Masada, Qumran, and the Dead Sea

Today was definitely a full day. We started our field trip day early in the morning with the buses leaving at 6:30 am. We had an hour and a half drive to our first stop, Masada. (Right - me on the first tier of Herod's Palace. The paint in the very back is original, 2000 year old paint. It's kind of ugly, but I guess at that time they thought it was beautiful). Masada was interesting, but to be honest, these tels all look the same. To quote the Seely family's theme song (sung to the tune of Far, Far, Away), "They say they are different, but they all look the same. The only thing that's different, is the name. What the tel, what the tel, what the tel are we climbing. Rocks and boulders, oh how swell. Climb another hill, oh what the tel." Still, it is one of those places that is nice to go to just to say, I've been to Masada. There we watched a short film before taking a cable car up to the top of Masada. There was one really interesting thing: Herod's palace. (Left - Dead Sea Mud . . . good for the skin . . . Can you guess which one is me? From back to front and left to right: 1-Jade, Bro. Ostler, Lauran, Shea, 2-Emily, Megan, Emily, Matt, Mandi, Kristy, 3-me, Heather, and Kendra). There was one tier that had a building that was air conditioned! Ok, it wasn't the same as our air conditioning, but the building was designed in such a way that it was much cooler inside. We, of course, didn't feel that because the building has since been destroyed, but it was still cool (no pun intended).
Next we went to Ein Gedi. There we went to a place where we could enter the Dead Sea. It was amazing. The Dead Sea is the second saltiest body of water in the world. (Right - sitting with my friends at the spring. Megan, Mindy, and I were sitting here on this rock talking when James came over. We are members of a group called GQ=G Qbed=G cubed=GGG=Good Gossip Group. At the fish restaurant in Galilee we started our game, and we thought it would be fun to get a picture together. Doesn't it look like a family picture?) I got a little water in my mouth and it was nasty. I can still feel it in my throat. It hurt so bad! It was almost as bad when I got some in my eye. Still, it was cool because I could stand straight up without moving, with my arms up in the air and I still didn't sink. It was really hard to get anywhere, though. We all put Dead Sea mud on ourselves. That was a lot of fun.
After our float, we went to a nature reserve where we took a short hike to a spring (Ein Gedi) where David hid from Saul. (Left - me throwing a rock into one of the caves at Qumran). That was a nice walk, and it was nice to sit and relax. I sat on a rock and chatted with a few of my good friends. Then we headed back to the bus. Our last stop of the trip was . . . can you guess? Another tel. This was Qumran. We saw some of the caves where scrolls were found (though we couldn't go in them) and walked around the complex. It was nice, but I was ready to leave by the time we were done.
That was my day! This coming week is going to be crazy! We have finals next week, but also field trips every other day. I guess it really is crunch time!

Tel Aviv and Jaffa

We went on a field trip today. We went to Tel Aviv and Jaffa. It was interesting to go on a field trip where I actually recognized where we were. We didn't really see anything new, though this time I understood what I was seeing. (Left -Simon the Tanner's house in Jaffa). It was a lot of fun. We took a tour of old Jaffa. We split our two usual groups up into three groups and I was put with the group the mixed group. It was interesting to be on a field trip with people I'm not usually with. We watched a little movie and saw some different sites withing Old Jaffa before having a little free time at lunch. (Right - the floating tree, aren't I strong?). I went and looked at some art with a few people. That was fun. Then after lunch we went to Tel Aviv. In Tel Aviv we took a tour of the city. That wasn't very exciting because we just saw places inside the city that weren't very interesting to me, but it was still fine. We ended at Independence Hall where Ben Gurion and the provisional government declared an independent Jewish State in 1948. That was really cool. We watched a video there that was rather boring, but the guide was really interesting. (Left - this was a strange sight to see while walking around in Jaffa. This is a coin operated game called "Baby Party" that is filled with packs of cigarettes! It was such an odd sight to see. You would never see something like this in the USA!!!) Her name is Felicita, a Sephardi Jew from Greece. One of her father's sister was killed during the Holocaust. It was interesting to hear her perspective on the beginning of the State of Israel. She also said something that was very interesting. She said that they will say they have won on the day when the Palestinians win. That is the day when they will be able to live together as neighbors. Like I've said before, many Israelis want peace. It is just too bad that the government doesn't do more to foster that peace. (Right - In Independence Hall, there was this giant bust of David ben Gurion, founder of the state of Israel. It was rather amusing because it is huge and the hair is styled funny. But the most amusing thing was that it reminded me of Penza, Russia, where the church met in a building with a bust of Lenin. It didn't symbolically remind me of it, just the very presence reminded me of Penza, so I had to get a picture). But, there is always hope when the people want peace.

Neot Kedumim

We went on a field trip to Neot Kedumim today. Neot Kedumim is a Biblical Landscape Reserve. It was very interesting. (Left - here is half of my class herding the sheep and goats). We had a wonderful guide who led us through the reserve helping us to better understand many things that have to do with the Bible. We began our day by herding sheep and goats. That was very interesting and instructive. One thing that we noticed is that when sheep and goats are together, there is always one goat that leads. If we wanted the entire group to move, we needed to get that goat to move. But how do you get a goat to move? Well, in our case it took prodding and bribery, but we managed to get the hang of it. Our guide informed us that when there is a shepherd, he gets to know that goat very well. (Right - me at the well. It worked for the Rachel in the Bible, but not for me, I didn't meet my husband at the well. Too bad, I guess I'm not going to get married!) The goat will lead the herd while the shepherd is behind watching out for the stragglers. The goat will keep looking back to make sure that it is ok to keep going. The shepherd will throw his staff to let the herd know where to stop. (Left - eating my homemade pita). It is quite amazing and I wish we could have seen that in practice.
I don't really remember the rest of the order, but along the way we stopped to try several kinds of plants. We tasted a salt tree. The salt tree acts as a natural air conditioner in the desert. We tried almonds, though those were not fully formed into nuts. In the earlier stage, you can eat the entire fruit, furry covering and all. I didn't like it. We also ate salt plant, tried a berry from a thorn tree, and picked marjoram and mustard. We also had some major stops. We stopped at a well (which is really a cistern, but for our purposes, we pretended it was a well). (Right - inside the tent where we had lunch). There we reenacted the story of Eliazer meeting Rebekah at the well. We all got to try drawing water and that was definitely enlightening. For Rebekah to have drawn the water for Eliazer and his 10 camels, she would have drawn water some 300+ times! And pulling it up once is no easy business. It is possible, but I can't imagine choosing to draw for a stranger and his animals when it would take so much time and strength, especially in hot weather.
We stopped at a Bedouin tent where we ate lunch and then made pitas over a fire. After lunch, we learned about scribal work. It takes an entire year to copy a Torah scroll. Then two people have to check it to make sure there are no errors. There is a traditional ink made out of pomegranate skin, almonds, oak gall nuts, a little water, and copper sulfate which is then cooked over a low heat to thicken it. (Left - our Torah scribe. He read from this 200 year old scroll, handwritten on deer skin). Smaller scrolls are written for the door posts. If an error is made, the entire scroll must be redone. For the Torah scroll, there is a way to correct mistakes. The man demonstrating also chanted the Torah for us. It was very interesting and sounded similar to Koranic chanting. That man is from Yemen and they are considered to be the ones to chant the Torah most correctly.
We also went on a train ride. There we saw how the landscape changed as the Israelites moved in. They went from shepherds to farmers. It was very interesting. I think my trip today will be very helpful in my understanding of the scriptures as I continue to study throughout the rest of my life.

Exploring Caves and Conference

So, I just finished watching the Saturday morning session of General Conference, live. It was weird to have that be at 7:00 pm and realize that many people in the States were just waking up. Those are the kinds of things you don't feel all the time.
Anyway, today was a good day. We had sacrament meeting (fast and testimony) this morning, but just sacrament meeting. After that, I went with Megan and Joe to meet a couple of Palestinian friends (see left). We basically just hung out and went walking in the Kidron Valley, exploring caves. It was fun, but tiring while fasting. I got really dirty, but not as dirty as Megan. It was nice.
After dinner, I went to choir practice. We have a concert a week from tomorrow. I'm really excited about that. It should be great. We are going to have several extra practices this week so that we can make sure to be ready for our performance. But with all that we also have classes and field trips every other day. This time is going too quickly! I don't want to go back to the US!

Synagogue

Another Friday has come and gone. There are few of those left for me here in Jerusalem. I spent most of the day in the center, but after a quick dinner, I went with a group of 30 students to synagogue with our Jewish professor. (Right - this is the building where we went to synagogue). The synagogue was a Neo-Hasidic Liberal Orthodox synagogue. Its kind of hard to explain what that all means, but that is how he described it. It was very interesting. I didn't understand most of what was going on. There were several other people from the states there. There was a group of students from Baltimore who are here on their senior trip. They go to a Jewish High School there. It was interesting, but they and some of our students kept talking throughout the service. It was kind of rude, especially since the man who gave the Torah application/lesson (whatever it is called) specifically requested that people NOT talk during the singing/service. It was very distracting. But, it was still fun and I hummed along to the songs. There was one song where we got up and started dancing around, too. That was a lot of fun.
Tomorrow is another Shabbat for us. Tomorrow night we will also be watching conference live! It will be interesting to watch it in the evening and still have it be at the same time that everyone in the US is watching it.