Archive for the 'Traveling' Category

Omaha Band Reunion

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

(wow… i haven’t blogged in a long time) Over spring break, my family and I went up to Omaha, Nebraska. The reason was one: visiting family and two: my dad was having a punk rock band reunion. In case you don’t know, my father was in a punk rock band ‘back in the day’. Their name was Apathy and the band consisted of Seth Kirshman (singer), Mark Blackman (drummer), (my uncle) Jim Homan (guitarist), and my personal favorite, (my very own father) Michael Homan (bassist). The band was pretty well known and CDs were sold over seas. My brother and I were able to attend the concert and thought the whole thing was pretty cool. Although, it was sort of strange to see middle aged men jumping up and down and playing punk music on stage. But, being sort of into the whole punk thing myself, I enjoyed the whole event. My dad’s band was the best by far and you can see a video of the whole thing here:

This is a picture of the band on stage taken by my mom, Therese Fitzpatrick:
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Another Photo:
P3302336.JPG Here you can see the drummer. I love my dad’s hair in the pic.

Know What It Means, To Miss New Orleans?

Monday, July 16th, 2007

I have been away from home for several weeks now and I’ve missed many things about New Orleans. One thing that I really miss about home is the food. Everything that we eat here in Israel seems to be some form of schnitzel (various processed meats that are pounded into an organic shape and fried.) There’s chicken schnitzel, turkey schnitzel, chicken and turkey schnitzel, corn schnitzel, schnitzel rapped around vegetables, and then there’s schnitzel schnitzel and I have yet to find out what that is. I also met a dog named schnitzel. Also, everything here, edible or not, is so bland. I need some more spices. Oh, how I would love to just be able to smell a plate of crawfish monica or hear the sizzling of bananas foster. And however much I love to smell the local spices of our kitchens, there is something that i would like to smell even more. And that something is all of the people of my city. I must miss home if I’m talking about smelling people.

Beach and a Book

Sunday, July 8th, 2007

I have, once again conquered another boring book on the summer reading list and will be wonderfly happy to cross this book off the list. My Brother Sam is Dead is a book about the little brother of a soldier in the Revolutionary War. I personally just don’t seem to like American history so I didn’t find the book that interesting or exciting but it might be better for you if you find that history is just a bit more than names, places, battles, and dates. My dad says I will like history more when I get older. So now I shall start the more known rumored-for-being and supposedly good read, The Count of Monte Cristo. Today I also went to the beach with Kesem, Mike and Sharon’s (the people that run the Bistro on the kibutz) daughter. We had a good time. The waves were extrordinairily strong and the beach was amazingly clean (well, at least compaired to the ones in NOLA.) It was a good day swimming in the Mediterranean.

Lachish

Saturday, July 7th, 2007

Yesterday me and a few of the volunteers went to the site of Lachish. It is an old site that was once conquered by King Sennacherib’s Assyrian army. That date was 701 BCE. Pictures of the battle were found on the walls of Sennacherib’s palace.

In that picture you can see Sennacherib’s army trying to break down the walls to the city using a machine on wheels with a long spear to knock out rocks. The people on top of the tower are shooting arrows and throwing torches trying to burn the machine. One of the Assyrians is dumping water on the fires. Behind the city the wall you can see women and children being led away into captivity. The Assyrians won the battle and it was a big victory for Sennacherib. Neal Bierling led the tour. He worked there on the dig many years ago, as did Gabi Barkai, who is also working here at Zeitah. There are many similarities between the site that I’m working at, Zeitah, and Lachish. The people probably knew each other, and were neighboring cities. They also had the same types of pottery.

Mareshah & Beit Guvrin

Saturday, June 16th, 2007

Today I went on a tour of Bet Guvrin/Maresha which is located not too far from Kibbutz Gal’on where we are staying. I was tired because we were out late at a party at the kibbutz. Our dig’s registrar and manager is Sherry Whetsone, and she gave the tour. Maresha is a biblical city mentioned in Joshua 15. The tour started off by going to one of the first columbariums, which is a big home for many doves. It was giant and shaped like a bell. There were many holes inside that were perfect for doves and pigeons and other fowl creatures that size to live and nest in. These holes were triangular in shapes. One of the people on the tour with us named Chuck said that it also could have been used for accoustics. My dad says he is wrong. Then we went to another bigger cave with pigeon holes in it and inside there were hundreds of dove holes, and these were square-ish. I was surprised how well developed the architecture was there. We went inside a tomb there that had many paintings on the walls. One had a rooster, another a three headed dog. They said the rooster was the one that collected the coin when you went to the River Styx when you died according to Greek Mythology. There were a few other animals, mythical and real, painted on the walls and it was very amazing. Inside one of the caves the acoustics were amazing. A girl named Amy sang some beautiful opera songs and it was mesmerizing. Then we headed back at about noon and ate a great lunch with Mike and Sharron at the Bistro. Thanks Sherry for a great tour.
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Back to the Tel

Monday, June 11th, 2007

After two years away, we finally returned to Tel Zeitah. For the first day on the site we began to hack away all the weeds that have grown on the tel over the past couple of years. The weeds were full of stickers and everyone got their arms, legs, and bellys cut up. This is what the site looked like at the end of today:
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I will be working just on the top of the tel in square 0-19. Lots of people from two years ago returned, like Ben, Dan, Dave, John, Erin, Madeline, Sherry, Barbara, and a few more. There are about 40 people on site this year, and a few more who stay back at the kibbutz and run the lab. That’s about twice what we had in the 2005 season. We hope for a great season.
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A Day in New York

Thursday, June 7th, 2007

Before we go to Israel for the dig we stopped in New York to visit my Uncle Craig and Aunt Jennifier. Today I went around New York with them looking the city and many of its tourist attractions. The first thing in the morning we went over to Coney Island. It’s an old amusement park that they might tear down so went to see it before it might be gone. We went on the Topspin which is a ride that turns around in many different directions making you very very dizzy. We also went on the Wonder Wheel, a giant ferrris wheel. And after that we went to the Water Flume. After that we went to the Staton Island Ferry and road near the Statue of Liberty. Then we went to the World Trade Center site. Directly after we took a subway to Central Park. The Natural History Museum was closed, but we went to a dog run. It was an open gravel field with many dogs running around. Next we went to Lincoln Center, and walked back down to Columbus Circle. Then we took a train to the Empire State Building, walked to the Chrysler building, and then took a train home again. I’m tired, but I had a great day in New York. Thanks Uncle Craig and Aunt Jennifier.

How Where We Live Influences How We Live

Wednesday, April 18th, 2007

In my social studies class our teacher, Ms. Kitner, asked us to write a paper about how the location of ancient Greece impacted how they lived. Today I stayed home from school because I was sick, and my dad made me go with him to Xavier and write also about how where we live in New Orleans impacts our lives. So here it is:

The location of ancient Greece infuenced how the Greeks lived because the Greeks lived in a hot and dry climate with a rocky soil so they couldn’t grow grass or most of the other produce items that sheep and cows eat. This made it hard to herd animals. The Greeks could grow a few produce items including olives, grapes, apricots, and a few other things. From the grapes the Greeks made wine and juice, and from the olives came olive oil. They could trade all of the things for other items across the sea. The Greeks, who lived on a peninsula, were almost completely surounded by the Mediterranean sea. This gave them the advantages of trade (by boat) and they could also visit other places across the Mediterranean sea (also by boat.) Where they weren’t surrounded by water, the Greeks had many mountains which made it dificult to interact with surrounding city-state. So as you can see, the location of ancient Greece greatly impacted how the ancient Greeks lived.

One more place where the location deeply impacts how that location’s civilions live is where me and my immediate family live: New Orleans. This is true for many reasons but I will only focus on three. They are language, music, and food.

The language that we speak mostly here down here is English, but because we live in such a diverse community there are also many others including French, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Spanish. Even English though in New Orleans is influenced by other languages. They say for example I am going to make groceries. This comes from the French.

The native music down here is stuff like Jazz and the Blues. We get these from the past because of how the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico, so here we are a major trade port. Because of this we get many ideas and items from the other places and, years ago, this was a main area where people traded slaves stolen from Africa and other places. When the slaves would get a break from work on Sundays they would go and tell stories or make music. So we got African music and it mixed like gumbo and evolved into the Jazzy music that we know and love today.

Finally, our food is very greatly impacted by our position on the gulf. For emample we get many sea foods incuding crawfish, shrimp, lobster, crab, many other types of crustacions, fish, and even alligator. We use these in many dishes. For example we make crawfish monica or stuffed crab or shrimp etoufé. We also, for reasons unkown, tend to use alot of spices in all of our foods. My dad just told me it was to preserve the food.

And so, our location or the location of any community will greatly affect how the people in that community live.

Washington D.C.

Friday, November 24th, 2006

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A few days ago, my family and I went with my dad on a business trip to D.C. We went almost everywhere in it, from the underground subway, or the “metro,” to the heights of the Washington Monument. We had two days to see everything while my dad was going to meetings. And when the day was done, we would go to the Mayflower Hotel to spend the night. My favorite part of the trip was seeing the history museum with all the dinosaur and skeleton things in it. The dinosaurs were much smaller in person than on TV. The White House also looked smaller. After the two days we got in the car and drove the second 18 hour trip back home. I was so glad when the trip was over.

Grandpa Homan

Sunday, April 16th, 2006

My grandpa is sick and has cancer in his brain, hip, spine & lungs. He started his chemotherapy on Thursday. We went to Omaha, Nebraska for five days to see him. There we also saw my cousins Zane, Cedrick,& Lena Homan and my other grandparents Julie Homan, John and Mary Mike Fitzpatrick, and my aunt Chris and Therese and Uncle Jim, and some of my friends like Kelsy & Corie Fitch & Emma & Blake (but I dont know their last names) :). We had a great time :) and I realy hope that my grandpa gets better. We’ll go back in July. I can’t wait :)