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!