Study Abroad at BYU-Jerusalem: Ein Gedi and Neot Kedumim

The past couple weeks have been extremely busy. Last week and this week were midterms so every moment we had, we spent studying for our classes individually and in study groups. It fun living with 81 people 24/7 because everyone has the same homework and same schedule – therefore everyone studies together and everyone parties together. It is so fun. For our free day, a bunch of us called in a van that drove us to Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea. If you come to Israel, it is the prettiest, most fun place to go for people that like to hike and explore. We hiked up several trails, which led to springs waterfalls. It was hot so we basically jumped into any pool of water we saw. The place looked like a desert in some parts and then it was really tropical in others. Ein Gedi is gorgeous.

After, we crossed the street once we got out of Ein Gedi and walked over to the Dead Sea. Note: Do not go into the Dead Sea if you have just shaved or if you have cuts. The sea is so salty that you really will just float. It’s hard to stand up because the salt water is so thick. If it gets in your mouth, you’ll be spitting for minutes and if it gets in your eyes, you won’t be able to open them for like 10 minutes. We were literally jumping on each other and climbing on each other and no one went under water because it’s so dense. Then there was this guy that collected Dead Sea mud and put it on most of the students. My skin felt extremely soft afterwards. It was such a fun day.

We then went to Neot Kedumim on field trip day. It’s a bible nature and animal preserve where they have Bible animals and plants in the Bible. We were taught how to herd sheep and actually had to in a circle and then there pulled water from a 2,000 year old well. After, we grinded a spice and then went into the woods, started a fire, and made pita, tea, and soup with our tour guide. We put our spice that we grinded up on the pita and put seeds along with syrup from the date palm trees. Everything was pretty natural. I love having Old Testament where it’s a hands on environment, learning on the ‘land of milk and honey’ where we can take apart every word and learn a lesson from it.