Arab Night

So since we had a Passover Dinner, it was only fair that we have an Arab Dinner.  The food was amazing!!!  I think the kanafe and the lamb were my favorite... you will see it all soon.  We also heard people from the al-Aqsa Mosque recite the Call to Prayer for us (they recite the Call to Prayer 5 times a day over speakers all over the city... starting at 4am and then the last time at about 9pm... luckily I never wake up for the 4am one).  We also got to hear them read the Quran, they read the story of Mary giving birth to Christ, it sounded really cool!  After dinner we had dance instruction in Palestinian folk dance from my Arab teacher's kids.  I was really bad well we all were and lost interest pretty fast and just collapsed into a regular dance.  Overall it was a really good time!

Left to Right: Mikele, Jaelyn, Linda, Mary, Abby, Me, Kayla, Hollie

Left to Right: Sophie, Erin, Katie

My Table for Arab Night

Left to Right: Eric, Laurann, Annie

Arab Dinner... I was so stuffed after... I felt like it was an Arab style Thanksgiving 

There was spiced chicken in a tortilla kinda deal, lamb, rice, salat (tomatoes and cucumbers), quinoa, hummus, pita, a type of fried dough with potatoes (a lot like a crunchy pierogie), and beef covered in batter and fried... there was so much more but that was all I could fit on my plate... and my stomach!

Dessert: Kanafe (orange thing), Baclava, and something with a candied cherry

The Kanafe was my favorite its a kind of stringy dough rolled around cheese and saturated in honey

I may have filled up my dinner side of my stomach but my dessert side of my stomach was definitely happy with multiple rounds of Kanafe!

 Arab Dinner Spread

HUMMUS!

Hollie and I

                                      

Mikele and I

 Left: Annie and I

Right: Will and I

Left: Laurann and I

Right: Kathryn and I

Jackson doesn't like taking pictures... but I got him to smile eventually

Hayley and I

McKay and I

Best Friends!

Left to Right: Me, Steven, Annie

This wasn't from Arab night but its a little piece of home that made my day and was worth sharing!

Love my Heinz Ketchup!

Yad Vashem

So on Monday October 15 I went to Yad Vashem which is the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem... it was quite overwhelming.  I spent a lot of my teen years loving the hundreds of books I read on the Holocaust and World War II but actually watching all of the videos on different survivors stories gave me a whole new perspective on the entire event.... it was definitely a learning experience...

So this is the outside view of the museum... that triangle is actually where the bulk of the museum is located is was pretty cool.

So ever tree that is planted in the courtyard represents a person, family, or group of people that helped to hide a Jew or get them to safety and accepted that if they were discovered they would accept the same fate as the Jews.  I really liked the idea of it all... I hope that one day I can do what I know is right in spite of the danger I may face.

This is supposed to represent the Jews that went "like lambs to the slaughter"

This is supposed to represent the Jews that stood up defiantly to the Nazis and fought back.

This pillar and the quote next to it pay tribute to the Jews that fought bravely in the forests against the Nazis... it was really cool because the memorial was set back in a bunch of trees... it just looked really cool!

I know you can't see the quote really well so here is what it says: "Now and forever in memory of those who rebelled in the camps and the ghettoes, fought in the woods, in the underground, and with the allied forces... Who braved their way to Eretz Israel and those who died."

This was part of the children memorial for the children that died during the Holocaust... if you look closely the tops of the pillars are hacked off to symbolize how the children's lives were cut short

The grave site of Theodor Herzl who was the leader of the Zionist Movement on Mount Herzl

Snorkeling in the Red Sea

So on Sunday (October 14) the whole class (minus one guy... which I will talk about in a bit) went snorkeling in the Red Sea.  Sometimes it doesn't really hit me how cool the things I do really are until after they are over... but that day was pretty awesome!!  BUT cool fun fact while standing on the beach at the Red Sea in ISRAEL, I could see across the sea to JORDAN, and then down the way I saw SAUDI ARABIA! Coolio!
So story about the guy who didn't go snorkeling... His name is Steven he is probably one of my best friends here in Jerusalem.  I bugged him for so long to go on the snorkeling trip with me but he refused, and it turned out for good reason!  After we left Steven started feeling sick and spent most of the day throwing up and feeling SUPER sick.  After a couple of hours of no improvement he got a hold of one of the few teachers in the center and had them take him to the hospital.  It turns out Steven had appendicitis!!  As we were bussing home from the Red Sea, Steven was going into surgery to have his appendix removed... CRAZY!  Call it luck or Holy Ghost inspiration we were all so glad that Steven was in the right place at the right time.  He is now home and definitely milking his surgery for all its worth... he has caught up on the sleep we are all desperately missing so I am currently feeling very jealous!  But I am just glad he is ok!
Anyways... here are all of my pictures from the Red Sea.  My roommate has a Go Pro Camera and let me take some underwater video so I promise to post those when I can!

People say this statue is Lot's Wife... definitely not, but its the story that counts.

I also enjoy Rachel's sleeping reflection in the window :)

Mikele and I got a huge kick out of these signs on the way.  We wanted to take a picture with us showing off our womanly curves next to it but we never got the chance so you will all just have to use your imaginations!

My first view of the Red Sea

A little bit better

Cutest picture of them all!

Left to Right: Sarah, Kaelynn, Ellen

MY BOYS!

Left to Right: Brad, Quinn, Michael, Will, McKay

Left to Right: Annie, Katherine, Laurann, Mikele, Me, Ellen

McKay and I

Brad and I... my other best friend here in Jerusalem!

Left to Right: Me, Kassie, Mikele

So we stopped at a restaurant for dinner and their decor theme were cows... so we had some fun!

Mikele and Aleesia... Aleesia is kinda confused

McKenzie milkin' the cow

Just don't even ask me what I was thinking...

McKenie the wild rider

Back to Front: Mikele, Me, McKenzie

I love people's attempts here to write English

I found Alta in the bathroom with a little TP tail... luckily I caught her before she left the bathroom

So this is Mikele and I with our bus driver Atta.. seriously the COOLEST man ever!!!

I was sitting in the aisle on the step next to the bus driver just watching the road, and I stuck up a conversation with him.  Turns out this guy reads the Quran for al-Aqsa Mosque (the mosque connected to the Dome of the Rock), he has also read at the Kabba in Mecca, the Blue Mosque in Turkey, and in cities like London, Dallas, and Quebec.  People pay for him to come read because he is just that good.  He’s like THE guy that reads the Quran in the Islam religion.  He also just has the greatest outlook on life.  He thinks life should just be enjoyed and be sweet... just a really cool guy!

Odds and Ends...

So I am quite behind I know… but I will just post a bunch of pictures I have right now because there isn’t much story to tell right now…

We all decided to be responsible Americans and watch the first Presidential Debate... Go Romney!

So I went on an adventure after church and we found ourselves up in a tower and this was the view of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre from the top of the tower... let me tell you it was quite a hike

The view from the tower wasn't good enough so Skylar decided to try and climb EVEN HIGHER... Holly promptly got angry and made him get down... he's so wipped :p

but let's be honest I love Holly and Skylar... too cute

View of the Dome of the Rock from the Tower... still haven't been to the Dome of the Rock and I am already halfway through the semester... I should probably get on that

My little Abby and I right before conference when they announced the missionary age change.

Girls can now serve at 19 and boys at 18... although after a lot of prayer I have decided I will not be serving a mission but there are plenty of girls here that are already starting their papers.

So the Jews were celebrating Sukkot or Feast of the Tabernacles so part of their celebration is that at sunrise on the last day they go to synagogue or the Western Wall and slap willow branches on the ground and in my Israel teacher's words, "throw a big temper tantrum asking God for rain."

It was pretty cool!

The WHOLE PLACE was packed!!

If you look close each person is holding a long green leaf which is part of the whole ritual.

Left to Right: Me, Annie, Neil, Sean, McKay

So our whole class went into Hezekiah's Tunnel on a field trip... I totally rocked the look

Hezekiah's Tunnel: or the Siloam Tunnel is a tunnel that was dug underneath the City of David in Jerusalem before 701 BC during the reign of Hezekiah of Judah. The tunnel is mentioned in 2 Kings 20:20 in the Bible.

A little bit more presentable

 ISRAEL MUSEUM 

So for my Ancient Near Eastern Studies class we had to go to the Israel Museum and see a bunch of old stuff... so this is some cool stuff that I saw!

This was a HUGE model of Jerusalem in the 2nd Temple Period the big building that is front and center is Herod's Temple and then the rest of the city is behind it.

Me by the temple model

Super cool Anthropoid coffins

So I am going to warn you all right now... ever since I took Anatomy last winter I have become obsessed with old skeletons so a lot of my museum pictures are skeletons...

Common burial... We enter the world in the fetal position... might as well leave it the same way

Super excited me with the skeleton...

This was just one alcove but the whole wall was decorated like this and it was probably 15 feet high and 30 feet long!

Egyptian Sarcophagus!