We had a great few days. On Saturday, we had church, and then I went with a group to the private side of the Garden of Gethsemane, which was a lot cooler than across the street which is always open to public, you have to have reservations to get into the private side, and you are aloud to sit around the trees instead of outside the iron fence on cold stone benches.
We also had a beautiful pre-sunset-sunset. We aren't aloud outside of the center after sunset, so all of our pictures are pretty much from the same angle, where this one is a little different and has the dome in the background which is a cool change.
Sunday, I forgot my camera, but we traversed Jerusalem on foot all day. It was col we started going to play the Carillon at the YMCA, but ended up starting at the wrong YMCA, and had to run across town, it was a good thing that we split the group because there were some people there to play, and then we were let in 15 minutes late. It was really cool to play Christmas songs over the bell tower. After the Carillon, we just explored the old city again, going everywhere and anywhere that we thought of.
Monday, we had our Dead Sea Field Trip. We started at Masada, which was cool. However, we were given a sheet of things that we had to see, and were told that we had time to fill it out and explore, but we didn't we cut it close trying to complete the sheet, so we spent the whole time there reading the signs, which was great, but we didn't pay as much attention to some other things that I would have liked to.
you can't see it very well, but there are square camps, with rounded corners on the ground in this picture, those were Roman camps when the laid siege to Masada, and the people inside decided that it was better to die than to be slaves, so they killed their families, and then themselves once the Romans had broke through the wall. When the Romans came the next morning, everyone was dead...
This is the view from Herod's North Palace that is literally built into the side of the cliff. Really cool.
Don't remember exactly where I was standing, but the long straight rows are old storehouses, and basically what you would see on top of Masada.
Finally, this is the view to the West of Masada from the top. Desert everywhere!
After we met at top, we found out that we really had another half hour, and that we could run down. Masada is the mesa in the background there, and if you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can see the trail that winds its way down the mountain. I made it somewhere between 11-13 Minutes from the top to where I am standing. It was really fun, but I was sore for a few days after that :) It felt good to use muscles that I haven't used is way to long.
After Masada, we went to swim in the Dead Sea. It was fun, I never believed people when they said that you literally float without trying to, but it is true, although it is REALLY Salty.
I have not been to a body of water where they had to put signs like this one:) Swimming was not quite the same, and you did not want to swallow any of it, you thought that the Ocean was bad!
None of these people are standing, or treading water! It was crazy!
After the Dead Sea, we were taken to Ein Geddi, Which is kind of like Red Cliffs Mountain Reserve, as there are different waterfalls as you make your way up. This was the top one, well worth the climb, even if I was already sore, had a blister, and had cut my feet on the rocks at the Dead Sea. It was a Beautiful place.
We ended at Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. It was kind of a utopian village/city. everything was communal, and they spent all their time studying the Law, however, there was also no families, or women and children. They were wiped out by the Romans, and hid the Dead Sea Scrolls in caves around here.
As good as Galilee and the Field Trip was, all god things have to come to an end. WE came back to finals week, and none of us were ready, luckily we had a few days to tudy and write our paper, but that was all we did that week. I did go out once to get a few things shopping wise, and came back to this sunset:)
Which turned into this:)
We finished our Finals on Friday, then played lots of Volleyball, and had a Christmas concert that night. It was good, but not as good as we usually were, we just weren't into the music. We were also dead tired. People have told us that it was the best concert at least in the last 2 years, although if they had gone back 3, it would have been another one of Squire's concerts....
Saturday was our last Sabbath here in Jerusalem. It was good day, but also kind of hard. I did get to go to the Garden Tomb, we had a RS Christmas Program about Mary, and we ended with reading and talking about the Upper Room and the Institute of the Sacrament. Apparently this was the way that it would have been set up.
