Do we have to leave!?

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Advice to anyone coming to Israel anytime soon....spend as much time in Jerusalem as possible



As we're sitting on the roof of our hotel/convent on our last night in the Holy Land, we are realizing how hard it will be to leave such a spiritually and historically packed place. We've spent two full days touring around Jerusalem and have one more half day before heading back to Tel Aviv to board our plane to the states. Not only will it be hard to leave behind all the cities and sites we won't be able to make it to, but we'll also miss out on the endless information that naturally flows from every place we've gone. But we've come to terms with the fact that there's always more to see, learn, and experience!

We are going to recap the last couple of days as we departed from Huqoq and headed to the great city of Jerusalem.

Boarding the 50 passenger bus with our team of 14 students, we started the journey down south. On our way, we stopped at several sites. The first site was the once great city of Bet'Shian. This was the capitol of the Decapolis back when Romans ruled the land. This city had grand bath houses, an enormous amphitheatre, and an Egyptian fortress up on a nearby hill. This place was massive. A lot bigger than the small village of Bethsaida that we have been excavating for the previous 2 weeks. Next, we went to the oldest known city of Jericho. There wasn't a whole lot to see here, but we were able to watch a video explaining the ancient biblical city. Masada was our next location. This place was pretty sweet. Our next destination was one that Blake and I have been looking forward to for most of the trip. THE DEAD SEA. The lowest point on earth. The famous floating sea that you only hear about in story books. Walking down through the sand, my mind racing...what is this gonna feel like? Left, right, left, right...step by step getting deeper and deeper, is it going to sweep me off my feet? About knee deep, we decided to just sit down and see what happened. Butts hit the water, then all of a sudden, our feet sweep forward. Floating perfectly on our back with no effort at all-Weird. The salt content tore through every single open wound on my body. (wound is dramatic, I'm talking about hang nails, any zit, chapped lips) DO NOT: Get in mouth or eyes. Blake got some on his lips and he was hurting for quite some time. We also got to cover ourselves with some of the famous mud! We are now spotless of any kind of acne. I accidentally mistaked Blake for a woman, but then I realized it was just the healthy mud makeover that he went through. We then headed for the city of Jerusalem to our convent within the Old City of David, literally 100 yards from the dome of the rock. 100 yards!!!!!!!!!!!!!



That's just a sampling of the last few days, but we're gonna hit the hay early to make sure we're alive and alert for our last day and trip home. We'll catch you up on Jerusalem in our next post. See you soon!

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