Monday Field Trip 9-7-09

Hola! Wait, I mean, Marhaba! (That is Arabic for Hello!) (You guys would say, Marhabteen back to me.)

Now I am going to try to be a good person and update my blog. I feel that I am getting behind, and that is a bad, bad feeling.

So, starting with the field trip on Monday. We woke up, had breakfast, and we on the bus at eight. Our first stop was called "Seven Arches Overlook." It was a mini amphitheater on the Mount of Olives right across the Kidron Valley from the South East Corner of the Temple Mount. We talked about where the Old City of David is and everything, and I even took a picture. It won't upload now, but maybe it will later. Okay, got it to work! (Me at seven arches overlook, you can see the Dome of the Rock behind me in the distance.)

Our next stop was the Augusta Victoria Tower. It's a German Cathedral on the Mount of Olives that is also a hospice/hospital. It is beautiful inside, and has a cool bell tower that we climbed up to and looked in all directions at the valley. Amanda, my roommate played the organ while we were there, and we sang. She did a beautiful prelude to "All Creatures of Our God and King" and then mixed it into us singing, and then a beautiful postlude. It was really really beautiful, and it really brought the spirit. I really enjoyed it. And the bell tower was really cool, cause the bells were huge and really old. It was great! (So, these pictures are of the Bells, at the top of the tower, which are functioning bells, the ceiling with Christ and the symbols for alpha and omega and the apostles, and then a view from the gallery of the Church.)

Our next stop after that was the Haas Promenade Overlook. That was fun, but it was just a hill with a sidewalk that looked south up to the old city. Still cool though.

Our fourth stop was to a Monastary to look at their chapel and also to look at an overlook of Bethlehem. That was really cool . You all know how I love chapels and cathedrals :) Katy will relate. Although at some point the thirst can be quenched, of course haha. Anyway, that was my first overlook of Bethlehem! It was so cool, because we read some passages out of the bible about things that had happened. I think the hardest thing to wrap my head around here is that I'm here! I'm in the places that the Bible talks about! Where people I've read about and know stories about have lived and traveled thousands of years ago!
So, this is me in front of the view of Bethlehem and an Olive Grove immediately behind me. Bethlehem is to the right very back, and is kind of hard to see. I'm holding my field trip manual in my hand, which is what we read to prepare for our site visits. :)


After that stop we went to a lookout point to the north of the city. It is called Nebi Samwill. It used to be a Christian monument to Samuel, but it is now a Muslim pseudo-mosque. It's not really used as a mosque, but they've put in a minaret (a tower to call the people to prayer 5 times daily) and a niche (which is inside the building and kind of like a mini apse in one wall that faces towards Mecca so Muslims know where to bow and pray). It has a cenotaph for Samuel that is in the basement where they allow Jews to come and worship there. There were some there when we were there, it was pretty interesting. The men and women always separate for worship, so we had to separate into girls and boys and go downstairs, it was pretty interesting. There were also a lot of archaological sites around the building, and they showed us some of the rooms that they'd found and that we'd been learning about. It was really interesting. If I can find a time when the internet isn't busy, I'll try to put some pictures up. I love you all!So, this is Nabi Samwill. It's set on a hill, and you can see the Minaret, which is what Muslims stand on (the Mo'azzin - or the caller) to call to people to prayer. We learned the last day of Egypt trip (in the future from this day :) ) that Muslims don't use bells to call to prayer because Christians do, and so they wanted to have their own way of calling to prayer...Interesting, right?