Octoner 7, 2007

Mikelle Laker
October 7, 2007

Wake up this morning was bright and early as we had to be on our way to the Galilee by 6am. I think I’m finally starting to get used to waking up so early. Our classes begin earlier than I ever would’ve scheduled for myself in Provo and field trips always seem to be early.
Regardless, I was excited to go and I (not so eagerly) grabbed an all too familiar sack lunch before leaving the Oasis. At least I switched it up this time and got peanut butter. We left the Center just as scheduled and began the drive to the Galilee. I think it’s supposed to take about three hours if you drive straight through, but we had many stops along the way.
Our first stop was at Megiddo. What a place to start! It’s a site filled with years of history. There are 20 layers of civilization that cover around 4000 years of history. We have nothing even comparable to that in America and it’s amazing to me that any of it is still intact. We also visited Nazareth and it was the only time we’ll be there this semester. First, we went to the church built over the place where the angel visited Mary. There were beautiful depictions of the Madonna figure all around the main chapel. We couldn’t get a very good look because Mass was being held while we were there. I wish that we would have been able to stay and enjoy it longer. The other church we visited in Nazareth is the supposed site of Joseph’s carpenter shop. This one was smaller but they were also holding Mass, so there wasn’t much exploring that could be done. I find it interesting that they let people into their church while they’re worshipping. It would be kind of strange to have tourists staring at you while you prayed!
We got our first view of the Sea of Galilee (or Lake Kinneret) from the top of Mt. Arbel. The view was astounding and it was really neat to be able to look out so far. There was a Jewish group up there at the same time and one of the guys asked me and a few others a question about Mormons and it was so strange to not be able to share anything we him! Daniel responded that we have an agreement with the Israeli government that we won’t talk about the church. The guy was quite disappointed and I was too!
I was excited when we got to Ein Gev and I saw the bungalows and the lake. It’s an amazing place and I’m looking forward to November when we get to stay longer! Swimming in the Sea of Galilee is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I definitely took advantage of it. It was really nice outside at night and a very relaxing place to be.