Lazy Me

Ok ok I know it has been quite some time since I've blogged and I am WAY behind. I always say that though, don't I? Things here have been pretty busy (I always say that too, huh?) and this week we are currently going through finals. It sucks. You all know how finals can be... STRESSFUL! Especially here cause the last thing you want to do is homework and studying so you put it off until you HAVE to do it. I'll stop talking about the depressing news (disclaimer: school really isn't that bad and I am almost done with all my finals!:)), we leave for Turkey this upcoming Sunday! You could say that it is something that everyone is definitely looking forward to including myself. It should be quite the treat! I'm planning on eating lots of turkey and gravy while I'm there. Ok wow dumb joke.

Anyways so there is wayyy too much to write down but like they always say, a picture is worth a thousand words! So here are about 164,487 words (If that statement is true). Yay for picture overload!

Ethan and I worshiping at the Church of all nations

Girls at the Orson Hyde Garden

Dan and I at the Valentines dance we had. It got so crazy that I made it out with a cut on my face, which could possibly have been my doing.

My birthday dinner! We had some good Italian food.

Vladi, Me and Kyle at the Church of Mary Magdalene

Now that I'm 21 this picture is totally appropriate.

Boone in front of the Korean language, his native tongue. It's pretty obvious he is Korean, right?  This is at a church that has the Lords Prayer in almost every language.

At the Seder dinner enjoying a great passover!

Me in front of the YMCA. Our old branch president would play the carillon bells here.

Watching a super cool 3D movie at the City of David. Ok, it wasn't that cool. Pretty cheesy if you ask me. I don't know what the deal is with all these 3D movies lately.

Shealeigh and I in Hezekiah's tunnel!

The water goes up pretty high..

After math of the tunnel!

At the Pool of Siloam, where Jesus healed the blind man. What a special place it was.

Jen, Boone, Jarom and I in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Just enjoying some falafel in the old city!

Me in the Dormition Abby, believed to be the place of the last supper and where Mary's tomb is (of course none of this stuff is complete fact).

Man writing the Torah in Neot Kedumim

Sheep herding at Neot Kedumim! It's a lot harden than it looks. At least it was for my group. Or maybe the sheep just hate me.

Making pita!

Just hanging out with the soldiers.

Not sure if I was actually allowed to light this candle...

In front of the Great Synagogue!

Most of these pictures are stolen from my friends here considering I broke my camera about 3 weeks ago. I’ve been cameraless since and have been making my friends take pictures of me everywhere we go, they’re not complaining though since it gives them an excuse to have a plethora of pictures of me without being creepy. Great place to break a camera though! Anyways I should get my camera back fixed soon enough (hopefully before Turkey).

For our field trip last week (we didn’t have one this week cause of finals) we went to the holocaust museum.  I don’t have any pictures but you can imagine what it was like. It hit me harder going here being around all the people that it affected. There were tons of Israeli soldiers there and it’s interesting to think what their thoughts are on it, seeing that it is a tragedy that their ancestors had to go through. One of the videos in the museum was of a holocaust survivor talking about being stripped down to nothing and then the Nazis taking them and shooting them dead. She then said that she was 7 years old when that happened. That broke my heart thinking about children going through such a tragic experience, my niece is 7 years old and imagining anything slightly close to that happening to here makes me sick. My eyes were definitely opened and I hope that something like that never happens again.

Recently we also went to the separation wall, which separates the Israelis from the Palestinians. That was pretty interesting to see. It is so crazy to me how two sets of people can live in the same city but separate themselves so much from each other. It’s a conflict that has been going on for quite some time now.

Well that is pretty much it for now! Wish me luck on finals this week and hopefully you’ll hear from me soon after Turkey!

Sister Wright

So one of my best friends/roommate, Lexi Wright, is going into the MTC today! She is serving in Rancauga, Chile (where David Archuleta is going!). I am so excited for her but so sad that she is leaving me and I won't see her for a year and a half! Too bad I posted this too late so she won't be able to see it:(

I have known Lexi for over 2 years, she was one of my roommates my first semester at BYUI and has been my roommate since. It's only been about 2 years but I feel like I've known her forever. She has been a huge part in my life and has been there for me in almost every possible situation.  Whenever I was with Lexi we were always joking and laughing and I loved every moment with her! She was basically a sister to me and we deemed each other as the best roommates for each other. We were always on the same schedule, doing homework at the same time, going to bed super late, etc.  This last semester we were put downstairs because we’re too loud for upstairs where everyone sleeps. That sums us up, loud and obnoxious, but tons of fun, right? Anyways I will miss Lexi very much and I know she is going to be such a great missionary and bless the lives of all the people in Chile! I love you Lexi!

My sweet Arabian princess.

Matching nighties!

 Best of luck Sister Wright!! You're going to be an awesome missionary!

Catch up!

Ok I am so behind so bear with me...

Shealeigh and I in Bet Shemesh

Boone and Abe acting out David and Goliath in the Valley of Elah... Can you guess who is who?

Love these girls. They be ma ladies. In Mareshah

Entrance into one of the caves, which had burial tombs.

Awkward family photo in one of the tombs. I look like a balding man.

Looking down in the cistern.

For our field trip like 2 weeks ago we went to Shephelah! The first place we went to was Bet Shemesh and the Sorek Valley, which was the setting for a lot of the stories about Samson in the book of Judges. After that we headed over to Azekah, which is the place associated with the story David and Goliath. Pretty cool, huh? It's weird to think that I have been to some of the places where the stories from the Bible that you have heard your whole life have taken place. It never seems real and it doesn't ever really hit me. We then went to Mareshah where there was just a bunch of cool caves and what not. We were able to wander around there for a while and that was pretty fun. The thing about Jerusalem is that not only is it the place where Jesus walked and where a lot of the Bible stories take place but It's a place of so much history for just other things. I'm always thinking to myself that that can't be that old because I'm so used to living in the US where the oldest thing there is from the 1700s. But here things go back to BCE and all that crazy stuff. Then I have to remind myself I'm not in the US and I actually am in a place where everything can actually be that old.  Crazy stuff!


A couple of Wednesdays ago we had our Arab night! Every dressed up and we were able to see men recite the call to prayer live and to understand the meaning of the prayers more. It was really interesting! I have gained so much respect for all the religions here and almost envy their devotion, helps me strive to be better. We then ate dinner, which was a lot of traditional food and it was so good! I ate SO much, which was a bad idea because after they taught us some dances and we all got to dance. It was so much fun and we all got pretty wild and crazy while dancing. I was pretty hot and wearing a head wrap didn't really makes things much better.

Me and Danielle were twins! And we didn't even plan it.

Just workin my Arabian swag.

Just loving life!

I have so much more to blog about but this is just a little update for now! Enjoy. Also, I follow a lot of people's blogs that are here with me and they, of course, are way better at blogging than me so you can always look at theirs if you want since I am so bad at blogging! And my teacher Brother Huntsman's blog is very informative so that's a good one to check out as well!

"We're going to the zoo zoo zoo.."

"... How about you you you? You can come too too too, we're going to the zoo zoo zoo." I bet you're wondering where I got my title from. Well I got it from this song that my parents have from a childrens CD for my niece and nephews. It's a good one, I constantly had it stuck in my head on Sunday cause some of us were fortunate enough to go to the Zoo! I love the zoo so much! It is so fun looking at all the animals and enjoying the environment. I bet you're wondering why I'm doing a blog post on only the zoo and not the other cool things that I have done recently. Well it's because the pictures from the other places aren't uploading so I'm saving them for later! But don't worry I've been writing down the details to say. After the Zoo we went to the Shouk, which is like a huge farmers market. It is a pretty cool place. So Sunday was a great day! Also today, I'll give a little sneak peek of what we did, we went to the City of David and went through Hezekiah's Tunnel. It was so cool! I loved it. Pictures and more info to come.

Me, Sarah Jane, and Boone at the beginning of our journey!

Bears can be pretty mean..

For some reason and type of monkey species makes me laugh. This is a baboon though, obviously.

Just chattin on our cell phones. I've had a lot of business calls I've had to take here. Crazy life I have.

Me reppin my high school mascot with the Zebras (you can barely see them)!

Making fish faces at the "wet side story."

Bryson and I being prairie dogs.

Wesley and I hand sanitizing and loving every second of it. Very important.

Interesting food at the Shouk. A lot of the stuff is sketchy looking to me.

Me with the flamingos. Don't know why my hand is so flexed..

Baby pineapple. Unusual for here cause all the fruits and vegetables are considerably larger than the ones in America.

Hoodlums.

Oh and P.s. today is my b-day. 21 BABY!! So if you love me you could like write me an email or something..? But I might be a little too tipsy to do anything since I'm now legal. Tipsy on life, that is.