Neil Patrick Harris

DR. HORRIBLE

GLEE

He is awesome and has great facial expressions. Tonight was dedicated to him!

P.S. -  I found out my GPA for my semester in Jerusalem and I got a 3.63 which is not as bad as I feared! So I am happy with that, and my overall GPA actually went up like .04 or something haha. Good news.

P.P.S. - I am leaving on Saturday to go to my cousin's (who got home from his mission today!), and they are taking me to Provo and I move in on Monday! I'm so excited! Jerusalem friends and old roommates and other old friends reunite!!!!

P.P.P.S. - I finally met my nieces! :) :) :)

Aren't they just super cute??? I love them!!! Sabrina and Whitney :)

P.P.P.P.S. - I went running today for the first time in about 5 months (minus the loner run in Galilee once, that was fun). It was good, but now I know even better how out of shape I am! Awesome!

I have found

that there are some funny things

1. I can quote almost the entire movie of While You Were Sleeping. If my eyes are closed, I can picture the scenes. That is how much I love this movie.
"We buy furniture from dead people."
"He looks like he is...leaning."
"When my mother found out I was going to marry my wife, her intestines exploded."
"Pull the plug." "You're sick." "I'M sick? You're cheating on a vegetable." HAHAHAHA

2. The fireplace and sweatpants are still my favorites! Along with Joyce's famous frosted sugar cookies at Christmas time!

3. I love my mommy.

4. I can cry a lot sometimes.

5. I love church.

6. I have become one of those study abroad people who when they get back all they talk about is "When I was in Jerusalem..." I'm really sorry if this annoys people, but it was my life and I miss it more than I can say.

7. Yup, I want to go back to Jerusalem.

8. I guess since I can't go back to Jerusalem right now, I want to go back to Provo so I can see people and road trip to Idaho so I can visit other people! :)

A Couple Days In

Christmas is going to be a lot different than I thought it would be. I am really just wanting to be back in Jerusalem right now. I'm really tired. Stupid jet lag, I thought I was over it.

Not.

Isn't it beautiful?

Today I went to church, in a knee-length skirt and on SUNDAY...weird. But I couldn't see Dome of the Rock. :(

Home

It is good to be home. Today I have watched an episode of Bones, slept in sweatpants, stood in front of the fireplace, worn jeans and a plaid shirt and slippers, ate at Pita Pit and talked lots with my mom, and I feel good! I have also seen an abundant supply of ice cream and chili cheese fritos in the house. Ca'n't get any better than that. Except tomorrow we are going to get some chocolate soy milk. And I'm getting a haircut after 7 months. Yeah, that is MUCH needed haha.

Yesterday involved about 30 hours of traveling. It was a long day, but everything went smoothly. I am not a fan of long across-ocean flights, but it is way better when you are flying with good friends rather than when we came over and it was just awkward because we knew we would become friends with these people but didn't know what to say yet. Yeah, awkward a little. It was sad to see people go different ways, but honestly it didn't phase me much because I am not that sentimental about goodbyes and I know that I will see all these people again, most very soon. So carry on.

I flew from Tel Aviv, to Vienna, to Dulles (Washington DC), to Denver, to Fresno. At Dulles we got on the plane on time but we didn't take off seriously for over an hour after we were supposed to. I was supposed to get to Denver and have a 2 hour layover, but instead I had to rush to my terminal. Then I got there and they announced that due to bad weather in Fresno (SERIOUSLY?), they might be unable to land and therefore would fly us to San Francisco and provide either air or ground transportation to Fresno. I had a minor panic attack. I was exhausted and just wanted to be home. Thankfully it all worked out, and I landed in Fresno and now I'm home!

I do miss Jerusalem though.

I LOVE the Western Wall.

Do you think this style would pass at BYU? I think I'd get lots of dates!

Aslan!

:)

Some Old City wall.

Kippa's everywhere!

Last time at Damascus Gate :(

Last sunset.

So that was my last day out in the City. At the moment it seems like forever ago...

Now to get back to real life I guess.

PS - I love fast internet. I love when these pictures take 2 seconds to upload rather than an unpredictable amount of time. Aka: SUPER SLOW AT THE JC.

At the end :) / :(

People might think I am a heartless girl because I don't cry very much - whether dealing with spiritual matters or goodbyes or whatever. Usually people only see me cry when I'm laughing  my head off, because I always have tears running when that happens.

I am proud of myself for keeping that tradition this week. The past week has been full of "lasts" and it has been hard and sad. But I have been so happy to see the things that I have seen!

On Monday and Tuesday we had our last days of Jesus' life field trips. Today (Wednesday) I had the BEST LAST DAY EVER in Jerusalem. And at the beginning of the day I decided that someday I am going to come back to Israel and this city. Because it has become that important to me.

Today on my free day I hung out with Ann, Amberlea, and Morgan, and had sooooo much fun! We walked for miles today, from one side of the city to the other and back and forth. I saw my favorite places in Jerusalem today and it was perfect:
*Western Wall.
*Garden Tomb
*Temple Mount (aka: Dome of the Rock)
*West Jeru
*Shuk

This may not sound like a lot of walking, but believe me it is. And we saw all 4 quarters of the Old City and all got the things accomplished/bought that we needed/wanted to and we all had fun and it finished off with one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen. We were blessed with wonderful weather today, a miracles considering the storms we have had here earlier in the week. Heavenly Father loves me and blessed me with a perfect final day.

After we got back and watched the sunset, I paid my bills, finished packing, weighed my suitcases successfully, took my phone upstairs, turned in my library books, cleared our gazillion water bottles, took our leftover bathroom/med supplies to the collection, took my linens upstairs, and had
AN AWESOME DINNER & MEMORIES NIGHT. Thank you to those who put the program together. We heard from our professors whom WE LOVE TO PIECES and watched our Waka 'Round the World video, and watched our half our long slideshow. I loved the teachers sharing their memories and that I was a part of them. I have not laughed so hard for so long in a long long time. The slideshow was awesome.

Now all those on the Austrian Air flight are just waiting around until 3am when we will leave Jerusalem, drive to Tel Aviv, and fly away :(

Bittersweet. I'm so sad to leave my home. But I'm so excited to go home home. I can't wait to see my family and friends. I have said these things so many times to myself and to other people and I still cannot believe that my time in Jerusalem has ended for now and new phases of life are going to begin. WEIRD. But super exciting.

I will see my parents tomorrow night! I hope I can see some friends this weekend! And I will see my sisters next week! And I will get to see my nephews and meet my nieces!

You wanna know the weirdest thing about going home?  CHURCH IS ON SUNDAY. WHAT MORMON EVER THOUGHT THAT WAS WEIRD UNLESS THEY'VE BEEN TO ISRAEL?

Something funny that was just said in the computer room. Jake is a funny guy. He is also wonderful and is putting all of our pictures that we've compiled onto external hard rives for us all. How nice. So as I'm writing this and people are asking him where on the list they are and if their USB drives were working, Jake said "We are just going to put them all on mine or Stephanie's external hard drives. USB drives are just being temperamental. USB drives are like women..." HAHAHA silly Jake.

Then someone asked Jake for a last one of his theories. And this is what he said: "If you can't be yourself in front of God, maybe you should rethink your self." Deep and profound. Cool beans. I like it.

It's only 11:42pm, what am I going to do for the next 3 hours to keep myself awake?

Last Shabbat

Yesterday was a wonderful day. This is how it went.

**I slept in until 9, something that never happens at the JC...but I chose to intentionally sleep through breakfast so I guess that is the price to pay to get more sleep. Worth it though.

**Our last church in the Holy Land was great. 

**In the afternoon I got a new temple rec. from the Israel District and the Jerusalem Branch, that was pretty cool.

**I reflected about the past semester and realized some good things.

**Dinner was delicious and I ate too much.

**I wrote some notes to some Relief Society sisters.

**Participated in and greatly enjoyed a musical performance organized by the students here, called "Christ - The Musical". Everybody loved it and we all felt the Spirit. It reminded me exactly of the youth musicals that I was in all through Young Women's.

**We had our Last Supper program in the upper auditorium. A great opportunity to think about the Sacrament and Jesus.

It was weird to think that the next Sabbath for me will be in the Heritage Ward at home.

It was SUPER WINDY today, alllllll day long. And today is no different. We are all a little scared to go outside honestly, because it is cold! WEIRD!

It looks like Fresno fog. It was just a little bit windy. 

I'm going to miss these a lot.

Here is my favorite picture from the past few days, from our little Friday adventure:

We got a first-hand tour of a little farm on the Mt. of Olives from this nice old man. It was so fun and random!

"He is always telling us to eat the bread and the fish. But He never tells us to eat our vegetables!"

Sometimes, or actually all of the time, I really really like my roommates. Amberlea says funny things, the title of this entry was said by her last night at 10pm when we were studying for our New Testament final.

I just took that final. I'm about to go grade it in a few minutes...I might be  a little scared? Seriously, we are all completely over classes and studying at this point.

We all have JC LDS - Jerusalem Center Last-Days Syndrome. I guess it's like Senioritis...but not. Good thing we only have one more final for our field trips.

And good thing no one is really going to study that much for that one...oh well. It's pass/fail. Good thing.

The countdown is getting smaller, and I am getting increasingly excited for the fireplace, mocasins, baggy sweatpants, jeans, my shirts/wardrobe, mom food, family in general, friends, etc.

In a week from right this second I will be on my last airplane ride bound for Fresno. That is really sad. But really happy!

I love Jerusalem! And I'm so glad finals and school is almost over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love this sign!

These people are pretty awesome too.

Interesting Times

I hate it when people you love are going through hard times. It is about as bad as when going through them yourself. To those people who I love...I love you! Yes, I'm being redundant because it is true.

Over here we are having hard times too. They are hard because the number of days we have left in the Holy Land is severely diminishing and we are all having freak out  moments...we don't want to think about it, but when it does it scares us because we still want to do too much. That is one side. The other side when we think about how little time is left we get excited to move on to new phases of life. For some its marriage...for others its a mission...for most it's another semester at school and the unknown. That is pretty scary stuff.

Something I think I've learned a little better the past couple years is YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN. Just when you think everything is good and figured out, Heavenly Father gives you something else to think about. Not that this is a bad thing...but sometimes it is painful or just tough to accept that our plans didn't work out. Well, I'm grateful that Heavenly Father knows what is best for me.

I believe that thinking about finals has made me a little weird at the moment. But these are just some things that I've been thinking about lately.

Life will randomly give you something beautiful to look at and be grateful for though.

Like a rainbow on top of Masada. It was beautiful.

And other times life will just give you random funny things like this...

HAHA sorry I couldn't resist posting this.

Rundown of our last out-of-Jerusalem field trip yesterday:

*Qumran: Site where most of the Dead Sea scrolls were found, inhabited by a large group of Essenes (extreme Jewish religious group - practiced asceticism, communal living, intense studying, ritual purification...all that fun stuff). We saw some caves from a distance in the cliffs, walked through the ruins, and took some pictures.

We are kind of bored of taking lame smiling pictures. Dead Sea behind us. Very cloudy.

*Masada: HOLY COW. We were lucky and got out of a good hike because they paid for us to take the cable cart up the mountain. Masada is on top of a mountain, but the top is giant plateau...it's huge. Masada is a fortress, the last one that the Romans conquered after Jerusalem and the 2nd Temple were destroyed. The Jews who were hiding there decided that rather than surrender to the Romans and become slaves, they would commit mass suicide. The men killed their families, and then the men drew lots to see who would kill who at the end. When the Romans got to the top they found them all dead. It is a sobering story. I am grateful that I do not have to choose between slavery and suicide/death. Very grateful. 

        At Masada, it is usually blistering hot apparently. Reading some Jeru blogs from the summer, it is almost unbearable. And this is supposedly at any time of the year. WE WERE SOOOO LUCKY. It wasn't hot at all. Instead it was very windy and we got attacked by dust flying in our faces. It is also ironic because this is the ONE field trip this entire semester where they allowed us to wear shorts all day. This was the coldest field trip that we have ever been on. Hilarious. We got a little sprinkling at the top, and then we saw a rainbow that turned into a double rainbow. I am grateful for small beautiful things like this that happen to remind us that God loves us, and nature is beautiful. See above pictures.

View of side of palaces on the front of the mountain. We were high up.

*Ein Gedi: This is where David cut the bottom of Saul's robe. David did not kill Saul because he would not kill the Lord's anointed. Even though Saul was chasing David and trying to kill him. At Ein Gedi is also where a busy highway was in ancient times, and it is most likely that Lehi and his family traveled through the wadi when going south from Jerusalem to the Red Sea. Cool beans. We hiked through to some waterfalls. We saw lots of ibex and coney's.

Looking back through the wadi we hiked through and to the Dead Sea.

Excited to see some waterfalls! And sick of smiling in pictures!

**Dead Sea: Floating in the Dead Sea is an experience that will difficult to describe to someone. You seriously cannot sink. The intense salt concentration burns in weird places, but it was worth it to bob around! We also got some Dead Sea mud to rub over our skin. Yup, that stuff works. It smells DISGUSTING, but my skin is oh so soft! Talk about exfoliation! 

Pictures to come on that one.

It was a grand field trip. And when we got home we found out that it has been pouring rain in Jerusalem most of the day. That is SO SO SO GOOD. FINALLY. And it was nice that we got to have our field trip, and Jeru got some desperate-needed rain. It rained some more that night, so we got to see it. 

It was also freezing in the center. I slept with my sweatshirt on (never happens), PJ pants, 2 pairs of socks, and 2 thick blankets. And I slept super comfortably. It was a very tiring day. But a great one! :)

And tonight I get to go see this at Hebrew University!!!

Whooooooohoooooooooo!

Chag Sameach!

I have a new holiday that I will forever be celebrating.

HAPPY HANUKKAH!

Go eat some donuts.

Seriously...that's what you do during Hanukkah.

BEST DONUTS EVER. Only found in the Shuk in West Jeru.

Yup. Happy Hanukkah!

On Wednesday we will make an adventure to the Western Wall and watch them light the last candle for Hanukkah. I'm excited! Last night and on last Wednesday we all went down to Chadwick's balcony and listened to him sing Hanukkah songs in Hebrew and light the candles on the hanukkiah, or the menorah that has 9 branches rather than the traditional 7 branches that was used in ancient temples.

Couple things about Dr. Chadwick.

*He is the biggest Pharisee in the church.

*He loves to talk. Especially when we are all sleeping on the bus.

*He takes funny pictures of people and then uses them in his lecture powerpoints.

*He has been excavating and teaching in and exploring the Holy Land for the past 30 years.

*His wife is awesome.

*He is a Jew at heart.

*When he lights the Hanukkiah candles, he wears his kippah. Like I said, he is a Jew at heart.

Chadwick is awesome. He always raves about how much he loves us this semester because we don't do stupid things to get ourselves into trouble. Apparently there have been lots of problems with that in the past. So I came with a good group. Well, we all love Chadwick too! He has taught me so much and I appreciate that a lot. 

Laundry in the JC

About a week and a half ago I was doing laundry. When I went to get my clothes out of the dryer, I could not find my mesh laundry bag ANYWHERE in there and it made me a little upset. Who would possibly steal my laundry bag for crying out loud??? I improvised and used my blanket to carry my clean laundry back to my room...that was annoying.

Since then, my dirty clothes have just been piled into a heap in my little closet. It has made it difficult to find things sometimes.

This morning I was doing laundry again (I know I'm supposed to do it when I run out of clean underwear...). I put my whites and colors in to two machines. I put the soap in on top of them. Neither of the machines worked. All of the other machines were full.

I took my clothes out and tried to shake as much of the soap off as I could, making a mess. I apologize to the guy mopping the floors in there when this was happening. I brought my clothes back to my room (in my soapy blanket...because remember I don't have a laundry bag anymore) and went to do some homework. I went down a little bit later and had some luck because there were 2 machines open. Whoo hoo! And both of them work, now that is a miracle by itself.

After the washers were going I started walking out. On my way out I noticed two mesh laundry bags on the table above the lost and found. One was white and one was green. Lo and behold, the white one is mine. After I have searched that laundry room several times the past couple weeks, there it was.

Laundry bag thief...I did not like you for about a week and a half. But thank you for returning it.

Laundry machines in the JC....I cannot wait until I do not have to use you anymore. I'm hoping this is my last time doing laundry over here.

Now I can do my laundry in peace. That will make one part of Jerusalem a little more peaceful!

December

December has hit.

It's the month of Christmas!!!!!!!!!! I don't think I've ever been consciously so excited for Christmas to come.

It's also the month that I leave Jerusalem and go back home to California for a couple weeks, and then on to Provo for another semester. In the cold :(

Here's some good things about going home and next semester:

1. Seeing my family. I'm so excited to see ALL of them, so we can be together for Christmas. Janine will be in Fresno for a couple weeks. We will all go to Amy's for Christmas. I get to meet my nieces. We will all be together.

2. I get to sleeeeeeeeeeeeep.

3. I get to sleep IN. Sleeping in here this semester has been waking up at 8. And that is only on Sabbath. Most days it's time to get up at 7:00 or earlier. I guess I better get used to that since next semester I have class at 8am everyday...

4. American food.

5. Not smelling like the Middle East. Though I suppose I'll miss that.

6. Moving back to Provo, and moving in with some of my old roommates, into a new ward where I can make new friends and still keep old ones.

7. Moving on with life, getting back to real life, and starting some exciting things in life.

8. Driving a car. But just over Christmas break.

9. Seeing my friends from this summer. Though the group dynamics of that group will be completely different because everybody who was dating broke up. Hopefully that won't be weird.

10. Just being home, with the familiarity of my surroundings.

Despite those exciting things, Jerusalem will be physically gone from me and I don't know how I'm going to react to that. I love this place SO much. I don't think I expected myself to fall in love my experiences and this city and these people. But it happened. And I'm going to miss it. And my Jerusalem family. They sure are special. :)

Life is so wonderful.

I love TinyBuddha.com. Here is an example of why, because it makes me think about things like the following. Life is a gift. -->

“The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention.”

Let’s thing for a second about emptiness. Why is a cup of tea useful? For its decorations? No–it’s  useful for its emptiness, for the space where we can pour tea.

When we let go of all the things that are cluttering our minds, we become like that tea cup, and we are able to use that space to focus on what matters: giving attention to people, here and now.

Society considers money, praise, and rewards important. However, attention speaks clearer than everything else. Why does attention matter? Because it is personal, and highly valuable, both in terms of quality and quantity.

Quality, is about making a deep connection with the person to whom we give attention. Quantity, is about time. And time is the ultimate currency.

Imagine this for a second: There is a $86,400 lottery drawing. Each one of us is automatically entered into it with no action required from our side. The odds to win this lottery are extremely slim, but someone has to win it and we did it!

On a daily basis, each of us receives a very generous prize: $86,400, wired to our private accounts for personal use, each morning.

This award comes with some restrictions:

• The lottery takes back any money not spent at the end of the day; we cannot carry it forward. Each day at 1 AM, we receive another $86,400 for that day.
• We cannot transfer money, we may only spend it.
• The prize can be discontinued at any time, with or without warning–even in the middle of the day.
• There is no way to run for another prize.

What would you do? Use all the money, to benefit yourself and the people you love?

If so, let’s start doing it, here and now, because we already won this lottery–it’s the time in a day!

Every day, we each have 86,400 seconds as a gift of life, and when the day finishes, any unused time is gone.

What we haven’t lived up that day is forever lost. Yesterday is forever gone! And there is no guarantee about tomorrow.

Each day the number of seconds available is refilled, but this can stop at any time, with or without warning. So, what are we going to do with these 86,400 seconds? Aren’t they worth so much more than the same amount in dollars, euros, pounds, or material possessions?

Think about that.

Let’s enjoy every second of our life, because time goes by much faster than we think. Let’s actively enjoy our time, instead of trying to fill our time with passive activities.

Let’s make the only investment which really counts–the investment in meaning.

Yes, almost everything is possible in life and the sky is the limit. However we can’t do everything at the same time, because our main resources–time and energy–are limited.

So let’s set our priorities based on our values. Let’s budget our time and talents. Let’s take control of those 86,400 seconds, starting here and now! Let’s give time, and meaningful attention, to the people who count for us!

This is from a week ago, from www.tinybuddha.com subscription. I think this is an incredible thing to think about. Don't waste time. Because you never know what is going to happen next or whether there will even BE a "next" of something.

So that is what I am going to try to live up to. Don't waste any of my remaining time in Jerusalem. Live every day to the fullest, and get every experience that I can. Don't leave regrets behind.

:)

Please pray for rain

Israel needs rain desperately. We found out in class today that Mt. Carmel is on fire, and that the city of Haifa is threatened to be burned down. 40 people have already died. We were on Mt. Carmel a week and a half ago. Israel is calling for foreign aid to help them with this, which is VERY rare, because they do not have the capacity to fight fires like this. I hope help comes. I do not want Haifa to be destroyed. I do not want the church I was at on the mountain, celebrating Elijah's battle with the priests of Baal (to call down fire from heaven to burn a sacrifice...now that's kind of ironic) last week to be burned down so no other future students can see it. Please, let help come.

Israel needs rain. Please pray for it.

Statue of Elijah, representing the miracle he performed of calling down fire for his sacrifice, IN THE NAME OF GOD AND NOT PAGAN GODS. I love Elijah!

View from the top of Mt. Carmel.

Thanks

Jordan is the home of...

...cool things. Here's some:

1. They have a monarchy. King Abdullah II. His pictures are everywhere I love it! Too bad we didn't get to see where he lives...

2. It is the home of Petra.

Treasury.

Monastery

3. There are lots of camels, donkeys, mules, dogs, cats, flies and other animals EVERYWHERE. Not always cool and never sanitary, but usually brings some entertainment.

4. My castle is there.

:)

5. HobNobs. I guess you can find them in the States, but I've never HEARD of them before Jordan.

6. My Dad could live there, because they have this yummy cereal:

7. They have stores called this in their mall:

If they have this store in America, I'm not shopping there ever.

8. Number 8...enough said.

9. The other possible site of Jesus' baptism is there, on the Jordan River, north of the Dead Sea.

10. You can take cool pictures like this...even though it is not a happy story, it helps us to remember what happened there.

11. When you have to wait at border crossings, you can find random people in the area and narrate their lives for them while bored on the bus.

Oh, and sometimes the pictures of them come out sideways...

12. I bought a kefiyah. Like what these bagpipe players are wearing on there heads.

Bagpipes.

13. It is called the HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF JORDAN. Full title.

Done.

Downside of The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan:

They did not stamp our passports. What kind of country does not stamp your passport?

Ok, so there is a reason why, but I don't feel like sharing and I'm still peeved that there is no Jordanian stamp in my passport. Oh well. 

I guess Jordan is still a pretty awesome place :)

And I'm not sick anymore :) :) :) :) :) Best news all week!

Wonderful time in GALILEE

Ok, I do have pictures of Galilee, I just felt like hiding them for awhile. Obviously. Those past ten days were beyond what I could have imagined...I guess that is the simplest way to put it. Galilee is a place I will always remember and wish that i could go back. We'll see how the cards play out for the future on that one.

First off...HAPPY LATE THANKSGIVING!!!! I am grateful for many things. I'm grateful for my family. I'm grateful that I am here in Jerusalem. I'm grateful for LIFE and good health. And many many other things.


And secondly...HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY JANINE!!!!  I love my sister! I recently found out that she will be in Fresno for Christmas time so I get to hang out with her! Yay!

:) Good times. We went on a family cruise in 2007 and it was sooooo fun.

So here is a quick rundown of my 10 days in Galilee (at least, quick in comparison to the 1,067 pictures I took on the trip!!!)

Day 1

Ruins at Caesarea, on the Mediterranean coast.

On the Cliffs of Insanity! Aka: Mt. Arbel, overlooking the Sea of Galilee!

Our bus broke after this stop hahaha, luckily it was our last stop of the day. So we all played missionary tag in the dark while we waited for the replacement bus. So we didn't get to Ein Gev until after dark.

 Ein Gev is the kibbutz we stayed at and it was a blast!

Day 2

This is what we build on the beach. Our sandcastle. We are such nerds. For those who do not understand, we have spent hours and hours studying history relating to the First and Second Temple periods. Our sandcastle that we built was of the Second Temple, or Herod's Temple, because we have received many lectures and have read many articles relating to the topic. Yup.

SEA OF GALILEE!!! I LOVE IT! 

Day 3

Church on Mt. of Beatitudes. Loved it there. We got to read and talk about Sermon on the Mount. 

Capernaum! One of my favorite places in the entire Holy Land that I have visited!

Day 4

Hiking down from top of the Golan Heights! Seriously. 

Happy.

Day 5

Gamla. "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid..."

Synagogue in Gamla. Jesus almost for sure was in this exact synagogue, with the same stones and everything. It was special to be there.

So domestic! Ancient Talmudic village we visited. I got lost a couple times, with 3 different groups. Bro. Muhlestein says that is how reading the Talmud is haha so I guess it was an educational experience.

Look Mom! I ate fish! GROSS

We decapitated the dead fish...

Day 6

Gorgeous view from the Tiberias branch building.

Standing in the Jordan River, near a spot where Jesus might have been baptized.

Day 7

Church on top of Mt. Tabor, one of the 2 most likely sites of the Transfiguration. 

BUDDHA

Just standing next to some ancient Roman pillars. This is at Bet-Shean, a Decapolis city back in the day.

Day 8

That's Lebanon behind me!

And that's Syria!

Nimrod's Castle! Pretty view.

Oh hey

Which way? At this stop we were in the Golan Heights (Israeli occupied Syria), and we were right next to the border of non-Israeli occupied Syria. Cool beans.

What does that look like?

Day 9

We saw a lot of mosaics and old stuff...

But this was pretty cool. This is a manger, or a water trough for animals. This is what Jesus would have been put in after he was born.

Love them :)

Love the Med.

Day 10

Last time in the Sea of Galilee :(

Manger at Megiddo.

Beautiful harbor at Haifa. Very modern-looking city.

And that is about how my adventures in Galilee went! I had the best time and learned a lot and saw a lot and enjoyed almost every minute of it! I got sick the last day, and so that day driving home on the bus and still making lots of stops was not so good...A LOT of us got sick with about the same thing all around the same time...it was really weird. 

I LOVE GALILEE :) :) :)