19 October - Zoo & Israel Museum

Because of the "situation" we are in, we are still not allowed out on our own in the city. BUT, we have figured out a way to get out! Ryan is in charge of organizing "structured activities" where we have a specific place to go with a big group, and we go and come back at specific times. These trips have to be approved a day in advance, and security is still high. Today, we escaped to the ZOO and to the Israel Museum! It felt so good to get out.

I didn't really want to go to the zoo at first...I don't really love zoos. But I decided It would be better than sitting inside any longer.  It ended up being really fun! A fun group of people went, and the zoo was just big enough to see in 3 hours and feel like we didn't miss anything. We saw: tons of birds, fish, snakes monkeys, elephants, a tiger, lions, zebras, giraffes, a hippo, a rhino, howling monkeys, kangaroos, and muuuuuch more.

We were picked up at 1:00 (thanks to Ryan and Elise for all the coordinating) and headed over to the Israel Museum.

We have a huge assignment for Dr. Chadwick's class - we have to spend a few hours in this museum with a four page single-spaced checklist of things to find, and then we have a seven page paper about the whole thing I think.  I went around with Ryan and Jay.  We saw a lot of IMPORTANT things....sorry these photos are pretty nerdy but we truly got so excited about seeing all of these things. All of them we have learned about in class, or we have been to the sites they were excavated from. COOL ARCHAEOLOGY.

  

First a little bit of modern art distraction before we got started.

Ok here we go:

Four-horned altar found in Beer-Sheva (been there)

 

Left: Bet David inscription, reference to the House of David
Right: The tip of a sword similar to what Nephi's sword would have looked to kill Laban

Real life throwing stones!! They rounded them off so they would fly more straight when being flung.

First ever record of the word "Jerusalem"

Different clay stamps with names for sealing letters

A nail piercing heel bone

A reconstruction of the Holy of Holies at Beer Sheva which we have visited.

 

Same madness traffic, and some pretty Jessica and Kassi.