A funny thing happened yesterday morning on the bus that I forgot to mention. I noticed, particularly as he was telling a joke, that the cadence and style of our teacher’s voice sounds exactly like one of my teachers from the Jerusalem Center, Brother Skinner. And now I can’t unhear it, haha. But only when we’re on the bus and I can’t see his face.
We started this morning in Nazareth. We didn’t go to the Church of the Annunciation (which is kind of like the big thing in Nazareth) and went instead to a tiny church at the top of the tallest hill that marks the spot where they wanted to throw Jesus off the cliff after he read in the synagogue. This was kind of neat for me, since it was a new thing and I’ve already been to the Church of Annunciation (Mary’s home where she was visited by Gabriel), but I wondered if some of the others felt like they were missing out. Or maybe they found it super exclusive and cool.
Then we stopped at a grocery store, and I got some cow chocolate (IYKYK), and I even got to use the lingering vestiges of my basically nonexistent Arabic! I actually botched it a bit because I had made the checkout lady make change for 100 shekels, and I thought, Dang, I wish I could remember (or ever knew) how to say thank you in Hebrew… But then as the couple (from our group) behind me were checking out, I realized she was obviously Palestinian, because a) she was wearing hijab, and b) Nazareth is actually the largest Arab city in Israel. So I waited till they were done and then leaned over and said “Shukran!” (And she said “Afwan!”) Then I proceeded to repeat to Matthew the two Arabic phrases I ever bothered to learn, which are “I’m [not] married” and “I’m a student at the Mormon University in Jerusalem” [how the JC is known to the community]. Achievement: unlocked.
Today was all about views. We had a view of the whole city of Nazareth. Then we drove past the Jezreel Valley (prophesied site of Armageddon), and then through Haifa. In Haifa we also drove up to the tallest part of the city, which was actually directly behind the cool place I drove by last time I was in Haifa, and we didn’t stop for long, but the view was absolutely incredible.
Then we went to Caesarea Maritima, which is where Paul was brought before King Agrippa. I’ve been wanting to do comparison shots of me in the same places now as I took pictures then, but I couldn’t find the cool arch (which I thought was a wall of arches but now I’m questioning everything), and as I’m looking back at my pictures, there’s apparently a whole other section of beach. But it was warm out, and it’s always nice to be on the beach, and Matthew and I found a different arch to pose under.
I couldn't find the arch where I took the first picture, so we made an approximation
Our last stop was Joppa, which is in Tel Aviv. I’d never been inside St. Peter’s Church that’s there (Joppa is where he had the vision opening the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles), and it is actually gorgeous [I only took pictures of the inside on my camera]. We also saw Andromeda’s rock, which is part of a Greek myth, and which I may or may not have seen before (my memory is so hazy…).
And now we are finally in Jerusalem!!! I can’t wait to get out into the Old City tomorrow!
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