Tel Arad, Beersheva and then Jericho!

Wooohooooo! It's been a great week!  I don't have any pictures, but this week we went to the Garden of Gethsemane for the first time. It was beautiful and spiritual and incredible.  I loved how beautiful it was.  I hope we can go again soon and I can take pictures.  It was a really, very sacred place. We were there just before sunset.  It's hard to describe in words.
Hmmm. What else happened that I don't have pictures of?  Ah. Yesterday I went to the beach at Tel Aviv! We stayed basically all day.  It was really fun and the water was so warm!  And blue-green!  The waves got super intense for a while and they made us all swim back to shore.  Don't worry about me though, Mom.  It was only up to my waist, I took a million years of swimming lessons and I'm the most cautious person on this trip. haha(:
 I went with some friends to Old Jaffa (Tel Aviv is fairly new, established in 1920 ish I believe, but Jaffa is the port city that's ancient. In Jesus' time it was called Joppa).  We got to eat calamari and shrimp at a restaurant on the docks, and watched the sun set over the Mediterranean.  It was super pretty.  But I liked Gethsemane better (: And the Western Wall...and all of Jerusalem.  There is a time for the beach, and a time for Jerusalem.  But they both are super fun (:
Here's the part where all my friends start to get bored of reading my posts about ancient historical places (: Hahaha but now I will know who my friends truly are (;
So! Arad and Beersheva!
Here's a little history.  A tel is the location of a city that has been destroyed and rebuilt from the rubble many many times until it's a sort of hill.  Jerusalem is a tel, and so are Tel Arad and Tel Beersheba.  They're both in the scriptures and they're totally cool.  They are located south of Jerusalem in an area called the Negev, or "dry place". Basically desert wasteland/awesomeness. (Haha only a select few people get this excited about going to the desert.) It was the best day to go because it wasn't anywhere near as hot as it usually is! I wore my floppy hat and was perfectly content.
Beersheba is the well that Hagar found when she was wandering in the wilderness after she and Ishmael were cast out by Abraham.  She prayed and the Lord "opened her eyes" and she saw the well.  Awesome, right?  Tel Arad is also pretty cool because it is the place where archaeologists have found ruins of a temple that is very similar to the temple at Jerusalem.  They have even discovered a room that is like the Holy of Holies. It's a really amazing place.  The voices whisper out of the dust! You better believe it.

Oh here's a great story.  I thought I left my camera at Beersheva....I thought for sure I just left it on the bus, but security checked it three times and it wasn't there.  So I assumed it had been left behind at Beersheva, and it was a horribly sad day (I've never actually had a sad day here until that day...so it was extra terrible) and it took me a week to get over losing my precious camera. I sorted it out with the Lord and learned my lesson and told Him I would still be happy living my dream without it.  And then this morning the security guys were super excited to show me that they found it!! On the bus, just like I thought it was!!  The Lord must love me so much I can't even believe it. Aaah I still can't get over it. That was this morning.
Anyways. So today we went to Jericho! And it was only a half-day field trip, and we don't have any more classes!! So I can do something besides study! Wahooo!!  So here's the update on Jericho.  You know, it's the city where Joshua made the walls come down. Anciently, it was known as the City of Palms, and it is definitely not a desert (Speaking of which, do you all think I live in a desert? Because the Holy Land is definitely not a desert. This place is beautiful). It's an oasis, and it's one of the greenest places I've ever seen, next to New Zealand. haha.  It's gorgeous.  Palm trees and fruit and things everywhere.  It also claims to be the oldest city in the world, and the lowest elevation at 1300 below sea level.  Jerusalem is like 2600 above sea level, and they're only 17 miles apart.  Isn't that crazy?  We chewed gum so our ears would pop on the drive down.  

This picture is of me climbing a tree like Zaccheus did in New Testament Jericho. He was short like me (: He's got a pretty cool story! Look it up (;
and one more for the road: We went to the Augusta Victoria church a while back, and they have a replica of the Ark of the Covenant. pretty sweet huh?  And we just watched Indiana Jones on movie night. it was pretty fun.

That's all for today folks! I'm glad you stayed with me this long hahaha. I can't wait to go to Turkey in two weeks and take a thousand pictures! And I need to take a million pictures in the city streets in Old Jerusalem. I don't usually take pictures there, because you kind of have to be on the lookout all the time. So I'll bring my camera soon and you can see some of the shops and their wares.  It's my favorite place to be (:
Love and miss you all to pieces!
Love always,
Rapunzel.