Ode to Food

So. Food in Israel is...pretty adventurous most of the time. I like it for the most part and its always good for one to try new things. However, my cravings for American food have intensified with each passing day. Lets just say that I already have a list of the first 25 meals I am going to have when I get home. First of all there is my Cafe Rio obsession. If I could have Cafe Rio everyday for the rest of my life...I think my life would be utterly complete. I miss pizza so much! I wish that I could make a homemade chicken BBQ pizza to make my life complete. There is the constant craving for icecream or good old fashioned chocolate chip cookies. I miss macarroni and cheese, pb&Js and good salads. (OH ZUPUS!!!!) I wish that I could eat normal cereal most of all. At home I find pure joy in being able to eat a bowl of cereal every morning. Here the cereal is all chocolate flavored and the milk is a little...off. But I have learned to love some things here! First of all the pears and fruit are AMAZING! I wish they were  that good back in the states. Also they have a good selection of new foods for me to try everyday. It makes it so I am not as big of a picky eater. Best of all however are the chocolate peanut butter pitas....they are PURE HEAVEN. I literally have to restrict myself or else that would be all I would eat. Turkey food was not that great. There was one day when all I ate was bread because for lunch there was this eggplant goo...which was like eating slim..and then for dinner there was a whole fish! Which had eyeballs...and looked like it was staring at me. yummmmmm.....So yup lots and lots of bread. The food is an adventure but I am definitely grateful that in a few months i can return to my normal American style diet.

Mary Magdalene and Shoppin in Jeru

Oh how I love Jerusalem :) Especially when I can spend all day going on adventures. I have gotten in the habit of calling it Jeru when I'm writing so don't be surprised if it comes up in my blog. I also refer to the Jerusalem Center as the JC. yup i'm super gangster. I wanted to post some pictures of the Church of Mary Magdalene. Its a Russian Orthadox church and I was super lucky when I chose to go in a group with three boys that spoke Russian. They were able to communicate with the nuns and they gave us a personal tour and told us all about the history. It was a really neat experience. I really have so much respect for people that know multiple languages and I hope someday that I will be able to. (We know how Spanish went the first time..no bueno.) But shopping in the city is a blast! Everywhere we go people know who we are and are very excited to meet us and talk to us. People are so friendly and welcoming. Its such a great atmosphere and there is so much to see. Its always a good day when you head into the old city. 

 Me and Allison in front of the Church of Mary Magdalene

 Inside. I have a small obsession with arches and domes :) 

 Me and Emily 

 Icons 

 This is Aladdins (nope its not pronounced like the movie) its where we go to change money! 

 This just made me smile :) 

 This is Omar a shop keeper that gave us juice. He wants us to add him on facebook since he only has 45 friends. To bad im on a facebook fast.

My beautiful home up on the hill :) 

Getting Hot in the Negev

Our second field trip was to the Negev Desert and a bunch of sites therein. First stop was a weaving factory where we got to sample some interesting (but good) tea. The rugs and purses were so pretty! The next stop was so hot. We stopped at Beersheba where we spent a couple hours in the sun. The best part was that we got to wear some sweet bright red hard hats :) They were cute. Final stop was Arad, another ruin. Its amazing to see the places that are still standing today from hundreds of years ago. The bus ride was long and I got some good nap time in. I feel like there is NEVER time to sleep here but sleep is over rated anyways.

Weaving tent 

An example of a beautiful rug. They showed us how to do it. 

Beersheba

Beersheba #2

My rockin hard hat

Eleisha my favorite :) (She is exactly like my Aunt Josie)

Going down into the water cistern 

Arad!

Arad #2

Oh how I love the ocean blue...

There is no way that a normal college student can avoid the call of the beach. When we found out that the nearest beach was only 45 minutes away, everyone in the center was on the next bus to Tel Aviv. The rest of the day was pure bliss. The ocean was extremely salty so my favorite thing was to just lounge on the beach and have the waves crash over my legs. Sometimes a strong one would hit and it would knock us backwards into each other. We also went walking around the city to the market and some play grounds. I satisfied my HUGE craving for a Hamburger as well. :) Best day ever and I didn't even get a sunburn! 

 Two of the Katies and I. There are four or five Katies in our group 

 The boys decided to do a pyramid and after dozens of attempts they finally did it! 

 Mikel and I, rockin the savors swimsuits

 My good friend amy! 

 The girl model pose ( i think my favorite is mary in the pink swimsuit

 Girl Power!

 Roomies! 

 All rockin the white tees

 Catherine and the cool mosaic lookin wall. 

Abi and I couldn't resist taking a picture

He is Not Here for He is Risen

One of my favorite spots so far was our trip to the Garden tomb. The spirit there was incredible. During our walk to the tomb there was a mini riot in the street in front of us. We were shepherded to the side by our security guards and didn't see very much. Its strange that things like this will happen yet, I still feel safer here than in Provo. We are protected everywhere we go and the security guards are like our temporary dads. They really do care and get over protective of us at times. But the garden was beautiful and peaceful, basically a little piece of heaven on earth. My favorite part was when we got to sing some hymns. Everyone turned around and listened. The spirit was radiating through out the garden. I was grateful to go to this place and remember that the most important part of the Crucifixion was the Resurrection. I feel like there is so much emphasis spent on his suffering and less on what it was all really for. I know that he lives. He suffered for me and you so that we could be resurrected and come to live with him again. The beauty and glory comes from the end of the story, his resurrection makes it so that we can receive all our heavenly blessings.  

This is the rock face that is believed to be the place where Christ was crucified. If you look at the picture you can see the eyes and the nose. 

 Me, Sarah and Jaelyn 

 The entrance to the garden tomb

 My favorite scripture. Shows that he lives so we can live

Part of the tomb

Jerusalem Overlook Field trip

Every Monday we go on a field trip. We see different places all over Israel that have to do with what we are learning in our Old and New Testament classes as well as our history classes. 

 Me and Katie at a beautiful Jerusalem look out 

 Nabi Samwill (made in memory of Samuel)

 Bethlehem Over look 

 Inside a Synagogue 

 Me and my girl Mikel :) 

 Me, Cal, and Amy at the Bethlehem overlook

Some basic tombs :) 

First Day Out On My Own :)

So Sundays are basically the best days ever! We have the whole day off to do whatever we want to. The first Sunday we went off with a small group to the Western Wall and then the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. They were two must sees :)  

This is my pal Allison. We are singing buddies. I have never met anyone whose voice blends better with mine.  

 The Western Wall -in case you didn't know by the sign ;) 

This is just a picture of the troops outside of the Western wall. I just liked the lady with the Hot pink umbrella who looked like she was talking into a walkie talkie and commanding them.  

 This is the Western wall (incorrectly known as the Weeping wall) It was so inspiring to see the worshipers and their devotion. It made me want to be more faithful. I know there are so many ways that I can improve.   

 Touching the Western wall

 Looking down at the market place of Jerusalem 

 The place in the Holy Sepulchre where they believe Christ was prepared for burial after his crucifixion 

 Western wall

 The prayers in the wall. I wrote my own and placed it in

 View inside the holy Sepulcher.  

 Place were some believe that Christ was buried

I loved the light beam coming in through the window