Ein Karem

Well, today we decided to venture out the outskirts of Jerusalem... After about a 40 minute ride we found ourself in a little town called Ein Karem.  It was such a beautiful little town, it looked like Europe... rain from England, streets like France, and chocolatiers from Switzerland.  We started out the day looking at churches and then we stopped at a place called Greenfield.  Turns out it was the art studio of Yitzhak Greenfield, he told us his life story and showed us some of his work and his impressive resumé, turns out he has work hanging in the Met in NYC!!  I got to spend some time listening to him tell me how he did his some of his works.  It was probably the highlight of the day for me!  After we explored a bit, found a cave.  And then the rain really started coming down so we went and got pizza in a little shop.  After pizza we called for the cab and waited in a little chocolatier's shoppe.  I got some hot chocolate and a piece of chili chocolate (which was divine let me tell you!)  It was such a great day!!  And quick shout out to Elder Farr who is doing great as he finishes up his time in the Brazil Missionary Training Center, we've officially been dating one year as of today... its been a great one and I hope there are many more spent together  J

Left to Right: Laurann, Me, and Hollie at the Church of John the Baptist

Service going on while we were in the church

Where John the Baptist was born into the world

Cal and I in front of the Russian Church up on the hill

The random sign we decided to follow that led us to Yitzhak Greenfield

A couple of us with Yitzhak Greenfield

Piece of art done by Yitzhak Greenfield of the Galilean Countryside... this one is my favorite

 Impressionist Paintings by Greenfield

Church commemorating Mary's Spring

Church commemorating where Mary met Elisabeth, her cousin

Mural of Mary it was probably 30 feet tall!

Front of the church

A little pathway we decided to venture up... it was so wet!

Up the pathway quite a ways we found ourselves a cave!

Me with my hot chocolate and piece of chili chocolate... oh so good!!!

My little message from Blake... aww!

That Big Gold Dome I See Outside My Window Every Day

Everyone is starting to realize here that we only have a month left in this wonderful Holy Land!  And as the semester winds down so do the classes!  We only have 2 classes now, which means a lot more free time for me to go explore this city!  At the top of my list has been the Dome of the Rock and the Ramparts Walk, so I decided to get it all done in one day!  Class ended at 10am and then Hollie, Skylar, Eric, and I went out for the rest of the day and this is what we saw!!

So apparently it’s a rule for the Jews that since they are unsure of exactly where the Holy of Holies is they aren’t allowed to go to the Dome of the Rock for fear of walking in a holy place… good thing I’m not a Jew!

DOME OF THE ROCK!!!

We stopped for lunch at a Schwarma place… not my best yet but still always so good!

After the Dome of the Rock we went on the Ramparts Walk which is a little path on top of the walls that surround Jerusalem, so 16 shekels ($4) later I found myself on top of the world looking down at my peaceful little Jerusalem!

Hollie and I

 I will proudly claim responsibility for the idea and the taking of this amazing picture!  Hollie and Skylar totally PDA-ing it up in the Old City… shhhh don’t tell Professor Kearl

 Jack I’m flying!

 These were the funky window slits in the wall

We stopped for ice-cold Pomegranate juice after quite a successful day!

Gosh I am gonna miss this place!

The Wall...

Today in Israel resides a Separation Wall, completed in 2005, the wall was meant to reduce the number of suicide bombings that were occurring, which it did.  The sad part is that this wall doesn’t the Palestinian neighborhoods completely from the Israeli neighborhoods, but rather cuts through Palestinian neighborhoods dividing families from each other.  Because of this wall many kids can no longer go to school because they cannot pass through to get to a school that was originally a 5 minute walk away.  But at the same time it is because of this wall that suicide bombings have significantly reduced and it is mainly the reason that BYU reopened the JC in 2005 so without it I would not be in this wonderful land.  I feel like there is no answer to this problem, which made this field trip really hard for me.

You’ll notice the messages are in English… these words aren’t meant for the Israelis who put up the wall… they are meant for Americans… we need to do something… but what?

The wall is about 50 feet high with barbed wire on top, its really quite ominous

  

Gotta keep your head up…

The wall and me… I think I have a love-hate relationship with it

So the man in the purple was our tour guide for this trip.  He is a civil rights lawyer in Israel who has worked with the President of the United States on multiple occasions and the Prime Minister of Israel… basically he’s a really cool guy.  He’s also reminded me of my World History teacher Hildy, which was probably why he was one of the first guides we’ve had that I actually could understand and felt interested in what he was saying.

Eating My Way Through the Shuk

So if you walk about 45 minutes from the JC into West J you will find yourself in the Shuk, which is pretty much a HUGE market place where you can buy pretty much fresh anything!  Fresh meat, fresh fish, fresh fruit, dried fruit, fresh bread, fresh pastries… you get the picture!  My friends and I decided we needed something healthy to snack on so we went into the Shuk to find some dried fruit!  I got pineapple, papaya, apricots, strawberries, coconut, persimmons, and mangoes.  I also just HAD to get a fresh roll because who doesn’t LOVE BREAD?  It all tasted so amazing!  I have officially decided I have to live somewhere close to a market where I can buy my food fresh every day, it just seems like such an amazing way to live!

One of many long streets of the Shuk

Yummy spices

BREAD!!

Mouth watering pastries!

Christmas in the Holy Land

Bethlehem Field Trip

Today we went to Bethlehem and saw so many wonderful things about Christ’s birth.  We sang every Christmas hymn probably three times throughout the day.  I loved every second of it because if you know me you know I am obsessed with the Christmas holiday and all it stands for and the joy that cover the world for however  short a time.  We started out the day at the Herodion, which is where King Herod built his mausoleum and his fortress.  We continued on and visited two churches that commemorated the shepherds that had been visited by the angels, and then we had lunch.  After that we went to the Church of the Nativity.  It was amazing to see how many people were there and how each of them truly revered the events that had happened in that place.  We ended the day in a shepherd’s field with a testimony meeting and devotional. 

This is an aerial view of the HUGE swimming pool that Herod built at the Herodion, its also where Herod had his brother-in-law killed… Herod was a little too paranoid for my taste.

This is the fortress on top of the Herodion

Facebook Profile Picture?  I think yes!

So poor Andrew is about 6’4” and always is hitting his head on door frames because people are WAY shorter in the Middle East… this was the first sign this entire 4 months that he was warned about a short door.

Those stones to the far left were stones used for an attack… I wish you could see the entire size of the rock Andrew is holding it was MASSIVE… oh and Will tried to match Andrew but his rock was just a little bit smaller.

Mosaic at the Franciscan Church

I think this is self-explanatory…

 

Inside the Franciscan Church

The Cross of Jerusalem

The Three Murals inside the Catholic Church

 

Lunch… absolutely amazing!!

 

Finally got a keens picture with Lauren and Ellen

 

The Church of the Nativity

 

Everyone waiting in line to go see the shrine of where Christ was born

 

The star is where Christ literally came into the world

 

The manger where Christ laid

 

I love stain glass windows