Tuesday, July 31, 2012
today we swept and cleaned the area the whole day..and they took down the shade, so tmr we will be working in the sun..but tmr we will only sweep up in the morning, after which is area photo taking time, and there will be aerial photo shots, so i cant wait to see the remote control blimp that they will be using =)
in addition to that, because we didnt collect pottery today, we have no pottery to wash! yay! more free time =)
7/31/2012 09:51:00 PM
Monday, July 30, 2012
we have been watching movies this week because there are no more lectures (so we can use the projector) and since the weekend ever since the first indiana jones movie we watched last week..we watched all 3 indiana jones alr..yst night, we watched some movie called blazing saddles..no offense to the people who chose it, but it was the most lame/retarded show i've watched..it's some old show..hopefully tonight will be a good show..
been in a pretty good mood this week as well..! counting down the days till i get back to Singapore!
and I was right about one thing..i said that the 6th week here would go by pretty slowly because it's the 2nd last week, and the 7th week would go by pretty fast, because it's time to go home, yet at the same time, savouring the last few moments here..
today is the final day that we have to dig, the next 3 days will be something diff!! and we had to find something exciting..sheesh..makes me think of coming back next season just to excavate that area..
after pottery washing, i went back to the room to take a shower..my roommate has just gotten out, and there was this HUGE cockroach on the shower curtain..i had to go out of our room to ask the people outside if they could help..thank God for chelsea who helped get rid of it..3 more days till end of season! 5 more days till HOME SWEET HOME!
Through it all, Lord, we know you strengthen us =)
7/30/2012 10:45:00 PM
Saturday, July 28, 2012
yst after the dig, keren and the rest went to nazereth..since i alr went, i didnt go with them, so i was supposed to go to tiberias with alexandra, but after doing some research, i realised that it was pointless to go, because most of the attractions closes at 5pm, and by the time we reach tiberias will probably be around that time..so we went to the kibbutz store to get some groceries for the weekend and checked the kibbutz out...we found the farm! they had quite a number of chicken there, cant imagine them being the schnitzel that we eat..there were super alot of cows there! rows and rows of them..there were a few huge stables..so cool! but they were quite smelly as well..after getting back from the store, i met with some ppl and they asked if we wanted to go to afulla to watch dark knight with them, there was 2 more spaces in the taxi..so we did..=)
it was a pretty small mall, the only good things there was the theatre, pharmacy and cafe cafe..we had cafe cafe for dinner, and i ate the dish called shakshouka (dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, chilli peppers, onions, often spiced with cumin), and comes with fresh bread as well..it was pretty good =) and the iced coffee there is amazing! it's ice-blended and just the right thickness and just enough coffee..the best i've had..dark knight rises was good! loved the story line and the action =) the movie ended around 9.30pm..and we had a hard time finding a taxi back because the place was not on the main street, we didnt know what to do for awhile..we called the taxi company we had from the kibbutz, but they never called us back..thankfully we didnt wait for them to call back, we had asked the security guard how to get taxis, and he told us that there was a taxi company down the road, it was 10.40pm by the time we reached the kibbutz..
one of the people i met here is from interpol! cool man!
today, our bus came to pick us up at 5am for the masada, ein gedi, dead sea trip...it took about 2 and a half hours to get to masada..it was bright by the time we reached..but we got to see a little of the sunrise on the bus..anyway, we decided to hike up masada, for who knows what reason..it was the craziest walk up of my life..it's like going up mount kk but worse because there is no shade at all, so the sun was beating down on us..thank God i took like 40min to walk up, and not any longer..was one of the few in our group to reach the top, because the other ppl were walking really slowly, waiting for each other, and some were really suffering..well, i was too..almost died climbing up! crazy climb! when we finally reached the top, thank God they had water fountains there to refill our bottles, i had finished mine on the way up..so we walked around on the site (it's an archaeological site) looking at the different things..the view is amazing from up there! there was a water cistern there that was pretty cool as well..we decided to take the cable car down, and it only took about 2min to go down..why did we walk up!?? but now we can say we conquered masada! =)
after masada, we headed to ein gedi, which was about 10min ride away..it's a national park, and we were prepared to hike up again to chill at the waterfall there..turns out it was only a 15min walk from the start..and the water is absolutely lovely! the water is cold as well, so it was a great relief from the scorching hot sun! it was amazing..while we were chilling out in the cool pool, jeevan,brad, zi jin and adam continued hiking cause they wanted to find the hidden waterfalls, but after awhile zi jin came back saying that it was too scary, they had to walk on ledges and stuff..we stayed there for an hour and a half..it was just super awesome, with the lovely scenary and stuff..on our way back down, we saw a family of ibex!! i was just about to give up hope that we'll see some.=)
we headed back to the bus to go to our next destination, which was the dead sea! we had to pay 45 shekels to get in..the free dead sea place is at ein gedi beach, but there has no mud..anyway, the first thing we did when we went in was to slather mud onto all the exposed parts of the body, including our faces..it was kinda fun slathering mud all over..we turned from white to black =) but after awhile it kinda stings, because the mud minerals is working its way into the skin..it's supposed to be good for the skin..then off into the dead sea we go..! it's really really easy to float..turning yourself facing downwards/upwards is as easy as flipping a patty on a grill..i could even go to the deeper parts, not touch the ground and yet still dont have to move a muscle..also tried walking on water by standing straight in the water and 'walk' towards the shore =)
it was a great time today! hopefully tmr we can head over to tiberias without getting affected by the public transport since tmr is shabbat..
1 more week till home sweet home!!
7/28/2012 02:35:00 AM
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
I have come such a long way..it has been almost 6 weeks since i last left Singapore..the first time that I have left singapore on my own for so long..so far, it's been pretty interesting..but this week has been slow..missing my family and friends in Singapore alot! and my left hand is suffering some sort of pain such that this morning i wasnt even able to use it to wear my shoes, had to use my right hand..but it got less painful as i did some work at the dig site..I tried really hard not to use my left hand today, so hopefully it wont be that bad tomorrow..but i felt so useless because i couldnt do the hard work and could only carry buckets with one hand, which is quite inefficient..hands are really important for excavating..tomorrow is the last day to dig before the weekends and then the final week before going home! I'm ready and have done my best here, can't wait to go home =)
we watched indiana jones the lost ark last sat with a projector, which was really apt for the excavation..it's pretty interesting..my first time watching an indiana jones movie..we're gonna be watching the 2nd and 3rd movie this weekend i think =)
we're going to the masada, ein gedi, dead sea on friday..it'll be interesting..cant wait for it! =)
one thing i wanna thank God for keeping my family safe. A bus hit the car from behind so badly that the insurance agent had to provide another car for them to drive around. Thankfully, no one sat behind that day, if not that person might have been hurt. If I was there, one of us definitely would have been in the back seat. Also, if the pedestrian that my dad had stopped for, had crossed the road, he would have been knocked by our car because the car moved forward due to the impact. So I really thank God for keeping my family safe and that no one was injured in the process!
7/25/2012 09:03:00 PM
Friday, July 20, 2012
excavating has been pretty amazing...so far, we found lots of cool stuff and monumental architecture..i found an awesome huge plate, mostly intact..and another vessel that was broken, but most of the pieces were still there and apparently it's pretty uncommon, matt adams(area supervisor) says it could be imported from egypt or the northern coast..
i also found a japanese coin in the pottery bucket, but it was prob one of the tourist or someone who threw it in..
my eyes are getting better but it's still itchy..yst during the dig it was horrible, i had a horrible morning because of it, even though i was wearing my sunglasses even though there was not much sun, i was dusting the area and the dust got to my eyes..so the whole morning while i was dusting, my eyes were painful and watering..it was horrible...
on sunday, our bus came late to bring us to the dig, and we got half an hour off excavating because of the weather
this whole week is the peak of summer, the hottest was supposed to be wednesday, around 41 degrees (where we got 1 hour off excavating, so we went back to the kibbutz at 12pm instead of the usual 1pm), but i heard from our bus driver today that thu was 43 degrees..
i heard from my friend that when he was taking the train from ashdod, someone asked him whether america has meteor showers, my friend answered yes, then the guy replied that it was similar to israel where they have rockets every 3 hours (or days, cant rmb) in israel..the analogy was so funny!
on wednesday, the hottest day of the year, most of us went to the pool after lunch..they were sorta playing volleyball in the pool..half played, half chilled and talked to ppl in the pool..then when i wanted to swim over to the other end to get out of the pool, because it was nearer to my stuff, i had really bad leg cramp in my right leg..thank God i didnt swim v.far into the deep end yet, i was still at the 1.4m-ish area so i could tip-toe my way to the nearest ladder to climb out
yst was the start of weekends (i cant wait to get back home!)..we went to yoqneam for dinner, a different mall from the one i went to in session 1..here they had cheaper stuff i guess..their fox was having 50% off, so i got a pair of shorts for under 10 bucks! and we had pizza for dinner for 35 shekels, a tub of b&j chunky monkey all to myself for 25shekels..yum yum =) after we came back from yoqneam, several ppl were hanging outside our room, so we joined them for awhile, we blasted music, and some of them were drinking..so we were just chatting and singing songs until monica puked right outside our room..after she cleaned up a little, we decided to move to the pub, which was their initial plan anyway..but when we reached, the pub wasnt open yet, it was almost 10pm, so some of us laid down on the pavement outside the pub to just look at the stars..it's really really awesome! after the pub opened and hanging there for awhile, we headed back..nic got really really drunk, he couldnt walk straight..
today, we headed to caesarea at 8am in the morning..the whole trip there was quite cool, the only regretful thing is that we werent able to snorkle because the sea conditions werent good, even though we could, we wouldnt be able to see anything 4m below, so we didnt go..i was pretty disappointed about it..was so looking forward to snorkling and looking at the amazing ruins below the waters..anyway, our driver didnt know where was the exact spot we wanted to go, he was almost there..it took about 5 min more to find our spot..so we started at one end of the caesarea national park..the roman amphitheater was first, it was not what i expected it to be, and it was spoilt all the more because they were setting up a modern stage there..perhaps we came at the wrong time of the year..then we walked to the other sites, the garden, the hippodrome(where chariots raced), etc..then we headed to a place where swimming was permitted, while walking there, we stopped at a gelato place..the ice cream is really good! i had grapefruit something and belgium chocolate..it was awesome! or maybe cause of the heat as well that's why it was so awesome..anyway, the sea water was not that clean and there were quite a lot of rocks, so we only swam awhile..it was supposed to console myself cause we couldnt go snorkling..and we saw lots of jellyfishes! and some of them were quite huge! well, it is the jellyfish season..then we headed for lunch, which was pizza again, but it was much better than yst's pizza..after lunch, we headed to the roman aquaduct which was quite a distance away, we had to ask for directions which led us to a secluded pathway through some forest like thing but there werent alot of trees, and lots of sand..the sand was super hot because of the sun..walking to the aquaduct took us shorter than i expected to be because we were quite far away..it was pretty cool =)
i know i sound like i was complaining, but i really had a good time..=)
7/20/2012 11:22:00 PM
Sunday, July 15, 2012
the week went by pretty well..we found some really cool stuff!!
the temperature is rising though, the heat wave is here..the peak of summer has come..
we've been drinking loads and loads of water..
and I just had an awesome weekend
thu travelled to jerusalem at 4pm..
met up with gowri and the rest at jerusalem hostel, spent some time with them talking and walking, while my other group of friends went to the bar..
i missed them so much, because out of the 5 of them, 4 are christians..in this session 2 group, out of the 2 of them, 1 is a christian, but she's not helping alot..really have different kinds of conversations between the 2 groups of people..too bad they were going off the next day to tel aviv..
we went to bed after 12am that night because we were out and talking as well..
good thing our roommates went out and didnt come back till around 3.30am
since we booked the rooms kinda late, the 4 of us (zijin, keren,jeevan) had to split up..so zijin and i were in 1 room, the other 2 were in diff rooms as well..our room was called the cave..it's pretty cool..but it does not have a window or a toilet, so we used keren's room toilet..
holocaust museum on friday..we took a tram from our hostel all the way to the end at mount herzl where the holocaust museum was..we also managed to catch the shuttle bus in so we didnt have to walk all the way in..
we went around 8am only to realise it opens at 9am..so jeevan and i had a walk around since the other 2 just wanted to sit down..we went into the children's museum which is really creepy cause they were just reading the names and the age of the children who died, and it's a pretty dark room..2 rooms..1st room consisted of pictures of children, then there was another room around the corner, we couldnt see what was in it, and it was really dark..i made sure to stick to jeevan..anyway, we got the courage to check the room out and it was a room with candles and mirrors, so it looked like alot of candles, it was still really creepy though..then we walked around the area, checking the place out before heading back to the other 2..
stayed in the museum from 9am-1.40pm and still only 3/4 done..if i had the chance, i would go back to finish it up..
the other 3 have left me ard 10+, they wanted to go for the free old city tour (which in the end they didnt, but they went to old city to shop)..so i was alone to slowly walk the museum..it's too bad i didnt get to finish the museum because it was really interesting although it was soo heartbreaking! almost cried a few times listening to the stories of the survivors of the holocaust..their stories are really heart wrenching, and to think that they have to sit through the interview and recall/recount everything that happened to them is just so sad..+ they all lost their loved ones in the process, seen people die right in front of their eyes..i rmb one of the survivors was telling the story of how they were supposed to work on some clothes and her brother's girlfriend was not feeling well and didnt want to go to work, but the survivor and her friends dragged her to work because she would get killed if she didnt go..in the end, her brother's gf still went to tell a soldier that she wasnt feeling well and couldnt work, and the soldier just said they didnt need unhealthy people who couldnt work, took out a pistol from his pocket and just shot her in the head..the museum also showed how they used gas chambers last time and explained the whole process and had a model to show how it worked..stories on how people dug up pits, only to line up by it in the end and get shot..the poor living conditions and many other things...it's just mind-boggling to see how people work and act in times of desperation, being cold-blooded, and how people were treated during that period of time..apparently the jews were sort of forced into becoming tax-collectors cause they couldnt really do anything else, and because of that, they were depicted to be swindling, greedy people..but it really wasnt their fault..it was how they were outcasted because of hilter and stuff..
after that, i took the tram back to our hostel area and walked the streets on my own and did some window shopping..chilled at coffee bean and tea leaves while waiting for them too..it was so peaceful and relaxing.
it's pretty nice travelling on your own, no one to pressure you to do anything, and you can do whatever you want..the rest came back close to closing time for the shops to prepare for shabbat, so after heading to a shop to get zijin's swimsuit, we shifted hostel to abraham hostel because jerusalem hostel had no beds for that night..
we had a room all to ourselves-4 bedder
they had a shabbat dinner where everyone helped to make the dinner..it was soo cool! everyone just helping out, doing different things, cutting veggies, mixing stuff etc..the chef gave everyone different things to do..
the 3 of them also got their 1 for 1 happy hour drinks which was pretty cheap..
dinner + communion started around 8 i think, it was pretty interesting..
after dinner went for a walk, then went to check out the roof,
after that jeevan and i went down to the lounge to play foolsball and pool..at least i managed to score like 2 goals in foolsball..had a pretty awesome time playing pool..it was so funny, and we kept missing..and he got a free beer too, from a lady who couldnt finish her 2 beers
let me clarify one thing, i didnt get any drinks for myself..
today we went for the free old city tour, it was alright i guess, he didnt bring us into any places, just around it..the wailing wall had so much lesser ppl than i expected, prob cause it was in the aft and maybe they went to the airconditioned area of the wall...then we headed to iwo to eat...the onion rings was still as good! =) love it..headed back to our meeting place to take the bus back to the kibbutz..back to work tmr!
7/15/2012 02:51:00 AM
Sunday, July 08, 2012
back to the story..after we left, we headed to a place where we could take the sherut to haifa, only to realise that we had gone further than we needed to, so we had to take a bus backwards (apparently, public transport had started once again), so we took a bus to le hamifratz station and the bus driver allowed me and keren to ride for free.! thank God! we headed to the station and found that there were no buses at that time to take us to megiddo..so we were walking out of the station where we met this taxi driver who wanted to take us there..his final offer was 80 to yoqneam, 140 to ramat hashofet..but we declined it, thinking we could get a sherut..after walking for some time, and flagging down some sheruts, we almost gave up hope when keren said that the sherut she flagged down goes to yoqneam..i went hooray in my mind because i was so worried and praying the whole way..after getting on it, we then realised it wasnt going to yoqneam but somewhere that ends with a neam too..so the driver refunded us and we got down..by that time, it was past 6pm..we were suposed to reach the kibbutz at 7pm for dinner..so by 6.30pm, we gave up and took a taxi..managed to haggle down to 150 to ramat hashofet from 200+..we maanged to reach at 7pm on the dot..so in the end, we should have taken the first taxi..moral of the story: choose wisely! and even though some prayers might not be answered, there is a greater lesson behind it all and there might be blessings in between your journeys that are worth more than anything..this is the first time i'm taking transport on my own in a foreign country, though it was really tough and worrying, and i do feel apologetic to my friend cause she had her luggage with her, which i helped since i was feeling so guilty..but it was an interesting experience nonetheless..it took us 3 hours to get from our akko gate hostel back to ramat hashofet due to all the waiting and stuff..
zi jin, the other singaporean who came for the 2nd session is in the same room as me..
so far, the 1st day of the dig for 2nd session has been alright..we have some pretty cool people this session..
7/08/2012 08:53:00 PM
area S got 2nd for the megiddo cup
we were supposed to be playing quidditch on tuesday, but it got cancelled, because the whole of area S which got signed up by dan, our assistant area supervisor, had pottery reading..and there was too little of the other ppl to play i think..ken wei left today too..so left 5 singaporeans..
wed night was the farewell party, it was at the pub at 8pm, but the 'party started after 9pm..the place had slowly turned into a club..first they increased the volume of the music, then they dim the lights, then the disco lights came on, then smoke came..and some of them were dancing and drinking..there were these 2 people, austin and jessica, they were really brave, they were the first ones on the floor dancing for a long time before people started dancing too..then there was this incident where another jessica came to find gloria, and she was sweeping my fringe up to see if i was gloria, and saying gloria at the same time, then she found gloria and while saying gloria, went to her with open arms..hahaha, it was super funny..she was sorta drunk by the way..and she was trying to teach me and gloria to dance..it was pretty interesting to see them =)..but we left the pub a little too early cause they said that crazy things happened later on in the night..
thu was the final day for the 1st session ppl, and most ppl were still drunk/hangover from the previous night so most of the work had stopped EXCEPT for my area..which we were still working hard at because of matt adams..then it was time to say goodbye to the ppl who were leaving for the airport at 3pm..i got to hug the cutest guy in my area goodbye =)
then the 5 of us took the omni bus 184 to haifa around 3.45pm..it was after 5 by the time we reached haifa central bus station, there was the gorgeous army girl sitting beside craig who helped us and told us where to stop..we still had to take another bus to akko, a guy sitting in front told us where to stop..by the time we reached akko, it was already 6+..
but thank God for ppl on the buses who helped tell us which stop we had to stop at..oh, the buses was when my rashes started..=(
then we had to find out where our hostel was..after meeting with a group of ppl who helped bring us to a hostel to ask, we finally found our hostel..although it looks shabby on the outside, but it was pretty good inside, keren was already inside since she decided to meet us there after her plane had landed..and we had a dorm room all to ourselves because we had 6 ppl and there were 6 beds in the room..then we went out to eat some dinner (we ate pizza) and went to the port to check it out, it was so awesome and soo beautiful! the moon looked like it was from the chang er movie..we stayed out there for awhile before heading back to plan for the next day..
we headed to haifa the next morning and headed for the german colony place first..there we went to the visitor's information centre to ask about where to go and stuff, then we had our lunch along the street and had pasta! which was a great change from all the kibbutz food..but we couldnt finish our food..we were supposed to take the bus and up by the entrance of bahai gardens by 11.45am for the english free tour..so we were supposed to set off by 11.15am the latest from our lunch place, but by the time our food came, it was already 11.10am, and we were all having such a hard time finishing our food because of the portion..so we decided to wing it and take our time to eat..after eating, we went back to the visitor's centre to ask whether there were any other tours, and he told us that 2pm there was another tour but it's in hebrew..he also said that most of the time it'll be just walking..so we decided to go for that and after chilling out in the aircon room to wait for the bus 23, we headed over..
we were supposed to register by 1.45pm so we had a little time, we walked to the promenade (i think) to look, they said that the place had a good view of everything..and it was really great! you can see everything! 1.45pm, we went to the place and they said that they might do english if there were no hebrew ppl coming..so each time someone walks in, we were hoping that they spoke english..1st couple came were from boston, the guy had worked in NUS in 2007! so coincidental! then a group of girls came in, there were from all over but english too..then another couple came in, they didnt speak so we were worried, then a group of 3 came in and there were speaking a foreign language, so we were like sian..
then the tour guide came in and apologized that she couldnt do english because there were some hebrew speaking ppl and it was supposed to be a hebrew tour..but along the way down, the hebrew speaking ppl and the tour guide discussed and we got the tour in english! it was pretty awesome! thank God for it! =) the place is interesting and really really long..they change the flowers every season! can you imagine..first, go google bahai gardens to get the picture in your head..and they light up the 2200 lights every night..too bad we didnt get to see that..after the tour, we were deciding or not to stay till after dark to wait for the lights..and we ended up in one of the cafes again for dessert..it was yummy =) but we decided not to stay so we headed back to our original spot to get a sherut back to akko since the Sabbath was starting and all the public transport had ceased.. thank God we managed to get one around the same price we had come, cause i read somewhere that during sabbath and at night, the prices of the sheruts might go up 2-3 times as much..we headed to the abu christo restaurant by the port to try their seafood cause we heard that it's really good..but it was a pretty expensive dinner..we were on our way back to the hostel, when we met some other NUS people who were there on exchange..so coincidental! we chatted there for quite some time, before we had to go back and plan our next day..
today we went around akko because some of the attractions werent jewish, so they werent closed..the sad thing was the underground prisoner's museum that we wanted to go didnt open on saturdays, so that was a let down...we got a combined package at a student rate for 5 different attractions..the lady at the box office was really nice!!
1) knights hall
we had audio guide thingy to explain stuff to us as we walked around, pretty cool, but there were some we missed seeing cause we couldnt find the numbers, so we just listened to it..there was a pretty cool tunnel that we had to walk through too =)
2) turkish bathhouse
this was pretty interesting..we had to wear the audio guide thingy to listen and they were screening some video in each room we walked in (which was only 2) but we got to see the bathhouse and how they did it..too bad we couldnt experience how hot the bathhouse was in the past..
the turkish bazaar was just right outside the souvenir shop but only like 2 shops was open
3)okashi museum
it was just a museum with portraits of poets hung up and their poems, and some abstract stuff..
4) Templar's tunnel
we had to walk quite a distance to the entrance, and we walked past the souk, which is their old city market place..it was just a wide tunnel that we could walk through, with some videos in between in which we could look at if we wanted to..
after coming out of the templar's tunnel, we see a really nice beach in front of us, it was amazing! too bad my camera had run out of batt in the middle of the tunnel so i had only my phone to rely on..it was so beautiful, a thousand words wouldnt be able to describe the image..
5) Treasures in the walls
it had really interesting artefacts and ancient stuff in there..pretty cool =)
think we finished everything after 1 so we headed for a cheap lunch, which was sharwarma and headed back to the hostel where we rested awhile..keren said that she wanted to go check out the sheruts back to our kibbutz, so gowri and i went with her...it was a much shorter route than the one we took the other day to get out, and we were so near the sea and we didnt realise it! such a pity..keren and i left the others at 4pm to head back to the kibbutz..
will update more later about our adventure back to the kibbutz=)
7/08/2012 03:01:00 AM
Monday, July 02, 2012
today is the most tiring day! we had bucket line and rock line 6 times, and there were alot of buckets..too much already, tired out..
they had shifted our pottery washing to after lunch because of the megiddo cup (soccer) so we had the whole afternoon to relax..went to the pool with craig to swim for awhile and went to check out the game after..hopefully area S wins =)
7/02/2012 10:35:00 PM
Sunday, July 01, 2012
the weekend!
we had booked a taxi for friday to travel around israel from 8.30am-7pm, we first went to visit the church of the annunciation, where they think it's where the angel had appeared to mary telling her about baby jesus..they had pictures from different countries hung up on the walls around the courtyard place..singapore was there too! =)
then we walked over to nazereth village, which was about 15min walk away, where we had the parable walking tour..the whole thing was awesome! the highlight of the day..anyone who comes to israel should go for this! one think to thank God for is that while i was emailing the person, the admission fee for individuals was 50NIS since we werent a group of 10 and couldnt have a discount..but i emailed her saying that we were students and if we could have it at a cheaper rate..praise God she let us have it at student price without checking any identification or anything! the whole tour was cool, and now i know why they hated jesus for doing what he did in the synagouge..he was the 7th speaker and was supposed to preach a message of good news, instead he didnt, he spoke about something else..
at the end of the tour, we got this cute little oil lamp as a gift =)
after that we headed back to our taxi to go to cana, we bought lunch to eat on our way there and i had this sharwama, which the previous time someone got it was pretty small, but this was like 3/4 of a foot long subway sandwich..and it tastes pretty good. =)
at cana, where jesus turned the water into wine, the driver stopped us a deserted looking church called kana, but it wasnt the one we wanted and the driver didnt know how to get there, so he asked a local and she drove her car in front of us till we reached the place! thank God for such an encounter =)
sadly, the church was closed at the time we were there, and we didnt want to wait till 2pm for it to open again, so we headed to our next destination..capernaum
the sun was super hot at that time and we had to walk about 200m to capernaum from the place where the taxi stopped us..
this time, we didnt have a tour guide so we weren't sure about the buildings and stuff, but thank God there were english information boards which gave us some info on the synagouge and the octagonal building..so we werent in the dark
they had a backyard there, which i'm not sure if we were supposed to go in cause there was noone there, not even tourists..but from there, we could see the sea of galilee perfectly! and it was so beautiful!
we headed over to golan heights from there, golan heights is near the borders, so we could see for acres and acres of land..we could see the sermon on the mount from the bethsaida viewpoint too..it was soo beautiful there!
by then it was getting close to 7pm in which we booked our taxi till..we decided to stop by zefat to go to the artists colony, but apparently they close at 4pm since it was going to be the sabbath..so we headed back, and jessica told the taxi driver to drop us at an eating place along the way so that we could have our dinner..at that place, we could try the st peter's fish, but it was an expensive meal because apparently we had to pay for the appetizers as well, which we barely ate, usually they come free together with the meals..we wanted to stop by yoqneum on the way back but they were closed because of the starting of the sabbath at sundown..so we had no choice but to head back to the kibbutz where we played bridge for the rest of the night before going to bed..
saturday was the sabbath so most of the shops were closed, but i had heard from my roommate that daliyat el carmel market would be opened, so we went there really early in the morning, the taxi fare there was expensive, but it was worth it after i bought a cute druze handmade bag and a piece of souvenir for myself =)..we had 2 bun for 4 shekels, which is pretty cheap..we tried the druze bread for lunch, which is like a crepe..i had the chocolate flavoured one, and it was not bad =)
we headed back to the kibbutz to try to do some readings and played bridge at night again =)
today during the dig, atticus(matt adam, my supervisor's son) came to our area..he's so adorable!! and the tv crew came again..think it's a different one though..oh and it's canada day too, we sang the canada song during breakfast in the morning..and everyone, well, quite alot of them, are going to the pub later to watch the soccer finals btw italy and spain..feel like going to check it out..lol..
7/01/2012 11:26:00 PM
