חיי בירושלים

shalom!
i've been bad at writing in my journal so i decided that this will just be my journal. So, if you're bored of what i'm saying...then just stop reading. cause this is for me, not for you. (except you mom&dad...oh and shout out to katie and alyssa. i miss you).
Yesterday we had class ALL DAY. First was old testament where we learned all about Cain and Abel and other interesting things. Then we had our first Israel class. It's taught by a nice Jewish man named Ophir. I think I zoned out for awhile because i can't really remember anything. Then I had Hebrew class! I can recognize the letters A and B in Hebrew and I know a few phrases! The teacher is really great and I think we're gonna learn a lot without it being too hard. Plus, we get to sing songs during class. Then we had other class...Palestine. I read the 3rd hunger games book during that class, so I have no idea what we talked about. (don't worry dad it wasn't important. it was just the first syllabus class). After that, a big group of us went into West J for the night! We're not allowed in East Jerusalem after sunset, so after a long day of classes our only option was exploring west j. I'm really glad we did it because we found some pretty great places! We had dinner at the waffle bar. It was definitely the best thing I've tasted in a very long time...even better than pita and nutella. It was a huge waffle with ice cream, bananas, and vanilla cream sauce. They were huge so I shared with my friend Devery! we ate it in like two seconds. definitely going back there for any special occasion (everyday is a special occasion at the jc). It was Rachel Messick's birthday, so she even got a sparkler in her waffle. I wish it was my birthday. After that, we explored Ben Yohouda street and looked at all of the fun shops. West j is really fancy, it feels like somewhere in europe. We're not allowed to walk back to the JC after dark either, so we all paid 7 sheks (like 2 dollars) and rented a way fancy van for the ride home. Yesterday was great, the only thing that could have made it better was a dance party with Alyssa Eyring. I'm super craving a dance party asap. And to top that fab day off..I got to talk to my mommy on the phone. and Allie.

Today we had old testament and ANE classes. After that I exercised with Lane (please be proud. i love pita, nutella, and hot choc), ate lunch, and finished homework. Joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat is lies. All lies. and whats up with Isaac's sketchy wife Rebekah? I had hebrew class this afternoon and then went to the old city! After a long day of classes its so refreshing to get out of the jc and do something! We explored Zedekiah's cave (supposedly he fled there when the Babylonians came to destroy Jerusalem right after Lehi left!..pretty sure that was in 522 BCE. I'm learning so much.) After the cave, a smaller group of us split off and went shopping. Jerica shared her giant pita bread (2 sheks, what a deal) and we wandered the streets of the old city. We went to Nasser's shop (he loves mormons), where he gave all the girls free scarves. He's a very flirtatious little guy, not sure how often i'll be visiting there. Then we went to Shabban's shop. He's the sweetest little old man who gives us free juice and a nice place to rest every time we come in! I love making friends with the locals, they're so nice and its fun learning about their lives here. Melinda and I decided we're not really sure what we're gonna do when we get back to Provo and people aren't shouting at us from all over the place telling us how beautiful we are. We'll just have to tell each other! We got back to the jc about an hour ago, had dinner, and now i'm avoiding homework. I'm really good at doing that around here.

I love this place so much. I'm so grateful for all of these experiences I get to have. I feel like visiting Israel is one thing, but living here for four months and experiencing some things the way that Christ may have experienced it has really helped me a lot. Living here is like nothing I ever could have imagined, its way better. I have to laugh sometimes because with huge groups of BYU students, a lot of them like to sing hymns when we go places. Singing hymns in public really isn't my thing, so today when they started singing in Zedekiah's cave I felt really awkward (luckily we were the only people there). But, I've decided that sometimes its kind of cool to sing songs, especially when they go well with the place we are seeing. Just saying. I love the other students here, i'm meeting new friends everyday and I know that i've already made some best friends for life. I can't believe i've only been here one week, i'm already having the time of my life.

at the Garden Tomb on Saturday

trying to look dignified.