I'm here!

yep I'm still here I have just been MIA for a little while. Been busy with school and not much excitement to even blog about but I still go on here just so I can read other people's blogs. :) Thanks for those of you who do update because I love reading it. 

I just wanted to say 2 days until I am driving to Utah to celebrate 

THANKSGIVING!

with

them

and them... 

and extended family... 

and I can't wait!

I LOVE MY DADDY!

Happy Fathers Day Dad!!!!

He visits me when I am studying abroad in foreign countries. 

He is a stud and runs marathons and does triathlons like a maniac and motivates me to work out more!

He is always there for me when I need advice. 

He makes us all laugh!

He protects and supports our family. 

Thanks for everything you do dad. I love and appreciate you so much!

Do you know what it feels like?

Sorry I have been terrible about blogging ever since Jerusalem, I really want to try to keep up with it but my life really isnt as interesting as it was. Right now I am just in Rexburg going to school and having fun with roommates. Summer here is pretty great!

I have two roommates that are photo majors so we had a fun little photo shoot

I love having my bike here and riding it everywhere. This is my old roommate Becca and I on a bike ride

We took a little trip down to boise/Nampa for a friends farewell. It was fun to get out of rexburg for a weekend. 

huge dogs

Goodbye Jerusalem!

Well the trip is now wrapping up and we are in the last hours of being here in Jerusalem. I am currently packing right now and trying to stuff everything in my luggage so that tonight I can just hang out with friends before we leave this place. We will be leaving at 2 a.m. thursday. My feelings are so bittersweet. I have LOVED being here so much and I dont want to leave but at the same time I think it is at the perfect point where it is time to go home and move along with my life. My friend Marianne said a perfect description of how I am sure most of us are feeling....

content.

-adjective1. satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else.

weary.

–adjective
1. physically or mentally exhausted by hard work, exertion, strain, etc.; fatigued; tired: weary eyes; a weary brain.

grateful.

–adjective
1.warmly or deeply appreciative of kindness or benefits received; thankful.
2.Pleasing to the mind or senses; agreeable or welcome; refreshing.

These past 3 1/2 months have been incredible behond belief and Jerusalem will now always have a special place in my heart. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to come here.

I will be back in Utah thursday night and I cant wait to see all my family. Then saturday morning I am off to Rexburg to get back into school which started this past Monday.. Ah cant wait! haha

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! Thanks to my mom and the package she sent me I was able to wear these cute bunny ears around the center with my friends and wish everyone a happy easter. yay! Mom you are the best! Today was probably one of the best easters I have ever had. This morning a group of us went to the garden tomb and attended a service. It was probably the most amazing service ever. We were singing songs and just getting so into it.
Some of the people dancing and getting so into the songs. It was a blast to watch and see everyone there celebrating the same thing.
Yesterday morning we woke up and saw this sign. Eliza and Mike had been working all night before and made bags of candy for every student at the center and hid them all throughout the center for us to find. They are awesome!

Fun in the JC

So on January 5, 2009 we had an orientation meeting in Provo, Utah prior to coming to Jerusualem to inform us on what to expect and just more information on what we were getting into. Well at this meeting we received a packet that had many handouts one being a booklet with everyone on the trips picture and another with a list of all of the committees and who was on each of them. As I pulled at the committee list I look at every committee…. The in center activities committee, the snack bar committee, the sports committee and my name was on none of them until I get to the bottom of the paper and see my name in the spot of being a committee chair.. a little shocked I look over and see that I am the committee chair of the………………………………………….. linen/ mail committee! As I saw that I laughed to myself I thought “cool I get to clean everyones sheets every week for them. I have always wanted to that!” Haha ok so it might have been a little bit sarcastically. As I was a little bit sad about being put on this committee it wasn’t until the day that we had our first linen exchange where my views were totally changed and doing linen exchange is one of my favorite things to do in the JC every week!During this half hour I bring my ipod and we just blast our music and just make it a party in there and everyone cant wait to come to the linen room. A couple of weeks ago my committee and I even decided to make up a dance and we did a little dance for everyone in the linen room to “What is love?” haha it was pretty awesome. Every else was laughing at us for being on it and now they are jealous that they arent the ones on it! haha

After linen exchange the other night we were just having fun talking with the Allens in the their apartment when somehow cookies came into the conversation and sis allen said that she had just made cookie dough and it was in the fridge and told us that we could make some cookies with it. Hayley and I were so excited. I love cookies!
Chillin outside on the grass studying... one of my favorite places to study!

Girls night! No boys aloud
At night we sometimes play games and one they we seem to play a lot is signs! so this is all of us showing our signs.

Then we have our nights on the town!...

Us girls all dressed for the Purim celebration which is a jewish holiday and everyone dresses up like it is halloween so we decided to go out and dress up!

We had a girls night and went and saw bride wars
and then got yummy hot chocolate cakes afterwards

Well we just got back from Galilee two weeks ago so i have tons of pictures from that so you might be getting a good post soon. 2 weeks until i am home! ahh crazy!

Hezekiah's Tunnel!

About a month ago we went on a field trip through Hezekiah's tunnels and it was probably one of my favorite field trips. Our Ancient Near Eastern professor gave us a lesson and then we watched a 15 minute video about how this land was over 2000 years ago. We then climbed down stairs and jumped into the tunnel. The first step into the water was freezing and the whole time we were hitting our heads on the tip of the rocks as it got lower, and running into the walls because it was so dark in the tunnel but it was awesome!

Some of us overlooking Jerusalem before entering the tunnels

This was telling us how far up the water goes in the tunnel and it wasnt exagerating
Brother Skinner... he is hilarious and such a great teacher!
Lindsey and I in the tunnelBreana, Linds, Shelby and I just chilin in the tunnel (i promise we werent on drugs although it kind of looks like we were...haha)
We made it out! and notice the legs and the really short shorts behind us.. yes that is a boy and he decided to roll his pants up as much as possible so they wouldnt get wet. oh and I dont know if you have heard of a granola but that is def what I was being called all day because of the nice t-shirt with my sweet camping pants and chacos. haha gotta love those granola days!
and then they broke out in a water fight and acted like monkeys...
after the field trip bryan, linds and I decided to stay in the city and just wander around and we found some neat churches and sites we hadnt been too.
as you can tell from our pictures we had a lot of fun with the self timer...

and finding creative ways to hang the camera to do the self timer.. haha gotta love the self timer

Palm Sunday

Yesterday was Palm Sunday and we got a pretty unique opportunity to be here in the holy lands for that special occasion. Palm Sunday is the day to celebrate Jesus Christ's triumphant entry into the holy city two millennia ago. We went to the holy sepulcher (which is where it is believed by many that the savior was buried) early yesterday morning to attend a special mass where many people got together to honor Jesus Christ. It was really neat to see all these people gathered for the same reason. Later in the day we went on the Palm Sunday walk with 20,000 other people in which we started where christ first started his walk and walked for about a mile or so to where he ended.

So many people gathered together walking....

Wilkie, Aleni, and I with our Palm leaves. Everyone walking carried palm leaves and as you can see Aleni and I didnt have very big ones and we were a little bit jealous of Wilkie.
Chels, Kara, Alexis and I getting ready to start the walk in what it felt like 400 degree weather.

I love being here! and it is so neat to be here at this time of year to celebrate this in the place it happened. Happy April 6!

I love the beach!

The day after we got back from our trip to Jordan we were off to Tel Aviv which is about an hour from Jerusalem and on the mediterranean sea. While we were there we started out with a tour of the Diaspora Museum, which features the stories and history of Jews spread out all over the world. We learned about the different kinds of synagogues established around the world as Jews began to flee Israel and the lands of Europe to escape the brutality of the various nations that had ruled their land over the course of its existence. The diaspora or dispersal of the Jewish people to America has caused many to establish their own way of life in the different corners of the world.
We then moved on to Independence Hall, the building where Israel was granted its independence from Britain on May 14, 1948. It was really cool learning how quickly the decision was made to make Israel a soverign country; only 2 days before the event were invitations sent out. It was supposed to be a well-kept secret with only the few hundred invitees in attendance but over a thousand people showed up. At the end of our tour they played the exact recording of David Ben Gurion pronouncing the status of the new country- so cool.

After an exciting morning we were let free to roam around the city so a couple of girls and I headed towards a shopping area and then went straight to the ocean!

Our shoes were off and we went straight to the water. The day was so sunny and the water was beautiful. Perfect beach day and it was in March. I love it!
Chels and I jumping for joy because we were so excited to be at the beach
We then met up with our teachers again and we went to the exact spot where Jonah tried to escape his calling from the Lord and was swallowed by a whale. This is just a little whale to represent it.
Marianne, Cate and I chillin in the sun! The beach makes me so happy! :)

PETRA, Jordan!

Indiana Jones! Last week we were in Jordan a Petra is most famous for being in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom so the whole time we were in Petra we could not stop singing the Indiana Jones theme song.

Yes the snack show was Indiana Jones and Matt tried to act like he was Indiana Jones the whole day with his sweet hat and murse!

Marianne, Miriam, Moon, and I posing in the caves of Petra!
Our first view of the Indiana Jones temple...

In front of the temple.. haha
Had to get a little shopping in.... we found ginormous rings and couldnt resist trying them on. After the temple we hiked 852 stairs up to the Monestary which was pretty killer but def worth the hike
Some people took donkey's instead... haha I cant get over how hilarious Jeff looked on his donkey
Taking a picture break during the hike up. Loved the beautiful views

Finally made it! Yay! We are spelling out JORDAN if you couldnt tell!
Next we were off to the view of the end of the world!
GORGEOUS view! Petra Jordan was such a blast!