Saturday, May 10, 2008

Bible Stories and Cautrophobia

I'm so overwhelmed with my blogging! We honestly do 10 things per day that are blog-worthy. I'll try to keep up! This week we went on a fieldtrip to many places relevant in the times of the Judges and Philistines. Here's some photos....
We went to the Biblical city of Lachish. These are ruins from the temple they had there. It's pretty amazing they are still standing!

So I never realized how claustrophobic I am! We went to this cave on our way to a fieldtrip the other day and I had a funny experience. The cave was actually used by the Jews to hide from Roman soldiers. They tried to make the openings small enough that the Romans would have to take off their armor to enter. They did a good job! We got to the entrance and I thought it was no big deal. After three attempts to crawl down the maze of tubes, I decided to wait until the end of the line to try again. You had to crawl around for about two minutes until you got to a big room where we could all sit. I couldn't stand the thought of being in a traffic jam with forty other students. After everyone else had started in, I still couldn't get myself to enter! Finally, I realized I would kick myself if I didn't take advantage of every opportunity offered me here in Jerusalem. I also knew that guys three times my size had fit down the tube. I grabbed my flashlight and did a sprint-crawl through the McDonald's play place-like cave. I was completely freaking out! I got to the room finally and we had a fun devotional about following the light of Christ and making it through the darkness. I didn't hear much because I was stressing about the crawl back out!


A couple of friend and I went to the King's Tombs in Jerusalem one afternoon. We borrowed candles from the owner and explored the 48 tombs! Luckily I had already conquered my claustrophobia.....


A friend and I at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where many believe Christ's body was laid.


Today was our Shabbat (Sabbath) so we walked over to Gethsemane. I loved this verse that was displayed near the gardens.

On our fieldtrip we stopped at a national park that just looked like a desert. We walked down some stone stairs and came into this huge room! It was used as a dovecote (place to raise pigeons) in an ancient city. It was two floors high and had six different corridors!



This is a real olive press! It was discovered underground at an archaelogical site. These big stones are the leverage used to press down on big bags of olives. The juice would squeeze out and collect below.


This is my friend and I posing in the ancient tombs.... kinda creepy


I spotted a zebra painted on an ancient tomb and had to show you guys! Then I looked at a diagram of the tomb and realized it was actually a wild donkey. Lame!


This is the Valley of Elah, where David slew Goliath. Our professor brought slings and we all threw rocks around! Not surprisingly, rock slinging is not one of my talents. I actually hit myself as I wound up and cracked my glasses! Everyone heard and my teacher yelled, "Has someone been hit!?!" Haha I had to raise my hand and tell everyone that I just hit myself. Awesome.

The Holy Land is so amazing. I can't believe I have only been here about 9 days! I have already seen so much. I have to run and pack because I'm leaving for EGYPT tomorrow! So I won't blog again for a week or so. I love and miss you guys!
Allie
P.S. Happy Mother's Day mom! I love you so much! I can't wait to hang out with you when I get home! Let's go get some Taco Bell. They don't have it in Israel :)


6 comments:

Kristie said...

Allie you crack me up! I can't believe you hit yourself in the face. OH my gosh, I'm still laughing thinking about it.

Unknown said...

Allie! Man, this looks amazing! Hope your having a great time! What's your favorite place so far?

Unknown said...

hey al! that was bryan and we both u are pretty much amazin! haha...so i miss ya kid. we def need to talk so if u have a min buy a phone card and call me. i love u!

Unknown said...

allie o where o where is my allie? can a brother get a message? u missed the office but its ok cuz it wasnt too great. just dwight told the new girl that kevin was mentally challenged it was so funny. i miss ya send me some love sometime!

Jenner said...

hey allie! i found your blog! your mom told me you were going out there. i'm so glad you are seeing so much. keep having tons of fun and don't get in the way of any slings anymore!

Al and Ash said...

ALLIE!! I'm so jealous!! It looks like you are having a blast, and survived your sprint crawl!! :)