Back to Life... Back to Reality

Say it isn't so! I either want to be swept away to another place OR do absolutely nothing, over and over again...

Day 13

The Last big day... Tomorrow, we will still spend the entire day in Jerusalem/Tel Aviv for departure so today is like the last day, really. Since we didn't get to see the Dead Sea Scrolls yesterday, our Selwyn said that we would add it on for the last day. So we began our journey to Massada which meant having to drive along the coast of the Dead Sea for about 45 min. Incredible. It just kept going! Much larger than I thought, but at the same time if you look at it on a man, you can see how large it actually is. Also, it's much smaller today that it was a thousand years ago. Waterline is receding like crazy :( So we arrive to the bottom of the large mount where Massada is and where King Herrod built his palace. Lawrence of Arabia was filmed up there? So it took a huge gandola to take us from the bottom of the mountain to the top (which isn't even as hard of a climb as Cowells Montain to put it into perspective. So we got to the top and it was pretty awesome thinking back to when it was first built and how incredible it was to make the mountain itself part of the palace but what is left to look at just isn't what I expected? There was still beautiful mosaic left on some floors and it is pretty huge. HOw they got all that stone up that mountain... geesh. After that we stopped in Qumran for lunch and shopping. Here we got all our "Ahava" dead sea products. Qumran is where the dead sea scrolls were found in the caves. Seriously right on the dead sea. After that we rushed on over to a beach site to take a swim/float! We only had 45 min to change, float/get muddy/take pictures, shower and get cleaned up. We did it! It was so simple and such a small chunk of time but it was seriously one of the highlights of the trip. So much fun. Falling in the quick sand like pits and getting disgusting water in your mouth, rubbing mud all over you, taking fun floating pictures. It was just great. I loved ever second of it! RInsed the salt off myself and hopped on the bus! Last stop the Israel Museum where they have the "HOLY BOOK Exhibit." Unfortunately, stupid Selwyn took forever with talking too much about stuff I cared less about and that meant that we seriously only had about 60 seconds of exhibit time to talk quickly passed some dead sea scroll writings and that was it, we had to go. Shame on us for not asking him up front where they were so we could skip all his bs. Oh well. We did it, mom did it and it was great. Beautiful trip. What a gift.

Day 12

10/22/10 7:30pm (10:30am PST)

Today wasn’t too shabby. First… surprise, surprise, we visited a church! It was the church where Mary fled to as a refuge in order to protect herself and her unborn child. I believe it was Elizabeth who took her in? I remember something about both Elizabeth and Mary both being pregnant and then Elizabeth’s baby (John the Baptist?) rolls over/kicks or something acknowledging that the other unborn baby in close proximity or one tummy away, was the messiah. I could have butchered that but oh well. After that, we visited Israel’s Holocaust memorial/museum. It was pretty incredible. We only had about an hour and a half there and Talia and I stuck together the whole time (because we were all free to scatter w/out our guide) and we only got through half of it before we noticed it was time to meet up with the group on the other end. Had lunch and that’s when Selwyn, our guide found out that the museum we were going to next closed at 2pm and we found this out at 1pm. We all hurried and tried to eat but we arrived at the museum (that houses the Dead Sea Scrolls) too late L Luckily, we are going to squeeze it into our schedule tomorrow. After dropping by the museum, we headed toward the west bank to visit Bethlehem. I didn’t know that Bethlehem was in Palestinian control. It was kind of scary/cool/intense driving in. We saw the giant sign, as we were driving in, that mentioned that no Israeli citizens were allowed to enter. There we met up with a new guide who showed us through the Church of Nativity where Jesus was born. It was sort of confusing because when I imagine where he was born I imagine a barn with straw and animals but this was a church. The wait to get in was an hour and a half. The parents and me ended up getting in earlier because of the wheelchair but it was soooooo crazy packed in there. We got to see where he was born and then where the manger was/where he slept. So special. After that, we went to a gift shop that was an official stop practically on the itinerary and then we were on our way. It took a little while to get out of Bethlehem because we had to cross what is the equivalent to the Palestinian border where there is heavy heavy security. At this point people were tired and not paying total attention to what was going on outside of the bus, but my attention was definitely awoken when a Palestinian officer walked through our bus with a machine gun in his hands. My stomach dropped. Seriously. It felt unreal. It looked like a toy. Yikes. Finally at the hotel. Looks like I’ll be up late tonight working on a midterm. Damn.

Day 11

10/21/10

Today… Definitely was the most packed with emotional/ beautiful/ historical/ biblical experiences. We got picked up super late from our hotel and were off to a terrible start but we decided that nothing else was going to hold us back. First visited another church. I forget what it was called but it was where Jesus prayed the night he was arrested. Beautiful Olive Trees are planted in front that are well over a thousand years old. Then we were dropped off at one of the gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. We were super nervous because we had my mom and the wheelchair but we were determined to make it happen. First stop… the Western Wall J AKA the Wailing Wall. I wrote my prayers out in the bus on our way there so I had about 4 to stick in the wall. It was heavy. So awesome. Then we started walking through the city/bazaars until we hit the Via Dolorosa where Jesus carried his cross. Oh man. So many steps and uneven grounds. Mom decided she wanted to do it on her crutches instead of somehow being wheeled up the steps. She said if Jesus could do it then so could she. What a trooper. It wasn’t easy. Then we hit The Holy Sepulchre. Now THAT was amazing. Soooo beautiful. Inside was this altar/tomb looking thing that was once a cave but now it’s protected with something around it. It’s where Jesus was kept for a few days after he was taken down off the cross. Then we did lunch and had some more falafel J THEN it was time for our appointment at the Garden Tomb of Jerusalem just outside of the Damascus gate of the Old City. Although it cannot be PROVEN, it is the most commonly believed cite where Jesus was hung on the cross (Skull Hill) In the bible it mentions the “place” where Jesus was nailed to the cross and it mentions a skull. Calvary means SKULL (Calavera). There was some more fun and very convincing facts that would further support that theory. Along with archeological evidence over the years that would also support the theory. ALSO, We saw what it believed to be Jesus’ tomb. VERY near the cite where the believed the cross would have stood. So incredible. After that we went back to Mount of Olives where we did some shopping but it was sort of disappointing because it was quite pricy. I really wanted to get a piece of jewelry that had a widows mite (currency during Jesus’ time) but again… too pricy. Finally arrived at our hotel that we’re supposed to be at the rest of our time here in Israel/Jerusalem/the entire trip. Almost done… So much love.

Day 10

10/20/10

Jordan River! Stopped to visit the baptism site where Jesus was baptized. It was sooooo pretty and an awesome stop. Just watching the people line up in white linens talking into the water, one by one, waiting to be baptized. Sort of emotional, actually. After that we visited Nazareth and the church of Annunciation where Mary was told by an angel about her immaculate conception. Super beautiful. Then we visited Beit Shean and another Roman Theater/National Park. Had some falafel. Yuuummmyyy! Then we headed for Jerusalem passing the Dead Sea, Jericho and then parked on top of the Mount of Olives where we had a beautiful view of Jerusalem and Dome of the Rock and the wall that blocks off the Old City. Then the hard part…. Got to the Grand Court Hotel and they told us that they were overbooked and had no room for us!! We probably waited around the lobby while they tried to figure out what to do with us. Sound Familiar? “Sorry, no room here.” A few of our group members made the Mary and Joseph joke and suggested we sleep in the nearest manger. Finally got settled at another hotel in the Islamic Quarter. Our group including myself…. PISSED! Goodnight.

Day 9

10/19/10 5:30pm (8:30 PST)

So little happened today. I haven’t gone outside AT ALL. I decided to stay in and work on a paper that was due today. Luckily I had a 9 hour head start so I wrote it all “night” US time so it was ready to be E-mailed to a classmate and available for them to print out by the time they woke up so they could turn it in for me. Thanks Brian! I only left the room once to get breakfast. Now I’m thinking I’ll get some dinner soon since lunch consisted of black tea that was already in the hotel room. I’d really like to treat myself to a reflexology massage that the hotel offers but I oughta check out the rates first. Something tells me it may be pricy. Rats. We’ll see. Tomorrow I’ll be back in business, in culture vulture, tour mode.

Day 8

10/19/10 5:30pm (8:30 PST)

So little happened today besides me sitting at my computer. I haven’t gone outside AT ALL. I decided to stay in and work on a paper that was due today. Luckily I had a 9 hour head start so I wrote it all “night” US time so it was ready to be E-mailed to a classmate and available for them to print out by the time they woke up so they could turn it in for me. Thanks Brian! I only left the room once to get breakfast. Now I’m thinking I’ll get some dinner soon since lunch consisted of black tea that was already in the hotel room. I’d really like to treat myself to a reflexology massage that the hotel offers but I oughta check out the rates first. Something tells me it may be pricy. Rats. We’ll see. Tomorrow I’ll be back in business, in culture vulture, tour mode.