Going on 2 Hours

~ Highlight of the Day: Picking olives! ~

 

I pulled an almost all-nighter last night. I started writing my Palestine final paper at 2am-ish, got my Palestine final paper done at 5:55am, got it printed at 6:05 (after wrestling/pleading with the printer for 10 minutes), went to bed at 6:15 (with full intentions of waking up in 30 minutes to go to breakfast and class and stuff. . . ), woke up at 8:15 to a frantic roommate who also slept in through breakfast and into class. . .

I'm pretty satisfied with how things went. I got my paper done, I slept for two hours, and stayed awake through class due to the adrenaline rush of waking up totally late. I was totally starving when lunch came around, but I can handle hunger :) 

After lunch (and editing Madison's Palestine paper) we picked olives - next week we're making olive oil! So cool!

Well, that was today. Yesterday we went to Bethlehem, and here are a few of those pictures:

 

 

 

I forget which church this was (there are a lot of churches in Bethlehem . . . ), but they had an excellent array of plants - they even had a kumquat! At least I'm assuming it was a kumquat. It sure looked like one!

 



 

After hanging out in a handful of Bethlehem churches all day long we ended up on the hill across from the city to read the account of the shepherds (I think it starts at Luke 2:8). It was interesting to experience the terrain the shepherds would have been so familiar with. There were these huge bulbs that were beginning to sprout - I mentioned them in yesterday's post :)

 

 

 

Also noteworthy: I tried downloading the Doctor Who episode 'Blink' so I could introduce it to all my JC friends. . . you can't if you're outside the USA! So sad!

 

 

The Souk

~Highlight of the Day: Sleeping in and finally going out! ~

 

It was soooooo good to get out today! I actually stepped foot outside of the JC! Hallelujah!

 

You may be tempted to think, "But Rachel, you just got back from Jordan, where you walked around all day every day. What do you mean you've been couped up in the center for two weeks straight?"

 

Let me tell you, there is a huge difference between exploring Jerusalem on  your own and being on a structured field trip. A huge difference.

 

So today we enjoyed, at our own leisurely pace, the open air market, or souk, in West Jerusalem. It was great; we got dried fruit and fresh fruit, found a plant shop (that everyone else was kind enough to stop at while I reveled in it), ate lunch, and did a bit of shopping.

 

Now I'm trying (half-heartedly) to write a paper. . . papers are so yucky.

I love papers like I love stairs, and running up hills!

 

 

 (me with lots of plants, laughing at

Annie instead of looking at the camera :)

 

 

(me with my cool new shoulder bag!

(they're all the rage here at the JC. . . that and leather

 [I refuse to jump onto the leather bandwagon though]) 

 

Oh! I made a really important discovery today: lamb is disgusting. I can't stand the stuff. I thought it was beef at dinner tonight, so I took this huge helping, and then couldn't stomach a single bite of it. How does it taste so different?! How does it taste so gross?!

Tuesday

~ Highlight of the Day: Sleeping in. By far the best part of my day. ~

Whoooo! One final down, five more to go! The stress is starting to set in, so this'll be short and to the point.

 

First - studying for free response questions and multiple choice questions are two very very different things. My score on the Israel final this morning is an excellent testament to that.

 

Second - meals should be enjoyed, slowly and guilt free. There is no sense in ruining lunch by eating it in ten minutes and trying to go over Old Testament facts in my head while doing so.

 

We leave for Jordan in a week! Let's hope I last that long. . . :)

 

* Fun Fact: Hanukkah does not mean 'lights' or 'festival of lights' or anything to do with light. (That's the part I remembered while taking my test today). It actually means 'dedication' or 'rededication'

 (I could not seem to recall that unfortunately. . . :)

Arab Dinner Night!

~ Highlight of the Day: Matching perfectly all day long. . . and dancing like a maniac. ~

 

Guys. I have wanted one of these scarves ever since my senior year of high school when the foreign exchange student I sat next to in Chemistry (from Bahrain) gave one to Chase Adams. And now I have one. And it's yellow.

 

(this is our model pose. . . )

 

You can't really tell in this picture, but my outfit today was quite awesome :) Not only was it yellow and blue (the two colors, out of all the colors ever made, that were made for each other :), but I had my yellow scarf, yellow nail polish (left over from two-ish weeks ago - let's not get too crazy here), my yellow watch, and yellow socks! Seriously. It's not very often I get excited over an outfit.

Ironically you can see none of that in this picture. . . :)

 

Also, we learned an Arab dance, which was really cool. Fortunately for all of you there is not a video of me trying to dance it . . . besides, I'm still working on getting that talent show video up. . .

 

And Arab food is really good. I'm going to have to learn the names of these things so I can google recipes when I get home. I probably won't ever be able to make it authentic, but maybe I can figure out versions that are close enough.

 

I'm going to miss the yogurt here. It's half as sweet and twice as runny as American yogurt, and when you put it on cereal it's the best breakfast ever.

 

Well, I'm going to go write a short paper on the Cyrus Cylinder, and finish reading Nehemiah and Malachi. Then I'm going to sleep, because sleep is soooo good, and I don't get nearly enough of it!

 

 

 

A Day Of "Studying"

~ Highlight of the Day: rediscovering Super Mario World; Athletic Theme ~

 

It's been another day of fighting off sleep and balancing temperatures, and I'd love to write about everything I've been meaning to write about, but I'm working on a little under 5 hours of sleep, and that's an improvement.

 

So. . . Arabic class is great - we learned how to count to ten yesterday, and that's when I discovered that what the shopkeepers have been constantly shouting at us all is

 

" (somethingsomethingsomething) ten!"

 or

"(arabicarabicarabic) ashara!"

 

I've also been busy practicing for the informal talent show being held tomorrow :) I've been kicking myself for not bringing my ukulele, but one of the other students has been kind enough to let me use his. A friend and I have rewritten the Peanut Butter and Jelly song (NOT the weird rap one, but the one Inside Out A Capella does. . . it's cute :) to better represent life here at the Center. Perhaps I can have someone video it, but if not I will definitely post the lyrics for all of you to enjoy.

 

And with that I'm off to read until sleep proves too tempting!

Rocks and Stuff

~Highlight of Yesterday:  Listening to a Bedouin woman teach us about weaving while sitting in a beautifully woven tent drinking herbal tea (which was called something fancier, but I forget) ~

 

Ok, this is going to be quick, because I've got laundry, and studying, and Seder song practice, and a million other things beside.

 

We saw a lot of rocks yesterday. We visited the ancient city of Arad down in the south (the Negev desert), and Tell Sheva (a mile from Beersheeba) in the north. I think we ended up driving through all five land regions: Costal Plains, Shephela, Hill Country, Judean Wilderness, and the Jordan River Valley. We saw the Dead Sea, and Masada (we'll go there later in the semester [so excited for that!]), and Jericho, and crazy huge date palm plantations. I've never seen so many palm trees in my life.

 

The ancient city ruins are really cool. It's hard to imagine what the city was actually like, but it's interesting to walk through it. My favorite part of the ruins we visited were the wells and cisterns. I cannot imagine digging anything deeper than a few feet or so, and that's in mild Washington weather!

 

Well, I'm back to studying for the next few days. . . We leave for Turkey on Sunday!

The Sabbath

~ Highlight of the Day: That big glass of water I had after hiking to Gethsemane and back on a Fast Sunday. . . Saturday* ~

 

Today I:

 

 went to ward choir

 looked out at the city of Jerusalem during sacrament meeting (no big deal :)

walked to the Garden of Gethsemane

walked back from Gethsemane

survived the walk back

had the best ice cream ever

wrote 3 letters

and

played an intense game of catchphrase

 

And tomorrow I will make it to the Hebrew University and will post pictures. As long as I can convince two other people to come with me. . .

 

*We have church on Saturday here. It felt just like a Sunday except I had to keep fighting back the panic of having none of my homework done. I have an entire day tomorrow! Woohoo!

Essays. . . or "S-A's" ?

~Highlight of the Day: Having sourdough french toast for dinner. Mmmmm. . . ~

I'm currently writing an essay in order to get school credit for this internship. . . I've never really liked essays, and I truly lucked out in picking a profession where no one really wants you to write essays anyway. But I do have to write one or two, occasionally, for those who aren't blessed to work with plants all day and have not yet realized there may be more to life than reading what other people didn't want to write. 

Part of the prompt I'm going off of went something like this:


" What were your expectations for the internship going into it, and how were those expectations realized half way through?"

Based on today I would write:

"Before starting my internship I was convinced I was going to get an awesome [farmers] tan, because I'd be in the sun all day, every day. Then I got here and spent all my time at a potting bench or under shade cloth. Halfway through the summer I was still not tan. This week though I've been at the nursery, and am relieved to say my tan is coming along. So not to worry, Longwood's internship program is still exceeding expectations."

I may actually be a bit more red than tan today. It's what I get for having a 7 hour conversation with the sun. I also had the privilege of listening to this lovely song while my zune was on shuffle. I really had to try hard not to sing it at the top of my lungs in the middle of the mum field :)