Cheeto Hunt

Greetings from Jerusalem. Or Jericho. Or Beersheba. Or Herod's Winter Palace. We've been EVERYWHERE this week! And we leave for Jordan bright and early this Monday morning.

I want to start this entry off expressing for the millionth time that my mom and I are the same person: she loves Cheetos more than most humans and so do I. This week has been a week of adventure, but I have also spent my days whining about my inability to find any Cheetos. It took coming to Jerusalem to realize that I love them so much.

I started out the week with some sunrise yoga led by Camilla Summers and meditation led by Sawyer. When I say sunrise I'm being completely serious. We never sleep in later than seven here; Sunday we were up at six in order to get in touch with our hippy, earthy sides. My roommates and I weren't planning on going, but when everyone magically woke up at six anyway we ran out of our room with shoes in hand, ran up the stairs to where the group was standing, tripped, and fell down the stairs. I went into yoga thinking it would be a fun thing to say I did and four days later I was still sore. Downward facing dog that pees on a fire extinguisher is my least favorite thing in the world (I know there's a technical yoga term for that, but it didn't stick with me and that's what I imagined we looked like).

Here's our entire group with the sun just barely hitting the city. 

My roommates, Camilla, and me. I'm not sure why I had everyone do a ninja pose.

We all quickly inhaled breakfast, packed lunches, and headed out the door. Sunday is our day off, and we use it to its advantage to experience the city. Our first destination was the famous Dome at the Rock that is very noticeable in all of the pictures of the city of Jerusalem. The dome is quite interesting because it sits on something that is referred to as the Temple Mount or Mount Moriah; that is, the place where the first and second temples were built (Solomon's temple and Zerubbabel or Herod's temple in the time of Christ). I am taking a Judaism class taught by a practicing Jew named Ophir, and in class the other day someone asked why the Jewish people don't simply build a new temple. He responded by explaining that a lot of Jews would love to have a new temple; however, the location of the temple is very important, and the location is currently occupied. Duh duh duh duhhh: the Dome at the Rock. One other interesting fact, Jesus and the apostles taught on the steps of the Temple of Herod often but they did not enter the temple because they were not Levites. 

The Dome at the Rock was constructed in 691 AD because Mount Moriah is believed to be where Abraham was sent to sacrifice his son Isaac, and Islam recognizes Abraham.

I attended a sermon this last week on what happens in a mosque and what the call to prayer is for. The object I'm standing in front of is used by a Muslim to cleanse himself physically before entering the mosque to perform prayers. The call to prayer happens five times daily, and the first one begins at sunrise. 

I found no Cheetos here.

After the Dome at the Rock we shopped until our arranged group meeting at noon. We were meeting at Joppa Gate in order to do the rampart walk. It costs 7 shekels and is well worth it. Basically you walk around on top of the walls that were built back in 1517. The walls from the time of Christ have been largely destroyed, but at the base of the current walls there are large stones that were reused (or are still the original wall) from Christ's period of life. I felt like I was living in a life size version of Zach and Nathan's Playmobile castle sets. I think pictures will explain best.

Lindsay, me, and Chloe sitting in one of the lookout points.

Where your typical sniper would hang out. With a bow and arrow.

Oi, this is looking down outside the wall. I have no clue how anyone finds their car here. Ever.

This is looking into the city from the wall. As per usual, humans like their cable. 

Check it out! I bought some camel leather sandals (if someone can beat Mike to a foot joke they win ten billion dollars).

We finished the walk and ended up with our soccer friends again. The good news is that I think I'm getting better at soccer. The bad news is that camel leather sandals are actually not very comfortable.

Our only communication with them consisted of "BARCELONA!!!" or "MESSI!!!" (Mom, Messi is a really talented soccer player, the kids idolize him).

That night I started thinking I was pretty tired, and so I went to bed pretty early. This may shock my insomniac family but I fell asleep at 8:30. We had a field trip the next day to the southern part of Israel called the Negev. We visited a Bedouin weaving center where woman have come together to support themselves and other people in the community.

My girl J-honey

Lindsay, India, me, Sarah. The Bedouin herbal tea was... unique. I imagine some Cheetos would have made it better. 

Our second stop on our field trip was to a place referenced in the Bible a lot: Beersheba. Beersheba holds a lot of significance in the phrase "from Dan to Beersheba" in that the term suggests the boundaries of what was controlled by the Israelites. 

There's a tel (basically an uncovered archaeological site) in the area where they found an altar and a settlement of sorts. The altar would have been a satellite temple of King Solomon's temple in Jerusalem. Around 700 B.C. King Hezekiah eliminated these satellite temples to preserve purity in the temple in Jerusalem. Which is why I don't feel absolutely terrible about reenacting animal sacrifices on the altar. 

Our last stop on the field trip was to a place called Tel Arad. This stop had significance because of the archaeological finds from the tel: pottery with messages between cities were discovered. Way back when, people's nice pottery vase would break so they would write on it and mail it off to their correspondence. The pieces of mail found in Arad were significant because they contained both Egyptian hieroglyphs and Hebrew writing. Which means that the people were bilingual and that they were communicating with outside cities. 

On Tuesday we had classes. I guess it's starting to seem like all we do is run around the countryside, but I have spent a good portion of eternity in a classroom as of late. I'm enrolled in fifteen credits: old testament, new testament, a field trip class, the holy land in its ancient context, Israel with a focus on Judaism, and Palestine with a focus on Islam. They are super interesting, and we have a lot of really interesting readings that take a reallllly long time. 

On Tuesday we also went underneath the Jerusalem Center building, for being thirty years old this place is up on its game. The center has all of its heating, water, plumbing, and wiring underneath the structure, and the building is suspended on a lot of pillars. 

They gave us some really great hard hats. 

I found Emily's name and signed next to her. Go Christensen twins!

Our field trip on Thursday was to Jericho and it was one of my favorite trips yet. We saw so many really great things. Our first stop was into the old city of Jericho where we saw the oldest dated tower found from 9000 BC. There aren't any other things from a civilization of that time, but archaeologists seem to really love it anyway. I'm really glad there are people in the world that have a thing for archaeology because I would give up digging after a day. 

This is the Neolithic Tower. Writing didn't evolve until about 3000 BC, so this tower predates much knowledge.

Remember the story of Herod the Great? The king who was ultra paranoid that the prophesied "King of the Jews" ie Christ would overrule him, so he had young boys killed? Well it turns out the guy is as big of a jerk as everyone thinks. He didn't have a very strong claim to political legitimacy, so he married a women name Mariamne who was a decendant of the latest Hasmonean ruler and then he murdered her because he thought she was plotting against him. He built up the temple in Jerusalem to gain forced favor with the people. He also went ahead and murdered his brother-in-law because he was popular. Herod had him drowned in one of his pools at his Winter Palace in Jericho. Herod met his demise at any rate: he was described as having fever, itching, gangrene, rotting flesh etc. He knew people wouldn't be upset when he died, so he ordered the chief men of Jerusalem to be gathered up and slaughtered on the day of his death in order to initiate mourning. The plan wasn't put into action when he died.

So Jericho is famous for a few reasons: namely being the oldest city in the world, the lowest city in the world (the city sits below sea level), and having the best bananas.

I just realized I flexed in a lot of my pictures this week.

Low quality picture, high quality bananas

So they also have the best fresh squeezed pomegranate juice in the world. I love Jericho.

Susanna can't keep her eyes open ever. 

So I do have a lot more interesting/fun things to share but I have to pack for Jordan sometime in the next five minutes and get some sleep. We had to stay up late last night because we discovered that Sara smooched one of my family home evening sons from last year (sidenote to Amy... it was Keaton. Ahaha). As a result imma walkin zombie today. I'm just going to add pictures and share a little and I'm out.

Getting in touch with my hippie side yet again. I know I was thinking about Cheetos in this picture. This picture was taken overlooking the road from Jerusalem to Jericho where the story of the Good Samaritan would have taken place. 

Kara and me in front of the road to Jericho again. Notice the really intricate monastery behind us.

Saying goodbye to Lizzie's mullet.

I'm a HAIRCUTTING GENIUS!!! My first time giving a haircut except for the time I cut off my cowlick in seventh grade.

Not Cheetos, but almost equally as exciting.

Oh hey I found a chocolate coconut candy bar addiction. Jordan, I'll bring you one back.

And I think that wraps it up! Have a good week back in the States everyone! I'm off to ride a camel in Jordan. 

Lindee