Remembering YOU

7 to 11, Old City, Broad Wall, Limonada

Field Trip #2: The Negev

Tel Aviv!

Roses & The Garden Tomb

Can you believe these roses? I just know that they're all going to wither by the time I leave so I had to take a few photos of them. They're everywhere. The gardens on the 7th floor are saturated with them in every color... a great foreground to your next view, which is the Old City. They are also filling our planters on our patios. So pretty.

Outside my bedroom on my patio.

Rachel and I on the 7th floor.

Today we also went to the Garden Tomb

Under the CENTER

Bekah, me, Jamie and Haley

The Jerusalem Center is built on big pillars above the ground. Once a semester the students go on a tour underneath led by Mr. Hiatt. It was really fun... we were able to see how the architects were brilliant and can put air conditioning units underneath and can add new water heater or whatever or work on the pipes/ wires so easily because there is so much space to do so in. It was impressive to see.

However, the best part is at the end. We walked down all 8 levels to the 1st and we were able to sign our name on the wall. I knew Cami had written her name and I kind of wanted to find it. When I walked in to the room  it was solid wall to wall names, the walls looked white!

BUT... within 4 or 5 minutes I found it! [It wasn't hard to find, she wrote it huge!] I actually started crying! haha I think it was because I don't REALLY know anyone here yet and I miss her like crazy and I realized that she was standing in the same spot I was in 2008, what I would give for her to be here now! [I also saw her sisters' names too: Lauren and Emma... Emma says that's not her that signed it... but it makes for a good story! :) ]

I had a good time looking at the names of all the other people I know too. It was really fun.

It was a great hour! I wrote my name in Sharpie... that baby isn't going anywhere anytime soon!

Temple Mt, Western Wall, Zedekiah's Cave, Pools of Bethesda

I can't tell you how happy I am to be here in Jerusalem. It's Amazing. Friday night we went to the Western Wall... the wailing wall... where the Jews go to pray, but especially to welcome in the Sabbath... or Shabot. I wrote my prayer on a piece of paper [which is illegal on shabot... whoopsie! my friend got yelled at for writing... that's considered work. Taking photos is also not allowed- no use of electricity] and shoved it into some little crack in the wall. I sat in a little chair amongst a bunch of Jewish women [there is a big partition among the men and the women at the wall] and said a prayer and then walked away. It was a beautiful experience, we met these jewish girls and sang songs and danced with them to welcome in the sabbath. Jewish people begin the sabbath on sundown friday and it goes until sundown saturday.

This is a photo of the men's side

The Western Wall

While in the city i bought two scarfs and a little pouch that's embroidered to keep my shekels in... like a money pouch. I also ate my first meal out... a Shwarma! It was SO good! :) It was like a big chicken burrito. ... sometimes they put it on pita. anyways, i had a good day and a great time with the girls i was with... i think they're my friends now! haha

A couple of days ago we went to the Temple Mount. It is such a beautiful place, amazing to think that it was once the site of the temple in Jerusalem- a place where Jesus spent much of his time.

Me in front of the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount.

Today we went to Zedekiah's Cave. The cave is most famous for being a stone quarry at the time of Herod the Great- but there is actually no evidence for it... welcome to the Holy Land! [lots of claims, no evidence]. Another legend is that the cave was a hiding place of King Zedekiah (a 6th Century BC Judean king) dating back to at least the 11th Century AD. At that time, Biblical commentator Rashi wrote that Zedekiah tried to escape from the troops sent by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar to besiege Jerusalem. Raddak added that God sent a buck running along the surface on top of the cave as Zedekiah was walking down below. The soldiers chased the buck and arrived at the exit of the cave just as Zedekiah was coming out, enabling them to capture and blind him. Thus was born the legend and name of “Zedekiah's Cave”. (The considerable distance between Jerusalem and Jericho — about 13 miles (21 km) — reflects the legendary nature of the story.) -Thank you Wikipedia!

Me, Annie, McKenzie & Rachel at the cave's entrance

Annie, myelf and Rachel inside the cave... the water you see trickling down the wall is called "Zedekiah's Tears"

After the cave we ventured to the Pools of Bethesda, a pool of healing spoken of in John, Kings and Isaiah. It is specifically known for Jesus' healing miracle in the pools.

Here is what biblewalks.com has to say about it:

     Ruins of twin pools [are] in the north side of the old city, close to the Lions gate. These pools supplied water to the temple during the times of the first and second temple (until Herod). There are references in the old testament to the "upper pool", which may have been the name of the northern pool.
   Adjacent to the pools were baths and a healing center. These baths are the site of the healing miracle of Jesus in the pools of the sheep market, which was also called "Bethesda".
   Later,  a Byzantine basilica was built over parts of the pools. The Crusaders built a small chapel over its ruins, and later a larger Basilica nearby

Looking down at the ruins. Since the Old City is so built up... original structures are a whole level beneath the current city.

Entrance to one of the pools with Laura... notice the poppies! I love them.

Group photo outside of the church, Byzantine basilica and Crusader chapel outside of St. Anna.