Jerash!

Today was another really good day! This morning we went down to breakfast and they were making omelets!!! They were really good! And they even let us mix our cheese and meat! It was awesome! (Needless to say this whole kosher thing…not a huge fan!) Anyway the breakfast was good but I still miss bacon and a good ol’ American Breakfast! All right lets be honest I miss American food in General!  But it was good!

Off we went to explore more Tels!! Woohoo!! So for those of you who don’t know a Tel is an anthropological site of sortes. They all start to run together but they are really interesting! When we got going we went to the Amman Citadel. This site would be the Old Testament (OT) site of Rabbath or Ammon. The Greeks also referred to the city as Philadelphia so it had a lot of different names haha! It was pretty cool though! There was a Mosque that was still standing and parts of the Roman Temple of Hercules! It was really neat! There was this little museum there that we went through too and that was pretty cool! 

The Temple of Hercules

The Monastery 

While we were there we had a devotional and talked about David. Rabbath-Ammon was where David was supposed to be when he was Bathsheba. It was a really neat site! After that it was off to the Jabbok River.

The Jabbok River is a river that comes off of the Jordan River. The reason we stopped was because that is where Jacob wrestled with an angel (Genesis 32:22-30). It wasn’t anything super exciting just a river but it was really cool to think that somewhere along that river was where Jacob once was. It is amazing to me to think that was thousands of years ago and yet it is still there! CRAZY!!! We had a devotional there that was really good and we got to see a song! After that it was finally time for lunch!

We went to lunch at this place on our way and it was BBQ. It was definitely different but it was super delicious! When you walk into the place there is this station with this guy who is making bread! It was soooo cool!!! He took these pieces of dough and flattened them out almost like pizza dough!! And then he just threw them into the brick oven on top of rocks! It was the coolest thing and probably some of the best bread I have ever had!! It was awesome! When our food came out we all really enjoyed it! There was chicken, Lamb, and some other kind of sausage thing which we weren’t really sure what it was!.Aubreigh, who sat at my table, took a bite of something at the beginning and said oh this must be a scalap and she ate the whole thing. Well, come to find out…It was a giant chunk of fat! It was hilarious!!!

After Lunch it was time for Jerash. It is definitely waaayyy underrated! I didn’t know what it was before this trip but it was really really cool to go there! Jerash is one of the best preserved roman sites in the World! It was really really cool. Brother Judd, my OT teacher, said this could possibly be the city of Jershon from the OT. It was really neat! When you walk in there is this Giant arch. 

As you start to walk towards the middle of the city you walk past a Hippodrome. A Hippodrome is a Horse Track! It s one of the best preserved Hippodromes in existence! 

As you continue in you walk past a lot of homes and things until you get to the Market. The Market was soooooo HUGE! It honestly reminded me of the Market in Hercules where all the pillars fall down!! 

Yup that totally reminded me of that! It was awesome! After that we walked up the hill to what is so cleverly named The South Theater haha. When we got to the theater there were three guys in kilts playing the bagpipes! It was pretty awesome not gonna lie! The acoustics where AWESOME!! After that we went down and walked down the main road! 

Down main road we went to a fountain

 and walked past the outside of Artemis’ Temple. Then, they set us free! It was pretty cool! I wish we would have had more time to spend there, cause there was a lot that I didn’t get to see. I went inside Artemis’ Temple, To the North Theater, and walked around just through the streets a little bit more!

Temple of Artemis 

North Theater

Mitchell being contemplative 

stairs to the temple of Artemis with Sarah L and Mitchell at the top

Temple of Artemis

Lindsay Kelly and Lisa Judd

It honestly is amazing to me to think that they were actually there! People lived there at some point! I am walking in a city that once was huge and booming! It is really really weird! It is also crazy to think that they built these things without machines! I honestly think that their buildings and such where much more impressive than anything we have!

After Jerash it was time to head to a museum. Normally a lot of people wouldn’t be to excited about this part but it was super awesome!! It was the Royal Automobile museum. The previous king of Jordan, King Hussein, collected cars and motorcycles of all sorts! It was super cool! He had a different car for like ever event in his life! Now I am not one to know a lot about cars but I love looking at old cars! They are beautiful to me and I just love it! It was really cool! Originally Dr. Jackson told us there was going to be a bugatti and I was super excited because I have never seen one in person! Unfortunately, it wasn’t there! not gonna lie, kinda disappointing but I will live!

When we got done in the Museum we were supposed to walk down the street to the King Hussein Mosque but it was dumping rain so that didn’t happen. We just ended up driving past it and it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! I wish we had gotten the chance to at least walk at the outside of it. But it was still really pretty! Then it was on to home (well the Hotel anyway).

Once we got back to the Hotel we still have about an hour and a half to kill until dinner! Rachel was able to get her internet to work so I read a book while she skyped with her family! It was nice to just relax after having done so much for the last few days! When it finally came to dinner it was really good! After dinner, Sarah L, Mikkel, and I went out into the city. It was a little rainy but it was nice to be out! We went to the grocery store to get some chocolate for the long bus ride we had the next day and guess what I found…Aero’s and Canadian smarties!! It was soo cool to find Canadian chocolate there because I love it so much!! Anyway so then we walked farther down the road and got ice cream. I had Nutella ice cream that was absolutely freaking amazing!! Haha anyway then we went back and Rachel and I spent another night up late talking about all kinds of stuff! It was awesome!! 

PETRA!!!!!

Today was PETRA!!!!! Oh my goodness I can’t even explain in words how amazing it was! When we left the hotel I didn't realize how close we really were! I thought that we would have to get on the bus and ride to it but in all actuality all we had to do was walk down the street and we were at the park! It was freezing cold cause it had rained all night but we were hoping that it would warm up later! When we finally got to the park it takes a while to get in! We walked through these beautiful gorges and saw some of the tombs and stuff! It was quite a long walk but it was beautiful! At one point there were a ton of puddles as so we were watching our feet to make sure not to step in them. When I looked up I literally stopped in my tracks because all I could see was part of the treasury through the wall of the gorge! It took my breath away! I couldn't even believe what I was seeing! It was sooo much bigger then I could have ever imagined and it was absolutely beautiful!! After that they let us go and we had about 3-4 hours to just explore on our own!

This was a tomb of some sort on our way into the park

The treasury! 

Does this remind you of any movies??

A group of us decided that we wanted to walk up to the monastery because we thought it would be cool! On our way we got distracted by some ruins (How often can you say that?!?!?!) so we stopped and took some pics and then we were on our way. 

Eden, Ben, Me, and Montana!

Sarah L, Jacque, Ben, and Eden

As it turns out, the high to the Monastery is over 800 steps up the side of this mountain! Dude is was terrible especially since I am super out of shape. But, in the end, It was totally and completely worth every second! I was basically dying by the time we made it to the top and I was trying so hard not to give up on myself when I turned around the corner. As soon as I turned around and saw the monastery I forgot everything and was literally in awe! It HUGE!!! And super amazing! I can’t even describe in words how amazing it is in person! I mean when you see pictures you think oh wow that is pretty big and pretty cool. As soon as you see it in person that is when it is really put into perspective! I never would have imagined in a million years that I could have been there experiencing that! I look back at my pictures and I still can’t believe that it actually happened!

SOOOOOOO MANY STAIRS!!!!

Look at how tiny those people are compared to the Monastery!! That is all one piece carved out of the rock!!

Inside!!!

After the monastery we went to this lookout point that was maybe about another two minute walk up this “hill.” It was called the Top of the World and it totally felt like you were on top of the world! It was BEAUTIFUL! 

After that we were all starving so Ben, Kate, and I decided to head back down and get lunch. We hiked all the way down and on our way we had to basically avoid the beduwin women cause they were trying soooo hard to get us to buy something.

Lunch was great…except for the chocolate stuff. There was this amazing chocolate pudding when we first got there and when it was out we were all waiting for them to bring more out. Well instead of the chocolate pudding they brought out this chocolate sponge stuff. Since the pudding was soooo good we all loaded up on this other stuff. As it turns out…not so great! Haha Ben’s face can definitely attest to that!

After lunch we went exploring. There was an old temple that we decided to go explore and guess what we found…secret stairs!! So there was no ceiling because it had collapsed but we found these stairs that lead up to this platform that was pretty cool! Of course because I am terrified of heights I didn't enjoy it as much as others but it was pretty awesome! After we had been up there for a while brother Judd showed up and told us to get down cause apparently that was probably breaking rule #3 (don’t do anything stupid)! It was pretty awesome I’m not going to lie!

From Below

From up top

After that we decided we wanted to go see the royal tombs. We didn't have a ton of time but we walked up there and looked at them for a little while! They were beautiful!I really wish that we could have spent more time in Petra because it was really amazing and beautiful! The tombs were beautifully carved out of the side on the mountains!

Me,  Kate, and McCall

After the tombs was my absolute most favoritists part of the day!!! So we were walking back to the treasury so that we could ride a camel and take pictures there. as we were walking there were a bunch of people offering to give us camel rides back. They costed a lot so we weren't really willing to! Well then this guy said we could for Three Dinar (which is about $4.50) and we thought ya that would be worth it! So we worked out with the camel driver to take us to the treasury and take pictures of three dinar. We were sooo excited!! Ben and I rode one and Katie and McCall rode the other! IT was awesome! It was kinda freaky when it stood up because I thought I was going to fall off! I think it wouldn't have been so freaky if I wasn't so scared of heights (or I guess more falling off)! But it was waaayyyy fun!! I would do it again in a heartbeat! The thing that bothered me the most was that when we got there he wanted to charge us another 2 dinar ($3) to take pictures. We tried to say that he said we could take pictures but it was a no go. We had gotten a couple of each other while we were on the camels but we didn't get any super good pictures! It was kinda sad but still totally worth it! And we got a couple pictures at least! That is better than none!

After this, with our ticket, we got a free horse ride out of the park! It was neat!! We had to walk through the gorge to get to where the horses would take us but it was really cool! We got to ride them a pretty good while too which was kind of nice! Amber and I got to ride together which was super fun! After a little bit of window shopping it was time to get back on the bus and get ready for another really long bus ride.

Right on our way out out bus all of a sudden! it was kinda cool because Brother Jackson wanted to stop at this spring. It is supposed to be the spring that came from the rock that Moses struck. It was really neat! There was this giant rock and just the spring. it wasn't anything big but it was kinda cool!

As it turns out a little into our ride we stopped at this crusaders era castle which was pretty cool! We even got our one and only picture of the group to date! It was kinda neat! Then we spent another 4ish hours on the bus! Yay for long bus rides! I guess It is a good thing that I have taken so many long car trips cause those rides didn't feel super long!

We finally got to Amman at about 7ish! It was a really nice hotel! It was The Belle Vue Hotel – Amman! It was really nice! It was actually kinda funny cause when we got there they gave our keys because that is how you use the elevator. When we were standing there waiting for the elevator me and Rachel where talking to Miikel and John asking them where they were and they said they were in the room next to us! I was kinda shocked! That definitely doesn't fit with the BYU housing standards haha. Well as it turns out our rooms where connected! They had a door in-between the two so we could talk to each through the doorway! It was kinda funny! Of course we made sure to stay in our own rooms but it was fun!

Dinner was super nice and super delicious! Then a bunch of people decided to go out to Rainbow street which is where everything near our hotel is but I decided that we would have the next night to go out so I stayed up in my room trying to get the internet to work (which never happened! Haha). It was an awesome day though!! One that I will never ever forget! Petra was worth every moment and I wish that we could have spent more time there!

Jordan here I come!!

Monday the 28^th was….JORDAN!!! I was sooo excited! We got to go to another country! So it was a bright an early morning so that we could be one of the first buses to cross the border. It cracks me up because the security and stuff that we had to go through was to leave Israel not even to enter Jordan. But we crossed the border from Israel to Jordan on foot! Haha I thought that was kinda cool! And my favorite part…I finally got a stamp in my passport!!! :D when we got here we didn't get one and it kinda made me sad but I finally got one in there and that proves I have been somewhere else besides the US and Canada! After that border we had to go to the Jordanian border which took quite a while too but we just had to sit on the bus while our teacher worked the stuff out. After waiting for what seemed like ever we finally made it into Jordan! When we went across the border we got a new bus and a tour guide! Our tour guides name was Youseph! He was cool! When we are in Israel, our teachers have permission to be the tour guides but when we are out of the country we have to have a tour guide with us. It was kinda neat though to have a Jordanian teaching us at all the sites.

The first place we went after the border was Mt. Nebo. Mt. Nebo is the place where Moses stood to look over the Promised Land (Num. 27 and Deut 34:1). There wasn't anything super big up there it was mostly just a mountain but it was amazing to be where Moses stood! If it had been a clearer day then I probably would have been able to see a lot more but even with the haze you could see a lot! You really could see a lot of the land! It was super cool to think that Moses stood there and looked at the same places that I was looking at! That is where the children of Israel got to go! It was a really neat experience!

The clouds looked super cool!

I am pretty sure this is supposed to be Moses' staff with the snake!

The view! like is said not super clear but really cool!

After Mt. Nebo we went to a city called Madaba. While here we went to St. George Church at Madaba to see to mosaic floor that was beautiful! It was a cool map of the country of Israel and Jordan! It is amazing to think that someone took the time to create such a good map out of a whole bunch of little tiles. I feel like it would have been prettier when it was first made but it was still really neat! Along with the floor there were a lot of mosaics hanging on the walls depicting the life of Christ. There was one that I was particularly interested in. It was a little odd but it is rather intriguing. I believe that it is supposed to be depicting the baptism but I am not entirely sure! Either way I think it is cool!

 I would love to hear thoughts on what the boards and/or snakes underneath his feet are supposed to represent if anyone has any thoughts!

After this it was finally time for lunch!! I was starving by this point! It was a nicer place and the food was good! It was my first experience with Jordanian food but it was pretty good! One thing that I had a tough time remembering is only to eat food that has been cooked. The water has stuff in it that our bodies are not used to so it would have most likely made us sick. In order to take precaution we made sure to think about if what we were eating was washing in the water or not to brush our teeth with the water. It was an adventure that is for sure!

After lunch we were supposed to go to Machaerus which is where john the Baptist was beheaded but sadly, because of the inordinate amount of time it took at the border, we weren't able to go. It would have been one of the cooler places on our trip I think but it is ok that we didn't get to go! So instead, we got to go on a 4 hour drive to the Hotel in Petra! It was nice to get a 20 minute nap and to watch out the window! (I really wish that I could sleep in cars but instead I get to be a window watcher which sometimes is totally worth it!) Since we were driving into southern Jordan, (To what is called Moab) it was basically just desert! It was really neat though!

Once we got to Petra it was pouring rain which isn't really what I was expecting but it was a nice change I guess! Haha J The hotel had complementary drinks waiting for us and we went straight down to dinner! It was a nice dinner and there was a sitar player down there playing live music! That was kinda cool! There was a back pack mix up when I went to take my stuff to my room! I grabbed the backpack that was marked with my white bandanna but when I went to take my computer out…it wasn't there! I started freaking out and opened the big pocket. When I opened it up, my stuff wasn't in there! It was someone else’s backpack. Well come to find out, someone thought it would be funny to switch two of the bandanna’s and so my backpack had someone else’s bandanna on it. At the time I was a little freaked out but it was kinda funny! (Thankfully sawyer hadn't taken my backpack yet so I was able to just switch our bandannas!)

Since we were only going to be spending one night in Petra we decided to go out and explore the tiny little town (more like a grocery store and like 5 souvenir shops haha) It was fun! A bunch of people bought some Indiana Jones type hats and we got to watch this guy made a camel out of sand! It was amazing how he just made this camel like it was no big deal at all! It only took him like 2 minutes! After going out I decided it was time to shower and go to bed. When I went to get into the shower it was like a dribble! There was like no water pressure at all and I wasn't completely sure if my hair was rinsed out completely or not! Haha then when I went to sit on my bed it sunk! So my head and right side on my body basically was tilted down! It was definitely an adventure in that hotel!!

I hope they call me on a миссия ミッション Mission!

Mission calls are my favorite! I love how excited everyone is and finding out where people are going. I get the chills and the spirit bears witness to me of the truthfulness of the Gospel and the work that these wonderful people will be doing. We have had 7 mission call openings and that is only the beginning!

On Sunday the 27^th  there were two mission calls received, two girls that are absolutely amazing and will make some of the best missionaries. McCall was called to the Minnesota, Minneapolis mission! And Tori (yes there is another Tori) was called to Japan! They had both already opened their calls via Skype with their parents but it was still super exciting and there were definitely tears shed. Before they even read their calls we all sung called to serve and that was a really neat experience! They spirit just flooded to room and really testified of the work that these girls were going to be doing.

After Jordan, there were five mission calls! Three on Thursday the 31^st, one on Friday the 1^st and one on Monday the 4^th!! On Thursday there were two guys and one girl. Preston had already opened his call because his parents emailed it to him. So he had known for about three days and wasn't going to tell anyone until we got back to the center! I don’t know if I could have kept a secret like that for so long! It is crazy!! So when we got back, John’s and Cara’s calls where both waiting for them here! They were both super excited and we were all crazy excited for them! As it turns out, there was a member of the presiding bishopric and some other church employees that where here. We were originally going to open it in the shekel shack (the student common area) rather than the oasis (the cafeteria). Well, our special guests wanted to hear the calls so we all gathered in the Oasis. We sung called to serve again which was just as amazing this time as it had been the last!

 Preston went first and announced that he was going to the Moldova, Romania mission, Russian speaking and leaving on May 8^th. They John went and he got his mission to the Baltic mission, Russian speaking and leaving on May 8^th! We all about freaked out!! I can’t believe that both of them leave only 10 days after we get back from this trip and they could possibly be in the same district or even companions while in the MTC! I think that is great! Another really neat thing about Johns call is that he is going Russian speaking! He has had three sisters go on missions. They have all gone to different missions but they have all spoken Russian, and now he is no exception. He will be able to speak Russian with his sisters all the time when he gets back I think that is super cool!

After the boys it was Cara’s turn. As soon as she got up there the water works started! I just couldn't hold it back! She is absolutely amazing and she is such a great example to me! Anyway so when she got up there she could barely read her call she was so excited and she ing going to Fiji!! And she is speaking Fijian which I didn't even know was a language! Haha but I am so excited for her! The next morning it was Lizzie’s turn! She opened her call that morning with her parents and then announced it after class! She is going to Taiwan! I think it is really cool because she already speak mandarin so she probably will not have to be in the MTC for very long! On the 4^th Michelle opened her call and it turns out she is going to Japan as well and reporting the same day as Tori. Even though they aren't going to the same mission they will also be speaking the same language and could possibly be together in the MTC! I think that is amazing!!

I just love that so many people are going on missions! It is a true testament that the church is true and that we are here to spread the good word of the gospel.

1/27 West J

West J is totally different from the old city! You feel like you just went forward in time! West J is totally modern! There is a mall (with an American Eagle I might add) and there are modern buildings and it is just crazy the difference. Of course in order to get to West J you have to go through the old city but that is always fun. We just walked through. We went to shabban’s shop again cause a lot of the people in our group hadn't been yet and they got to dress up! It was nice to just walk through and it was kinda funny because there was a black out while we were walking through so the streets where really dark because none of the shops had light! It was definitely an experience! 

Once we got out of the old city we just decided to explore West J. As we were walking down the main street we found this bakery called SamBooki That was soooo super good!!!

After that we found this park that was the funnest thing EVER!! They had a bunch of stuff to play on that I had never seen before and it was just a blast! We just kinda walked around west J cause we didn't really have a plan but it was kinda cool just to watch the people and see the difference between East and West Jerusalem.

That night we met up at Jaffa Gate with some other people from the center to go get dinner in West J. The rule of the center is that you can’t be in the old city or East Jerusalem after dark but you can be in west Jerusalem after dark as long as you take a cab back and you are back before midnight. So this was the first time that I had stayed out of the center after dark and it was cool. We went to this burger place cause a burger just sounded super delicious! We started out in a HUGE group but only a few of us split off to go get burgers. They were pretty good but they were definitely different then in the states. They where Kosher! I really learned the meaning of Kosher that night because I didn't realize that they drain all the blood from the meat. Because of that, the consistency of the meat was almost weird and it just wasn't as good! Even though it could in no way be compared to a burger back home it was still pretty good!

After dinner we went for a walk just around the city, to go get some Gelato. On our way down the street there was this guy selling puppies! So of course we had to stop and hold the puppies! You can’t walk past a box of puppies and not just want to adopt every single one of them! We all wished that it were possible to get one because they were so freaking adorable! Anyway so after that we went to get some gelato! Oh my goodness this Gelato is sooooo freaking good! It was the same place that we stopped at during the walking tour but I decided to actually try and get some! It was super delicious! This time I got snickers but I wish that I had gotten the mango because it literally tastes like you just cut open a mango right there! It is soooo delicious!

After freezing to death being outside and eating our gelato, we ran into the rest of our group who had an interesting experience during dinner. They went to this pasta place that one of our security guards goes to all the time. Well while they where there someone left a bad in the street. Here in the middle east you don’t just leave a bag lying around and I will explain why. While they were inside the restaurant they noticed that the police where blocking off the street and no one was allowed down. They were really confused but didn't think much of it until they heard an explosion. If there is a suspicious object (such as a bad) just lying around, here they are not going to check it out, they just blow it up. Haha so our whole group got to witness this take place! I wish I had been there but it is a kinda neat story to tell anyway.

After meeting up with them we decided to see if we could go find some clubs because there were some people in our group that wanted to go clubbing. Well what we didn't really think about was the fact that it was only 7 o’clock. Haha we felt pretty stupid after that and we decided to go home. Since we aren't allowed in East Jerusalem after dark we have to take a cab or a van home. There were like 28 or so of us so we called security and ordered a van. It was kinda neat to have that experience and get to go out after dark. I think that I will definitely do it again!

Home cooked food!!!!!!

On Sunday the primary president invited all of the primary teachers and workers to her house for dinner!! It was my first home cooked meal since I have been gone! It was soooo good!! It was pasta and bread and just normal food but it tasted sooo good! I think it was so good just because I haven’t had home cooked American food in so long haha. It was really fun! It was cool to hear all about why the presidency is here in Israel and all about them! I mean it is just like a regular ward but for some reason I feel like it is different because we are in another country where there are no missionaries and there are so very few members of the church! It was a neat experience and I am soo grateful that I get to serve in primary!

Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho!

Thursday, the 24^th, we went to Jericho!!! Jericho is the oldest city in the world dating back 11,000 years. The tower in the old city of Jericho dates back to 9000 BC. It is also the lowest place on earth, about 1300 feet below sea level. So now I can say that I have been to the oldest and lowest place on the earth.

 It was really cool place to be to think that I was in the place where the oldest building has been found. There is a tower there that was recovered that was dated back to 9000 BC. It is amazing to me to think that the tower is still standing!

While there you can also see the wall that was believed to be the wall of Jericho. The wall to Jericho had two different parts. There was a bottom portion that is made out of stones and a top portion that was made out of mud bricks. The stone portion still seems to be standing. The top portion (which is the portion that would have fallen when Joshua was there) can be seen in a pile of bricks. There is a lot of dispute between archeologists about whether or not this was the wall during the time of Joshua and Moses. Even though there is a lot of argument between them it seemed to me that it was most likely the right wall. I really think that was the wall that fell at the time of Joshua. It was really neat to actually be there and talk about the story. I mean when you read through the scriptures at home it is really cool but there is something special about being at the place where the story happened. I know that many of the places are just believed to be the place and we don’t actually know but so far everywhere we have gone has felt like it was the real place.

The little pile in the bottom left hand corner is the pile of bricks

Before we left for Jericho we heard that Jericho is also supposed to have the best bananas in the world so….we decided we needed to try some. Some of the guys bought them and one of them let me try one. It was super good! I mean I don’t’ know if I would say that it was the best banana I have ever eaten in my life but it was super good!

Reagan and Spencer

We also had an adventure where Spencer accidentally dropped his fieldtrip manual in the water of the fountain at the front of the city. It was really funny (and his manual stunk pretty bad hahaha)

Spencer squared

After we went through the city we went to this spring. It is called Elisha’s spring. This spring is mention in 2 Kings 2:21-22 “And he went forth unto to spring of the waters (Elisha’s spring), and cast the salt int there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.” The water flows from the spring at 100 gallons/minute. It is crazy that it flows so much and for so long. It was pretty cool.

After that we went to an old sycamore tree that Bro. Judd (my Old Testament teacher) called the Zacchaeus Tree. The tree was named after the story in Luke 19 which talks about Zacchaeus, a publican. Zacchaeus climbed on a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus. It was a beautiful old sycamore tree that would have been like the one Zacchaeus climbed. It was neat to see!

After that we went to Herod’s winter palace next. It was really cool. We stood on top of this little, I guess you could call it a hill, and we looked out over the tel of where his temple was. His temple was actually three portion connected by two bridges across Wadies. We were standing where the middle one would have been but there wasn’t really much there. We were looking out over the portion that was the main portion and it was really really cool. This is the Palace in which Herod ordered the death of his brother and also where he would die. While there, when we were climbing up to the top to look over, I may or may not have cut my toe on a rock. It didn’t hurt to bad cause it was just a little cut but it was bleeding like crazy! I can’t believe that one little toe can bleed that bad from a little cut. But lets be honest, I am super accident prone anyway so I was bound to get hurt at some point or another. Haha J

After Herod’s temple we went to my favorite and least favorite place of the day. We went to the Wadi Qilt which is where the road from Jerusalem to Jericho is. This is the road that Christ would have taken and also the road on which the story of the Good Samaritan would have taken place on. It was my least favorite part because in order to get up to it we had to walk on this little path that was basically on a cliff. It was terrible only because of my fear of heights. If I wasn’t such a pansy I am sure it would have been absolutely beautiful. There was the monastery that was built right into the side of the cliff which was pretty amazing but still…just a little too high for my liking. Besides that, it was awesome!! It was sooooo cool to go to the place where the Good Samaritan took place. It was neat to be where it would have taken place and now I can picture that place in my mind. It was a super cool experience! I even took a rock from there to keep haha.

Another thing that I noticed was the bedewin people. I guess I had never thought about why the bedwin tribes where different. But when driving to Jericho it was very evident. They literally live in tents. It almost looked like shanty towns when we drove past. Of course they were not living in boxes like in the states or we did at school, but they almost seemed like shanty towns. They live a pastoral lifestyle and have to follow their herds to wherever they can find a place to graze. I guess in my mind I just never made that connection until we were driving to Jericho and you could see where they lived. It is crazy to think that they live that way when there have been so many technological advances. I commended them for sticking with what they know and what they have been taught. I commend them for not giving into what the world is offering and that they continue to work hard for what they have. I don’t think that I could ever live in a tent for my whole life but I commend them for doing it!