this week

this week has been crazy and I feel like pictures are the only way to describe it. 

me and chloe at King Herod's winter palace. I wrote a whole three pages on this lovely mound of dirt. 

avery, rachelle, steph, and maddie at Elijah's spring

just hiking through the desert. we sat down in the wilderness and talked about how Christ wandered somewhere around here for forty days. Can you imagine being in this wilderness for that long? I barely survived for an hour.

 Our field trip on Monday was to Jericho. There we saw a lovely tell (mound of dirt), a few ruins of Herod's palace, springs of Elijah, and the wilderness. Brother Ludlow (otherwise known as j-rowdy) told us not to set our expectations too high because there's really nothing there. I can say i've been to the oldest city in the world though...sweeet.

hahaha dwight got a haircut and then the guy started threading his eyebrows. classic.

me and joe at arab night. he's 13 going on 22. too many college girls around here for him. 

roomies at arab night! steph, annie, me, and lane

 arab night was a thrill. The men who recite the quar'an and call to prayer at Al-Aqsa mosque. Al-aqsa is the second? most important place after Mecca in the Islamic religion. I love the sound of that call to prayer and it was SO cool to hear it live, especially by such famous men. Then I had some of the most delicious food the Oasis has ever served.

just learning some arab dances. which of course turned into a real dance party with  dj aj. I feel like everything turns into a dance party around here. Perfect for me. 

me and heather at Gethsemene. 

big group at Gethsemene

 Yesterday for the Sabbath big group of us visited Gethsemene. I was so happy that after a whole month here I FINALLY made it there! It was beautiful but very touristy. We got permission to enter a secret garden across the street next Sabbath! (no tourists and more natural looking olive trees!)


This happened TODAY. I'm so on top of things. 


My alarm went off at 3:45 this morning and I couldn't figure out why. Then I remembered. It's the Jewish holiday Shavout today. A huge group of about 75 students went to the Western Wall to watch them worship. Our Israel teacher got permission for us to go, so we figured it would be cool. Right as the sun came up, all the Jews started praying. It was really neat to see so many people there praying, but I don't think I would get up at 4AM for it again. It was perfect timing though, because then we were first in line to see.....DOME OF THE ROCK!

melissa, me, and analise at the Dome!

not posing at the dome. (we got in trouble for posing). analise, lane, me, bekah, aj, devery.

 The dome has really strange hours and long lines, so it's hard work getting in. We were first in line today and it was great! We were literally the only ones up on the temple mount. I've never seen anything quite like it.

After the dome we ran back to the center to grab breakfast and then went to a Pentecostal church. It's Pentecost today so they had a fun church service full of singing and praising!

After Pentecostal church we went to the Israel museum to finish an assignment for our ANE class. It was cool but we were all so tired so we just checked everything off the list. I definitely plan on going back because they have some real art there!!!!

me and rachel at a replica of the old city at the time of Herod

just an Oldenberg statue. no big deal, just learned about  this in my humanities class! (i was SUPER excited).

at another piece I learned about in Humanities! nobody else shared my excitement.

 Then we decided it would be cool to walk to ben yohouda.

we walked forever and ever and ever and ever. and West Jerusalem was closed for the Jewish holiday. So we walked back to the old city (total of two hours walking), ate pizza, and then went home.

Long day. But i hit four religions. jewish holiday, dome of the rock (islam), pentecostal, and Mormon of course.