So... the highlights of the week... or since the last time I wrote.
1) We celebrated Christmas in Shepherd's field. It just so happened to be Halloween the day we celebrated Christmas which I thought was funny. That night was certainly one of the most memorable this semester. We watched the sunset, had a Christmas program and sang Christmas hymns and ate Christmas treats as we sat in a sheep pasture overlooking Bethlehem. Then we had a testimony meeting. It was so special to have everyone bare their testimonies of Christ as we looked onto the very city he was born into and possibly sat in a pasture Mary and Joseph traveled through. Even though the story of Christ's birth is a story I've heard time and time again I learned so much more learning it in this setting and it became even more meaningful to me. This Christmas, as well as all the other Christmas's to will not be the same.
2) On the same day we celebrated Christmas we visited King Herod's fortress. I was so impressed! King Herod wasn't afraid to spoil himself. We saw the ruins of a pool he had for his own luxurious purposes. It was bigger than any pool I have ever seen. It even had an island. Archeologists assume it was about 9 feet deep and the entire thing was tiled with little centimeter square, shades of blue, tiles! I cannot imagine what that must of looked like. There are still a couple of patches of the tiles. Then, around the pool there are big pillars. I guess Herod really like Roman architecture so a lot of the ruins are very Roman. Then we hiked to the top of this hill which was where the fortress was. And even though archeologists assumed that was where Herod was buried they recently discovered his tomb there as well. Ehud Netzer has been the primary archeologist and has been very respected in the archeologist community. Unfortunately he passed away a couple of days before we visited the site after falling through a wooden railing while showing some colleagues his work.
3) On Wednesday we visited the Kotel tunnel. Kotel is the official term of the Western Wall, which is the only thing remaining from Jewish temple, built by Herod, that was destroyed in 70 AD. It's a tunnel that follows the Western wall underground. In our history class we've been learning all about the details of the ancient wall around the temple mount so this was especially interesting. Building that wall was an incredible project! One of the stones weighs over 400 tons!
4) Yesterday we went on a tour of the separation wall. The wall that separated Israel Proper from the West Bank. We had an Israeli lawyer/scholar/really interesting man talk to us about some of the details of the conflict. It was so interesting. He was hilarious and taught us a lot about the conflict. He talked a lot of specifics of Jerusalem. He said contrary to how the media portrays it, Jerusalem exists in relative harmony despite the clashing cultures. I wish I could remember more of what he said. I have a friend who recorded him speaking and I'll have to get it from him!
5) On Thursday night we went out to eat at an Israeli restaurant. I quite enjoyed it. I didn't think it could get better than the bread at Macaroni Grill but I think the pita bread at this restaurant wins. I will miss that pita bread when I go home!
6) Yesterday we walked through a super orthodox Jewish neighborhood called Mea Shearim in West Jerusalem. It was fascinating. Nothing has ever felt so foreign as that street did. It was an entirely different world. For some reason it reminded me of the city in the Harry Potter movies. Since it was Shabbat (Sabbath), no one drives and we got there as everyone was walking to synagogue. The entire city is moving the same direction, to synogogue. The men are dressed in long black coats, either big, furry hats or top hats, white tights under capri-like pants and tzitzits, which are like aprons that they wear underneath their clothes that have long tassels that hang out from underneath. And all the men have shaved heads except for super long, curled strands of hair that hangs down in front of their ears.
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| Here is the sign in front of the neighborhood. 7) After Mea Shearim we went to the Great Synagogue for their Friday service. It was all in Hebrew so it was difficult to follow, to say the least. But I really enjoy the Jewish synagogues. At the great synagogue that have a men's choir that sings and that was nice to listen to. |
8) Today was District conference in our ward and Elder Halstrom, from the presidency of the Quorum of the Seventy, came. It was such a special meeting! The branches and "groups" from Tel Aviv, Ber Sheva, Bethlehem and Galilee were all there along with the Jerusalem members.
9) We celebrated Halloween on November 2nd and had a big Halloween bash! I dressed up as the Mona Lisa (inspired by Julia's costume way back when). Each room got candy for the faculty kids to trick or treat and then we had a carnival then a dance party. It was a great time!
I think that is all for now! As my mother would say... ta ta for now.
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