Happy Halloween!

How did I spend my Halloween this year? Singing Christmas songs at Shepherd's Field. Naturally. Best. Halloween. Ever. But don't worry, we have a rockin’ Halloween party planned for Tuesday night, as soon as we finish our last final! AH! These next couple days are going to be crazy-we have both of our Modern Near East finals on Tuesday. But then! We will be down to two classes! Today was awesome. We had some time this morning to study…which of course we all did......:) After lunch, we left on our field trip. We went to the Herodian, a large palace and fortress built by Herod the Great. It was way neat. Then, we headed to Shepherd’s Field. We had an awesome little program and testimony meeting overlooking the lights of Bethlehem. I couldn’t believe I was there! It made me really excited for Christmas, as if I wasn’t already haha. Anywho, I’m off to bed. I promise I will post a ton of pictures this week! Sorry I’ve been a slacker lately! Love you all and hope you’re having an awesome Halloween.  (Holloween to you, Mel.)

My Not-So-Little Little Bro.

Just a quick tribute to this little guy. Can you believe you're all grown up and gettin' called on a mission? I feel like it was just yesterday you were running around the living room yelling "Muuuscles!" and dancing around with your chicken legs. I can't believe you're leaving only 12 days after I get home. But that gives me 12 whole days to beat you in ping-pong. Who is going to watch "Sandlot" and "Space Jam" and "Mystery Science Theater" with me? Who is going to understand every single one of my movie quotes? Who's going to make fun of people at the Sunday dinner table with me? Oh well, I guess the people of Sweden need you more than I do. :) I love you little bro and I am SO excited for you! You are going to be an amazing missionary. :)

P.S. Sorry 'bout the slobber on your forehead....

 

Today was amazing. After waking up at 5 AM to hear AJ open his call, I studied for my OT final. (PS, it was so much fun to talk to everyone! It made me realize how much I miss you all.) Then! Brindy, Kim, Jenna, Sister Muhlestein, and I ran in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure! Oh my land, it was so much fun! Who ever thought I'd have the chance to run a race in Israel? Past the Old City wall...with tons of locals-it was a big deal. It was seriously a blast. It was only a 3.8K...so not far at all and it went by way fast, but I haven't run since the summer! So I was excited. It was kind of a random, spur of the moment thing...and we all gave up a couple of studying hours right before our test, but it was nice to clear our minds of all names of the kings of Israel and Judah for a little bit. We ended near Jaffa Gate on the far side of the Old City. Then, we had to walk/jog home to make it in time for the test. We got back half hour before it started-it feels good to be done!!!

 

One paper and one midterm down, two papers and four midterms to go! We are taking most of our finals before next Wednesday, so then we will only have New Testament and our main history class left, which will be so nice! But I'm definitely going to miss Hebrew....and Old Testament-I really have come to love it. And I'm going to miss Brother Judd :( but I am so excited to start studying the New Testament!

Later, a group of us went to West Jerusalem! Lots of eating different desserts, shopping in the little shops, dancing/listening to the street musicians, and enjoying each others' company. I love West Jerusalem at night! A couple of us started talking to this older Jewish couple-they have a house here and a house in New Jersey-they were so cool! I just love finding people to meet and talk to-they were so interested in our lives and had heard about our religion. Obviously, we couldn't tell them much about it, which is hard when people ask, but they kept complimenting us on being "really good, clean kids" haha, which was really fun to hear. They were so awesome. I love the people here. :) On our taxi ride home, the driver pulled down a TV screen and turned on MTV...Akon music videos. Then he turned the main lights off and turned these colorful, flashing lights on haha it was hilarious. Oh man, everyday I am surprised by something new.

Anywho, bedtime! Actually study time...then bedtime. Sorry I've been slackin' this week-it's been pretty crazy! Next week things will calm down a bit I think...I'll try to get on top of things. I love you all!

Quick Hello!

Hello all! Sorry it's been so long! This past week has been crazy and stressful and wonderful and yeah, here I am! Just wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten about you. Uh...can't write much now, have to go to FHE and finish a midterm paper, yuck haha. Today was field trip day! We spent the day in BETHLEHEM! It was absolutely amazing! I will have to write MUCH more about it later and try to get some pictures up. In the meantime, check out my friend Meg's blog to see what we did yesterday! 

http://visitingtheholyland.blogspot.com/2010/10/jewish-quarter.html

She is a way better blogger than I am....and we had some fun adventures so check it out. I promise I will write more SOON! Life is wonderful here and I hope you're all doing well! Love you all!

L'chayim :)

I had an awesome talk with my aunt last night on the phone. Every talk with Jamie is amazing, well worth precious phone card minutes. :) I talked to her about things I have been kind of stressed about...things I have going on right now and stressful things I have coming up in the future. She told me a really cool quote:

Yesterday is a dream, tomorrow but a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore to this day.

This made me really happy. This is something I have thought a lot about as I've been here, but I really needed to hear it again last night. Sometimes I get wrapped up in things that have happened in the past or things that scare me about the future, but I need to remember that I am having one of the most amazing experiences of my life. One night, as we were eating dinner on the porch overlooking the city, Dr. Chadwick told us, "In a few months, you will be willing to pay $100 just to come back and eat one meal here." I really need to soak in every minute of this, whether its spent having a blast with people I love in the Center, visiting ancient sites, or writing my 10-page single-spaced Islam midterm...okay, maybe I don't have to love every minute of that...:) I need to learn from the past and have faith that Heavenly Father will take care of me in the future. I feel like I talk about this a lot, but there really are so many moments when reality hits me. Like tonight...we were walking home from a great afternoon in the Old City, (any afternoon in the Old City is a great one), and i looked over and saw the famous wall around the City. I feel like I walk past it so much now, it doesn't even phase me, but this is where my Savior was. I may never have another opportunity like this. I am so incredibly blessed to be spending so much time here. So, here's to living and loving every minute of every day! As Tevye (and the best Hebrew teacher in the whole world, Judy Goldman) would say, "L'chayim, l'chayim, to life!" 

'Eilat' of Fun!

I am sitting in one of my very favorite places right now...on the grass on one of the patios overlooking the city. It's so pretty at night...with all the lights...and sometimes you hear cars honking or Palestinians partying with their loud music or call to prayer. I love coming out here to study and think and talk to friends. Ah, I am so blessed. I was just talking to a couple of my buds earlier today about how lucky we are to be having this experience. I don't think I would have the same experience if I were to come here for a few weeks with a tour group or on my own. My favorite part about it is that I actually get to live among the people and experience the culture. We have so much time to spend in the city, see the sites, and interact with the people. It is also such a blessing to be taking the classes we're taking. It's so much easier for me to understand the Old Testament now that I know more about the geography and the history of the land, to learn about the different sects of Judaism and to be able to recognize the various types on the street, and to learn more about the conflict and its background. I really am so grateful for this opportunity. I am learning so much about the people and history here, myself, and my Savior.

Can I just tell you about my friend for a second? Her name is Mickell. Just a second ago, she came out with about a million confessions regarding her BYU-retardness. Like this (keep in mind she is almost a senior): "Whoa, where'd you find that list of minors?" "How do you get a BYU email address?" "I've never been to a devotional..." "I've never been in the Tanner Building. I don't even know where that building is." "I was trying really, really hard to not get an ID card, and it worked for awhile. But then I had a hard time remembering my number...I would go to the testing center and they'd ask for my card and I'd say, 'Nope! I'll just tell you my number.'" "See, I don't blend in here very well because I'm not very BYU-ish." "I like to call BYU students Zoobies...even though I am one." "Can we get this over with?" (In front of our family at FHE. Jokingly, of course. Then we sang "Love at Home."). Oh, how I love her.

Okay, catch-up time!

Last Thursday night, we had a Seder dinner! Our Judaism teacher directed it. The dinner is so structured, I'd never been to anything like it. There are different sections that are symbolic of different parts of the Exodus. This consisted of drinking 4 glasses of grape juice, eating bitter herbs and matza bread, singing lots of songs, reciting lots of prayers, and eating a delicious 5-course meal. The whole thing took about 4 hours...not gonna' lie, I'm glad the meals on our holidays don't usually last that long. No, it was really fun and really interesting. The evening ended with an awesome Jewish rap...you can't even imagine.

On Friday, we had class! Then, a group of us stopped in to Omar's! He is an olive-wood carver and owns a shop in East Jerusalem. He's been working with BYU students and others for years. We had lots of fun there. That night, we watched "Joseph: King of Dreams." Good stuff...

Saturday was good! Church was awesome, we watched the Relief Society Broadcast-loved it! Later that day, I spent some time at the Garden Tomb. So neat. :)

Yesterday, we spent the day in Eilat! Snorkeling! The weather was perfect and it was fun to see all the fishies! Next, I want to go scuba diving! So yeah, we just played around on the beach, snorkeled, ate, chatted, took some underwater pictures, pushed each other off of the buoy island, and had lots of fun.

Then, we left the beach and went to a mall! For the first time this trip, I kind of felt like I was in America. It was weird. No one ran out into the halls to try to sell us stuff...strange. As we walked into Zara in our white v-necks, genie pants, chacos, and other grungy stuff, we realized how bad we miss shopping...and our closets at home...we felt pretty white trash. On our way home, (it was a 4-hour drive), we stopped at Yotvata, (more commonly known as 'The Cow Kibbutz'),  

Today was a little bit different. Field trip Monday...we visited Yad Vashem which is a Holocaust museum over in West Jerusalem. It was pretty intense. I'd never been to one before, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. We had a Jewish tour guide from Poland that took us through and explained a lot of what we saw. I couldn't believe some of the things...the pictures and the video footage and the piles of shoes and the personal testimonies...It's hard to even fathom what those people went through, I feel like I can't even come close to understanding it. It was definitely an eye-opener. I am so grateful for the freedom and security that I have in my life, I really take it for granted sometimes. After this, we walked up a hill next to the museum known as Mt. Herzl. Benjamin Herzl was one of the founders of the Zionist movement, and Mt. Herzl is where he is buried. We learned a lot about him and some of the other leaders and events in the movement.

I think that's about it! Some other highlights from this week including killing a spider, playing lots of volleyball, and picking olives from the trees around the JC! Also, I only have 1.44 GB open space on my hard drive...that's what you call Bad News Bears. Any advice? Maybe I should stop taking so many pictures...Nah. Speaking of pictures, I'll get some up later this week. Love you all!

8 New Adventures

  Ok, finally made it over to Hebrew U, which means I have lots to update you on! Here we go!

1. Field trip to the Shephelah! Yes this was like two weeks ago... 

 Stop #1: Gath/Tel es-Safi

Dr. Chadwick in his natural habitat. This is at Gath, the city Goliath was from. Dr. Chadwick is on the excavating team there, so it was way cool to hear about everything they've found.

 

Stop #2: Tel Maresha

This is our field trip group at the Bell Caves.

What happens when you sit on the ground?

Ya get dirty...

Ann and Meg being doves in the dovecote...

Visiting some tombs in the Sidonian Caves.

Stop #3:

On the top of Tel Lachish. I think this was my favorite spot. This tell was captured by Sennacharib and the Assyrians in the 700s BCE (and later by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians.) We were able to see the siege ramp they built to get up into the city and we went to the fortress that stands on top of the tell. We also saw an ancient Canaanite temple, complete with red bricks that had probably been burned when Joshua attacked when the Israelites entered the land.

Stop #4:

The Valley of Elah, where the battle between David and Goliath took place. After a great re-enactment by some of the guys, we got to try some sling shots out ourselves! Only a few people got hit...

Stop #5: 

Beth Shemesh. We looked over Samson's hometown and and saw the place where the Ark of the Covenant was returned to the Israelites. This is Brother Judd teaching the group-he is such an amazing teacher! We're going to miss having him every day when our Old Testament class ends in a couple of weeks.

2. Arab Night

3. 'Conference Shabbat!' It was windy...

4. Tel Aviv!

5. Field trip to the City of David!

The City of David is just south of the present-day Old City. It was the Jerusalem of Melchizedek, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, and other kings. The city was later expanded to the north and the west while the Temple Mount stayed in the same place. We watched an awesome 3-D movie, visited the ruins of what is believed to be the palace of David and Solomon, hiked through Hezekiah's tunnel, and visited the pool of Siloam!  

Overlooking Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood near the Center.

The Pool of Siloam, where Christ healed a blind man.

6. Awesome FHE in West Jerusalem!

7. Assembling hygiene kits!

8. Visiting the Tomb of the Kings.

Sorry for the overload of pictures, I hope you enjoy them. It's been a great week! This next week will start out with a trip to Eilat on Sunday! Ah, so excited! Eilat is a city at the Red Sea. We're going to snorkel and explore. :) It'll be fun! Catcha' later! Love you all. :)