A Very Blustery Day!

~ Highlight of Yesterday: Windy rainy fall weather ~

 

It rained last night, so I'm in a really good mood today :)

 The world is so beautiful after it rains!

 

And here's my small square foot garden of weeds. . .

 

I just started watering it consistently, and stuff started growing!

(I did root and plant the coleus and the spider plant)

 

And this is what I want my garden to look like. . .

A Day Out

~ Highlight of the Day:  Listening to the most amazing Cello/Guitar duet ever  ~

 Drats. I don't think you can see this very well. . . I'll have to get a better image of it.

Instead of doing my homework yesterday I talked in the computer lab and doodled on

the back of a Palestine textbook (Neil's, to be specific :)

 

It's of me, Madison, and Alyssa in the desert.

 

Today we visited the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene. It's absolutely beautiful inside and out. The grounds are fabulous, and the designs inside are so intricate and amazing. And it's got big golden onions on top. . . who can beat that? :)

 

 

Ever since I worked with chrysanthemums this summer I've become hyper-aware of them. I can't resist giving them special attention, and the exclamation, "Oh! a Chrysanthemum!" escapes my lips every time. I think it's because I cut, and rooted and potted thousands of the things, but didn't get to see any of them bloom. . . speaking of which - Longwood Gardens should be in the middle of displaying all those Chrysanthemums right now. As much as I'm absolutely loving Jerusalem, a part of me desperately wants to be back at my internship. . . I'm missing so much!

 

 

We also went to the tomb of the kings down in the Kidron valley. . . at least I think it was the tomb of the kings. Maybe it was one of two places with that name? I've been to a 'Tomb of the Prophets'. . .

There are a lot of cool old tombs. . .

 

We ended today with an amazing formal talent show. Music is great :)



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!

 

 

Bethlehem

~Highlight of the Day: finding some sort of unidentified bulb on the rocky hills of Bethlehem ~

 

This will be quick, because I have two papers to write tonight. I just have a few points:

 

Point one:

 

Out of the way places are so much better than the touristy ones.

 

Point two:

 

Wilderness is so much better than city.

 

Point three:

 

Cinnamon-sugar pitas are amazing

(especially when you're fresh out of nutella :)

 

Point four:

 

Singing Christmas songs all day long is

occasionally acceptable in early November.

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?!

Jordan

~ Highlight of the Day: Having one of my students recite his favorite scripture from memory in front of the entire primary - I'm so proud of him! ~

I've managed to make my way over to Hebrew University, which means I can post twice as many pictures in half the time :) So here is the Jordan trip: 

 Kenzi and I enjoying a real chocolate chip cookie
(This is before we left for Jordan) 

We saw a lot of mosaics in the course of our four day trip.
 Lucky for me I happen to LOVE mosaics :)
Do you think I could find a mosaic master and apprentice? 

So Roman guys really liked to use Acanthus leaves in their mosaic designs.
(as seen in the top right hand corner of this picture)
You see it pretty much everywhere. Acanthus spinosus was one of the ornamental plants I had to
memorize for my annual/perennial ID class, so it's near and dear to my heart. The common name also happens to be bear's breeches. Here's a picture of the real plant. . .

And here's the treasury at Petra.
Petra was easily my favorite site in Jordan. there was hiking, and lots of
amazing carving, and rocks, and camels. . . I'd go back in a heartbeat.

This is me on a camel. 

Petra is most famous for the Treasury (as seen in Indiana Jones), but if you hike up a couple miles into the mountains you find the Monastery, and it is so much cooler! It's huge.

Oleander! 

I knew I missed hiking, but I didn't realize how much until we made it to the top and
got to enjoy the amazing view. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to live too far away from the mountains. . . 

The colors in the sandstone at Petra are fantastic.
You can find all sorts of reds, tans, and blue-greys, all right next to each other.

This is the Temple of Hercules
(the really far away columns in the background)

One of my favorite things about traveling in another country is
experiencing the more rural/unpopulated areas. You get a better feel for the country as a whole. 

Jerash (one of the 10 Decropolis cities) has all sorts of cool
places:

big amphitheaters

stonework (someday I'm going to carve like this. . . )

(and this)

We passed through this area that had nurseries everywhere. It drives
me crazy, because we pass all sorts of plant places when we're driving in the buses, but we never get
the opportunity to stop at them. We only get free time in the cities, and you just
don't find nurseries there. . . 

This is some sort of citrus grove, pretty sure.

And more groves of various things. . . 

Jordanian money is beautiful. It puts our plain green stuff to shame :) 

Just some more random stonework. All these designs and patterns
make my head spin with plans for ukulele inlays and wood carving projects. 

I found a mosaic of a rooster and had to get a picture of it.
Gotta love chickens :)

So there are the highlights of the Jordan trip. I need to put together a more comprehensive
narrative of the places we went and the things we saw. . . but I've got a Palestine paper to write, and Jerusalem to explore, so we'll see what happens.

And because I haven't given a Bird of Paradise update in a while:
Five have bloomed, they are awesome. 

Back from Jordan!

~ Highlight of the Day: Hearing from Josh (fellow Longwood Gardens intern) that they all survived the hurricane, and even had hurricane parties :) I must admit I had been a little worried ~

 

I'm back from Jordan!

And in one piece, though this day was a little rough. I ate something yesterday that I shouldn't have (Don't ask me what I ate. . . but it obviously didn't agree well with me), and I've been sick ever since. So I'm ready to sleep a solid 8 or 10 hours tonight. Maybe then I can handle some breakfast in the morning. . .

 

On a happier note, I had the best Halloween ever!

I watched Halloween themed episodes of Whinny the Pooh in Arabic :)

 

 I'm off to bed - I'll post pictures tomorrow. . . hopefully!