Home again, home again.

I think I'm glad to be home. I dunno how I feel about the fact that that means we only have three weeks left here, tho...

So yesterday we mandated an end to the segregation. As in, on all of our field trips, they separate the buses and stagger us so that we never see people from the other bus, and in Galilee I swear I was forgetting that some people existed. It started as an April Fool's joke. The plan was for everyone to get back on the bus they were on for the first half of the semester (we switched right before we went to Bethlehem), but there were definitely some people on my bus (I never ended up getting switched) who had never been on it before, lol. So we were basically just all mixed up. And I'm pretty sure that none of the teachers even registered the whole April Fool's thing, but we got to the first stop, and we started out segregated still, but then they gave up because people were just jumping back and forth, and we got to spend the day as one big happy group! I felt pretty good about our efforts- we actually accomplished something! But then they had us back on our real buses and segregated once more today. We did kinda make it really hard for them to make sure no one was getting left behind...

So yesterday we visited Akko (or Acre, depending on... well, I'm not sure what, but I think it actually has like, three or four different versions of its name). It's the most complete crusader town in all of the Holy Land. There was a pretty sweet fortress that we explored. I'm not gonna lie, it was a pretty all over the place kinda day, since we were all mixed up and everything, so there wasn't quite as much educating going on as just milling around. There was also a really cool mosque. And it was actually decorated on the inside with all beautiful marble tiles and stuff. Which is really unusual for mosques, usually they're pretty plain on the inside. I liked it. And then we walked along the sea wall. It has a really pretty harbor, and we got to walk out on some rocks in the water. It reminded me a little of Dana Point, except cooler, obviously, since it's in Israel... And then we went to Beth Shearim and there was this pretty neat complex of tombs. And we once again basically just milled around taking creative pictures (well, I didn't really take any creative pictures, but other people did- I probably should have...) after a brief explanation.

After the field trip we went back to the beach and I laid out again, and then I went and packed and took care of some stuff before dinner so that I wouldn't stay up late and be tired this morning (and I wasn't). And after dinner we had a bonfire. It was a lot of fun. Bro. Wilson announced at the beginning that we would be playing "Scripture Charades" and everybody was kinda like, "Seriously?" But it was actually really fun. People got pretty creative. Especially since we were all like, 8 or 9 to a group so you had to find a part for everybody. My group did the Battle of Rephidim (dude, people are going to think I'm so weird when I come back and know all kinds of crazy random names from the Old Testament...) which is the one where Moses held up his staff and the Israelites would be winning, but when his arms got tired and he put it down they would be losing so Aaron and Hur (another random name) held his arms up so that they would win. Ya, I was one of the Israelites, and the guy I was *fighting* with was freakin hilarious. We decided that in our version everyone would be fighting with light sabers, for one thing. And then when I was *winning* this guy like, took my fist and was punching himself with it and then jumping backwards, so that it looked like I was lifting him off the ground every time I hit him. And then *Moses* put his arms down and we were losing and I *fell* and then the other two came on the scene and when we were practicing, Steven (my fight partner) was like "You should totally use the force on me!" (It went with our Star Wars theme.) So I just held out my hand and he threw himself backwards. Basically he just made me look really good, lol. And other people did like, the kids making fun of Elisha being bald (and I'm pretty sure that's another random story no one's ever heard of- it's a pretty good one tho, 2 Kings 5 ish I think- right after Elijah is translated), and Balaam with his donkey, and Elijah facing down the priests of Baal.

Then after scripture charades, there was a request for Steven (same guy) to tell a humorous story, and he is seriously so funny. Like, he could do stand up. Then we sang some Girl's Camp songs (those are the only campfire songs anybody knows... I mean, we are an overwhelming majority here). And last the guys all played a prank on one of the girls (for April Fool's) who has apparently been pranking all of them, and they set up this mock-trial and all testified against her and everything, it was pretty funny. And then I indeed went to bed early.

This morning Richelle curled my hair again, and I swear, she is some kind of genius when it comes to hair. It looks so good. :) So today we went to Sepphoris (aka Zippori- since all the names around here are basically up to transliteration, the names vary like, a lot). It was the capital of Herod the Great before he was Great back when he was just the governor of Galilee under his father. Basically what's significant about Zippori is all the mosaics. It's a Jewish community, but these mosaics all depict Greek and Roman gods and stuff. There were some pretty impressive mosaics, though. In one of them, all the faces looked so real, it was amazing. And then there was a view from the top of one of the buildings.

Next we went to Haifa, which is where two Mormon missionaries are buried who were here in like, the 1800s. It was after the Saints all moved out to Utah. But apparently there was a German colony in Haifa that they were preaching to. So the State of Israel, to minimize religious conflict (nice try, lol) decreed at some point that they would no longer officially recognize any religion unless it already had a presence in the Holy Land. So when the Church was seeking recognition, the only thing to prove our presence here are the gravestones of these missionaries. Pretty cool.

And then we all went and got falafel. I was so happy to not be eating another one of those awful sack lunches, you seriously have no idea. They were so bad. But the falafels were really yummy. Our last stop was Mt. Carmel, which is where Elijah faced down the priests of Baal. There was a monastery there, it was cool. On the way back down the mountain, though, we totally got stuck, because there was only this one tiny little road, and it somehow became literally lined with buses in the time we were up there. So our teachers had to get out and like, convince 6 or 7 buses to shift so we could get through. It was crazy. And then I watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith on the way back, because I didn't want to sleep again (I have seriously slept so much on this trip, I was just sick of it). I kind of love that movie. :D So now we're back and I have to try to plan my time as effectively as I can so that I don't leave anything out! While still trying not to think about the fact that I'll only be here for 3 more weeks!