Crazy Fun Times

Wow, it has been a long time since I have posted anything so I thought it was high time that I did. However, since there has been sooo much that has been going on recently I will just recount the last three or four days which could take me a while to do anyway. So, on Thursday, October 6 we were able to take an optional field trip into Jerusalem to walk around and observe everyone getting ready for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles. It was amazing walking around a market and observing people yelling and trying to buy food for Sukkot. It is not every day that you get to hear people talking in Hebrew, Arabic, English and a variety of other languages. It was also interesting to see all the different sights, there were people selling fish, fruit, nuts and pita. The sights, sounds and smells were amazing and overwhelming. We also went to a Jewish market where everyone was buying their lulav and etrog to worship with during Sukkot. We then walked through Meash Jearim(sp?) which is possibly the most orthodox Jewish community in the world. It was an awesome night, just to see the anticipation and preparation for the holiday. On friday we had classes all day, but in the evening we were able to build an IBEX sukkah. A sukkah is a tent that is built during sukkot to remember the wilderness wanderings of the Jewish people. We had a great time building and decorating it. At one point I got to climb a date palm tree and cut off dates to put in our sukkah. I got stabbed by the tree a few times for my efforts, but it was all worth it in the end. We then had chapel that night out next to the sukkah. On saturday we went to Jerusalem assembly for shabbat services and afterward Abby, Hannah and I did some shopping in the old city of Jerusalem. It was a lot of fun and nice and relaxing, plus we got a lot of good deals : ) Sunday was an IBEX work day. All of the IBEXers were split into teams and each of us did different jobs around the moshav. The team that I was on got to go and harvest grapes in a vineyard near the moshav. It was hot, dusty and sweaty but a lot of fun. It was so neat to be able to see the illustration that Jesus gave to His disciples in John 15 right before my eyes. I am able to understand it soo much better now and when I get back if you ask me about it I will tell you all about it. It was also interesting experiencing a full day's work in a vineyard. It is definitely hard work! It wasn't all work though. Our team had to ride in the back of a truck to go to and from the vineyard and at one point, Uncle Randy's team ambushed us with water balloons and a hose as we were driving by. Needless to say, that meant war . . . At the prompting of our professor, Bill we filled up buckets and water balloons and snuck up on the other team and by a bold offensive manuver we were able to capture their hose and completely soak most of the members of the team (including uncle Randy tehe!) Once we were done with that we went back to the vineyard and completed the work day. When we were done picking grapes, we brought back what we had picked and put them in the replica of a Bible times wine press and then we all got to smash the grapes with our feet. It was soooo much fun, there was a lot of laughter and singing and dancing involved and a general good time resulted. We got quite a bit of grape juice from what we gathered, so it was rewarding as well as fun. Once everyone was cleaned up from that we all went to the park on the moshav and had a middle eastern meal where we cooked our own fresh pita bread over a fire. It was sooooo good. Once we were done eating we all loaded up in the bus and went to Jerusalem to spend the night on the roof of the Petra Youth Hostel in the old city. Todd decided that he was going to go for a "walk" and anyone that wanted to come with him could. However, Todd's "walks" include walking across Jerusalem, transversing the Kidron valley and then climbing up the Mount of Olives. In the Kidron valley there are many many tombs, and what do college students do when there are tombs, we climb all over them of course and go in the ones that we can (with our professor leading the way) At one point we climbed through a small gap between rock and the iron gate that was blocking us from seeing 1st century tombs like the one that Jesus would have been buried in. It was pretty funny watching people climb up the gate and then go headfirst through the small opening. In the end it was a long walk, but well worth it to see the view of Jerusalem at night from the top of the Mount of Olives. On our way back we stopped and got pizza in the Jewish quarter and then proceeded back to the hostel where we all collapsed into bed. In the morning we all got up at about 5:30ish to watch the sun rise over the Mount of Olives, which was absolutely beautiful. We then hit the streets of Jerusalem on a quest to find breakfast. We were not very successful, but we were able to find fresh hot pita bread (I have to admit, the pita here is amazing, I will never be able to go back to the cardboard that they call pita in the states) Once we were all filled up on pita we went to the wailing wall to observe the service that they were having for sukkot and also to see the priestly blessing that only occurs every six months. It was crazy how many people were there, when we left there were about 30,000 people there and there were more coming. Once we left there we walked all the way back to the hostel to grab our stuff and get back on the bus to come back for classes. We were all exhausted at this point and in need of a shower, but no such luck, we got back in time to go directly to class. However, it was rather humorous watching people struggle to stay awake in class, some not succeeding. At the end of our land and Bible classes we were able to taste the fruit of our grape stomping labor. Yes that is right, we got to pick and stomp grapes and then drink the grape juice that we had made (after it had been boiled of course). It was so cool! So that is what has been happening here in the past couple of days. On wednesday we leave to go to the Negev desert for 4 days which will be a lot of fun, but very tiring. Thanks for taking the time to read this, sorry it was so long and for any spelling or grammar mistakes that I have made, I don't really have time to do any proofreading right now : )