Why I love being back in English classes:

-original thought is appreciated

-original writing is too

-teachers want to hear what I think. not just repeat what they think

-there is no one snapping in my face telling me that i should know the seven straights in the middle east.

-jokes that are dorky outside of english classes are not dorky inside of them.

-often, treat sign-ups are passed around to keep everyone alive

-there's always a break in a two and a half hour class

-i get good grades.

what i forgot about english classes:

-there's always that one girl who always happens to have a really annoying voice that sits in the front row about three desks from the right and makes five comments every class. i think she actually isn't aware anyone is sitting behind her.

-i get really nervous making comments and somehow i forget how to breathe and swallow while i'm talking. yikes.

-the five token boys in the class who make sure they talk in their deepest, most masculine voice when they give comments, and make sure everyone knows that they are speaking for their entire sex...

-english majors.

best english class ever.
(on the banks of Loch Lomond)

we're studying king saul right now

and this is all i can think of:

they're a british group acting out the death of saul in a roman town in the galilee area. please notice the umbrellas used as swords

I can only say these things for a little bit longer before they are obsolete. I have gotten back to the US recent enough that the places I've gone this year are still relevant...

so. bragging rights end now.

transatlantic flights taken this year: 6

borders I've crossed: 11

months I've spent in the US: 2

types of money that have been in my wallet: 7

flights I've taken in the past year (about): 35

that is a lot of hours of being in the airport and in planes...

everything I can possibly think of saying sounds trite and stupid. so.

YES.

I went to bed last night at 9:00 on accident. "Wake me up in an hour" I told my mom, and then I felt like I had been hit by a bus and I went and climbed into my own bed and woke up at 4:30 this morning. I couldn't sleep.

Naturally I went to gchat and found another who was suffering from jetlag! Lovely. She ended up calling me and we had a beautiful chat as the sun rose for her in Arizona over the desert, and for me in Oregon over the enormous douglas firs. Just a few days after we watched the sun go down every night for four months over Jerusalem.

Love you Anna!

(picture of Anna taken by me at the Tel-Aviv beach at sunset)

happy easter

palm used for palm sunday outside church of the holy sepulcher

Lord, Who createdst man in wealth and store,
Though foolishly he lost the same,
Decaying more and more,
Till he became
Most poore:

With Thee
O let me rise,
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day Thy victories:
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

My tender age in sorrow did beginne;
And still with sicknesses and shame
Thou didst so punish sinne,
That I became
Most thinne.

With Thee
Let me combine,
And feel this day Thy victorie;
For, if I imp my wing on Thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

-Easter Wings, by George Herbert

a pleasant surprise in a forwarded email from my mother:

Dear Emily:

I am pleased to inform you that you have won honorable mention in the Vera Hinckley Mayhew Creative Arts essay contest.

You and a guest are invited to the English Department Awards Banquet, Tuesday, March 30, 2010, at blah blah blah. Your achievement will be recognized that evening and further details about your award will be given to you at that time.

Kindly RSVP. Please let us know if you require a vegetarian meal or have other dietary needs. We regret we will only be able to seat guests who respond by the March 22 deadline.

I congratulate you on receiving this award. We look forward to honoring you at the banquet.

Sincerely,

(the chairman)

Dear Chairman,

I regret to inform you that I cannot attend said banquet due to my current whereabouts in the holy land.

Sincerely,

Willow Calling (my pseudonym for the contest. i was pretty proud...)

why i know i'm actually five years old:

when i hear the crinkling of plastic and look over and hope so badly that it is candy.