Finals.. Finals..
Sorry for not writing in a long time. I have been crazy busy with studies. We’ve taken two finals now and I have one tomorrow and one on Monday. So, I’ll see how much of this I can get done today and I’ll send it out.
On Friday Nov 2, the day after Jordan, we had a “Saturday”. It was a free day. We didn’t have anything planned by the center for us. It was wonderful. I spent the morning messing with pictures and blogging. In the afternoon, we went to a big field and played Ultimate Frisbee. It was awesome. I hadn’t played in a long time. It felt good to run around. After playing frisbee, we had a Halloween party. I went to the party dressed as a merchant. I kept saying phrases like, “Special price, just for you”. There were some really entertaining costumes.
Lauren, Bekah, Jocelyn, Kerri, and I (aka one of the 10 virgins (there were 10!), snow white, an object that had been left alone in the airport and been blown up, Super Kerri, and a crazy merchant)
Shannon, Annie, Ryan, and James dressed up as Annie, Shannon, James and Ryan. It was hilarious!
The next couple of days passed with out too much craziness. We were all hanging around the center studying for our OT final. We took it on Nov 7. I’m not sure how I did on the final, but I got an A- in the class. Right after the final we all ran away to the Old City and were able to get onto the Temple Mount. It was awesome.
We were all so excited to get on. We kept smiling so much when we were standing in line.
(the faces you can see) Back: Rachel, James, Danny, Carlee, Sarah Wagner. Front: Me, Shannon, Jocelyn, Kerri. And Bekah.
We were able to walk around the Mount, but not go into any of the buildings.
James (the other James), Me, Bekah, Kerri, Jocelyn, and Sarah in front of Al Aqsa Mosque.
Dome of the Rock!
There were about 30 of us that made it up onto the Mount. It was a lot of fun. If I get my hands on a group photo I’ll send it.
On Thursday Nov 8, 10 of us had an appointment to see the Knesset. Sadly, our taxi driver dropped us off a little ways away from the building, making us 5 minutes late. Consequently, we couldn’t get our tour.
Rachel, Sarah, Lynne, Me, Maggie, Kerri, James, Ryan, and Ryan crying at the the Knesset.
Instead, we wandered around out by the Knesset. We found a park that had small gardens representing many of the countries around the world. We also found chess boards. We decided to play checkers, girls vs. boys. The boys used leaves and pieces and the girls used whatever we could find in our pockets.
We went wandering a little more and found Hebrew University. Our BYUJC ID cards get us onto Hebrew U campus without any trouble. So, we went wandering around campus. We went in the library and found a huge stained glass window. It was based off a scripture in Isaiah. It was beautiful.
The window has three panels (the pic only shows two). It was stunning. Just upstairs from the window was an exhibit about Albert Einstein. It was way cool. There were a number of his original documents, including letters to and from children. It was a fun exhibit.
The next couple of days passed without consequence. We were studying for our Arabic final. After we took it on Monday, we turned our focus on our next two finals. We have our Palestinian history final tomorrow and the Jewish final Monday. However, Wednesday was a good break. We had a field trip to Bethlehem.
We were going to meet some of our Palestinian teacher’s students at Bethlehem University where he teaches, but due to a few deaths in the West Bank this past week, Bethlehem U was closed for mourning. Instead we went to En Karem. A fourth of the students had been to En Karem previously, including me, but we had fun anyway. It was cool to be able to hear what our teachers had to say about the sites.
The first place we went in En Karem was the Sisters of Zion Convent. I had been to this site, but not inside the church or down the the Cemetery, both of which we saw.  The cemetery was very beautiful. One of our teachers told us of the good the nuns buried in the cemetery had done.
After the Sisters of Zion Convent, we went to the Church of Saint John the Baptist. It was a beautiful church. I had fun using my new mini tripod to take pictures inside the church (and the others we visited that day).
After Ein Karem, we headed to Bethlehem. We had to go through the Separation Wall to get there. The Separation Wall is being built by the Israelis. It is to make a physical border between Israeli lands and those the Israelis are occupying. I believe the wall is a horrible idea. It is meant to keep terrorist out of Israel proper, but it isn’t helping the Palestinians and Israelis get along. The Separation does not follow the actual border lines either. It carves deep into the West Bank to keep Israeli settlements in the West Bank on the Israel side of the wall. We were waved through the wall with no issues. I believe this coming week we are going to get a tour of the wall. It’ll be very interesting to learn more about it.
After going through the wall we were in Bethlehem. We ate lunch at a cute little place called “The Tent”. The only draw back was the cats jumping all around us. There are cats everywhere in this part of the world. They were even on Mt. Sinai. It’s crazy! After lunch we headed to Manger Square. Manger Square is the square around the Church on the Nativity. It is full of little shops. We were told by our teachers that there used to a lot more little shops before the wall went up. Now it’s harder to get to Bethlehem so less tourists come. This has put a lot of the vendors out of business. We shopped for an hour and then went to the Church of the Nativity. The church was beautiful (like all churches out here!). We climbed down into a hole in the floor to see the traditional birthplace and manger of Christ.
Tiffany, Kerri, and I climbing down into the hole.
Traditional Birthplace
Kerri and I in front of where the manger is said to have been.
After being quickly pushed through the hole in the ground. We sang songs in the church. We’ve learned to love singing in any church we can. It sounds beautiful.
One of the displays in the Nativity Church.
After the Church of the Nativity, we headed back through the Separation Wall and went to the hills looking over Bethlehem. The hills are where the shepherds of Jerusalem would have been. We ate sack dinners and then had a devotional. I played my flute accompanying 5 girls singing “O Come All Ye Faithful.” A few students read, and Holly played her French Horn (”The First Noel”). After that Brother Draper talked about the Nativity story and then we sang Christmas Carols. For all of this it was dark (the sun sets shortly after 4 these days). The lights of Bethlehem were beautiful. Sadly, I was freezing and didn’t take any pictures. We were all huddled together to keep warm. We’re all nervous for how cold we’re going to be when we head back to Utah in December. We got back to the center around 730. It was a wonderful day. I loved it.
I spent all day Thursday and all day Friday studying. In fact on Friday, I went to class from 8-1130, then went to a study group for an hour, then lunch, then a study group for 4 hours. Luckily, we then had a party at our Arabic teachers house. It was blast.
Jocelyn, Me, Kerri, Bekah, and James on our Arabic teacher’s couch. His house was beautifully decorated. We we entered the house we all realized how much we had missed actual houses.
Me, Kerri, Bekah, James, Annie, and Daniel sleeping on the couch.
My Arabic teacher, Ayman Jbara, talking to a lot of his students.
Ayman and a bunch of the students.  We had a lot of fun at his house. He is a hilarious teacher. He is always joking around. His wife fed us really great food too. It was sweet!
After the party, we studied for another hour and went to bed. It was a thoroughly exhausting day, and I spent all day studying.   One more random picture and it’s time for me to go. I need to get some more things done so that I can go to bed early and get up to study for the final tomorrow.
Me, Bekah, Carlee, Kerri, Rachel, and Tiffany and I when we were taking a break from studying.
P.S. Dad, everyone is so jealous of my conference Ensign.