Just another week in paradise...

So I think I'll just do highlights for the week again - sound good to everyone?
1. Last Sunday (which to me always feels like Monday because we have our sabbath meetings on Satrudays...but anyway). We set out, in the rain, to an Italian Israeli Artifact Museum/Synagogue. It was kind of an odd combination of purposes for a room, but it worked out pretty well. There were some pretty old pieces of woodwork (some dated back to the 1500's), so that was pretty awesome. It was fun to wander around, but my favorite part was probably the man who worked at the front desk - I probably should have asked his name but unfortunately I didn't. He was really friendly and joked around with us a lot. Something that I've not done that I want to do more, I realized after this, is just talk more with the local people here, and learn from them. After all, they are the ones that know the most about this area, and I can learn from the culture by being in it!
2. I also bought my olive wood this week, the next day (Monday) actually. I got a beautiful nativity set that I love! As well as a statue of Christ that looks a lot like the "O Jerusalem" pose that Greg Olsen painted.
3. FHE - the same day as the olive wood actually. I have a pretty sweet family, and we decided for this week we'd play Around the World Pingpong. I did pretty well the first round, I actually got it down to where it was just me and two...or maybe three of the guys - but they got me out.
4. Went to the Princess Basma Center for Disabled children again (Tuesday), although this time it wasn't a tour, instead we were there to help the children. The only problem was that it was the last day for many of the children and their mothers to be participating in the program, so they were out in the Old City at the Dome of the Rock for the day, so that meant there were only two children left at the center. One was a young boy , I belive his name was Hassef, who was blind and had a syndrome problem as well (I think probably down syndrome). It was really sad because his mother had to be constantly holding him, he was so restless, and she also had to constantly wipe the spitup from his mouth (he had to be fed every two hours because of the rate of his fluid loss). The next little girl's name was Raneen, and she was a bedouin child who had a hard time interacting with other children. We played Legoes with her and tried to get her to talk to us, but it was pretty difficult, it was nice to spend time with the kids though, I really enjoy them a lot! I can't wait to go back again.
5. Then next day (Wednesday) we went to Hezekiah's Tunnel, which has been one of my favorite field trips so far (I think I probably always say that). We started out with a video (one in 3D!! Super cool), that showed the way the City of David looked during Christ's time, and the conversion to how it looks now. We were able to see the ruins from King David's palace, as well as walk through Hezekiah's tunnel itself. The tunnel was used to bring water from the more plentiful part of the city down to the bottom - and it collected at the Pool of Siloam. It's still filled with water and so we got to slosh through it all to the very bottom, where we talked more about the Savior and the man that he cured of blindness at the Pool of Siloam. It was a really fun experience because we talked and sang Disney songs all through the tunnel, and then we got to have a spiritual experience as well.
6. Volleyball that night, ok so we didn't really play a game, it was more like Elyse, Matt, Moon and I messing around trying to pretend like we knew what we were doing. Four people honestly isn't enough to have a full game of volleyball anyway - right? Maybe that can be our excuse. What ended up happening was Moon, Matt and Elyse spent some time laughing at me as I "practiced my hops" (in other words tried to figure out how the heck someone who is 5'3" is supposed to spike the ball).
7. The Seder dinner (Thursday) So our awesome Judaism teacher, the same one who accompanied us to Mt. Herzl, came to the center and assisted us in putting on our own Seder dinner! It was pretty long, and the food was - well - the main course tasted pretty regular but I wouldn't recommed bitter herbs on a regular basis. The best part about this was everyone got to particpate in something if they wanted to, so we had students participating in everything from singing the traditional songs, to the reading of the Haggaddah itself. I helped set up for the dinner, and then was one of the narrarators, so I sat right next to Ophir and his son, Shimei (I'm not sure if that's how you spell his name...but that's ok). Shimei was quite the character - especailly for a four year old! I was really impressed with how smart he is, and as soon as he warmed up to me he was more than willing to jabber my ear off. He told me the entire story of the Passover (complete with how much he hates the "bad guy Pharaoh"), and then had me hold up, in the middle of the program, each page of pictures from his Haggaddah to all the students at the dinner. I also had the great opportunity to take him to the bathroom...four times. Yep, four times! He had the system worked out pretty well, he'd say he had to go to the bathroom and start jumping up and down, but then really he'd just run in real quick, and go explore after - making it quite a while before we could return to the dinner! He was really smart and lots of fun too
8. Edek Refadim St. (Friday) So we had some classes and things this day, but then I was able to go with a few other students to this awesome part of the West part of Jerusalem. The reason we went was for a cute jewelry shop, but we had a lot of fun wandering around the rest of the area as well. There are a lot of neat cafe's and shops, so we want to go back when it isn't raining so hard. It was a neat discovery though!
9. Humanitarian Aid/Elder Neuwenshwander: We're lucky right now to have many guests from the church Humanitarian Aid leadership for the area staying with us - one of whom is Elder Neuwenshwander (I don't really know how to spell his name - sorry!) We were lucky enough to hear from him in a fireside on Friday night, and then again in Sacrament meeting for Shabbat! It was a lot of fun to hear his takes on Humanitarian Aid and the things that we've been doing here, as well as his testimony of the Savior. He even came and atended one of the sessions of creating Hygeine kits and boxing them - that was really neat as well. I'm really glad we've had this opportunity to serve while we've been here.
10. Bodyball!! Ok so I don't think the creation of this game was intentional - but it's pretty awesome! Basically you try to get an exercise ball to hit one of the pads that line the end of the gymnasiums, without the other team knocking it out. It's kind of confusing, but lots of fun to play. You can use your entire body to move the ball back and forth across the court, and everytime you hit it you have to make some kind of intimidating yell at the other team. Another plus is it's quite the workout! (You should ask Elyse how she likes bodyball...or maybe you should ask Bryan...I'm not really sure).
11. Studying for finals. So the way the classes are set up here, we have to take a lot of our finals halfway through the course, so we can start the next course (which builds on the last). I guess the only ones that really do that are our field trip class and our religion classes..but yeah - that's pretty much all I've been doin today! Studying for finals! I got so lost in homework that Moon even made a movie about me being lost and how worried she was! Stay tuned for more details.

So I'm headed out to Jordan tomorrow early and that's why I wanted to get this post out before I left! Sorry there's not any pics but I'll add some when I get back!