Last Greetings Before Egypt!!

Hello everyone! I've been having such a fun time here in the Holy Land. On Wednesday, we went on another field trip to the hill country called the Shephelah. We went to many different sights that were really cool. We went to the area where Samson was born and met Dalilah and that whole story happened. Then we went to a national park and saw a bunch of tombs and houses from Old Testament times. It was really cool! We also went to the place where David killed Goliath and in good old seminary fashion, we acted it out! The field trip was all day long and we were all really tired when we got home.
When we were on the bus coming home, our teacher got a phone call from the center and they said there was a terrorist attack on the West side of Jerusalem and that was a little scary to hear but they said we can still go out into the city. But we were on the field trip so everyone is ok.
The next day after class, I went out into the Old City for a few hours. First we got money for our trip to Egypt then we went to the Garden Tomb! Our guide was very respectful and after he told of all the reasons why that place was the most probable one for Christ's tomb, he then said that it doesn't matter where the tomb is, it just matters that he isn't here anymore because he is risen.












Then we went to the St. George's Cathedral and it was so gorgeous inside! On all of the seats were these really cool cushions that had different cross stitching on them- I found my favorite one- when I was holding it, I felt like Miss America: "What is the one thing this world needs?" "World Peace!" haha. The organ was really cool too- hence the picture.













Our last stop was the American Colony Hotel. It was used during a couple of the wars as a soup kitchen and has been a real help to the local people of Jerusalem. One of the guys who came with us is a history major so he taught us all about this hotel and then since it was the day before the 4th of July, we sang some patriotic songs :) There was also a really pretty garden that we walked around for a while.

Now we are all ready for Egypt! I'm so excited to go there and see all the tombs, mummies, and pyramids! It is going to be the experience of a lifetime! Hopefully I don't get too sick! They say that 95% of the students get sick on this trip to Egypt so it will probably happen. You'll hear from me in a week! Love you all.

On one of out first stops, a guy was there trying to sell us a camel ride! It was a pretty sickly looking camel but it was the first camel I've ever seen so I still thought it was cool.










This is right in front of Bethlehem! We are going on another field trip in a few weeks and visit the city. And yes, we have to wear those really attractive fanny packs whenever we go on field trips. Dad, I'm sporting it with pride!









This is the Garden Tomb. It is such an awesome place! You can feel the spirit right when you walk in the garden.










Dome of the Rock on top of Temple Mount!!! A bunch of little kids kept taking pictures with us. They were so cute! They loved seeing the picture on the screen of the camera after we took the pictures. They were teaching us words in Arabic! They were so funny and kept following us around.

Yay it finally works!! Sorry it has taken so long to get this thing going but it was blocked when we first got here. Wow so much has happened since I got here. We ended up getting here only one day late and things didn't slow down from there. Right when we got to the Jerusalem Center, we had dinner then went straight to class! There are 80 students total and everyone is so nice and so much fun! I love going to the Old City with different people every day to get to know them. It's really fun.

I can't believe all the places I have already visited in the first 6 days of being here! I have seen Bethlehem, the Garden Tomb, Golgotha, the Church of the Holy Seplecure and everything on the Temple Mount- main thing there is the Dome of the rock. Then I did the Rampart's walk- you walk on top of the city wall. It takes about 3-4 hours total so we did split it up and did it in 2 days.

Classes are going great- they are so interesting! I have a Judaism class, Islam class, Near Eastern Studies and Old Testament. All the teachers and staff are really nice. Mom and Dad- you would fit in here perfectly! You should totally do it next year!

We are going on a field trip tomorrow so I'll update again soon and put up some more pictures!