Author Archives: Kate

A few hours of tinkering last night and the website is in pretty good shape! I discovered that the new wordpress theme I love so much has heavy, heavy use of stylesheets. I know these are useful things, and good for abstracting your code, but I think this is just over the top:

Nobody should have to enclose their photo gallery code in five different “div” levels, and behind one dummy “div.” Yep, that list containing only a space is entirely necessary to make everything work. Lovely.

I still have some work to do, like adding in a link to the map on posts with geotags, and putting the “nights outside” graphs back in. But all in all, it took a lot less time to make it work than I thought it would, and I like it. And it’s fun to redecorate every now and then!

Also, Mark wanted me to post the story of his encounter with the Mangoes and the Monkey Peeler. (Imagine the sound of guitar floating out of the website and Bob Dylan singing “Mangoes and the Monkey Peeler were hard up for cash. They stayed up all night selling cocaine and hash…”)

On our hike out from North Table Mountain last weekend, the two guys walking infront of me were discussing the most wonderful sounding foods they were preparing for their superbowl parties. One guy was exceptionally creative and mentioned his world-famous mango chutney. Yuuuum. So, Mark and I bought some mangoes, a pinapple, some peppers and set about making a chutney. While peeling the mangoes with his new, awesome, monkey peeler (a Christmas present from my very cool brothers), the mango got away from Mark and he took the top off of his finger nail.

I finished up the chutney, which turned out great, and we served it in big piles over spicy grilled fish. Mark has kept his finger carefully wrapped and covered in anti-biotic cream, complaining about how this terrible injury is going to ruin our early climbing season.

I guess I’ll go to Florida and get myself some sun
There ain’t no more opportunity here, everything’s been done
Sometime I think of Mangoes, sometimes the fruit dealer
Sometime I don’t think about nothing but the Monkey Peeler

You might notice a few changes on the site in the coming few days.

I was inspired by the new version of WordPress to update the blog theme. The new blog theme does not work with my ZenPhoto integration. So, I updated ZenPhoto. And now my ZenPhoto theme is completely borked, and I think it’s time to let go.

I always seem to pick the most inopportune times to dive into giant site upgrades. I have a million things to do at work right now, let’s spend three days sorting through piles of php code instead!!

I apologize for the current state of the photo gallery. It works, it’s just not as well integrated as it will be soon. Thanks everybody!

“When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky!”

           – The Buddha

I’m finally back in town, the sun was out, and Mark and I were itching to get back out for some rock climbing. Our last trip out was in mid-Novemeber, almost three months ago, but we didn’t care. We got up bright and early and headed south to climb on the sunny basalt cliffs of North Table Mountain.

It turns out, Mark and I lost a lot of strength, hand callouses, and confidence in that time. I think I may have spent more time taking pictures than climbing, and there are some nice pictures in the gallery.

We got the parking lot just after 9am. The parking lot was nearly empty. We hiked up to a quiet, and nearly vacant cliff, and were able to hop on two of the most popular climbs on the cliff without any wait.

When Mark and I started the morning on Thelma (5.7), we knew it was going to be a rough day. Mark finished the lead cleanly, but complained repeatedly that it didn’t seem like 5.7. I fell once or twice and came down with a burning feeling in my arms, shoulders and back. We both top-roped Louise (5.8) next, and both felt exhausted and burnt-up by the end of the climb.

I had to take about half an hour before my hands came back around to be able to even belay. We took our time for the next couple of hours. Taking pictures, enjoying the sun, playing with dogs and visiting with other climbers. Eventually, Mark started up Kid’s Climb (5.9), a climb which became humiliating on several levels. Mark fell three times, with one good-sized lead fall that sent me flying as well. I thrashed my way up as well, with my hands becoming useless about 2/3s of the way up.

It was great to get out on the rock, and get some sun on our pale skin. But also a hard reminder of what happens when you take a long break from the sport. We’ve got some catching-back-up to do.

On Friday, our lectures and meetings finished up at around lunchtime. I was scheduled to leave Tel Aviv on Saturday morning at 5:30a, so Friday afternoon was my last chance to explore Jerusalem. Our big group of students broke up into smaller groups depending on who wanted to see what, and Mona, Camille and I headed back to the Old City to see the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

This is, in my humble opinion, the best group of photos from the trip. So take a minute to check them out in the gallery.

The Church has a rather unassuming facade. It sits on the northern edge of the Christian quarter in the Old City, and has been a church resting on this spot since 326 AD. Today, the Church is huge, and encompasses both the Holy Sepulcher (the location of Christ’s tomb) and the hill of Calvary, where Jesus was crucified and killed.

The Sepulcher sits inside a small building, called the Edicule, which is inside the largest dome of the Church, called the Rotunda of the Anastasis. When we were there on Friday afternoon, the Church was quiet. There were a few people milling around, praying, lighting candles, and taking pictures. It was a beautiful spot, and the whole room felt cool, calm, and peaceful.

We spent a little more than an hour exploring the Church. The layout of the building is confusing, and I was wishing I had a guidebook to the church itself. Each room had staircases or hallways leading off into other chambers and chapels. The building was organic, fractal, and passageways twisted through it like the arteries of a larger being.

It was amazing to walk these ancient hallways, to visit these Holy sites, and to pray at such beautiful alters. I was quickly aware of the austerity of my protestant religion. Other people in the rooms were crossing themselves repeatedly, sprinkling holy water on themselves, chanting their Hail Mary’s, and generally practicing rituals that have been developed over the two thousand year lifetime of the Catholic Church. As a protestant, I don’t practice any of these rituals. The protestant churches left the pomp and ritual of the Catholic Church behind, and developed a very democratic Church.

Kneeling at the alter of Calvary, I began to really appreciate the way our churches are structured. Our church doesn’t build fantastic alters, or commission much awe-inspiring art work. In our church, Christ resides in the community of people who gather to worship, not in any jewel-encrusted adornments of the clergy. I felt both proud and sad about the puritan ancestry of my church. The perspective is good, and I do agree with the directness and the view of the importance of individual relationships with God. But there is something completely beautiful about building a church this impressive, and I felt confused about what to do with my hands as I walked from room to room. No crossing for Katy. I simply folded my hands demurely in my lap and prayed, and stared, and wondered.

As usual, I took my nice big camera with me on the trip, and I took a ton of pictures of beautiful churches and picturesque views. Rachel, on the other hand, did the smarter thing and brought a small camera to take lots of fun pictures of everybody on the trip. Her pictures are up on her flickr site.

On the walls of Jerusalem:

So, for those of you who always complain that there’s not enough pictures of me on the site (hi Mom!) here’s a few that Rachel took.

In the Frankfurt airport:

Taking lots of pictures:

Relaxing in the sun on campus:

Our week in Jerusalem was mostly work-focused. I met a ton of fantastic, interesting, brilliant people, and learned sooo much! On Wednesday afternoon, we got out of the classroom for a few hours and went, as a group, to tour the small town of Ein Kerem. This lovely little village sits on top of a hill just east of Jerusalem, and hosts a long and interesting history.

If you hadn’t caught on from my previous posts, Jerusalem sits on, effectively, several mountains of limestone. The whole city is built from “Jerusalem stone,” which is a beautiful pinky-white limestone. With the hills, juniper trees, and limestone scattered all over, the whole region distinctly reminded me of Shelf Road.

Limestone is a beautiful, and interesting rock. Anybody who lives around limestone beds knows that the rock can dissolve easily in running water, and that limestone beds are usually riddled with caves and springs. So it is in Jerusalem, and much of early Christian history and lore revolves around these ancient caves and springs. On Wednesday, we got a chance to see this first hand.

We started out the tour with a visit to “Mary’s Spring,” which is supposedly the site of where Mary (mother of Jesus) and Elizabeth (mother of John the baptist) first met. I love seeing very old springs, and imagining how these waters have erupted from the ground, in the middle of the desert, for thousands and thousands of years.

We went further up the hill to the Church of the Visitation. This was a beautiful church, with a real Franciscan monastery on the grounds. This church is very old, dating back to the Byzantine age, and sits on the spot of Elizabeth and Zechariah’s home. The church has beautiful arches, gardens, and frescoes, all maintained by the Franciscan monks. On the day we were there, a few of the monks were walking around in the chilly afternoon. They had their hair cut in the traditional manner, they were wearing traditional brown robes and rope belts. They looked for all the world like Friar Tuck. Except, most were wearing 1980’s-era nylon windbreakers over their robes. It’s one of those non-sequiturs that makes you stop, and realize you’re not in Disneyworld any more.

We walked across the valley and visited the Church of John the Baptist, which is built on another cave system where, according to tradition, John the Baptist was born. The church itself is obviously new, but it sits on the remains of crusades-era and Byzantine-era churches, which were built on top of an ancient Greek temple. Surely, this is a special place.

In the evening, we watched the sun set from the monastery of Les Soeurs de Notre-Dame de Sion (Sisters of Our Lady of Zion), and then hopped on the bus to an overlook for the city of Jerusalem. The Old City was all lit up, and the gold dome on the Temple Mount filled the dark desert sky with light.

It was a great week. I met so many great people, saw tons of amazing things, and got to explore a beautiful city.

I described our first day of exploring the old city in a previous post, and now I’ve uploaded pictures from the day into the gallery. Enjoy!