Happy Fourth of July!!

          Well, this week has been interesting... haha. It was final's week this past week, so pretty much it was just super boring.  It is hard to get out into the city when everybody is studying because there is a "rule of three," so if other people don't want to go have a study break, then you're couped up in the center too! It's fine though honestly, cuz this next week we get to go to GALILEE!! For ten days!! So it will be great, and it is nice to be done with those other classes. Now we only have two classes left: an ancient near eastern studies one, and our new testament class (which by the way we will be having class for on the shores of GALILEE this week!!). So in case you can't tell I'm a little excited to go.  We leave tomorrow morning.  
          Anyway, on Monday we had a field trip to go see the separation wall between the West Bank and Israel.  It was really interesting to see the graffiti on the wall to support Palestine and the security there.  Then on Friday a group of us went to West Jerusalem and bought Challah or Halal or Holy Bread. It is the bread they use for the Jewish Sabbath and it is suuuuuper yummy, especially in the evening on Fast Sundays after they starve you all night!! We eat at 4 PM, and that is the only meal we get on fast Sundays, and there are no snacks we can eat, so if you don't buy something, you pretty much starve.  Anyway, then we just got some gelato and hung around West Jerusalem (the really nice and more ritzy Jewish part of Jerusalem).  

Separation Wall

          Yesterday I went with a group to the Garden Tomb with a group of people after church, and it was just really great.  I'd really like to go to the Garden of Gethsemane some morning before church, and then the Garden Tomb after church.  It just makes your day so much better and it is so nice.  Then that night we had another fireside that was another section of a movie about the Savior.  The first movie (that we watched last week) was about His birth and the research and doctrine involved with it, and then this movie was on His Premortal existence. It was really great.  I also started reading Jesus the Christ by Talmage.  It is a great book so far, and I am excited to really get into it more in Galilee.  

Garden Tomb

          Today was a GREAT day though! There was just a lot going on, and I got to do and see a lot.  First a group of us took a taxi (yes, it was amazing!! I didn't have to walk forever in the heat for once!) to the far west side of Jerusalem and went to the Bible Lands Museum. It was pretty cool, and just had a lot of neat artifacts from the area over the years.  The history classes that we have to take here really bring a lot more meaning into the artifacts, and makes them a lot cooler and neater to see to me, so that was great. After that we went to the Supreme Court. That was a really neat experience because we got to sit in on a court case and whatnot, but unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside the court room.  Then a little group of us went to the Israel Museum and I got to see some DEAD SEA SCROLLS!!! Yeah, that's right mom... Don't worry, I was thinking about you as I was looking at them.  Again, we couldn't take pictures, but the structure of the scrolls part was super night.  As you were walking through and looking at other artifacts from the scroll caves, you were walking down through a man-made cave, and then you came out into a place that was kind of like you were in the inside of a pot, and there was a large scroll looking thing in the middle, so it was like you were actually there.  But the scrolls themselves were really neat too.  I got to see part of the Isaiah scroll and other really neat things.  It was really great.  Then we went to the Knesset, which is like legislature of Israel, and took a tour.  That was neat as well, but unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures... AGAIN! Haha. But it was just really fun.

The Supreme Court

Israel Museum model of ancient Jerusalem

Random but cool grass clock (it really worked!)

The Knesset

          This evening, we had a Fourth of July celebration at the center.  We had an amazing dinner (well... for here at least), and then we had a little carnival type thing with face painting, bobbing for fruit, "fishing." and sparklers and stuff.  It was fun to be like a little kid again.  With the bobbing for fruit, they two people compete in the same bucket at one time, and you had to get an apple from the top of the bucket, and also a plum from the bottom.  It was so funny, especially when our professors competed against each other!! Anyway, it was a good day today.  I am excited to leave for Galilee tomorrow though!! :)

Fourth of July adventures