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It was an incredible performance. It took about 2 1/2 hours and it was quite amazing. I really really enjoyed it. Handel was so inspired when he created this. I loved it.
I had such a good time going out, even though we had a lot of studying to do, since we have exams, but the performance was so good. I love music. I love being in Jerusalem. 

It is the big physical barrier between Jewish Israel and the Palestinian West Bank.

It goes against international law. Why is it there?

It has greatly reduced suicide bombings and has made it much safer in Israel, but it makes it so much more difficult for Palestinians to get through and it has destroyed a lot of the Palestinian territory. 

A Palestinian from Bethlehem in our branch named Sahar was telling us how she comes to church every Saturday. It was easier before the wall was built, but she’d still have to sneak over. And I believe once it was built, there was a skinny little hole she could get through. Then she’d be like a fugitive every time she’d be on this side of the wall and had to be very concerned about getting caught. Recently though, she just got a job at the UN and has a permit so that she can get to this side much much easier. It still takes about an hour and a half though and she has to get all checked and inspected. Sahar is an amazing woman.

Not only can Palestinians not get through the border, but Israeli’s can’t either. You have to have very special permits to do so, and if even if you do, sometimes you still can’t get through.

Danny Seideman, an Israeli Jew, was the one to teach us all of this today. His view was very unique as an Israeli, but it was an excellent one and I learned a lot from him. He, like so many other people, just wants peace in this land. There is so much conflict here.

As I was taking notes from what he was saying, a little ant crawled across my paper. I of course had to take a picture of it. This picture is so blog worthy.

I don’t think I like this wall. Nope. I don’t.

We need some peace.

Today we celebrated Purim, which is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of Jews from Persia about 2500 years ago. In the synagogues they read the Scroll of Esther, they give gifts to each other, they drink a lot a lot a lot of alcohol (not us though), and my favorite part is that they dress up and stuff. Yay! I love dress up!

I didn’t have a specific costume, but I Moon did hook me up with this sweet make up. And I put this cool scarf on my head and I was wearing a jingle jangle belly dancer skirt over my genie pants and I had on elf shoes. I must say I looked pretty good.

A big group of us went to Ben Yehuda Street in West Jerusalem. It was supposed to be the happening place. It wasn’t.

Marianne, Kara, and I got matching little belly dancing skirts.

Moon is so fabulous. Room 410 was full of pretty girls in need of costume type things and Moon was putting sweet make up on all of us. Moon, Richelle, and Miriam are such a wonderful room. I love those girlies.

While we were on Ben Yehuda, we wandered around, looking for some sort of party or something fun to do. I went into a little market and found some chunky peanut butter, which was a party for me! Skippy Natural super chunk is my favorite, but regular chunky skippy peanut butter works too.  

Everyone was in the synagogues, so Ben Yehuda was not that exciting at all. So we left and went back to the JC. We waiting for our taxi near McDonald’s. Yes, there is McDonald’s in Jerusalem too, unfortunately. This picture is for you my favorite twins.

Don’t we look lovely?

I need to incorporate all of these extra holidays in my life. It’s the coolest of cool. 

The Dome of the Rock is the most distinguishable landmark here in J Town, and I finally went there today! 

It was completed in 691 and is the holiest site in Islam.

Amazing.

I really liked the grounds there. It was like a big park all over and it is a good little social environment. There are groups of Muslims around with little children playing and people just sitting around. It was so sunny and peaceful.

There was one girl that asked to take a picture with me too. Her father spoke English but she didn’t, and I asked for him to take a picture with my camera too, but she didn’t want to. She just wanted one with me. :)

I need to go back to this beautiful place, although it is lovely seeing it from my bedroom view everyday.
Muslims are so dedicated. They pray five times a day. They stop whatever they’re doing when it’s prayer time and they all pray, facing Mecca. They also have a month where they fast all day everyday. They can only eat while it’s dark and they do it for an entire month called Ramadan. They also give a lot of money to the poor around them. They ideally want equality between them too, because during their feasts and stuff they share a lot with the poor. And during the Pilgrimage to Mecca, they all wear similar clothing so you can’t tell any difference between wealth status. There are so many Muslims around here and I have gained such a greater appreciation for them. As a religion, they are so dedicated. It’s wonderful.

This is Stephanie, Miriam, Cate, and I at the place where they’d have fun jousting parties just like in A Knight’s Tale.

There was this wicked old and wicked awesome mosaic inside this smelly tent that smelled like a big, animal poo smelling, burlap sack. But the mosaic was pretty sweet. 
Just standing on the hilltop looking out at Jordan. I love being here so so much. It is amazing.
Moon is one of the coolest girls in the world. She took “I was here” pictures all over Jordan. She is seriously so wonderful.
Next stop was Madada, where the oldest map of the Holy Land is. It’s a huge, detailed, incredible mosaic on a church floor. It dates to 6th century AD. Whoa dude.

Cate, Chelsea, and Rachel inside the church, sitting on fabulous chairs. There is so much hard work and detail put into this church, and to all the churches I’ve seen around here. It’s amazing. 

The church at Madaba was full of mosaics. It was like they were paintings all over the wall, but they were actually mosaics. There were so many. Could you imagine making these. Look at all those little pieces you have to put together. Wow.

This is an ambulance I saw parked when we first go to Jordan.

And to end this post, here’s the MUSTACHE MAN. Look at that beastly mustache. Who does that? It is out of control. By the way, I had to very stealthily take this picture on the bus. People were kinda trying to take pictures and he wasn’t a huge fan, but I got a good one. 

Being in Jordan is the coolest.

    After our little outing to the stores, we were going to go the the Jewish market to buy produce and NUTS! I was sooooo badly craving the yummy delicious nuts that I always buy these days, and it was all I really wanted to do. I needed my nuts. But we had some miscommunication/lack of communication with our taxi driver, and he brought us back to the center instead of taking us to the market. I was so bummed. I was really so so disappointed, just because I didn’t have my nuts. Kinda funny. I think I’m addicted to these nuts.

We had a little Passover/Seder party. This year this lovely Jewish holiday is actually in April, but we celebrated it early, for convenience purposes. Passover is a holiday commemorating the Exodus mostly, and the freeing of Israelites from slavery. We sang a lot of songs and did a lot of readings and ate lots of food. 

The group I was in sang “the Four Questions.” I’m a pro at Hebrew now.

This is the nasty grape juice that we were served four times from. It was weirdo.

This is perhaps some sort of appetizer/food of plate full of symbolism that I don’t really know about.

Our lovely little appetizers. Except that is fish, which I’m not a hugest fan of. But I tried a miniscule bite of it and it was waaaay to fishy for me. I guess I’m just used to Homer, AK’s world famous halibut, which isn’t very fishy at all.

Then we had some soup. I love soup. I really love Holly’s soup. She’s such a fabulous sister, always making me her vegetable chowder, always hooking me up with whatever I need. I miss my dear family. They’re the best.

Yay salad! I loved this course. I love salad. Vegetables are the best.

And for the main course… delish. I’m normally not a meat fan at all, but this chicken pretty much rocked my world. It was so tasty. And yummy yummy steamed broccoli, and carrots, and mashed potatoes. Mmm… I’m hungry. 

Then we had a delightful little fruit bowl. I love fruit. Yum. I can’t wait for summer nectarines, my favorite.

Then they brought out all these little treats. Our kitchen staff here at the JC is the best. They’re so good.

I realized I only have food pictures from Passover Feast, but we did do a little more than just sit around and it. It was quite the feast though. And it was so cool having our Judaism teacher, Ophir, teach us all about the Jewish holiday, Passover.

I love Sundays.