Photos of Masada:

Photos of the Dead Sea:

Photos of the journey back to Haifa:

A very beautiful setting with the sunset, lots of food and a well planned programme.

It was a wonderful Bahá’í wedding – simple, dignified, and full of love.

Practicing:

They have done a fantastic job decorating the place:

For more photos see this post on Saba and Sieni’s blog.

I’ll content myself with the candle:

The candle, by itself:

Oh wait, maybe it IS magic! Here, ladies and gentlemen, we have photographic evidence of the master in action:

I think he’s preparing to cast Frostbolt Level 2, and since it was a warm day we all had -20% Cold resistance so it would have done 240 to 480 damage, as well as slowing the target for 30 seconds. Good thing it hit Martha not me.

I swear, I only cropped the photo and increased brightness – no dirty photoshop tricks. Click here to see the original.

He presented the topic in the context of the Covenant, explaining how the Covenant provides us with a code of fundamental belief, of personal conduct and of governance, and as such the injunction to rectitude of conduct is woven into the very fabric of the Covenant. He then proceeded to outline certain qualities pertaining to rectitude of conduct such as equity, truthfulness, honesty, fair mindedness and trustworthiness, demonstrating their implications on our personal lives as well as that of the community and the institutions, describing their transformative effects, highlighting their importance and demonstrating the level of responsibility we have and the care we must exercise in observing them.

After the talk, refreshments in the Dining Room:

Lots of these plates everywhere:

These got eaten by me:

Bedroom:

Dining area:

Bags:

Stock of drinks:

We stopped at McDonalds on the last trip, in Merkaz:

Godt some food:

Devoured it:

Upside-down chicken burger:

Chips:

Sauce:

Samarih even waved goodbye as we were leaving:

We went through basics of composition, with more to come in the next few weeks. We even got to play with cameras during the class:

Took this photo afterwards:

We have homework for the class, to take photos with various aspects of composition in mind. I may post some of those photos later.

I particularly enjoyed Bryan Weber’s prayer on the guitar. Random photo:

Friends (Saba, Samir, Arash, Mateen, Lessan, Bauback):

Gardens behind the Shrine:

Looking up:

On the way up, 6 of us took a 4-person elevator and got stuck!

Even after we were rescued from the elevator, we had lots of fun:

Especially with these expandable magic wand thingies:

The food was great but alas not documented.

The chairs are still empty:

The performers still figuring out what to do:

Meanwhile, above the stage there’s a maze of tunnels leading to the lights:

Somehow, we were there:

Salad:

Fruit:

Food:

Desert:

There were some selected readings that were passed around as well as beautifully prepared cards with photos and a small quote on the back, which some people read out:

We had wonderful dinner (Persian food; any more questions?) as well as some inspiring discussions on The Covenant:

Stir fry rice:

Samir:

Arash and Mateen:

Also had breakfast together:

The view at dawn:

A little lighter:

Even more light:

Quite hot when we took it out of the oven:

And here’s the next one before it went into the oven:

To be fair, the base comes in a packet, we just added the toppings. Here I am eating a piece:

The seafood mix:

Saba eating the seafood mix:

Arman:

Lessan:

Stir fry rice:

Random candle shot:

And desert! These coconut flavored pancake type things were amazing!

This was pretty good too:

Took a few hours to clean up and return everything to their places:

We were beat by the end!

Keyboards:

Cables, LOTS of cables:

Chairs:

And we printed labels, lots of labels:

It took many people to sort the labels:

There was also lots of food! Pasta:

Sauce:

Bread:

Salad:

It was also Soriah’s birthday:

With a candle-lit cake:

More cake:

Are these brownies or cake?

Some chocolate:

Tea:

And a random shot:

Close up:

Here he is cutting the cake:

We also ate some really good food:

Consisting of seafood pasta:

Rice:

Lasagna:

Salad:

Mixed rice:

And chicken:

A few of us stayed to see a video of Australia on Arash’s new media player: