Jordan Trip!!!

September 19th to September 26th

This past week was our JORDAN TRIP!!! Holy cow it was awesome!! The very first day we crossed the border, and made our way to Petra! On the way we picked up our tour guide, Machmmud, and took a few stops to check out Mt Nebo where Moses was, Madaba, and Machaerus (Herod's palace where John the Baptist was executed), and finally made it just in time to do a night walk into Petra to the Treasury (where Indiana Jones was filmed). It was seriously my favorite part of the trip. There were candles in brown paper bags lighting the entire way there and then a ton of candles surrounding the area in front of the treasury. As we sat and admired the beauty, there was a man who played a flute like instrument and then talked about how each candle represented a wish you could make. They then shined lights up on the treasury and it was our first time seeing it ever in person. It was incredible. It was awesome! I loved it so much! The following day we got to spend a lot more time exploring Petra. We got to ride camels for the first time in front of the Treasury, too! So much fun! The program paid for us all to be able to do so ( I mean it came out of our original tuition I am sure, but still!) When the camels stand up, it is like a big rocking horse. Your falling forward, and then falling backwards. I was the first one on the camel and was not expecting that at all, and accidentally screamed while the other class was still talking with their tour guide. Everyone stared...haha it was great! Then we made the 800 step climb up to the monastery. It was a long hike, but definitely worth it! The monastery looks a lot like the treasury. Both were incredible. Everything there was just so incredible because it was all carved into the mountain sides. I did not want to leave at all. One of the old ruins we hiked up to had a wide open room with acoustics and so our group stopped and sang a few hymns, a few pop songs, Disney songs, Broadway songs, you name it. The best part is, Mormons are all musical and so we could easily break out into 4 or 5 part harmonies on each song and so they sounded so cool!

We are all beginning our modeling career



The beginning of the 800 steps

Petra by Night with our roommate Faith!

 

This is us at Jerash

Our group on Rainbow Street

Squishing 5 people into a taxi in Jordan

This is the view from where John the Baptist was beheaded

Our hotels were so nice!

Going in to Petra during the day!

The treasury! Recognize it from Indiana Jones?!

This was a theatre inside of Petra

I FOUND GOATS IN PETRA. I LOVE GOATS

The Jabbok river where Jacob heard that Esau was coming for him with 400 men and where his name was changed to Israel

Faith, Brooke, Kelsie, and Sam in front of one of the buildings in Jerash

Jerash

Theatre at Jerash

View of Jerash from Zeus' Temple

Falafel in Jordan

Kelsie and Haley in Zeus' Temple

The pillars Hercules knocked down ;) in Jerash

Just casually riding a camel in front of the Treasury in Petra

Representing BYUI for Dylan ;) This is the Monastery behind us

Kisses from all of us! Camels naturally do kissy faces so we had to too.

Part of our group in front of the Monastery. Danielle, Kels, Brooke, Haley, Kaue

Jerash

I was watching a man make pitas and so he gave me one for free after he put a heart and USA on it :) DELICIOUSSSS

The next day we went to the Jabbok River (where Jacob's name was changed to Israel because he saw the face of the Lord), Jerash (Roman ruins), and Gilead. It was all super awesome to just be able to see the sites where we read the Biblical stories. While we were at the very first site, I was wearing my brand new pants that I bought in the city at one of the venders, my legs were sweaty because it was FREAKING HOT and my pants stuck to my pants as I was sitting down on the bus, and I just hear a big RIPPPP!!!! Yup...I ripped my pants. At the beginning of the day...and we weren't going to be back at the hotel until 6pm that night...awesome. Luckily it was right in the crotch part of my pants, and they were flowy enough that I just sucked it up and just took very small steps the entire day. Somehow I made it, but it was not fun at all. Haha! Dumb cheap pants... She walked so funny all day, but no one noticed but me because I knew what her situation was hahahaha. Don't tell her I said that ;)

This is our group at Jerash the Roman Ruins

The very last night we had some free time to go explore the city. Me and Kelsie went with a group of our friends to check out a market called Rainbow St. where a lot of shops and city life are. We took a taxi that ended up costing us literally only 2 dinars (about 3 dollars) for a 20 minute car ride for ALL of us to split, so superrrr cheap. While we were wandering the streets checking things out, we were told of a falafel place that was highly recommended. So obviously we HAD to stop and try it! Guess how much it was... like 75 cents (55 cents in dinars)! And it was super good! Me and my buddies, Matt and Kaue, LOVE falafel and always look for the best falafel places around Jordan and Jerusalem. It was a blast and I definitely miss Jordan already! Honestly the falafel here in Jerusalem is really good, but you can't beat how cheap it was there! Here falafel is 10 shekel, about $2.50, but yeah it was cheaper in Jordan and super delicious.

While we were in Jordan, the tap water has a bug or something in it that Jordanians can ingest, but tourists get sick from it, so we couldn't drink out of the tap at all or eat any fruits or veggies (that aren't hot) basically if they had to run it under the water. We had to brush our teeth with bottled water... it was so hard to try to remember each time and not turn on the tap out of habit. We all definitely missed eating fruits and veggies and occasionally just ate them anyway since we were staying at super nice hotels and all the service couples that had been eating the veggies were fine. So I decided I was fine to just eat one small cucumber salad the last night. As soon as we got back from Jordan, I was so sick. My insides were very sad and pinched and I honestly couldn't stay away from the bathroom for more than 20 minutes for 2 days. It was not fun at all! It must have been that one salad because I was really good about not drinking the water and not eating fruits and veggies the entire time except that one salad. :(

On the Jordan trip, we realized all the things we are grateful for! JERUSALEM WEATHER surprisingly! It is so hot here, but in Jordan it feels 10 times hotter. It is like you are sitting in a hot box of just still hot air. Here in Jerusalem there is always a breeze with the really hot air so it feels a lot cooler, and the nights here are actually almost on the verge of being chilly. We also are so grateful for clean (not bottled) water. We are grateful for how far shekels can go. You get almost 4 Israeli shekel for a dollar and like .8 of a Jordanian dinar for a dollar.

We are having the time of our lives here and can't wait for more adventures coming up! Next up, midterms :( Our Palestinian midterm was supposed to be tomorrow but our teacher did not show up to class today and so it is postponed a week!!! Hooray!
 

Happy Birthday Kelsie!!!

Monday, September 12 to Sunday, September 18

Hey everyone! This week was BUSY! Monday was our fieldtrip day, like always. This week we went to Avdat, the Wilderness of Zen, and a bunch of other satellite temples. It is so incredible that archaeologists are able to uncover an entire city and learn so much about their lifestyle through what they find. It is so funny seeing "Beware of Camels Near the Road" signs! THAT is something you don't see everyday! The Wilderness of Zin is hot, and dry, and very tan everywhere. NO vegetation. I have a lot more sympathy for the Israelites during their Exodus from Egypt because of how much we were complaining in the short 15 minutes we spent in that heat.

 

Everything here is Kosher. (No meat and dairy together). Even at McDonalds. In our meals prepared for us. One girl from BYUJ was eating a sandwich she made that morning with cheese and meat in it and was asked to leave the Jewish Quarter because of it hahahaha. Shows you how seriously they take that Kosher rule.

 

Our roommates are the best! We have nightly venting sessions and Harper ends up speaking "slangster" (slang for gangsters) on her meds haha. And Faith is so fun and sweet. We lucked out with them.For real though! No drama, and just lots of fun every time we are all together. And the best part is that we're not bothered by anything. Like Harper totally snores, but we just think its hilarious because she is this tiny, adorable girl who snores up a storm. I just love it :D 

 

 

Tuesday was my birthday. Right at midnight when it became my birthday Brooke goes "HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELSIE!" So I woke up from starting to fall asleep and go "It's my birthday, take my picture and make sure its yucky." *she takes picture of me and shows me* "Perfect" and then I went back to sleep. I even was cute and make a cute sign that I put up that morning just for her and made it big and very obvious, and Kelsie completely missed it...haha she didn't even know there was a sign on the wall until I asked if she saw it. HAHAH Why am I so weird? I got sung to in Hebrew class in the Hebrew language while I was lifted up in my chair into the air several times which is an Israeli tradition. That was fun! Unfortunately we had a lot of homework to do that night for class the next day so we couldn't do anything super special like go out in the city or anything that night, but we made the best of it :) We went to get ice cream today (Sunday) to celebrate her birthday!

 

 

Thursday was the talent show and Brooke and I sang our well known "I Need Thee Every Hour" and I sang a duet with a girl Brianne. We sang "There Can be Miracles" from The Prince of Egypt. Brooke sang a solo "Children of Eden" and sang in a group "One More Day" from Les Miserables. We had so much fun and everyone LOVED IT!! They are still raving about it :) We all had a lot of fun putting everything together and I think everyone else enjoyed it too.

 

 

Fun fact from the week: there was a HUGE spider in our bedroom a little bit smaller than a coaster that took 5 girls, two guys, and a lot of screaming and shoe throwing to kill. Kelsie was squirming SOOO BAD!!! Hahahaha!!!

 

We got DELICIOUS ice cream (that my slightly lactose intolerant stomach did not love) in West Jerusalem twice this week. It is made with Frozen Nitrogen or something?? It was way delicious and soooo worth the 24 hour stomach ache. They take a cup of cream and put it on a frozen plate thing, where they throw in any other candies, fruit, nutella, or cookies that you want in the ice cream, then they crush it up as its freezing. Then they flatten it, and with a spatula or whatever, they scrape it off in rolls. Its super fun!!

 

Today was very busy, but a lot of fun. We went into the Old City and did more daily souvenir shopping. We mostly got lots of olive wood carvings that I am very excited about :) We then took a taxi to the museum (which we had to go to for a class assignment) but it was a very interesting museum. We then went and got our second helping of that delicious ice cream I told you about. We then walked across the street to this amazing cemetery that has a mural of the entire bible all alone the perimeter walls. The paintings are so incredible they gave us chills.

 

Tomorrow we are going to Jordan until Thursday! I cannot wait to go to Petra! For the sake of time (plus we really need to go to bed right now) we will definitely be posting pictures on here once we get back from Jordan. But if you're curious, just go check out my facebook under my Jerusalem album! I posted a lot of the pictures there :)

 

 

Signing our names on the wall of the Jerusalem Center!

Getting Ice Cream for my birthday

The Israeli Museum made us a little crazy

The Wilderness of Zin where the Exodus took place



I'm a unicorn

I Hear Jerusalem Bells Ringing :)

September 5th - 11th

Wow! What a week! It all started off last Monday, our field trip day. We were taken to a lot of sights that overlook Jerusalem, Augusta Victory Church, Bethlehem overlook where the shepherds may have been when the angel came to tell them of Baby Jesus, and Samuel's Well where we overlooked a lot of the land where there were many battles. Gorgeous views and so fun to hear the stories of where things happened WHILE being in the same spot where it possibly happened. We all sang Christmas songs looking over Bethlehem which was really special singing about the fields and actually looking at them right then. We also were singing about cold winter nights while sweating, so that was fun haha. I love field trip days!

This week classes were difficult. There's a lot of reading for all of the classes that makes it so hard. They are crunching so much curriculum in such little time. We have a chapter or two of reading for each class each night. It is a ton. We had Hebrew for the first time this week! Kelsie and I actually really enjoy that class. The teacher is so cute and she makes learning Hebrew so fun! Plus she believes in learning through music, so EVEN BETTER! I love it :) totally the way I like to learn everything. So overall, classes are fun yet difficult. It'll be worth it though. It makes it better that we only have classes 3 or 4 days a week and travel and explore the other days :) Especially the Old Testament class because we get to go see all the places we learn about! This week we also had auditions for the Talent Show, and I'm on the Talent Show committee I got to be in to see everyone's audition. It's gonna be a great show! Plus I am actually in 3 numbers...haha don't worry I'm not the only one in multiple numbers. I am singing a solo, a duet with Kelsie, and a group number with my friends! I'm super excited! There is some awesome talent here in Jerusalem. Brooke and I decided to do the talent show 30 minutes before auditions, and so we grabbed a girl who we knew could play the piano and asked her to accompany us, and she learned the music right then and rocked it! Seriously everyone here is so musically talented.

Today was one of the best days this week. We started off with a group of us that went to Hebrew University and looked around the gardens on their campus. Super pretty! Then we took a taxi to the YMCA in West Jerusalem to play carillon bells in the tower. It was so freaking cool! We started off playing the typical bell tower song at the top of the tower and chimed the bell 11 times for 11am, and then all throughout the hour, we all got to take pieces of music and play them on the bells throughout the city. Each time, one person would play the right hand, and the other would play the left since they are handles and you can't really play by yourself. It would be way too hard unless you've had a lot of practice. Kelsie and I played Amazing Grace! Sadly we were one of the first one's to play so we forgot to take a video and picture on our own phones :( but at least our teacher, Sis Holyoak who runs everything music related at the JC, took a picture of us. But I also got to play "I am a Child of God" with my friend Sam. It was so fun! Such a cool experience! Literally hearing "Jerusalem bells ringing". (Coldplay reference for those of you who might not know) Super awesome :)

If you want to see a video of me playing, look on Facebook :)

After that we all headed over to the Biblical Zoo to spend the rest of our afternoon. It was so cool! I was really impressed! They even had a giant ark representing Noah's ark in the middle of the giraffe, zebra, rhino, and hippo exhibit. Everything was mostly in Arabic and Hebrew so we couldn't read much about each animal, but it was still really fun. It was really far from the center so we too a taxi, and surprisingly they had a taxi that was able to hold all 19 of us that went! Crazy!!! So much fun with awesome people :) The Jerusalem Center has connections and we get taxis for ten shekels a person no matter how long you ride for which is only about $2.25. So we usually take them when we are going to be riding for about 30 minutes. So $2.25 for a 30 minute ride is so cheap!

Sabbath and Sunday... Yes they are different!

Saturday, September 3

First off, I am very sorry our blogging has been so on and off already. The wifi here is absolutely terrible and so it is hardly working enough for it to actually post. We will try to find times when everyone is not using the wifi so we can publish our posts weekly. 

ANYWAYS! Yesterday was the Sabbath. Here in Jerusalem the Sabbath is on Saturday which is a little bit weird only because the next day we treat as our Saturday. So instead of having class the day after church, we have a free day which is nice! Other than that it does not feel too different to have church on Saturday. The chapel here is a room full of windows overlooking the Old City with a huge organ in the back. The speaker stands right in front of the windows and so the view is a little bit distracting... Brooke and I do not have callings yet which means we will most likely be giving talks I am assuming... :( I wanted a calling in primary more than anything. (The professors here all have kids and there are some locals with kids and so they have a small primary that meets in the bomb shelter haha fun fact). 

The past few days Brooke and I have been napping and waking up completely delirious. We do not feel jet lagged at all until we wake up... haha maybe it is time to stop taking naps. In our defense our naps usually aren't that long ;) its just a quick snooze to get us through the rest of the day since we get up so early and stay up so late.

Sunday, September 4

Today we woke up and had breakfast and then went into the city first thing. We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and walked around and went into the Holy Tomb where they believe that Christ was placed after his death. It was very interesting seeing their worship ceremonies in all the different places around the building. We were able to enter the tomb and see where they believe Christ was buried and it was so amazing.  It's a small tomb with just a stone bed where many people go in and pray and light a candle. It was a very reverent, interesting place. We then went through the shops and went to one that TOTALLY caters to the Mormons. First off, when you walk through the shops, all the shop keepers yell out "Hello Mormons" "Special price for you Mormons" "BYU we have stuff for you!" It is hilarious how much they love the Mormons (because they know we souvenir shop haha). But the shop we went to is so sweet to the Mormons and they pretty much rely on the Mormons for their income. Half of the things they sell have BYU or CTR written on them or they have scripture cases and different things for us. The shop owner came and found us in the street and walked us all the way to his shop and gave us a cup of juice right when we walked in because "We know Mormons do not drink tea or coffee and so we have cold drink for you". They then proceeded to tell us the best prices for everything and what shops have the best deals and nicest shopkeepers. They will let us take the scripture cases home and if they do not work we can bring them back. They are going to let us borrow their Israeli dresses for our Israeli night. They exchange our money for free for us right at their shop, so we get 100% what our money is worth. They are so very nice. Brooke and I will have to get a picture with the shop owner and his son to show you them. His name is Shabbon and his son is named Omar and they are great! Shabbon's brother in law has a shop right across from his and he sells sandals and other items that they don't have for great prices too! The students in the past have loved him (his name is Rida) and have written him notes and even drew pictures for him because he was so awesome. Definitely going to get a cool CTR ring in Hebrew from him :) He's giving us an awesome discount too because he loves the students so much! 

The Holy Sepulchure

The Dome of the Rock

After we did some shopping we did The Ramparts Walk which is along the wall around the whole city which had incredible views. We also went under the city in a cave that was recently discovered. The cave was created when the people thousands of years ago needed stone to build their city so they went below the city to get stone. Just a side note, for the most part, the people here are very kind and like having us here, but when we were walking back to the center, there was this man walking in front of us and before he crossed the street he yelled, "Get out of Jerusalem!" and then spat towards us. It threw me off. It was really weird especially since we weren't doing anything to offend him or anything, but he must just have a bad experience of the mormons in the past or something. Plus the kids here like to tease us by riding their bikes really close to us and pretend to hit us with their bikes or yell things at us. Its just interesting the different things the people here do because they know we are so different. After that we went back to the Jerusalem Center and... take a guess... took a nap! haha only for an hour, and then we went to dinner and then watched The Prince of Egypt with a few other people on the projector in our Forum room. Now we are blogging and going to bed! 

Rampart's Walk

The view of the Jerusalem Center from the Old City

Zedakiah's Cave

I thought this store was hilarious :D