Life News

I have been posting less frequently of late, I believe.  There are a couple connected reasons for that dearth.  

Reason 1: I am busily engaged in attempting to finished all projects and papers and comprehensive exams so that I will be graduated, Lord willing, by the end of June.  

Reason 2: At least in part because of that goal, I have had less time to go exploring and adventuring, and less time to write about the little daily adventures.  

At any rate, here's a brief update on my life for those of you out there who might care about such things.

1. As stated above, I'm working on finishing up projects, including one wherein I plan out a 15 day tour of Israel.  The map below shows all the sites I am hoping to "visit" with my tour.  Yeah, there's lots of them.  If you want to visit me (hint, hint) I could give you a sample tour. :)

2. I'm hoping to be back home for a month or two this summer, so if you happen to be there too, give me a call or send me an email or something.  I want to see people! :)

3. Lord willing, I'm hoping to come back here next fall.  I think I've told many potential readers of this blog about that personally, but if I haven't told you and/or you'd like more details, just ask. :)

And that's all I have this time. :)

Life and Breaks

September 20, 2009

This past week has been just a little bit crazy. Part of that craziness has included the impossibility of finding a good internet connection anywhere. Campus is always a little iffy, and now our ISP at our apartment has apparently decided we don't exist and therefore will not be allowed to access the internet. These sorts of things have conspired to keep me from updating my blog. *gasp* "Oh, the humanity!" as Adria would say.

Anyway...let's see if I can find a few points of interest to recount.

Most of the week I have spent searching diligently for Beit Aven. "Clearly a Biblical sight of significant proportions," you think, having never actually heard of it. Hint: Look here. That might give you an idea of what we're trying to find. It's not that simple, though. There are several issues involved in the search, such as...

1. When the Bible uses the term "Beit Aven" is it always refering to an actual town named "Beit Aven", or is it using it as a derogatory name (House of Iniquity) for some other place with its own name (like Bethel)?

2. What is the proper way to understand the geographical references given in the Hebrew Text?

3. Beit Aven is close to Ai, Bethel, and Michmash, which would seem to make it easier to find...if we were certain where Ai, Bethel, and Michmash were located.

4. Beit Aven is somewhere in the West Bank, which makes it difficult to do any further archaeological research. But that's ok, because

5. We're not necessarily sure of when Beit Aven should have been occupied. It depends on how you date the conquest of Joshua...and that's a whole other issue.

6. Add to all this that people have been searching for Beit Aven for over 100 years now. At least 8 different sights have, at one time or another, been put forth as a possible location for Beit Aven. Most of them have been discounted, but there are still a few that are fiercely argued for and against among scholars.

That should give you an idea of what my semester is going to look like. :) We'll be done looking for Beit Aven after this week, but other dilemmas are yet to come.

Outside of school things have been a little crazy too.

I went with a couple friends to David's Citadel this week. It's sort of a museum/park, and I'd never been inside before. It's really quite beautiful inside,

with grass, lovely panoramic views of the city, and good information on the history of Jerusalem from ancient to modern times.

One of my flat-mates had a family friend show up, needing a place to crash for a few days. She's a nice lady, and we've enjoyed having her, but it was a bit of a surprise and added to the chaos just a bit. The night she came, 3 other people were over at my house, and the juice man came. Some how there must be a rule that Thursday nights must be chaotic.

Here in Jerusalem it's "Holiday-Central." The Muslim month of Ramadan is just coming to and end, accompanied by much feasting and rejoicing. At the same time the Jews are celebrating their New Year - Rosh Hashannah.

(Apparently, it's traditional to have round challah for Rosh Hashanah. I don't know what it normally looks like, but this is my attempt.)

Yom Kippur is next week, and then Sukkot will be upon us in no time...which means the rains are coming. In fact, they are here. Apparently it rained a little in Jerusalem yesterday, which is an occasion for great rejoicing.

I, however, was not in Jerusalem to appreciate that rain. Another of my flat-mates rented a car this weekend so she could see "the pretty" outside of Jerusalem before city life drove her crazy. Yesterday she kindly took the rest of us along on an adventure.

We got a little bit of a late start...which was ok. It was Shabbat, after all! We headed down south of Jerusalem, skirted Hebron, waved at Arad, and stopped at Mampsis/Mamshit, one of the Nabatean cities of the lower Negev. The Nabateans were really a facinating people, and they left some impressive ruins.

(This is the "Market" which reminded me of the fairgrounds back home...)

Of those, Petra is of course the most famous, and the most spectacular, but Mampsis was fun to visit. We ate lunch there before exploring. They had some "impressive" staircases, a dam, a couple churches with some nice mosaics, a fresco, and a couple sweet stables. I would live there, if I were a horse. (I'm not, for the record.)

From there we drove to Be'er Sheva where we first stopped to get a new rental car. The breaks on ours were making a funny sound...so with remarkable ease (especially considering the holiday) we traded it for a different one.

We paused again to get ice cream and then proceeded to a park commemorating the last successful cavalry charge in history: the Charge of the Australian Light Horse Brigade. The park had one statue and a couple informational signs to commemorate the event. They also had some pretty sweet playground equipment. I would play there if I were a kid. For that matter, I would play there if I were an adult. Actually...I might have made Adria ride the merry-go-round with me... :)

We then set off in search of a Turkish bridge (build in 1914-1915 for World War II, according to our map...hmmm....) We some how managed to totally miss it as we drove past the first time...so we back-tracked, looking for wadis that might possibly have Turkish bridges over them. We stopped at 2 such places, parking the car in random locations and tramping off over hills and around trees, trying to spy a bridge. We were close to giving up when, "Oh hey, is THAT the bridge?"

In retrospect, I really don't know how we missed it so completely the first time driving past. Or how we could have thought it would have been over those little tiny wadis that we found. Oh well, we had a good walk, and we did eventually find it.

We then scurried off to Ashkelon to watch the sunset on the ocean. It was beautiful.

We had to stop for dinner, though, before heading back up into the hills. Cameron had been going on and on about wanting french fries...so we stopped at the first McDonald's we found. Oh the joys of greasy salty food.

Now it's Sunday. Luckily for me, the majority of the students are off on a field study today, which means that now that breakfast is done, I don't have to do much until I start on dinner. I might even get to go to church!

Roses and Lizards

Although I am, of course, an exceedingly normal person, I will admit to one or two minor quirks. For example, I like to walk while I read, especially if I'm reading anything that tends to put me to sleep. Especially if I've just spend the rest of the day in class sitting. So today, in the beautiful 70-degree weather, I went outside, A History of Israel in hand, camera slung over my back, and began to stroll around our garden. While I did eventually finish my reading (about Cyrus and Ezra and the return from exile), I must confess that I was distracted once or twice.

One of the first things I noticed was some strange wildlife that seemed to be building a home in one of our trees.

Actually, there was quite a bit of life - a variety of birds and bugs, and even one cute little lizard I caught crawling around on a rock.

Tangent: I've decided that I like lizards. And since we don't have them in MT, I have to enjoy them whenever possible. For example, I was sitting in my Second Temple history class tonight, studiously taking notes, when I happened to see movement by the front upper left corner. Yes, it was another lizard (two in one day!!) Unfortunately, I was so enamored with it that my teacher was distracted by my adoring gaze and I was forced to explain what I found so fascinating about the wall behind him. Yeah, I'm kind of a dork. Oh well.

But back to the garden, most of the more interesting wildlife wandered off to more promising locals as the sun continued its downward journey. This enabled me to spend more time concentrating on my book.

Speaking of which, can I take a moment to say that it bothers me when people automatically assume that any supernatural explanation for an event is clearly wrong? The author of my book (who, by the way, at least claims to be a Christian) assumes that the second part of Isaiah was written by someone other than Isaiah during (or maybe after?) the Babylonian captivity. And why does he assume this? As far as I can determine, because Isaiah mentions Cyrus by name. Clearly the original Isaiah would have never been able to predict something this precise. (Though oddly, the author accepts Isaiah's prophecies about the Messiah). Perhaps the author has other reasons for making this assumption. Perhaps the grammatical structure is clearly different in the second half. Whatever his reasons, I wish he would at least explain them. Anyway...I have many other thoughts on this subject, which I will probably save for another time.

That delay can, perhaps, be blamed on some of the distracting flora of the garden. We still have one or two roses blooming. The picture just doesn't catch the incandescent glimmer when the sun hits the petal.

I like flowers.
Probably even more than lizards.
If a flower had suddenly started crawling across the wall in my class, I probably would have been even more distracted.

Eventually a few more fauna specimens showed up, the rare picturus colorerus. (Yeah, I know, I should learn real Latin sometime.) That's Tom, one of the grad students, with the daughters of the man who makes the campus run. :)

With all that said, I've nearly survived the first week of class here! And the two make-up classes! (Yeah, we have to make up the classes before we even miss them this semester...which has made this week especially long.) I just have archaeology tomorrow (3 hours, no break... yeah, it's a doozie). And then a weekend! So I can catch up on all my reading! Perhaps I'll go for another walk...

First Impression, Second Impressions

This new semester has been sort of an odd juxtaposition of new things and old things. I spent a full semester in this room, (sorry, it's rather poorly stitched together, but you get the idea)
at this school, in this city,
in this country. Some things are wonderfully familiar. On the other hand, that semester was in the fall, with an entirely different group of people and classes. Some things are amazingly different. I will try to sort my thoughts into those two categories, and probably fail miserably, but hey.

First Impressions?
1. New students started arriving on Friday. I think I've met most of them, though certainly not all, and I don't remember all of their names. There are a lot of Steve's, Matt's, Mark's, and Jo(h)n's. (Feeling Biblical, parents, weren't we?) Good recipe for confusion.
2. It's a much smaller group than last semester, which is sort of nice. At least in some ways. There are a total of 34 students living on campus.
3. There are two new girls here for the grad program - yay! More long-termers.
4. There are actually more guys than girls on campus this semester, though most are undergraduates, for you wannabe matchmakers out there. :) Nonetheless, that's a rather unique situation from most Christian contexts I've been in.
5. There is one Canadian, one Norwegian, one from Hong Kong, and a couple MKs from Kenya. I guess that adds a bit to our cultural diversity. :)
5b. I think I'm still the only Montanan on campus. (One student's wife grew up in MT.)
6. It's kind of different to be one of the "returners." Perhaps a little like it is at Clydehurst? One wants to be helpful and welcoming, and still avoid being a know-it-all. It's so great to see the other returners - it's comfortable being with them. But on the other hand, one wants to avoid any semblence of a new-people-excluding clique.
7. I ate my first whole kumquat the other day. It was a bit weird, but tasty.
8. I went to Jerusalem Baptist Church on Sunday with a few other students. It was interesting, but I don't think I'll make it my "home." I do need to work on finding/deciding on a home church, though.
9. I discovered today that there is a Mechanical Engineering major here. Yay! Someone who will get some of my geeky jokes!
10. I finally brough my first JUC shirt today.
11. I finally went shopping at Shabban's and got a couple skirts. His "new" remodled shop is now open.

Second Impressions?
1. I've been pondering how different it feels to arrive here in the winter (spring semester) as opposed to the summer (fall semester). While it's not terribly cold (it reminds me of spring in Montana, or the the weather during staff training) it's also not terribly warm. Jackets, coats, sweatshirts, hats, scarves, and gloves are all rather welcome.
2. This contrast was especially apparent as some of us returning students accompanied the new geography students on their first "field study" around the Old City. On our first tour I remember distinctly being very warm and sweaty. Especially when we went and saw the tomb of Joseph of Aramathea inside the Church of the Holy Sepluchre. This time, I have to admit that it was really nice to go inside that rather tight and enclosed area of the church to soak up a little extra warmth.
3. Speaking of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, I finally got to go inside the actual "tomb" of Jesus for the first time. (Since we had heard most of Dr. Wright's teaching on these things before, some of us we a bit less attentive to him and a bit more attentive to other details).4. I also love listening to the different groups chanting in the church.
5. I'm getting more used to the smell of insense.6. I feel fairly comfortable in my ability to avoid getting helplessly lost in the Old City, but I'm not entirely certain of being able to find anything on the first try. :)
7. I've been here nearly a week and have yet to be bitten by a mosquito or see a lizard. Cats, however, are still quite common. In fact, I seem to be seeing cats everywhere today. There was a cat outside my window when I got up this morning (my window looks out on a 3-story-high roof) and there was one peering over the stairs at me just now.
8. I saw my Hebrew teacher today. After he told me that he forgot I was coming back but he was very good to see me, he told me I did very well on my final last semester. Well, that's encouraging. :)
9. It's a little greener than it was in the fall, but we are still in desperate need of rain.
10. Pretty sure all the warm weather last semester has turned me into a wimp. :)
11. People in Jerusalem are still crazy. I mean, well, I guess different cultures react different ways to their "holy" city. I, for one, have no desire to parade around the town with drums, dancing and singing. Apparently some people do. Whatever makes your socks go up and down.12. I've come to have a higher opinion of the value of tradition than I had at the beginning of last semester.
13. I still have much to learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...but I rather dislike it when people pick a side and cling to it tenaciously. Biblically speaking, there are clearly right and wrong aspects of both sides.

Random thoughts:
1. I found out yesterday that some people are not familiar with the phrase "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," not to mention "Don't sniff a gift fish." ;) I suppose they also would be confused by "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts" and, of course, "Beware of bears greeking gifts" would be a total mystery. (If you get the reference in that last one, major kudos.)
2. I learned that about 30,000 people live in the old city. In has an area of about 220 acres. My parent's house is situated "on" about 80 acres. Multiply that area by three and the crowd the population of Bozeman into it. That's crazy.
3. I'm looking forward to having a falafel. :)
4. I got to sit in a hammock!
5. This is one of the driest winters in Israel since...I don't know when, but apparently quite a while. And they're already in a drought.
6. It did rain the other night, and I went up on the roof with Amy to see the lightening.
7. I'm going to quit trying to think of other things that have struck me since returning and just publish this post.

In other news...

I will be leaving for the airport in about 2 hours to start my journey back to Jerusalem. I've pretty much decided that it's not worth sleeping tonight. So hopefully I'll be able to sleep on the planes. :) I should arrive in Tel Aviv around 3 pm on Tuesday.

It's been a good break -- really long! I've enjoyed seeing many friends and family, though I haven't seen them all. If you're one of the people I missed (or if you want to see me again), I tentatively plan to be back mid-May-ish. So give me a call then and we'll party. I've also enjoyed seeing mountains and eating pizza and cookies, but I'm also excited to get back to school - my "home away from home." I'm going back a few days early to have a little extra time to settle in AND especially to have time to visit museums that I don't have time to visit while school is in session. It should be fun. :)

Over the break I also purchased a new camera, as the old one has been slowly dying. It's been pretty fun to play around with. As hard as it is to believe from the lack of comments, quite a few people have told me that they read this blog and enjoy the pictures. So for you silent readers, I will try to put that new camera to good use and post a few photos now and then.

I didn't get out into the mountains much over the break (sadly) but I did make it up Hyalite once... Here's a picture from that expedition. :)
I don't have a whole lot more to say at this point. I'm looking forward to this next semester and will try to keep y'all updated on what I see and learn. I'll close with a big thank you for all of you who are praying for me. I really appreciate it, and I hope that you will have a good "semester" too, whatever you may be doing! God bless!

Jerusalem Approaches

This is a combination of two impression reports. We did the first part of this field study last Saturday. Unfortunately, it was interrupted half-way through, but we finished it up yesterday afternoon, so here are my impressions from those days.

September 13, 2008
Jerusalem Approaches Field Study

Today was an interesting day in more ways than one.

We started on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem. We noticed that even though Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains, the mountains are closer on the east and west. The northern direction was probably the most open and therefore where attackers generally approached from.

We then crested and went a tiny ways down the other side of the Mount of Olives where we could look into the Judean wilderness. The contrast was stark. The trees and greenery end abruptly. The rock changed quickly from Cenomanian to Senonian limestone. Jerusalem and all places directly east are on the Dead Sea side of the watershed ridge, but Jerusalem is protected by the Mount of Olives. We talked briefly about how the prophet Jeremiah used the imagery of the dessert encroaching to warn the Judeans about approaching judgment.

From there we drove along the top of the Mount of Olives for a short way and stopped again to overlook Jerusalem. We walked down the mount, stopping at various tradition sights. The fist place was stopped is supposed to be the place where Jesus wept over Jerusalem.

Matthew 23:37-39
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’”

I’ve always like those verses. They show the love that Jesus had for His people. And there have been times when I have felt similarly, when people I love have shown no interest in Christ. I’m sure that even then my emotion was nothing compared to His. Lord, come soon!

From there we went to the Church of All Nations, one of the traditional sites of the garden of Gethsemane. I suppose these churches are built to memorialize and help us remember these important events in the life of our Savior. I have to admit, though, that it is hard for me to spend time really thinking about exactly what he went through nearly 2000 years ago, possibly at the very spot we were at. We spend so little time at most of the places we go, and there are so many people, that I don’t really spend time thinking about what Jesus went through. Perhaps I’ll need to go back someday (with any luck, when its not as busy) and spend some time meditating on these things.

From there we walked to the bus, passing some monuments/tombs that were probably around in Jesus’ day. It was interesting that the monuments are called “nephesh.” It seems to speak of the eternal human desire for death not to be the end, for there to be something more beyond this life.

Once on the bus we headed into the west bank on our way to the Herodian. Unfortunately, we never made it there.


Saturday, September 20, 2008
Jerusalem Approaches (Part 2)

This week’s field study was a vast improvement over last week’s, or at least the ending of last week’s.

We started the day at the Herodian. We were blessed by a clear sky – much clearer than last week – which enabled us to have a great view of all the surrounding area. It kind of amazes me how close everything is. In Montana we have to drive for hours to get to the next city. You can also drive for hours without having any drastic changes in scenery. It can change fairly quickly at times, but it’s pretty uniform in other places, especially eastern Montana. Here, however, you have four (plus) important Biblical sites (with their four modern day cities) all within walking distance. It especially struck me how close Jerusalem and Bethlehem are. Also here, looking off of the Herodian, you can clearly see the boundary between farmable land with the Cenomanian limestone and terra rosa soil and the wilderness of Senonian limestone and basically no soil. So much history took place in this tiny area that I can see from the top of a relatively short man-made hill, it’s almost too much for a li’l Montana girl to take!

Herod himself was an interesting man and the structure of the Herodian tells us quite a bit about him, as does his newly discovered tomb site (probably). I don’t have much to say on the subject at the moment, but it is something to ponder.

From the top we could see Tekoa (Amos’s home town), Bethlehem, numerous other towns and villages, Jerusalem (or at least the Mount of Olives), the Judean Wilderness, the Dead Sea, and even into the Trans-Jordan highlands. We looked over the area where David must have watched his father’s flock and read Psalm 23. Shepherding in that country is very different from Europe or America. I’m sure that all areas have their dangers and inconveniences, but in the Judean wilderness, “green pastures” and “still waters” are basically unknown. I’m not quite sure what (if any) difference that should make in my interpretation of the psalm, but it does give an interesting insight into David’s life and faith.

After exploring the Herodian and taking the requisite pictures of people on pillars, we went on to Bethlehem and the church of the nativity. I don’t think I’m a huge respecter of “place.” If that’s the actual exact location where Jesus was born, that’s kind of cool, but I don’t think I have the same awe and reverence that some people seem to have. Nonetheless, it’s kind of interesting to see. It’s interesting to see how (and what) people worship. I also enjoyed taking pictures – there are a lot of old and beautiful things. We didn’t have much time there, which is ok, but it would be kind of nice to go back sometime and observe people a little more and maybe have some time to stop and think instead of rushing through, taking pictures of every interesting thing I see as quickly as possible.

Our last stop of the day was at Ramat Rachel where they are excavating the remains of a Judean palace, possibly build by Hezekiah. It was a beautiful area. One of the most interesting things were the cut stones that were thought to be capitols, possibly the forerunners of Ionian capitols. That, mentioned in conjunction with the concept of the alphabet (developed here and also exported to Greece and the rest of the world), made another idea that’s been in the back of my brain come more to the front. Exactly how much did the Jewish nation contribute to world history? They are considered a “mouse” rather than a “cat” and yet so much of our Judeo-Christian culture has stemmed from here. A. W. Tozer once said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.” Now, the Israelites did not always have a high view of God, but at least some of them did at sometimes, which is more than can be said of the cultures around them. Did this help them make advances in some that other nations could not have made? Advances that were then borrowed by other cultures? I have heard different theories propounded on this issue. Another thing to ponder in my spare time.

School

As I write this I am gazing across the Hinnom valley, watching the dusk deepen over Jerusalem. It's a beautiful night, as most nights here are, cool and clear.

It's been a good day. This morning Melissa and I caught a ride with William (who works at the school) and his two daughters to their school where we intend to volunteer every Tuesday morning. Today I ended up trying to tutor a boy named Ameer. He's in second grade and speaks basically no English. Which is why he needs tutoring. It also made tutoring extremely difficult as I speak even less Arabic. It was interesting. He apparently didn't want to be tutored because he did nothing but cry and refuse to look at my for about an hour. (Meanwhile, of course, I was trying different things to get him to stop crying and such.) Eventually I succeeded in getting him to start working on some math. Of course at that point he had to leave for Arabic class. When he came back, though, things seemed to go a little better. He wasn't crying any more, and there were even a couple times I got him to smile and laugh. We finished about one page in the two workbooks he had, and that was pretty much like pulling teeth. He was pretty easily distracted and kept trying to make me promise that we would do the next page tomorrow (not today!) before he would finish the page we were on. At least, I think that's the promise he was trying to elicit. Like I said, I don't speak Arabic.

After that we had to leave to make sure we could get back in time for my Hebrew class. I was sad that I didn't get to help in the math classes I was in last time. We think that maybe next week we can stay a little longer, so maybe I can help in at least one.

During the break I talked to a couple teachers, and, of course, teachers always talk about their students. It reminded me of my students and made me miss all of them terribly. So, if any of you read this, I hope you're doing well, and I expect to hear from you!!

Nahal Yehudia

Today I got up a couple minutes after 6:00am and prepared to go on a hike. We got on the bus shortly after 7 and drove down the Ascent of Adumim to Jericho and then up the rift valley to the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights. Nahal Yehudia is one of many valleys that drains into Galilee.

I must admit that I was rather nervous about this hike. For one thing, I kept waking up last night, afraid I had missed the bus or something. For another thing, I had heard horror stories about how hard it was and how much water we would need and all that. I am probably not the most out-of-shape person here, but I'm definitely not in as good of shape as many other people...and I didn't want to hold the group back. As it turns out, though, my fears were for naught.

Approximately 90% of the hike was downhill. The last 10% was intense, but not that long and therefore not that bad. We started at the top and walked down to the first pool and waterfall. Most of the group swam around and jumped off a 20-30ft cliff there into the water. I was in more of a hiking mood than swimming mood (and I don't like hiking wet when I don't have to), so I didn't get it. I headed off to the second pool with one of the first groups to leave. At the second pool we had to climb down a ladder next to the waterfall and then swim across the pool to reach the trail again. Because of that everything we were carrying was likely to get wet, so I didn't bring my camera. A few other people did, though, so I'll try to steal pictures at some point so y'all can see what it was like.

From there on out I ended up with a small group that included Cindy (who teaches one section of the Geography class), Brad and Shalon (a married couple, he's here for a year and she's auditing a couple classes), and Tiffany (the wife of another grad student). Since there were about 40 people on the hike, it was kind of nice to be able to just concentrate on a smaller group. It was also nice because we were all a little older that the majority of the students here. We did the whole "loop." Most people (I think) only went to a couple pools and played around in them before hiking up the side of the nahal. We went farther down the canyon, ended up having to swim through one more pool, and then climbed up the side. It was pretty amazing. Let me try to describe it a little.

The region of Galilee in general is much greener than Jerusalem, but the area on top where we started was still fairly brown. We had to walk for a few minutes before we were close enough to look down into the valley (it's pretty narrow and steep). As we looked down we could see a line where the brown changed to green, though we couldn't see any water at that point. We started hiking down into the green shortly after that.

The bottom of the nahal is a verdant jungle. (I've been wanting to use the word "verdant" all day.) It reminded me a little of Zion national park, for those who have been there. I'm generally unable to tell you the species of the flora and fauna were, though I did recognize bamboo and mint in the flora category. I even chewed on a mint leaf! At any rate, it was beautiful and lush and green (with flowers sprinkled here and there). I can't tell you how many times I longed for my camera. As far as fauna goes, I saw two small crabs, a fairly large lizard, a frog, and lots and lots of fish. The first fish I noticed were in a pool I was wading in. They were about the size of minnows, but not nearly as skittish as minnows generally are in Montana. They didn't seem to have any problem with my presence. From there on out I noticed fish of all sizes in the various pools we saw. Some were probably close to 2 feet long, which is especially impressive considering the size of the stream. Other than some large pools, there really wasn't much water flowing. The stream could almost be leaped across at most points. (I couldn't leap across, but probably someone more athletic than I could easily jump that distance.)

The last part, the hike out of the canyon, was pretty tough. It reminded me of Montana -- it even had a small basalt boulder field to climb over! It really wasn't that long, though, so I can't complain. Then we walked back on the road (slightly up hill) to where we had left the bus. All in all, an amazing day, especially after the fiasco yesterday.

To top it all off, when we got back on campus we had falafel for dinner! Yum!

In other news, I have about a trillion and three bug bites all over my body. I've had some for quite a while, but they seem to have multiplied in recent days. I think bugs sneak in my window at night to bite me.

In other other news, I have my first test tomorrow, so I probably should start studying. :)

Here's a couple pictures I found online to give you an idea of what it looked like. :)

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. :)

Volunteers

While over here we have the chance to volunteer for half a day a week and one of a few different Christian ministries in and around Jerusalem. Today Diane planned for a few of us to meet with the principle of Jerusalem School in east Jerusalem to see how we could help them out. At 10:00 I left the school with Melissa (the wife of one of the semester undergrad students), Isaiah (another undergrad student) and Bryan (a grad student who's wife works at the school.) We walked through the old city to just outside of Damascus gate where we caught an Arab bus. The bus took us nearly to the check point between Israel and the West Bank. There was no check to get in, so we walked past the check point and then turned up the road that Bryan said was the boundary line between Jerusalem and the West Bank. We could see the wall they're building...

The school is on that boundary road, just barely on the Jerusalem side. It is a Christian school that uses, I think, mostly one of the home school curricula...maybe Apologia? The student body itself (K-12, I think) is well over half Muslim. Because of that, some of them struggle with English (and everything is taught in English). The principle's first thought was to have us help some of them with English. He also mentioned that some might need help in math. Then we went to observe the classrooms of some of the teachers we might help. The few students I met seemed to be pretty similar to all the other children that age I've met. Most of them were pretty friendly, some rather rambunctious and rebellious. Also, it's the month of Ramadan which means that most of them are fasting, so I'm sure they're a little crazier/grumpier/more tired than "normal." It was fun. I'm not sure exactly where I'll be when I go back next week since I will be there on a different day (Tuesday) and at different times (probably about 8-11:30), but I'm sure I'll find something to do.

The school building itself was built by the Coptic church to use as a college, but for some reason they never finished it. It had been empty for something like 12 years before this school moved in this year. It's a pretty nice building. I didn't bring my camera this time, but I'll have to get some pictures next time and put them up.

After that we caught a bus back to Damascus Gate and walked back to school, just in time to grab a sandwich before class. :)

As a side note, I must admit that I'm terribly tired of hearing about the conquests of the various Pharaohs who invaded Canaan. I think I've read or heard about 3 accounts of that and I've seen the same ancient texts on that subject about 5 times now...*sigh* :) As interesting as these first couple weeks have been, they have also been really repetitive in a lot of areas. Pretty much all of the lectures I've attended and articles I've read have overlapped at some point. But hey, maybe I'll learn it really well this way. Let's hope. :) And it is good to see the connections between different subjects.

Jerusalem Walk Impressions

Here is my second "Impressions Report" from our second field day. We walked around various parts of Jerusalem from 7am to 6pm with an hour for lunch. It was quite a day. This report really doesn't do it justice, but if you read it, it might give you an idea of some things I've been doing.

Sunday, September 7, 2008
Jerusalem Walking Tour (OT and NT times)

Today was so full it’s hard to know where to begin. I was talking to some people on the way home and at dinner, comparing what we learned and what we enjoyed most, and I had a hard time thinking of my “favorite” part. So many parts were so good.

I have to admit, to start with, that I really enjoyed exploring and climbing on some of the rocks and ruins/excavations and such. It’s not terribly spiritual, but I’m just rather curious, so exploring is fun. Plus I like climbing on rocks and getting high. It kind of reminds me of home. So I really enjoyed that part. I wish we would have had more time to explore some of those areas more. I’m starting a list of places I want to visit again.

We started the morning in the Hebrew Scriptures, looking at where the wall was at various times. We spent most of the morning in David’s city. I remember looking around that area when I was here before (the toilet was definitely familiar), but I think the excavations are much more extensive now. I may be mistaken, though; my memory is rather patchy. My favorite part there was when we went up to a platform approximately where David’s palace might have been and looked around at the hills surrounding. “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people…” Without having seen it, its hard to picture exactly how the mountains surround Jerusalem…but they do, or at least did in the time of the psalmist. I don’t have relative elevations, but apparently the hill Jerusalem was on is the shortest in the Judean hills: surrounded and protected by higher mountains as we are surrounded and protected by a higher power (God).

In the afternoon we started out in excavations near the temple mount. The best part was the building with air conditioning.  Again, I remembered seeing some of what we looked at when I was here before, but not all of it. I think things there have expanded too. It was rather amazing to think that some of what we saw was possibly there in the time of Jesus. Two thousand years… I will have to look at my notes to remember what else I was especially interested in.

Our next main stop was the Pool of Bethesda. I was excited to go there since I didn’t get to the last time I was here. We went into St. Anne’s church first. The acoustics were beautiful. There are some many amazing places (acoustically) around here…I wish I had a traveling choir with some lovely a cappella pieces to sing with me. We did well enough, though. After that we saw the actual pool (not that it holds any water now). I was amazed at how deep it was. There are sure a lot of places around here where it would be easy to die if you fell or if the holey floor holding you up suddenly collapsed. We talked about the gospel of John and the three people Jesus interacted with in chapters 3, 4, and 5. He always knew just what to say and do.

Speaking of people, the last thing that really struck me today were the people. It started with children in the morning. We passed quite a few, probably on their way to school, and then heard chanting from a nearby yeshiva. It made me miss my students really badly to start with. As the day progressed I saw more people – more children, soldiers, shopkeepers, etc. It made me wish that I could know some of them, to have the opportunity to tell them about how God came down and walked among their ancestors and how He still desires to know them. Jesus mourned over Jerusalem with good reason. I think that He is still probably mourning. I want to see that prophecy fulfilled – at least partially, in some lives, I want them to recognize and welcome their king.