On Fridays we wear....TIE DYE!! :)

I feel like an introduction to my awesome roommates is now needed. I LOVE my roommates. We all get a long super well and I am so glad that I was blessed to meet them. Its strange to think that we have already been living together and seeing each other 24/7 for the past month and we still aren't sick of each other. My favorite thing that we do is for the past couple Fridays we have matched :). Its definitely a party. Today we all wore one of Sophie's many tie dye shirts.

First of all there is Caitie Mcbride. She is literally the sweetest person that you will ever meet. She is from Minnesota and is 20. I feel like I can talk to her about everything. She is funny and we get along super well. She is my buddy on field trips since we are in the same class. Her kindness is contagious and I love being around her. 

Next there's Sophie! I dont think that I have ever met anyone that can make me laugh more. She is absolutely hilarious. She never fails to make me smile. I swear that woman never gets sleep cause she is always the last one in bed each night. She LOVES tie dye or at least it would appear so because she brought six different tie dye shirts. She is so sweet and very inclusive. Love her.

 Sophie is the blond on my left

Last of all there is Hollie! I love Hollie! from the very beginning Hollie and I just clicked. We are work out buddies and so far we both have worked out almost every day. She is fun, crazy and super easy to talk to. I am so blessed to have her as one of my close friends here and my roommate. I don't think I could ever get sick of her.

I love these girls and I'm so glad that I get to spend the rest of the semester here!

Passover

We had a special opportunity last night to have a Passover Dinner or "Seder Meal". Our Israel teacher , Ophir, ran the meal. It was just like a traditional Passover meal. It was really neat to experience a different custom and understand why it is so special to them. We ate so much! It was basically like Thanksgiving. 

My awesome table! Lizzie, Mckenzie and Lindsey 

 The head table

 The different small foods we had to eat that represented different symbols 

The book we had to read before we could eat. It tells the story of the Israelites deliverance from Egypt.

 The song that I had to preform with a couple other girls. I still dont know how to pronounce most of the words. 

 Unleavened bread. Its like a Saltine without salt. 

 My Teacher Ophir and his cute little daughter. 

Rabies Day!!!

Ok. So what do you get when you put 82 young adults in a center with hours and hours of classes? You get crazy people who celebrate crazy holidays. So today it was....RABIES DAY! Yup...it was actually a big deal. When we walked up the stairs there were signs across the top saying, "Happy Rabies Day!" A girl came in at breakfast with ratted hair and bit a boy. There were some kids that came into class with shaving cream around their mouths. It was great. I was also greeted by a guy grabbing my arm with the tip of his fingers like a bite while yelling, "RABIES GREETING!" Loved it :) I wish we celebrated crazy holidays like this everyday!

Shawn is gonna infect me!!! 

Experiencing the Shwarma

So everyone that goes to Jerusalem says that you NEED to try the local delicacy...the Shwarma. Since I often follow the crowd I decided that I needed to participate in this great delicacy. When I was out with Skylor and Hollie yesterday we decided to stop for a "lite lunch" or at least that is what I was expecting. When I went to pick up my "Shwarma" I had to go through a process. First I had to pick from all the peculiar looking sauces and salsas do decided what I want to dare place on my tortilla. After that experience they place the meat on the tortilla that they scrapped off from a HUGE roasting spicket. Of course the guy decided to give me the most meat of all. I really think there was a pound of meat squeezed in my tortilla. The man even informed me "you got a lot more then your friends :)" It just added to the experience. I sat down to eat this interesting looking food and it was actually pretty good. The large amount of meat kind of threw me off. Lets just say it definitely was not a lite lunch. And now I can say....I Erin Wankier, have had a Shwarma in Jerusalem. So cool. 

My half eaten Shwarma. LOOK AT THAT MEAT! 

Awwwww yaaaaaaa

This day was great! We got to go out in a small group and see a couple sweet sites. One of them was St. Peters Gallicia. It was a beautiful church where they believe they held Christ one night. There are huge caves down there and we got to sing "I believe in Christ" in one of them. We also bought me some Jerusalem sandles. (Dont worry mom, I got the "Mormon" rate). Oh and I also got hit on by an old man selling fresh squeezed juice..."Where are you from? How did you get so beautiful?" Yup. Pretty sure he wanted me to just buy his juice.  

The Oldest City in the World

Jericho. The oldest city ever discovered. Today was amazing. We started the day off by going to an overlook of the "road to Jericho" where it is believed the parable of the good Samaritan takes place. It made me remember that we need to be like the man that stopped to help. The more we serve people in our everyday life the happier we will be. Jericho was crazy especially when I saw the tower that was supposedly 9,000 years old! (It was a little small...but crazy that it is still standing). It was a short and sweet field trip and I spent the rest of the day doing homework...whooppieee!! 

 Road to Jericho

 Annie and I falling off the edge...

 The tourist trap sign...yup I almost fell in the water.

 9,000 year old tower!! 

 Hey look! It's the wall around Jericho!!

 Pool of Elisha

Jackson and I looking out at the ruins of Herods Palace. 

It's Turkey Time!

Whoop whoop!! :) :) :) I love Turkey! So basically there is no way that I could ever completely describe in words how great this 7 days were so I'm going to give you a glimpse of it through pictures.   (Caution...32 pictures following)

My trip began with this.....

 Isn't my snoring man a beauty! The air plane ride was a party :)

 Me and my roommate Katie and our, "happy like a little kid in disney land" pictures

 This is the yummy looking meat before they cook it. They have these on basically every corner.

 Before we enter the Blue mosque. We have to wear shawls over our hair.

 The Blue Mosque. The blue tile is so pretty and looking in I was overwhelmed by how big it was.

 My roommate Rachel. For the trip we had different ones since there was only two to a room. 

 Mikel and Katie! I love those girls.

 Taking a nap during our first marathon day...until the evil man made us come move :(

 Basilica Cistern. I felt like I was in the chamber of secrets

 The Grand Bazaar. The biggest mall in the WORLD

So basically you have to pay to use the bathroom...it was super unfortunate. (Water closet=bathroom) Oh and the bathrooms were squatters :(  

 Hollie and I on the ferry ride

 Roommates, Sophie and Hollie at Gallipolli 

 My model shot

 Being the ultimate tourist at Troy :) My water bottle, hat, sunglasses, fanny pack, receiver, head phones, camera, side pouch etc...

 Jumping pictures at Assos :) 

 Pillar pictures 

So..I tried to climb up on the pillar...but it didnt work so well. 

 Hey guys! I'm super buff! 

 Eleshia and Tommy at Ephesus

 Angel pose at Ephesus

 Mikel and I on the way to the Library

 Ballerina poses with Mary!

 We went to so many amazing stadiums! (Miletus)

 Sardis 

 Nicea 

 My wrap job got a little crazy....

 I love ferry boats! 

 Hagia Sophia!!!

 Its hard to even picture how amazing this place is (Hagia Sophia)

The outside of Hagia Sophia

Turkey was a huge blast. I loved learning about all the places that Paul walked. There is so much history and culture jammed into one place. I wish we could have seen it all. The food was interesting...but I survived. We stayed at some sketchy hotels...with space ship showers that were elevated and fire escapes outside our window. And then also some amazing ocean side resorts where we watched sunsets and played in the ocean. There were long bus rides where I learned the valuable skill of sleeping on a bus. There wasn't much sleep but I learned and experienced so much. At the end of the day however, its nice to be back at Jeru.