June 7, 2007

~sigh. Time to return to the Center. I love the Center. I love Jerusalem. I'm just going to miss Galilee. Luckily, it's an amazing field trip all the way home to make up for it.

Akko
Here is where Paul left to start his missionary journeys. Other than that, there's really no scriptural relevance. It's mostly Crusader stuff. This is yet another “has everything” tel. Well, except it’s not a tel. Haha. We have water ways, columns, excavations, tunnels, even the earliest found fleur de lis. This was a fun adventure place. I could see how it could be really fun to explore on our own. But I also really enjoyed having a guide. After we left the crusader part, we headed out through the market place. It was rather large with lots of shops. Cats walking through the fish market, a video of fish still breathing (sick! Eww!), and free pita bread from Bro. Merrill later, we ended up at the Mediterranean Sea. This was a fun little stop. People would run out on this wall that stretched out into the sea to get their pictures taken, then waves would rush in and crash on top of them. Hehehe. I hear Bro. Whitchurch’s class got much more wet that we did. But they also spent a lot more time than we did, though. It was fun to take pictures of people dashing across wet rock, trying not to get hit by a crashing wave.

Quote: "That's how you ruin a placed; you just mess it up." - Bro. Merrill

Templar Cemetery
So.. remember back to Bro. Van Dyke's fireside about the history of the Church in the Holy Land. (I'm not sure I spent too much time on this one.) This is where the Templars in Israel that were converted to the Church were buried. At least, 4 of them were. Their graves even say “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” on them. You don’t expect to see that in Israel. I felt like Dad at this site—taking pictures of grave stones. I guess I can’t poke too much fun at him anymore. At one point, Benyamin, Tiffany and I snuck off to a secluded place and sang some hymns. We decided to shake it up a bit and all sang a different verse at the same time—in harmony. It was incredible. I had never before considered such an idea, but it was marvelous. It really sounded like both of the others were singing in foreign languages. I can only imagine what it would have sounded like to someone listening in. This is also the site where I started perfecting the macro setting on my camera. I took one picture that I believe I will love forever of this brownish flower in focus with one of the Templar graves out of focus in the back.

Ceaserea Maritima
This was built by Herod the Great as one of his massive building projects. This is a port city, with the harbor actually being built by Herod. Somehow they figured out how to get concrete to harden underwater. Craziness. Gorgeous. Oh how gorgeous. I love water. I really do. I love watching the waves crash on rocks. I could sit and watch all day long. This place was huge. Even maps I struggled taking pictures of in one shot. We started at the amphitheater where Brad sang for us from Joseph. It was windy, though, so it was much harder to hear him than it had been to hear Bro. Merrill. But I could still make it out. That was impressive. We headed out, and unbeknownst to Benyamin, Rebecca and I, the rest of the class went to the beach. While we waited to go to bus, we found a giant statue of a rock. And had way too much fun with it and the camera. And by way too much fun, I mean Rebecca ended up with holes torn in her skirt. Ehhhh… Oops? Finally, we realized that everyone else was down by the shore, so we headed down there. Bro. Merrill didn’t realize that his headset was broken, so none of us had any idea where he wanted us to go or what he was saying. But we all ended up together in the end. They were still excavating part of it, so we were able to walk on the actual stones and whatnot. I felt slightly guilty, but the workmen were right there and didn’t say a word. So I assume we were safe. Oh, and this was the site of my 2nd ever Coconut Nok Out. Mmmmm…

Quotes:
- "They don’t have ice cream, so we’re not stopping.” – Bro. Merrill
- “My feet are cold and stony.” – Benyamin.
- "This is the funnerest day yet!” – Brad

We got back to the Center in time for dinner. I was pleasantly surprised at how excited I was to be back. But then I remembered how much homework I had to do by 7:30 the next morning. And then the realization hit that it was back to the rigors of Center life. Busy, no time for sleep or homework, yet still expected to function and know the information. ~sigh. Back to "real" life.