Life as of Late

You can't hear the crazy fun Arab wedding that's happening on the next hill, but it sounded like a party. I love Jerusalem all the time, but especially when it lights up.

Ophir, our teacher for Judaism, Zionism and the State of Israel, took us on a tour of Yad Vashem. It was really impactful, especially the children's memorial. It didn't leave me as depressed as the museum in DC, it had an interesting perspective.

We wandered through the Old City and found Justina and the Syrian Orthodox Church she takes care of. She told us about miracles she has witnessed there and sang us a song in Aramaic. That was the first time I've heard the language the Savior spoke. We found out later that we'll be visiting again as a class soon.

Besides building hygiene kits each week, some of us were able to do a Meals on Feet service project. We take lunch to homebound Christians and sing hymns for them. I love getting deep into the Old City to see the residential parts. I asked our guide if he still gets lost sometimes, and he said yes. That took all pressure off of trying to get the hang of that maze.

Still obsessed with the Dome. If I sit down at church and I can't see it, I go and move seats. And then I let it distract me during the next 70 minutes.

We went with Bro. Manscill and his wife to the Light Show in the Old City. It was so fun to be there at night, since we're typically not allowed to be in East Jerusalem after dark. We walked through the streets and saw light shows on the side of buildings, then a final show at the Citadel that went through the history of Jerusalem.

The Citadel was cool during the day, too. Especially the double drinking fountains that Morgan just loved.

Here's Absalom's Tomb, one of the 30 bible sites we visited for an Old Testament assignment.

I'm not going back to school in the fall because I found a love for cutting hair. Ok, not true, but I've wanted to learn for a while now and boys here are very trusting. Minimal mistakes have been made, but it doesn't even matter because boys never look at the back of their head.

My roommates stole my camera and took a series of impersonation pictures. This one was probably the favorite, just because now Allison understands how loved my blanket makes you feel.

On our Bethlehem field trip we listened to a panel of students talk about university life in the West Bank. Their perspectives were interesting, and they all had different viewpoints -- one-state solution, two-state solution, give up on finding a solution...everything is so complicated here.

The campus of Bethlehem University was beautiful, even though most of the students were gone during a break.

We ate lunch at a Bedoin Tent restaurant with our Modern Near East (Palestinian Perspective) teacher and his wife. I've had lamb 3 times now. I think I like it? Until I see a real lamb and then I feel guilty. But cows are my favorite animals and I'm always up for a cheeseburger, so my logic is faulty.

Baskets and baskets of pitas, and all this good stuff. It's like Middle Eastern fondu. I gotta learn how to make pitas when I get home, bread never sounds good anymore.

Brother Manscill's Old Testament class just ended and we're all way sad to switch teachers. But Brother Emmet will be fun! We have a lot of New Testament class time scheduled for Galilee so I'm excited.

Christmas in June! Constantine's Church of the Nativity was beautiful. It's hard to know what happened where here, or what you can be sure about, but I'm not frustrated by it anymore. You don't have to be a certain somewhere to know something happened, and that's all that matters.

We sang Christmas song after Christmas song where Christ was born, and I was loving it. I'm always up for celebrating Christmas too early. Brother Manscill is so good at making us realize how sacred all the sites we visit really are.

I'm the shepherd. Tyler was almost the baby, but we decided that was a little too much. He's better at looking like a wise man, anyways.

Out of the millions (not exaggerating. K maybe.) of skirts in Jerusalem, Brooke and I came home with the same one :) Every time I'm in the Old City I lose my craving for shopping. I miss price tags.

We heard a performance of the Call to Prayer at Arab Night. It's one of my favorite sounds, especially now that it doesn't wake me up anymore. I love hearing it on my walk back to my room (which is 309 by the way, even though I've walked into 409 multiple times and wondered why all my stuff is gone. All the floors look the same).

The food at Arab Night...some of it was great, and some of it would maybe be great if I grew up here and was braver.

Best part of Arab night...the dancing! I loved it so much! We had a night of Israeli dancing since then, which was also fun. Especially when the Macarena came on, and when President Brown did the twist.

Ok, I'm done throwing random highlights out. Two days until Galilee!!