I'll catch up later. This time it's a quick recap of my day today.

Whew, another very busy fieldtrip day! We started out this morning at 8:00am like usual, leaving limited time for breakfast before it was time to pile into the bus. But today was exciting, because we were finally going to get up onto the temple mount – an experience we were denied last week due to the snowy weather. Getting to experience Jerusalem under a blanket of snow was well worth the delay, however. The temple mount itself is extremely large, and was almost entirely empty while we were there. There were a few other tour groups, a handful of guards, and we caught a glimpse of some Muslims making their way to the underground mosque up there. Unfortunately the mosque was closed to non-Muslims, and we didn’t get to actually enter the Dome of the Rock – supposedly the site where Mohammad ascended into heaven.

Not far from the temple mount, about a mile east, is the garden of Gethsemane which is where went next! A garden has been re-grown on the spot, and there is also a Catholic church built just beside it. Almost every Biblical site has been claimed by a religious group it seems. After quickly ascending the Mount of Olives, which is quite literally covered in graves, we hopped back on the tour bus. The tour bus took us to a hill in Gibeah called Tel el Fool, or “Hill of Beans”, where we spent some time studying over the geography of the tribe of Benjamin while sitting in a partially constructed building. Or maybe it was partially ruined, I really couldn’t tell which.

Finally, to top off all the events of our busy day, we backtracked to the Garden Tomb just outside of the northern gates of Jerusalem. Supposedly (and actually very unlikely) this was the site of Golgotha and the tomb where Jesus was buried for three days. Today the location is kept up by the Anglicans, who were gracious enough to supply us with a tour guide. After a full day of listening to explanations and running from one place to the next, including several places I didn’t incorporate in this post, I think everyone was ready to go home for the day. So we did.

There you have it, a day in the life. If I’ve left you feeling like you just read over a rather tedious blur of events then you know exactly how I feel after just about every trip! Next trip will have pictures to accompany it – I just happened to forget to bring my camera today :(

Thanks for reading!