More Galilee ... :)

K guys, I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little sad that no one has taken my Beatitudes challenge... I know I'm kind of a dork, but humor me, huh? It'll be fun...

Today we toured the Jezreel Valley. We started with the Mount of Transfiguration. I have to say, I wish we knew more about what happened up there. I mean, I’ve gotten to learn a bit from my classes and teachers and everything, but so much of it hasn’t been revealed. One thing that my teachers said, though, is that Christ used the Mount of Transfiguration as His temple, since the temple in Jerusalem was not exactly available for His use, nor appropriate for His purpose. And it felt sacred up there. One thing that we do know is that Peter, James, and John saw Christ in His full glory as the Creator of the world and Redeemer of mankind. When we had our free time up there, I just thought about what that must have been like. I have to say, I do almost wish there weren’t so many churches everywhere—it’s hard to put things in context in medieval church—but I suppose if there wasn’t, there would be no holy site to see in the first place.

Next we went to the little chapel commemorating the miracle at Nain. It’s not very well known—I had never heard of it. But Jesus came to this little, quite out of the way town, actually, called Nain and there raised the only son of a widow from the dead. What I loved about this little chapel is that it’s so humble, and plain, and it just fits, to me. This wasn’t some glorified, mighty work that Christ performed for the world to see. Only one of the gospel writers even records it (I don’t remember which, sorry), and only this small town and His disciples were there to see it. It was a simple act of compassion, where Jesus reached out to lift a woman in need, and the chapel was just so plain, and sweet, I just loved it.

On our way out of Nain I had kind of a funny thought. So, if Jesus knew the End from the Beginning, do you think He ever thought, as He walked all over Galilee, *Man, a car would be nice right about now… with air conditioning.* Lol. Seriously, tho. Of course then it occurred to me that, since He really can travel basically faster than the speed of light anyway, He probably is not that impressed with cars, but still.

After Nain we went to Beth Shean. This is where the bodies of Saul and his sons were hung on the walls by the Philistines. I have to say, I always thought it was so sad that Jonathan met that end. He’s pretty much my Old Testament crush. But seriously, he was such a good guy, and I always felt like he deserved better. Beth Shean is also the most impressive Roman ruins in Israel (as opposed to Jerash, which is in Jordan). I have to say, it wasn’t all that different than Jerash, except Jerash was huge (and better, really), but somehow Roman ruins really never gets old for me. They’re just so cool. This one did have a bathhouse (Jerash doesn’t) that was pretty sweet. The floor was covered in these mini-pedestals that Bro. Wilson said used to hold up the floor of the hot tubs. It was pretty awesome.

So then we went to Gan Ha-Shelosha. This spot was named, by Time Magazine (according to all our teachers- Bro. Wilson in particular is pretty impressed by this, lol), the “most beautiful spot in Israel.” K, so they weren’t kidding. It’s a natural pool (I mean, there’s fish in it), but the water is so unbelievably clear, and blue, and WARM! It was incredible. And there was a waterfall that you could go stand under and have your back massaged (although the girls did have to hold onto their swimsuits….), and the fish came and nibbled on our toes, and I’m pretty sure I swam farther than I ever have in one go before in my life getting from one end to the other. It must have been 100 yards long, and about 20 feet across or so. Maybe 30, I dunno. But it was seriously amazing. It wasn’t even warm outside, and I still went swimming. I’m pretty sure the water was warmer than the air… So, so beautiful.

Then last of all we stopped at the Bet Alpha synagogue, which has a mosaic floor with the Zodiac, the Ark of the Covenant, and Abraham sacrificing Isaac all on one thing. And there was another stellar movie. I’m telling you, whoever’s in charge of the Israel monument movies needs a gold star, lol. In other news, I still have water in my ear... Maybe that's just from my shower. Oh well, worth it. :)

"I Swam Where Jesus Walked"

Lol, I didn't come up with that, one of the girls in our group did.  She wants to make it a t shirt.  Too bad we're not actually allowed to swim in the Sea of Galilee...  Also, there's two posts that I just put up.

Today we had church with the Galilee Branch.  They meet in this teeny tiny little building, so we actually had to go in 2 groups.  My group went at the regular time, 10:30.  It was really nice this morning and I was glad because it meant we could go out on the balcony they have that overlooks the Sea of Galilee without it being totally miserable.  It really is a pretty stellar view.  It was a really nice meeting.  Susan Madsen (author of the I Walked to Zion series) and her husband are serving a service mission there and she spoke, along with one of the girls from our group.  There are only about 10 regular branch members, and between them they speak English, Russian, Spanish and Hebrew.  And they totally have hymn books in all four languages, and they even have those things where you put up the numbers of what you’re going to sing in all four languages (coz foreign hymnbooks only have selected hymns, so their page numbers are different).  It was pretty awesome. 

The building is so small that we couldn’t stay for the other meetings, so after Sacrament meeting we actually hung out for a while, but then we went to the Protestant site of the Baptism of Jesus.  So we went to the baptismal site in Jordan, but just like there’s the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and then the Protestants pretty much run the Garden Tomb, they have their own baptismal site, too.  I think that Jesus was more likely baptized at the one in Jordan, because I’m pretty sure John the Baptist lived in the wilderness outside Jerusalem, but this one is a much purer water source, so this is where all the 8 year olds in the Israel District come to get baptized.  One of Bro. Huff’s daughters was baptized there when they were here 9 years ago.  I have to say, it was certainly a much more appealing place than the other one.  They had inscriptions all around the wall of Mark 1:9-11 in all different languages.  And there was definitely one in Hawaiian Pidgin.  It was awesome.  Like, instead of, “This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” it said, “You my boy!  I really get love an aloha fo you an I stay good inside cuz a you!”  Yep.  I took a picture.  I’ll post it sometime.  :D

Then we came back and actually got to eat lunch for the first time on Shabbat like, ever.  Nah, that’s a lie, I guess we did in Egypt, too.  But it was still kind of exciting, since they only give us breakfast and dinner back at the Center.  And tonight we had a *fireside* which consisted of all the teachers telling us how they much.  It was pretty entertaining, if not, you know, exactly what I would have chosen to spend my evening talking about in light of recent events.  But hey, good times.

Yesterday we went to Gamla and Qazrin.  Gamla is also known as the “Masada of the North”—Masada was the last stand of the zealots against the Romans, I think in the Bar Kokhba Revolt of 135 AD, but don’t quote me on that.  So Gamla was kind of the last city to hold out up in the Galilee region.  It’s called Gamla because the hill that it’s built on is shaped like a camel hump, and the word for camel in Arabic is “gamal.”  Honestly, it almost looked like something out of South America, just the way the hills were situated and all.  I don’t know if that makes a lot of sense, but if that gives you kind of a feel for it, great.  We also hiked up to this waterfall.  It’s like the highest in Israel, and it was pretty sweet.  Gamla is also supposed to be like a vulture sanctuary, since they’re endangered, I guess.  But I didn’t see any vultures.

Qazrin is a Talmudic village.  A lot like Neot Kedumim, honestly.  Except they had more of the old building kind of aspect and not the activity part.  Talmudic, by the way, refers to around the 3^rd century AD when the Talmud—the full set of Jewish scripture—was being compiled and written down and all that.  I’m like, 90% sure I’m not getting that mixed up…  Anyway, they had this reconstructed house that was set up to look like it would have in that time.  And there was this crazy movie that we watched.  K, there were like, 8 screens around this room that we were in, two on each wall.  Mostly, only 7 of them were playing (I’m not sure why they really had the 8^th one, to be honest).  Sometimes they would play the same thing on all screens.  Sometimes half of them would show one scene, and half another.  Sometimes two of them would show words or phrases in crazy text that related to whatever the narrator was saying.  And sometimes they would show the same thing from like, a different angle on each screen.  And like, there were other combinations of those, but basically the AV department at this place just went a little slap-happy or something.  It was nuts. 

Then yesterday afternoon I took one large nap (I did that today, too, actually) and then last night we watched Hitch and played card games til 1 am.  I cleaned up at Rook.  When I first saw Mike and Ken and some people playing that at like, the very beginning of the semester I was like, “Dude, I don’t remember how to play, but I used to love that game when I was a kid!”  And all I could remember was how much I had loved it.  Now I remember why.  I’m really, really good at it.  Lol.  We didn’t play that one for very long…  We actually ended up playing Go Fish, which was pretty entertaining, lol.  (Got any threes?—name that movie!)

Fourth of July on the Beach

Well, we are continuing to have holidays out of season here at the JC. Or, rather, in Galilee. Some people bought some fireworks in Tiberias when we went to get ice cream, and we had a mini-Fourth of July party on the beach. It was just these two little fountain things, but they were like, the most exciting thing we’ve done all week, lol. And they had sparklers!! I haven’t had a sparkler since we lived in Michigan. It was awesome. It was the source of much joy and happiness. I think that fairies would have sparklers for wands. Like the blue fairy in Pinocchio. J

Today we went kayaking in our free time. It was really river rafting. We were in big inflatable rafts with a couple of paddles and five people in each one and we paddled down the Jordan River. There were a couple of itty bitty little rapids, but it was mostly pretty tame. Our group totally won tho. We out-paddled all the groups in front of us and were the first ones done. Too bad no one else knew it was a race… Lol. Apparently one girl got knocked off her boat and into the river by a tree branch. No joke. I wish I had been there, lol. And another group definitely started pushing each other in and ended up tipping their raft. They were soaked. I got a blister from paddling. Right underneath the ring on my left middle finger. And it’s finally starting to really warm up. Which made me happy, because I was really really over 60 degree weather. I am so ready for spring.

Tonight we went to the Fish Restaurant. They give you, literally, a whole fish. With eyes and everything. And fins. All the girls were freaking out about it while we were waiting for our food, and I was like, come on guys. But then they brought it out, and I totally would have been fine with it, but Bryan, the guy at our table, picked it up and was making it like, *swim* and the fins were dangling and it was really creepy and I was like, sick!!! It was really funny tho. And I did take a picture of me kissing my fish. And then Bryan put its head in his mouth and was like, waving it in Richelle’s face. Again, super funny but also really creepy. And then we went up to Tiberias for ice cream. I was taste-testing some of the Israeli chocolate, and then the guy was like, shoving a taster of bubblegum in my face, so I was like, ok, and actually it was really good. So I got bubblegum and chocolate (not Israeli chocolate, tho, I didn’t like it, but the chocolate that I did get was excellent). It was a good night.

"The Sounds of Sandaled Feet"

Bro. Wilson (my New Testament teacher) gave us a quote from Pres. Monson yesterday that says, “…As you and I walk the pathway Jesus walked, let us listen for the sounds of sandaled feet…” (Ensign May 1986, if you’re interested). Today I walked those paths. It was quite a day.

This morning we started out on a boat on the Sea of Galilee. This was probably the most meaningful experience for me all day. We stopped out in the middle to have like a class program. It’s not a very big body of water. It’s about the size of Utah Lake. It struck me how close we still were to the shore, and how in the middle of one of the famous Galilee storms, you would be so desperate to just reach the shore that you know you could see in the middle of a clear day, and yet every inch toward the shore is fought for with all your strength. I can see how the disciples would be so frantic as to say, “Carest thou not that we perish?” We also sang, “Master the Tempest Is Raging.” I had really never thought much about this hymn. But we sang an incredible arrangement of it in choir, and every time I consider that song I seem to learn something new from it. Today I was thinking about the second and third verses, which compare the tempest to adversity in our lives, and the chorus, which says, “No waters can swallow the ship where lies the Master of ocean and earth and skies.” And it just kind of came together in my mind how, if our lives are compared to a ship sailing across the water, if we allow Christ to board our vessel—invite Him into our hearts and make room for Him in our lives, no waters of temptation or adversity can swallow us. So it was a really neat experience to be out on the Sea of Galilee this morning.

Our first stop once we got to shore was the Mount of the Beatitudes. We had another class program there, and it was more like the one we had in Bethlehem—Bro. Wilson asked some people to each talk about one of the Beatitudes. It was nice. I have to say, Bro. Wilson knows how to put together a good field trip program. Inside the church they have stained glass windows with all the Beatitudes written on them in Latin. I was walking through, trying to figure out which was which, and Bro. Wilson comes up and was like, “So do you know which one that is?” And I’m like, “Well, actually…” Coz I’d already figured several out by then, lol. He was pretty impressed with me, it was funny. Actually, I think it would be kinda fun for you guys to try and guess J :

1. Beati qvi lvgent qvoniam Ipsi consolabvntvi

2. Beati miseri-cordes qvoniam Ipsi miseri-cordiam conseqventvr

3. Beati mvndo corde qvoniam Ipsi Deum videbvnt

4. Beati qvi persecvtionem patvntvr propter ivstiam qvtam Ipsvm est regnvm coelvm

5. Beati pacifici qvoniam filil Dei voacbvntvr

6. Beati pavperes spiritv qvoniam Ipsorvm est regnvm coelorvm

7. Beati mites qvoniam Ipsi pos-sidebvnt terram

8. Beati qvi esvrivnt et sitivnt ivstiam qvtiam Ipsi satvrabvntvr

Those are my best transcription from my pictures… In no particular order except the order I took the pictures. I did it all without looking at my scriptures, except I missed the last one, so give it your best shot. J Lol. Sorry, I know I’m kinda lame.

Then we went to the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes. They have that cool mosaic on the floor with the two fish on either side of a basket of bread—the one that’s pretty famous. And they have a pond outside with all these fish in it! They were some sweet looking fish. They were all like, red, or orange mostly, and there was a white one and a gold one that were pretty cool. And it was just the neatest little pond.

From there we walked to St. Peter’s Primacy, where Jesus called to the disciples from shore after he was resurrected and then said “Feed my sheep” to Peter three times. They have kind of this neat little beach that you can totally imagine the Savior standing on and looking out at a fishing boat on the lake. And we sang inside the chapel, because there are good acoustics. I think I’ve figured out, by the way, why it always sounds cooler in a smaller group. It’s because when we’re all together there’s such an overwhelming number of female voices, and what makes it sound so cool is to get the men’s parts going underneath and it makes this really cool, rich sound. So ya.

Last of all we went to Capernaum. I have to admit, I fell asleep while Bro. Wilson was talking there…. I was kind of sad about it, too. I’m not sure why, I was just pretty wiped out I guess. But I do know that 25 of the miracles recorded in the New Testament took place there. It’s where Peter lived and it’s pretty much where Jesus hung out most of the time. And it’s really pretty. There’s a white 4^th century synagogue/church (I think they called it a Christian synagogue, whatever that means) built over the ruins of a black basalt 1^st century Christian synagogue. It’s pretty neat to see the contrast of the black and white. And there were these gorgeous purple flowers hanging over the entrance to the complex. It was pretty.

Oh, and on the way back we stopped on the side of the road and talked about the herd of swine that Jesus cast the devils into. There were signs all over the fence saying, “Danger! Mines!” And one of the guys wrote “SW” on a piece of paper and (with spit…) stuck it to the sign over the “M” so that it said, “Danger! Swines!” I got a pretty fabulous picture, lol. It was kind of awesome.

Well, yesterday we had a relax day. We had class in the morning (on this field trip we trade off with the other class having class/free time while they do field trips and vice versa). I have to say, I’m a little put out to still be on the second bus. They ended up not switching the buses like they were going to, so instead of being on Matthew I’m now on the Wilson bus, and we are still behind. Mer. But it was good. It really wasn’t warm enough for the beach, but I did go out and play charades with some people (though I very nearly turned around and went back inside when I saw they were standing in the water…) and then I played Phase Ten with some girls til dinner. After dinner we had a bonfire, and that was pretty fun. Of course, now all our clothes smell like smoke, but I decided I’m over it, lol. Nothing can be done, neway. Galilee is kind of the chill trip, so that’s what I’ve been doing.

Spring Break!!!

I guess I should start by saying, for those of you who don’t have or check facebook, that Mike and I broke up. But that’s all I’m going to say. Sorry. Also, this is from a couple of days ago, and I will post about today and yesterday probably later tonight.

Today we headed up into Galilee. Someone said something today about this being our spring break and I was like, hey ya! So I finally get a spring break! Woohoo! Take that, Provo! Lol. Our first stop was at Caesarea Maritima (not to be confused with Caesarea Phillippi, apparently). It’s a harbor that Herod the Great built on the Mediterranean coast. There’s not much of it left, but it was so nice to be out on the beach. The beach there is almost entirely composed of shells. It’s trippy. Even where there’s sand, it’s saturated with pieces of shells. One of the girls found this incredible shell. It’s one of those spirally ones, and it was purple. Like, a deep, gorgeous purple. I don’t think I realized you could even find shells like that like, on a beach. It’s also the place where Paul preached to Agrippa (“Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian”), and probably where he took off on all his travels. I have to say, I never realized that scene actually played out in Israel. I always thought it was off in like, Greece or somewhere. The weather was really nice, too. It was warm and sunny and gorgeous. It made me very happy. Ooh, I also bought some sandals yesterday (more about that later), so my feet were happy to be out in the fresh air.

Then we went to Megiddo (Armageddon, in the Greek). This is where the world is going to end, and a force of 200 million will gather against the children of Judah (Revelations 16, I think). It looks out over the Jezreel Valley, and it’s all green and empty, and it was cool coz I could see in my mind’s eye an innumerable host camped and ready to march. Although I was imagining more of like, a Narnia-style army with all tents and banners, and in reality it’ll be like, tanks and trenches and/or some other futuristic military technology. And there was an Israelite altar. I never realized before that one of the requirements for an altar in the Bible is that it has to be made entirely of “unhewn stone,” which means they basically just stacked up a bunch of rocks, and it was actually really neat to see how they did it. Like, the altar was totally intact, it was pretty cool. And like, it was big. It had steps leading up to it and it was I think they said 9 meters in diameter. Crazy.

Our last stop was Nazareth. First we visited the synagogue. This is where Jesus stands up to read from the Bible and says that he’s the Messiah and everybody says, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?” and they reject him. But Brother Wilson said something that I thought was even more profound and even humbling. Today we were in the place where Jesus went to church as he was growing up. Kind of a neat thought. Bro. Wilson was saying it in the context of “Someday you’ll be teaching ‘Jesus Once Was a Little Child’ in Primary and you can say…” and it made me smile to think of Jesus as a sunbeam, learning about God with all the other children. Then we went to the Church of the Annunciation, where Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel. There was a service going on inside. It was kind of cool. I got a neat picture of all the like, um, people that conduct the service (…wow, I feel ignorant all of a sudden) standing up at the front. And last of all we went to the Carpenter’s Shop. My favorite thing there were these really sweet (as in nice, not as in like, rad) stained glass windows that depicted Joseph being visited by the angel, with his wedding to Mary, and with Jesus and Mary standing over his deathbed. They were very nice.

Then we came to our kibbutz/beach resort. I’m rooming with some girls I don’t know as well, so it should be fun. I’m definitely excited to spend some time on the beach.

Yesterday we also went on a field trip. We went to this place called Neot Kedumim. It’s almost like Nauvoo or Kirtland or something, where you can go to like *experience* another time period. Like, they don’t have people dressed up or anything, but we got to herd sheep (ya, lol) and crush up spices and they had a presentation on Torah scroll writing. It takes about a year for a scribe to hand-write a Torah. And it has to be on a kosher animal skins all sewn together, and if he makes a mistake he has to rip out that section and start it over, and then ceremonially bury it. It’s pretty intense. And we also made pita at lunch. It was kind of fun. I have to say, I really like pita. I never did that much before, but I really do now. And then we had this herbal tea stuff with date honey in it. It was pretty good, the honey made it really sweet and it just had this kind of minty edge to it. And we put our crushed up spices on the pita with some olive oil. And the sandwiches that we had in our packed lunches from the center were excellent. I ate two and a half… Lol. And after the field trip we went out and bought some sandals for Galilee. After all, how can you really walk in the Savior’s footsteps in tennis shoes?

FINALS ARE OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just wanted to let you all know.  I survived.  Barely.  That's all.

Mike and Me

I know some of you have been wanting to see pictures of us and, let's be honest, I want to show him off. :P So here they are. Enjoy!

Well, this is him. Michael James Westover. Sexy.

Lol, this is the first picture ever taken of us. You have to understand, I had only barely begun to even realize that I liked him at this point, but when we were at the Garden Tomb, Richelle (my soon-to-be Egypt roomie) got our attention, snapped this picture, and then when Mike wasn't looking, gave me a conspiratorial thumbs up and a *you guys are cute together* look. Needless to say, I was a little put out that it was so obvious already, but hey, we got kind of a cute picture out of it. :)
Pyramids! I love this pic, because I look super cute in it, and Mike looks kinda like Chandler in the engagement pictures episode of Friends. Lol.
K, so this is us snuggled up on top of Mt. Sinai. I didn't post a picture of us on my other pictures entry because this one and the one I did post are absolutely the only decent pictures of me or Mike from the entire morning. It was cold, and we were not being particularly photogenic.
I know you guys already saw the Indiana Jones picture, but I wanted to put up another one, just because it's so awesome. Plus it's the first picture (set of pictures...) I have from after we started dating.

This was up at the monastery. This lookout point was called "The End of the World."

This was just a really pretty setting, with all the swirly rock behind us. :)

This is at the mosque where we had to wear the cloaks. I was so excited about the way my hair looked that day. :D

This is at the Amman citadel.

Jordan River.

Beach!

Christmas on St. Patrick's Day

Today we went to Bethlehem.  Before I had kinda felt like it would be neat to be here in the Fall semester, so that we could actually be in Bethlehem around Christmas time, but honestly it was really nice to just think about the birth of the Savior without all the extra commercial hype that always surrounds Christmas.  And, as Mike pointed out, our visit is closer to the actual day of His birth- April 6.  It was kinda trippy to mix up the holidays like that tho, lol.  I wore my green sweater and packed a red scarf (my roommate's) for the evening devotional- which I was grateful for, since it was pretty chilly out.  

But first this morning we paid a visit to Bethlehem University.  Mike and I are finally on the same bus!!!  It was fabulous.  Although it almost felt a little weird not to split up every time we got on a bus or followed our tour guide.  But it was great.  :)  Bethlehem U was pretty cool.  We were joined in a lecture given by our Islam teacher by some of the Palestinian students from there, and after the lecture, four of them got up and answered our questions about living and going to school in Bethlehem.  They were pretty cool.  The two Muslim girls totally had head scarves that matched their outfits, it was so cute.  And then there was a Christian girl and a Christian guy.  One thing they said that was kind of interesting is that the Christian/Muslim conflict that we kind of have going on in the US is completely nonexistent for them.  I guess it just isn't the biggest difference between people in this part of the world- they've got the Arab-Israeli conflict to worry about.  But like, one person asked what they liked to do for fun, and the guy answered, "We're like you, we hang out, go to restaurants, movies..." and one of the Muslim girls interjected, "And facebook.  We sit [good effort] on facebook a lot."  And we all laughed.  It was kinda crazy to imagine them sitting around in dorm rooms wasting time just as effectively as I do at home, but hey, that's what was cool- seeing that these kids really aren't so different.  And then just before we got on the bus a bunch of our guys started a basketball game with the guys that were outside playing.  Actually it was kind of sad, because the Bethlehem students kicked butt...  But then they only played like, 2 shots.  Lol.

So then we went to this awesome restaurant.  It was called the Shepherd's Valley Tent Restaurant, and it was basically in a tent.  My new favorite dish is pita and/or flatbread with various kinds of dipping materials- particularly hummus.  Every time we go to a restaurant I stuff myself almost sick with it.  And that's just the appetizer.  So good.  Oh, and we got to see a nun smoke the hookah.  No joke.  She was with a group and I guess they all ordered it as an after-dinner or something, but she was totally loving it.  Yep.  

And then we headed over to the Church of the Nativity.  It is the oldest church in the world that is still intact.  When the Persians came through and wrecked Palestine a while ago, they saw the paintings of the wise men, dressed in traditional Persian clothing and such, and decided they couldn't destroy something that depicted their heritage.  Kind of a fun story.  Also, across from the Church is a mosque, and while there are a lot of mosques in Palestine, this one actually commemorates the same thing as the Christian church across from it.  Because Muslims believe in Jesus as well.  They believe a somewhat different version, but they even believe in His Second Coming- interesting story, if that intrigues you at all, you should look it up.  But they believe that Christ was born under a palm tree, so there are two palm trees growing outside this mosque.  

You can really tell that this mosque is pretty old, it has the feel of kind of a different era than most of the other Catholic churches around.  Like, there were a lot of Roman pillars, and the ceiling is wood.  Pretty cool, though.  And I definitely felt the presence of the Spirit in the sanctuary section, where the actual event is supposed to have taken place.  It was funny, because I wasn't really looking for it, like I have in some of the other places- I guess I just wasn't paying that much attention, and it kind of surprised me a little.  But it was nice.  Certainly a holy place.

So next to the Church of the Nativity is a church dedicated to St. Jerome.  Sis. Wilson- the wife of my New Testament teacher- told us that in one of the previous semesters they were able to attend the wedding of the daughter of Dr. Musallam- our Islam teacher (though he's actually Christian)- in that church.  And it would be a beautiful church for a wedding.  The whole interior is a pale pink/almost peach and white.  It's really pretty.  Then we went down into the room where St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin and sang a few Christmas songs.  :D  We sang "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "O Come All Ye Faithful" and a few others.

Then we had free time to shop in Manger Square.  I ended up getting my mother of pearl nativity.  All the ones I really wanted were waaaaaay out of my price range- when I asked the lady for the price of one of them she said, "Ohhhhh, very nice, you have nice taste" and when I saw the price I was like, "Ya, too nice of taste for my own good..."- but I got a nice small one, and I'm glad to have it, because I really love the mother of pearl, it's so gorgeous.  Mike got a shofar- one of those horn things made out of a ram's horn.  

So then we went out to Shepherd's Field.  It's actually on the Jerusalem side of the wall, but Jerusalem and Bethlehem are pretty close- in fact, we learned this morning, that the creation of the wall is the first time in history that the two cities have been separated.  Sad.  But we went out to a hill overlooking Bethlehem, and there was totally a kid there that had a lamb and he was letting people hold it and take pictures!  So fun.  There we ate our sack-lunch dinners, and had a devotional with our New Testament classes.  Mike and I participated in a musical number called "Mary's Lullaby."  It's really a neat song.  The chorus goes, "All mine in your loveliness, baby, all mine, All mine in your holiness, baby divine ... A new star has risen to hail thee divine, For you are a king, but tonight you are mine."  It just made me picture Mary in kind of a different light.  What an incredible blessing to be able to have that connection with the Savior- of mother and child.  It was a sweet thought.  I sang with 5 other girls, and Mike played the guitar.  Lol, yesterday we were practicing for it, and after we were finished, Mike stayed and messed around on the guitar for like, an hour.  I actually went to lunch and when I came back he was still going.  It was cute to watch.  He's really good.  But neway, the devotional also consisted of several people giving like, character profiles of people from the nativity story, and then Bro. Wilson recited  the Luke 2 account for us.  Mike also played a guitar solo of "The First Noel."  It was really nice. And like I said, it was great to just take the time to focus on the Savior without the extra Christmas hype.

Yesterday we had our language finals.  The Arabic final was fabulous.  It was quite possibly the best final I have ever had.  I felt kind of silly afterwards for studying at all.  I certainly would have passed just by virtue of showing up to class, and I'm pretty sure I aced it with the half hour of studying I did do (it's Pass/Fail).  But ya, our teacher gave us the easiest test ever, and then some people had brought knaffe- a yummy Arab treat- so we went outside and ate that in front of the windows where the Hebrew class was still taking their final.  And then we had a class picture.  It was glorious.  And then, as you know, I spent the rest of yesterday uploading all those pictures.  Actually, I went to Hebrew U on Sunday for the express purpose of doing just that, since we're not supposed to here at the Center.  But the internet there was working so slow!  It was really frustrating.  So yesterday I had planned to do some reading for my Judaism class (since I haven't done any since the midterms and the tests are pretty reading-intensive...) but I thought maybe I could try uploading some pictures and read while it was just taking forever.  But I guess no one was around yesterday afternoon (a lot of people did go out) so the internet was working really super fast, and I didn't have time to even write captions for the previous pictures before the next ones finished uploading (I can only upload five at a time... ya) so I just spent the whole time doing that...  I'm so responsible.  

So ya, after this week we only have 2 (and a half, I suppose, with our Field Trips class) classes left.  We go to Galilee and do nothing but New Testament for two weeks, then we have a few more classes of that and Ancient Near East and we finish with those about a week before the end of the semester, as well.  I admit, I'm kind of liking this system.  It gives us a chance to relax and enjoy the rest of our time here, which will be so good.  But I have my two trickiest finals this week (Judaism and Islam) so... wish me luck!  :)

Pictures Again!!!!!! (A lot of Pictures)

K, so instead of studying for my finals today, I definitely spent the afternoon uploading pictures for you all.  I hope you appreciate it.  :)

Right, so these are the pictures I was waiting for last time.  This is all of us in the cave.  Honestly tho, these pictures are not quite as cool as I thought they were going to be.  You know.

Hehe.  Our silly picture.  One guy had this crazy little tripod thing, so we took like, a bunch of pictures.  Lol.

The Dome of the Rock.  From up close.

Me standing where Jesus would have walked.

And this is a pretty cool model of the Second Temple that they had down in the Kotel Tunnel.

Bro. Skinner telling us about Beer Sheba (on our way down to Egypt- this is the first day of that trip, which blog entry I seem to have lost, btw... rude), which is where this is.

All of us hard-hatting it up as we go to look at the ruins of Beer Sheba.

Hehehehe.

The Wilderness of Zin.  I loved this because it looks like a page out of Encyclopedia Brittanica under "Arabian Nights."  Or days... This is where the children of Israel got to wander for 40 years. Fun.
Avdat, which incidentally was built by Nabotaeans- the people who built Petra.  This branch of them obviously didn't get the Be Awesome memo, but you know, it was still kind of neat.

The back of the bus- where the cool kids sit.

Except I wasn't one of them... Lol, this is what I've been doing on most of our recent bus trips, I'm sorry to say.  But on the way down to Egypt, I did actually socialize most of the time- they just happened to catch me as I was napping at 7:00 in the morning...

Human pyramid. :)

K, so this is the way up to the tomb of Thutmosis III in the Valley of the Kings.  It was pretty sweet.  I believe this is from my post "Lucky Girl."
The funerary temple of Ramses III.  Also known as Medinet Habu (that was one of the "clues" for our Field Trip exam, lol).

The courtyard of that temple, which in my opinion, is way cooler looking.  

The colossi of Memnon.

Our felucca!  This is what we traveled across the Nile to our camel rides on.  It has a sail up above that canopy where you can't see it...

Me on the camel, with the kid who was leading it off to the side there.  Sorry you can't really see the camel, but this was the best picture of me, so.... :)
Here's some camels.  But more importantly, the two adorable little boys I mentioned.  Seriously?  So cute.

Our awesome security guard Mohammed, flashing his piece (gun-for those of you not entirely literate in street slang- I actually stole that phrase from one of the guys here, so I'm not really that cool, either).

The temple at Karnak (which in fact is the Arab name for the place- not the Egyptian one.  I don't remember the Egyptian one, sorry).
The awesome pillars, of which there are like, 140 or something, I don't remember off the top of my head, but it's in one of my posts (maybe Tutti Frutti).

Luxor temple, as seen from the street.

Glam shot!  Outside the Sheraton in front of the Nile.  :D

Hehe, me and Richelle and our sketch train compartment/food.

And this is what the Nile looks like in the classy side of town (as in, next to the Four Seasons and the Grand Hyatt).  Gorgeous.  I'm sorry to say it doesn't look quite so nice in some other areas, but hey, it's still the Nile.

Line dancing at the Hard Rock Cafe.  We are so cool.

Hehe, this was the actual sign on the bathroom stall doors at Hard Rock....

Mohammed Ali Mosque.

Cairo.

K, here begins the Mt. Sinai experience.  This isn't what it looked like when we first reached the top.  It wasn't this light, but this is the first picture I have, really.

You started to be able to see the mountains around as the sky grew lighter.

First glimpse of the sun on the horizon.

Sunrise from the top of Mt. Sinai.

The sun over the mountains.

And the more of the surrounding landscape after the sun came up.

And this is what covered the face of the mountain top that morning: a pile of BYU students.  Mike is somewhere behind the people around me...  Lol.
Ken, Mike, and me, with the dog that decided to be our friend at the bottom of Sinai. :)
Hehe, Egypt night.  Yes.  Everyone dressed up in the things they had bought in Egypt, and some dressed up to look like Egyptians.  This is Bryan.  He always has the best costumes.  For everything.  Ever.  And me, being sexy.  :)
These are the Asher (I think), Joseph (orange) and Benjamin (blue) windows in the Chagall display (near Ein Kerem- I believe the post is like, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day).

K, so the picture on the right (or bottom... honestly, blogger is kind of annoying sometimes) is not the one I meant to upload and it's kind of hard to get pictures to move once you've uploaded them (long story, don't worry about it) so... ya.  Now you get two pictures for the price of one. :)  So this is the church of St. John the Baptist.  On the left you can see the beautiful blue tiles that are up all around.  On the right is JJ checking out one of the little niches on the side.

This is a cool lookin church in Ein Kerem that we never figured out how to get to, and we're not really sure what it is...  But it's cool lookin.
The Church of the Visitation- where Mary came to visit Elizabeth when she found out she was pregnant.

The tree of Zaccheus.  See next.

Please read this.  It's great.  Lol.

This is from 2 Kings like, 6 or 7, where Elisha heals the bitter waters at Jericho.  The tree of Zaccheus is at Jericho, too, btw.
The oldest structure known to modern historians.  The round thing you can kind of make out there used to be a tower.  It's like, 8,000 years old.  
This is the monastery- Church of the Temptations (Christ being tempted), in fact.  You can't see it that well, but it's up toward the top of the gondola tower (yes, that's what that is, and we definitely hiked up to the monastery- I was jealous of the gondola riders.

K, so this monastery is literally cut right out of the rock.  Pretty sweet.

The view of Jericho- lowest city on earth, btw- from the monastery.

K guys, this is the Garden Tomb.  This is one of the paths in the garden portion of it.  The whole place is just gorgeous.

Off to the right of this shot is where the tomb is, but this is just more pretty garden.

Golgotha.  The two gaping holes you can kinda see are supposed to be the eyes of the skull (Golgotha = place of the skull).

The tomb.  

With all the Nigerians that are always around on Saturdays...

K, so this is that sweet tree I talked about on our Shephelah field trip.  Overlooking the valley of Elah, which is where David fought Goliath.

Hehe.  Our Goliath.

And everybody slinging rocks at him.  I am not among them- I was safely out of the way (behind the camera...)

K, now this is the freaking sweet chameleon that we found!

Check it out! Now he's green!!

He was totally climbing all over me while I ate, it was awesome.

And then he turned black and climbed up on Sis. Huff's shoe!

And I just really like this picture, because it has the chameleon being black and awesome, plus my ring that I got in Egypt that I love.

The Mark bus at the Bell Caves where we sang.

Yay!  Me and Matt in the talent show!  Sorry it's blurry.

But this one's not.  :D  Yay for ballroom.  Behind us, btw, is the breathtaking view of the city that is so distracting in sacrament meeting.
And this is Mike, on the guitar, with Keri on violin, and Aubrianne singing "I Go To the Mountains."
And these are all the people who were cooler than I was and dressed up for Friday the 13th.  Bryan- the guy from Egypt night- is the really scary looking one in the hoodie with the white face...
And this is what we found outside our door after church on Valentine's Day.  Too cute, huh?

:D

This is the brownie pastry.  It's yummy.

Whoever can find me in this picture first wins!  This is our Humanitarian warehouse.  It's kind of  big deal.
This is the entrance to Yad Vashem.  It says, "I will put my breath into you and you shall live again, and I will set you upon your own soil... (Ezekiel 37:14).
Theodor Herzl's grave- the holiest sight in secular Judaism.  Jewish custom is to put rocks on graves instead of flowers.  Ophir (our teacher) wasn't really sure why, but he thought maybe because rocks last forever, while flowers die, and it kind of adds to the grave...  Ya.

These are the graves of soldiers who died in the Israeli army.

Me teaching at ballroom night!  With my wonderful TA, Matt Huff.

Hehe, Matt showing all the boys how to do the chase.  That's Mike over on the left.  Too cute.

Me and Eliza on our girl's day.

Hehe.  We played Scum one night until two in the morning, and Mike was queen for a while, so during his reign, he wore all of our rings as a sign of office... The one on his pinky is mine, the one I bought in Egypt that I love.

The Holy Sepulchre- where most of the Christian world believes that Christ was buried.

The outside of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  Except you can only get this view from the rooftops immediately around it, as it's in the heart of the Old City.
These are some of the olive wood things you can find here.  Mike is in this picture to demonstrate how big that thing is.  You still don't really get the full effect.
And this is the nativity that I bought.  Not exactly, because mine is in bubble wrap under my bed, and each piece of wood is different, but this is the model.  I love how detailed and realistic all the figures are.
This is the original site of King David's Royal gardens, also known as Area G, and explaining this to us is Bro. Huff, my Old Testament teacher and our field trip guide for that day.
The light section at the bottom of this sign demonstrates the water level in Hezekiah's tunnel.  They weren't kidding.  It was awesome.  And also, you can barely see it, but I'm holding my little pink flashlight that I got for Christmas.  :D
Right, so I tried to get a picture like this when the water was actually up to my thighs, but my camera decided to punk out on me and pretend it was taking a picture but then really not.  But you can still see the water mark on my jeans, and the water up to about my knees there.  :D
This is not the Pool of Siloam.  It's just where Hezekiah's tunnel ends.  The Pool of Siloam is filled with dirt now, and they're still working on excavating it.
But this is what it would have looked like (that's a mural).  And, of course, Bro. Huff.
I'm really sad that you can't see it in the picture, but this is one of those awesome 3D paintings I was telling about in the Church of the Condemnation.  They are flipping sweet.
And this is the Pools of Bethesda.  I'm not gonna lie, I was kinda disappointed, because I was sort of expecting actual water, for some reason....

This is the sweet statue of Mary and her mother, St. Anne, in St. Anne's church.  :)

The birthplace of the Virgin Mary.

My table at the Seder.  We probably should have waited to take pictures until the sun went down...  That's Lisa, Matt, and Krista, btw.

This is the head table, where all the narrators for the Hagadah (the telling of the Exodus story) got to sit.  The guy standing up in the middle is my teacher.

"He be brewin" and "Maimonides" (and yes, Maimonides is Mike, hahaha).

The brazen serpent that we didn't get to see up close at Mt. Nebo.

The 6th century map of Jerusalem at St. George's in Madaba.

The spring that came of Moses hitting the rock.  I think it was the second time he did that, coz the first was at Sinai...  But he definitely did it more than once.
This is the valley in the depths of which lies Petra.  View from the top.  Not that exciting, but I really want to give you guys a feel for what it was like to be there, coz it was amazing.

The canyons we traversed to get to Petra.  Me, Kara, Josh, Krista, Aleni, Sharon, and Janay.

K, this is the next part of the *experience*.  Coming through the canyon to the awesomeness that is Petra.

And, the treasury.  Seriously.  Unbelieveable.

This is the rock I was telling about at Petra.  Incredible.  I'm sorry the picture quality's not that good...

The monastery at the other end of the valley.

Me and my roommates.  Being hott.  Heck yes.

The view of Petra from the cathedral.

The treasury again.  In the late afternoon light this time.

Hadrian's gate at Jerash.  Tell me that's not impressive.  Seriously.

This is the town-square thingy I tried to describe.  Pretty dang awesome.

And this is the coolest Roman theatre you will ever see.  That's our tour guide down there in the middle.  Check out the awesome stage behind him.

Me!  With more of Jerash in the background.

The Temple of Artemis.  Where the columns sway in the breeze (or under the force of people pushing from both sides so that we could watch the spoon move up and down...)

One of the roads, lined with columns.

Another glam shot.  :)

One of the formations they showed us in the chariot show.

Chariots!!!  Yes.  They are awesome.

And then they let us go down and take pictures in the chariots!!!  The black corners are a result of my faulty lens cap that doesn't open by itself.  You have to kind of flick it open with your fingers (I think I need a new camera....) and the girl taking the picture didn't realize that.  But I dunno, I think it's kind of artistic.

The Jabbok River.

The group we went bowling with.  Mike, me Shelby, Breanna, Teri Ann, and Anne.

All of us in the cloaks at the mosque.

The temple of Hercules at the Amman citadel.

The skeleton at the archaeological museum.

The Jordan River.  Kinda yucky, huh?  But hey, it's still the Jordan River.

The Russion Orthodox Church of Elijah near the baptism site.

The sweet painting they had of Elijah in said church.

The memorial I described in the Diaspora museum.  You'll have to tell me if I did any kind of decent job describing it...  The lighting in this picture isn't that great, but I tried to photoshop it to the point where you can get an idea, at least.
Beach!  In Tel Aviv.  From left: Emilie, Jacob (Mike's roommate), Mike (with his passion fruit smoothie), me, Stephen and Stephanie (Stephen didn't want to get his shoes wet), Rachel, Whitney, Valorie, Nycole, and Elyse.
The door of the house that is said to belong to Simon the Tanner.  They don't really let people go inside anymore, because there's a family that still lives there and they were getting overrun by tourists.  Sad day.
K, the coolness of this photo doesn't really have much to do with my photography skills, but rather the cool lighting on this painting in the Church of All Nations (Gethsemane).

The awesome door at Gethesemane.

What's left of the purifying bath where the Jews used to cleanse themselves before entering the temple.  These are the steps that led down into it.

The original steps that led up to the temple.

Me making my awesome Purim mask!!

Our group outside the Center waiting for our taxi.  I'm so excited that I actually dressed up for something!  I'm usually so boring, but it was really fun being out with everybody in my sweet mask.

Firethrowers at Ben Yehuda.

Our awesome props that we found at the costume shop.