Just a few days later...

Well we've really done a lot in the past few days, but I guess I've just gotten out of the habit of blogging cause I sure haven't in a while! Maybe what I should do is just give a summary of events, and list some of the highlights, then I can continue my "regular blogging habits" and keep you all updated a little better! So the last time I blogged, I believe, was the political t-shirt day so...here we go!

1. Pools of Bethesda (Thursday): This was pretty awesome, its the site where Christ told the man who had been waiting by the pool to be healed to get up and walk. What an incredible miracle! The ruins looked really legit, which is cool cause most stuff here is just a church built on top of a supposed site. The grounds surrounding the pools were very well groomed, and the church of St. Anne that was at the same site was really beautiful as well. Wandering around with Jeff and J.J. was a lot of fun because I got to know them both a bit better, and lets face it, who wouldn't want to do that? I'm pretty sure the best activity was when we all decided to freeze in front of a group of tourists. It was pretty hard not to smile or laugh, but we pulled it off well. The next most exciting thing was throwing rocks in to an old cistern - it was pretty dark so we couldn't really see how deep it was, but the rocks sure fell for a long time! (Oh, and that picture is of SNOW! I know it's not Utah snow but...it's Jerusalem Hail/Snow)

2. Talent Show (also Thursday): So I was a little nervous about this at first because people were hesitant to sign up, but it turned out to be a GREAT show. There are so many talented people here, and it was awesome to be able to see them show that off for everyone. Talent shows have always inspired me, and so after this one I decided to make some goals for myself. One of the things I did with this was make my own "Bucket List" (I know it sounds cryptic but it's actually awesome). Goal #1 SKYDIVING. Don't worry, I remember I'm afraid of heights, it's just something I'm gonna have to get over.

3. Friday the 13th (Friday): Basically I don't need to go in to all the details about this day, because it really was kind of cursed! But it started off with Miriam spilling a LOT of toothpaste on herself (a lot sounds better than a little regardless of the true story), and then somewhere in between Moon happened to misplace a box of...give or take...20 brownie pastries, while at the same time losing her Diet Coke and getting some green makeup instead of black (trust me, it's a big deal). The redeeming event of this day was our Freaky Friday the 13th dance party. (I know...we sure do have a lot of dance parties, but if they're awesome you really can't hold back!) It was supposed to be a Valentines Day Dance, but lets face it - who wants one of those? This was lots better! Moon was the expert for all of our make-up, and she made us look pretty dang creepy. I was Joker from Batman (if you can't tell), and Miriam was some creepy doll thing. (IT?) Moon rocked the dead Indian look...and if I could go through everyone else I would cause there were some awesome costumes. Anyway, it ended up being a pretty good day



4. Shabbat (Saturday): I can't ever really say anything bad about Shabbat because they're always awesome. Sacrament meeting was sweet as usual, and then after all the girls noticed they had surprises on their door steps! The "JC Gentlemen", as they termed themselves, bought all the girls roses! Sweet huh? We thought it was pretty awesome. So after all the commotion from church meetings and flowers settled down, Miriam and I went downstairs to visit one of the service couple missionaries here, Brother and Sister Thomas. Sister Thomas used to be in the General Young Women's Presidency for the church, and we really want to learn as much from her and Brother Thomas as we can while we're here (and everyone else of course, we just decided to start here), so we asked them if we could come visit before dinner. They graciously agreed and so we got to visit with them for a while about how we liked things here, and some of their past experiences. It was really a great "Sunday" activity! That night we had a pretty good Valentines Ward prayer, in which several people got singing Valentines. The highlight of that had to be when President Allen dipped his wife and gave her a great Valentines Day kiss! We had a great game of signs going after that - you can never go wrong with JC signs! (That pic is Apartment 410 delivering Valentine Candy to the guys!)

5. Shopping and Touring (Sunday): So...yeah...I'm still pretty bad about this (don't worry Dad, I'm trying to budget better, and I'm getting better at it too!), but...basically this morning Miriam, Whitney, and Priscilla decided to go to Aladdin's to get some money for the next few weeks, we were running low on "sheks" (as we term them), so we set out for Aladdin's and then decided to stop by the t-shirt shop in the Old City. I probably mentioned this place before, but it's worth mentioning again so I will. It's htis awesome place where you can get t-shirts that have just about anything on them! You can pick the color and then the color of the logo, and voila! He makes them for you on the spot. We definitely have too much fun here. We had to hurry back to the center for the next event, so we ran back home - barely making it up the hill to get ready for the next event!

6. Ringing the bells at YMCA Tower (Sunday...again): About a week ago Emilie asked me if we'd like to join her and her roommates to go play the bells for all of Jerusalem, about 60,000 people, accompanied by Brother and Sister Squires. We agreed and were really excited about it, but then the day we planned for fell through because we had a schedueling change with classes. We re-scheduled for yesterday, and it was a good thing because this has been one of my most favorite things since! We all got to practice with a partner on an organ off to the side (only getting one run through), and then we were to play the bells for everyone to hear! It was pretty nervewracking, and kinda hard to get used to! Emilie and I made a great team, however, and I'm sure that no one was disappointed with our rendition of "Ode to Joy" (at least...I'm pretty sure that's the song we played!) Afterwards a group of us wandered through the city, stopping at some famous hotel...the name escapes me, I'll look it up later, and then to some Windmills and an Art Community. We meandered back through West Jerusaelm and finally got back to the center with a couple new skirts and a few pounds heavier from brownie pastries. Oh! And we also visited Omar this day, which was pretty neat - he's the man who does the incredible Mormon Olive Wood carvings you've probably heard about associated with Jerusalem. I'll try and post a picture or two once I pick one out! The rest of the night was spent studying for Ophir's quiz in Judaism class...ugh...

7. Ophir's quiz in Judaism class...ugh...(not to sound redundant ;) Today): So this was pretty much awful. It's ok though, I'm getting over it because you know what?! I'm learning! I just wish I had an awesome pic to post on here of my score like Chelsea does - good thinkin Chels!

8. Lounging around (Also today): So after that I basically...well...I wish I could tell you what I did! I think my brain needed a little bit of a breather, so that's what I gave it! (Don't know if it was the best choice or not, but regardless, that's what I did!). I took a nap, read a little bit of a book, called Dad...talked with some kids around the center - it was pretty great. Then after dinner we had FHE, which was awesome because it consisted of a great spiritual thought (provided by Team Start and the "Quote Book"), and then watching Anastasia and singing along! What a great family I have here - we always have lots of fun!

But basically that's been what's going on! I'm sorry I haven't been very good about updating, I'll be sure to keep on that and umm...I hope you're all doing well!