(Almost) The Rest of Galilee

This post'll be pretty heavy on the pictures, but I'm pretty sure you prefer it that way anyway. Honestly, that first field trip was the best one we went on, and even though all of the other ones were awesome, they just didn't really compare. We did see some very pretty places, though! So, here we go!

Day 4: Class, napping, relaxation, fish dinner
The highlight of this day was definitely going to the kibbutz for a fish dinner.

This is my fish:

This is my fish after I finished with it:

It was pretty good, with salt.

Day 5: Gamla and Qazrin

See those ancient ruins on the left side of that hill? That's Gamla:

By the way, my picture's so much cooler and prettier than the one on Wikipedia. It makes me so glad that we came during the spring! Anyway, it's in the Golan Heights, and the name comes from the word gamal, which means "camel" (see it's shape?). Now, I could've walked down to see the ruins, but there was also the option to go hike to a waterfall, and (is this horrible of me?) I've seen a lot of ancient ruins recently, so I chose the waterfall route. I'm really glad I did, too--spring was in full bloom, and the wildflowers were so pretty!

See? Beautiful.

A GQ photo.

Me sitting in the pretty flowers.

I don't have any good pictures of the waterfall, though.

Next we went to Qazrin, and it was okay. Not as fun as Gamla, though. There were some ancient ruins there, and we saw a really cheesy movie about a rabbi-turned-apostate who came riding into town on a horse, on shabbat which is like a rabbi driving to synagogue (both of which are really really bad). That was pretty much it. It was quite the movie. I don't know if it's just Israel or if all tourist movies are like this, but I've never seen so many horrible, cheesy movies in my life. It's great :)

Day 6: Shabbat at Tiberias
Did you know there's a branch at Tiberias? It's tiny--and I really mean tiny--but it exists. That's where we went for church on Sunday. It's held in this Italian-style villa place (and I've been kicking myself over the fact that I didn't think to bring my camera), and the room where they hold Sacrament Meeting overlooks the Sea of Galilee. We didn't stay for Sunday School or Relief Society because that would've really strained the branch's capability (10+80=a lot more than they're used to!), but I really enjoyed Sacrament Meeting. You know those wooden things that hold the hymn numbers? Those were pretty cool, because they had four of them--one for each language spoken in the branch (English, Russian, Spanish, and Hebrew). There actually weren't numbers in the Hebrew one, since there isn't actually a Hebrew hymnbook yet, but they still had the wooden number-holder up there (what are those things called, anyway?).

On our way back from Tiberias, we stopped at Yardenit, which is a traditional Christian site of the baptism of Christ, and where most people who are baptized in the Jordan River nowadays go. I don't know how I'd feel about being baptized there--I mean, it'd be cool, but there are some massive fish! Bro. Huff baptized his daughter there years ago, and said that he almost forgot what he was saying in the middle of it because the fish were nibbling at him.

Oh, so they had all of these signs hanging up with Mark 1:9-11 translated into different languages, and this was by far my favorite one:

I guess this is a real language, and I have to wonder--is there a bible translated into Pidgen? Because I want it!

Day 7: Class, naptime, more relaxation :) (these days were awesome!)

Day 8: Jezreel Valley Field Trip

Okay, actually, I lied--this really was a cool field trip. It started with us going to Mt. Tabor, which is probably the Mount of Transfiguration (the other possibility is Mt. Hermon, but it's out of the way and really tall and covered in snow, and I just think Mt. Tabor is more likely). There was a church there that we went to that had little chapels to Moses and Elijah on the sides, and we talked and sang hymns there and had a little contemplation time. The taxi drivers who drove us up and down were insane, though! The road that goes up the mountain is really zig-zaggy with all of these hairpin turns, and the taxi drivers have driven that same route so many times that they like to see how fast they can take the turns. The first taxi driver even had sound effects and hand-actions--I kind of wanted to tell him to put his hands back on the wheel, though I guess he knew what he was doing.

A cool stained-glass window.

Whitney, contemplating.

This sign was next to a cafe near the church. I really liked it :)

Next we went to Nain, which is where Christ healed the widow's son. I wish I'd taken some pictures there--I don't know why I didn't. Nain is a smaller, out-of-the-way town, and it's kind of a smaller church which is kept by a Palestinian family. If you ever want to have a good discussion on spiritual insights to be gained from the miracle at Nain, talk to me. It's such a great story of Christ having compassion on the "little person" who maybe doesn't feel like they have a big or important place in the world.

After Nain we went to Beth Shean, which also used to be known as Scythopolis. It was a very Hellenized town, and though it's not quite as big as Jerash was in Jordan, it still has some cool Roman ruins--you know, columns, theater, bathhouse. The works.

Gan Ha-Shelosha was up next. I don't think it has any historical significance, but it did have a SWIMMING HOLE! It was a little bit windy, so I guess it wasn't the best swimming weather, but at least the water was relatively warm. There were these tiny fish that would swim around and kind of suck on your toes (which I didn't really mind, though I couldn't keep myself from kicking them away whenever they did it--it felt so weird!), and there was a waterfall that we sat under for awhile that felt kind of like a back massage. There were also way too many local guys wearing speedos, or just plain underwear. Is this an international thing, or do U.S. guys wear Speedos all the time, too? Because I've never seen so many Speedos in my life--Gan Ha-Shelosha, Tel Aviv, Eilat, the Dead Sea... anywhere where we've been swimming, guys have been wearing speedos. It's just gross! :P

Finally, we went to our last stop, which was the Bet Alpha Synagogue. There, we watched another cheesy movie and looked at the mosaic inside (which is kind of different because it has the zodiac sign and pictures of people on it, which show a mixing of Jewish and Greco-Roman culture--technically, synagogues should NOT have pictures of people or pagan symbols inside). Afterwards, we finally got back to Ein Gev.

Oh, and I can't remember exactly which day this happened on, but I bought a two-hour internet card to use while I was there, and on one of these days I checked my email and found out that I GOT INTO THE ILLUSTRATION PROGRAM!!! (I was excited about it, in case you couldn't tell.) So, fall semester I officially start my art classes! It makes the prospect of going back to classes in the fall again a lot easier to handle!

I was originally going to post all of Galilee on this post, but I've had it UP TO HERE with Blogger and stupid formatting problems, so I'll be back soon with another post. I don't know whether it'll be before or after I get home, though (which happens this Thursday!), since I'll probably be keeping myself busy this week fitting in everything I want to do before I go. Then I guess I'll have to catch up on everything that happened after Galilee--snorkeling in Eilat, Palm Sunday, floating in the Dead Sea... shoot, there's still a lot left! Oh well, I'll catch up eventually ;)