Beach, Bikes, and Bartering

Last Sunday we finally took a trip to Tel Aviv. 8:30am to 9:30pm we were going going going. It was refreshing to finally have a trip with no lectures, no dirt tels, and no schedule! We had complete freedom. As soon as we jumped out of the vans, a complete view of the Mediterranean was right in front of us. The coast was just too much to resist. Feet were leaping out of shoes and people ran fully dressed into the water. Not aware that we were swimming I didn't bring my swimsuit and my desire to swim was not as great as my desire to enjoy the rest of the day without soggy jeans and sand in my shoes. Don't you worry though, I did borrow a pair of shorts so I could at least get in the water. 

Bartering for jewelry at the flea market in Tel Aviv

We biked all over the coast for 3 hours, definitely the best way to see Tel Aviv. We even went a little crazy and got two tandem bikes. That was an adventure working those, pretty sure we ran into a pole every time someone new got on.                  

At the coast right when we got off the bus. Could not love life more right now. 

Walking through an alleyway in old Jaffa 

Catchup

Apparently February in the JC = Midterms/homework overload/study till you fall over dead so my upkeep of blogging has faltered you could say so here's a quick update on what exciting things have happened thus far...

1) Arab night--call to prayer, authentic costumes and food, and best of all DANCING! 

2) Hezekiah's tunnel--1/2 mile underground tunnel made with little hand tools, switch on your headlight and dive into waist deep water, walking for 20 minutes through a 6 ft tall, 3 ft wide tunnel! Most adventurous thing I've done yet! 

3) V-day--No lovers, no family=everyone loves each other! Best valentines day ever! Plus, a lovely package from my mother...thanks Mom! Finishing with loads of chocolate and DANCING!

4) A day at the Zoo: I spontaneous decided to go to a biblical zoo in west Jerusalem. It was the best zoo trip ever! 

5) Seder Dinner--the traditional Jewish holiday that celebrates the passover. There was lots of singing, reading of the Haggadah of passover, searching for the matzah, eating, and even a bit of rapping...yep, rapping. It was a party for sure. 

So I had a much longer post that was way more interesting and descriptive but then it got deleted and I figured...eh, people don't have time to read long posts and I don't have time to write them so...enjoy the pictures! 

I'm on a camel, yah!

Check and check! I got 2 bucket list items crossed off the list this week! This past week we spent in Jordan. We had the opportunity to visit Mt. Nebo where Moses was first shown the Promise Land and where he was translated. We went to a few more stops and then had a four hour bus ride to our hotel. The next day was was full of adventure. We walked through the "valley of the crescent moon" which looked quite a lot like southern Utah. As we approached the great wonder of the world, everyone started to sing the Indiana Jones theme song and then it was right in front of us--PETRA!!! Check number one: visit a wonder of the world. We were all taking pictures when three men came riding on CAMELS!!! And yep, you guessed it. I rode a camel. Check number 2! The camel ride was certainly the highlight but after that we went exploring through the city. I had no idea that Petra was an entire city!! We hiked to this ancient Monastery and that was pretty cool. At the end of the trip we got to ride horses out of Petra back to the gift shops at the beginning of the trail. That was way fun! Unfortunately the horse ride was too much for my brand new camera and something inside it came loose and now it is broken. Luckily I have another small camera I can use, but farewell to "artsy" pictures. The highlight of the next day was easily Jerash. This is the place I did my report on and it was way cooler in person than in books. It was like the city of Hercules but in real life! Ancient roman temples, pillars, fountains, and more! I was sad we didn't have more time to spend there. It was a long four days and by the end I was very ready to come back to the center. It was such a luxury to be able to drink from the facet and eat fresh fruits and veggies again. And to not be sitting a bus all day...it was good to be back! Also, we got really lucky the day of Petra because it was perfect weather when we went and the next day it was pouring rain where we were and snowing in Petra! 

...and then it went BOOM!

What. A. Day!!! By 1pm today I had exercised had a ginormous breakfast, done my laundry, and finished all of my homework up to the day we get back to Jordan (friday). It was quite a productive day to say the least and it just got better from there. Around 3:30 we went into the city to exchange our money to Jordanian dinars and went to west Jerusalem for dinner. We went to this little Italian place and our group filled exactly every chair in the restaurant. The shop owners were the best! They knew one of the security guards that works at the center and comes to their restaurant all the time and they phoned him while we were there to say hello. Then they brought out the best salads I have ever had for all of us on the house. After we all got our food, they brought out this thin crust, veggie pizza appetizer thing on the house too! They were so so great to us. I got this tomato cream pasta that was so good and shared a pesto pasta with Hunter which was also extremely good. So we are all chatting away when we notice that the entire street outside is blocked off, there are army men walking back and forth, police lights going off up the street, etc. Obviously we begin to get a little curious and keep looking out the window wondering what's going on. We start joking around saying, "how crazy would that be if a riot was going on outside and we're all just in here laughing and enjoying the..."BOOM!!! I hadn't even finished my sentence before my chair and myself had a few inches between the two. Everyone screamed and the restaurant waiters had to reassure us that everything was ok. Turns out if any suspicious object gets left unoccupied the police blow it up. After we realized what had happened and had recovered from shock, we couldn't stop laughing for several minutes. Easily made for the best night yet! After dinner we went and grabbed some gelato before heading back to the Jerusalem center. Best gelato I've ever had. It honestly was the best night I've had since being here! We all kept saying how just completely happy we all were. It was a much needed feeling after this week. When we got back to the center we congregated in the Sheckle Shack to hear where McCall Smith and Tori Butler got their mission calls today! It was so incredible. McCall got called to Minneapolis, Minnesota and Tori got called to Sendai, Japan. It was easily the best day yet! Now I get to wake up tomorrow morning at 5 am to leave for Jordan. Life just doesn't slow down here. 

Old, Older, OLDEST!

And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead...But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. Luke 10: 30,33. 

I've been to old places, and older places, but yesterday we went to the oldest place in the world! The city of Jericho. On the winding, dry hilled road to Jericho we made a stop and hiked to what may have been the mount of temptation. Here we talked about two stories in the bible, The good samaritan (as quoted above) and when Christ was tempted after 4o days of fasting. I sat there looking across the dry dessert of the western bank and thought about what it would be like to be Christ at this moment. Maybe we were all really hungry but we all thought the stones looked like pitta bread and thought those stones would've probably looked pretty tasty after 40 days of fasting! While I was sitting there I remembered the quote, "Never give up what you want most for what you want in the moment." Christ had such control over his carnal self that he was able to resist Satan's temptations so that he could be the Savior of the world. We sang, Have I Done any Good in the World Today, in respect to the good samaritan story and then made our way to Jericho! Jericho was awesome! It was hard to even fathom how old it really was--9000 BC!!! Believe it or not we went to all these places and even got back for lunch! It was a very busy morning. The rest of the day was spent working on my site report for Jordan which we leave for on MONDAY! Time flies so fast here and is jam-packed with things to do! So I apologize for my blog slacking! Until next time, over and out!

Shawarma (شاورما or שווארמה)

After stressing and cramming for days over this ridiculous exam we had today, we were free from class by 10 a.m! There was no question, we all left for the city. It's so interesting how quickly you become familiar with a place just after wandering around for a few hours and yet there's so much still undiscovered! We did a little shopping and went to this cafe in an alleyway of the Old City. I was a little skeptical because it didn't look like the most sanitary place but my hunger over-rid my skepticism and we sat down. We all ordered our first authentic Jerusalem meal--Shawarma! Turns out Israeli food isn't so bad! After lunch we met up with another group at one of the many candy shops in the Old City. I joined them in going to the pools of Bethesda. When we arrived, the pools were closed for about another hour so we went into this little church that said to be the birth place of the virgin Mary. Besides the church, there was an extremely steep stairwell that led into several cave-like rooms underneath the church. Word of advice, don't go there if you have claustrophobia. That took up about twenty minutes so for the next little while we sat on the steps across the street while Lizzy attempted to teach us how to play this clapping, chicken something, knee slapping game...we failed miserably. Finally the pools opened and we were able to go explore! We first went into the Church of St. Anne's and sang a few hymns. The acoustics there were UNBELIEVABLE! It was so neat. A woman came in after us and began playing a small harp so we sat and listened to her for a bit and talked to her afterward. I keep thinking of what a shame it is that we can't share the gospel with ANYONE here because I swear we end up talking to just about everyone at every location we go to. The Pools of Bethesda was such a pretty place, we had way to much fun taking "artsy" pictures as we like to call them. By this time, some of us had class and meetings to get back to so we headed back but it was definitely another eventful day! Never fails with a trip to the city. Oh! I forgot to mention the darling little girls that ran up to us on the way home. They asked us to get a picture of them and then put their hands up for high-fives. They were so giggly and cute! They gave us all hugs as we left. Easily the best part of the day!

Let's Get Lost

Wow what a day! It's been a full day of adventure lets just say that! It began this morning at 8:30 am when our teachers took us on a four hour tour of the old city of Jerusalem. We trekked up to Damascus Gate from the Center, with a few stops on the way where we were taught about Herodian stones, Orson Hyde's dedication of Jerusalem and more. Entering Damascus gate was like entering another world. We winded through several paths that were packed with shops on either sides. It reminded me a bit of China town except really old and Israeli. We stopped at a Austrian Hospice where we got on the roof and could over look all of east and west Jerusalem. It was incredible! Then we made our way to the church of the Holy Sepulcher. That was interesting to see, especially the actions of the people that were there. It was a very very different experience from the Garden Tomb. The church itself is extremely dark and cold. After navigating through more narrow alleyways of the Old City we made it to the monument of the Tower of David. That led us out of the Old City and in to west Jerusalem. It was like walking into to a different county. All of a sudden there were segways, highways, nice shopping stores and restaurants. There was even Yogurtland! We explored there for a little while before meeting back. Half of us went back to the center while the other half stayed in the city. I chose to stay and we headed back to the Old City. All we wanted to do was get lost and we certainly did just that! Every vendor we walked passed said, "Ohhh the Mormons!" There were several that made us come into their shop and one even had us all dress up in Arab clothing and took pictures of us "free of charge!" Somehow we wound up back at Damascus gate without even trying. We decided to go visit Omar, the best olive wood carver in town. He showed us all over his shop and talked to us for awhile. When we were about to leave he said he was going to the center so he could give us a ride. Now I know right now that my dad is freaking out at the thought of me getting into this olive wood carver's car but I can assure you, he is perfectly trustworthy. The center loves him and he loves us. He was sure to show us his pictures with Pres. Benson, Hinckley and tell us about his good friend Elder Holland. Somehow we crammed six of us into Omar's tiny car and he drove us back to the center where I came back and took an extremely long nap! Let's just say that we definitely fulfilled our goal to get lost and somehow we found our way back home. What a day!