John the Baptist's birth place

Today a big group of the BYU Jerusalem Center students went to Ein Kerem, the place where John the Baptist was born. There were about thirty of us going, and it was a last minute decision to go, so I had no idea what to expect when I got there. It was only maybe a 5 mile drive, but because the driving here is so crazy, we got there in about twenty minutes. When we got there, we were dropped off at Mary's Spring, where the virgin women would go draw water. We split from there, and planned to meet again for lunch at 12:30. So a group of four of us; Me, Mckenzie, Chadwick, and Mason went off to explore. It was very fun to hike around the area, because everything was so green, and it was the perfect day to explore! Not super hot, but sunny and nice. We found a shallow cave, and many fun picture perfect places. While we were exploring we found a man's living spot in the woods. It was made with bamboo and looked pretty nice for being out in the wilderness. It was interesting, because as we kept exploring, we noticed lots of evidence of other similar cases. The city there is beautiful! It is a completely differnt feeling than the one in the Old City. It is a very relaxed place with so much green and limestone. It's a very clean, orderly little town that overlooks the valley of green trees that goes into a lake. This is nothing like how I expected the Middle East to be like. It is incredibly beautiful here!! After a couple of hours of trecking through the hills and a couple bouts of hiccups, we left to go eat lunch. On our free days, we are provided with a sack lunch to bring to where we are going, so we ate that, and we went to a cafe because the people I was with wanted to buy food there. It was all so relaxing and nice! We went and looked at the church's, and tried to get into more, but some were closed for Sundays. It is still so weird for me to think that today was Sunday, and we had church yesterday. So strange! At around 2:00, we had security call for a taxi-van to take us back to the center. It was overall a very enjoyable trip, and I want to go back. Especially since I found a Israel Chopin Society building, and I am so curious to see if there are any harps anywhere. Overall it was a wonderful day of exploring and relaxing and taking in all the beauty that surrounds us! I am so thankful for my time that I get to spend here! It's unbelieveable!!