Almost Finished. Crazy right?

Geeze. So we're a week and a half away from coming home. It is crazy. Really. I can't believe how time goes by so stinkin fast when you're trying to get so much out of life. So anyways, i'll catch up through photos. Between the time I really blogged we've been to Jordan and spent 10 days up in the Galilee. It is so crazy how much we go here. But it is an incredible opportunity.

We'll start out with Jordan:

 Sophie and I at Gerash. Look Familiar Mom and Dad?

 This is Rachel and I at the temple to Hercules in Amman, Jordan. I'm trying my best to look strong. And Greek.

 Ok- THIS is the coolest place in Petra. Mom and Dad, i'm bummed we didn't get to see it last time, but it's crazy. I'll have to show you more pictures when I get home, but due to some restrictions... and a little bit of snooping, I will refrain from posting the actual picture. I'll explain.

 THIS is how cool this rock is down in Petra. This looks like a senior picture. Awful.

 

 This is Katie and I at Philidelphia Theater in Amman, Jordan.

 Then we came back to Israel and continued our awesome adventures down in the West bank.

  We went to The Herodion (as shown above- Yes that is a man made mountain that Herod the great decided to build and put his crazy palace on top. Herod is crazy and I will sing that song till the day I die), Bethlehem, and shepherds fields which were all so incredible.

 Then we went on another field trip learning about the separation wall. This particular part of the wall is kinda for media and propaganda in America. Note: ENGLISH graffiti. They don't speak English here.

 This is Michael Barlow, Will, and Me in front of the Russian Orthodox church of Mary Magdelene on the mount of Olives. So cool! That is the one that looks like golden onions on the Mt. of Olives Mom and Dad. It was cool.

 So this is actually the night of the Jerusalem bomb scare. Notice we look quite shaken... NOT! haha. But this here is the Jerusalem Center Prom. Oh ya. We had prom. But Rachel and I were assigned to go with Michael.

 Here is our funny couples picture. Wow.

We were trying our best to make it awkward. I think we succeeded. 

And NOW.... drum roll.... GALILEE!!

This is a crazy pretty first view of the Sea of Galilee from Mt. Arbal.

 This is Emily Maddox, Amy, and me rafting down the one and only Jordan River! it was stinkin funny.

 This is my top notch crew. We conquered that river! Lo was our capitano, Emily and Amy were our cheer team, Katherine was there to make us more sophisticated, and I of course was the muscle and comic relief. Also happened to nail BOTH amy and Emily in the head with my oar at one time. Not intentional. I just really needed to recover my flip flop. Turns out Jed Jones becomes a hero in these types of situations and jumps in the river to save my poor dollar flip-flop. Thanks Jed.

 This here is our view from the branch building in Tiberius. We had an amazing experience there. During our meeting, we just happened to be watching first hand a tempest raging outside on the sea, and during the closing song (master the Tempest is Raging) it cleared over and became this... 

The most incredible view i've ever seen. 

 Then we had a field trip starting off with a boat ride across the Sea.

This is a boat that was recently discovered during a very dry season on the banks of the Sea of Galilee. They date it back to the time Christ. Pretty incredible!

 This little gem requires a little bit of explaining. We are standing in front of a rock face and some caves near by the Sea. This is the place they traditionally believe to have been legion's cave where he lived before Christ rid him of his devils and sent them in to a heard of swine, which then proceeded to storm into the Sea. Hence- the pig faces. (Kaylin, Sophie, and Me if ya can't tell... hahaha)

 So then, after a good half day field trip, we went on a hike through the Golan Heights. We were only about 3? Km from the Syrian boarder on this hike, which was cool. Also, we just happened to be hiking after some crazy rain storms the previous day. It was super duper muddy! We were packin along a couple good extra pounds on our shoes the whole hike. It's a miracle I didn't eat it hard.

 The crew!

A pretty little water fall near the beginning of the hike. Later on, we were able to swim in a FREEZING waterfall, but I didn't get any pictures of that one. hopefully someone else did!

THIS WAS AMAZING. I loved the sunsets at Ein Gev. Ah man. 

So let me tell you a little bit about this picture. This was actually one of my favorite moments of all Galilee. This picture is a picture of all of the prayers written and dropped down the grate of a church up on Mt. Tabor, one of the supposed sites of the mount of Transfiguration. We were lucky enough to get a very rare tour ( not even the other class got it- our teacher, Bro. Schade, Speaks Polish and made friends with a priest there.) He led us down to this Byzantine foundation of the church, Which if you've been to one of these churches, where everyone kisses the pretty shrine on the floor because it's closest to what's underneath? We got lucky enough to actually GO underneath. So these are the written prayers people slip through the grate along with money and such. The priest said- go ahead! Read some if you'd like! I felt a little weird about it, because if I was that person who's letter some random college student was reading, I may feel a bit weird about it; but it ended up to be an incredible experience. I read some of these prayers and tried to imagine this person who was writing this. You can tell so much about what a person really values and thinks about when you read a prayer from them. People are incredible. It made me think a lot about what my prayer would say? What is important to me? If I had to write a letter asking God about things, what things would I put at the top of my list? It was a wonderful experience.

This is actually an authentic mud-brick gate that dates back to the time of Abraham. This is the city of Dan, which makes up the northern boarder of Biblical Israel. This is the place Lot would've been captured and taken into captivity, and near where Abraham made his rescue mission. Cool story.

Behind me is the Syrian boarder. Pretty incredible!

Me and Niel! See? Demascus was only 60 km away!

Jordan, Sophie, and I overlooking the Jezreel Valley from the top of Mt. Carmel

Sophie and I. Our last dip in the Mediterranean for a while. I'm gonna miss it for sure.

But here we were at Caesarea Maratima on our way back to Jerusalem. Crazy how fast 10 days goes when you're in Galilee! Oh Galilee, sweet Galilee, where Jesus loved so much to be! :)

Here's a group picture with the one and only Shaban. Hahah. Funny.

Here we are at Rachel's tomb... with Rachel. This place was super interesting. So the dividing wall's boarders were actually changed to wrap Rachel's tomb into a middle ground so that Israeli Jewish women could come here to worship. They regard Rachel very highly, and go there to pray for fertility. It was a very emotional place to say the least. I have to assume because of the suffering of those women who are there praying for a solution to their problem, but not sure. It was a neat place though. 

So I guess that's a super quick catch up of my going on's of the past month. I'm sorry I have been so terrible. It's just so fast here, and I hardly squeeze in sleep sometimes. But i'm loving every crazy minute! 

I love you family, and I am so stinking excited for Patch Family Christmas 2012! I mean, we do have to live it up before the world ends right? According to the Mayan calendar that is... hahah. Love you guys! I'll see you in 10 short days!