More pictures

Darling Little Jewish boys, how I love thee!!

Muslim women who are always selling their vegetables in the middle of the street just inside of Damascus gate in the Old City.

View from the Ramparts walk I did at the beginning of the semester.

Me and the Old City!

Do you see the big arched palace? Ya, that is my home! This is the view from the hill right outside the Old City.

My roommate Denise and I after the Seder. Love her!

Oh hello AMAZING desserts, how I long for thee to be in my tummy!
Seriously.
These desserts were so good!! The almond cookies were my fave.

Me and my professors daughter. She taught me this amazing face and I am obsessed.

Kevin, me, and Greg at the Seder. We got to sit at the big table because we were the narrators but my part was at the end and I got skipped ha. The fish in this picture was amazing. MMM!

The kids sitting across from me at the big table eating their unleavened bread. Yay unleavened bread. Unleavened bread is used for the passover because it is all the Jews had time to make before their exodus.

Me and my lovely friend Victoria!

Seder meal setup! I put the olive leaves in the napkins, in case you were looking at them and thinking how great they looked. I would love to decorate my wedding with olive branches, seriously it looks way good I think.

Seder setup. This is our normal cafeteria but of course all moved around for the special night.

My dear friend, Synthia and I.

Via Delarosa street in the Old City. Hello pretty church top and blue skies and ecco homo arch.

Me, Victoria, and Synthia in front of the green door.

Pointing at the green door. Behind this fence is an underground tomb complex that we got to explore!

Posing in the arch outside of the tombs.

Inside the tomb complex. There were so many tombs that were all chiseled out, it was incredible and so random. I loved it.

Me playing dead.

Yay tomb! It was completely dark in here, we had to use our headlamps.

I think this was the church of Condemnation. It was really pretty.

Notice the crown of thorns that was etched into the ceiling.

Dome of the Rock. This is where the muslims believe that Muhammad ascended into heaven and more importantly this was the site of the ancient temples of Jerusalem. So Solomon's temple and Harod's. Also, the top of Mt. Moriah, where it was believed that Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac is located under this dome, that is why it is called the Dome of the Rock. It is really neat!

Entrance to the Mosque, we aren't allowed inside because we are not Muslim.

Me and Victoria and the Dome of the Rock.

It was a really great day today. I officially fell in love with Jerusalem, I love the people, the shops, the culture, everything. I will miss it when I leave but I am just going to soak it up for the time being. That means being out in the city as much as possible! I have already let 2 months pass me by, I have to live the next two to the fullest!!! I have to do homework now, I have been playing all day!! See you!!

Israeli Dancing

Last night I got to partake in one of the most fun things
EVER!
We had this man come teach us Israeli dancing!!
We circled around the gym and our instructor taught us the dances which
consisted of a lot of foot tapping
and stepping to the left then the right, etc.
Also there was hand holding, walking to the middle, shimmying, a partner dance, and a little twist and macerena at the end. It was
a night full of laughter, lots of moving around, some yelling and lots of sweat!
I got soo hot!! haha it was a blast though and
I would seriously love having some
Israeli dancing at the end
of my wedding someday, it
was that fun!
Today is the sabbath and I am hoping
for a great day.
I always love church here so I am sure
I won't be disappointed.
Sorry I haven't posted on the Seder yet, I want to make
it a really great post so it needs lots of thought so just
be patient.
:)

Passover/Seder

Tonight we had an amazing mock Passover/Seder meal. It was soo fun!!
Stay tuned for an in depth description that will be written tomorrow.
I have a paper and more Old Testament reading to
do tonight and its 10:19 pm so
therefore no blogging.

Another Sunny Day

Today was another beautiful day in Jerusalem, the sun was shining, the weather was
warm, and my homework load was minimal.
I went to West Jerusalem, the Jewish part of Jerusalem which is
one of my favorite areas around here.
We went to a green belt and played ultimate frisbee although
I didn't play, I just watched. Me playing ultimate
frisbee consists of me
just running up and down the field, laughing, and not really
contributing.
I learned some really cool things in Old Testament today.
My favorite was about the sacrament. We were learning about how people
go apostate and it was
stated that we don't leave the church
just over night, it is a process.
One way that we safeguard ourselves is through taking the sacrament every week.
When we arrive at the sacrament table every week
we are reminded of our covenants and we are
able to rectify the wrongs which we have committed that week.
I am so blessed, as a Latter Day Saint, to be able
to participate in the ordinance
of partaking of the sacrament every week.
I am so grateful for it and I hope I always
remember its significance.
I am sorry if you are not LDS and you read my blog. I realize
I talk about religion a lot but that is who I am. If you
would like to learn more about my beliefs go to mormon.org :)
I hope everyone has a really great day!

Nothing New

So today I went to school.
I ate food.
I did a lot of homework.
I turned in my 24 page Islam midterm.
Yes I did say 24 pages.
And the best thing I did,
I sunbathed on my private porch.
Yes people, here at the Jerusalem center we live in a palace,
complete with our own private porches and
today was the perfect day to enjoy
my porch.
I read my homework, air dried my freshly washed hair,
and basked in the beautiful Israeli sun rays!
I loved it.
The sun was so warm on my skin and it made
me so happy.
I am hoping for many more
sunny Israeli days :)

Hezekiahs Tunnel!!

Ok everyone, I went on a sweet field trip ever today!!
It started off with nervous anticipation and ended
with a stomach full of delicious pizza.
How perfect is that??
So today we went to the City of David.
The city of David is basically ancient Jerusalem, dating back
to the time of Melchizedek. We watched a 3d movie about the city and then
we walked over to these grates that look down to the excavations
of the ancient city.
We saw the foundation or bedrock of a huge government building
of David. It was really amazing!
We also saw excavations of the wall that used to surround the city.
They used this thing called a millo which is a stepped
structure to hold up the side of a hill which
has a structure on it. The millo is still intact and pretty big, it was
really neat to look at and realize that something so ancient can still be standing. After we looked at some more excavations we started out trek through Hezekiahs tunnel!
This tunnel was dug to supply water to the growing
part of the city.
There is a natural spring called the Gihon Spring which
the tunnel is fed by.
The tunnel allows for the passage of water from one side
of the city to the other, it is 1/3 of a mile long and
it was chiseled out of the bed rock under the city from both sides
so the workers met in the middle.
You can see the chiseling marks throughout the tunnel!
The tunnel was about 3 feet wide ish and the ceiling height varied from me
ducking a little bit at times to as high as 20 feet. It
was such a pleasant walk!
The water was mid calf most of the time and came up to about the
top of my knee at the end, the water was
chilly but not icy, as I was expecting. I wore
my boardshorts so no clothing got wet, such a good idea!
The tunnel ended in this pool where we took some fun pictures and then
walked to this other pool, the pool of Siloam.
The pool of Siloam is the pool where Jesus healed the blind man.
He had the blind man mix mud, spit, and the dirty pool waters where many
people had bathed and put it in his eyes.
Our teacher asked us why we thought He healed the blind man this way
and then he read a quote by president Kimball.
The basis of the quote was that the Lord healed the blind man through spit, mud, and dirty water because it proved that he was healed through the power of God.
If He had used herbs and oil then people could
have contested that his healing was due to the
herbs and oil but no one can contest the hand of God
when mediums like mud are put in an eye and then blindness is gone.
I thought that was really cool!!
I got some sweet pictures but those will have to wait!
Have a great day!

Neot Kedumim

Ancient cistern

Torah Scroll

Our pitas baking.

making pitas

Remember my post from my field trip where I herded sheep and got to do ancient biblical things?? Here are the pictures!! Enjoy!!

Upper room and some city Pics

Here is a picture of the upper room where the traditional site of the last supper was, one with me in it and one without. Also, a sweet grafiti found in west Jerusalem. LOVE IS FOREVER!

Shephelah

So one of our field trips we went to the Shephelah, this is the low hill country of Israel. We saw many different sights including the valley of Elah where David fought Goliath. Some interesting points I learned while we studied this battle.
-David brought with him 5 stones, that means he knew within 5 shots he would kill Goliath.
-The stone was slung at a speed of around 100 mph.
-David was basically a professional stone slinger.
I got to practice slinging stones with a sling just like David would have used. Let's just say my skill level isn't quite up to his yet.

Mt Sinai!

On our way home from Egypt we hiked Mt Sinai! A few things
-The hike took about 2.5 hours, going up and then maybe an hour going down.
-The last third of the hike was all stairs, hello burning thighs
-We started our hike at about 3 am, it was pitch black outside with only the stars and our headlamps guiding us
-I would often walk with my eyes staring at the sky, taking in the pure beauty of an unadulterated night sky
-It was a hard hike
-I loved it
-When I got to the top I felt so good, it made me want to hike all the time
-It was soooo windy at the top
-I wore a shirt, a pullover sweater, a hoodie, a zip up sport sweater, my big winter coat, leggings, pants, a head covering, a scarf, gloves, and mittens
-I was still freezing at the top. Ok, mostly just my toes and fingers were numb
-The sun rise on the top of Mt. Sinai was gorgeous
-We had a wonderful devotional on top
Now pictures!
Excuse the fact that I look really not great. I had just scaled a really tall mountain. Love me! Oh and the pictures are in chronological order, starting from the bottom.