Negev Day 3: Dead Sea Day

Andrew Sharp
Impression Report
October 14, 2013

[Sorry this is so belated!  I fell way behind and am finally getting around to posting the rest of Andrew's thoughts from the semester.  More to come! ~Alana]

It was a strangely misty morning in Arad and on our first drive.

            First we went to Masada. While there we observed the long climb up and sent two of our more physically fit members to try and break the school record by making the climb in about two and a half minutes. (spoiler: they didn't make a new record or come super close either) While we were walking up the long route to get to the top we had to physically face the facts of Masada. Masada is a desert fortress mostly built by Herod the Great (or at least one can say that what remains are there are chiefly his) upon a large rock outcrop, shaped almost like a cylinder. Sheer cliffs surround the mountain that has a rather flat-ish top. An immensely fortifiable position, it would take hundreds of feet of ladder to scale it straight up on the side that is most easily accessed, and over a thousand on the opposite side. Thankfully for us hikers, but not so much for the Jewish rebels that held it against the Romans, there was an easier ascent via a huge siege ramp built for taking the fortress. In brief, the Romans, being as utterly organized, patient, and persistent as they were, took months and months to pile dirt up against the cliff face until they could get to the top. This is what makes the site accessible today.

            While at the top we looked at the remains of Herod's palaces and went into one of the giant cisterns. In order to live at this mountain top without fear that the enemy could just lay siege to it and wait for you to run out of food and water, there were huge cisterns dug. Large stone caves designed to store water. All of the cisterns combined inside the top of Masada, when full to capacity, could hold about 40,000 cubic meters of water. That's a lot of water. Not only this but vast stores of foods that weren't easily perishable, dried fruits and veggies, fish, oil, grain, and the like were kept as well. On top of that there was a barracks up top as well. Herod could have likely lived up top with a formidable fighting force, waiting out a siege for many years. A fascinating place.





            In the way of interesting old technology there was something that stood out. A bath house. Not a surprise in itself, but in the heated room, I found what was used to make the hot bath hot. Ingeniously, the whole floor of the room was raised on many tiny pillars, (not visible from inside) making something almost identical to a crawl space under our modern day houses in America. Only made of stone. And at the entrance of this crawl space was a short tunnel, in which a fire was placed and stoked, so that the heat, and smoke would travel into the crawl space, then up and out clay pipes placed opposite the fire, and along the walls of the room. This heated the floor, and the bath house. Ingenious.

            Next in the way of neat things was the remains of a columbarium. A pigeon coop! Or more properly called a Dovecote or Pigeoncote, it was a place to store/raise/house doves and pigeons. They were raised for food, eggs, and in hard times even their poop sold for a price as food in times of famine (See 2 Kings 6:25). An interesting alternative to a chicken coop indeed!

            After Masada we took the Gondola down and went to Ein Gedi. A freshwater spring where David likely spent a lot of his time when running from Saul. It was pretty, scenic, and nice to get a dip of cool water on a hot day.

            After we left Ein Gedi, we got covered in salt all over again by going down to the dead sea. The lowest water
source on planet earth I think. If you can call it a water source. The water has accumulated so much salt over the years that it's crystallizing under the surface of the water. It also made taking pictures with our water proof camera blurry. The water was warm, and we had to be sure to keep it from getting into our eyes. It also was super buoyant because of the salt. One would be hard pressed to drown in it, but because the physics of swimming is so far off due to the level of buoyancy it wouldn't be hard to panic and flail, get super salty water in your eyes, and sputter around a lot making yourself very uncomfortable, especially if you cut yourself on any of the salt formations under the water.

            Lastly we went to see the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. The end.

Ice

The ice on my window collects itself, opaque and thick near the bottom, thinner and more translucent as it grows up the window, coldly reminding the sun trying to shine through that it’s winter here, thank you very much, and Snow and Cold are the only gods here. 

Resisting both the heat from inside and the slight warmth provided by the sun’s rays, the ice clings fast to the window, refusing to let any hope or warmth through.  This window is mine, it says, and I will hold it in my brittle, cold, beautiful embrace forever. 

It doesn't know that it has already lost.  It feels its strength increasing as the sun creeps closer to the horizon, its more and more oblique rays offering ever less resistance to the growing power of the ice.  The greedy ice climbs further up the window, grasping it hungrily, taking all it can.  Surely I have defeated that weak yellow ball of fire, it thinks, as the light fades to a pale gold, and now nothing can stop my glory from spreading to cover the window.  ALL the windows.

It doesn’t know that the sun will rise again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and the next.  It doesn’t know that even now the earth is spinning, orbiting, turning, to tilt once again towards the sun and that winter will then be succeeded by spring and summer.  It has only existed since yesterday.  How could it know the forces that march inexorable forward to ensure its defeat? 

It may win today, and it may win tomorrow.  It may think it has won forever.  It doesn't matter.  Dawn will follow dawn until Spring comes to dethrone the gods of Snow and Cold.  The window will be released from its icy shackles at last and will again be free to bask in the warmth of the sun.

Negev Trip Day 2: The Biblical Negev

Andrew Sharp

Physical Settings

Negev Day 2 

10/13/13

[Notes and additions in brackets by Alana.]

We set out early in the morning to see Arad. [I have to add that it was one of the most beautiful mornings I've seen at Arad - the sun rising on the Judean hills with the clouds and mist still clinging to them - spectacular.]  A temple complex sits at the top of a large mound of Eocene, a mound surrounded by loess soil in the middle of the eastern most bowl of the Negev. It is here that a small town survived through outside support, some of the trade from the east-west spice route that runs through the Negev, and by digging cisterns into the Eocene bedrock. The town itself is nearly shaped like a slightly bowled and warped saucer [the Early Bronze town], channeling the rainwater into the cistern for collection. In support of this, all the major roads head straight toward this central point, or around it. Looking like a wheel with spokes.

The people [who manned the Israelite Iron-Age fort] had a temple built according to the specifications given in the Pentateuch, but there were two incense altars and 3 standing stones in and near the holy of holies. An indication of multiple deity worship [possibly]. [The picture above is taken from the back of the "Holy of Holies" area, and the two incense altars are visible, along with the sacrificial altar.]  Initiating a conversation on henotheism, the believing in one god out of many as “your” god, the choosing of one god above all others, but not denying the existence of other Gods. This lead to a point where no student could think of a passage in the Pentateuch that clearly said “there are no other gods.” An interesting point considering that there are other powers in this world, evil ones, and at no point does God encourage us to deny that fact, but rather tells us to fear the devil.

Also, there were lizards.

Next we donned hard hats at Beer Sheba. And looked at a Terebinth tree and a cut, stone altar found there. (The stones in [an altar] weren’t to be cut stones, so the prescriptions weren’t followed for this particular altar.)

[Learning about space syntax in a four-room house.]

Then we went up to the city and noted that the well was outside the gate. Odd since the people inside the gate wouldn’t want to have to go farther than necessary to draw water. But this was a practical thing to do, and in many cases wells were left purposely outside the city gate. Why? Because when shepherds, travelers, merchants, etc. come to town, they need to water their flocks/camels/donkeys and if you have the well in the middle of town, you also have a poop ridden walkway between the well and the gate, and poop all around the well, and sheep blocking your roads, and camels belching in your window. Something not highly thought of. SO the wells were outside.

We also talked about how the well was at least 40 feet deep present day [the current brochure for Tel Beer Sheva says that it's 69 m to water level], and its dry on the bottom and that’s because it was filled in long ago and when the location was excavated, digging down another 40 feet or more through dirt and rocks didn’t seem like fun, especially when there likely weren't any archaeological finds down there. (some suggest the well was 80 METERS deep, but that may be rather excessive) So imagine dropping a 1 to 3 gallon jar, on a rope, over a pulley, down an 80 (or 200 if you want to go that far) foot hole, letting it fill up, then cranking it up 80 feet, and pouring out the water into a trough for a camel. Now imagine the camel slurps that up reeeal quick like, and looks at you for more. Because a camel can drink 30-55 gallons at a time.

Imagine that Rebekah, walks with her water jar down to the well amongst the other women in the cool of the day, the evening, going there to fetch a jar full of water, and take it back to the house, maybe a few times. And when she approaches the well, here is a stranger, someone who is required by middle eastern hospitality, to take care of, to welcome into your home and provide for. In fact, to do so much that it’s a dishonor and shame on you to have your guest ever once ask for something that was not provided them. (see Jesus and his foot washing being neglected as an example)

Now imagine said person came riding a camel, or worse, he came with more than one (which is extremely likely) and all the women who are drawing water at the well, waiting their turn, are praying and hoping not to make eye contact with this stranger lest they need to help water all his camels.

But Rebekah sees all this immense work, and (likely after waiting for most of the other women to have their turn) goes and draws water for his camels.

This is the woman chosen to be Isaac’s wife. This is a working woman, and a serving woman. Maybe the well was only 80 feet deep, maybe the camels were small, not entirely thirsty, and there were only two. But that’s still way more work than anyone would ever want to do. Pulling 60 gallons of water up a grand total of 2400 feet. (80 feet, per 2 gallons, 30 times)

Now, Rebekah didn’t use this particular well, she didn’t live in Beer Sheba, but like I pointed out, only 80 feet, for only two camels, and only drinking 30 gallons a piece would be an immense amount of extra work.

Women didn’t sit at home. They worked, hard. And Rebekah took up the gauntlet to go above and beyond. No wonder she was chosen.

That aside, while at Beer Sheva (Sheba and Sheva are interchangeable in this case because we aren’t sure which was the intended pronunciation in the ancient Hebrew) we talked about the bent access gate. Meaning the gate to the town was set up so that immediately upon entering you had to turn left and go a short ways before you could turn right and enter the main of the city. Why? Because if your enemy has a shield in their left hand, and have to move into your gate then turn left, their unprotected on their right side, where you can have men with arrows shooting at them as they enter. It also keeps the enemy from having a straight shot into town, with either a sprint on foot, a racing war horse or an arrow. Either way you need to slow down to enter and do battle. A clever defensive technique.

[Learning about bent-access gates at Tel Beer Sheva with our lovely hard hats.]

Then we used our hard hats and went through the underground tunnel that composed the huge cisterns hewn out for the city’s use.

Next we took a short little hike, and saw some Ibex, and a deep wadi canyon.

[Climbing out of Wadi Zin.]

Then Av Dat (spelling?) ask Alana for info on that, she’s got a video series going.

[Using the baptismal in one of the churches at Avdat.]

[Avdat (or Oboda) is a Nabatean city.  The most famous Nabatean city is, of course, Petra, in southern Jordan.  There are Nabatean ruins to be found all over southern Jordan, the Negev of Israel, and even the Sinai peninsula.  (Quite possibly other places too, but those are the only place I've personally seen.)  The Nabateans controlled the spice trade for a number of years until the Romans decided that was too lucrative a trade to not have a finger in the pie.  So Nabatea became subject to the Romans.  Around the same time, the Nabateans themselves converted to Christianity (at least many of them.)  Some of the most spectacular ancient church ruins in Israel today are to be found in Nabatean cities.]

Then lastly an outlook point over the biggest erosion crater down south. Kind of like a grand canyon, only round, not… snakey. [Makhtesh Ramon - the largest erosion crater in Israel, and in the world.]

Then we went back to the youth hostel for the night. The end!

[Enjoying the hike together.]

Negev Trip Day 1: Shephelah and Costal Plain

Impression Report 7

Shephelah and Coastal Plain

Andrew Sharp

10/12/2013
[Edits and additions in brackets by Alana.]

First we took a look near Zorah and Eshtaol, stopping and leaving the bus at the mouth of the Sorek wadi system, a major wadi system just to the west of Jerusalem. We had a good vantage point from atop a hill, looking out west towards the Philistine plain. [I hadn't been here before - it was a great place to note the transition from hill country to Shephelah, and you could see fairly clearly the cut of the chalk trough.]

Then we hopped back into the bus and drove a few minutes further west to Beth Shemesh, another ruin, rock walls, dirt dug out, the typical stuff. It was just to the west of our first outlook. I leaned on a destruction layer by accident. A destruction layer is a layer in the ground where there’s clearly broken stuff and ash and black and other obvious signs of the town being destroyed and burned. On the side of the pits dug out of the town you can see the layers of dirt removed and in that dirt you could clearly see bits of pottery and a black line. It was here that was a location where no pig bones were found. And the towns to the west did have pigs bones. This is an indication, based on the Jewish laws about what is and isn’t kosher, that the Israelites lived here, and more importantly, the Philistines didn’t live in this location either. Joshua 19:40 discusses the territory of Dan, something we could clearly see from here. I got a picture with Alana more or less holding the territory with her hand on the map.

Next, back to the bus again as we drove further south. Here we went to an unknown Iron Age city [Khirbet Qeiyafa]. It had two gates suggesting it was the town “two gates” (can’t remember the way it was said in Hebrew) [Sha'arayim or Shaaraim] but there were many towns that had two, so it’s rather speculative to call it that, and state that the location and title were tied together.

Some thought this area was the location of Israel’s encampment when going up against the Philistines in the story of David and Goliath, but that doesn’t seem to make sense with the topography [and geography]. If it was on this particular hill, the Philistines would have more or less been able to just walk past Saul and the Israelites, rather than needing to push through them [on their way into the hill country]. Not to mention it talks about the Israelites and Philistines being encamped on opposing heights with a valley between, but the valley at the location of this Iron Age City was quite wide, likely too wide for one camp to yell to the other, which kind of happens when the Philistines call out to the Israelites to send out their best man. Plus Goliath is decked out in bronze armor, not iron and the Iron Age City, is, you guessed it, from the Iron Age, when the account likely would have mentioned the use of iron, not bronze. 1 Sam 17 tells the story by the way.

Also, it might have been Goliath’s knee that was hit given David kills him twice in the story. Odd. But the term for forehead and the term for knee are very similar and the knee may have been one of the only places unprotected by Goliath’s armor. Not to mention he falls forward when he gets hit by David, which seems unlikely if he’s hit in the forehead, though one needs to account for the fact he may have been moving down hill, and the weight of his armor in motion may have been enough to cause this too. Though a baseball sized rock moving something similar to the speed of a pro MLB pitcher’s speed ball, maybe a bit faster? That’d knock most anyone over backwards if it hit your head. But Goliath had a helmet on, so the knee isn’t that unlikely. [To get an idea of how slings are used in similar ways even today, you can follow this link: http://www.timesofisrael.com/video-shows-idf-soldiers-outmatched-by-rock-slinging-palestinians/.]

Next we stopped atop Beth Guvrin. Saw an old church dome and had lunch.

Next we went to Lachish, saw a big siege mound and anti-siege mound. 2 Chor. 32 talks about Lachish and it’s being sieged in the time of King Hezekiah, the same king who built the “Hezekiah’s Tunnel” we walked through, the long underground tunnel that lead to/from a spring in Jerusalem. Also in 2 Kings 18.

Us on top of the seige ramp

We went to the beach and saw the Canaanite city gate. One of the oldest mud brick gate arches in existence I think. Then went to a hostel for the night, exhausted.

Summarizing Samaria

Impression Report 5

Ephraim and Manasseh

Andrew Sharp

9/29/13
[Edits and additions in brackets by Alana.]

            First the fortress temple at Shechem. Namely Shechem the town / fortress /  rubble heap. Kinda got built and destroyed a bunch. Built in a valley. Not exactly standing to this day. Mentioned how Abraham went to “the place of Shechem” and that maybe(likely?) it was destroyed at the time of his visit, a pile of rubble and ruins. Quite likely true if you have a conservative date for Abraham, then his visit lies in a period of time that the location was thought to be abandoned according to archaeological work.

            The place got beat up a lot. After all Shechem lies in the more northern reaches of the Promised Land, the section that was quite more traveled. Being near major routes was great for commerce, but made the keeping of the funds it generated, nearly impossible. Why? Because every time a nation went on the war path (literally) it didn't look like a real bad option to go loot Shechem, because after all, this “mouse hole” of a land wasn't as hard to defeat as major nations like Egypt or Syria, so why not just go ransack the Levant and loot it?

            Next we talked about how Jacob went to Shechem and how his kids kinda screwed things up and how Jacob did too, and how social conventions of the day made things a bit more complicated to understand than the text explains. How dads kind of need to be men and lead rather than ignore and overlook problems in the family. Kind of a running theme between the events at Shechem for Jacob and the events surrounding the rape of Tamar in the time of king David.

            To let a woman in your household be dishonored or damaged is to take dishonor to your family's name, and something must be done to fix that. Neither Jacob nor David did. They seemed to overlook the issue. Jacob's sons didn't. They told the “rapist” (even if perhaps it was consensual sex, because the term translated “rape” here also means “to dishonor her” so we can't be sure it was rape) that if he didn't get circumcised, along with all of the town, then Shechem (the man) could not have their sister in marriage. They then used their time of healing to slaughter all of them to redeem their sister's honor (whether she wanted it or not). Not too long after, seeing that dad has been no help and isn't taking his “head of household” job seriously, [Rueben] sleeps with his dad's concubine so as to raise himself up as the oldest and “take the job” so to speak. Humans are nuts.

            After that lovely piece of information we discussed Joshua and his building an altar to God in Mount Ebal. Which is next to Shechem, opposite Mount Gerezim. The whole place is actually laid out in such a fashion that to the east things go down into a bit of a valley, and to the north, south, are the two mountains and to the west things are kind of hilly. Shaped almost like a culdesac. Which makes sense and is perfect for the story of how the Israelites stood on both mountains and spoke curses and blessings to the people from them. They aren't far from each other, and it's not unlikely that in more rural times, (like at the time of the story) you could probably hear someone speaking loudly from the base of one mountain, and hear another person in reply on the other.

            We discussed Rehoboam  and his going to Shechem to be crowned king of Israel. That this location was often chosen for [corronations?]

           We went to Jacob's well. Drank well water. Tasted welly. Talked about how in John 4 when Jesus speaks to the woman at the well, it was likely this well, and that it was and is quite deep. Like 30 feet wouldn't likely be an exaggeration.

           






Then we went to Samaria[/Sebaste]. Home of the Samaritans [edit: technically, modern day Samaritans live on Mount Gerizim, where we also visited, and on the outskirts of Tel-Aviv.  Samaria/Sebaste was the capital of Omri and Ahab's kingdom...and was also later built up by Herod the Great], go fig. North west of Shechem. Great view. Had lunch. Took pictures in wedding dining room thingy at restaurant.

  

            Went to Shiloh. Saw some pretty cool mosaics, but didn't quite make time to go see them up close. Stood in the approximate location the tabernacle may have stood in Shiloh. Why would Shiloh be a good place to choose for your cultic center?

Andrew makes his way up the hill from a possible location of the Tabernacle below.  

[I would just like to add this picture of a wolf on a bicycle.  These things are all over Shiloh for some reason.... I suppose they're pointing out biking trails, but really, why a wolf?  One of the worst nightmares I remember as a child involved wolves on bicycles...and no, I'm not joking.  So, I guess, in some way, these signs are a dream come true?]

Bouncing through Benjamin

Impression Report 4

Land of Benjamin

9/22/13

            Benjamin, or as Jacob called him a “ravenous wolf” became a people of in-between places. The inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin is a belt of land that lies in the middle of the land of Israel just to the north of the dead sea and crossing from east to west through the mountains between the coastal plain and the rift valley. It's here that much of the most important roads meet. For those living in the mountains, the easiest way out of the valleys and ridges is to travel either east to Jericho or west toward Gaza. Of the two, Gaza would be a more beautiful choice. We began our day looking to the east, over wadi Qelt. A big, desolate, dry, and quiet set of valleys creating the branching network leading down and out toward the dead sea just past Jericho. This truly is a wilderness, once one crosses the watershed ridge and steps into the rain shadow in the east, the green hills change to dust very quickly. It was this wadi that we walked down today, seeing just how long a trip some of the wadi could take, even going downhill almost the whole way.

            One notable thing we discussed on this trip was Deuteronomy 32:10 that says “...He kept him as the apple of his eye.” which also means the pupil of his eye. And we talked about God looks closely at us and because of Jesus He sees Himself in us. When we look closely into God's eyes we see our own reflection there, we see ourselves as we truly are, fallen, broken, but mercifully allowed to be His sons and daughters. It was an interesting and beautiful image.

            As we descended we also passed by some wild Rock Hyraxes, or Rock badgers, reminding me of the Proverb that says “The rock badgers are a feeble folk, Yet they make their homes in the crags” speaking of the wisdom exhibited by some creatures here on earth. The Proverb in chapter 30 verses 24 through 28 says “There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceedingly wise: The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer; The rock badgers are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks (a wise and safely guarded place); The locusts have no king, yet they go forth all by rank (speaking of locust swarms moving as a single swarm); The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.” An interesting and more current translation for the final line renders it “the lizard can be grasped in the hand, yet it is found in kings’ palaces,” which is the very state of things here at JUC. Not many spiders have I seen here on campus, but geckos and small lizards I have.

            As we finished our descent we landed in the area of Jericho, but specifically we went to one of King Herod's palaces, right there at the bottom of the canyon mouth, where the water funneling down the wadi would have run past. It was here that we stopped and considered the vast wealth accrued by Herod. Here that we discussed how some places had tax rates as high as 80 percent, partly out of greed, and partly because it's difficult to rebel against your ruler when you're spending every moment you can trying as hard as you can just to survive, just to feed your family.

            With that poverty in mind we also discussed Zacchaeus and the taxing system. Often times the way the taxes worked was Kingpin 1 would say this region should bring me 500 coin, and the region administrator in charge of giving him those funds would tell his city heads they all owe him a total of 600 coin, and the city heads would tell their tax men they needed to gather him 650 coin and so each of those tax men would tell each individual they owed so much of that 650 plus whatever the tax man took for himself as pay. So each person along the chain would get his own slice. But also increasing by quite a bit, the total taxes taken from the people. This can explain why Zacchaeus would have been so very rich. It also would have explained why he was so very hated too. He was one of the men responsible for the extreme poverty in his region, and he clearly was benefiting from it.

            Next we went to the actual Tel where old Jericho once stood and saw some old mud bricks and stone walls. The old wall and tower unearthed there is thought to be pieces of the oldest city on earth.

           It was after this that we took the bus all the way back up towards the central Benjamin plateau, the largest, flattest part of Benjamin's land where the majority of agricultural work would have taken place.
And we followed approximately the same route that Joshua and the Israelite warriors would have taken when going up to battle at Gibeon. Marching all night from Jericho, uphill, in dry dusty conditions to start a battle, the longest battle of history, for God listened to Joshua and made the sun and moon stand still in the sky while they chased their enemy from Gibeon all the way down the Beth-Horon ridge route out to the west, then south down to Azekah. Not a short trip at all. In fact the trip as a whole should have taken them about 4 days, sleeping at night and marching all day. But the Lord helped them in the battle and they fought for many, many, many hours and chased their enemy no less than 19 miles before returning all the way back to Gilgal near Jericho. Traveling a distance about as long (in total) as the journey from the northern end of the Dead Sea, straight west to the coast. Yet more difficult for the terrain they traveled was all in the hills, not the easy straight lines of the plains near the coast.

            On our ride up to the plain we went past many Bedouin encampments and stopped to look at the soil. Some of it was alluvial, composed of both Senonian(rendzina) and Cenomanian(tera rosa) derived soils. It was rather clay like, and best suited to farming crops that had strong enough roots to penetrate through the clay nature of the soil. Sand added to the clay helps to break it down some, but in the end, the soil there was only so useful. Some Bedouin were preparing the soil for planting of the winter wheat and barley.

We paused to examine some of the dirt of the region and found a boundary marker. Andrew likes taking pictures of Alana taking pictures. 

            We also passed (as typical for Israel) many olive orchards. And saw in the distance a stone quarry, which is also expected since concrete and stone are the most common tools of construction here.

            After we went to the lookout at Nebi Samwill we had a very good idea of the Benjamin plateau's size and geography, being able to see the majority of it at once.

From there we went to tel Gezer where we could barely see the ocean, and on the other side we could see the hills we had just come out from. We also looked at the six chamber Solomonic gate. And I was announced king of Hawaii who married Alana princess of Montana so that our countries would have beneficial trade agreements. And how I would have erected an embassy for her country which would have been a temple to worship her Montanan god Yeti.

Crowning Andrew King of Hawaii

Bowling

I know it seems like it from my blog posts, but we don't ONLY go on field studies here at JUC.  Various other activities fill our lives, both mundane and unusual, all filled with the foreign familiarity of life here.  A recent activity that we joined in with other students was bowling.

I am not a big bowler.  There have been times when I've been lucky to have a final score in the double digits, shamefully enough.  So when I'm thinking of fun things to do, bowling pretty much never even makes my list, much less gets to the top.  This is doubly true in Israel, where, hey, do they even HAVE bowling alleys?

So you can imagine my surprise when I found myself at a bowling alley, here in Israel...not once but TWICE in the last few months.

It turns out that, yes, they DO have bowling here.

Now, I have to admit, I have no idea what state bowling is in back in America.  Like I said, I rarely frequent bowling alleys, and I think the last one I was at is a tiny one in Big Timber, Montana: six lanes, dark, smokey...  And what I can remember of bowling lanes from my youth (when it was considered a treat to go on a field trip to go bowling) is much the same: dark and smokey (if not always quite as tiny.)  And, of course, having to rent rather gross shoes, worn by who knows how many other people, which never fit quite right.  And having to go pick out a ball from the myriad of mostly black but occasionally colored, shiny balls in racks along the wall.

This is not exactly the state of bowling in Israel.

For one thing, instead of the dark, smokey, wood-paneled basement-type areas I seem to remember, Israel favors brightly colored paint jobs.  And one of the bowling alleys I went to was actually up stairs about 3 flights.  Who puts a bowling alley on a roof?  Just seems odd.

For another thing, the computers that keep track of score now have cutsie little animations that either celebrate you getting a spare or a strike, or mock you for your inability to do so:

And....no spare.  :P

For another thing, all of the balls seem to be brightly colored, but also rather worn and tattered.  And if you don't like what is in your lane when you get there, you'd better hope you can trade with another lane, because that seems to be all there is.

On the plus side, they don't make you rent shoes from them.

On the minus side, we quickly understood why EVERY LANE had the bumpers up (to block off the gutters) before we arrived.  We put ours down and then quickly regretted it.  The lanes maybe have a tendency to be warped and dinged more here...possibly because of the bowling methods employed by most of the natives (throwing overhand, bouncing along the ground, ricocheting the ball back and forth on the bumpers, running down the lane a ways to try to make a good shot)... at any rate, gutter balls were extremely common.

I have to say, though, for myself, I've had pretty good luck bowling here in Israel.  The highest score I can remember having previously is maybe in the 50's or 60's.  My first time bowling here I scored over 80, which was exciting for me.  This last time, I broke 100, and apparently had the highest score of the night in our group.

Pretty exciting for a little Montana girl who's terrible at bowling.