best roomies

There is no question that the girls of Apartment 311 are the best, most beautiful, amazing, kind, generous, and fabulous girls in the center. Not to mention the smartest and most stylish.

1. Lane. The one standing next to me. I feel like Lane is my older sister. She has the best advice, and knows everything about life. She's hilarious, and she loves Futi (her BF almost fiance). She's always up for adventure (I mean she's moving to Italy in January...that screams adventure). She is nice to everyone, so outgoing and so fun. I love LANEY!

2. Annie. Annie loves red white and blue, scarves, naps, writing, laughing, blogging, cats, pictures of cats, apple juice, pb&j, etc. Annie is the best. She's always happy and just seeing her can make your day, it makes mine. I'm developing a nice Chicago accent because of this girl. and, we're living right by each other in the fall.

3. Steph. I met Steph one day in Emilee Crowder's living prophets class. I thought she was way cool, too cool for someone like me. Little did we know we were going to Jerusalem together and that we would be roomies and bff's here. Steph is an incredible photographer. She's always happy, she dances in random places with me, and we stay up late either laughing or deep in conversation.

Basically, these are the best roommates ever. We love hanging out (apparently thats a rarity here. Nobody else loves their roommates as much as we love each other....seriously though).

happy flag day from the jc students! (we love and miss america). 

daddy's girl

I've always been a daddy's girl. (and a momma's girl. I guess I just love both of my parents). Since today is the Sabbath, we celebrated Father's Day today. I've been thinking lots about how great my dad is and the influence he has had on me. My daddy is HILARIOUS. If you kind of know him, you may be thinking..."no he's stern and scary and doesn't talk that much." Well, jokes on you, you don't really know him. But you should get to know him. My dad likes learning new dance moves, singing Halloween cat, and playing boxing on the wii. He puts me in the "doghouse" when I don't email him often enough and loves to call me his Prancer. He loves telling stories, especially when its something he's really excited about. He loves a good diet pepsi and a carwash on Saturday's. He mows the lawn in a nice polo shirt and enjoys torturing me with sweaty kisses.

My grandma always jokes that it'll be awhile before I get married because I'm looking for someone just like my dad. She's probably right. My dad is the best man I know and even though I'm not that excited to come home...it will be great to see my daddy!

I've also been very blessed with incredible grandpa's! Grandpa Mangum served in the Salt Lake inner city mission for FOREVER! (really!) He loves to help people and just wants everyone to have a good education so that they can succeed. Grandpa Gardner is currently serving in the Farmington New Mexico mission. Both of these men are great examples to me of how important it is to serve!

pictures

On Sunday we went to Eliat! We got up super early and drove to the Red Sea for snorkeling! Confession: i'm afraid of fishies. So I went snorkeling once and then just loved playing on the beach!

 big group playing in the red sea!

michael, angela, and me

david cramer....

 after snorkeling we got dinner and ice cream. don't worry, my blonde hair never fails me. I got an extra cup of ice cream for free.

steph michael and annie

 On Monday we went on a field trip to a biblical wonderland. We got to herd sheep (harder than it looks)!

 We made pita and lentil soup!

beka, becca, meg, and me making pita

 Yesterday I had two tests. ANE and Hebrew. I kind of love Hebrew a lot. After finishing those we NEEDED to leave the center so we explored the Jewish quarter for awhile. Look at that donut. SO good.

Bottoms up

This week has been CRAZY! We had midterms last week and this next week is finals. Dont ask how that makes any sense because it doesn't. So last week was full of studying and paper writing. And this week will be full midterms and finals and good stuff like that.

This is what happens when you study too much.

can't you tell that dwight was REALLY sick of studying?

twins. this is analise. she's great. 

me and nathan jellen are sick of writing papers.

really sick of homework

taking breaks from studying

some say we're a threesome and that we both love dwight. the truth is we just all love each other. 

We had a few fun adventures this weekend though! but i'm tired. and going to bed. so maybe tomorrow you'll be lucky enough to hear about Eliat and Monday's field trip.

On Friday our "fashion committee" had us all wear khaki's and white t-shirts. hence the cute matching.

I speak Hebrew!

Yeah. I wrote this. It's English words just written with the Hebrew alphabet. I love Hebrew.

holocaust museum, annie's birthday, and midterms

On Monday we went on a field trip to the Holocaust museum, Yad Veshem. It was interesting learning about the different perspective the Israeli Jews have...emotional day to say the least... After the museum we went to Mt. Herzl.

me, dwight, and meg at Herzl's grave

Yesterday we really partied. Annie turned twenty yesterday so a huge group went to the waffle bar to celebrate!!!!!! It was a little bit too good. We love Annie. I love Annie because she is sassy beyond belief and hilarious. and because she taught me the importance of a good morning nap. 

steph loves waffles.

It's midterms now which means I am going to be boring for the next couple of days/weeks.

Also, I'm getting some serious anxiety over the fact that next week is our halfway mark here. I feel like I just got here and I am nowhere near ready to leave.

just an update

On Tuesday night a group of us headed to west j for the night, just to play! We found a park, some played frisbee with drunk kids....I decided to play on the playground instead. Then we found a benefit concert for soldiers and rocked out with them for awhile! good break from homework. 

a very great place called ice city came to jerusalem. It was -10 degrees celsius which was probably the best feeling in the world. I couldn't stop putting my face on the ice. There were slides and an ice skating rink too! good day. 

Cheerleading again. This time we flew David, David, and Dwight!

Today we went on some great adventures. We headed to Dormition abbey bright and early (and hot hot hot already) and found out that it was closed. So we went to the tomb of King David and then the Upper Room, which is the traditional site of the Last Supper. We sang a few sacrament hymns there (which was really cool and I wasn't being cynical at all). After that we headed to the YMCA to play the Carillon bells! One of the senior couples living at the center gets to play the bells every Sunday morning and they let us go with them this time. We practiced a few times on the practice "piano" and then we got to play songs for 60,000? (i think that's what they said)...anyways.. pretty much all of west jerusalem got to hear me and analise play the "Morning Song" on the bells. It was SO cool. Then we got to dong it 12 times for the noon hour! Success. After that....we went to a crepe place and had ice cream and nutella crepes for lunch. So good. but so messy. and so worth it. (i also tried buying semi-  skinny skinny jeans at gap but they were way expensive. fail.....i neeeed skinny jeans). After all of those lovely adventures we were tired and decided to head home, but we had to stop for slushees along the way.