Jerusalem

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.

There are some sweet rings around here do. Check out these beastly ones. Aren’t they the coolest?
Here’s Marianne and I in a jewelry shop with a lot a lot of beads. You just tell the guys what you want and they’ll make you sweet earrings and they’d probably do necklaces and bracelets too. Pick whatever beautiful stones you want. I got two pairs of lovely earrings today for 10 sheks each, which is only $2.50. Pretty good prices here in the Holy Land.
Another favorite Old City purchase of mine is nuts. I love them. Yummy yummy. I buy these ones that we call love nuts, but I’ve also heard them be called sycamore nuts. They have other ones just like them that are more peanuty and they are goooood. And some of the almonds are just delightful. I am loving those nuts these days.

Shopping here is fun fun fun. Everything is just really cheap. Today I bought cool things too, a new bag being one my favorites. Ok, the ring is lovely too, and the little stuffed camel and funny Jerusalem pen are a crack up. Speaking of crack, I think the nuts were one of my favorite purchases or the day. Hmm, I think I want some now…

After our one hour Old Testament class, I did some serious sightseeing. I went to a lot of places of a lot of Marys. I went to the Church of Mary Magdalene, Old Roman Road, Church of All Nations, Garden of Gethsemane, Mary’s Tomb, Gethsemane Grotto, birthplace of Virgin Mary, St. Anne’s Church, and the Pools of Bethesda. It was quite a productive day. And then after that, I wandered around the Old City, bought some goods, and then went to West Jerusalem for a while too. I was gone for eight hours today, a very long day, but a good one, as always.

Janay and I outside where her tomb is. Beautiful.

We also tried to go to Dome of the Rock today, but we finally made it to where we were supposed to enter, and the line was really long, and it was closing in a 1/2 hour, so we decided to go a different day. But all of the sightseeing I did today was great. I saw a lot of good Mary stuff. I love being here in this city so much.

Right after Yad Vashem we went to Mt. Herzl, which is a cemetery and memorial where Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism, is buried. Our Judaism teacher, Ophir, came and gave us a tour there for a few hours and told us all about zionism and other stuff. However, the whole time we were there, I had zero desire and zero ability to pay attention to anything. So I just wandered around and took a lot of random pictures.

Anne, Chelsea, and Annie being a human menorah, sort of

Ophir telling us about zionism perhaps

a classic field trip pose

Chris and Annie sitting in the sunshine learning some good stuff

Jeff field trippin’

this is what Heidi looks like after touring all day

Chris on a bench

Moon offering some drugs aka tylenol pm she got from the bus doc

Cate and her pretty purple lips. It got a wee bit chilly.

Random Picture #1: my beautiful bag on the ground

I love trees.

I love ones like this too.

I love little flowers.

I love flowers. I especially love them in my hair.

I love when people where converse, especially Moon.

I love taking pictures of myself in people’s aviators.

See, I really do like it.

I love butterfly kisses.

I think this is the grave or memorial for Hertz, but I’m not sure. I wasn’t listening at all. My attention span was only so long, and it was all used up at the museum.

Instead of listening, I took pictures of the army people that were there. Every person has to do like two years of civil service. We see groups of them quite often around this Israel land.

These two girls had sweet little hats on. And the one had a purple hat and a purple bag. You gotta dress up those drab army clothes somehow.

When we were walking out I saw this sign and how could I not pose like a little puppy dog by it. You know I’m a puppy.

Here’s our bye bye field trip faces. Bye bye.

In front of the Dormition Abbey: “May Peace Prevail On Earth.” Amen.
The Dormition Abbey is the place where they think Mary was buried, or died. I’m not sure. But I think there quite a few different churches that think that is where she died. 
The artwork inside was completely amazing. I loved looking at it. There were so many incredible, intricate mosaics.
This is in the crypt of the Abbey, where they have a sculpture of Mary.
Pray for peace for Palestine and Israel. These were the main prayer requests in the church.
outside with some cool JCites
Next we went to this area that was all about King David. There was a little sign that said “the World Peace Center” too, and it wish it was true.
Jerusalem is the coolest city. Check out this sweet door.
A very very pretty sign outside of Christ Church.
more peace plaques. need more peace.
Inside Christ Church, which was the first Protestant church here in Israel. It is used to share the Gospel with Jews. There are many Jewish symbols inside and a lot of the stuff is in Hebrew, so Jews can understand.
Beautiful stained glass window of tree with father, son, and Holy Ghost
Beautiful table outside with this fabulous painting on it. Love it.

This is the picture I drew in class instead of taking notes. None of us did so good, but my score I’m pretty sure is the worst out of everyone. Funny funny. hehehe It really is funny bunny. There are a few people that got 14s though, so that’s cool. But yes, today was a day of complete bombing for me. But last night was so fun and so worth it. It was the best. I love this place.