זמן בבלוג אמיתי.

Every semester the students go to the Princess Basma school just up the street from the center to paint a mural. It was really cool walking around the building to see what the other semesters have done, and then we got started on our own! A smaller group of us went with Sister Harper to restore an old painting while the rest of the group started sketching our mural.  

we should have taken a before/after picture. compared to how it looked before, this painting  looks dang good. 

I’m starting to get really sentimental about this place because I only have about five weeks left.  Two of those weeks will be spent up north in Galilee so my time in the Old City and West Jerusalem is SO LIMITED! I’m really trying to take advantage of any spare moment I have to just be in the city. I should be there right now. Now that we are only taking two classes, we are free pretty much every afternoon to do whatever we want! On Sunday we decided to spend all day in the old city shopping. We've all put it off until the end so that the sneaky shopkeepers didn’t try to rip us off, but now we have a lot to do! 

eating tasty hummus at Shabban's! dwight, rachel, tacy, shelly, karen, shabban,  meg, susan, dev, and analise

this is me and achmed. he's great. he thinks i'm from canada because i wore a canada sticker on july 1. (we have some canada loving canadians in the center).

just a note from rachel bennett :)

my city.

i love my life

I love my life. Plain and simple. This past week has been crazy. We’ve had field trips, adventures, and a little bit too much studying. It was finals week here, so a lot of days were spent inside the center studying. It’s hard to study when Jerusalem is right outside your window. Now, finals are finished (except one paper….) and the stress level in the center is a lot lower. I think we tend to make each other more stressed out than is really necessary. Some finals were failed, others we’re barely passed…but they’re over and we’re happy. Now we only have two classes for the rest of the time here, so we are going to live it up every minute. The best part about finals week was getting a little too silly and also having a lot of deep conversations.

On Monday we went to Hezekiah’s tunnel! It was definitely my favorite field trip so far. We saw some ruins around the City of David and then got ready for the tunnel! We saw a movie in 3D and it was super cool because I already learned a lot about the reasons for the tunnel so I felt way smart. Then we went underground and walked in some freezing cold water (FELT SO GOOD!). We turned off our headlamps and tried to go without light, but we kept bumping into the walls and each other and it was so great. At the end of the tunnel we got out to the Pools of Siloam. This was the place that Christ healed the blind man. On our way out we walked up another tunnel (without water), which had some original steps that Christ would have walked on. I walked where Jesus walked!

On Tuesday I took and failed an Israel test. YAY! and studied forever and ever for old testament. Wednesday I took an old testament test. Thursday...I can't remember what I did, probably studied. and on Friday I took another test. 

Tel-Aviv tomorrow and Jordan on Monday!!!!! 

me and the roomies missing annie :( in front of al-aqsa mosque!

me, nate, and maddie gettin ready for hezekiah's tunnel!

maddie, beccca and me rocking the head lamps inside Hezekiah's

maddie, nate, and me at the pools of siloam!

these pants and this fence are my favorite colors.

welcome to my world. this is right inside Damascus gate. I walk this everyday! love love love it.

turkeyturkeyturkey

Lots of updates!

On Wednesday night I went to a very cool Jewish holiday celebration! There were literally no tourists there (except for 12 BYU students…and we are not tourists. We are pilgrims). The holiday is called Lag BaOmer. (look it up). I don’t know too much about it because everybody was speaking Yiddish so I couldn’t ask. We were at the super orthodox celebrations…so it was intense. We got in trouble a few times for being on the boy’s side. Scary. It was the first time in my entire life where I couldn’t find a single person that spoke English. They had huge bonfires and I know they were about to ceremonially cut the hair of all the three year old boys in their community. There was loud music, and then men got to dance! (girls only dance in private). Some of the boys in our group got to join the celebration while the girls found a balcony to get a good view of their dancing. I didn’t do any homework that night, and I was definitely unprepared for class. But it was such a good cultural experience…so I feel good about it. No regrets.

The next day I even had a dance party to “Call me Maybe” AND the call to prayer (at the same time)… on our balcony. We looked out over the old city/dome of the rock, etc. while dancing. Life is rough. This really is an incredible place. I can’t believe I’ve only been here for almost three weeks. It feels like it’s been so quick, but forever at the same time.

i'm not really bald. at the jewish holiday celebration with mary, steph, and analise!

at the mosque of the ascension with kenzi and megan

we loved paying five shekels for the mosque of the ascension. (you are looking at the entire site)

me and maddie

this is for you bree and joe! look, we're friends!

The rest of the week was just full of fun adventures but I don't have anything to say about them. I'm leaving for Turkey in an hour for a whole week!!!!!!! i love this place.