Caves, Sheep and Hyssop

Alright once again we have a lot to catch up on. So on Friday night I attended an orthodox Jewish Shabbat service at a local synagogue with my Judaism teacher. And it was super cool! The men and women were divided on two opposite sides of the room. And then they just sang a bunch of songs in Hebrew with a small sermon in the middle of it. The service was only about an hour long. And all of the songs they were singing came from the Psalms, which was really cool. They gave out prayer books for us to follow along and fortunately they had the English translations. It's cool to enjoy different religions and to see how they worship God and what is most meaningful to them.

On Saturday after church a group of us went to the Orson Hyde gardens, which are pretty close to the center and right next to the Garden of Gethsemane as well. It was very beautiful and peaceful and a great quite moment for me to reflect and write in my journal. This experience has been such a blessing in my life and I know that I am meant to be here. Every day reaffirms that to me and I am so incredibly grateful to be having this experience.

So then on Sunday, it was our free day, as you probably already knew. A group of went down to the Sorek caves, which were really really cool! And our tour guide was freaking hilarious. I laughed pretty much the whole time. The caves are full of stalactites and stalagmites and just full of pure unadulterated nature's beauty. These formations take anywhere from 150 to 200 years to create! And they take great care in preserving the cave, and that was really cool to see how proud the Israeli people are of their country and the sites within. Here is picture of Lee and I in the caves:

After the caves a different group of us went into the Old City to go shopping and get some treats from the Jewish quarter. I bought a beautiful scarf. I wasn't going to buy a scarf while I was here because I feel like you can get those anywhere and they just aren't that special to Jerusalem, but when I saw this scarf I just couldn't resist. It is gorgeous, if I do say so myself. And everyone else that has seen it seems to agree. I have a feeling my mom will be trying to steal it when I get back to the states ;) We also got these carmelized nuts, which are all over the Jewish quarter and they are SO good! It was the first time that I went out with my roommates outside of the center and it was so fun! We shared the nuts and they were freakin delicious! Also- we went to this doughnut shop that is apparently really really good. I didn't get one since I was kinda full, but the reviews from everyone else were really great. So I will have to go back and try one some day.

So then yesterday was our field trip day and we went to Neot Kedomim- which is a biblical park per se... It has a bunch of trees and plants in it that are mentioned in the bible and our tour guide taught us all about the different symbolism of all the different plants mentioned. It was so cool to actually see the different plants and animals talked about in the bible because it made it that much more real. The people of the bible are truly coming alive for me, and it is so wonderful. We also had an opportunity to herd sheep and talk about the symbolism of being a shepherd and such. It was so cool! Here is me and some girls herding the sheep:

I'm going to be getting some more sheep pictures from some friends- and when I do I will be putting more up on the blog, but for now, this is all I have. We then toured around and looked at different trees. We saw how you harvest wheat and press olives as well. Lunch was also really cool because we made our own pitas over a camp fire! So that was pretty legit. We also ground up some hyssop plant to take home, which was really cool. Hyssop is the herb that they use in zatar- if any of you know what that is. You dip bread into olive oil and then into a bowl of ground up herbs (hyssop). Very delicious. Here is a pic of my hyssop partner Jen and I. We make a sweet herb grinding team, if I do say so myself.
Overall it was a really cool field trip. We ended the day with a presentation by a Torah scribe, which was so cool! We got to watch up write some of the Torah- which takes an entire year to write in the calligraphy and not make any mistakes and such. And we learned about the lifestyle of a scribe, which was really cool. He also had a 200 year old scroll there to show us and did a reading from it, which sounded so awesome! After that we headed back to the center in time for studying and dinner. This week is the midterm week- so wish me luck! I'm going to need all the luck I can get.... Until next time!