June 6th (Mount of Olives, Via Delorosse, a bunch of churches)

Well everyone...I think this is going to be my last blog post! We are still here most of the day tomorrow but I plan on laying around the pool and watching movies. I don't feel like it will be anything that is worth blogging about :)

Today was a pretty good day. It went pretty fast. I think it was definitely a perfect ending and I'm pretty sure that Mark put this at the end of our trip on purpose. We went to the Mount of Olives where Jesus was "arrested" and we walked the modern route of what Jesus would've walked while carrying the cross, and we saw the church of the holy sepplicar (spelling totally butchered there...) which supposedly has part of the tomb that Jesus was in...

We started off at the top of the Mount of Olives. It had a complete view of the city of Jerusalem. Which is mentioned in the Bible that Jesus could see the whole city from the top. Here are some pictures of the view from the top.

Then we walked on down and entered into a garden. It was across from the garden of Gethsemmene, I'm not sure if it was the same garden or not though. But here in this garden we had communion. It was another really cool way to end our trip. It was one of the more emotional/spiritual times of the trip and we didn't have those very often.

Then we went across the way to the Garden of Gethsemmene, we didn't go in the actual garden but we went to a church nearby...I totally forget what the church is called...it might say in one of the pictures. It was a pretty cool church. But pretty similar to all of the other ones we saw too...

This is just a portion of the cemetery... 

After that we walked up to the Old City...again. Haha. We went to another church, I believe this one was called the church of the church of St. Anne (I know it's repetative, but I'm pretty sure that's what he said) This was near what they think to be the pools of Bethsaida...but as Mark said "this was one of the most confusing archaeological finds ever". I think that this church is at the top of my list of favorite parts of the trip, up there with both jeep treks and the temple replica. The church has really good acoustics so they told us to go inside and sing. It was AMAZING. I was really close to crying. I'm going to post a video of us singing...It probably won't do it justice...but i thought it sounded SO cool! OK nevermind...you will have to ask me to show you the video...it is taking way to long to upload it

After that we went to the church of the holy sepplicar (i think that was what it was callled). Which is exactly what I said above. A place connected to Jesus Crucifixion and Ressurection. It was amazing how emotional people were inside. It was a little much for me but it was still cool. I was also VERY hungry at this point because it was almost 2pm.

 The sunlight shining through!

After that they gave us 2 1/2 more hours in the old city. Most of us didn't really want that free time but we had no choice haha. I had some really good pizza for lunch though!

The rest of the night will be spent packing lol. It's gonna be interesting to see if I can fit everything back in!

I will be home in TWO DAYS! I can't wait to be home both to see friends and family and be back in my own bed :) Can't wait to see everyone! I hope you have all enjoyed my adventures in Israel and Jordan. I know I did. It's bittersweet to be leaving. But I know it is time for me to be back at home :)

June 5th (City of David and Jerusalem Quarter of the Old City)

Today wasn't to bad. Though I must admit, at about 1 o'clock I kind of shut down. My brain stops taking in information and I get bored really really fast. Haha. But today was interesting.

I liked the City of David. I dunno if I was just more awake and so I was comprehending more of what being said or what but I didn't get annoyed by the lecturing and everything. We started in this area that had old houses and synagogues and all those usual ruins.  Then we walked to this "pool", obviously it was dried up haha but it was one of the largest ritual immersion baths in Jerusalem. OH and before that we went through the dry tunnels. There is something called Hezzekiahs tunnel but it has water in it up to your knees and it takes fourty-five minutes and it's really small. I was really afraid to go into the dry tunnels at first because of how I dealt with the caves yesterday but for some reason I was fine today. Once you see the pictures you might understand my confusion. They were super narrow tunnels, but they had a pretty high roof. I dunno why I didn't get claustrophobic like yesterday but it was fun! Here are some pics:

 Into the tunnels we go!

 This is how narrow it got!

This is the pool, or at least part of it. haha 

After that we headed back to the Old City, but this time we weren't going shopping. We started off looking at some Jerusalem ruins that were there and walking where the old wall used to be. Then we had lunch, I got pizza again. Pizza is saving me from being hungry here haha. Then after that we went to this museum which was pretty cool. We got to write our names in Hebrew and watched a movie.

 This is where people would collect money by the temples. It would've been where Jesus got mad at the people selling things and threw their tables and what not. 

 Grr...It didn't rotate this picture for some reason...but these steps they are pretty sure Jesus walked on because you had to walk on these steps to enter the temple!!! We walked where Jesus walked!!

 The original entrance to the temple.

 The Old City.

This is some ruins of a house. We weren't supposed to take pictures but I took one before I knew that rule! 

We watched 3 different movies today in different places, one was in 3D. They have some pretty cool movies at some of these "national parks" here. They are not just normal movies usually. Some of them have us move, some are in 3D, and some have different layers. They have been pretty cool.

Dinner was lousy again, not as bad as last night but still lousy. This place serves the same exact food every night. It's really frustrating. I eat stuff...but not much and I'm getting really sick of it. The place before this had so much variety! I miss that...

Only one more day of touring left!! Tomorrow is packed full of Jesus stuff :) Hope everyone at home is doing awesome! See you in a few days!

-Wendi

June 4th (Herodium and Bethlehem)

Today wasn't so bad. I'm not sure if I have just been getting more sleep or if now the lectures are shorter at each location but today wasn't so bad. Also we were done after lunch today. I am definitely completely drained by the time lunch time rolls around and it's hard to pay attention the rest of the day.

Today we started off at Herodium. It is the palace that Herod built, and obviously named after himself. Of course it's in ruins but I felt like it had "more" ruins then some of the other places. It was pretty cool. We had to hike up to it. Maybe it was more cool since it had been awhile since we seen ruins of a palace. After we saw the ruins we hiked down into the water cisterns of the palace. These are basically caves. Now I knew I was claustrophobic...but apparently I am more claustrophobic then I thought. It wasn't very fun for me. I immediately hiked through and found the exit while they all stayed in for more of a lecture and some music. I think tomorrow we are doing more cave hiking...I might have to skip it. Here are some pictures:

 View from the top!

 Me and Ellie! :)

 Here we go...into the caves...

Scared...inside the cave.

Happy...outside the caves!! :)

After that we went to Bethlehem. I was excited for this. It wasn't that it was a huge let down...it was more like...it wasn't what I was expecting. We started out going to a souvenir shop. Which was cool. Then we waited in line inside the church of the nativity. They told us that the line was going to take forever so we got out of line and went into some other random cave....I think the original line would've taken us to the more "important" cave. I never really understood what the other cave signified. But I guess it was cool. It smelled HEAVILY of incense...so much so that I got a stomach ache.

After that we had the most AMAZING lunch. For once I was very satisified after lunch time. Which was good because dinner was horrible. It is shabat. Which means none of the Jewish people do any kind of work so dinner was pretty lousy. I had a piece of cake, a piece of bread, and some cheese! Not very satisfying. But right now we are waiting for the pizza that Amy ordered for all of us! She is an awesome trip mom :)

Tomorrow is the city of David! It's supposed to be a busy day! 3 days and I will be back home again with all of you :)

-Wendi

PS- Anyone recognize this place? :) HAHA!

LOL! I guess copyright doesn't apply here!

June 3rd (Be'er Sheva, Tel Lakhish, Tel Bet Shemesh, Elah Valley, Nabi Samuel)

Well...today was another normal day. It was hot, and we went to a bunch of different places. I think that a lot of our group is ready to be home. We seem to be a little irritable haha. Today was kind of interesting because I knew the stories attached to most of the places.

First off we went to Be'er Sheva. Which was a lot like a bunch of the other places we've been. More ruins and rocks and what not. They did have the only model of the "4-level" house. I think that was what it was called. Here's some pictures:

Second we went to Tel Lakhish. I felt like I was back in Washington at this place. For those of you who go to church with me, it reminded me a lot of Family Camp. Someone had the place had lighted a camp fire so it even smelled like family camp. I'm not sure the significance of this place...I think it had something to do with Hezekiah..

Then we had lunch. yay for McDonalds! It's the first day where I finally knew I was going to like what I ordered haha. Cheeseburger Happy Meal for the win!

Then we drove on to Tel Bet Shemesh. This place had a lot to do with the story of Samson and Delilah. I'm pretty sure that Samson lived near there. We could see where he lived. It also overlooked the valley where the Philistines returned the Ark after they stole it from the Israelites. There was a water cistern here that everyone could go down into but they said if you were claustrophobic not to go down. So I stayed up on ground level. haha. Apparently there were also scorpions down there...I think I made a good decision.

Then we stopped at Elah Valley. This was a really random stop. The buses basically pulled over and let us off. Mark read through the story of David and Goliath because this was the location of that event. This was the coolest place of the day in my opinion because it was actually connected to a bible story that I know and recognize.

 I don't think there originally plants here...I'm pretty sure it was mostly desert.

Lastly we went to Nabi Samuel. Which I believe had something to do with Samuel, but my brain had kind of shut down so I don't remember what was talked about there. Here are some pictures though:

I know...I'm a dork. But I figured I needed a picture of me.

I am totally pooped and ready to be back at home! Hope everything is going great there. Tomorrow we visit Herodium and Bethlehem!

-Wendi