Shabbat Shalom- Happy Sabbath!

So this week we had the opportunity to go on two field trips as opposed to the normal one on Mondays. Which is why I am blogging again so that I can get all of these memories down before I forget them! And so you all can read about them of course. I won't be having pictures in this post... but I will post some later, I promise.

So on Thursday, it was our Negev field trip. Look on a map for further reference on to where the Negev is- but as a generality, it is about an hour and 15 minutes south of Jerusalem. And this was a FULL day. We left early in the morning and headed down to a Bedouin city to watch a demonstration on bedouin women weaving carpets and rugs and such. The BYU Jerusalem Center supports this group because it is helping these women gain skills in order to support their families. They are also teaching them to read and speak English, which are much needed skills in order to gain more rights and employment. The program is really incredible, actually. There are so many problems with women in the middle east and many of the problems can't be fixed because these women are stuck in their situations due to a lack of education and skills. This program is helping women gain an education and skills in order to provide them with tools to advance and progress out of their dyer situations. And the rugs that they make are absolutely beautiful! We went into a large tent, that was made of canvas that these women had made and watched how they make wool into yarn and then how they dye the yarn and then weave it. It was quite the process! And these women were so kind and hospitable to us. They offered us tea and little pastries- both of which were delicious. Unfortunately the rugs and things that they make are quite expensive, so I wasn't able to buy anything, but it was still fun to look! I can get you the website if you would like to order something online. It was so cool to watch the weaving. And it was also cool to be in the tent because this would have been the same kind of tent that Abraham or other prophets of the bible would have lived in.

We then went to Tel Arad- remember what a tel is? We are seeing a lot of them, so I sure hope so. At this site there was a large city at the bottom of the mountain which would have been a Canaanite city and then we climbed the mountain that had a large Israelite fortress at the top of it. The city was cool- even though it was basically just a bunch of ruins. It was cool to see how narrow the streets were, how big the houses would have been, etc. The fortress was much cooler, I must say, however. Inside the fortress was an ancient temple with all of the stuff in it, like an altar and a holy of holies! And then there were other things like dwelling houses, shops, etc.

After that we headed further south to the ancient city of Avdat. This was something from the Byzantine era, so after the bible, but it was still sooo awesome! Since it is newer, even though it is still over 1000 years old, there was a lot more to see, which was cool. And it is quite well preserved. We mainly focused on the two Greek Christian churches there- one was a monastery, and one was a cathedral with a baptismal font and other things. There were also cave houses, which was awesome. Everything was so beautiful and much more artistic in this era as well.

We then headed back North a bit to visit the tomb of David Ben Gurion- who was the first prime minister of Israel. It was very interesting to hear about him- and his gravesite has a gorgeous view of the Zin wilderness- which is where the Israelites wandered for 40 years after they were afraid to go and take over the promised land because the people were rumored to be too big and hard to overtake. See the bible for further explanation on that story- it's in Numbers. I know it would have not been fun to be in the wilderness for 40 years, but wow was it beautiful. And there was even a rainbow since it had rained earlier that day. We then sang the hymn "Redeemer of Israel." So many people that I know say that this is their favorite song and I feel like we sing it in sacrament or other meetings ALL the time and I've never really understood why. But looking out onto the very wilderness that the song is referring to just gave it a whole new meaning, and I pretty much now love the song. Refer to the lyrics for further details.

We then made an attempt to travel to the well of Abraham in Be'er Sheva, but we ended up finding it under construction because they are building a park around it. Boo. It was weird though because the well is in the middle of a modern developed city, unlike the rest of the sites we have been too. It was right next to a dominos actually. haha. This is the same well where God appeared to Abraham and to Isaac- so pretty legit. After the well we made the long journey back to Jerusalem and ended our day.

What I really want to tell you about, however, is my experience yesterday. One of the coolest I've had so far, actually. We went to the Western Wall around sundown to watch the Jews welcome the Sabbath- or Shabbat. It was seriously one of the coolest things ever. There were people EVERYWHERE. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take cameras, since it was a religious service and all, but I sure wish I could taken pictures. What was cool about it was there were so many different reactions to the coming of the Sabbath. Mostly they were extremely joyous and celebratory. People were dancing and singing and were just so happy that the Sabbath had finally come. A friend and I also went towards the Western Wall to actually touch it- because you just have to in Jerusalem right? And it was so powerful to see all of these people touching this wall and crying and praying, and places written prayers in the cracks of the wall. It was so touching. And I wish I were eloquent enough to really describe the feeling close to the wall. These Jewish women (since we were on the side for women, obviously) are so devout and solid in their faith. I feel like I can learn so much from them and how they worship God. Although there were many tears, it was still a happy, peaceful feelings, although very reverent. Further away from the wall, though- many people were dancing and singing and just purely celebrating the start of the Sabbath, which was so cool. There were a few Jewish girls that called to some of their group to come and join them! So we sang some of the songs (which we learned in Hebrew class thank goodness) and danced around in a big circle with clapping and jumping involved. It was such a happy moment and so awesome that they welcomed us with open arms to join them. It was such an amazing experience, one that I will never forget. Ever since I've been here I can't help but be impressed with those of the Jewish faith and specifically how they treat the Sabbath. I want to treat the Sabbath in my own life more like they do. They love their Sabbath and it obviously shows. And they turn off all of their electronics and such so that they can truly be with their family for the whole day. Where can I sign up to do that? When I have my own family, I definitely want to do something like that.

So yeah- in short I am loving Jerusalem and the customs. Life is great and I will blog again soon!

Shalom!

As you might have guessed from the title of this post, I am learning Hebrew! I really like it so far. Learning ancient languages is always pretty cool. Well this past weekend was pretty great, as usual. I think I like this whole having the Sabbath on Saturday and then a free day on Sunday thing. It's working out quite well for me. On Sunday a group of us headed over to the King's tomb, which was pretty cool. This is a picture of me and my new friend Loie (rhymes with Joy) entering into the ancient palace like tomb. It was HUGE. And pretty cool. One thing that I love about Israel in contrast to America- you can really enjoy history up close and personal. If this place were in America, there would be a ton of security guards and "do not touch" signs. Here there was one random guy that wasn't even really watching us and we could climb all over everything and do pretty much whatever we pleased. The legend is that King David was buried here, but it is pretty much certainly not true. But still cool to think about. But most of the sites are similar to this in the sense that we can walk and touch everything, unlike anything historical in America. Oh and anything old in America is like 200 years old and we aren't allowed to touch it while everything here is THOUSANDS of years old and we are allowed to climb on it. Interesting, right? I'm also loving the large lack of tourists here. There are a few here in there, but in general, there aren't too many. Nothing like Europe, which I really like. It is a much better experience when there isn't a ton of people there, over crowding it and ruining the whole thing.

Anyway- after the King's tomb, we headed back over to the Old City for more exploring and site seeing. We mainly explored the Jewish quarter this time around, which was super neat. There were a ton of sites that were absolutely beautiful and told the story of the wars fought for independence and such. The people in the Jewish quarter are also very nice and friendly- even if they are constantly reminding you that Jerusalem is their city. And hey I'm not one to argue- as long as they let me visit! This is a picture of me standing on one of the ancient streets from the second temple period. All original stone and columns. This was originally a market place. A bunch of shops would have been behind me. I'm living and breathing history people! Pretty appropriate since I'm a history major and all, right?
As we continued exploring we eventually happened upon the Western Wall- which was sooo cool. Below is a picture of me in front of it. The wall is sectioned off for men and women and all of the Jews are extremely reverent and pray while touching it or read scriptures. It is quite cool. I have really come to appreciate how devoted the Jewish people here are. It is definitely something I can learn from. The dome of the rock is directly behind the wall- and I can't wait to go see it up close! It is only open at weird times though, so I didn't get a chance to go on Sunday. Also- if you can't tell the weather cleared up and it was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day. I swear the sky is bluer here.
After the western wall, we continued exploring and made our way to West Jerusalem. I haven't included any pictures from that adventure because I have to pick and choose which pictures I want to upload or else this post would be just tooooo long. We went to the YMCA, Herod's family tomb, some gardens, and the Kind David hotel, where we met a nice man who told us a ton more places to go on our next free day. Let's just say that we did a TON of walking that day. We walked from 9 AM until sundown- so intense! We got back to the center just in time to watch the sunset over the old city, which was absolutely gorgeous. Pictures do not do it justice- but I tried to capture it none the less.

The next day was Monday- and that meant field trip day! We got to go to Jericho- which is in the west bank. It was one of the two times that we are able to go into the west bank this semester. And it was awesome!! I wish I could go there at other times, but oh well... We started out our day (which was gorgeous by the way) at Herod's winter palace. Here is me in front of one of the still standing walls. It was pretty cool- you could still see where all of the other rooms were. It didn't photograph well, but just know that it was cool. You could see different rooms, pools, and baths. It was quite the luxurious palace! Or at least I can imagine that it was.
After that we headed down to tel-es sultan, which is a tel (go look up what that is if you don't know) that is the ancient city of Jericho. You basically climb up the tel- which is a huge mound of dirt and then look at the different things that archaeologists have excavated. It doesn't seem like much, but the oldest man made things to ever be discovered are there. So that's pretty cool. This is a picture of me and Amy on top of the tel. Once again, a hard thing to photograph.
This picture is at the same site. It is a tourist site because Jericho is "The oldest city of the world." Main story of Jericho is when Joshua marched the children of Israel into Jericho, they marched around the walls seven times, and then blew their trumpets and all of the walls came crumbling down. Much of the archaeology here was done in order to prove or disprove this story. The findings are inconclusive. Meaning that some people say they can prove that it happened while others say that it didn't happen. So who knows. This is me and Loie in front of the sign. The spring of Elisha is also there- which I didn't include pictures of. But it was cool. This city is extremely green because of the water source and is full of palm trees and lots of agriculture.
We then traveled into the middel of the Judean Wilderness, pictured below. And it was absolutely gorgeous. Who knew that a desert could be so beautiful?We climbed to the very top of a mountain and simply looked out onto the wilderness. This is the same wilderness that Jesus was tempted in and that Lehi and his family would have travelled through. We were at an area called the Mount of Temptations in fact. There are sandy mountains as far as the eye can see. It is literally just a bunch of nothingness. And it is wonderful. We all sat and talked for a bit and then just sat and pondered and looked out. From this mountain you can see from one side of Israel to the other, showing how small the country really is. It was the most peaceful place I have ever been. And perhaps one of the coolest. The story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness really took on a new meaning. I can't imagine journeying throughout this wilderness for 4o days. That would have been so crazy. But I can totally see why Jesus would have come here to become closer to God. Because there is nothing BUT God out here. And it is awesome.
Here's a quick pick of me overlooking the vast desert. You can't really see it in the pictures, but I am looking at Jerusalem in the far distance. So yeah- this has been my favorite field trip so far. But there are many more to come, so I'm sure that will change. We are headed to Jordan next week!
So that was my weekend. Now it's back to the grind with classes and the dreaded homework. In fact, I should go do more homework right now... So email me with any questions! Or just comment on the blog and I will answer them as well. Love and miss you all!

Rainy Days

Well this past week has been full of classes and rain. I LOVE my classes. Like seriously love. It's weird- I have yet to have a semester that is as good as this one, academically speaking. The longer I am here (granted, it hasn't been toooo long) the more glad I am that this is my last semester. It really is the ideal way to end college. I don't know what all of these other people were thinking.... haha ;) And I know it's only January and I still have a lot more time here, but I'm already dreading the day that I have to leave. I love this city and I feel like I want to live here....if not indefinitely then at least for a few years or so. It's just such a cool place to live!

So yeah, like my title suggests, it has been raining the past few days. We had a nice break in the rain on Thursday, and I was able to get out to the old city for some shopping and falafel. Yep- could definitely live off of the falafel here. They stuff the pitas with falafel, tomatoes, these cucumber/pickle things, a spicy sauce, and french fries! Sound weird? I suppose it kind of is, but the french fries are soooo good in it! And the falafel is great. All of the store owners call to us and ask us if we are the new mormons and then proceed to show us all of their merchandise and tell us about the special "mormon prices" haha. Who knows if the prices are actually lower... I suspect not. We eventually got to Shaban's- who is the guy that makes the BYU Jerusalem t-shirts and hoodies for the students as well as things like scripture cases and other mormony things. He is really great. And he makes beaded rings for all of the girls as a gift. So I got one of those, which is pretty cool. Then I went across the street to his brother-in-law's shop and bought some leather sandals, which are a must if you are living in Jerusalem. Pretty sure I"ll be buying more of them.

So we were supposed to go to the Western Wall for the start of the Sabbath last night, but it got post poned due to the cold rainy weather. And then our trip to the Garden Tomb also got post poned today, since it is still raining. We will have plenty of time to visit these places later though, so I'm not worried about it. Well I guess that's about all I have to report. I am meeting tons of cool people and really starting to feel at home here. Peace!

And more....

This is standing in the shepherd's fields, overlooking Bethlehem in the distance

This is me at one of the overlooks. Excuse the hair- as I said, it was a VERY windy day that day
Me playing piano at Augusta Victoria

And more pictures

See previous posts for further explanations:

This is me in front of Nabi Samuel

Eating my first Falafel in the old city!
In fron of the city that I told you about- that huge thing closest to me is the temple
Me and the girls in the group in front of the Shrine of the book
Me at the center after church!
More pics to come- let me know how you like these!

Pictures!

Me and my roommates: Maddie is on the far left, then Hailee and then Sarah is on the far right. Hailee actually ended up switching rooms, so now it is just the 3 of us. We are standing on the deck outside of our room. More pictures to come soon!

Free Time Sunday and Field Trip Monday

Well yesterday, Sunday, was our first free day in the Holy Land. A group of about 6 of us decided to go to the Israel Museum in West Jerusalem. Not only do we have to go to the museum for class, but I also really wanted to go, so it was a win-win situation. The museum itself was so interesting because the building was extremely modern looking while everything inside is literally older than anything else I've ever seen. There were artifacts that were 1000s of years old. The museum is organized by era- starting with the stone age and going up until today. We only looked up to the Caliphate/Islam era though. It really is amazing what archaeology has brought to our day. As I was looking at all of the artifacts, whether it was jewelry, burial artifacts, or pottery, I just had to wonder how all of these archaeologists knew so much from the little artifacts that they have discovered. After we looked at the main building of the museum, we went outside to the shrine of the book- where THE dead sea scrolls are. It was so cool! I took Isaiah a few semesters ago and I'm so glad that I did because seeing these scrolls meant that much more to me. And these scrolls were discovered not too far from here! The shrine of the book building is really cool too. It's kind of like a white tear dropped dome... I don't know how else to describe that.

Oh and good news! Even though I can't upload pictures to my blog on the JC campus, I CAN go across the street to the Hebrew University and do it there. I can also get on facebook and such, but I think I'm going to hold strong to not getting on facebook for 4 months.... at least that's what I say now... haha. I won't be going there ALL the time because I kind of like the whole idea of being separated from technology. But I will definitely go there like twice or three times a month. That also depends on who else wants to go with me because you can't go anywhere without at least 2 other people to go with you. This is actually kind of frustrating to me. Not that I want to go out alone or anything, but sometimes it's hard to get people to do things that you want to do and then you have to accommodate other people by doing what they want to do and so on. That sounds really selfish of me... and perhaps it is... I guess I just wish I could go across the street by myself if I wanted to, but I'm sure I will get used to it soon.

Anyway...I forgot to mention that before going to the Israel museum, we went to Aladdin's, which is where you go to exchange money here. Oh and it is pronounced Ah-la-deen's not like the Disney movie. After that, we walked around and found Omar's shop. Omar actually found us and yelled down the street for us to come see his shop. He has been doing business with BYU students for over 40 years and he loves Mormons. He has pictures with all of the general authorities that have visited the Holy Land. His shop consists of a TON of hand carved Olive wood nativities and other things. Mainly nativities though. And they are SOOOO cool! What's funny is that he also has things like busts of Joseph and Emma Smith, Captain Moroni, and Christ, all based on Mormon paintings. It's kinda funny, kinda cool. Omar was very friendly and nice as well. He gave us free keychains made of olive wood of course. So I guess that is the place to go for anything carved of olive wood. Omar was then kind enough to help us get a taxi over to the Museum.

So yeah... back to the Museum. After the shrine of the book, we went to an outdoor exhibit that was a replica of the Old city when Herod was the king. The temple, which I didn't realize, was HUGE!!!! The replica itself was like 30 or more feet long and probably 20 feet wide. I'm not that good at distance judging.... I will upload a picture of it and you will see what I'm talking about. The point being that it was sooo cool and awesome to see what the city looked like during the time of Christ. Seeing how big the temple was puts the whole story about Jesus cleansing the temple into an entirely new perspective. Still amazing that He did that single handedly...

We had been at the museum for around 4.5 hours at this point and decided to take a taxi back to the old city. Oh the Old City. I am seriously in love with it. I could just explore it all day every day. It's just so foreign and exciting! I can't wait to show you pictures. So we entered at the Damascas gate and found this shop that supposedly sells the best falaffel (sp?) in Jerusalem. And I do have to say that it was delicious. They put it in a pita with a bunch of different vegetables, sauce, and something spicy in it. I don't really have a point of reference to know if it the best, but it was very good and will be the standard for the rest of the falaffel that I eat. Once we finished our falaffel, it was getting close to sunset, which meant time to go home. In East Jerusalem, our curfew is sunset because of safety reasons. In West Jerusalem, however, our curfew is midnight.

This blog post is becoming much longer that I originally expected it to be. You guys said you wanted me to be detailed though, so I'm just giving you all what you asked for! :) So today was our first field trip day. It was the "Jerusalem Overlook" field trip. Which basically means we went to a bunch of different sites that overlook Jerusalem. We first went to Nabi Samuel, which is the tomb of the prophet Samuel. He isn't actually buried there, so it is actually just an honorary tomb. It was way cool. Today was ridiculously windy and cold. So it was a little difficult to stay outside all day, but hey I was in Jerusalem, so I couldn't complain. After Nabi Samuel, we went to Augusta Victoria, which is a huge Christian church with a large tower that you can climb and look out on the city. Climbing up all of the stairs was sooooo hard! I seriously thought my legs were going to give in at any moment. But I made it to the top- and it was worth it! The view was incredible. It was very windy and cold though. After we got back down from the tower, we sat in the chapel and sang hymns. The interior of the church is gorgeous- full of mosaics of Christ's ascension and other things. I played the piano for everyone, which was very cool. I have been surprised at how much I have played the piano since I have been here. I have gained a new appreciation for the musical talent that the Lord has blessed with me. And for my mother forcing me to take lessons all of those years. (You happy Mom? You told me all of those years that I would one day thank you despite all of my threats to drop our piano off of a cliff haha. I guess you were right! So Thank you) Plus being able to play the piano in an ancient church is pretty dang legit. The cathedral was huge though, so with all of the acoustics it was hard for me to play and hear everyone else singing at the same time.

After August Victoria, we went around to different overlooks of the ancient city. And then one that overlooked Bethlehem- which is where they say the shepherds were when they saw the angel. The last overlook we went to was where it is believed Abraham was when he received the revelation that he would have to sacrifice Isaac. It was so cool to look out onto the old city and see the path that he would have traveled to go make the sacrifice. Thinking about being in the land of the Bible is such a blessing and I can't believe I am here. I will have to show you with pictures the path that I am referring to.

The field trip ended with a visit to the Hebrew University. One of the students, who is also a member of our branch showed us around so that we could know where certain things are, like cool restaurants on campus, computer labs, the bookstore and the library. And then we walked back to the center- which is very close by, as I mentioned earlier. Well that was my day yesterday and today. Now I need to go do the rest of my reading... ugh. Thank you to all of you that have been emailing me. They are much appreciated!