A Walk Through Jerusalem

‘tis a lovely thing to spend the afternoon in Jerusalem. We just went out for a walk, we didn’t have any destination in mind but simply went out to enjoy the city. It was a nice way to spend our time after hours of class on end today. Hmm so much homework and so many classes, its hard to find the balance between fun time spent in the city and time spent with a text book at home. Well I enjoy what I’m learning and I enjoy time in the city so I suppose it’s a win win either way. On Sunday my friends and I are planning to spend the entire day out and I'm stoked. We're headed to the Western Wall at 4:30 in the morning to see the dawn of a Jewish holiday and then we'll go to the temple mount and after that spend the rest of the time in the Israel museum (which I hear is really awesome). So I'm getting excited about that. In the mean time I am really looking forward to Shabbat. It got cut short last week because we were flying back from Turkey, but tomorrow we have all three hours of church and a whole day that I can't do any homework :D I love Shabbat, it brings happiness to my soul :D Hehe ok it must be getting late or something, goodnight.

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The Promised Pictures

As promised these are the pictures from yesterday's Arab Culture Night. It was a really good time, not gonna lie I thought it was awesome. I didn't expect it to be so elaborate when I heard about it, but they really made it into something great. A lot of the students went out and bought clothing for the event but quite a few others just borrowed from Shabbon (the Merchant friend of the JC who offered to let me take a product he was selling and pay for it later) He's quite the favorite around here:) So yep, that was last night. Today has consisted of doing homework and ...yeah homework some more. So unless you want another picture of my papers and laptop I'll be content to leave you with these stories and pictures from last night :D

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wow, time is moving fast!

Arab Culture Night

        Hmmm my laptop died as I was posting pictures of this wonderful evening of fun. Too bad, I'll just have to tag them on to tomorrow's post. 

        Today has been such a jolly day:D I think I did really well on my test this morning, or at least I feel like I knew all the answers and put every effort into it that I had so, I hope I get a good grade. Plus I had a skype date with my man today that always makes for a wonderful day! :D and we had a really sweet Arab Culture night, with tasty local food, Arab folk dancing and even the men who say the call to prayer in the major masque in Jerusalem came to the center! T'was really quite remarkable. 

    ok off to bed, I really should have gone hours ago but I'm having far too much fun designing wedding invitations :D

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Old Testament Midterm

Yay for hour long study groups...! Oh man, I've been studying for my Old Testament midterm for FOREVER. I'm really hoping to do an excellent job on it, the class is organized such that I know exactly what is expected of me so that's wonderful, its just A LOT of material to cover and be very familiar with. I'm learning so much, I've never had so much fun with the Old Testament.  I am genuinely enjoying it despite all the work. Well I guess real learning comes with a price right? STRRREETCH well... its my bed time, I've gotta get up early again to continue studying. Wish me luck :)

        ...95!

The Walls of Jericho ...or whats left of them

JERICHO!!!

I loved this place. Ok so there's not much left of it but what IS there is really awesome. You see that tower there, the second picture down? Well its not really a tower its more like a cylindrical mound of rocks in a ditch.. yeah, THAT is very likely the OLDEST man made structure on earth! Its a tower from the Neolithic Era (see this here school be teachin me 'dem big fancy words;) its hollow on the inside and is down in a ditch because of all the cities that have been built up on top of the old cities over time. So any guesses as to how old it is? hmm so certainly before Christ so its more than 2000 years old, alsooooo when were the Pyramids built... like uhhh 3000 BCE ish? Roughly? Well guess what, its older than the Pyramids, by a long shot! This little tower you see here in this picture was built in approximately 8500 BCE!! WHAT! THATS CRAZYNESS! I cannot comprehend that, that is about 10,000 years old! Before this trip I had no idea that people had been around that long! Thanks to handy dandy carbon dating techniques (that aren't impervious to error but are certainly the most widely accepted form of dating among archaeologists) we've found evidences of  non-nomadic civilization here in Jericho that surpasses in oldness anything we've ever imagined! Ok so perhaps only a nerd like me could get so worked up over a pile of rocks but THINK ABOUT THAT! People, like you and I made a social agreement in order to have security. They organized a city and they built this tower to protect themselves from whatever threat they thought was out there. That tower has watched every single page of history turn; from Abraham the Patriarch to Abraham the President that tower has stood, quietly taking note of all the secrets we history nerds wish could be understood. If only walls could talk...

More on my trip to Turkey coming up! (its still compiling ;) tee hee ) 

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Istanbul was once Constantinople :D

I can't believe it, I'm in ISTANBUL! This the old capital of the great Byzantine Empire! This place it not like any other we've been , its such a crazy combination of the modernized west and the ancient buildings that make this place so famous. So turns out that part of cost of coming on this trip is that while we're here we get to go eat at  fancy restaurant  that they've reserved for us. Way fun! Its something that I wouldn't have chosen to spend money on  if I'd come on my own just cause its so expensive but I'm so glad this is a part of my experience here. All the food here is quite an adventure in itself. I think I'm really going to like Turkey.

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Mothers Day!

Ok I realize that this picture doesn't look at all like it has anything to do with mothers day in any way shape or form, However! This is the picture I took while calling home to wish Mom a jolly day ( even though mothers day is tomorrow for her) So this is the little system I have charge every electronic gadgets I have. Including iPods that make it possible to call loved ones:) its been so nice to be able to talk with you, it makes a world of difference to me:) thank you


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Location:Coveted Piano-less classroom