Here's my last impression report I have to write for the class. I still continue to do updates on the last few days here, but this is the last trip we took as a class.
Today was set aside as a day for us to mainly visit some of the more modern sites around Jerusalem. The day started with us spending several hours at Yad Vashem. Yad Vashem is a memorial and museum dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust. I was unsure what to expect, but I was interested to see it. I’ve been to quite a few museums, and my least favorites are typically ones that mainly focus on history. History is just a subject that doesn’t interest me all that much. This museum was different.
Looking at the model of the place, the main hall doesn’t look terribly big. Dr. Rasmussen warned us that it would take a couple of hours to go through, but I was rather skeptical. The reason is that in most places such as this, I mainly look at the pictures and only read the signs that accompany the pictures that really catch my attention. I was unable to do that here. The stories told in the signs just draw you in. The most haunting aspect of many of the displays were the videos shown. Many of these videos were Holocaust survivors telling their stories. They were all so moving. It was like there was a magnet drawing me to many of these videos. Many of the people sharing in the videos were kids during this time. It was horrifying to hear them recount being lined up in front of pits with many others and then having soldiers shoot at them to murder them. Some of these kids were not actually hit but fell onto the piles of bodies anyway and were later to escape later. I cannot imagine what that must have been like. Nearly 90 minutes into my visit, I realized I’d seen less than half of the hall and I really had to hurry up and start rushing through. This is a place I really need to spend an entire day at to truly see and read everything.
This was one of the best, if not the best, museum I’ve ever seen in design. The exhibits and space add to the story being told without distracting you from it. I had no problem reading any of the exhibits as the light was never too low. It also had a very natural flow which kept people from really bumping into each other. I was just impressed with every component of the facility.
There were two places at Yad Vashem that really moved me. The first is the Hall of Names. It’s a large circular room with a deep pit in the center. Suspended above it is a large conical shaped piece that has hundreds of pictures on the inside of it. Around the perimeter of the room are probably thousands of boxes that contain the names and personal details of millions of victims recorded on Pages of Testimony (I had to look at their website to get it right). What struck was not the large number of records, but the vast number of shelves till empty. This is because they know that they have not recorded the details of all of the victims yet. They hope and expect to receive records on many more people.
The other place that really made me pause and reflect was the Children’s Memorial. This memorial is dedicated to the some 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust. Entering the first part of the memorial, you see pictures of some of the children murdered set into a glass display. As you enter the main room which is very dark, you hear a voice reading the names, ages, and country of origin of many of the victims. All of the walls are mirrored and the reflect a candle in the very center of the room. These reflections make it appear as if there are thousands, if not millions, of candles in the room. This really brought home to me just how many children were murdered during the Holocaust.
While I had not known what to expect at Yad Vashem, it exceeded every expectation I could possibly have had. It was one of the most moving experiences of the trip for me.
After visiting Yad Vashem, we went to the Israel Museum for a little bit. The museum is undergoing extensive renovation which means that most of it is closed. The two main sections we wanted to see, however, were still open. The first is a 1:50 model of Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period. This model is positively amazing! During this time, Jerusalem had three different walls around it. I had studied maps and drawings of the layout, but it was fairly difficult for me to follow. Seeing these walls in “real life” made it much easier to understand the layout. I also had no idea that the Temple towered so high above the rest of the city. It was an amazing thing to see.
After looking at the model and discussing it, we moved to the Shrine of the Book. This is an exhibit dedicated to the Dead Sea Scrolls. They have some artifacts from Qumran as well as sections of various scrolls. They also have a life size reproduction of the complete Isaiah Scroll. The exhibit was impressive, and it was awesome to see documents that were that old. I think I would have enjoyed it more, however, if I could actually read and understand Hebrew or Aramaic. I’m not sure about this, but I suspect it would have made a difference.
We next drove to Shiloh to have lunch and see the antiquities site. The most interesting part of this location for me is that this is where the Tabernacle was located at one point. The only problem is that we don’t know for sure where the tabernacle was located. This is because the Romans later came in and built there as well. When the Romans built, they built on bedrock which means they destroyed whatever was beneath it. Because of this, there is not a lot of archaeological to help determine different buildings were located.
Our last stop of the day was at the Garden Tomb. This is a location I had looked forward to visiting. Stupidly though, I left my camera on the bus. Oh well, I got some postcards that have better photos on them than I would probably have taken. We first viewed a possible location for Golgotha. I actually had already seen this as you can get a good view of it from several different locations just outside the Old City or on top of the ramparts of the walls of the Old City. We then wandered through the gardens with the tour guide until we came to the tomb. It was an impressive sight to see. This really caused many of us to ponder if this tomb or one very close by was the burial place of Jesus. Our tour guide made the comment that the actual location doesn’t really matter to him because the tomb is not what we should be concerned with. We should focus on the fact that all we can do is look at various empty tombs because Jesus is alive! He made a very good point. It still didn’t answer my question about whether or not this was likely place though. I talked to Dr. Richter about it and she said that very few scholars believe this is the correct location. Many still believe the true location is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Regardless of whether or not the Garden Tomb is the true site, it is still a good visual of what the tomb may have originally looked like. Visiting the Garden Tomb was a great way to end our day of study and travel.
This day also ended this class except for the final exam we have tomorrow afternoon. This is a bittersweet moment for me. Part of me wants this class to go on much longer, but I’m also totally worn out. I’ve spent the past three weeks trying to drink from a fire hose, and my brain is overloaded. I now need time to unpack everything I’ve learned and seen on this trip. The good thing is that while the class is almost over, the trip is not. We will have almost three full days to rest, shop, explore, and revisit locations in Jerusalem that interest us. This means I’ll have the chance to eat more food in the Old City. Most of us went out to eat tonight to thank Dr and Mrs. Rasmussen, Dr. and Mrs. Wright, and Cyndi Parker for all of their hard work for this class as well as just to celebrate the end of the class. If the other food I find in the Old City is half as good as this, I’ll be a happy camper!
Showing posts with label Israel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Israel. Show all posts
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Israel Day 16: Sepphoris, Nazareth, En Harod, Beth Shean/Sycthopolis
After we all had breakfast and had loaded up the bus, we took off to Sepphoris. This is an antiquities site that I didn’t know anything about. But, we had been told that there were some great mosaics there, so I was looking forward to that. As we entered the antiquities site, we started walking down a Roman road that actually dates back to Roman times. The stones were basically all worn smooth, but the road was still pretty bumpy because it was still made of individual stones. You could see deep ruts worn into some of them. Some of us pondered what it would have been like to ride a chariot down that road. My only thought is that as much as I’d like to drive a chariot, riding it down that road would be murder on your knees.
The mosaics were indeed as beautiful as they had been described. I thought I had seen some good mosaics before coming to Israel, but they’re nothing compared to the ones I’ve seen all over this country. Some of the ones I’ve seen at Sepphoris are the most intricate I’ve seen anywhere. I tried to take pictures of them, but no photo did them justice. The best part is that two of them have building built of them that have AC to help preserve them. I was a big fan of these two locations!
Next we stopped at an overlook that is above Nazareth. Nazareth has a ring of hills around it forming a kind of bowl shaped valley in the middle. While the city is fairly large and is up and over the sides of some of the hills, Biblical Nazareth was quite a bit smaller. It’s thought that it probably rested towards the bottom of the bowl where it was more protected. The down side to this is that no cool breeze probably blew through there. Rather, the breeze would have blown above it. It was interesting to see what all was near Nazareth as well as the probable location for the ancient site, but it really wasn’t too impressive to me because of the big city around it. It just didn’t seem like the little village I’ve always imagined.
For lunch, we stopped at En Harod. This is the probable location of where Gideon and his army drank from the spring. This is also where God pared down Gideon’s army to just 300 men. In my mind, this spring was going to be pretty large. I imagined it to be like some of the big springs we have in Florida. I should have learned at this point that most sites here are smaller than I imagined. This spring was no exception. I had trouble picturing so many men drinking from the spring. Dr. Stone shared with us some about Gideon and his battle against the Middianites. Standing where Gideon stood and looking at where they would have had to march to brings a whole new appreciation for this event. Seeing it in its larger context really helped me to picture just how tough these men would have had to be, and just how much they would have needed to depend on God.
Beth Shean was our last stop of the Galilee Field Study. What was interesting to me about this site is that you have an Iron Age Israelite site at the top of the tel. Lower down is an Early Bronze age site that would go back to the fifth or fourth millennium BC, and below that a Greco Roman site. On top of all of this, there’s one place you can stand at the Iron Age site where you can see the other two sites below and a McDonalds in the distance. That’s a huge swath of human history right there!
By the time we left this antiquities site, I was actually ready to get back to JUC. It fealt like I had been away from home for a very long time. Our time in the Galilee region was a great deal of fun, but it was also extremely tiring.
The mosaics were indeed as beautiful as they had been described. I thought I had seen some good mosaics before coming to Israel, but they’re nothing compared to the ones I’ve seen all over this country. Some of the ones I’ve seen at Sepphoris are the most intricate I’ve seen anywhere. I tried to take pictures of them, but no photo did them justice. The best part is that two of them have building built of them that have AC to help preserve them. I was a big fan of these two locations!
Next we stopped at an overlook that is above Nazareth. Nazareth has a ring of hills around it forming a kind of bowl shaped valley in the middle. While the city is fairly large and is up and over the sides of some of the hills, Biblical Nazareth was quite a bit smaller. It’s thought that it probably rested towards the bottom of the bowl where it was more protected. The down side to this is that no cool breeze probably blew through there. Rather, the breeze would have blown above it. It was interesting to see what all was near Nazareth as well as the probable location for the ancient site, but it really wasn’t too impressive to me because of the big city around it. It just didn’t seem like the little village I’ve always imagined.
For lunch, we stopped at En Harod. This is the probable location of where Gideon and his army drank from the spring. This is also where God pared down Gideon’s army to just 300 men. In my mind, this spring was going to be pretty large. I imagined it to be like some of the big springs we have in Florida. I should have learned at this point that most sites here are smaller than I imagined. This spring was no exception. I had trouble picturing so many men drinking from the spring. Dr. Stone shared with us some about Gideon and his battle against the Middianites. Standing where Gideon stood and looking at where they would have had to march to brings a whole new appreciation for this event. Seeing it in its larger context really helped me to picture just how tough these men would have had to be, and just how much they would have needed to depend on God.
Beth Shean was our last stop of the Galilee Field Study. What was interesting to me about this site is that you have an Iron Age Israelite site at the top of the tel. Lower down is an Early Bronze age site that would go back to the fifth or fourth millennium BC, and below that a Greco Roman site. On top of all of this, there’s one place you can stand at the Iron Age site where you can see the other two sites below and a McDonalds in the distance. That’s a huge swath of human history right there!
By the time we left this antiquities site, I was actually ready to get back to JUC. It fealt like I had been away from home for a very long time. Our time in the Galilee region was a great deal of fun, but it was also extremely tiring.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Israel Day 15: Boat Ride, Visiting the Jesus Boat, Churches, Rock Hyrax, and Arbel!
Here's my impression report for yesterday. It was quite an eventful day!
The first stop of the day was the one I was the most excited about for the whole Galilee trip. The prospect of a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee just sounded like so much fun! I’ll even admit that I was secretly hoping that a storm would suddenly blow in so we could experience a taste of what the disciples felt. Then we were told that storms have caused waves as high as ten meters on the Sea of Galilee. I can live without experiencing waves that high on a body of water that small!
Yar! A photo of the inside of our sturdy seafaring vessel.
The boat ride was indeed a blast, and the boat was actually bigger and nicer than I expected. The highlight of the boat ride for me was when one of the men from the crew demonstrated the use of a castnet. The net he used was similar to what would have been used in the first century, but it was made out of different material. Instead of being made of rope for the net and stones for the weights, it was made of nylon for the net and metal weights. It was still interesting though.
A deckhand demonstrates how to throw a cast net
The location we docked at is the home of the Jesus Boat. This is a boat that was discovered less than 30 years ago. It seems to be from the first century, and is remarkably intact. This is the kind of boat that Jesus and the disciples would have used on the Sea of Galilee. My only disappointment in the exhibit was that they didn’t spend much time discussing how they preserved the boat. It soaked in a pool of chemicals for years, but I really wanted to know what kinds of chemicals. This is something I’ll have to look up later. The way the boat was displayed was absolutely stunning. I really enjoyed the way they used sandblasted pieces of glass cut in wavy patterns to mimic water. The blue lighting really enhanced the effect. It was a very creative and well done exhibit. I just wish I had thought to bring a tripod on this trip just so that I could have gotten a decent picture of the boat and exhibit. Oh well, live and learn.
The Jesus Boat. I had to use a flash so the picture is very washed out. The actual exhibit is much, much prettier
Next on the agenda was a visit to two different churches. This is really what I needed at this point in the trip. We first went to a church that celebrates the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000. The church was one of the most peaceful I’ve ever visited. The church had some beautiful mosaics that were a joy to view. It was a great place just to spend a few minutes in prayer.
Theo courtyard outside the church. The pond below the olive tree has a bunch of koi in it!
We then moved on to the church that commemorates (and claims to be the location of) Jesus giving the Beatitudes. The sisters there had reserved us a location where we were able to have a short worship service. We sang a few songs, and then McKenzie shared with us a few thoughts on the Beatitudes and visiting the Holy Land in general. We were then given 45 minutes to wander around the grounds of the church as well as the church itself. This came when I needed it most. This trip is very intensive and tiring, and the focus is mainly on academics. Even though we get a handful of free days or afternoons, we have to spend most of them studying for our exams and doing map work. The 45 minutes we had at this location gave me a time when all we had to do was enjoy the gardens and spend time in prayer and contemplation. Up until this point, I had been getting more and more worn out and the trip was starting to be a chore rather than a joy. This little bit of time given to us helped me to refocus my priorities for the rest of the trip. I only wish we had gotten a chance to experience this sooner.
Just one photo of the beautiful gardens at this church.
The best part about the visit to Chorazim was that there were a bunch of rock hyraxes there. I’ll take a moment to admit that I have no idea what the plural of hyrax is. Anywho, there were a bunch of them and I was able to not only see them in the wild but also get a few pictures of them. This was incredibly exciting for me because the one animal I really wanted to see in Israel was a rock hyrax. Not only did I see one of them, I got to see a bunch. They were everywhere!
Isn't this a cute rock hyrax?
The last stop of the day was the cliffs of Arbel. We had tried to stop here on our first day, but we were just late enough getting there that we weren’t able to see it then. We hiked over to the top of one of the cliffs to discuss what we could see and to admire the view. I say we walked over because we were already nearly to the top of the cliff when we parked the bus. The hike the rest of the way to the top was short and the ascent was minimal. Then we were given the option to walk back to the bus or to take an hour long hike.
I opted for the hike. I was smart enough to take two liters of water with me. This ended up being a very good thing, even though it made my backpack heavier than I would have liked. The hike down was fairly steep with us having to climb down small metal rungs at times. Part of me kept thinking that this was crazy. Thankfully, I continued on. By the time we finished our descent, I had already torn through liter number one of water and was wishing I had brought three liters with me instead of just two. It didn’t help that it was 40°C (104°F). If I had known it was this hot, I might have opted to go back to the bus rather than hike. Thankfully, there was a bit of somewhat flat ground to walk on for a while, which was a nice break from climbing down. There were all kinds of caves that Jewish men hid in at one point when they were defying Herod. They were pretty interesting to see. Finally we came to the point where we needed to start climbing back up the cliff.
Arbel is lots of fun. Really!
This was the part I had been dreading. Initially, we had a fairly steep hike up that was longer than I expected. Then we came to the point where hiking up a nice trail was no longer really an option. It was time to start climbing back up the cliff. Thankfully, the park service is kind enough to put in big metal rungs and cables that you can hang onto and step on (in the case of the rungs that is). If the climb had been much steeper or if those rungs hadn’t been there, I would have been looking for a harness and climbing rope. Overall, the climb back up wasn’t too terrible. At least it wouldn’t have been if it hadn’t been so hot outside. By the time I made it back to the bus, I had consumed all the water I had and was wishing we hadn’t already used up the rest of the water on the bus. I was very thankful to get back to En Gev and get more water.
The capstone to the whole day was getting back to the resort at En Gev earlier than we expected. This was great because it meant we had time to change into our swimsuits and go swimming in the Sea of Galilee for a while before supper. After hiking in 104°F temperatures, swimming in the cool, calm water of the Sea of Galilee felt amazing. I had initially planned to go swimming again after supper, but the post-Arbel swim was so wonderful that swimming again would have just been disappointing.
The final event of the day was a worship service on the shore of the Sea of Galilee that Dr. Richter had put together. Dr. Stone and Laurie White took turns leading us in some songs. In between these, several people shared testimonies of how God is working in their lives, or epiphanies and insights God had given them during this trip. It was a great time of worship and praise, and really helped to sum up our trip thus far. I walked away from that service thinking that if we had ended the trip right then and there, I would feel like this trip had been worth it. Everything else to come is just icing on the cake.
This picture was taken the day before. It's just too pretty not to use
The first stop of the day was the one I was the most excited about for the whole Galilee trip. The prospect of a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee just sounded like so much fun! I’ll even admit that I was secretly hoping that a storm would suddenly blow in so we could experience a taste of what the disciples felt. Then we were told that storms have caused waves as high as ten meters on the Sea of Galilee. I can live without experiencing waves that high on a body of water that small!
Yar! A photo of the inside of our sturdy seafaring vessel.
A deckhand demonstrates how to throw a cast netThe location we docked at is the home of the Jesus Boat. This is a boat that was discovered less than 30 years ago. It seems to be from the first century, and is remarkably intact. This is the kind of boat that Jesus and the disciples would have used on the Sea of Galilee. My only disappointment in the exhibit was that they didn’t spend much time discussing how they preserved the boat. It soaked in a pool of chemicals for years, but I really wanted to know what kinds of chemicals. This is something I’ll have to look up later. The way the boat was displayed was absolutely stunning. I really enjoyed the way they used sandblasted pieces of glass cut in wavy patterns to mimic water. The blue lighting really enhanced the effect. It was a very creative and well done exhibit. I just wish I had thought to bring a tripod on this trip just so that I could have gotten a decent picture of the boat and exhibit. Oh well, live and learn.
The Jesus Boat. I had to use a flash so the picture is very washed out. The actual exhibit is much, much prettier
Next on the agenda was a visit to two different churches. This is really what I needed at this point in the trip. We first went to a church that celebrates the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000. The church was one of the most peaceful I’ve ever visited. The church had some beautiful mosaics that were a joy to view. It was a great place just to spend a few minutes in prayer.
Theo courtyard outside the church. The pond below the olive tree has a bunch of koi in it!We then moved on to the church that commemorates (and claims to be the location of) Jesus giving the Beatitudes. The sisters there had reserved us a location where we were able to have a short worship service. We sang a few songs, and then McKenzie shared with us a few thoughts on the Beatitudes and visiting the Holy Land in general. We were then given 45 minutes to wander around the grounds of the church as well as the church itself. This came when I needed it most. This trip is very intensive and tiring, and the focus is mainly on academics. Even though we get a handful of free days or afternoons, we have to spend most of them studying for our exams and doing map work. The 45 minutes we had at this location gave me a time when all we had to do was enjoy the gardens and spend time in prayer and contemplation. Up until this point, I had been getting more and more worn out and the trip was starting to be a chore rather than a joy. This little bit of time given to us helped me to refocus my priorities for the rest of the trip. I only wish we had gotten a chance to experience this sooner.
Just one photo of the beautiful gardens at this church.The best part about the visit to Chorazim was that there were a bunch of rock hyraxes there. I’ll take a moment to admit that I have no idea what the plural of hyrax is. Anywho, there were a bunch of them and I was able to not only see them in the wild but also get a few pictures of them. This was incredibly exciting for me because the one animal I really wanted to see in Israel was a rock hyrax. Not only did I see one of them, I got to see a bunch. They were everywhere!
Isn't this a cute rock hyrax?The last stop of the day was the cliffs of Arbel. We had tried to stop here on our first day, but we were just late enough getting there that we weren’t able to see it then. We hiked over to the top of one of the cliffs to discuss what we could see and to admire the view. I say we walked over because we were already nearly to the top of the cliff when we parked the bus. The hike the rest of the way to the top was short and the ascent was minimal. Then we were given the option to walk back to the bus or to take an hour long hike.
I opted for the hike. I was smart enough to take two liters of water with me. This ended up being a very good thing, even though it made my backpack heavier than I would have liked. The hike down was fairly steep with us having to climb down small metal rungs at times. Part of me kept thinking that this was crazy. Thankfully, I continued on. By the time we finished our descent, I had already torn through liter number one of water and was wishing I had brought three liters with me instead of just two. It didn’t help that it was 40°C (104°F). If I had known it was this hot, I might have opted to go back to the bus rather than hike. Thankfully, there was a bit of somewhat flat ground to walk on for a while, which was a nice break from climbing down. There were all kinds of caves that Jewish men hid in at one point when they were defying Herod. They were pretty interesting to see. Finally we came to the point where we needed to start climbing back up the cliff.
Arbel is lots of fun. Really!This was the part I had been dreading. Initially, we had a fairly steep hike up that was longer than I expected. Then we came to the point where hiking up a nice trail was no longer really an option. It was time to start climbing back up the cliff. Thankfully, the park service is kind enough to put in big metal rungs and cables that you can hang onto and step on (in the case of the rungs that is). If the climb had been much steeper or if those rungs hadn’t been there, I would have been looking for a harness and climbing rope. Overall, the climb back up wasn’t too terrible. At least it wouldn’t have been if it hadn’t been so hot outside. By the time I made it back to the bus, I had consumed all the water I had and was wishing we hadn’t already used up the rest of the water on the bus. I was very thankful to get back to En Gev and get more water.
The capstone to the whole day was getting back to the resort at En Gev earlier than we expected. This was great because it meant we had time to change into our swimsuits and go swimming in the Sea of Galilee for a while before supper. After hiking in 104°F temperatures, swimming in the cool, calm water of the Sea of Galilee felt amazing. I had initially planned to go swimming again after supper, but the post-Arbel swim was so wonderful that swimming again would have just been disappointing.
The final event of the day was a worship service on the shore of the Sea of Galilee that Dr. Richter had put together. Dr. Stone and Laurie White took turns leading us in some songs. In between these, several people shared testimonies of how God is working in their lives, or epiphanies and insights God had given them during this trip. It was a great time of worship and praise, and really helped to sum up our trip thus far. I walked away from that service thinking that if we had ended the trip right then and there, I would feel like this trip had been worth it. Everything else to come is just icing on the cake.
This picture was taken the day before. It's just too pretty not to useSaturday, June 26, 2010
Israel Day 11 and 12: Free day, studying, test, homework, and free time!
Yesterday (Friday) was a free day for our class, which means it's time to study for the test the next morning. Before studying though, we got to go on a field trip that Dr. Richter had arranged for us. I'm not quite sure who initiated it, but we were invited to Hebrew Union College to go on a private tour of the Skirball Museum. When I inquired the day before what was at the museum, Dr. Richter replied, "Old stuff!" That's good enough for me, so off we went to the Skirball Museum.
Either we're getting a bit more used to walking up and down hills, or the walk was not as bad as expected because we arrived 20 minutes early.
The Museum did indeed contain lots of old stuff. They had quite a few artifacts (mainly potter) from Tel Dan, Tel Gezer, and Tel Aroer. I was excited to see some real pottery up close and personal. At almost every antiquities site we've been too, we've seen scads of pottery shards, but alas no full pottery pieces. Whatever little museums may be attached to the sites typically have only contained reproductions. It was awesome to see so many jars, vessels, and other pieces made out of pottery. They even had a bathtub and a pottery sarcophagus! The best part was that we could touch just about everything. The professor who led our tour commented that it was all just rock and fired pottery. The only way we could really damage any of it is if we smashed it.
The tour of the Skirball museum was Skirballrific, but it wasn't long before studying for the upcoming test became a priority. It's hard to believe that it was only on Monday that I was sitting down to take a test. I'd love to say studying was fun, but it's still studying so...
A group of us had planned to take a study break after supper (I know, supper is also a study break) and head to the Wailing Wall to see what it was like just before the beginning of Shabbat. We had been told it was worth the time to go see all of the people gathering to worship, pray, and celebrate the beginning of Shabbat. We made it there about 7:45 (45 minutes or so before sundown) and it was pretty packed. There was a heavy military presence, but many of them seemed to be there to also celebrate. We made our way over to the wall that separates the rest of the area from the Western Wall to watch what was going on. We stopped at the women's side first because we heard a lot of singing. Groups of women were standing in circles dancing and singing very jubilantly. It sounded beautiful and was an awesome sight to watch. After a few minutes, we wandered over to the men's side to watch the happenings. Two guys were being carried around on shoulders and the rest of the activity closely mirrored what was happening on the other side. It was like one big worship party!
Two things I found really fascinating were watching what the men were wearing, and watching the teenagers and young adults. There was a wide range in the clothing the men wore from jeans and t-shirts to suits and hats to even fancier clothes. Some guys looked like they were wearing black silk bathrobes. I joked that I needed a field guide to understand what different outfits mean. Really though, it's not totally a joke. I think I need to do some more reading on modern Judaism.
The young people were really interesting to watch. It seemed that they were at a major social event. In reality, they were. After all, many of us find church to be a social event. It was just surprising to see "kids" who were 18 and 19 standing there in clothing that is fairly western, but with semi-automatic weapons slung over one shoulder.
After a trip to the Western Wall, it was time to mosey back to JUC and get back to studying. After class and our test today, I did a little bit of homework, took a nap, and then went to the Old City with Joel Bonner to wander around and buy some snacks for our next trip. We each got a variety of dried fruit and enjoyed looking in the various shops. It's so cool to only be a 10 minute walk (if I'm taking my time) from the Old City. It'll be nice to have a lot of next weekend to shop and explore it some more.
Either we're getting a bit more used to walking up and down hills, or the walk was not as bad as expected because we arrived 20 minutes early.
The Museum did indeed contain lots of old stuff. They had quite a few artifacts (mainly potter) from Tel Dan, Tel Gezer, and Tel Aroer. I was excited to see some real pottery up close and personal. At almost every antiquities site we've been too, we've seen scads of pottery shards, but alas no full pottery pieces. Whatever little museums may be attached to the sites typically have only contained reproductions. It was awesome to see so many jars, vessels, and other pieces made out of pottery. They even had a bathtub and a pottery sarcophagus! The best part was that we could touch just about everything. The professor who led our tour commented that it was all just rock and fired pottery. The only way we could really damage any of it is if we smashed it.
The tour of the Skirball museum was Skirballrific, but it wasn't long before studying for the upcoming test became a priority. It's hard to believe that it was only on Monday that I was sitting down to take a test. I'd love to say studying was fun, but it's still studying so...
A group of us had planned to take a study break after supper (I know, supper is also a study break) and head to the Wailing Wall to see what it was like just before the beginning of Shabbat. We had been told it was worth the time to go see all of the people gathering to worship, pray, and celebrate the beginning of Shabbat. We made it there about 7:45 (45 minutes or so before sundown) and it was pretty packed. There was a heavy military presence, but many of them seemed to be there to also celebrate. We made our way over to the wall that separates the rest of the area from the Western Wall to watch what was going on. We stopped at the women's side first because we heard a lot of singing. Groups of women were standing in circles dancing and singing very jubilantly. It sounded beautiful and was an awesome sight to watch. After a few minutes, we wandered over to the men's side to watch the happenings. Two guys were being carried around on shoulders and the rest of the activity closely mirrored what was happening on the other side. It was like one big worship party!
Two things I found really fascinating were watching what the men were wearing, and watching the teenagers and young adults. There was a wide range in the clothing the men wore from jeans and t-shirts to suits and hats to even fancier clothes. Some guys looked like they were wearing black silk bathrobes. I joked that I needed a field guide to understand what different outfits mean. Really though, it's not totally a joke. I think I need to do some more reading on modern Judaism.
The young people were really interesting to watch. It seemed that they were at a major social event. In reality, they were. After all, many of us find church to be a social event. It was just surprising to see "kids" who were 18 and 19 standing there in clothing that is fairly western, but with semi-automatic weapons slung over one shoulder.
After a trip to the Western Wall, it was time to mosey back to JUC and get back to studying. After class and our test today, I did a little bit of homework, took a nap, and then went to the Old City with Joel Bonner to wander around and buy some snacks for our next trip. We each got a variety of dried fruit and enjoyed looking in the various shops. It's so cool to only be a 10 minute walk (if I'm taking my time) from the Old City. It'll be nice to have a lot of next weekend to shop and explore it some more.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Israel Day 10: En Avdat, Avdat,Arad, and beyond!
Here's my impression report from the second day of our three day expedition to the southern part of Israel.
One of the first surprises I encountered this morning was breakfast at the youth hostel in Mitzpe Ramon. I’ve been joking with friends that a required part of breakfast here seems to be either scrambled or hard boiled eggs. For breakfast, we had both. This leads me to wonder if eggs are a traditional part of Israeli breakfast, or if they’re trying to cater to Americans. It’s just an observation that I’ve made. I’ll be curious to see what we have for breakfast in Galilee.One of the first surprises I encountered this morning was breakfast at the youth hostel in Mitzpe Ramon. I’ve been joking with friends that a required part of breakfast here seems to be either scrambled or hard boiled eggs. For breakfast, we had both. This leads me to wonder if eggs are a traditional part of Israeli breakfast, or if they’re trying to cater to Americans. It’s just an observation that I’ve made. I’ll be curious to see what we have for breakfast in Galilee.
One of the first surprises I encountered this morning was breakfast at the youth hostel in Mitzpe Ramon. I’ve been joking with friends that a required part of breakfast here seems to be either scrambled or hard boiled eggs. For breakfast, we had both. This leads me to wonder if eggs are a traditional part of Israeli breakfast, or if they’re trying to cater to Americans. It’s just an observation that I’ve made. I’ll be curious to see what we have for breakfast in Galilee.One of the first surprises I encountered this morning was breakfast at the youth hostel in Mitzpe Ramon. I’ve been joking with friends that a required part of breakfast here seems to be either scrambled or hard boiled eggs. For breakfast, we had both. This leads me to wonder if eggs are a traditional part of Israeli breakfast, or if they’re trying to cater to Americans. It’s just an observation that I’ve made. I’ll be curious to see what we have for breakfast in Galilee.
There were two major events today that I really enjoyed was going to the visitors center at Mitzpe Ramon. I had been wondering how the Big Machtesh was formed. The video they showed really helped to explain it. It also helps to give me a greater appreciation for the geological forces at work. It was also nice to go up to the observation decks at the visitors center to get a better view of the surroundings. The armillary sphere sundial was also awesome to see. I really enjoy science, especially astronomy and chemistry. The opportunity to see such an intricate sundial was a real joy for me. I spent more time looking at that than the Big Machtesh. I need to spend some more time reading about this type of sundial.
The Amillary Sphere Sundial
The biggest highlight for me today was doing the wadi walk through En Avdat. Dr. Rasmussen had warned us that the second half of the hike was pretty tough, but beautiful. I was worried about completing the hike, but I wanted to give it a go. When we first walked into the wadi, I was impressed with just how high the walls towered above us, and how much plant life there was in a location that was essentially desert. I know that the desert supports a lot of life, but this was beyond what I’d seen before. We even got to see a small lizard briefly. As we walked along, we came upon a small stream of water. Even though I knew to expect water, it was still a surprise because of the amount of water.
One of the first pools we encountered in the wadi.
As we continued to walk up steam, we encountered larger and larger pools of water and eventually we came upon a waterfall. It just seems crazy to see a waterfall in the middle of the wadi. It was at this point that I realized that our only options were to turn around, or to start climbing up. The only problem for me was that they only ascent I had noticed was a terrifyingly narrow set of steps. What was really impressive to me is that I kept seeing ibex scat all over the walls of the wadi. I knew in theory that ibex are capable of climbing up very steep terrain, but I didn’t expect them to climb terrain that steep. It almost makes me think that they have duct tape on their feet to allow them to do this.
The steps we took up to the top of the wadi are just to the right of this photo.
About half way up the climb, I took some time to pop into a cave that monks used to live in. They would have lived in these caves before there were the nice steps, handles, and ladders built into the wall of the wadi. The cave itself was just two rooms with one much smaller than the other. They both smelled strongly of ibex. Some people didn’t appreciate the smell, but it reminded me of the goats at the zoo. I’m a fan of the smell.
A view of the inside of the larger of the two rooms in the cave.
I asked Dr. Stone about the whole monk living in a cave thing and he gave me a good brief overview of why it was so popular. I had no idea that it was as popular as it was. He said it was not unusual for someone to have to wait several years for a cave to open it up. He described it as a form of “Extreme Spirituality.” He also pointed out that holiness living isn’t quite as hard when you’re living in a cave in the side of a wadi in the middle of a desert. It was all very enlightening, and I can almost see the appeal of this kind of extended spiritual retreat. Almost.
A view from inside a monk's cave looking out into the wadi. This is about half way to the top of the wadi.
While some people were prepping lunch, I decided to walk over to Ben Gurion’s tomb since we were already there. Sadly, I never made it to the tomb. The reason is that we encountered a bunch of ibex. I spent some time photographing them and watching them, and decided to move on. And then I found a large ram with massive horns, so of course I stayed and watched him for a few minutes. Just a little further down the path, I found two females and their babies. I sat down on a rock to watch them and the babies slowly came closer to me over a period of about ten minutes. The moms did not seem happy about this, but they allowed it. They got within about five feet of me and posed wonderfully for the camera. It was awesome! At this point, I was perfectly prepared to skip supper and enjoy the wildlife. Unfortunately, a man from another group came walking down the path making a lot of noise and startled them. At that point, staying would have been a lost cause. It was awesome while it lasted though!
Two young ibex. Their mothers are up above them but watching me warily.
The youth hostel we stayed at in Arad was really nice. It even had a square in the middle with lots of beautiful plants. The food was exceptional and served family style. Sitting there eating such delicious food with several friends was a great experience. It was one of the biggest highlights of the whole trip for me! After supper, a group of us enjoyed exploring a little bit of Arad. We stumbled upon the bakery that Dr. Rasmussen had ordered our pitas from for the next day. We went inside, and found some fantastic pastries. Four shekels got me a cheese filled pastry and an apple filled pastry. They were fantastic. After that, we found the mall and wandered around it for a few minutes. It confirmed my opinion of malls. No matter where they are, they just don’t appeal to me. But, it was fun walking around a new city and seeing where the residents of that community shop. It was an exhausting, but fantastic day.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Israel Day 7: Free Day!
Sunday was our first free day in Israel. A few of us had decided pretty early in the week that we wanted to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for church that morning. For those who are wondering, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is located over what tradition holds are the locations of Jesus' crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. I'll admit that I'm pretty convinced that Jesus was actually buried there. As for the crucifixion? I'm less sold on the idea as are a lot of other people. But that's all another topic for another day. Anywho, Dr. Richter decided she wanted to go since she had never been there for a service, so she organized a reasonably good sized group to go. We started off going to the Greek Orthodox service for a little bit, and then some of us started wandering around to see some of the other services taking place.
Greek Orthodox Service in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
I stayed at the Greek Orthodox service for about 30 minutes before I had gotten tired of standing in one spot for so long. That particular service typically last about 3 hours. I had trouble focusing because this little old lady kept yelling at our group if we stood in front of her, sat too close to her, or made people move if any of her friends came so that they could sit closer to her. This was rather entertaining at first, but got old quickly. It made the whole service feel pretty unwelcoming. That's the primary reason I decided to wander.
After being there a little over an hour, a friend and I wondered around the Christian Quarter of the Old City. I got this wonderful pastry/bread thing that was fairly eggy and had little bits of chocolate in it. I'll get pictures of it at some point because it was awesome! Plus, you can find them everywhere in the Old City.
A group of us met at 10 to do the rampart walk around the Old City. This is where you walk the ramparts of the wall from the Jaffa Gate all the way to where it runs into the Temple Mount. You can pick it up again near the Dung Gate, but we weren't motivated to continue further. It was interesting to see the city from such a different perspective.
Me surveying West Jerusalem from a watch tower located on the ramparts of the Old City. This tower was built sometime during 1536-1541
Roughly 33,000 people live in the Old City, but you wouldn't really know it just walking around on the street level because you don't see many residences. You mainly see shops and other places of business. From the ramparts, however, you could see the back side of the buildings and see where people live. It was especially interesting to watch the transition between the Christian Quarter and the Muslim Quarter. The reason for this is that about 10,000 combined live in the Christian, Armenian, and Jewish Quarters. The remaining 23,000 people all live in the Muslim Quarter. That means that it is much more densely packed with people. You could really see this from the ramparts. From a perspective above the city, it was wall to wall buildings with a huge number of satellite dishes. It was unbelievable.
A view of the Dome of the Rock as seen from the ramparts on the north side of the Old City. Notice how densely packed the houses and apartments are.
After exiting the rampart just to the north of the Temple Mount, we made our way through the Muslim Quarter by way of the Via Dolorosa to just before the Damascus Gate. The reason was that we heard you could get some of the best falafel in the city there. The rumors we had heard proved to be right. The falafel was delicious and to top it off they had RC Cola! A falafel or shawarma and an RC Cola was a mere 12 shekels (about $3.50). We took our food and went through the Damascus Gate to just outside the Old City and sat on a low wall under a tree and had our lunch. The setting was beautiful and the food was falafeley good!
Me with my RC Cola and falafel. Notice the excitement on my face...
After lunch, we mosied back into the Old City and made our way to the Jaffa Gate. Along the way, we did a little bit of shopping. We stopped at a shop in the Christian Quarter owned by a man named Shaban. We were introduced to him and his shops on our first tour of the Old City because he has very fair prices and gives us an excellent exchange rate at his money changing shop. When he saw our group walk up, he excused himself from the couple he was bargaining with. The reason he did this was that he wanted to give us something cool to drink. He got us a bottle of orange juice and some cups and then apologized that he couldn't pour it for us since he needed to get back to the couple he had been bargaining with. We were all stunned at the hospitality shown to us. Besides being hospitable, he was also being smart. We all commented that if he had anything we were interested in buying, we would purchase it from him instead of someone else. And I plan to continue only changing my money there.
The rest of the day was significantly less exciting because I had to study for my test on Monday morning. All in all, it was one of the most restful and exciting Sundays I've ever had. I can't believe that I've only been here for a week and still have two weeks to go!
As a quick side note, my professors, Dr. Richter and Dr. Stone, have been posting pictures and commentary of the trip on Facebook. You don't have to join Facebook to see them, so I encourage everyone to check them out here.
Greek Orthodox Service in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
After being there a little over an hour, a friend and I wondered around the Christian Quarter of the Old City. I got this wonderful pastry/bread thing that was fairly eggy and had little bits of chocolate in it. I'll get pictures of it at some point because it was awesome! Plus, you can find them everywhere in the Old City.
A group of us met at 10 to do the rampart walk around the Old City. This is where you walk the ramparts of the wall from the Jaffa Gate all the way to where it runs into the Temple Mount. You can pick it up again near the Dung Gate, but we weren't motivated to continue further. It was interesting to see the city from such a different perspective.
Me surveying West Jerusalem from a watch tower located on the ramparts of the Old City. This tower was built sometime during 1536-1541
Roughly 33,000 people live in the Old City, but you wouldn't really know it just walking around on the street level because you don't see many residences. You mainly see shops and other places of business. From the ramparts, however, you could see the back side of the buildings and see where people live. It was especially interesting to watch the transition between the Christian Quarter and the Muslim Quarter. The reason for this is that about 10,000 combined live in the Christian, Armenian, and Jewish Quarters. The remaining 23,000 people all live in the Muslim Quarter. That means that it is much more densely packed with people. You could really see this from the ramparts. From a perspective above the city, it was wall to wall buildings with a huge number of satellite dishes. It was unbelievable.
A view of the Dome of the Rock as seen from the ramparts on the north side of the Old City. Notice how densely packed the houses and apartments are.
Me with my RC Cola and falafel. Notice the excitement on my face...
After lunch, we mosied back into the Old City and made our way to the Jaffa Gate. Along the way, we did a little bit of shopping. We stopped at a shop in the Christian Quarter owned by a man named Shaban. We were introduced to him and his shops on our first tour of the Old City because he has very fair prices and gives us an excellent exchange rate at his money changing shop. When he saw our group walk up, he excused himself from the couple he was bargaining with. The reason he did this was that he wanted to give us something cool to drink. He got us a bottle of orange juice and some cups and then apologized that he couldn't pour it for us since he needed to get back to the couple he had been bargaining with. We were all stunned at the hospitality shown to us. Besides being hospitable, he was also being smart. We all commented that if he had anything we were interested in buying, we would purchase it from him instead of someone else. And I plan to continue only changing my money there.
The rest of the day was significantly less exciting because I had to study for my test on Monday morning. All in all, it was one of the most restful and exciting Sundays I've ever had. I can't believe that I've only been here for a week and still have two weeks to go!
As a quick side note, my professors, Dr. Richter and Dr. Stone, have been posting pictures and commentary of the trip on Facebook. You don't have to join Facebook to see them, so I encourage everyone to check them out here.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
The Lights Festival and Bar Mitzvahs
The night we came into Jerusalem, we saw all kinds of lights around the wall of the Old City, and lots of music and people and a generally festive atmosphere. When I asked what was going on, Dr. Wrights replied that it was one of the last days of the Lights Festival (not to be confused with the Festival of Lights). He said that it's something that they tried last year that was so popular that they decided to do it again this year. Basically, they just lit up the Old City inside and out and people came to walk through. I really wanted to go to it before it ended, but was too tired until last night.
After supper last night, several of us went down to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to explore and see the main highlights after most people had left. Then we went back up to Jaffa gate, and Mark and Taylor headed back to JUC. Christy and I decided to stay and wander around the Lights Festival. There were a few street performers with light up costumes outside the city walls, but it was inside where the magic was happening. We The city was divided up into several routes, and we picked the orange one because it cut through the Armenian Quarter and then meandered into the Jewish Quarter where it looped around. The Jewish Quarter is the one we were the most comfortable with, plus we knew that there were searchlights set up on the Mount of Olives that we really wanted to see.
It was awesome! The atmosphere was quite festive. It was wall to wall people and many of the food vendors and little restaurants were open. If it weren't for the fact that I was still full from supper, I would have gone nuts with the food. It all smelled so amazing.
One of my favorite things was a building with lots of arches that had animations projected onto it. The animations made it look like the bricks were moving, the walls were crumbling, and that little green smiley face ghost looking things were zipping about the inside. It was a very entertaining 4 minutes.
Then we got to a terrace that overlooks the Mount of Olives, the Western (Wailing) Wall, and the Temple Mount. The searchlights on the Mount of Olives were all synchronized and made all kinds of cool patterns in the sky. Sometimes the even changed to different colors. It was awesome! Finally it was time for us to make our way back to the Zion Gate so we could head back to school. It was like swimming up stream trying to get past all of the people. It was quite an experience.
The whole time we were walking through, I kept trying to figure out just why they had started doing the Lights Festival. My theory is that they're making up for the fact that they don't have Christmas and Christmas Lights. When I mentioned this to Dr. Richter, she just laughed, but I think it has merit.
Today, we visited the Western Wall and it was a very busy place. When we were there a couple of days ago, it was much more subdued, so we were all curious about what was going on. There were drums, shofars, flutes, clarinets, and I'm pretty sure I also heard bagpipes. It turns out that Tuesday-Thursday are the big days for Bar Mitzvahs, and it's pretty common for them to take place at the Western Wall. We got to spend some time watching, photographing, and videotaping the events. When I went down to the wall, there were multiple groups of men and boys with big scrolls that were participating in the Bar Mitzvahs. You could see moms, aunts, grandmothers, sisters, and other women hanging of the women's side watching the events and cheering on the boys. It was an fantastic! If I ever get a faster internet connection here, I'll upload some video clips of it.
That's all of the major excite for the past few days. I'll probably post another impression report in a few minutes.
After supper last night, several of us went down to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to explore and see the main highlights after most people had left. Then we went back up to Jaffa gate, and Mark and Taylor headed back to JUC. Christy and I decided to stay and wander around the Lights Festival. There were a few street performers with light up costumes outside the city walls, but it was inside where the magic was happening. We The city was divided up into several routes, and we picked the orange one because it cut through the Armenian Quarter and then meandered into the Jewish Quarter where it looped around. The Jewish Quarter is the one we were the most comfortable with, plus we knew that there were searchlights set up on the Mount of Olives that we really wanted to see.
It was awesome! The atmosphere was quite festive. It was wall to wall people and many of the food vendors and little restaurants were open. If it weren't for the fact that I was still full from supper, I would have gone nuts with the food. It all smelled so amazing.
One of my favorite things was a building with lots of arches that had animations projected onto it. The animations made it look like the bricks were moving, the walls were crumbling, and that little green smiley face ghost looking things were zipping about the inside. It was a very entertaining 4 minutes.
Then we got to a terrace that overlooks the Mount of Olives, the Western (Wailing) Wall, and the Temple Mount. The searchlights on the Mount of Olives were all synchronized and made all kinds of cool patterns in the sky. Sometimes the even changed to different colors. It was awesome! Finally it was time for us to make our way back to the Zion Gate so we could head back to school. It was like swimming up stream trying to get past all of the people. It was quite an experience.
The whole time we were walking through, I kept trying to figure out just why they had started doing the Lights Festival. My theory is that they're making up for the fact that they don't have Christmas and Christmas Lights. When I mentioned this to Dr. Richter, she just laughed, but I think it has merit.
Today, we visited the Western Wall and it was a very busy place. When we were there a couple of days ago, it was much more subdued, so we were all curious about what was going on. There were drums, shofars, flutes, clarinets, and I'm pretty sure I also heard bagpipes. It turns out that Tuesday-Thursday are the big days for Bar Mitzvahs, and it's pretty common for them to take place at the Western Wall. We got to spend some time watching, photographing, and videotaping the events. When I went down to the wall, there were multiple groups of men and boys with big scrolls that were participating in the Bar Mitzvahs. You could see moms, aunts, grandmothers, sisters, and other women hanging of the women's side watching the events and cheering on the boys. It was an fantastic! If I ever get a faster internet connection here, I'll upload some video clips of it.
That's all of the major excite for the past few days. I'll probably post another impression report in a few minutes.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Israel Day 2: Tour of the Old City
Today, we did a 4.5 hour walking tour of the Old City. During this time, we just barely scratched the surface of it. Thankfully, the location I'm staying at is only a 5 minute walk from the Old City, so I'll get to spend some of my free time there. One of my course requirements is to write an impression report of the half day or day trip we've done each day. Below is the impression report I wrote for today. It's not great, but it gives an idea of what we saw.
I was unsure of what to expect going into the Old City today. I’ve been in the Old City of Quito, Ecuador, and I’ve been to St. Augustine and other old North and South America cities, but nothing as old or historical as this. Because of this, I had no idea what to expect.
I was actually a little disappointed upon entering the Jaffa Gate because I had the feeling that I had seen this kind of thing before. It felt a lot like going into the Castillo de San Marco in St. Augustine, FL. This all changed when we started really going into the Old City to meet Shaaban, a shop keeper in the Christian Quarter. Walking to his shop, I felt like I was in another world. All of the colorful fabrics hanging from above reminded me a little bit of the Disney movie Aladdin. It was like another world. Everything is so close together that it was a bit darker than I expected, and felt very crowded, even though there really weren’t many people about.
I’m always interested in the smells of new places, and a friend had even asked me to describe what Israel smelled like. Up until this point, I hadn’t noticed anything particularly remarkable, but then we went through the district in that quarter that sells spices. What an aroma! The best word I can think of to describe it is pungent. The smells of so many different Middle Eastern and Mediterranean spice blended together to form an aroma that was almost overpowering. It was fantastic.
Before long, we had made our way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is one location of which I’d seen hundreds of pictures, read many accounts, and even seen videos. I was not sure what to expect, but I honestly was not that excited. When I walked in, part of me was thinking “This is it?” I understand the historical and spiritual significance of this location. After all, tradition has it that this is the location where Jesus may have been crucified, buried, and resurrected. But it was fairly dark and seemed much smaller than I anticipated. At least that’s how it seemed until Dr. Rasmussen started showing us some of the smaller chapels off to the side. He then pointed out the locations of some of the monasteries to it. These locations were far more peaceful and really felt more reverent to me. I felt somewhat uncomfortable in the rotunda, but I felt almost at home in some of those side chapels. It makes me very excited to go there for church on Sunday. I also just want to spend much more time exploring that particular church.
The dome above the rotunda at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
At the Pool of Bethesda. The actual pools were to the left and right of this image. You can see a little bit of one on the left side.The second major highlight for me was standing above the wailing wall and seeing so many people there praying at the wall with the Dome of the Rock in the background. It was just a beautiful sight to behold. The angle of the sun caused some very dramatic shadows, and the Dome of the Rock absolutely glowed under the sun. It was breathtaking. This is another location that I can’t wait to go back and spend some more time at.
The Dome of the Rock and the Wailing Wall
The biggest thought I had today was that three weeks is simply not enough time to spend in Israel. I need to stay here a year to even begin to see everything!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Israel Day 1
Traveling to Israel has made for a very long day or two. To be honest, I'm not even sure how long it's been since I left the Lexington. I think it's only been about 24 hours, but it sure seems like it was quite a bit longer than that.
Our flight out of Lexington left nearly an hour late because the plane didn't even arrive to our gate until the time we were supposed to be departing. We made it to Atlanta with enough time to spare that we were able to get some food. It turns out that we had a lot more time than we expected because after the plane pulled up to a different gate, it had to be moved to our gate, then re-cleaned, catered, and have a security sweep performed. This means we left Atlanta almost an hour and a half later than we were scheduled. How frustrating!
The flight was far less painful than I expected, but it was still 12 hours. Unfortunately, it seemed much longer. This is partly because the little personal video player for each seat had a map that showed us information like flight speed, altitude, tailwind, location, and estimated time of arrival. Unfortunately, it showed that we were about to arrive a good 4 hours before we made it to Tel Aviv. At least I could see on the map that we still had quite a ways to go. It still was depressing though.
Thankfully, I managed to sleep some thanks to Tylenol PM. It's wonderful stuff. Unfortunately, it didn't help me to sleep through breakfast which consisted of a banana (yuck!), a small granola bar (yum!) and a cucumber and hard boiled egg mini sandwich (much worse than it sounds). Let's just say I was thankful to get real food at JUC tonight.
Immigration and Customs at Tel Aviv was painless for all but one of us. One student, who's father is Syrian, was pulled into a room and questioned for a few minutes. But he was back with the group pretty quickly. Then Dr. Stone found us some sheruts (taxi vans) to get us to Jerusalem. That was fun!
Along the way, we got caught in traffic on a highway. One car zoomed up beside us and 3 men in jeans and t-shirts jumped out, ran to the car in front of theirs, threw open the doors, and dragged at least one man out. Turns out they were undercover police officers arresting someone. We thought it might be a Chinese fire drill until we saw that they all had pistols in their waistbands.
To follow that excitement, when we got near our destination, we found the road closed off and were told we would have to hike the rest of the way to JUC with our luggage. Our driver and Dr. Stone chatted with some police officers and managed to get us a bit closer, but we still had to walk a few hundred yards. It might have been less, but it felt like a mile dragging all the luggage. The reason the road was closed off is that there is a lights festival going on at the old city so the walls were lit up with all kinds of pretty colors and there was even a show going on. A group of us are planning to go see it tomorrow night since it's ending Wednesday night.
At the school, we all were shown to our rooms, and grabbed some supper. I'm tired so I'm going to bed. It's 11:10 here, but it feels later.
Our flight out of Lexington left nearly an hour late because the plane didn't even arrive to our gate until the time we were supposed to be departing. We made it to Atlanta with enough time to spare that we were able to get some food. It turns out that we had a lot more time than we expected because after the plane pulled up to a different gate, it had to be moved to our gate, then re-cleaned, catered, and have a security sweep performed. This means we left Atlanta almost an hour and a half later than we were scheduled. How frustrating!
The flight was far less painful than I expected, but it was still 12 hours. Unfortunately, it seemed much longer. This is partly because the little personal video player for each seat had a map that showed us information like flight speed, altitude, tailwind, location, and estimated time of arrival. Unfortunately, it showed that we were about to arrive a good 4 hours before we made it to Tel Aviv. At least I could see on the map that we still had quite a ways to go. It still was depressing though.
Thankfully, I managed to sleep some thanks to Tylenol PM. It's wonderful stuff. Unfortunately, it didn't help me to sleep through breakfast which consisted of a banana (yuck!), a small granola bar (yum!) and a cucumber and hard boiled egg mini sandwich (much worse than it sounds). Let's just say I was thankful to get real food at JUC tonight.
Immigration and Customs at Tel Aviv was painless for all but one of us. One student, who's father is Syrian, was pulled into a room and questioned for a few minutes. But he was back with the group pretty quickly. Then Dr. Stone found us some sheruts (taxi vans) to get us to Jerusalem. That was fun!
Along the way, we got caught in traffic on a highway. One car zoomed up beside us and 3 men in jeans and t-shirts jumped out, ran to the car in front of theirs, threw open the doors, and dragged at least one man out. Turns out they were undercover police officers arresting someone. We thought it might be a Chinese fire drill until we saw that they all had pistols in their waistbands.
To follow that excitement, when we got near our destination, we found the road closed off and were told we would have to hike the rest of the way to JUC with our luggage. Our driver and Dr. Stone chatted with some police officers and managed to get us a bit closer, but we still had to walk a few hundred yards. It might have been less, but it felt like a mile dragging all the luggage. The reason the road was closed off is that there is a lights festival going on at the old city so the walls were lit up with all kinds of pretty colors and there was even a show going on. A group of us are planning to go see it tomorrow night since it's ending Wednesday night.
At the school, we all were shown to our rooms, and grabbed some supper. I'm tired so I'm going to bed. It's 11:10 here, but it feels later.
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