Goodness it’s nearly impossible to find a spare second to write about this trip, so this is a little late. As we speak I’m writing this in religion class. Whoops sorry ‘bout it. 

So last weekend was such a G O O D  T I M E. 

Starting last Thursday night, we continued our week long tradition of have a Thursday night dance party. You know that’s my jam. It was the grand opening of the “Shekel Shack,” our little snack stand in the Jeru Center. We started the night off with some outrageous karaoke numbers. Seriously, hilarious. And as expected, a dance party followed. Boy, do we go hard for a bunch of Mormons living in Jerusalem. Everyone here, they are my kind of people.

Friday took a bit of a different route and was an incredibly sacred feeling night. We had the wonderful opportunity to go down to the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) in the Old City at sunset to welcome in the sabbath. That was such a sight to see. There’s a division that separates the men and the women, so we went our separate ways into the massive crowd of people celebrating the oncoming sabbath. Both sides were full of people singing in Hebrew, dancing, clapping, praying, and weeping. It was so cool to witness. We met lots of girls from all over who were visiting the Holy Land birthright trips and it was fun to join their dance circles and visit with them. That whole experience is on top of my list of the best things I’ve done here. 

Saturday after church was another very spiritual experience as we went to the Garden Tomb. We went on a tour, went inside the tomb, then spent the remaining and majority of the time singing hymns in the garden. The sweetest spirit was around us, and others felt it too as many stopped to listen and talk to us as well as film and take pictures of us (paparazzi, ugh daily struggle). It was the most beautiful of days. 

Golgotha

Ok, best day ever followed (told ya it was a perfect weekend). 40 of us took buses to the glamorous, glorious city of Tel Aviv. It was heaven, primarily because we spent all day on the beach (predictable California girl thing to say I know, I know). Seriously though, beautiful beaches and right across the street was the cosmopolitan downtown. We frolicked in the Mediterranean Sea, built a sand sculpture of the Old City of Jerusalem, played volleyball, bronzed ourselves, rode bikes on the boardwalk, and had dinner on the beach watching the sunset. Seriously too good to be true, but guess what, it WAS true. Granted we all got fried by the sun and probably ran the Jeru Center out of aloe, it was beyond worth it. 

Monday was field trip day again; the party just kept on going. We went out to the Negev Desert and hit quite a few Abrahamic sites. We started off going to the bedouin weaving place and admired the beautiful rugs, bags, pillow covers, and wallets that the women there weave themselves. We then visited a couple of sites, Beersheba and Tel Arad. Both were pretty cool, and to describe them let me just say there were lots of rocks. And there ya go you can picture it perfectly. 

Tel Arad

Obligatory Titanic Picture

Up next: we head out tomorrow to spend a week in TURKEY!

So a little confusing, but the Sabbath, the day we have our church services here, is on a Saturday, not Sunday, because it’s the Sabbath in Judaism. It’s funny though, even though we’re doing things kind of backwards by going to church on Saturday and then playing on Sunday, the Sabbath feels exactly the same as it does at home when I go on Sunday. Highlight of the day was definitely going to the Garden of Gethsemane where Christ suffered the Atonement. It was about a 20 minute walk from the Jerusalem Center, which is so cool to be able to just stroll on down there at our leisure to visit and feel of the spirit that’s there. Definitely a cool experience.

In the Garden of Gethsemane 

Sunday was a free day, so naturally it was spent in the city. There’s a huge wall surrounding the Old City that you can walk on top of to see all around the inside and outside of the city called the Rampart’s Walk. There’s 4 quarters to the Old City, the Jewish, Arab, Christian, and Armenian quarters. It’s so interesting to walk on around above the city seeing how very different each quarter is. Stars of David representing the Jewish quarter, tons of Arabic writing all over to distinguish the Arab quarter, and crucifixes all over the Christian quarter (didn’t make it to the Armenian quarter, too hot and sweaty at that point...). It’s incredibly diverse. Then the best part of the day: finding the absolute best hummus and falafel known to mankind. Whatever maybe I’m exaggerating seeing as it was my first time eating both of the Near Eastern cuisines, but it was SO GOOD. Pretty sure it’ll be hopeless finding anything that glorious back home. Sad. Guess that means I’m staying here forever #sorrynotsorry. After that, we roamed around the shops checking out the local merchandise, and of course, indulged in my first souvenir purchase of the trip: harem pants. You know, the kind that Aladdin wears. A solid investment and end to a day in the city I’d like to think. 

East Jerusalem

Love 'em

Rampart's Walk

Best hummus

Best falafel

Monday’s are field trip days, so we spent the majority of the day visiting different sites around the Jerusalem area that had the most gorgeous overlooks over the city, and other surrounding areas like the West Bank, Bethlehem, and a few others. I still can’t get over how incredibly gorgeous it is here. I really don’t know what it is about this place, well, yeah I do it’s Israel so it’s amazing, but it never gets old. It’s kind of bizarre to be looking out over Bethlehem while reading from Luke about the birth of Christ; not something you do everyday. Well, except for here. But ok, as glorious as all these places are to visit, it. is. so. hot. the worst part is that this is probably pretty mild temperature wise right now. We haven’t even hit summer yet. I’m dead. 

Nabi Samwil

Bethlehem

Tuesday was awful. I (and everyone else here) studied all day for a test/ had readings up the wazoo to finish for my classes. So yeah. College is hard.

After a night of very little sleep and the completion of our first test of the semester, it was time to head back to the city today. We went to this cool place outside the walls of the Old City called Zedekiah’s Cave. Huge and seemingly never ending caves that just kept going deeper and deeper. To be honest all there really was to see in there was rocks, but we made it pretty entertaining with some photo shoots and dancing. Pretty sure we might not have done anything to boost the American reputation, but it was a good time. After that we spent a while searching for a supposedly top notch shwarma restaurant, which we finally found. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the food here is divine. We enjoyed our lunch and then found a local shop owner, Jimmy, who is close with the Jerusalem Center, and he welcomed us into his shop to enjoy some shade, and pretty much just to show us around his place and get us to buy his stuff. He’s the sweetest guy, and it was fun to have him chatter on about all the olive tree wood carvings they have there. If you’re ever in the area, hit up Jimmy’s Bazaar. 

Searching for shwarma

 

Zedekiah's Cave

I love this place. 

I CANT BELIEVE I’M HERE. Seriously though, I’m living in Jerusalem for the next 4 months. No way. 

The traveling was awful. But oh boy, it was beyond worth it. Looking out the window at the Near/Middle Eastern landscape seriously looked like something out of the movies. Then, as dead tired as I was, I couldn’t help but die a little of happiness seeing the scenery we passed on our bus ride from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. And pulling up to the BYU Jerusalem Center and realizing that this is my home for the next 4 months...still doesn’t even seem real. 

Straight from getting off the bus we had an orientation in the auditorium that overlooks the city. We met our professors, the people who run the center, and the service couples who work there in various departments, but the best part was when the organist played the coolest organ solo of one of my favorite hymns, “All Creatures of Our God and King.” Just gave me, and I’m sure everyone else, the absolute best feeling. 

It honestly has never felt so good to go to bed as it did that night. But it was sorta hard because I’ll I wanted to do is explore. And it didn’t help that I have the most gorgeous view of all time from the balcony in my room (that’s right, balcony in my room). 

Orientation day the next morning. Wait, the best breakfast ever actually greeted us before that. Eggs, pancakes, fancy granolas and yogurts, plenty of breads...heaven I’m tellin’ ya. Then we got to tour our city for the first time! We walked through East Jerusalem passing money changers, fruit and juice stands, and the most 

b e a u t i f u l people I have ever seen. Perfect skin, eyes, eyebrows, mouths, and that’s all you can see on the women too because their heads and bodies are covered in wraps and layers of clothing. These people have some stellar genes. 

Then we went into the Old City, which looks exactly like you what you would picture Jerusalem looking like in Christ’s time, but with more modern looking styles mixed in. Stone everywhere, swarms of busy people (and such a melting pot), food, clothing, and souvenir stands left and right. Oh, and it smells nasty. Trash everywhere because putting it away is just not something that they do. I’ve heard I’ll get used to it, but yikes do I really want to...? 

Our last stop was the very modern West Jerusalem. Big concrete and windowed buildings, professionally dressed people roaming, plazas and shopping areas. We got some free time to adventure on the popular street, Ben Yahuda, where there were lots of more modern places to shop and eat, even McDonald’s. 

Gelato stop on Ben Yahua. We're such a good time. 

I’d like to say one of the highlights of the day was that night, but it’s impossible to pick highlights in a place like this. But that night was a blast as far as getting to know the people in our group goes. There’s 76 of us here, so we played some getting to know you mixers, but then it just got better when we decided to have a dance party. Full blown event in the gym with a ton of the people in our group. Out of control, such a good time. I love these people so much already, and it’s only been a few days. 

And today was our first day of school. Class starts most mornings at 8am, goes to 9:50am, then from 10-11:50am. Long classes, but super interesting stuff. Today I had Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern. It is definitely going to be the hardest academic semester yet; it has us all scared, cause honestly, who wants to study when we can tour around Israel everyday? 

And after class we got to do just that, tour around the Old City. It’s my favorite place so far. There is not a single square inch of where we walked that isn’t more amazing than the next. It’s too good to be true, but it is, so that’s RAD. Made for some perfect photo ops, but no photo could ever really do it justice. 

Outside the Jerusalem Center

The Old City

On the balcony of the Jerusalem Center

After roaming our city we came home to a very Israeli meal of Shwarma. Um, yes. So good. I can’t describe it other than it’s a really tasty meat. Have I mentioned that the food here is to die for? Because it is. 

Also, have I mentioned how much I love the people I’m with here? Who knew how close we could get so fast. I love ‘em all already. We had a sunset photo shoot and just bonded the heck out of each other, followed by some hilarious games of volleyball. So ya, ACTION PACKED here in the Holy Land. I couldn’t be happier. 

oh yikes that was long sorry don't hate me


OH, and each post I do here will have a spotlight on someone here at the Jerusalem Center. So here it is:

BRITTAN HERNDON IS THE BABE OF THE WEEK!!!!!

So obviously she's a goddess.  The queen of showering everyone with love, and our official photographer. 

She's perfect.