Out on the Town

Due to the horrible internet filter we now have at the JC, we can't even access the BYU website let alone blogger. :( Hopefully this will change once we get back....but for right now I am in the Galilee! I was going to put up this last post to catch up the night before we left, but I wasn't successful...hence the delightful post now.

We were out ALL day everyday the week before we left for the Galilee. Since we already had the finals for our Palestinian perspective class, Israeli perspective class, Hebrew class, and Old Testament, we only had 2 classes going on and the rest of the days were free!! For our Ancient Near Eastern Studies course, we have a list of things we have to see in and around the city of Jerusalem on our own time. It's made my experience here so much fun because it's made us get out of the center rather than be stuck in the library writing papers. (Although we do a lot of those too ha) We have gotten lost a few times, but with our trusty ole' Jerusalem city maps and friendly social skills, we are able to get around pretty well. :)

Night out in West Jeru! This area of the city is so much fun...definitely scores points in the 'night life' category. It's more modern than the Old City or East Jerusalem (plus its the only place we are allowed to be in after dark anyways). Just getting some crepes and gelato on Ben Yehuda Street...

We ate dinner at this pizza place (yay for American food! or I guess Italian) for dinner and they have all of these license plates from different US states. Shout out to MD!

Separation wall in between East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Field trip in the tunnels of the Western Wall! There is only a teeny tiny section of the western wall (aka wailing wall) of the Jerusalem temple which is exposed. The rest of it is covered up by a build-up of Muslim neighborhoods, but they've been able to conduct tours under the communities through these tunnels. It was a fun field trip-- we are all determined to get the sweater-tied-around-the-waist look back into style :)

South-western edge and pinnacle of the Temple. It is here were there was one of the main entrances (out of many) to the temple complex evident by the modern-named Robinson's Arch. This is also where the trumpeter's station was to usher in every Shabbat (Sabbath). It is almost certainly that this is the pinnacle where Satan took Jesus and tempted him to jump off of so that he could miraculously save himself and prove to everyone he was the Messiah. Pretty cool, huh?

Original steps of the grand staircase leading from the double and triple gates on the southern wall of the Temple. When Jesus was being chased by the Jewish leadership from the Temple mount after declaring his divineship, he exited from these double doors and healed the blind man by making clay and having him wash himself in the Pool of Siloam. On THESE steps! Jesus absolutely must have walked down these steps multiple times because this was pretty much the only exit from the temple mount. Being right here and after being told it was an 'almost' fact that Jesus walked these very stairs, Neil Armstrong said (something to the effect of) "the steps I make here are more important and mean more to me than the steps I made on the moon." 

Shrine of the Book at the Israeli National Museum. Houses artifacts, pottery and really cool stuff including the original Dead Sea Scrolls, Isaiah writings, etc. It was actually really fun because we have learned about all of these things in class and been to the sites, but it's here were they have all the originals (like the holy of holies in the temple at Tel Arad!) We felt like such nerds going through this museum, getting excited about stupid things, but it was totally worth it. :)

You see these everywhere! haha And everytime we pass them in the Old City, I always joke how I'm going to buy myself one, just for fun. This one is pretty cute though, don't you think?

Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Enough said.

This is inside a Russian Orthodox Church (I think Alexander Nevsky?) in the Christian Quarters of the Old City. This is the traditionally acclaimed rock where Jesus stumbled over as he walked with the cross on his back to Golgotha.

Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. A tiny, narrow and super windy staircase led us up to a beautiful view over the Christian Quarter...worth the 7 shekels? Don't really know, but we had to do it anyways for our class. Check!

OK. BEST icecream flavor I have ever had in my life. It sounds really weird, but believe me, it is really to die for. Everyone was telling me, "you have to go to the shuk in west and get the Jerusalem flavor icecream!" So I did. I believe it's vanilla icecream with halva (this delicious white chocolate stuff), pistachios, and date honey. Oh my. Love it love it love it.

This was probably one of the most random adventures we have been on...Tomb of the Kings in East Jerusalem. After getting lost a few times looking for the random green entrance door in a wall we finally found it and tried buzzing in, but no one answered. A few days later, we went back and someone answered through the intercom but said that they were closed. (Mind you, this is 2:00 on a Wed afternoon) I asked them when their hours were or when they would be open again and she just kept on saying "no, closed." Some students assured us that despite being told 'we are closed forever' you could still get in, so we kept on trying. Then a few buzzes, knocks and minutes later, the lady slowly recited a series of numbers. I guessed it was a phone number, which luckily it was, and then we talked with a man who said he would let us in in a minute. A few seconds later, the lady from the intercom unlocked and opened the door (no man in sight...weird ha). There was a huge courtyard of ruins, filled with arches, capitals and such which seems like the only thing there; but we knew better! The entrance to the tomb was off to the right under a bunch of scaffolding, between a couple pipes, and through a literal hole in the ground. We don't really know whose tombs they were but I guess they weren't that important because it looks like they just stopped excavating and turned it into a junk park. It's crazy how much history is here literally right under your feet! And that's basically what happened.

Hopefully the internet will be working by the time we get back to the JC...After getting back home, we have about 2 days to recover and then off to Jordan we go! Maybe I can squeeze a post in there for Galilee...keeping my fingers crossed!