December 2010

December was a full month!  We said goodbye to our fall semester students and hello to our parents.  Jeff & Carla arrived on December 2nd full of energy despite their very long trip.  They helped us in the kitchen the next day when we served our final Shabbat meal of the semester.  That night we had a Christmas vespers at a beautiful church - St. Anne's.  The acoustics there are amazing!  Dan and I had the privilege of heading up the Christmas choir.  It was a nice final event of the semester.  The next day a number of the students left for a week in Egypt, others left to catch their flights home and we left for Galilee.

 On the Mount of Beatitudes where we were able to visit with Jeff's cousin, Doug, who lives in Haifa.  

In the 4 days we spent in Galilee we took them to lots of the places we went with our Physical Settings of the Bible class, but we also saw a few new things.  We went bird watching at the Hula Nature Reserve - the Hula Valley is a large valley north of the Sea of Galilee that used to be all swampy until they drained it a number of years ago.  Now it is largely used for agricultural purposes but with a few areas preserved as the original swampland.  This was one of those places and is hopping with wildlife.  Very cool.  We also got rained on while we were there, which was a first for us in a long time!

 

Bird watching at the Hula Nature Reserve

Another new stop for us was to Nimrod's Fortress.  I saw it 5 years ago and wanted to go and we saw it again this year when we were on our field study.  It's a Muslim castle from Crusader times built to fight them off.  It sits aloft in the Mt. Hermon range looking mighty impressive.  We were so happy to be able to go and explore the ruins!  It was a new stop for us and a highlight of our trip.

 Dan & Carla at Nimrod's Fortress

After returning to Jerusalem and spending a few days exploring the city and a day by the Dead Sea, my parents joined us on December 11th.  They came just before a massive sandstorm known as a Khamsin.  The wind was crazy!  It made the air so thick and difficult to see through.  We felt grit getting into our teeth and eyes when we'd walk around.  We braved the weather and explored much of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City on December 12th. 

Dad at the Temple Mount Archeological Park - notice the wind and orange haze

Although the weather started off rough, things looked a lot better a couple days later after we got a bit of rain (almost a rain of mud as it pushed the dirt down from the air).  We said goodbye to Jeff & Carla on the 14th and headed up to Galilee for another 3 days.  A highlight for Dan and I was seeing snow!  I didn't think we'd see snow this year, but we took a scenic route down from the far north to the Sea of Galilee and went through some mountain villages that had snow.  We also got a great view of snow-covered Mt. Hermon.  Beautiful!

Snow in Israel!

Another new thing for me was falling into the Sea of Galilee when we were poking around by the lake at Capernaum.

Boohoo I'm all wet :(

Dad found an ancient anchor or some other kind of weight.  Then Dan found one, too.  Too heavy to bring back, unfortunately.

Two anchors discovered in Capernaum

We had beautiful weather in Galilee.  Our first day the air was the clearest we've seen up there.  We could see so far and had lots of nice views from high spots.  My folks found out why we were gushing so much that day when things were hazier the next few days.  It was in the high 60's/low 70's during our time there.  Back in Jerusalem things continued to be nice and sunny and in the 60's.  We explored the places we hadn't been yet, sent Dad & Mom to the Dead Sea for a day on their own (!), and said our sad goodbyes on the 21st. 

 With my parents on the Cliffs of Arbel overlooking the Sea of Galilee

Since then things have slowed down for us quite a bit.  We went to Bethlehem for a Christmas Eve parade filled with bagpipes and drums - an hour of different groups from local churches all performing.  Our evening was a bit quieter back at the school where we got together with the other people still here for a Christmas Eve dinner.  We had turkey, potatoes, couscous, rolls, and lots of dessert.  It was delicous!

Little drummer boy in the Bethlehem parade Christmas Eve

And Finally, December would not have been the same without our good friend Cameron.  Cameron took us to Bethlehem twice, answered all our parents' questions about Israel and Palestine in more recent history, was our companion all through Christmas and now New Years - helping us to be not as lonely away from family for the holidays.  We've played many games, watched lots of movies, had many discussions, and shared lots of meals with Cameron.  Remarkably he's still our friend even after all my whining during Settler's of Catan!  We are very thankful for his friendship and enjoy his company immensely.  

 Cameron at his desk in the first weeks we were here