Arab Culture Night!

 Tonight was Arab Culture Night and it was SO MUCH FUN!! Most everyone dressed up in their most Arab looking attire and came ready to party and celebrate the Arab culture!

At the beginning of the night, we had two Imams, prayer leaders, come and explain the process of prayer to us. Muslims pray five times a day always facing Mecca and recite different verses of the Koran. These Imams have the Koran memorized, it's crazy! Minarets are towers positioned throughout the city in which the voice of an Imam can be heard calling people to come and pray (this wakes me up every morning). They did a special performance of some prayer recitations for us tonight.

 My roommates and I, Lizzy, Lindee, and Michelle, all dressed up! Don't we look hott?!

 We had some traditional Arabic food, including my favorite-schawerma! It's this shaved meat stuff that just, I couldn't even explain it, it's delicious though. And I also tried a lot of weird stuff that wasn't all that great. But it's all about the experience!

 Me and Bro. and Sis. Bench (our JC doc and his wife) and Bro. and Sis. Jackson (the assistant director and his wife). Love them both!

 The running joke around here is that Mikkel, the guy in the very middle, is in love with every girl here! So we tried to fit as many of us girls in the picture with him as possible! Haha.

 Guess what?!!! My roommate and I, Lizzy baby, won the costume contest! The best part about it was that I had Arabic right before this class, so I literally took like five minutes to get ready and I won! Ahh I was so happy, I never win anything! It was a proud moment for the both of us. Best part, the prize was chocolate...and not just any chocolate, the infamous Israeli Pop Rock Chocolate!

Dance, Dance, Dance! Ahh we learned how to do some traditional Arab dancing which was so much fun! I love dancing here, much better than in America! I'm gonna bring back some sweet dances to the states! 

 This is Lizzy's most proud purchase. She bought a belly dancing costume in the Old City and I am pretty sure that half the girls here have tried it on. It is so much fun! This is my best Arabian belly dancing pose! This outfit has had some fun memories! It was such a great night!!

Shephelah, Shephelah, Goliath's Back!

 For one of our field trips, we went to the Shephelah Valley,  where David took down the mighty Philistine giant Goliath! We first went to Beth Shemesh, overlooking the Sorek Valley, which is where Samson (you know, the guy with the hair that killed a ton of Philistines) grew up.

 These are two of my favorite boys, Hunter (left) and Sawyer (right). Isn't this a precious picture? This is definitely one for the books.

 A group of us overlooking the Sorek Valley on top of Beth Shemesh, where the Ark of the Covenant was returned when the Philistines were punished for possessing it.

 This is at Azekah, the site of an Israelite fortress in the Valley of Elah, best known for being the site of the story of David and Goliath told in 1 Samuel 17. The whole time we were learning about this, all I could think about was the Veggie Tales version of the story, where the little asparagus (David) goes up against the giant pickle (Goliath) and the Philistine peas. David was just a little herder of sheep that fell over all the time, "oh look, there goes one now." And was apparently a superior little sling thrower because he took Goliath out with his first shot! Oh I love David! This is me and Sarah practicing slinging stones...let's just say I'm no David.

 I've got the whole world in my hands! I've got the whole Elah Valley in my hands! Ahh it's so pretty and green! We have been super lucky to be here during the winter because the precipitation has made everywhere we go so beautiful!

 Ok, one of the coolest things about this field trip was that we got to go into these huge bell caves at this underground city of Mareshah and sing hymns! My favorite song we sang in there was Abide with Me Tis Eventide. It was seriously breathtaking and the acoustics were great! I loved it! 

 This was at the end of our very long field trip when I am pretty sure that Stratford was talking and no one was listening...very typical. This is me and one of my very favorite people, J-honey! I feel like this captures the essence of our field trips very well, sitting down after a long day, Chaille with her field trip manual in hand, Courtney looks like she could die of boredom, Ragan with his makeshift sun hat, and Jenessa and I posing for a picture. And this concluded our Shephelah field trip!

Also tonight my roommate Michelle got her mission call to freakin' JAPAN!!! Me and my roommates got to be there when she opened her call while skyping her family! We were all so shocked and thrilled for her! I am soo excited for her, she leaves June 15th, speaking Japanese baby! She is going to be such a great missionary! I love that girl!

Roommate Day!

Roommate day in the city!! This was a couple of weeks ago, but one Sunday we just decided to have a roommate only day out in the old city. It was a blast!!

We ate lunch up on the balcony of the Austrian Hospice today! I ate a nasty sandwich that Ben made for me, Lindee almost killed someone with an apple, and when she missed the trash, Lizzy tried to throw it back in and instead hit me. Oh it was a funny afternoon. I love the Austrian Hospice because you can overlook the city and see the busy streets down below.

I got my Jesus Sandals today! This is my friend Rita/Rida/Reeta? I don't know how to spell his name, but he's a cool guy! He loves the Mormons, they all do! And I LOVE my sandals!

Some things I discovered today:
1. Umm I absolutely LOVE my roommates to death! They are so great!
2. Shekels make me think that I have a lot more money than I really do...exchange rate is like 3.7 shekels per dollar, so I can drop 50 shekels and not even feel bad.
3. Olive wood is beautiful! Every single one of us bought a nativity set today, which was funny because none of us planned on it!
4. Peer Pressure is real! If one of us buys something, we all have to! Lindee is a master salesman, ha.

5. Genie pants are the GREATEST things in the world!!!

There are so many fun things to do in the Old City! Shopping and trying to bargain for the best deals is by far one of my favorite hobbies as of late. I can pretty much justify buying everything too because YOJO (You're only in Jerusalem once) haha. I loved spending all day with my awesome roommates! Michelle, Lindee, Lizzy, you guys are so great! I definitely feel like we were put together for a reason and I have already learned so much from all of you! Thanks for encouraging me to spend all my money so that we can make memories together and laugh about it later. LOVE YOU GIRLS!!

Jericho!

Sooo....I have to apologize for being such a terrible blogger because no one knows what I've been doing for the last month. But I am doing so great! I love my life! It's too perfect! Umm...yeah so this post is from a couple of weeks ago when we went to Jericho! It was such a fun field trip!
Apparently Jericho is one of the oldest and lowest cities in the world! Atleast that's what the sign says....

We like to climb trees, well....one of us does. In a skirt babyy!!

We had the best freshly squeezed pomegranite juice and the BEST BANANAS IN THE WORLD!!! Seriously, so good!
This is my dear dear friend Jenessa! I adore this girl! Love her!

So remember that Good Samaritan story in the bible?? Yeah, this is the Road to Jericho where that story takes place! It's like the Grand Canyon, but they call it a Wadi here. Definitely one of my favorite places we've been so far! I actually really love that story because it teaches us that to obtain eternal life, we need to love our neighbor. And Christ uses the story of the Good Samaritan that helped the naked stranger to illustrate this point.

I'm on top of the world! This place was incredible, I loved it! The Road from Jerusalem to Jericho!