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!

Back in the City

~ Highlight of the Day: Successfully navigating the Old City without a professor ~

 

After four hours of class this morning, an awesome lunch, and some security orientation, they set us loose on the city! It was a bit intimidating, but our group stuck to familiar streets and stayed close to each other, and didn't go too far. It was a lot of fun to just idle our way down the street, stopping here and there at the shops and asking the shop keepers about their merchandise. We didn't cover a lot of ground, but we talked to people. Every now and then a merchant would recognize us as BYU students, and they'd say "for BYU, only two shekels" or "BYU, best milkshakes here!" We're apparently known as the 'Mormon University', and in orientation they told us that if we ever need to take a taxi back to the Center we should call it that, not the BYU Jerusalem Center.

 

And I found plenty of Ouds, one of which I will definitely end up bringing home. Apparently actual instrument quality ouds are large. . . shorter than a guitar, but much deeper, so I'm not sure how I could get it back home with me. You can find small ones, but they're the Near Eastern equivalent of the $40 pink ukuleles. If I can't find anything better I might settle for that. . . I'll definitely mull over it for a few months.

 

Well, tomorrow's the Sabbath for us. It will be a bit weird having Saturdays and Sundays reversed, but I think I'm going to like it.

Day 2: The Holy City

~ Highlight of the Day: Walking through the Old City ~

It's killing me that I can't post pictures. There is so much to see, and so much to show! Today we went on a quick tour of Jerusalem. We walked up the . . . north wall I believe, and entered through Damascus gate. After that I couldn't tell you where we went - I got terribly turned around, and if I hadn't been with a group I'd have been lost for hours! We did go up to the roof of the Austrian Hospice and look out over the city at one point, and we got to briefly stick our heads into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  That was probably my favorite site. To witness the people, some of which you could tell had traveled much farther than yourself, so humbly worshiping there was simply moving.

I can already tell I'll be spending as much of my free time as possible there. I can't wait till I become familiar with the city and know my way around. . . and I did find some stringed insterments, so you know I'll be back :)

I'm also in heaven with all the different plant life here. I have a pomegranet tree right outside my room. And there are olive trees everywhere! It's interesting to see what kinds of indoor (at least what people in Utah/Washington consider 'indoor') plants the shop owners decorate their store fronts with. They're planting things like ponytail palm and Norfolk island pine. At the Austrian Hospice I saw Plumbago auriculata, which I had worked with for most of the summer up in the Estate Houses at Longwood. And of course there are just a slew of plants I've never seen before. I will probably invest in a Native Plants of Israel book . . . if I can find one.

I have my sights set on the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens. It's only 17 minutes away from the Jerusalem Center, and I think if I can convince two other people to go with me, and figure out how to take a taxi, I'll be set!

Well, believe it or not I'm already swimming up to my eyeballs in homework, and it's all due tomorrow morning! So here's to blogging in English and being in Jerusalem!

Jerusalem!

Ok. Blogspot is in Hebrew. . . and I don't know how to switch it to English. . . so if the formating* is really weird for a while, that's why.

Um, yeah, so I'm in Jerusalem. It took me 14 hours of sitting on a plane, plus the 3 hour flight to Provo. . . and if we really want to get crazy we could add up all the hours I've spent in the air this past month what with flying home from Pennsylvania as well. And though my plan was to make this blog chock full of pictures, the internet here doesn't have the capacity for that. So I'll try to post my pictures, but it'll have to be every now and then. Like the pictures I took of Greece from the airplane window earlier today - those will make it up here somehow!

 It putts the punctuation at the beginning of the line. . . I'll work on it tomorrow after I sleep*

~Highlight of the Day : Being in Jerusalem ~
 

Still Up.

~ Highlight of the Day: Spending time with my favorite people :) ~

 

Well, I'm off to the airport in 3 hours. Yes I'm still up. Don't ask me why. . .

 

Next time I post I'll be in Israel!!!

Gone!

~ Highlight of the Day: comming home to the Fishbowl :) ~

 

I'm packed for Jerusalem, I'm in Provo, and I'm happy. It's so good being back. Even if it's for only 2 1/2 days.

I quickly packed up the bonsai stuff, and dug up my daffodils (the ones I started from seed 5 years ago. . . they were supposed to bloom this year. . . )

 

It was like a treasure hunt digging for these :) Maybe I can get them to bloom this year.

 

We cleaned out the pantry, including the pickles I pickled forever ago. 

 

 

One jar ended up being edible.

 

 

Aaaaand one last look at my phone. . . I won't be seeing it again for 4 months!

 

 



Done Yet? Nope.

~ Highlight of the Day: watching the stars from the driveway, just like on clear winter mornings in high school when we headed off to seminary in the dark ~

 

I am getting so close. . . I'm pretty much done with packing for Jerusalem and moving, I just need to finish filling and closing up all the boxes of my stuff.

 

Here's probably the biggest accomplishment of the day:

 

I threw away all my old trophies that I've been holding onto for years and years. That made one whole box just disapear! My mom pointed out that if I can't see myself displaying it in my own house someday then it's probably not something I need to keep. I've come to find that I agree with her on that regarding most items. I still can't part with some of my old girls camp beads. . . or my art projects from elementary school. I suppose I'll get plenty of chances in the future to go through and throw stuff out.

I also gave Bekah's weeping angel mask a nose job. With my dremel :)

 

 

 

It looks painful, but I assure you it's not!

Well, I'm sure I'll be terrible at posting while traveling, and as I'll be flying to Provo tomorrow I wouldn't expect too much for a day or two. I fly out to Jerusalem in 3 days! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!