Week 7: Water!!!!

Hello Friends! Thanks for reading my bloggy. Can I just say right now, this week was the BEST! This is already a summer that can’t be beat! It’s nice to be done with midterms and just party party party!! We have done some pretty spectacular things starting with the Hollocaust museum on Sunday. They have a Children’s museum at the beginning which was incredibly moving. It was a pitch black room with a bunch of lights so you looked like you were in space, and over the intercom the names and ages of the children who were killed during the holocaust were read. Pictures also flashed among the stars. It was like the Hunger Games… but extremely sad because you knew it was real. I was crying so hard I’m glad it was dark. That set the tone for the rest of the day as we went through this incredible museum that led you through the path of Hollocuast. It was extremely informative and moving. Later that day a bunch of us went to the Markets again in West Jerusalem, including the famous Ben Yehudda street. It was a blast!

 

This demonstrates the Zionist idea during the Hollocuast, that of fighting for what you believe and fighting against the bad stuff that has happened to them .

This is the opposite of the first, this is the idea of being passive and just letting stuff happen to you because it's God's will. Both opposite but both huge issues for the Jews during the Hollocaust and still today. 

The Markets! 

This is like the Betos of Israel. A falafel with french fries in it!

Monday we went to Tel Aviv and played on the beach. This was SO MUCH FUN!!! We got to swim in the Mediterranean Sea and play on the beach. We even rented out beach cruisers and biked around. Then a group of us went and got some delicious ice cream! SOOO GOODJ Every single one of us also got sunburned haha. Now we are all officially very tan!

They have these "big kid" play grounds that is really  just a gym in the park. It's hilarious! People actually go though. 

 

Tuesday we studied a lot. But in the evening a bunch of us walked down to West Jerusalem and ate at the yummiest waffle place in town.

Wednesday again was a lot of classes and then we went out and played again, this time we explored the Mount of Olives so just what was around where we live. There are some incredible things just about everywhere you go, there are also an incredibly large amount of different churches and religions everywhere you go. The first place we went to was the Church of Ascension, this is owned by the Muslims but where people believe Christ ascended to heaven. Next we found a Russian Orthodox church and watched part of their service. This was located in a convent which was very interesting to see. After we got kicked out (once they realized we weren’t part of their religion), we went and snuck into another church. Haha. Then we went to the tomb of the prophets where it is believed several prophets were buried. We had to walk through only with a candle, it was pretty awesome. That night we got to meet and talk to a Holocaust survivor, Elias Feinzilberg. He even had his number still on his arm from Auschtwiz. That really hit home after visiting the museum earlier that week.

Church of Ascension 

Russian orthodox Church 

Reflection of the stain glass windows- beautiful. 

All of us with Elias Feinzelberg (middle)

Thursday was another field trip and probably my favorite. We went to see the city of David, the first city that was built here in Jerusalem. Where the City of David was, is where the Temple Mount (Dome of the Rock) and the old city are today. It’s interesting to look at the oldest city walls and then come home and look out on those SAME city walls. We also got to walk in Zedekiah’s cave, a long, tight, low ceiling cave with water running through it. They build this as a water system in the David’s city during the reign of Zedekiah (David’s son) that flowed to a pool at the bottom. Luckily I’m not claustrophobic or too scared of the dark because we walked through a slit of a cave that had water up to my thighs. Some of us even turned all our lights off and did it in the dark. By far the funnest/scariest thing of my life. We also got to see the pool of Salom, which has HUGE significance in the scriptures. Found in John 7 and John 9 where Jesus put mud on the blind man’s eyes and told him to go wash off in the pool of Salom. Once he did, he was healed. Unlike many places in Jerusalem, we know for a FACT that this is the exact location of the pool of salom. After this blind man was healed he came back to his friends and it says he was unrecognizable. Do you know of someone who essentially partook of the living water of Christ and are now a completely different person? I know of certain people in my life who have had such a change of heart that they are different people to me. Overall, I hope I come back from this Semester here in Jerusalem unrecognizable. I hope that I can be changed here into a better person and continue to better myself when I get back.

all of us after the cave!!!! the water went up to our thighs. we were soaked

This is the pool of Siloam, where Christ put the mud on the eyes of the blind man. 

I thought this was awesome!! 

These are our chairs that looked like real pillows but they were made of concrete 

And to top off the great week we had an epic dance party!!!!!! I felt like I was at a stake dance again but it was so much fun!

Last but not least was Sunday- our trip to Eilat where we snorkled and had fun in the sun!!!!

This picture is priceless 

The group this semester doesn’t only study hard but we work out hard. We do running groups every other morning, cross fit three times a week and one of the guards is teaching a weight training class. The faculty told us we are the most active semester they’ve ever had. However, they did cut our ice cream to one bowl on Sabbaths, which stinks because we all love our ice cream! We still find our ways to get more… the cooks like us.