Jordan!!!

So a few days ago we got back from Jordan! I absolutely loved going and seeing what there was to see there! Jordan was one of my favorite places ever! Petra was incredible! I dont have a ton of patience to write today so I am going to insert a part of the email that I sent my family after I got home from Jordan! Then I will put pictures up!

Well, lets see… my life the past few bits. First off I have a new favorite song lauren and Michaela and actually I think everyone would like it… its called clockwatching by Jason mraz. Love it. Anyway… I left to Jordan Monday morning very early. We hung out that day and saw a few things like Mt. Nebo and such, and then we went to our hotel and got Turkish baths… wow… that is a story I can really only tell you the full detail in person.. be excited for the explanation haha. Then I just went to bed. We woke up and left at like 6:30 in the morning to go to Petra. Wow is all that I can say about this place. I had no idea that it was going to be that cool. Honestly, WAY cooler than the pyramids and Jordan is a much more fun country than Egypt. Like Egypt was cool, but I was just anxious and paranoid the whole time, things in Jordan were a lot safer, cleaner, and the culture was just more fun. Petra was truly an incredible experience, although it costs more than Disneyland does for a ticket! Freakin nuts huh?! But when you guys do come to Israel, hopefully ill be with you ;) but Jordan is a must. That night Karlee, Ricki, Kate, and I went and just walked around Amman, the capital city, which we had driven to earlier that day right after Petra. The next day we went to a Roman town by Amman called Jerash and walked around and then saw some gladiator, chariot races and random weird things but it was pretty fun! Then that night a group of us went to the Mecca Mall which is this huge mall in Amman, but its not really a touristy place so it was fun because it was a legitimate Muslim Arab mall, I loved it. We had so much fun, I haven’t laughed that hard in a really really long time. Then Thursday we woke up, saw a few random sites, but by that point we were all so done with site seeing that most of us were zoned out completely the only thing that I really paid attention to that day was the baptisimal site on the Jordan river, which isn’t really the site, but whatever.You cant get too much closer to where the site would have actually probably been because it is in war territory haha. But ya, it only took us 2 ½ hours or so to cross the border which was really nice and then we got back and I love being back at the center! Haha It really does feel like home which is really nice. It is just home living with 78 of your best friends having everything pretty much taken care of for you. I love the feeling of living the easy life waking up, having breakfast ready, not needing to really get ready, walking 10 steps to class, 10 steps to the next class, lunch is ready for you, then you can hang out in your room or in any of the hang out rooms, and then dinner is ready for us, and then we hang out, we have a gym in the building and a library, and it just makes life great when you can stay in this building for weeks without leaving and everything you could ever need would be here.

the pictures: first one:my best friend here Karlee and I showing our attitudes towards shopping in an alcove that was once a shop... shes excited, im bored out of my mind

second one: me, judd, karlee, nate

third one: jake, me, and nate and kate at a mosque where i had to wear that robe :)

fourth one:is of my friend ramzi and i in front of the monastary at Petra where he surprised me with a kiss haha

Galilee!

So once again it has been forever since i have updated this and i am sure i have like lost my followers but i dont have time to write. maybe i will get back on and do it soon. But here are some pictures of me at the sea of galilee. one of the greatest places i have been. it is gorgeous and it was some of the funnest 10 days i have ever had. :)

The left picture is my good friend jake and i overlooking the Mediterranean sea at caeseria!

This is one of my best friends Karlee and I- you cant see us well on purpose. she got ready that day and i didn't. haha. gorgeous sunset though....

ill write and put up more pictures later but i have to go practice our dance for the talent show tomorrow night! Peace!

LOST

I have dedicated 6 years of my life to watching this tv show... and I have not wasted a second of my time. I was really nervous that I would not like the finale, but gosh was I wrong. A group of us here love lost and are obsessed, so we ordered pizza and had cookies and had a party. We watched the recap which i thought was good, then watched the 2 hour finale. I do not want to give anything away to those of you who have yet to watch it, but i will advise you that it will be one of the best things you ever do.

I definitely lost about 20 of my best friends when the show ended though. I have grown up with them and I feel like I really do know them and then all the sudden they wont be there. I am really upset about it. But after the finale, not one of us said a word for about 4 minutes straight as I wiped a few tears and my friend Lauren wiped a billion tears, we felt so happy. I was at one hundred percent peace and it honestly made me feel so good inside. I am so happy that it turned out with a good feeling. After we watched we talked about feelings for about 2 hours. It was Lauren and I's rule that there was to be no analyzing, only feelings talk. We all felt very complete and very satisfied. I loved it so so much.

The Past Bit

Okay so I know I haven't written for a while so here goes a quick overview- i will skip egypt for now and come back to it later.. right now we are going to focus on my amazing past 3 days :)

Friday:

Okay so Friday happened. And it was great. Friday is the day before Shabbat or the sabbath, which means you need challah bread, or sabbath bread. So we went to west Jerusalem after we finished our service project at the center. There was a small group of us that tried to get over there before things closed for shabbat. We got amazing bread, smoothie type things, and then walked around for a bit. Overall it was a great few hours. After I upload photos to my computer tonight I will have to add some, because it was so great. We then just walked around the Old City and talked to some shop keepers but mostly just bought gummy candies, the candy i live off of here. haha When we were back right out side the gates of the center were a handful of Palestinian boys dancing. It was kinda folk dancing and stepping together. We danced with them for about 40 minutes til we were so hungry we had to leave them. They were teaching us dances and stuff. it was tight. Then the best part of the day happened.. LOST... after this I will make a whole post about that. :)

Saturday:

Fast Shabbat. And it is a forced fast here whereas the cafeteria doesn't serve lunch or dinner. killer. But it was a really good meeting and relief society also was very good. Right when church got out and our home teachers left we went to the Garden of Gethsemane. The easiest path to Gethsemane is through Orson Hyde Garden. It is a really pretty place, but it is really secluded. My roommate and a few other people got mugged there about a week and a half ago. So it has been off limits, but we got to go yesterday and they had our sweet security guys stationed the whole way through it was awesome! Gethsemane is always a great experience. We stayed for probably a little over an hour and just wrote in my journal and read. I love being there, it has such a great spirit about it.

A few days ago my friends and I met a family that 3 of my friends had met before. We hung out with the family and talked to them for a couple hours and they invited us to their cousins wedding. We are not allowed in East Jerusalem past sundown but we tried anyway to get permission and they turned us down. But a few of our other friends went and met them too and got invited and so finally we got clearance. I went to a Muslim marriage ceremony!!!! It was so much fun! We were the only non-Muslims but it was so much fun. The girls were in one room and the boys in another. They all loved us. The kids were playing with us the whole time and we were up dancing also. It was such an amazing experience.

Sunday (today):

Sunday here is like saturday, weird I know. A group of 8 of us woke up and left the center at 6 in the morning and went to mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It was a cool experience. Then we looked through the church for a few hours and felt where the cross aparently was in the stone and saw th slab of stone Christ has been said to have been laid on. After that we went to West Jerusalem to the outdoor mall and had crepes for breakfast where I made friends with Aladdin who works there, it was alot of fun. Then we went to a very Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community and went inside an Ethiopian church. Then we went to the YMCA bell tower and were able to play the bells. I played "Nearer My God to Thee" so the whole city of Jerusalem could here it was awesome! Then we went to King David's Hotel, which if i ever come back here I will stay there, its awesome! Then we went to East Jerusalem to exchange money with Aladdin Jr, my favorite person, and then to Omars to look at olive wood. It has been a long day and now I have a lot of homework before dinner in two hours plus I am dead. But being here is great and I love every second of it. Its starting to go by fast and I am just kinda freaking out. haha

Egypt!

Okay so I dont have time right now to write about Egypt, we got home late last night and I have incredible amounts of homework to do before Tuesday when classes start back up so I will just post a few pictures :) Hope everyone is doing great! Shout out to Brooklyn who just got married a few days ago, and Emily Reynolds who got engaged about a week ago! love them both so much!

In class!

So I am sitting in class kinda bored, 2 hour classes sorta kill me, i just get very bored very quickly haha it is bad but whatever. haha lets see, yesterday we went to Jericho and were able to see alot of pretty cool things there, it was a good time, it was a little rushed i felt like but it was a good time for sure. The people here are great and we always have so much fun. there is so much more homework than i ever thought there would be, but i usually just play anyway- i read my scriptures, so I figure ill get blessings for doing that much :) but i cant justify studying hardcore in the Holy Land, there is too much to go see and do, it is almost overwhelming. We leave for Egypt in 2 days and I am very excited, but very nervous cuz none of us want to get sick. We're going to buy packaged food tomorrow so that we do not get sick while we are there. But it will be so much fun. Yesterday at Jericho we went on a hike dealio up to a monastary and i honestly thought i was going to die i was sweating like crazy. and then we found out it was only in the 80's and in Egypt it was 103 in Cairo and 113 in Luxor, so ya, then we all started to kinda freak out. haha so we'll see how it goes, but im sure that it will be a great time. I am loving my time here, it seems like we have been here forever in some respects, its amazing how fast you get to be friends with people when it is forced upon you haha. but it is good and there are great people here so it is great. We went to the temple mount and went up to the Dome of the Rock, it was so much fun, it really is a gorgeous building. My friends didn't go so they wanna go again tomorrow so i think im gonna go with them and check it out again while we buy stuff for Egypt, i think i need a hat. I fought my mom on it for a long time so i have a running baseball hat that I love, yet I might still die with the heat, so if i can find a cheap hat in the city tomorrow consider it bought regardless of what it looks like haha. but love you all rock life for me at home!

Pictures!

So i am terrible with technology as we all know so my pictures became one post and me telling you what is in the pictures became another!! the second is a sweet shepard and jesse and i on a hill that overlooks bethlehem, the next is jesse and i at the nabi samwil, and then the garden of Gethsemane, have fun! love you all!

Cameron!

Here is a picture of Cam and I on the Old City Wall on Sunday, it was such a fun trip!

Geography Field Trip

Today we went on our first field trip, it was a geography field trip to get oriented with how Jerusalem and all the land around it is laid out. It was a good time that is for sure. We saw Jerusalem from a few different look out points and were able to see places from a distance that we will never be able to go because we are not allowed in the west bank except for a quick day trip to Bethlehem later on in the semester. We also saw where the Jews claim Samuel from the Old Testament to be buried, or atleast that is where they pay their respects, even though we know for sure where he is buried. It was cool to see the Orthodox Jews paying their respects there. It was cool to see everything so far away but in one setting, like we could take the map in our bible of the Holy Land during Jesus's time and turn it the way we were facing and be able to point everything right in front of us. We also were able to sing in one of the only German churches in the Jerusalem area, it was a cool day.

Yesterday we went into the city and walked along the old city walls that are around the Old City and ended up in the Jewish quarter of the city. We went then to the Western Wall, girls on one side, guys on the other. So far, that has been my favorite thing that I have done, and it will be a hard one to beat. The feeling was incredibly peaceful there. Even though I am not Jewish, you could tell that it was a sacred place regardless. We each wrote a prayer down on a piece of paper and went and stuck it in the wall and sat and just pondered for a few minutes. It was so cool to see the Jewish people so actively worshiping at the site of their old temple, it was cool how important it was to them.

We also walked around the old city for a bit, talked to some shop keepers, exchanged money with my new friend Aladdin and his sons and brother who we talked to for a long time. They even gave my friend Ashely a bunch of things because they found out it was her birthday! It was so much fun, my friend Jesse and I promised to go back lots and visit. We also stopped for a few minutes at the church that is now on the site where Pilate and the people condemned Christ to death. That was also a place that was great to feel the spirit at. We sat down and read a few scriptures and we actually found out that that was a very probable place for the story with the 2 women fighting over the baby and they are told they each get half in the Old Testament, took place. So it was a cool day yesterday!

Sabbath!

So today is the Sabbath here and we went to church overlooking the old city and all of Jerusalem. It was really cool that while i was taking the sacrament i was able to look over the beautiful city. It was an incredible experience. First off, I have met this really cute boy... his blog is www.cameronclarkbrown.blogspot.com. Please check him out, I checked him out and he's way fine. I've got it real bad Michael Jackson.

Anyways I have been having a great time and I hope to be engaged by the time a leave. SO EXCITING!!!!

Landed!

Oh wow... so today, or i guess the past 2 days have been crazy. Like I might die tonight from exhaustion. I had a flight from salt lake to new york and then from new york to tel aviv. Getting dropped off by my parents for the first flight wasn't exactly what you would call enjoyable, it is going to be hard not to be home for anything this summer. And im not exactly in a place where I can just pick up and leave, im so far away from home, and so far away from any culture I know. The first plane ride wasn't a terrible 5 hours, but let me tell you.. the 11 1/2 hour flight was awful. Like holy! Who in their right mind expects me to sit still for 12 hours?! But it was fun for the last 3 hours because 2 of my new found friends and i were able to talk to a few Hasidic Jews for a long time just about everything. They were some of the nicest guys I have ever met and so funny. So that made the last 3 hours go by quick.

Driving from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was an amazing experience. It was like we went from a modern city to an old school San Fransisco with houses built on a hillside so tall and just back in time. It is so gorgeous here. Like nothing anywhere else. The center is amazing. It is so huge and spacious and you can do anything here. Okay well i know im cutting this short but i only slept for about an hour and a half on both plane rides combined and its a 9 hour time difference so it is almost one o clock in the afternoon utah time and it is almost 10 at night here. oh and i have to wake up at 6, so im peacin out :)

Test!

This is part of my birthday this year! I dont have pictures of anything else, but the 4 of us went out to dinner at applebees before everyone surprised me with a party back at my place! So this is me, Paul, Mer, and Kevin!

2 Weeks!!! (again)

So this was the blog I was going to post a few days ago, then I changed it to tick kenzie off haha.

So I have two weeks from yesterday until I leave for Jerusalem! I just have to make it through this week of finals and then I get to go home and hang out with the family and get completely ready to go for a week before I leave. I'm getting really excited, but trying not to think about it too much, even though my best friend and roommate kenzie keeps talking about it haha. She is so funny and is really excited for me to go, so I love talking about it with her! But I have a meeting for it the day before I leave, so the 26th, which is when I figure out what time my plane takes off! Well, just thought I would write while I am studying for my finals, wish me luck!

2 Weeks!!!

2 weeks til i leave to Jerusalem! Kenzie is screaming at me right this second. what a bratty roommate.. i thought we were friends

Super Bowl

Okay so the super bowl.. who gives a crap. Just thought i would throw it out there. haha My friends all wanna watch, like how boring is watching an annoyingly long football game that i do not like either team or care who wins? The food, yes it is good. But that is all. I am being dragged to a party right now, but Kenzie and I are just going for half time and then coming home and watching a movie.. definitely the way to go. Well, I best be going to this party.. maybe I will meet a cute boy.. but doubt it haha

Time For A Blog!

Okay so i really do not know how I feel concerning blogs; I enjoy reading other people's but people say the weirdest things in them and in a way I find them sorta creepy... yet as I am going to be in Jerusalem for the summer and will have very limited communication with people, I decided I would cave and start my own blog.
Well, I am at BYU studying History as of the second. I hope to work on campaign trails and teach high school history classes while coaching basketball. I love history so much, especially World War II and American History. And basketball will always be something that holds a special place in my heart, right now I am helping to coach the sophomore team at Provo High and absolutely love it.. well all of it except not being in charge.. I swear I could run the program a bit better, but I guess I have to work up to being in charge right?! Dang it. Well I don't know what else to say about me. Hopefully the only people really reading this will know me so I shouldn't have to explain my crazy self too much!
Well, who knows how often I will update this, hopefully I will be what they call, a "good blogger" but we'll see. I just wanted to start it before I leave so people will know about it while I am gone. I hope to post pictures while I am gone and keep in touch! Loves!