Tour Busses and More

PHOTO EXPLANATIONS:
These are all pictures that I took FROM our bus, or busses if you want to be technical--we rarely had the same bus for more than two days. Shown here are 1) a Jordanian bus, 2) The "Sunshine Bus," 3) Soil Conditions in Northern Israel... note the large limestone deposits, 4) Me and Janessa, the musical theater buffs--sorry that it's upside down, 5) Driving back to Jerusalem from Akko, (note the stickers on the bus window,) 6) Danny. Asleep. Obviously. 7) Israeli freeway signs, tri-lingual as always, 8) a galilean wheat field (all that green grew in three days! Whoa!) and 9) Kerri Regher asleep on James Heaton's shoulder... they were the best of friends and were usually in each other's company. And I love that they're wearing matching sweatshirts from Hebrew University. (I have one just like hers!) Anyway... the blog post... 10) At Jericho, exhausted from a hike to a monastery and bored from waiting for everyone to get back on the bus.

GONNA RIDE ON THE BUS:
When I grew up, my mother would play a really cheesy cassette tape for me full of the energetic songs kids love. My nephews now listen to the same songs, running and jumping around to lyrics that say "this is my jumping song, jump jump jump." One of my nephew Ben's favorite songs on this tape is about traveling. I wish that I could play the song for you, because if you aren't familiar with the tune you'll have no idea how repetitive and obnoxious it can be. List it in the ranks of songs like, "It's a Small World," and the song that never ends. (My sincere apologies if either of those songs are now running through your mind because I mentioned them.)

The traveling song's first verse is about riding a bus, the second about a plane, and a train, etc. The first verse of songs being the verse that people usually remember--most people have no idea that there is more than one verse to the Star Spangled Banner; furthermore, who knows more than the first verse to Amazing Grace? Um, no one. Needless to say, the words to that drasted traveling song that our family usually mentions are from the first verse. About the bus.

"Gonna ride on the bus, chucka cha-chucka-cha, gonna ride on the buh-us..... Guh-nah ride on the buh-uuuuuus, gunna ride on the BUS."

Gaaaaaa! This is not a song that I wish to have repeated in my head every day! It's painful. To quote a movie, "My ears are too delicate" to listen to anything so klitchy and catchy. Nevertheless, during my sojourn through the Holy Land I rode almost exclusively... on a bus. Many many many many many busses.

Long busses, short busses, old busses, new busses, hot busses, cold busses.
Red busses, blue busses, orange and yellow,
The driver may chew, but he's a nice fellow.
Busses with flies, and busses sticky,
Busses clean and busses icky.
I declare I've had my fill--
No more, I say! Or I'll get ill.

What's remarkable is the fact that I never was ill on the bus. PHENOMENAL. I have extreme motion-sickness tendencies, and yet, somehow I avoided the awful nausea and embarrassment related to the same. After three years of riding a charter bus through the canyon to girls camp, and barfing every time, I finally got permission to ride up with some of the leaders instead of on the bus.

Before I left for Jerusalem I was mortified; thinking of how many field trips I would be on a bus, driving over mountains and through deserts and here there and everywhere. I don't know HOW the marvelous blessing occurred, but it did, and I wasn't sick. Hallelujah! I have three bottles of motion sickness pills that I get to save for the next time I ride on a bus. As far as I can tell, I've either A) grown out of my motion sickness, 2) the lower-altitude lessened the affects of it, or D) I went on so many bus trips that I grew accustomed to the ill-affects and learned to deal with it.
(note the subtle movie-quotation in that last sentence.)

Did you know that large-scale tours are so common in Cairo, Amman, and Israel that they make up-scale tour busses? Really nice ones. I've spent many an hour riding in a mercedes tour bus. Yes, you read that correctly. MERCEDES. There were a lot of busses. Often more busses than cars filled the traffic lanes in the cities. Again, odd. Or perhaps, just not familiar to our way of thinking.

What did we do with our time on the bus? Sleep, talk, listen to iPods, listen to Bro. Ludlow as he explained various geography/culture/doctrine, etc. Lip sync with the person next to you while you share headphones and listen to American standard fare, sleep, drool while your mouth hangs open and your head lolls from side to side, debate whether or not you're allowed to lean on your neighbors shoulders, TRY to sleep (more common than actual sleeping), look at the window, try to not get grime or dust from your shoes on the rest of your clothes or on the seats, re-stash everything you're carrying on your person on the shelf above your head, duck when your stuff rolls from off the shelf above your head and hits you--or the unsuspecting person across from you, sleep, sleep, fall asleep in various degrees of unattractive slumber, discuss politics, sleep, get into movie-quote wars, OR if you're a GOOD person you could study.... sheesh.

I'm sure that most of you have noticed that on school buses the same people tend to drift toward the same seats every time. Our bus was no exception; though Brother Ludlow encouraged us to mix it up. Most of us would sit with a variety of people and sit all over the bus. Where was I, you may ask? I am a front-sitter. MY customary spot was right behind Bro. Huntington and Bro. Ludlow's seats... the second seat behind the bus driver. I liked sitting up front because I could get on and off quickly, hear the lectures easier, and see out the windshield to where we were going.

I also had easy access to the bus question-answer-ambush sessions that I was so fond of. I'd point to something random and say, "Bro. Huntington, what's that?" or "where are we going?" or ask for more details about where we had just been. After visiting Caesarea Maritime, I had an in-depth discussion with Bro. H about how Herod may have managed to engineer the underwater cement for the harbor that he built--opening Palestine to another port. I peppered the teachers with questions, and I got a lot of answers. And let me tell you, it also had its benefits. Bro. Huntington made me his assistant a couple times--sending me to get the group's tickets and hand out stuff to everyone. He would pay me in ice cream bars. Mmmmm Nok Outs..... ohhhhhh.

I also have to mention that there were about 45 seats on each bus, and that for our 81 students + faculty, we had two buses to share: "Bus One," (pronounced Buh-Swan if you're an Egyptian tour guide,) and "Bus Two," which later became known as the Black Pearl. Bus One carried Bro. Ludlow's class (and hence, me.) Bus Two carried Bro. Draper's class.

A few other details.... hmm. Every bus had a front door and either a back door or a middle door. The stairs were steep. The seats were covered with that typical fabric that all tour busses seem to have, and the curtains were a variety of colors---ranging from gray to Zeal... Brandon's word for the "zealous teal" that we had in Egypt. I called that color lapis, and Brandon told me that no one cared about my high-falutin designer words. I particularly enjoyed what I dubbed the "sunshine bus," a Jordanian bus with chipper goldenrod curtains that made the whole bus look like it was full of SunnyD.

On long trips some people would daringly fall asleep in the 1 1/2 ft wide walkway. Also, a bizillion photos were taken of people when we were asleep on the bus; I only have a couple of them, including a great one of Danny, who drifted off behind me on our way home from Haifa (a 1.5 hour drive that took almost four hours when we were trapped in traffic.)

And I think I covered everything. That was life on the bus.

P.S. I can't BELIEVE that I forgot to mention how we took roll on the bus. Bro. Ludlow divided us into groups, and each group was supposed to look out for each other and make sure that we didn't lose anyone. We named these groups by giving them bible names--which brother Ludlow would only say in Hebrew, so we eventually learned it in Hebrew too. In English (Hebrew) format: Noah (M'noach), Moses (Moshe), David (Dah-veed), Solomon (Sh'lomo), and my group--Boanerges (Bne're'am). [I named my group Boanerges, because in Greek it means "Sons of Thunder." It is the surname Christ gave to James and John.]

Anyway, before leaving anywhere, we'd have a head-count on the bus. Bro. Ludlow would call for a group's head count, and then the group would sound off on their own jingle-ish-thing. Moshe usually said "Moses-supposes-his-toeses-are-roses-but Moses-supposes-erroneous-ly" with each group member saying one section. It was VERY fun. My group said "AND-my-father-dwelt-in-a-tent-amen," and I had the privilege of saying "a." It was a great, quick way to take roll, 'cause if any part of the phrase was missing, we'd immediately know which person was missing. Great idea, Bro. Ludlow!