His&Herstory: Blog post! Get it while it's hot!!

Joshua fit the battle of JERICHO!

Hey, so I’m a bad blogger. Oh well! If anything, I’ve been putting a majority of my efforts in school. Which has been tough. At one point, someone who did not understand why I was going to Jerusalem told me to, “Have fun on your vacation.” This person is wrong in two senses. First of all, it has not been a vacation. Everyday I learn things that will heavily influence my future students, and the course work has been difficult. Also, this semester has been fun. If you are doing something challenging but you enjoy it, then you can find happiness!

SO. Here’s a recap on the last three weeks. Please forgive me for incoherence or gaps! I’m not here to blog! I’m here to learn!!

So on September 12 we went to Jericho. The pictures you’ve been staring at the last few weeks are from that trip. We were able to visit Herod’s palace, Tel-Jericho, the memorial for the tree of Zacchaeus, and the Wadi Qelt Overlook.

Over the next few days we had fun exploring the city. One day I went out with my roommate Katherine (Israel Kat), Carter and Kali. We invented the “open door policy”. Which means that as long as were sure we won’t get shot, or invade someone’s personal space, we go through open doors and take streets that may be indirect and unknown. This worked well for us! We found beautiful streets, tasted yummy dessert, and had a good experience with street falafels. We of course made our way to Shabon’s. If you are LDS, and a student here you basically fail if you don’t make your way to Shabon’s. You at least fail in the shopping category. Personally, I believe you could survive without going there, but he has a lot of people convinced otherwise. He definitely does cater to the students. When you first arrive, he fashions each girl a little wire ring, offers you juice and a chance to sit down. Every time we’ve been by, there are at least 5 other students there as well. It’s always a pain to sit and wait for the huge crowd. Everyone loves Shabon, and he has successfully outfitted an army of students with genie pants. I got a much needed scripture case from him!!

This little group that I went with also discovered a little known food secret. The sweets are so good!!! Not that many students know or care about trying food while in the city. For 1-3 shekels, you can get a yummy phyla-doughie, honey soaked, nutty treat. We each bought one, then shared. Glorious!! It was perfect after our street falafel, which cost us about 2 dollars!

We also hiked the ramparts walk- which I don't have pictures of, but Daniel does! It's nice to have a backup camera! :)

Here are some pictures from Tel Jericho. Tel basically means a mound of land that has built up from civilizations building on top of the one that was there before. It's like a layers slice of cake, but instead of vanilla and chocolate, you have the Early Bronze Age, and the Middle Bronze Age.

This tower houses the oldest surviving staircase in the world. There are about 23 steps,.

Our Mom's went to high school together!!!

Ancient computer!!

Israel Kat!! This is my roommate Katherine. I believe that she needs a blogpost of her own! Check out that fanny pack!!

Palestinian Jericho. Today there are 4 parts to Jericho. Modern Jericho, Old Testament Jericho, New Testament Jericho, and Palestinian Jericho. We did not visit Palestinian Jericho.

FARM LAND!!!!

Ya my ears popped on the way down!

Elisha cleansed these waters!

Zacchaeus from the NT was said to have climbed up a tree like this to see the Savior. From the text, we know that Zacchaeus knew that Christ was the Savior!