31 May Saturday

30 May Friday

29 May Thursday

28 May Wednesday

27 May Tuesday

26 May Monday

25 May Sunday - On to Ein Gev!

(This was the day we left for our Galilee trip. And as was customary for our long field trips, we left way early in the morning.)

Caesarea Maritima -- After stumbling off the bus at the first site of the day. I first thought we were at the Sea of Galilee. ("It's a lot bigger than I thought...Oh wait, that's the Mediterranean Sea.") The site was neat. It was impressive what Herod/Herod's engineers were able to do in constructing the port. In order to build a foundation to expand the port, they were able to get cement to solidify underwater. We also stood in the approximate area where Paul would have testified before King Agrippa.

Megiddo --The tel was huge! Complete with museum, overlooks, stone altar, and exit tunnel through the water supply. Luckily, we had Brother Seely to guide us along the way. After climbing around for a bit and listening to lecture, we exited through the tunnel on the opposite side from where we started.



Nazareth -- The city was quiet when we first arrived. Most of the shops were closed because it was Sunday (either that or they were taking a long ciesta). The Church of the Annunciation had some very impressive stained glass windows.


Ein Gev -- Our home away from home for 10 days. It was so nice to not have to pack up again until we left. First impression of our huts: they looked like the camp of the Others from Lost. I think even towards the end of our stay, we'd still occasionally go to the wrong hut since they all looked the exact same.

I considered Ein Gev as our "vacation" of the term. Our stay here was very enjoyable (though I wouldn't have minded if the cafeteria had not been kosher). We still had classes and went to visit sites, but we had a lot more down time. So it was nice to read on the beach, swim, and spend time with the other class.

24 May Saturday

23 May Friday

22 May Thursday

21 May Wednesday

20 May Tuesday

First of all we had the Southern Kingdom and Judah field trip. This included the City of David, Hezekiah's Tunnel, Pool of Siloam and the Broad Wall (half day with sack lunch with the boom bar). The city of David is on the south east corner of the Old City. We had the same view that David had when he was out past curfew, and we all know what happens after the Holy Ghost goes to bed at midnight... He found his true lust, and yup that was the end of his spiritual sponsorship by God.
Next, we trunched through the tunnel that was built thousands of years ago. Many of us turned off our lights and stumbled aimlessly hitting our heads repeatedly, and as we did so we couldn't help but shout out for joy. We had a great time because the tunnel was really, really, really cool! Some of us might have complained about being wet and maybe a little cold, but others were happy due to the fact that they were able to roll up their pants to undecent heights. Who would have thought that a dirty old tunnel, built by an ancient king, could entertain 80 spirited young adults. Next we followed a few of the city streets to the Pool of Siloam where Christ sent a blind man to be healed. Christ made some clay/mud put it on the man's eyes and sent him to the pool. Symbolically, we walk blind in this world, and only after we have repented, or washed in the pool like the blind man can we truly see.

Erin Ladle/Spencer Madsen

19 May Monday

18 May Sunday

17 May Saturday

16 May Friday

15 May Thursday

14 May Wednesday

13 May Tuesday

12 May Monday

11 May Sunday

Departure for Egypt.

This morning we woke up way too early to eat eggs, french toast, porridge, grapefruit, honeydew melon, cottage cheese, weird cereal, and not toasted toast - but thats OK because we are going to Egypt. The first stop was Tel Beersheeba, which looks like all of the others. Then we went to the grave site of David Ben-Gurion and the Zin overlook. It was here that I first learned what a wadi is (and hence it will forever stay in my heart).
Then we drove to some anceint caravan city and watched a really cool movie (like all the other really cool movies that we've seen at the national parks here) about the desert people. We climbed around on ancient ruins, played around in temples and tombs - like usual - and thought to ourselve how hot it was (little did we know).
After a quick stay there we drove to Yotvata where we were first introduced to Kibbutzim - although, after half an hour of touring the Kibbutz, they still hadn't answered the question: "What is a Kibbutz" but not to worry, that question would be cleared up in the coming days and weeks.
That night we drove to our Kibbutz, oppened the door, and stared blankly at the scene which lay before us. Dirty floors, no cold water from the tap, bandaids, no bedding, and an all purpose bathroom in which you could shower, shave, relieve yourself, and wash your car all in the same 9ft square room.
That night there was a meeting with the faculty as they instructed us on Egypt and the process by which we recieved the Pearl of Great Price. After that I was so drowsy that I went to bed early and dreamed about bacon and cheese.

10 May Saturday

9 May Friday

8 May Thursday

7 May Wednesday

6 May Tuesday

5 May Monday

4 May Sunday

Twinkle, Twinkle 4th of May,
You sure are a happy day!
We went to class and then had fun,
Ignored homework ‘til we were done!





Today we had the priviledge of meeting our two local instructors for our modern near eastern studies classes. Ophir Yarden, born in the United States is teaching our Judaism studies class and we were all interested in what he had to say today and bombarded him with questions about Judaism in general. Dr. Adnan Musallam from Palestine is a very loving man and intrigued us all with an introduction to Islam. However, the addition of two classes that would be completed in just 2 weeks and assigned a 10 page single-spaced paper amid other assignments was enough to overwhelm us. Fortunately, this wasn't enough to stop us from enjoying our first day of free time in Jerusalem. Most people seemed to take advantage of it, and as for us, we went to the Via Dolorosa--the fourteen steps of the Holy Cross and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We enjoyed our first experience in the old city, and met some shop-owners and learned that some are nice and give you juice while others will swindle you faster than you can learn their names. But I guess that's all part of the "full experience". Then we studied our brains out.

The Via Dolorosa starts at Lions' Gate/St. Stephen's Gate, which is in the east side of the Old City. The second station is St. Anne's Church. The church is on the site where Mary supposedly gave birth to Mary. It's a 12th-century French church run by the Order of the White Fathers. There was a man there who tried to take our money when Allison took a picture by the door. We couldn't figure out why, because we didn't know where we were at the time. I just learned that it was the St. Anne's (which costs 5 shekels to enter) and now it all makes sense. Rest of the stations are as follows:
3. Beit Hisda Pool
4. First Station-the site of the Antonia Citadel, now the Omariyya School.
5. Second Station-Franciscan Biblical School
6. Lithostrotos
7. Convent of the Sisters of Zion
8. Austrian Hospice
9. Third Station--Polish Catholic Chapel--where Jesus fell for the first time from the weight of the cross
10. Forth Station--Church of Our Lady of the Spasm--where Mary passed out after Jesus passed her with the cross on his back.
11. Fifth Station--Franciscan Church--where the Roman soldiers had Simon carry Jesus' cross
12. Sixth Station--St. Veronicas's Church--the home of St. Veronica, who dried the brow of Jesus as he passed
13. Seventh Station--Jesus fell for the second time
14. Eighth Station--Jesus speaks to the daughters of Jerusalem

The stations seem a bit sketchy. The second station, for example, is the site where Jesus received his cross and started carrying it. I'm not sure how anyone could know that, but let us not trifle with details. It's a very famous Christian site.

3 May Saturday

2 May Friday

1 May Thursday