Day 105

(I'll add pictures once I get back to Utah)

Monday. The 12th of December.

So hard to wake up this morning. While my alarm was going off, Desiree in the bed next to me started asking me questions about the day. Hello, I was still half asleep and incoherent. I couldn't even understand what she wanted from me. We were loaded on the buses by seven and headed out on our last bus field trip. I sat with AnnaLeah, she is one of my favorite girls here. She is such a sweet, fun girl. I felt bad though because I wasn't a fun bus buddie, I was just too tired. Our first stop was in Bethany, the site where Christ raised Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha, from the dead. Huntsman has assigned students to give the devotional at every site for the next two days, instead of himself doing them. Elyse talked to us in a little garden area, when she finished we went into the little church and sang a song. Then we got to go down into the supposed tomb of Lazarus. You had to walk down a narrow staircase then basically crawl through a little hole to get to the tomb. While we were waiting for everyone to get through we could walk up to the Western Wall, right were we were at a gate had been built into the wall. But it is only open once a year for Palm Sunday processions. We then went to Pater Noster, this site commemorates the Lord's prayer. All around the site were plaques with the prayer in all different languages, it was fun going around and trying to read them. I even found the Swahili sign! Yay for Kenya! We then walked over to Dominus Flevit, which means "the Lord Wept." Here Whitney gave a fantastic little discussion on the two times Jesus wept over Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives.We then walked down the steep hill to the Hyde Garden, where Whitney and I lounged on the ground and ate our lunches. We didn't chose the best place to sit, because a bunch of kids had bought sling shots earlier and were practicing with tomatoes right by us. Once we finished our lunches we got back on the bus and drove up and around the city a bit to Mount Zion. Which is one of the traditional sites of the Last Supper. Again we had a devotional by another student and sang a few songs. We were then done for the day and set free. I went with Robin, Brielle, Lauren, Katie, and Elyse accross the street to the graveyard, where Schindler's tomb is. His grave is covered with little stones, because when people visit his grave they place a stone on it in respect. We wandered around the Holy Sepulcher area for a little while and tried to get onto the roof. Sadly the roof was We then spent twenty years at Shabans, no one was even shopping. We then went over to the Armenian Couvent. It is only open for half an hour everyday, so this was the first time I had been there at the right time. We watched the service and afterwards the only Priest came and talked to us. He was from Canada and was collage age, he was really interesting to talk to. After we talked to him we headed back to the center. We had a pre-departure meeting, they just told us basic things. But good news we only have to empty out our rooms, we don't actually have to clean them!