Hezekiah's Tunnel

We took a field trip to the part of Jerusalem that King David would have ruled over. It's totally different from where the "Old City" is today. The Ottomans built the wall that is standing today. David's city was a lot smaller and on Mt.Ophel, which is down a little bit. They're excavating the area and hope to continue to excavate, which would mean kicking hundreds of people out of their homes... Anyways, We started at the ruins, called Area G. Then we took a trip through Warren's shaft and Hezekiah's tunnel. Here's the quick story: Hezekiah was king, and the Assyrians were about to attack. The city's water source was outside of the city wall, and they needed to secure that source during battle. So, Hezekiah managed the building of a tunnel to bring water from their source down to the pool of Siloam which was inside the city. He had men start at the source and at the pool, and work toward each other. They started chipping away, and miraculously ended only 2 1/2 feet from each other! What a feat! The tunnel has like a 2% grade or something to keep the water coming. Warren's shaft, named after the man who found it, is a shaft that was used by the people to climb down to get to the water and fill their buckets. So we started at the fresh water spring, and walked through the tunnel and ended at the pool of Siloam. The tunnel was, for the most part, about 2 feet wide and probably 5'9". Different parts varied in size, but for the most part it was pretty little! The water was to our knees most of the time, but sometimes went to our thighs. It was really fun!

Me and Amie at area G. Can you see the pillars in the background?
In Warren's shaft. I was happy b/c i got to use my headlamp again
At the end in the pool of Siloam. This pool is Byzantine.

We got so wet!

This is the Roman Pool of Siloam, which is still being excavated. It was found not too long ago. This is where Christ told the blind man to go and wash after he had put mud on his eyes. I'm so excited to study the New Testament!

Fun times around the Center!

We've been so busy over here! We've mostly done things around the center and jerusalem, but it's been really busy and fun! Here are just a few pictures of some of the events this past week!
First of all, on the North side of the building, they have "Biblical Gardens" which have different items that would have been here in Biblical times. On Monday we all went out there and had a demonstration on Olive crushing. Last week we picked all of the olives on the property, and then we took those same olives and crushed them. Amie and I are there using the equipment. It was really hard!
That night we had a class FHE across the street with a campfire and s'mores. It was a fun bonding activity for our class.
Then on Thursday we had a Seder (Passover) meal led by our Jewish professor. It was intense. I was on the setup committee and we worked for 3 hours getting everything perfect. They wanted all of the cups and silverware polished, napkins with a special fold, etc. It was fun, though. So our teacher was born and raised Jewish in Boston, but moved to Israel where he studied and now teaches. He's awesome. So he came and we had the Passover with everything in proper order. It was really interesting. Our professor is the one with the yamaka. We all took turns serving the various dishes, as you can see Kira and me modeling with our trays... Oh the first pic is me and my wonderful roommates all ready for the Seder! It was a fun night!

Day trips

So we've had a couple of fun day trips recently! First we had our "Conquest" Field trip. This was a half-day trip and we first went to Jericho (the first pic). There you find a well that has been dated to like 8000 BC--the oldest structure found to date. Of course dates are debatable, but it's still cool. You can see walls and remnants of walls that would have been like the walls of Jericho, but have been built since then. Then we went to the Quruntul Monastery which is built upon the Mount of Temptation (where Christ went in fasting and dealt with Satan). The monastery is way the heck up there--I don't understand how these Greek Orthodox monks built it!
Our next field trip was our "Goliath" trip, learning all about the valleys in and around Jerusalem. This was a fun day because we did a lot of "splunking" in various caves in the area. The first group of "caves" was actually where people lived, underground. Not like a city which is now covered, but a people who built their homes in the bedrock underground mostly because they stay cool in the summer and warmer in the winter. Once again i couldn't believe that people lived like this. Interesting fact about these people: They built rooms with high walls that had little notches/holes in them, about the size of a small mailbox. This attracted doves in the area, which were lured in and then became the sacrificial animals as well as dinner. I guess when you're living in the middle of nowhere, you figure out how to survive? We went to 2 other cave areas, including the Bell Caves, and a smaller living complex. Above is a picture of me in a little room. Note the headlight! i was excited that I got to use that.
Our last stop of the day was the Valley of Elah, where David slew Goliath! This was the actual place! We saw the river where David went to pick his "5 smooth stones". It was way cool. We could imagine the Israelites on the mountaintop looking into the valley and across into the Philistine army. We re-enacted the battle, and here I am with my sling "slaying Goliath".


















K, well these are some pics from our trip to Galilee and the surrounding area! We had a two-day trip there, and it was awesome. (We will spend 9 days there in December, but this was a little morsel of what is to come.) It's a beautiful city--very peaceful with an awesome sunset. Ths first pic is me and some good friends atop Mt. Arbol, which looks over the Sea of Galilee. It was an awesome view! How fun it was to be there! Then there's me with a fortress of some sort of fortress at a place calles Sephorris. It was a sweet city of Roman ruins, I think. Then Me, Amie and Caitlin at Akko, which was a huge port town in the northern part of Israel. The Mediterranean Sea hits huge cliffs on the coast and it was sweet. Then 2 pics from Sepphoris again. They had huge rooms with the floors covered in mosaics. It was beautiful, and I couldn't believe the time they put into it! In the second pic you can see the ruts where chariots and carts would have been pulled everyday by hundreds of people. Cool, huh?

We've been pretty busy here in Jerusalem with classes recently. It's been fun to just enjoy where we get to live everyday. Ramadan is now over, so there aren't as many prayer calls each day, and now our bus drivers can drive safely at the end of the day, instead of maniacally as they are very ready to break their daily fast. We've had one midterm, and are looking ahead at a couple more, but have mostly been doing reading and quizzes. Where we are in our classes: Old Testament-- we just finished Isaiah; Ancient Near East-- we are learning about the divided Kingdom and how apostate these people became; Jewish-- we're starting the Holocaust; Arabic--I think I can say hello (jk, better than that, but it's definitely a foreign language...); Palestinian--we're learning about the Age of Optimism; and life is good. Everything is so interesting, and being able to put things directly into context is a great way to learn!

We had our first rain/lightning storm. These are what the Bible calls, "Early Rains". The other day we harvested the olives on the property. I guess usually they put nets down and shake the trees, or use machinery, but we got to use ladders and gloves, and place each individual olive in a bucket! It was fun. On Monday we get to crush them, ancient style, and turn them into extra virgin olive oil. Should be fun! We go to Jordan in about a week, which will be way cool. Things are great! I hope all is well at home!

EGYPT!

Day 1: We first stopped at Tel Be'er Sheva where there lies a replica of an altar. We got to wear hard hats because we climbed down into this intense well from thousands of years ago. Then we went to a Kibbutz, which is a communal society where the people share everything. This Kibbutz does a ton of agriculture, and in the pic of me and Amie you can see the date palm trees in the background. I now know more about how to grow dates than I ever imagined...! I admire these people for living this way.

Welcome to Egypt! If you can't tell already, Amie and I are travel buddies. Just get used to a lot of pictures of her also b/c we're really good friends and we pretty much do everything together. She's awesome. Anyway, here we are at the Egyptian border and at the Great Pyramids of Giza! We saw them from the lookout point, from a camel ride, and also from the inside. I really don't know how the Egyptians built them because they are truly awesome. We weaseled our way through the narrow tunnels of Khafre's pyramid to get to the main tomb where the Pharoah would have been buried. It was sweet!

Here I am hanging out with the Sphinx! Then we took a trip to Zoser's step pyramid, which came before the great pyramids at Giza. After that, we went to the Ramses museum, where they have tons of statues from the time. It was cool. Lastly is the pita woman, for whom we're all grateful. At every restaurant they have a pita lady on the side making fresh pitas for us. I'm grateful for her because we couldn't eat any fresh fruits or vegetables, and I'm really picky about meat, so I this woman provided me with caloric intake. Bless her.

Welcome to Luxor! Luxor is a lot hotter than Giza, but really cool. We started at the Valley of the Kings where many pharoahs, including Tut Ankh Amun, have their tombs. We toured through those and saw wonderful things! Then we went to the Habu Temple, which was covered in huge pillars all carved out. My favorite Hieroglyph is one of a celebration, and the people in the picture are doing back handsprings. That afternoon, our whole group took a faluka boat ride on the Nile! Could it have been a better trip? I really don't think so!

A few pics from Luxor! The donkeys which they carry their goods don't seem too comfortable. They have cars, but I guess this is their transportation of choice. The children plead with us to give them money, and it breaks my heart that this is how they live. We watched the sunset across the Nile, which was beautiful. That night, we had dinner at the hotel, and there was a belly dancer. It was so much fun!

Our Mt. Sinai Hike! We woke up at 1 am and got back down the mountain at like 9am. It was awesome. Hiking in the moonlight, watching the sunrise, and then hiking down in heat is awesome. It was really cool to be there and think about all that happened up there!

So there's my trip to egypt! It's so great to be back here, though. I love Jerusalem!