I'm all ruined out.

Just got back from an awesome vacation to turkey! We had a blast. I'm going to put up pictures later... But just so I don't have to send too many emails tonight I will just write some highlights! Almost in no particular order.
1. Hagia Sophia. Definitely a highlight. I've been dying to see it since music 201 fall 2011... Yesterday my dream came true! I think I even had one small tear when we walked in. It was incredible.

2. Dance party on the beach. Our tour guide arranged this party for us and it was so fun. We danced the night away around a bonfire!

3. Making new friends. I feel like I'm better friends with everybody here. Life is great when you get to go on a vacation to turkey with 79 friends. At first I was a little sad because a lot of the people I hang out with frequently werent in my group. As soon as I got over myself I realized there were 39 great people in my group that I needed to get to know ad then i was happy! Now, i love my group and life is so good.

4. Seeing or talking about all 7 churches of Asia that john wrote about in revelations. About two years ago I went to Patmos where John received this revelation. And this week I got to go to all the little cities he had revelation for. The devotionals were incredible and the spirit was so strong. But I saw a lot of ancient ruins. By the end they all started looking the same. (hence the title of this post.)

5. Getting to know my professors, the doctor and his wife, and my branch president and his wife. We are lucky to have some pretty incredible leadership here. My professors know everything and literally have a good answer to every question.

6. Bus rides. We spent hours on the bus. But we had some great times. Dance parties, iPod idol, girl talk. So good.

7. Aqua fantasy. One of our hotels was called aqua fantasy. It was located right on the beach and was a blast. They had watersides and a big pool. The waterslides closed at six and we got back from ephesus at 5:30. But we Got two good slide runs in... So worth it.

I can't believe ive almost been here a month. Time is going by way too fast and I can't let even a minute pass me by.

Also, shout out to my baby sister Allie for making WX madrigals!!

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. 

Katie Maree Bowen

Happy birthday to the best roommate in the world, Katie Bowen. Katie is turning twenty tomorrow (in jerusalem... haha may 12), so I’ll just say my favorite 20 things about this girl. (in no particular order).

1.      She makes me laugh so hard. We love to play animals and finger tag. We totes abbrev. words and talk like we’re 12 years old.

how could this not make you laugh. 

2.      She loves late night cereal parties. It’s always nice to have a friend while you eat 2AM cereal.

3.      She loves frosty Fridays. We agree that feels better to eat treats with another person.

4.      We think alike. Lots of times we’re thinking the same thing…but neither of us say it. And then we say it, and laugh. Really hard.

styling

5.      We like to tell weird secrets about ourselves late at night.

6.      She is really good at learning cheerleading and dancing moves. She’s patient when I don’t quite grasp basketball.  

haha

see how much she loves cheerleading?

7.      She can do a mean moonwalk.

she's got all the tricks

8.      I think we laughed so hard that we cried at least once a week this year.

9.      She loves when I wear booty shorts to bed…………..

mustache

10.  She’s so funky. You should see her outfits. Not hipster, but funky. Like medium hipster.

11.  She says “medium” and “OM!” with me.

12.  Her laugh, it’s contagious.

13.  She listens to me talk just so that I can work things out in my own head, and sometimes I’m lucky enough to get a hug when I’m sad.

14.  She doesn’t like to snuggle with girls…neither do I. It’s perfect

see us not touching?

15.  She is a genius but she won’t admit it…this girl get’s A’s in calc and linear algebra. (and then changes her major to something else because she isn’t good at math).

she just looks smart.

16.  She likes to walk to school with me.

boise road trip

17.  She responds to my weird text messages, and even writes weird ones back.

18.  She likes to have dance parties with me. Especially during finals week, to Adele.

dance party in the car

19.  She makes a mean barbeque chicken. I moved into our apartment completely unprepared to cook. She taught me!

20.  She puts up with the fact that I can’t make my bed. And that I can’t keep “my room” clean.

21.  I love when she comes home at night so that we can play for a while before bedtime.

22.  She is always in a good mood.

23.  She thinks in triangles and always considers the hypotenuse so that she can get places faster.

24.  She celebrates with me when I’m happy, and be’s sad with me when I’m sad. (see…we talk like children).

25.  She gives the best advice

26.  She takes weird pictures with me

27.  We agree on almost everything. And have at least one deep conversation a day.

28.  With Katie, bedtime is a loose term. We really mean to be in bed by midnight. But then we get talking and lose track of time. Sleep usually happens around 2AM.

29.  She likes late classes too. (10AM class for life).

30.  Katie makes me want to be a better person. I’ve never met anybody quite like her. She loves to help out and make other people happy. She worries about everybody and doesn’t do anything for herself. She is a constant example of a Christlike person. I know that while I’m living with Katie it will be easy to make good choices.

I couldn’t even stop at twenty, there are just too many reasons why I love Katie. This list doesn’t even begin to describe Katie Bowen. I’m grateful everyday for her in my life. I haven’t seen her in three whole weeks and it has been rough.  Happy Birthday Katmar, kt, koripolli, etc. I wish I could be home to celebrate with you! 

weekend

tonight I loved doing my homework while sitting on the balcony. I got to watch the sunset, read the old testament, and listen to Muslim call to prayer...all at the same time! I'm just realizing how lucky I am to be here. (even when doing homework is a pain). I know my time here is going to fly so I have to make the best of every minute.

This weekend was incredible! On Friday night we went to the Western Wall for the welcoming of the Jewish Sabbath day. I think it was my favorite thing I've done so far. There were girls who had to be much younger than me reading their Torah, rocking back and forth, crying, singing, praising, and dancing. Up close to the wall, the feeling was very quiet and spiritual. Once we moved away from the wall we got to sing and dance with the school girls. I applied my new Hebrew knowledge and sang some praises with them!
Shabbat shalom and shalom alechem!! i'm so cultured. I can't really describe the way I felt at the wall. I've been learning a lot about Jewish culture and religion in my Israel class. Their beliefs are so foreign to me and there is so much I don't understand. I'm excited to continue learning about it and cannot wait to go back to the Western Wall on a Friday night later on in the semester.

For Sunday free day a big group of us went to Tel Aviv! It was so nice to get out of the center and do something super fun for the day. We explored a little farmers market where we got smoothies, lemonades, and other tasty treats. Then we went to the BEACH. We stayed there for a lot of hours just hanging out and getting some much needed sun on our pasty white legs.

me, kenz, and heather

We found a really cute place for dinner. The owner didn't speak any English so another customer had to help us know what to order. They had the best pita bread I've ever tasted in my life. The hummus was..not so great.  

in love with tel aviv already

kenz, me, heather, and devery

 needless to say I will definitely be going back to tel aviv soon.

Yesterday was our first real field trip. I can't even remember where we went because i'm pretty sure we went everywhere. We saw the well that Abraham dug, and I even wrote somewhere in my scriptures...."I am looking at a place where God once appeared." pretty great. We also went to the burial sight of Ben Gurion, the founder of Israel. From that sight we overlooked the "Wilderness of Zin." Then...we went on a great hike...through the wilderness of Zin. We literally climbed a rock wall the size of those canyon walls at lake powell. Hiking is not my thing. But, it was really interesting to picture those poor Israelites wandering in that same wilderness for 40 years! It was SO HOT, and I was only there for like two hours. It was also interesting to imagine that a wilderness that looked very similar to that was what Lehi and his family traveled through while they were journeying to the promised land. Maybe its just me but I always pictured trees. (no trees). We went to another site also but I can't remember what it was called or why its significant.

just in the cavity of a rock

scaling a mountain

we climbed that whole wall behind us. 

shout out to Camila...faithful blog follower. hey girl.

one more fav pic of tel aviv. me and kenz

livin my life

karen, steph, and i on our first field trip!

me and devery shared a waffle at the waffle bar. i want to eat there every minute of everyday.

kenzie and i in zedekiah's cave!

were super cool

we got to write our names under the center!

friends since kindergarten. 

best treat so far.

we like to pose at the "7 to 11"

just the view from our house

dp. good. 

skinny jeans

Yesterday I wore skinny jeans. It was probably one of the greatest experiences I’ve had in a while. Okay that’s a joke, but I’m so sick of wearing baggy pants all the time. I don’t even feel like a girl anymore. So my ½ day of skinny jeans was pure bliss. Until cute little Sister Peterson came up to me and very politely asked me if I would please change my pants. How can you say no to that lady? She’s the sweetest. So for her, I changed.


Ashley Dickman if you are alive out there...hit me up. (somebody please tell ashley to talk to me). 

i get moded on field trips. its all i can do to get my nose in the pic. 

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.