Dear Friends and Family,

Today is my last full day in Jerusalem. Tomorrow we travel to Haifa, Jaffa, Tel Aviv and then on Wednesday we head back to Cairo.
Since I last updated we have been in Jordan and swam in the Dead Sea, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, and the Golan Heights. In Jerusalem we are staying at the Austrian Hospice located in the Arab Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The first week was mostly full of speakers (Israeli and American diplomats, PLO member, Israeli settler, Catholic priest, Palestinian and Israeli youth, journalists, etc.). The second half of our time here was to see important political, historical, and religious places of Jerusalem and Israel. We have been to: the Holocaust museum, Bethlehem University (to hang out with Palestinian youth), Church of the Nativity, the Western Wall, the town of Capernaum, Hezekiah's tunnel, Mt. of Olives, Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Golgatha and the tomb of Jesus), the Protestant Garden Tomb of Jesus, Garden of Gethsemane, Dome of the Rock, King David's tomb, and much more. I know this is a grossly inadequate description of the things I have done, but I'm overwhelmed at trying to describe even one of them. I will say my favorite place in all of Israel is the Sea of Galilee. It is very beautiful and underdeveloped which makes it easier to imagine that Jesus was actually there. Traveling around parts of the Middle East has been truly amazing and I feel greatly blessed to have had this opportunity to travel.

Once I get back to Cairo I have five papers to write in a week. Then we head up to a monastery in Anafora for 3 or 4 days to debrief the semester. Then we have a couple of days to enjoy Cairo until we leave on the 11th of December to come back to the states. I plan on doing one last final entry before I come back home. I hope you all are doing well.

Scott