Post-Finals

Just finished finals week! Unfortunately, the post-final relaxation is not to be had. We've still got plenty of homework to fill up our spare time. However, I did reward myself by going to chick-flick night featuring, "My Best Friend's Wedding." Good show :)

Time to catch up on all the great adventures we still managed to have last week! When homework is overwhelming, its hard to justify going into the city, but I know I'll regret it come winter time if I stay in to work instead of enjoying the fabulous place I'm at. 

Our field trip last Monday provided me with an experience I loved, but hopefully will never have again- SHEEP HERDING! We visited the Biblical land reserve and got to see animals, plants, bake soup and bread, just like they might have back in the biblical days. 

As you can imagine, I was a natural at the shepparding business. They divided us into three group to take turns moving the sheep around. The first group had to maneuver them into a circle of rocks. The second group had to lead them in a big circle and then put them into another circle of rocks. I was in the final group. Our challenge was to separate the goats from the sheep and to put them into separate circles of rocks. I didn't even know the difference between sheep and goats. Thankfully we have some farm kids in the class and they took the reigns on this one. Amazingly, we successfully separated the sheep and goats (they were stubborn about staying in a group). It was super fun!

We get to see super cool stuff all the time. Yesterday we went to St. Peter in Gallicantu. This is traditionally the place where Peter denied Christ three times and heard the cock crow. There is also some really cool stone caves underneath the church where it is believe Christ was held before his trial in Jerusalem. 

Of course after seeing the church, we had to stop for a Gold?! Magnum bar. Seriously, that's what they're called. We had the best time talking about our Gold?! ice cream :)

Here are a few other misc pics so you can get a feel for how much I'm loving life these days!

View from my bedroom

The Jerusalem Center on Mt. Scopus

  Dome of the Rock view from the Roman Catholic Church of Maria Magdalene 

We went snorkeling here, Eliat, at the Red Sea

Walkin' All Over

Its official- Jerusalem feels like home now. It's so great to feel a connection to the city and feel so comfortable in it!

We only a have a few more weeks of our rigorous class schedule until finals, then about the last month we will only have New Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies classes. I think its perfect timing because by the time we have all those free afternoons in our schedule, the weather will have cooled down considerably. Its been better in the last couple of weeks, but I just know to plan that if I go into the city on any given day, I will return much sweatier than I would have hoped!

On Sunday (our Sabbath is on Saturday) we went on a field trip to Hezekiah's tunnel! It was built by Hezekiah to protect Jerusalem's water supply from invaders. Our group walked to the mouth of the tunnel at the top of the City of David, just below the Temple Mount, and walked through the tunnel all the way to the southern border of the City of David. This thing was awesome! The water came about to our knees, and higher in some spots. As expected, there's no electricity in the tunnel, so it was pitch black. Good thing I brought my headlamp! We walked for about 45 minutes deep underground. Most of the tunnel was only a couple feet wide and got super narrow and short as it twisted and turned. For a few minutes we all turned off our lights except for the leader. We held hands to lead each other and were so scared because that darkness was THICK. I can't imagine how scared I would have been to be in that tunnel alone!

By far, it was my favorite field trip. As shown above, we emerged from the tunnel smiling and in one piece thank goodness! 

On Monday, I went with a group to the Israel Museum. One of our assignments requires going there and then writing a paper on a few of the things we see, so being non-procrastinators, we decided to knock it out early on in the term! 

We were told it was only a 40 minute walk. Some took a cab, but I decided to go with the walking group to save a few shekels. Before we knew it, we were lost in West Jerusalem. The locals who gave us directions honestly had no idea where the museum was. 4 miles and 2 hours later, we made it there! 

The museum was actually super cool. As I saw all the cool stuff they had recovered in Israel, I was kind of bummed that they had taken the artifacts off the sites they found them in. It would be a lot cooler to see stone workings and old statues at Tel-Beersheva and other ancient cities than just a bunch rocks placed in outlines of houses.... oh well! I'm glad I got to see that stuff.

I also got to see the Dead Sea Scrolls! I've heard a lot about those. The architecture of the place they keep them in was really awesome too. The fountain behind me is actually the roof of the chamber that holds the scroll exhibit!

Not one of my better outfit days, but I sure had a great time!

And I definitely took a cab back to the center :)