So, since my last post I've been to the Mediterranean Sea!! I went to Tel Aviv for a History of Modern Israel field trip and I loved it... the ocean was beautiful and the weather was perfect! We had lunch on the beach and just soaked up the sunshine! On this same field trip we went to the Latrun Tank Museum which basically had hundreds of different tanks that we could climb on and look at! One of the tanks is the most advanced tank in the world and has some really crazy new technology! I didnt get a picture of myself on that tank but here's a picture of me and my friends on one of the tanks:
Our next field trip was to Benjamin... we went to pretty much all of the different cities in Benjamin and learned a lot... I would tell you about all of them but I don't want this blog to be too long! Haha! But my favorite part of the trip was when we went to Jericho! When we got there we got to walk along the tel (basically a hill made from the debry from past civilizations) and saw the different areas that were excavated. We even went on areas that tourists were supposed to go on and I found 3 pieces of pottery there including a jar handle and jar bottom... so fun! I then tried to get a picture with the camel but the guy tried to get me to pay 5 shekels to take a picture... ya, right! But its no big deal, on a later trip to the Jericho area a guy let me get on the camel and had it stand up so I could get a picture... FOR FREE! I was happy... and here is the picture:
Also, we have been on a couple hikes since I last blogged... so much fun!! The first one was really scary because Bill told us we had to be super careful and how one girl broke her leg on this hike and how a seasoned hiker died on it from falling off the cliff... so I was a little nervous! Thankfully, though, it didn't end up being scary at all... it was so fun! There were like 8 different spots that we stopped along the hike to jump into the natural pools and hang out. We found a crab in one of the pools and spent some time trying to catch fish in another. And the scenery was beautiful!
The next field trip we went on we stopped at the Herodian, a fortress built by Herod the Great, and Bethlehem, and a few other places that I don't feel like writing about... hahah! But the Herodian was really cool, all kinds of pillars and we got to go down into the giant cisterns. I've recently realized that I love crawling in small caves... I'll talk about a few others that I've been in later on in the blog. But Bethlehem is not at all like I expected it to be... VERY dirty and not really much there. The Catholic church over the place where they believe Jesus was born looked like the typical overly decorated shrine that most would expect. I find that of all of the places we have visited the ones with these types of churches over them are the ones where it is hardest to grasp the reality of the event that happened there... mostly just because the place is covered with gold, marble, jewels and has the smell of incense... there is almost no hint of what the place would have looked like when the event took place there. But apart from that it is still pretty amazing to have stood in the city where the Christmas Story that we read each Christmas took place... almost surreal!
The next big field trip was to Ein Gedi, where the dead sea is! We went for an overnight trip and camped on the beach of the Dead Sea! My first experience in the dead sea was not what I expected... basically you walk down this steep hill to the edge then you walk over rocks (made sharp by the salt that covers them) into the water. But once you are in it is pretty fun... it felt so weird because I felt like I needed to tread water to stay up but you really don't! It was hard to swim because you can't really kick because your feet barely go under the water... so we doggie paddled over to the area with dead sea mud and covered ourselves with it before walking back. I ended up cutting my foot up pretty good on the salt rocks... I had a couple deep ones that are still healing a few weeks later... but at least now I can say I floated on the Dead Sea! That night we sang around the campfire and slept under the stars. In the morning we woke up with a film of salt air on our skin and hair but it was alright because we were going hiking! This hike was the hardest I have ever done. Mostly because you go up a really steep slope for quite a while on loose rocks so it takes a lot of your energy! I think I will attach a video to my blog so you can see the view from the top... it was crazy beautiful... ok so the video will have to wait... it was taking forever to upload! Anyways, there were some pools to jump in on this one too and I even got to slide down a small waterfall!
Our most recent trip was to the Shephelah and we got to see the valley where most of Samson's life was spent and the valley were David fought Goliath... I even got a stone from the brook that David would have gotten his stones from to slay Goliath! We stood in a poppy field (oops... just about wrote poopy field... that would not be good!) and got to pick some beautiful big red poppies! We also went to Gath, the home town of Goliath and the place where David acted like he had gone crazy by letting his spit drip down his beard so that he could get away from Abimelech (he wrote about this experience in Psalm 34... read it!). On this trip we also went into this cave that the Jews used to hide during the first Jewish revolt against the Romans. There were all kinds of tunnels and rooms in there... you could spend quite a bit of time exploring it! Those of us who were brave enough (and could fit) took the smaller set of tunnels out... it takes about 10-15mins and its pitch black without a light... but fortunately I had a light! We did the military crawl through parts and then would get to a room where you could stand before going into the next tunnel... it was actually really fun!
This past weekend and Monday was a holiday... Purim! It is basically a celebration that Esther saved the Jews from being killed. At church on Saturday we read through parts of Esther and every time they would mention Haman everyone would make noise with the noise-makers they provided in order to blot out his name. We then had a potluck there and a Purim party... most of the kids and some adults dressed up. It was fun times for sure. Then on Monday the real Purim party in Jerusalem happened, some people went into the city earlier but my group didn't go in until about 3pm and by then we missed the silly string party but there were still plenty of people dressed up and music! The city was crazy this day... people were everywhere and the roads were so busy! When we went to catch the bus we waited for an hour when it is supposed to come every half hour and the drive home took another hour, when it should only take 30-40mins. When we got back I frantically had to put together an outfit for the party that Ibex was having that night... I ended up being a gangsta (gangster for those of you who are a little older) with some friends and we were supposed to put together a skit but we just made it up a few seconds before... but it worked out, people liked it.
Yesterday we went on an excavation in the City of David. And lets just say... I AM SO SORE! Haha! We went down in an underground tunnel and passed along bags of dirt... then we took the bags up the stair and dumped them into a large bin. We got to spend some time looking through it... a few people found some stuff... Roman glass, lots of pottery, etc. I found what I thought at first was a pot handle but when I took more dirt off I realized it was part of a lamp, the man was right there and he said it was probably 2000 yrs old... from the time of Jesus. I was excited but then the man burst my bubble and took it away... I couldn't keep it :( but its ok cause I got some other pieces of pottery and some small bits of Roman glass! It was a long day (7:30am-8:30pm) and after moving so much dirt and rocks I was so sore and exhausted. When were were done we walked through the Old City COVERED in dirt until the pizza came... and then we did an underground tour along the western wall. It was cool but I was exhausted so I probably didn't get as much out of it as I should have. Over all I loved it and there were definitely some funny times down in the tunnel! Well, I think you are all caught up... just remember in between all of this there is some school work! I actually took a final exam for one of my classes already so that one is done! Keep in touch everyone, seriously, even if I don't write back right away it is great hearing from you!!!
Jerusalem Time