Five Years!

This weekend my husband and I celebrated our five year anniversary. This accomplishment astonishes me when I think about it. I don't feel that old (I'm not, actually; we got married very young), but I'm also aware of how much we've changed. We have so much fun together, and it keeps getting better! What a cheese-ball. I'll cut to the chase:

We decided to celebrate our anniversary by taking a trip to Athens, Greece. Most weekends we just sit on the couch and catch up on episodes of 30 Rock or Glee. But we wanted to splurge because five years is a big deal.

And we couldn't have picked a better weekend getaway. Athens is so cool! The geek in me loved the archeology sites, museums, and mythology. Seriously, I'm inspired to read up on ancient Greek history (any book suggestions?). The foodie in me loved the tavernas, souvlaki stands, and street cafes. A friend of mine who lives in Athens gave us some awesome tips and took us out to a traditional greek meal. We booked a cute hotel room within walking distance of the Acropolis and played love-struck tourists for three days. Here are some highlights:

Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity

Here are a few pictures from our recent excursion to the West Bank town of Bethlehem. We visited the Church of the Nativity, which is one of the oldest continuously operating churches in the world and, according to tradition, marks the birthplace of Jesus. The first basilica was built in 327 AD by Constantine's mother, subsequently burnt down and was rebuilt in 565 AD. Supposedly, when the Persians invaded the region in the early 600s, they spared the structure because a mosaic inside the church depicted the three wise men wearing Persian clothing.

Looks peaceful enough, right? Wait for it...

When we got to the grotto of the nativity, there amassed a crowd like we had never scene before. We were waiting our turn patiently when a tour group of at least 75 old ladies (not Americans) arrived and elbowed their way in front of everyone, moaning and not making eye contact with any of the other visitors. The photo below is actually before these women arrived (if you can believe it!!). I was so incensed (and also feeling extremely claustrophobic) that we bailed on the grotto.

Besides that weird experience, Bethlehem is a nice town and easy to get to from Jerusalem. I'm sure we will be back to visit some of the other attractions and to shop for souvenirs for our families!

Worth the Climb

Recently my two Aunts flew across the ocean for a brief but action-packet visit. While they were here, we set off on a road trip across Jordan that culminated in Wadi Musa, the home of Petra.

Some of you may know Petra as a UNESCO World Heritage Sight, archeological treasure, and home of the ancient Nabataean civilization. Still others--if you're like me--may know if from the film "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

I had been looking forward to this trip for months. And even with my high expectations, Petra still blew me away. I can easily say it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. If you ever get the chance to go--do it!

Jordan itself is very accessible to foreigners. Every Jordanian knows at least two phrases in English: "Where are you from?" and "Welcome!" And most people who work in the tourism industry speak English well.

The pictures are of the Treasury, the High Place of Sacrifice (well worth the hour hike), and a donkey that mistook my camera for food.

Considering Current Events

It has been a while since I updated my blog. I've been to America and back and on a short trip to Jordan.

Meanwhile, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya are all undergoing revolutions with varying degrees of success. As I'm writing this, American and European forces are organizing a military intervention in Libya.

Japan has suffered through an earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster.

I have been on a hiatus from my Google Reader for Lent, but I wanted to update my blog to tell you about my friends Joel and Ashley who designed a poster to raise money for the American Red Cross efforts in Japan. They are donating 90% of the proceeds, and they have already raised $1,000! Please consider visiting their website and buying one: http://thispapership.com/a-thousand-paper-cranes-for-japan.

The concept behind their poster is the Japanese legend that if you fold a thousand paper cranes, you can make a wish and it will be granted. I first heard about this legend at the 9-11 memorial museum in New York City. They have on display a thousand paper cranes folded by a child suffering from radiation poisoning after Hiroshima. After 9-11, she donated the cranes to New York along with a wish for world peace.

Attempting Japanese Cuisine

For two people who have never been to Asia, my husband and I sure cook a lot of Asian food... Which is why we were so excited when our friend, Dusty, gave us the Wagamama cookbook as a gift for hosting him on his recent trip to Israel.

The three of us spent a summer in London in college where we became acquainted with the Japanese chain restaurant Wagamama. We recently attempted the first recipe out of the cookbook, a miso ramen soup. We couldn't find all of the ingredients (the local health food store is under renovation) and we substituted tofu for chicken, but the end product was very tasty!

Bon Appetite; or, as they say here, "B'tai Avon!"

A tribute to 2010

Hello blog world! It's been a while... as in, two months. But I promise to do better in 2011. And to demonstrate my commitment, I've compiled a video tribute to 2010. I hope you enjoy!

Things I'm looking forward to in 2011: Our vacation to the States, friends and family coming to visit, rotating positions at work, taking classes in classical ballet and watercolor, learning how to make bread, reading at least one poem a day, and skyping and blogging more often.

Happy New Year! Love, D&E

My First Project: A Year in Pictures from limeofsight on Vimeo.

Music by The New Pornographers and Mates of State.

How to pick an olive

Since I now live in the land of milk and honey olives, I have seen more olive trees than I could have possibly imagined. But until this weekend, I was unclear about the whole process of how the olives get off of a tree and turn into the delicious things that you eat and cook with.

This weekend, I went on a group tour of an olive grove in an Arab village in the Golan. In this village, the inhabitants use olive oil for every meal. They even eat a spoonful of olive oil daily before breakfast and use olive oil to moisturize young and old.

The trip was labeled an "olive picking" adventure, but I'm afraid we were terribly inefficient. We painstakingly plucked several bucket-fulls of "ripe" olives only to find that the real way to get olives out of a tree is to thrash the tree with a long stick. We sorted the olives into green and purple and picked out the leaves and sticks that were also dislodged in the thrashing. FYI: green olives are actually just unripe black olives.

Next we smashed each individual olive and filled our jars with olives and water. After soaking for 24 hours, we made our own saltwater brine mixture and placed hot peppers and olives in the jar with the olives. We have to wait 2 weeks before we can eat them. Pictures and recipe to come if they turn out. Crossing my fingers!!