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 :)