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!