May 26th (Nazareth, Sepphoris, Mt. Precipice, Kafar Kadam)

Our group seems to be having a rough time. Today a bunch of people stayed at the hotel because they were sick. Amy made a list of everyone who was sick and it tallied up to 20 people. They are having the doctor come to the hotel tonight to check them all out and see if it's dehydration or a bug. If it's some type of flu I really hope I don't get it, and I have been drinking a ton of water so I don't think dehydration will happen to me. I feel great!

Today was a bummer of a day to miss too! We finally started to do stuff that was different then just hiking to a bunch of rocks that form something. We started off the day in Nazareth. The population of Nazareth is 100,000 people. So it was a pretty big "city". Our main stop was the synagogue which also had some ruins of houses that are very similar to the houses in Bethlehem.

 The city of Nazareth as we drove in.

 This was what houses may have looked like. Inside the cave area is where the animals would be kept. Outside the cave area would be the upper room or living room.

These pieces were excavated in practically perfect form. It was amazing!

The interesting thing we all learned was how different the "Christmas Story" is. The front room of a "house"
 was called the "upper room" and the back of the house would be where the animals were stored. So Jesus wasn't born in a stable he was born in the back of a cave house. There was never an inn or an inn keeper. The greek or hebrew or whatever word Catalima is the word that was used an it means something more like "living room". So the family didn't have room in the normal living area so they had Mary and Joseph go into the room with the animals. Also, Mary was not riding on a donkey 9 months pregnant. It would seem more like she got to Bethlehem and then a month or so later, maybe more, had Jesus.

The Synagogue was also really cool! It had images all around the outside (mostly mosaic) of how different countries see Mary and Jesus. I won't post up all of the pictures but the one for the United States was kind of strange. I'm not really sure what to think of it. Here are some pictures of the synagogue:

 Front of the synagogue.

 Inside, walking up what I thought was the never ending staircase :)

 part of the floor.

This is the US depiction of Mary...not sure what to think of it...

After that we stopped at Mt. Precipice. Which from the top basically has a 360 degree view of the area. We could see the Jezreel Valley, Nazareth, and many other biblical places. It was basically a quick stop for pictures.

After that we drove to Sepphoris which was the capital city of Galilee when Jesus was a boy. It is believed that the Mishnah was written and edited there...I'm not really sure what that is...haha but it was some important Jewish written law. We walked around pretty quick because we had to be at our next place at a certain time.

This is kinda dark but it is a mosaic that would be on the floor of a house.

The last place we stopped was a really fun time! It was called Kafar Kadam and we got to dress like people did way back when, made pita bread, had lunch at some squatty little tables, and got to ride donkeys. The pita bread was super tasty, but the bread we actually had for lunch was even more tasty!! Riding donkeys was...interesting...haha. We decided to name our donkey Jack ;) He was pretty stubborn. Here are some pictures. We spent most of our time there. It was really fun.

 Whoa, this picture is a little blurry...but this is me, Sarah, and Molly in Galilean attire.

 This place had the CUTEST puppy! It was 3 1/2 months old.

 Sarah making some bread.

 The main course of lunch!

 Lauren on a donkey, me guiding the donkey.

Now it's my turn to ride Jack, Sarah took the reigns.

I also tried some snack that Amy bought for all of us...I cannot remember exactly what it was called but it was made with honey, cheese, wheat, and pecans. So delicious! I keep leaving my money on the bus whenever we stop at places that have souvenir shops!! It is so annoying because I want to buy stuff! haha

Another random thing...The money here is so weird. I have 10 sheckels but it's  a coin! I should've  brought a coin purse because I feel like I am going to lose track of all my coins.

It feels so nice to be posting about something on the actual day. It's easier to remember :) That is all I got for you guys today. I hope everything is awesome at home. I do have skype...though it's like 7-11am at home whenever I'm on. But if you ever wanna chat and you have skype lok for me! :)

-Wendi

PS- If you were expecting a postcard don't get your hopes up. I've been trying but this hotel we are at now isn't near a city and they don't sell stamps at the hotel. So I have to wait till Jerusalem and that might be to late...We shall see