Blogs from Arad, South District, Israel, Middle East

We trekked up to Tel Arad on Wednesday the 23rd. To illustrate the height of my nerd-dom in the ancient world, the highlight of the day was visiting the Arad house, which demonstrates the typical house layout from the Early Bronze Age. The doorway presents itself on the long end of the wall, and the dwelling had no windows. Ah, you want more trivia about this fascinating site? How about the fact that a small clay model of the exact same dwelling was found within the Arad House, which helps us confirm that this design was in fact a standard design for this time period. Brian (our fearless class instructor) made an excellent point at this site. We read so often about the various types of sacrifices which were performed throughout the Old Testament. Though the ... read more

I just wrote up an entry about Arad and for some reason it was erased. I dont know why. so this is will be short. Arad was the next stop for the first day. Arad is in the eastern basin of the Negev which is above Beersheba. Arad also had remains from a civilization that lived there. there was also a temple on the site which was built by the people there. This temple was much better perserved than the one at Beersheba. You were able to see the holy of holies, and the sacrifical altar. we had fun with the altar. ... read more

Wow. I have not written in a long time. Yesterday Ayal, one of the Israeli guards of my building, the Mercaz Clita, or Absorption Center, in Arad, commented that I always look tired. After telling him that he should stop being such a typical unkind Israeli male, my friend Emily and I had to agree with him. I am exhausted. Constantly. Primarily because I am never ever free. I take 4 or so hours of Hebrew Ulpan (intensive Hebrew language study) 4 days a week. Difficult enough but to add to the difficulty, I am also in a level a bit above me and should therefore be learning at least 20 new words a day to keep up. One of my teachers (I have 2 that switch off without coordinating their curriculums, and am thus being ... read more