May 31st (Overlook, Sifting Project, Holocaust Museum)

I feel like things have gotten way easier since we've gotten to Jerusalem. There isn't much hiking to get places. There is a lot of walking but not much uphill or downhill hiking. So basically I'm not getting as sweaty which means my clothes last longer! haha. We also seem to get done semi-earlier so the evenings are more relaxing. The bummer thing is that the hotel isn't near anything again. We took a taxi to the mall last night but I don't want to have to pay money to get places...because I don't have much money left.

Today was a pretty laid back day again. We started off the day at a place that overlooked the entire old city of Jerusalem. It was just a quick stop that was basically for pictures.

After that we went to "the sifting project". This is basically an archaelogical dig. There was some place near the temple mount where some excavators went in with bulldozers and totally destroyed the place. The piles of dirt that they moved from the location had tons of remnants from older times in them! Like pottery, marble, mosaic pieces, bones, and glass! What we got to do was sift through small piles to find pieces of those things. I must admit that at first I wasn't to excited about this. I imagined myself in the super hot desert with a pile of dusty sand and rocks and a "sift" (or whatever it would be called) in my hands. It was nothing like that at all. Hopefully the pictures can show you that.

 These were our "sifters"

 My "sifting" group. They are from another school! And the one girls skin isn't blotchy...it must be from the lighting hahaha.

 Sarah's group found a TOOTH! It's either a cow's or a horse's.

That's where the project is happening :)

After that we had lunch. Now lunch is a fun story. I can probably tell it much better in person but I will try and do it justice by typing it out. We basically stopped at this giant market and they told us we had an hour and a half to find somewhere to eat and be back on the bus. They told us there were plenty of places to eat. I went off with three of my friends to scout out some food. The four of us didn't want falafel or schwarma because we have been eating that literally every day for lunch since we have gotten here. So we were on a hunt for pizza or burgers. After an hour we walked out of the market into a more city like area. We found a sandwich shop that we weren't to impressed with but we decided to settle for it. After trying to communicate with a guy who barely spoke any english we finally got our lunch. The shop was to small for the four of us so we walked out to some tables and sat down. A lady came up and was like "YOU CANNOT SIT HERE! PLEASE LEAVE" and we were kind of like WOAH ok sorry we didn't realise we couldn't sit here. Later we realized it might've been a "kosher" thing because we had meat and her store served dairy. I dunno. But then we went outside to find some more places to sit and we found a table and sat down. Got our sandwiches out and were about to take a bite when a man came up to us and was like "you cannot sit here" and gave us a look like we were idiots.

By now we are getting frustrated and running out of time to eat so we sat on the ground near a statue...haha. We then realized that the sandwiches weren't very good and that the cafe we were sitting by actually served pizza which was what we were looking for in the first place...and so one of my friends went in and got us all little personal pizzas (it was cheap to only 17 shekels for all three) and we ate the delicious pizza. Then my friend Amanda tried to move her foot and she realized she had sat in gum...and then while we were eating we realized that something smelled nasty. At first we thought it was the pizza...but then when the pizza was gone we could still smell it. I looked over next to my friend and an Israeli guy had laid down next to him and taken of his shoes...his NASTY bare feet were like a foot from his pizza...it was the icing on the cake of an interesting lunch experience hahaha. By the end though we were just done with being there haha. Oh and to add to that...we get back to the group and people have these amazing fish and chips and McDonalds...we shoulda stuck with other people lol.

After lunch we went to the holocaust museum. I thought I knew enough about the Holocaust...but I knew nothing. It was an interesting experience for me. It was almost a little overwhelming...First off, the USA did nothing to stop the holocaust...in fact we sat by and watched it all happen. I even read that the pope just ignored it and let it happen to people in his own country as well. It was just really intriguing to read everything. To see quotes from Hitler and different other official army people. Things like "We don't know what a Jew is we only know what humans are" and stuff like that...there were points were I was close to crying realizing that this stuff had actually happened. I decided not to go into the Children's Memorial...because that might have been a little to much. The coolest thing though was at the very end. It had all the names and a bunch of pictures and it was set up in a really cool way. Sadly I couldn't take any pictures in the museum. But I tried to take some outside of it. I will definitely think differently about the holocaust tomorrow.

 I couldn't get a picture of Schindler's Tree because we didn't have much free time but they have trees here for every person that helped keep any Jews safe.

Tomorrow is our first free day. My plan is to sleep in till like 10 because we have mainly been waking up at 630am since we've gotten here. Then me and a few of my friends are planning on going to the Bible Zoo. Apparently it has every single animal mentioned in the Old Testament and it has the verse next to it. It should be interesting. I've only heard good things about this place.

I think I'm about ready to come home though. But the best is yet to come! We still have to see everything that fits in with most of the story of Jesus. The day after tomorrow (after our free day) we are driving backwards back to Qumran/Dead Sea to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. Apparently we are getting a pretty cool deal because our guides are inviting friends to come because whatever we get to do doesn't happen very often. The guy in charge of our trip, Mark, seems to have TONS of connections. Because apparently we are doing a lot of stuff that people don't always get to do.

Hope things at home are great. Maybe I can bring back some of this sun and heat to you guys :)

-Wendi

May 30th (Temple Mount, Western Wall, Old City shopping)

We didn't do a whole lot today. We started out at the temple mount and the western wall and we were in the old city  by 12 and then they just let us loose to shop until 5pm. So it was like 5 hours of free time...which was almost to much for me. I did way to much shopping haha but most of it was for other people i guess :)

So to start off was the temple mount. We had to be modest here, meaning covering our knees and shoulders. Apparently my shirt wasn't good enough because when we got through the gate I was stopped and I ended up having to wear a button up shirt that belonged to one of the guys in our group. It made it quite hot...i don't know why my shirt wasn't modest some girls who didn't get stopped by the people had shorter sleeves then I did. The temple mount wasn't super special...we weren't allowed to bring anything with so I couldn't take notes but its a big muslim, jewish, AND Christian place. Here are some pics:

After that we walked straight out to the Western Wall which I think is also called the wailing wall. It's the wall where everyone prays. I felt uncomfortable going up to the wall but I took pictures from far away.

Then it was shopping. Not much to say about that...got ripped off a few times...also got some good deals. It was long but it was also fun. I'm not good at bartering haha. The nonstop walking for the shopping part though was really exhausting.

These are the smallest kittens we've seen yet. They were so tiny and dirty. I wanted to pet them but I was to afraid of disease. They were so sad looking :( 

People are going to see the new Pirates movie tonight. We were supposed to be within walking distance of a theater but it recently closed so now they have to take a TAXI...They aren't going until 9pm and I'm tired and don't want to spend all of that money so I decided not to. Oh well haha

Well that's all for today! Short and sweet! I'm super tired so I was happy to post up early so I can just chill tonight. Now I am heading down for dinner...hopefully I can find some good food :)

-Wendi

May 29th (Tel Jezreel, Megiddo, Mt. Carmel, Ceasarea)

I tried to start off today with a better attitude because I was so miserable yesterday. It worked for the most part until the last stop...because at the last stop he once again talked for like 2 hours...at least there was a nice breeze from the Mediterranean Sea.

Our first stop was Tel Jezreel which was home to the winter palace of Ahab and Jezebelle. There is a story about them both being predicted to die and what not, which we discussed for awhile there.

Then we went to Megiddo. Which a lot of people think is the place of Armageddon.  But apparently it isn't. Mark was very adament about that. I hadn't put much thought to it so it wasn't a big deal to me. We also saw a manger like what they would've used to put Jesus in and we hiked down into this cavern thing that scared me...cause it was all underground and cold and you could see through the stairs...I guess I'm just afraid of heights haha.

 This is a manger...can you see Baby Jesus in it?

 The walk underground!!

After that we went to Mt. Carmel. In case you haven't noticed I don't have as much to say about each place as I did in the beginning. It's kind of because I have gotten so tired and slightly bored that I've just stopped taking notes...so I go mostly off of memory...and my memory sucks haha. But Mt. Carmel was cool...I have no notes for it I just realized...I think we were only there for a short time. Here are some pics:

After that we went to Ceasarea...We spent forever here! Luckily there was a very refreshing breeze! We stopped at like three different places at Ceasarea and ended up talking for over an hour at each place. Which was frustrating. but it was really beautiful!! After that we drove somewhere to step into the Mediteranean Sea. Which was nice Here are some pics!

 There was actually a band rehearsing for a concert in here! haha

 The Mediteranean Sea!!!

I was kinda sad that no one could get a good jumping picture of me :(

That is all I have for you guys today. I'm really tired...so I probably  could've written more but I want to get to bed. Tomorrow we are going to Temple Mount and the Western Wall and then we have free time to go shopping in the Old City! WOO!

Miss you all!

-Wendi

May 28th (Alma Gor, Khorazin, Mt. of Beautitudes, Minsa Kristi, Galilee Boat Ride)

I hate to admit this...but I am actually starting to get bored on this trip. At times we can spend almost 2 hours sitting in one location listening to lectures...I didn't realize how often that was going to happen and I'm starting to get really frustrated. I have the attention span of a 4-year-old and after like 15-20 minutes of Mark talking (no matter how interesting the stuff may be) I find my mind wandering to who knows what and then I get extremely bored. Today was really frustrating for some reason...I was super irritable. Thankfully the boat ride in the evening greatly made up for it, but I will talk about that at the end. We didn't get in till late from the boat ride which is why I didn't post last night.

We are at a new hotel, well actually it is a hostel but it is where we are going to stay for the rest of our trip. So far the hostels have been nicer then any of the hotels and this place has AMAZING internet. Sadly the pool is closed, and it was something we were all looking forward to. Well back to what happened yesterday.

We started of at Alma Gor (i may have spelled this wrong) which had a really good view of Bethsaida. Somehow they ended up getting into a debate/discussion about Baptism at this location and we ended up being there for two hours! Especially because there was no shade and no where to sit, I got really frustrated. OH that reminds me! IT WAS RAINING WHEN WE WOKE UP! Haha. All of us Washington folks were pretty excited. Here are some pics of the view from Alma Gor:

After that we went on to Khorazin. Here we discussed Pharisees and Sadduces as well as how we are supposed to love your neighbor. Once again we spent WAY to long at this location just sitting and listening to a lecture...after sitting for that long at the first place and then having to do it again I was extremely irritable haha. This location was probably from the 4th or 6th century BC.

I forgot! We also saw the fishing boat that is really old and probably from Jesus times.

After that we went to the Mt. of Beautitudes. It was a beautiful garden and he didn't lecture for very long so it was nice and I really enjoyed it. Mark kept emphasizing how God calls us to Relax and not worry about what comes tomorrow. They are not sure that this is the exact location of the Mt. of Beatitudes but they think it is. There was also a pretty cool synagogue here.

 Inside the Synagogue.

After that we went to Capernaum. We had quite a long lecture here too and for some reason I was extremly tired which made it even harder to pay attention...but I think it was a greek orthodox church or synagogue and it had some murals. I was to tired to notice much.

 The walkway...

 one mural inside the synagogue. There were sooo many! It was cool!

Cats are the rats of Israel as Mark says. They are everywhere and are all strays but they are so cute :)

But then after that came the best best best part of the day and probably one of the coolest experiences so far on the trip. We went down to the Sea of Galilee and got on a boat, that actually had room for all 75 of us and they took us out into the middle of the sea and we sang worship songs in both Hebrew and English it was sooooooooooooo incredibly amazing! It definitely brought my attitude back up. Here are some pictures:

 The boat!

 The girls! :)

 They raised the American Flag! It was funny and cool at he same time.

The sunset was AMAZING!

-Wendi