Shabbat Shalom!

Today is my 2-week anniversary for being in the country of Israel. :)

Today I had my first archaeology class with Gabby Barkai -- that was an adventure in itself. He's one of Israel's leading archaeologists and he's been teaching at JUC for a long time. Currently he's heading up the sifting project (from the dirt dumped when Muslims did illegal excavation on the temple mount). He seems like an interesting fellow...he was born in the ghetto towards the end of World War II and has been living in Israel since 1950. And he has some pretty amusing stories about Flinders Petrie, a famous archaeologist who is buried in our back yard. I won't repeat them here, though. :)

Today we had our second Ultimate Frisbee game! I love that game. It pretty much makes my week. Let me tell you, after a week of sitting and reading about history and geography and archaeology, it's really nice to go run around for a while.

Today we had our first "real" Shabbat meal together. We had a Jewish lady here to walk us through a little of the Jewish tradition. The tables were set up differently (with flowers and candles and table clothes!) and the food was served a little differently. Then we had our "vespers" service. We sang a few songs, had some scripture recited, and then the same Jewish lady shared her testimony. It was nice, especially since I didn't really get to attend church last week and I won't be able to this week either. Alas.

Tomorrow we have our "Jerusalem Approaches" field study. I think we are going to the Mt. of Olives, Bethlehem, and the Herodian. Should be fun. :)

Sunday we are going on a hike up near Galilee, I believe. I hear its pretty intense, so I'm a bit nervous, but I think it'll be fun.

And that's all I have for now. :)