but the rest of his family made it to the valley.
I kept thinking about that. He gave everything. That is what the lord asks of me. He asks me to give everything, even my life. Not my life in death, often what he asks of me is much harder than death. He asks for my life in living as he would were he here. In serving, in forgiving, in being charitable, in being willing to reach outside my comfort zone to help those around me. He asks me to choose the best option. To listen and obey when prompted to do something. He asks me to give my all. That 11 year old boy managed to do it. He served, and gave everything he had. He gave his life in service. And so should mine be.
We had a wonderful experience, and had a fun time to boot, in spite of the mosquitoes. TTFN

Update

Hello all! Lets see, not much going on in my life. I'm still applying for jobs, and not really getting anywhere. I've been working for dad, and helping mom. I made two skirts and three bonnets for the trek to martin's cove, and bound my mom's quilt that she quilted like two years ago, but hadn't gotten around to binding it. I've run errands, and cooked dinner lots. Recently my mom and I have taken up walking, we usually make it about 2-3 miles in the time we allot ourselves for a walk. This morning mom decided she wanted to try to be able to run again, so we ran the telephone poles. We would run one, then walk the next. We went up to above Teton springs, but not quite all the way to the top of pole canyon road. By the time we got up there mom was really tired, and I was reminded how out of shape I am. On the way back we ran one pole, and walked two. It was nice to go running again, I only hope that I'll continue to have the motivation to go. Tomorrow it will be up to me to get mom out of the house, 'cause there is no way she'll be excited about going running again if I don't. It is time for me to go home, TTFN.

Another update!

It is sleeting/snowing. Bah! But really thats okay because I can do other things this way. Today I returned to the singles branch. It was great to be welcomed back, and I am looking forward to getting involved in the branch again. Ben and I watched the CES fireside on his computer upstairs, well I watched it, Ben napped. I thought it was excellent of course. Yesterday was the Stake preparedness fair. I enjoyed it, and I also obtained all sorts of information for my future, a pretty random assortment, but all interesting and helpful. Not much else is going on, other than I got in contact with my friend Crystal. We've known each other since before we were in kindergarten. It was great to see her again, and I'll probably be going to many of the singles activities with her. Other than that my life is pretty boring. I put in applications at many hospitals, but I haven't heard anything, and so I keep waiting. I think it is a test of my patience and learning how to trust in Heavenly Father's plan. 

spring! come back!

Sigh, spring is taunting me. When I moved all of my stuff out of my apartment in Rexburg last Saturday, the weather was beautiful. The sun was shining brightly and I was very comfortable in my shorts that I wore. When I arrived in Victor that night it was to dark to see much, but I could tell that there were still snow banks lining the road, big ones. The sun came up for a beautiful Easter Sunday, and I was hoping that the fields of white that I could see would start to melt, BUT, spring ran the other direction on Monday as IT SNOWED. Spring screamed, FOOLED YOU! and laughed manically. I haven't seen the sun since, as all day today it has been raining/snowing. It depends on when you look out the window whether you see little while fluffy things falling or just splashes in the puddles. Its cold and wet, and I want spring back. Of course it is only April, so it isn't surprising that spring is taunting me. I'm sure it will come back sometime, I think, I hope. Sigh.

Graduation!

Happy day! Today was graduation! YAY! I am a bachelors degree nurse. Now I have to find a job.... Thanks to Sky for coming to support me, and being the photographer behind my camera! For graduation Sky and Lacey gave me the most amazing shirt, especially amazing for one as vertically challenged as me- 5'nothing.



















I LOVE it! You're the best Lac!