yesterday we set out on a journey west to find an olive grove advertised in the jerusalem post as a traditional olive harvesting. we wanted to film the way that the ancients used to beat the olive trees to make the olives fall off the limbs because there are several metaphors in scripture that use the harvesting for different things. for example, the assyrian conquest in 701 BC in which there is only a remnant left within the walls of jerusalem after the assyrians destroy all of the northern kingdom and all of judah, the remaining olives that cling to the top branches of the tree after the harvest are paralleled with the remnant left within the walls of jerusalem in the time of the assyrian destruction.

so here goes: we rent a car, drive all over the place, ask about ten people, get lost ten times following the incorrect directions from the ten people, a few hours later come to the "right place" where we then hike to the olive grove. at this point we start to get suspicious as to whether this is what we thought it was, primarily because of the enormous population of children and the way our tour guide talks and acts as if she is a character walking around at disney world taking pictures with crying babies.

a few steps onto the path and she begins to show us pictures about how israel is planning on building houses all over the mountain that we are on, she also explains that this hike is actually a way of "protesting with our legs" as she described it, against the building of the houses. later joel asks her about the olive harvest and she explains that they don't beat the trees here because it apparently shakes the roots and, in a nut shell, is a mean thing to do to a tree. we walk and walk, never see a single olive being harvested, get to the end of the hike, watch two old men fight about who gets into the shuttle first to be taken back to the parking lot, take some video of joel saying, "this was stupid," and then hike back. and although an insane frenzy of everything we weren't looking for, it was still nice to get outside and away from the city for a bit. plus it's a hilarious memory, and fear not, we documented the entire stinking thing.

but anyway, the video i have posted is a quick tour of our apartment, i'll have some more quickies about normal jerusalem life posted within the coming weeks due to popular demand...by my mommy and daddy. and as far as other videos, we have plenty in the works, and we just released three, so check out www.sourceflix.com to see what is a-brewin'. love to you all. peace.