Free Days

An Israeli playground... nice, right?

Scott convinced me to take this 40 minute bus ride to En Karem on a free day even though I really didn't want to. I made him promise me two hours of shopping time, but I'm so glad I went. Zechariah and Elizabeth lived here and this is where John the Baptist was born. There was a church dedicated to him here. There was also the Visitation Church. Where Mary came to visit Elizabeth and tell her the news. There was this statue there that I loved and all those things behind it are Mary's song or Mary's prayer or something in all different languages... I don't remember, but it's cool!! 

On another free day we ran out to see some sites before we had to be back a write a paper. This is the Russian Church of the Ascension. They wouldn't let us go up the tower but we were able to go into the separate church which was really pretty. 

The Tomb of the Prophets. Everything is pitch black so we had to find our way around with candles 

We get a nice view of this beautiful church everyday on our way to the city. This is the Church of Mary Magdalene. We finally went to go see it with some free time. 

Merry Christmas from Bethlehem!

Not very often you get to celebrate Christmas on the 4th of July! This was one of my favorite field trips so far!! We have started our New Testament study and I love it. First we started the day at Herod's summer palace. Herod's tomb was also here. We learned about how awful of a man he really was. It was actually pretty neat to spend the 4th of July here. We were able to talk about how grateful we are to live in such a wonderful country with leaders that we appoint. Our teacher shared an interesting story about when they were in Egypt last semester. He said they were talking to a man about the situation there and the man asked him what our country does when a president won't leave. He tried to explain that that just wouldn't happen and the man could not comprehend that. We are so lucky to have a stable system and while I love living in Israel, it often makes me realize how much I love the US. 

The hill behind us is Herod's Palace

We are actually sitting in Herod's pool.

We are thinking of starting a band... I think we will call it the Plain White T's. It's standard field-trip uniform. 

After Herod's Palace we went to Bethlehem University. It was very, very interesting to hear the things they had to say about the Israeli-Palestine conflict. We had the chance to talk to the students and get to know them. It was crazy to hear about their dating life and what is acceptable. We got their names and will find them on facebook when we get home!

This is where some believe the Savior was actually born

We made it to the Church of the Nativity. It was not at all what I had expected, in fact, I didn't really like it. It was turned into a very touristy area which was expected, but I don't think anything even resembled what it would have looked like back then. I don't mean to be so negative, I was really happy I got to see it and it is interesting to see how other churches preserve these holy sights. 

Another possible sight of the Savior's birth. 

By far my FAVORITE part of the trip. We were able to go out to this shepherd's field and overlook the city of Bethlehem. Possibly where the shepherd's were abiding the night of the Savior's birth. There were still flocks of sheep there and you could just picture Mary and Joseph coming into the city. We were given some free time to look over at the hillside and write in our journals. I thought a lot about the shepherds there and how sensitive they were to the Spirit. They were in such humble circumstances but so willing to run to Christ when they were visited by the angel. I also thought a lot about Mary and her situation. How difficult it must have been to be told that you are going to be pregnant without marriage, living in a small town and knowing that others will talk. I admire so much the way she responded to this calling, she just wanted to follow the will of the Lord. We were able to sing Christmas songs and listen to musical numbers. Those songs will have a whole new meaning to me now and I am so grateful for experiences like this one. 

Something else we learned while in this field... this is a possible spot of Ruth and Boaz! Also, David almost positively had his flock here... pretty amazing!

a few of my favorite things

I think this camel liked me. Ever since Petra I just have this new love for camels! I am going to miss them.

The night we got back from Jordan a bunch of us got tickets to Matisyahu! Concert was a blast even though we didn't understand most of it.

This is right outside the Knesset, which is the house of representatives in the State of Israel.  We weren't allowed to bring cameras inside but it was really interesting! Scott especially loved it. 

These are spices. I promise. We got to make them on one of our field trips and it tastes delicious. The food here is awesome, but I am anxious to get a frosty and some Mountain Dew. 

I LOVE GUMMIES!!

So many captions that could be used... I'll leave it up to the reader. 

We took a field trip to the Separation Wall. It was very interesting to hear some stories and learn more about it. 

I just think this picture is great. Should be in a Coca-Cola ad. The people here are so generous and I've really learned to love them. Sometimes their generosity can be a bad thing though. When asking for directions, they consider it rude to not help. So even if they have no idea, they will give you directions and you can't be surprised when you end up on the wrong side of town.