Tel Aviv, Jericho, and...Leprosy?

On Sunday, we got to swim in the Mediterranean Sea on the beautiful beaches of Tel Aviv! (You can see the Sea in the background a bit). Tel Aviv is SO different from Jerusalem...in a good way. Jerusalem is way fun, but its also nice to take a chill day at the beach, walk around the city, and grab a slice of pizza. As you can tell, it was a gorgeous day! The water was the warmest salt water I've ever felt :) Oh and guess what? I didn't get sunburnt!! Which is by a total miracle because almost every single other person there got fried. Yay for SPF 50. 

Thats right! Kinder egg (or Joy/surprise whatever) gelato!! Right across the street from the beach, there is a little gelato place which is where I found this delightful bin of soft serve Italian ice cream :) They also had a Kinder bueno white chocolate flavor too! I was so ecstatic I just had to take a picture. It was the perfect sweet treat after a day in the sun...although they melted like ca-razy consequently making it really fun to eat.

Second Field Trip: We got to have this spectacular view of the road that leads down to Jericho (mirrors the path of the Wadi Qelt). Off to the right distance is Jericho and the Dead Sea and  way past the view of the picture to the left is the backside of the Mt. of Olives, Jerusalem. It was in this wilderness where the parable of the Good Samaritan took place, where Elisha encountered two bears after healing the spring of Jericho, and also where Christ was stopped by Satan and tempted to turn stones into bread after fasting for 40 days (Afterwhich Christ went up into Jerusalem and had the Triumphal Entry and last week of his life). It was amazing. We stayed up there for maybe 30 minutes just reading story after story in the Bible of events which happened in these mountains. Lucky, really lucky for us, there was a bit of a cloud cover so we didn't get heat stroke, although we still were sweating our brains out (even though it was only mid-morning!). So worth it though. 

Down to Jericho...down down down. It's true what they say about going down to Jericho and then back up to Jerusalem. So many mountains and hills!!! Jerusalem is about 2500 ft above sea level and Jericho is about 1300 ft BELOW sea level! Its not quite the lowest city on Earth (there is one other city closer to the Dead Sea which is a little lower) but pretty close. I was the only person on our whole bus that happened to snap this picture! Pure miracle. This is the moment where we were at sea level. Needless to say our ears were aching and some got a little motion sickness; a combination of winding roads plumeting to the Earth's core plus our crazy Arab bus drivers ha. Still...so worth it.

We were able to tour the recent excavations (only from the past couple years!) of Old Testament Jericho. Behind the pretty monument for the spring of Elisha, there are the remains of the Middle Bronze Age wall which could very well be THE wall that fell to Joshua and the Israelites! The mud brick remains of this wall were found in a pattern which suggests that this particular wall had fallen down and created a ramp up to the city. Isn't that amazing?! There are many more reasons why lots of archeologists believe the Joshua story to be true and that it really did happen here. Jericho has also been proven to be THE oldest city on Earth. A tower (most likely from a city wall) was found and dated to the Neolithic Period...which is even before the time of the Egyptians! Crazy huh? One more thing...the guys in charge of filtering and managing the spring that waters this little city in the middle of the Jordan Valley desert let us go back into the huge wooden building and show us the exact point where 1,000 gallons of water comes out every minute! This was the place where Elisha performed his first miracle after the mantle of the prophet was passed from Elijah to him. He healed these bitter waters and saved the people of Jericho. Cool stuff. 

Gross, gross, nasty sickness. I don't think I had ever sweat that much before IN MY LIFE! I actually got a sweat mark from carrying my water bottle...never thought the day would happen. Every square inch of my body was sweating and it took forEVER to cool off. (But it was still worth it lol) It was actually a really good thing because this trip prepared us for Egypt. Well, I don't know if anything can prepare you for that, but I do know now that skirts and no make-up is the only way I'm gonna roll if I want to get out of there alive :)

Leprosy? Let's hope not! I'm just going to say this...I am an intense volleyball player. Ha. Some students are putting together intramural volleyball teams and so I decided to give it a try even though I've never really played before. I am so addicted to the game!!! I don't know what it is, but I find it so much fun. Unfortunately we played with a horrible ball one night (I swear it was made out of plastic) so it really bruised me. My wrist doesn't really hurt too bad, but my right forearm is so swollen with fluid and deeply bruised now for about 3 days...and counting! (But it doesn't look as cool so I posted this picture instead). Still pretty impressed with myself :)