Flight Plan

Airport: Ben Gurion.

This is what happens when you make 60 students stay up all night to catch an early flight.

I'll Be Home for Christmas

I love Jerusalem more than I can possibly explain.

The only people who know exactly how I feel about this place will only be living with me for 2 more hours. It's so heartbreaking to leave them because I know no one else will ever understand completely my love for this place and the experiences we've had here.

I feel like Israel is my home now, but I have another home in Utah and I know after the initial joy of getting home, after everyone stops asking me about my trip and when I'm left alone, I'll be homesick for Israel.

I don't want to leave, but I've learned all that I needed to learn in Jerusalem and it's time to go home.

This girl is coming home TONIGHT (Israel time). I'll see ya tomorrow.

LDS--Last Days Syndrome

They say that usually the kids who come to the Jerusalem Center gets LDS--Last Days Syndrome during the last few weeks in Israel and break a lot of rules because they just don't care. So far, we're the best semester yet and the extent of our rule breaking has been wearing hoods in the cafeteria and socks on the limestone floors.

Some other great things about the last days of being here: Cloudy Sunsets We went to the Western Wall for the eighth day of Hanukkah.

And I put a prayer in the wall.

Rainshadow

Dad,

Look where I went finally.

I knew you've been waiting for me to go here, and I finally did! I'll tell you more about it in 9 days when I get home. :)

I bet it didn't look like this when you were there.

That's because there's only 4 inches of rain there a year, so we are some of the only people who can say we were on Masada when it rained. It was pretty awesome and really really windy. Plus we saw this:

Look at that double rainbow! In Masada!

Also, I floated in the Dead Sea.

And yes, you really do float.

Most incredible sensation ever.

Carol of the Bells

Today we went to the YMCA to play the carillon bells that can be heard all over Jerusalem.

Just like the Coldplay song, Viva la Vida:

"I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing,

Roman Cavalry choirs are singing,

Be my mirror, my sword and shield,

My missionaries in a foreign field”

Which we listened to on the way to the bells to pump ourselves up.

I can’t read treble clef (dang that cello!), so me, T. Dub and Andrew just played a chord (C-E-G).

It was a big moment for us. A million people heard it, so obviously there were hi-fives involved.

Right now I have 63 bars of chocolate in my closet:

That’s what I get for having friends whodon't have self control—I have to hid their candy from them.

Too long

My friend Mickell made a list of "You know you've been in Jerusalem too long when......"

Read the condensed version on her blog here.

The people who read my blog and have been to Jerusalem (aka Bod) will understand some of them.

Mickell staying hydrated. Brother Judd would be proud.

IS this REAL life?

Our awesome T-Shirt idea thanks to Steph and T. Dub

Here.

I love living here.

But I'm excited to go home in two weeks.

don't PETra the camels

Some people who have never been to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (or Jordan, for short) have questions about the place. I'm here to answer them. Is Petra cool?

Yes, Petra is really cool. And almost exactly like it was in Indiana Jones. We literally walked where Harrison Ford and Sean Connery walked after they saved Sean Connery's life with water from the Holy Grail and the Nazi woman died. I know this because we had to watch it two times before we went there so we could understand its significance.

What kind of animals do you see in Jordan?

We're in the Middle East, so there are camels. The camels like you to ride them and they absolutely LOVE to pose for pictures. If you look close enough, you can see that this guy is smiling with his teeth. And there are cats. Cats, cats, everywhere. But that's no different than Israel.

Can you ride a tiny horse by yourself in Petra without a guide?
Yes, you can. If you just tell your guide that you have ridden a horse before, he might let you go off by yourself. (Only some guides will let you though) But at the end of the ride, you won't know where to put the horse, so you'll have to tie him up to a pole and leave him.What does the area around Petra look like?
Mostly it looks like Moab or other places in southern Utah, but with more colors in the rocks, and the rock formations are both real and man-made. We had a fun day exploring in all of the tombs and caves.
Is it worth it to walk up 1,000 stairs to get to the Monastery, even though it looks the same as the other buildings in Petra?
Yes, I'd say it was. The hike up and down was killer, but that Monastery was massive and incredible (as shown in the next picture:)

(One of the columns from the Monastery. And me. I'm hugging it because I love Petra so much.)

Other questions include:
Can you brush your teeth/drink the water in Jordan?

Can you eat the fruit or vegetables in Jordan?

Are there other awesome things in Jordan to see besides Petra?

No, No, and Not really.

Are the hotels in Jordan the worst you've ever stayed in?

Is the King of Jordan (King Abdullah II) really cool?

Was it the best feeling ever to come back to the center after 4 days in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan?

Yes, Yes, and Yes.

Slammin'

Tonight we had a poetry slam.

Complete with ambiance lighting and snapping

We had some lovely original compositions.

Featured Poets:

dD

Wein

T. Dub

Brinder

Craiggers

Talia Finley
Katie Bakkus

Brandt Peacock

Justin&Austin&Josh

Best in-center activity yet.

Galilee

I thought I wasn't going to be able to upload pictures on my blog anymore at the center, but I can. Yay!

We have been in Galilee for the last 11 days. It has been one of my favorite places so far. We stayed in little "beach houses" and I was sandy the entire 11 days, but it was worth it for literally a 30 second walk to the beach. We traveled to every possible place you can travel to in Galilee and studied the New Testament like crazy. I learned so much more about Christ's life in these last 11 days than I probably have in my whole life. I didn't realize that Christ spent so much time in the Galilee--even more than he did in Jerusalem.

The Sea of Galilee.

We went on a boatride across the lake and we got to stop the boat in the middle of the sea and have a devotional. We talked about the story of Christ walking on the water and Peter joining him (Matthew 14: 22-33) and when Christ rebuked the waves and said, "Peace Be Still" (Mark 4: 35-41). We also got to sing "Master, the Tempest is Raging", which has a totally different meaning to me now.
This boat is 2,000 years old--it dates back to the time that Christ would have walked the earth and sailed on the waters of Galilee with his disciples. Christ would have been asleep in a boat like this one when the apostles woke him to rebuke the tempest. We all wonder how he could be sleeping through something like that.

I ate this fish in Galilee.

And I didn't hate it. Surprising--especially since I'm the one who had to skin it and get the bones out. Plus I ate the tail. It tasted like a potato chip, but grosser.

The Jordan River.

This is where Christ was baptized (Matthew 3: 13-17), but we really don't know exactly where it happened. This was after church on sabbath, so we all looked nice. What this picture doesn't show is that we went river rafting on the Jordan two days prior to this.

Gamla.

Jesus Christ "preached in the synagogues of Galilee"( Luke 4:44), so we think that he might have preached in this synagogue in Gamla (this synagogue dates back to the first century AD, so he may have been in this exact one). Even if he didn't come to this synagogue, it is almost certain that the people who lived in this village of Gamla, whose ruined houses we were walking through, had heard of him. Pretty cool to think about.

The Synagogue in Capernaum.

Capernaum was one of my favorite places in Galilee. Christ spent most of the years of his ministry there. This synagogue was not built in Christ's time, but it is built on top of the foundation of the synagogue that Christ would have really taught in. Capernaum is also the place where the woman with the blood disease touched Christ's garment and was healed (Matthew 9:20-22), where he gave the sermon on the Bread of Life (John 6:22-71), where he raised Jarius' daughter from the dead (Mark 5: 35-43) and my favorite story: when the man with the palsy was lowered down into the house through the roof to be healed by Christ (Luke 5:17-26).

And we went to a million other places.

I loved our time in Galilee and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to go there and learn so much, but it was so nice to get back home to the center and sleep in a bed that wasn't full of sand. I loved hearing people call the Jerusalem Center "home". It really is like our home here.

We go home in less than three weeks. Whenever someone brings it up, we make them stop talking about it, because no one wants to leave this place.

We will always have a home in Jerusalem.

Clear the Area

One of our professors has a list of things around the city that we are required to see. It's pretty cool actually, because I didn't even know half of these sites existed.

If you ever go to the Tomb of the Kings, here are 14 steps that you need to know:

1. Find the door with no sign on Saladin Street. Knock on the door with no sign. No one will answer when you knock or call.

2. Read their mind about when they'll be open. Come back when they're open.
3. Knock on the door again. Into the speaker you will say: "We want to see the Tomb of the Kings". Struggle to hear the woman through the intercom on the busiest street possible. She will say "No. Closed." You will ask them what time you can come back. She will ignore you.
4. Tell her you're not leaving until she tells you when they'll be open.
5. She'll be ridiculous for a while, but she will eventually open the door.
6. Walk down the scaffolding to the excavation site.








7. Find the hole the scaffolding (if you don't know you have to move these crates, you will never find it).








8. Put on your headlamp.











9. Make Hannah stop crying and go in with you.
10. Crawl inside the small hole to at least 4 big rooms of tombs.
11. Be freaked out of your mind because you only have ONE headlamp.








12. Hold hands. Just in case.








13. Take some pictures and pretend like you're okay.








14. Get out of there.

Batkins! Batkins! Batkins!

Dearest Andrea,

I know you will find this funny if no one else does (Maybe my mom and Aunt Marge will remember it)
I freaked out when I saw it at the Israel Museum and I temporarily forgot that you're not supposed to take pictures in museums. Ooops!

At least someone in Israel knows how to spell batiks the RIGHT way.

Love you!

Leggy

When I was walking through the Old City today, a man grabbed onto my shoulder.
I looked back and saw that the man had stumbled and tried to catch himself using my shoulder.
I was quite taken aback, until I looked down and saw that the man's leg had fallen off.
His prosthetic leg.
It was just laying on the ground of the Old City.
I think someone might have stepped on his shoelace and the whole leg came off with it.

He promptly put his leg on, thanked me for letting him use my shoulder, and ran off down the street.

Also, today Andrew taught me the difference

between passing out and fainting.

(there's not really a difference

except girls faint and boys pass out)

Cutting your finger on the bathroom stall can do both.

Who Says?

I really did ride a camel in Egypt. And this is proof.

Today:

Bekah: "Are you crying or is that just sweat?"

It was just sweat.

For a while there, I thought it was getting cooler--like fall weather. But PSYCH! The weather was just playing a trick on us because it was in the 80s today and yesterday. It's not so bad until you have to hike up that mountain from the Kidron Valley to the Old City and your friends ask you if you're crying. This is rubble that fell from the top of the temple mount wall (AKA destroyed and thrown down by the Romans who destroyed the temple in 70 AD)

The Straight Seam.

Where Herod added-on to the south of the temple mount platform.

These Herodian ashlars were HUGE. Herod's "Herodian" Fortress. AKA his summer palace. (His winter one was in Jericho and we went there too)
Herod's HUGE tomb was built right on the side of this man made hill, and he walked past it every time he went up to the fortress.
Pretty grim, I'd say. But he was into himself.
This was the pinnacle on the top of the walls before the Romans destroyed it. They used to blow the shafar (ram's horn) to welcome in the sabbath and during festivals.The Herod Steps south of the temple mount (look them up in the pictures in the back of your bible. Hey oh!) were awesome! This is one of the only places in Jerusalem where we acutally know where Christ was. He had to have been there because this was the way out of the temple mount and we know he was there. This was probably my favorite place we've been to.

And Neil Armstrong's too.

The "Mormon" Shepherd's field right outside of Bethlehem. We had a really nice night here singing Christmas songs and having a testimony meeting. One of my favorites ever.

Since some of you who read my blog have never been to Israel, let me show you how fashionable it is. Especially for those who live in the Jerusalem Center:

Wearing backpacks on the front to prevent from theft

(This kind of theft shown in the next picture)I taught Tessa a lesson by stealing her camera.

She learned not to keep it in places where it could be easily pickpocketed.We wear matching pants. And Chacos.We wear socks and flip flops.

This is the most embarrassing one and I made fun of people like this until last week when I became one of them (let it be known that this only occurs IN the center)

It was a catch 22: I wanted to have the luxury of slipping shoes on and running to the next place, but it's always super duper cold everywhere in this building, so I want to wear socks.

So I decided to follow the example of Kristy and Kelsey by wearing socks AND sandals, and it's the best of both worlds.

Marvin Payne really knew what he was doing wearing socks and sandals to church all of those years.

Bringing back the '90s. Sweatshirts around the waist.

Obviously all of the fashion anyone has ever had in the Jerusalem Center has been thrown out the window.

Well, it was thrown out the window when we had our orientation meeting and they told us what we could and couldn't wear.

Also, I went to the Israel Museum today and we saw portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls. I was really thankful that I took Hebrew because I could READ THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS. I didn't know what any of the words meant....but I could read them.

Thank you Judy Goldman.