Sheep and Pitas

Well we are officially allowed to go into the Old City again now that the holidays are over. Yay! It's been...maybe since before Egypt that I was in the Old City, so you can imagine the feelings of joy from the rest of the students.

Sunday I went to Tel Aviv, probably for the last time on the trip. It was the last week the beaches were open. Unfortunately the waves were non-existant which was disappointing, but it still managed to be a very fun day. I didn't go shopping like last time. I just stayed on the beach till sunset. A large group of us swam out to some rocks and looked around there. Then we attempted to play a game of red rover in the ocean...which doesn't work. It was very funny to try though. There was also a mud-fight and I am still trying to scrub the sand out of my hair. That night, we found a pizza eatery for dinner and I bought a giant slice for 12 shekels. Those of us who ate pizza were pretty satsified that we didnt end up spending 30 shekels for our dinner. (Thats around $10)

Yesterday was field trip day. We visited a Bible Landscape Preserve, Neot...something or another. I have the name on my calendar...but it's downstairs. It was probably one of our top five field trips. I got to herd sheep!!! And goats. I found the trick was to just simply run alongside them so they run as well! My stick was pretty useless. It took nearly 20 of us students to round up 10 or so sheep and goats. :)
We also made our own zaatar, which is hyssop in Hebrew. Hyssop is mentioned several times in teh Bible, in Psalms I believe, and also it was the plant used to wipe blood above the doors of the children of Israel during the Passover. It's a very tasty plant. Many people here put it on bread or pitas.

We also made our own pitas and fried wheat(?). This was awesome! Some of our group went and gathered firewood, built a fire, then some of us made the dough (flour, salt, water, and olive oil) then flattened a little ball as much as possible and stuck in on the fire for 20 or so seconds onto a giant concave-like cast iron bowl. It was very delicious. We dipped our homemade pitas in an olive oil mixture with zaatar. Our park guide also made us fried wheat. He poured it into a skillet over the fire and added some oil and a couple spices. It was like eating the kernals from popcorn. But tasty.

We also met a Torah Scribe that worked at the preserve. Torah scribes must be kosher in all things. They write holy texts by hand, made with kosher ink and parchment. There at the preserve they have a Torah scroll that is nearly 200 years old that was saved from an Ashkenazi synagogue.

Hope everyone is enjoying the cool weather in the states! It's still pretty toasty here.