one final down...

Three to go! Yesterday after the Old Testament final, everyone wanted to get out of the JC to celebrate. Class had ended unusually early, and lunch had been moved forward and hour, so I wanted to go see if we could get finally manage to get on the Temple Mount with its crazy irregular hours. I managed to find a group of about 12 who wanted to go, so we grabbed our things and ventured out into the city. The first unusual thing about yesterday was that it was overcast, windy, and a little bit cold! As we walked through the city it even tried to rain a little bit! For the first time since I've been here it felt like the beginning of fall. I loved it! The second unusual thing happened when we arrived at the Western Wall a little bit before 1:00, and, miracle of miracles, we were allowed on the Temple Mount! I was so excited to walk up through the tunnel I've only seen from the outside for the last two months. The Temple Mount is very beautiful and clean. There isn't much up there, just the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of Rock Shrine and a few other small buildings, but its such a cool feeling to be up there. I kept thinking about what Solomon and Herod's temples must have looked like so many years ago. The Dome of the Rock is the most prominent feature of the old city, and probably of Jerusalem too, and I was there! I touched it with my hand! Its moments like yesterday that remind me I'm in Jerusalem living my dream. Those kind of moments happen quite often, like every time I look out the windows here at the JC. Or when I look through my pictures and realize its me standing next to those pyramids. Or when I'm doing my study questions for Archeology and written right into one of the questions is "remember when we went here?" Or when I realize I don't think about price in dollars and haven't for quite some time now. Or when someone in the old city asks us for directions, and we can tell them exactly where to go, usually with short cuts. Anyway, I hope you enjoy these pictures of one thing I've wanted to do since before I got here. Jerusalem never ceases to amaze me and fill me with wonder.

Here you go, a picture of the Dome of the Rock taken right in front of it.

This is me in front of the Dome of the Rock with James and Sarah. The guy who took the picture cut off the top, but that's OK. You can probably tell we are all pretty happy about being there!

As Promised.....

the highlights from the past couple of weeks here at the JC. OK, so I know this picture is sideways, but I love it. This is me in Petra at the treasury. I felt like Indiana Jones. It was wonderful!

Conquest Field trip: I went to the place where David fought Goliath and we did a reenactment of the whole scene. We also went spelunking through some really sweet caves and looked at old tel sites.

Judges Field trip: I went to Jericho! Its a pretty small ancient city, but it was pretty neat. It was fun and exciting because its actually in the West Bank, so we spent the morning in Palestinian territory. It was an interesting experience to see the Palestinian flag waving, especially after all I have learned here. My opinions of the world and politics sure are changing.

Tel Aviv: About twenty of us decided to go to Tel Aviv one day, and it was great! The beach was beautiful and the water was really warm. It was salty and sandy, but just the thing I needed after classes and the crazy Egypt trip.

Galilee: We took an overnight trip here, and saw a bunch of things along the way. We went to Mt. Carmel, Megiddo, Cesarea, Akko, and Nazareth. Each of these sites was very informative and wonderful, but the Sea of Galilee and the Kibbutz we stayed at were heaven! We were right on the beach! I got to swim in the Sea and it warm and wonderful, despite the fish swimming around our toes. I didn't want to go when it was time to leave, so I'm glad we're going back....for nine days!

Midterms: I had three midterms the past while, and I think they all went well, but its hard to tell. As such there has been an increase of studying around the JC. The next two weeks are going to be filled with studying as well, because we have four finals- Old Testament, Palestinian Narrative, Language (Arabic for me) and Israeli Narrative. I am really excited for these classes to be over, because then I will only have two classes to worry about!

Olive Picking/Crushing: We had the opportunity to pick olives a couple of weeks ago, and it was great fun! I loved being up in those trees picking olives. Plus, olives are just the right size fruit to hurl at someone and not hurt them! There were many an olive war taking place. A few days after we picked olives we crushed them to make olive oil. We have a crusher and a press here at the JC, so we did it in our own back yard. Its a good thing too. When olives are crushed, they leave this really gooey mess behind. Its nasty but kind of fun to play with. I may have started an olive goo war. And when I say may have, I mean I did. And I am proud of it! Note to self, olive oil doesn't come out of clothes well......at all....

En Karem: I went with a group of about twenty of us one day to the traditional birthplace of John the Baptist. We walked around a lot and saw a lot of really great churches. The town was really quaint and quiet compared to the hussel and bussel of Jerusalem, and I really enjoyed it.

Hezekiah's tunnel: This may be one of the coolest things I have done in my life. Ok, so maybe not, but it was great! The tunnel is about six football fields long, so its a bit of a walk. There is water in the tunnel usually about as deep as my knee, but sometimes it got up around mid thigh! All 80 of us got in a massive water fight at the pool of Siloam where we popped out of the tunnel. It was really hot that day, so it was totally worth it!

Seder: We had a pretend Passover meal about a week ago, and it was really interesting. Our Jewish teacher, Ophir Yardin came and led the meal. There was singing and toasting and eating and a lot of laughter. I have a new appreciation for the Jewish people since then. I love learning about different religions and cultures because I feel like I am so much more aware of what is going on around me.

Mt. Nebo: This was our first stop in Jordan. It was a great lookout and I took some sweet pictures. Moses looked out over the promise land from this mountain.

Petra: Amazing. I don't even know if I should say anything else. Wow. The treasury is cool, but thats only the first thing you see in the canyon! It goes on for miles more, and it just gets cooler! I also got to ride a donkey to the top of a mountain where there was a monastery, and I got to ride a horse out of the canyon. Donkeys are scary and competitive, but I think I laughed the whole time I was on mine. It was hilarious!

Jerash: I really like this place. It is the most intact Roman city in the world I think. It is really really great. We sang and danced with bag pipe men here and got to watch a chariot race in the hippodrome.....somewhat illegally.......but no one needs to know that......

Amman: We spent two days in Amman, the capital of Jordan. One night I went to the mall with a few other kids and we went bowling! And we had milkshakes! It was so crazy I'm still laughing about it. I spent Halloween in Amman, and it was probably one of the coolest Halloweens I will ever have. Me a three of my friends walked down the street from our hotel and bought a pumpkin (the last one) and ice cream and orange fanta. Back at the hotel we made fanta floats in the 2nd floor lobby and laughed a lot. Then we took our pumpkin out to the porch and carved our teacher's face into it. We wrote Brother Huntington a poem, then took the jack-o-lantern and napkin poem, put them in front of his hotel door, knocked and ran away. It was hilarious! Despite all of the crazy fun things I did in Jordan, I think my favorite part was listening to the District president speak. (the Amman Jordan District includes Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt, small eh?) He talked about missionary work in the middle east, and how the Lord is preparing the area for the gospel.

Well there you have it. I wanted to post more pictures, but it takes an eternity to do any such thing over here. I guess you will all just have to come over and look at my pictures when I get home in six weeks and let me talk your ears off, because I will! I love you all!

I've returned from Jordan and its November.

That is all . . . for now . . .