Shalom!
So in the last post I completely forgot to mention Halloween. I had the exciting experience of celebrating Halloween in a Jewish country and it was awesome. A group of us international students got all dressed up and went to our favorite local bar The Irish House for a Halloween extravaganza. Irish House always has bogo wine and beer on Sundays and Mondays so we usually pick one of those days to get together as a group and go out. Halloween was conveniently on a Monday this year so it was perfect. There was face painting, Halloween decor, and costumes everywhere. Me and four other friends dressed up as Lonely Island songs. I went as "Like a Boss." Some other featured were "Lazy Sunday", "Captain Jack Sparrow", "Dick in a box" (they wrote Richard Nixon inside a shoebox, pretty hilarious), and "I just had Sex." Lucky for me, I looked like a classy business women. Classy Halloween #forthewin.
First American Holiday in a foreign country = success
(I'm interested to see how Thanksgiving is going to turn out).
The rest of this post is going to take place on an adventure through the Galilee.
I went on a study tour of the Galilee on the 6th of November with some students at the University. The trip was to target contemporary Israeli issues but I just wanted to go really close to the West Bank and be around where Jesus grew up. We first passed through the Valley of Jezreel which contains the Valley of Megiddo. AKA where the end of the world will take place. Mt. Megiddo in Hebrew is Armageddon. So that's where the word we use is from. After our preview of the end of times we made our way to Mt. Gilboa. Here is where King Saul was defeated by the Philistines in 1 Samuel. It's also located extremely close to the West Bank. So, like any adventurous group of college students, we got as close as we could. Due to a barbed wire electric fence we couldn't get closer than like a mile from the border but it was still pretty cool being able to see into the West Bank. I may or may not be visiting for real in December.
shhhh.
After we got down from Mt. Gilboa we made our way over to the Israeli/Jordan border. Also known as the Jordan River Valley. We stopped at a memorial site for 7 teens who were shot by a terrorist right near the border. It's sad that people can be so cruel. We were also like ten feet from the Jordan border (right next to the electric fence) but having been to Jordan already, I felt like a champ. I caught a glimpse of the Baptismal spot of Jesus on the way to Tiberias. It was through a bus window so it wasn't very clear, but I hope to go back to it soon. While in Tiberias we visited these heated water springs. They were steaming in the crisp air and it was actually really cool. We then took a slight detour to see some ruins from an ancient synagogue. There was a huge mosaic on the floor that showed pictures of menorahs, Roman Gods, and a horoscope calendar. Apparently, it's a pretty big deal.
Next stop: food.
I enjoyed some falafel in a pita (topped with french fries and chicken nuggets (shnitzel)). It was delicious. And on the way out of the city, I couldn't help but drop 3 shekels (about 80 cents) on a massive powdered doughnut. SO worth it.
On our way to our next destination we passed by the beautiful Kineret (Sea of Galilee) and also by the Mt. of the Beatitudes. It was so cool being able to actually picture the Sermon on the Mount. The next stop was an old Kibbutz where women were first allowed to work in the fields. It wasn't my cup of tea but it was interesting none the less. Our last stop on the tour was another pretty kibbutz that had a history in Israel's wars for independence. We went on top of a look-out that was dedicated to the owner's son who died in Lebanon. It was a sad but triumphant story and just another reminder to us of the terrible things that still happen here as Israel continues to fight for their rights as a state.
Stefani
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