Israeli Dancing

Tonight was really nice....we did a bit of Israeli dancing.  A man came and led us in several dances and then ended with some Macarena.  I think I'm gonna have to do a bit of this at my wedding one day.  ha ha.  It was sooo fun.  I'm kinda sick right now and so I was a bit off, but I just couldn't stop.  We did a big circle...then we'd come running into the center and do a little shimmying out....ha ha.  Dancing does me a lot of good.  It helps me to relax and get a bit of spunk out of my system. 
Last night we had a Seder dinner, a traditional Easter dinner and it was really neat.  I was in one of the singing groups.  We all had a little story book of the Exodus that we read throughout the night.  They had us do a ceremonial silent hand-washing and also eat flat bread and bitter herbs.
We have a few finals next week and we'll be starting New Testament.  Last night our assignment was to read 23 chapters in the Old Testament... oh wow.
Today was also Lisa, a faculty member's daughter's birthday.  They asked us to help paint nails and do hair.  I loved looking around at these cute 10 year-olds who were glowing as a college girl was curling their hair. 
We're going to go to the Holocaust Museum this week and so we've been studying all about it. We also learned about the dedicatory prayer that Orson Hyde did when he came here back 1841.  He dedicated Jerusalem to be built up again as gather place for the tribe of Judah and for a temple to be built here.  The Orson Hyde Gardens (that's the official name that it is recognized as) are just a few blocks from the Jerusalem Center.  It was a really incredible class.  It makes me want to dive into church history.

Hope all is well.  Feel free to write me.  -Synth

Adventures in Jerusalem

Primary Hide & Seek-- Our closing activity.  (I hide in the cupboard and they all wanted to join me.)

Katie & I...She's adorable and I visit teach her

Pomegranate/Orange Juice shop...lovin' it

Cute kids from the Galilee Primary--they're the entire primary

The deck of the chapel in Galilee...the Sea of Galilee behind me

Sweet sisters in Galilee

In front of the Chapel in Galilee- with Kels and Brock

Armenian Cathedral

Getting ready with the roommates....Kels is gonna kill me for this...love the clip in her hair

Definitely herded these goats and sheep

As I was posing for the picture, this lamb walked between my legs

The Shephalah

David's Citadel

Cute Palestinian friends

Visiting a sweet woman who has lived in the Old City her entire life (She said I look like her husband...ha ha)

Feb 4^th, 2011  (I forgot to post this)

This week has been a lot of catching up with homework.  Last night we were assigned to read 23 chapters in the Old Testament for one of our classes.  It’s been a really demanding workload but I really enjoy the things we study. 

So tonight I helped to host a jazz concert here.  I got to welcome
everyone and take their tickets and I FELT LIKE A SISTER MISSIONARY AGAIN and it was soooooo fun!

We also had a “Girls’ Night” and like 40 of us crammed into a room full of bean bags and way too much estrogen.  It’s really fun to have a million spunky girls talk about crazy dates and guys.  Ha ha….I’m back in the college dorms again!

Tonight is Arab night and I signed up to cook with the chefs for a
few hours. I felt really good today.  I got some
exercise and got up early after getting some good sleep.

Feb. 19th, 2011I also taught Sunbeams today.  I set up the room as a maze with all the chairs and then put my headlamp on Jacob and he had to lead the rest of them through the maze.  It was a lesson about how God created Night and Day.  Then I acted out what I do before bed and when I wake up...they were entralled by my miming talents.  :) 

I just got back from a neat tour of some houses in the Old City and we met with some elderly people.  It was really neat and I want to go back and visit them.  It was like the mission, they loved us.  One old lady that singled me out of the group and said that there was something about my eyes that perfectly reminded her of her belated husband and she sweetly said that she hoped that I would live up to that because her husband was a wonderful man.  I'm just gonna take that as a compliment... ;)

Palestinian Kids :)

After lunch I studied for about two hours and then joined a random group of students go to visit a Palestinian family that they had gotten to know.  They live right across the street and Lawrence has been trying to help them fix their window.  The little alley ways with connected homes totally reminds me of Uruguay.  When we got there a few of the kids started asking us our names.  I responded by saying, “Shu Esmek?” Which means, “What is your name?”  (To a girl)  They taught us some phrases and then wanted us to go play games with them.  They were soooo cute!  Only one of them spoke English very well but we kept teasing them and giggling with them about how we couldn’t pronounce their names.  Their names were, “Hallah, Mahmud, Muhammad, Aheh,  Ahkmad, & Nisreen.  They wanted to play Duck Duck Goose, but only half of them knew how to play.  Ha ha….so when it was Hallah’s turn she said, “Duck Duck Duck DUCK!”  and took off running…Akmad, our little interpreter said, “She means Goose!”  So then we’d chase them down the alley way, around their mother, under the clothesline and back.  It didn’t matter if we’d caught them or not, we’re rotate.  Ha ha.  It was so genuinely joyful to sit on that dirty alley floor and take pictures and then learn clapping games.  One of the clapping games had a cute little song, “Ameerka, Europa, Espana Peri (Paris)!” 

They were so excited to practice English with us and their parents liked that we were playing with them.  They were around Sam’s age.  Then they brought us to the playground that sits at the bottom of the Jerusalem Center and all the little kids swarmed us. It was just like being at the park in America except that all the mom’s were wearing their head scarfs and we couldn’t really understand these adorable bright-eyed kids. 

We played hide and seek, tag and all the clapping games.  We tried memorizing more name, Rah-af, Muer, and Miriam.  They were totally making my little friend Victoria fly up so high off the teeter totter.  It was way better than going into the city.  One little girl told us that she’d come back next Friday to play with us again.  Everytime we said we were about to leave and said, “Marsalami!” (Goodbye) they’d rope us into another game.  It was probably one of the best days I’ve had hear.  WE INTERACTED WITH THE PEOPLE!  I almost died laughing at one point when I was “it” while playing tag.  I was right in front of all their mothers and little Mahmud ran in front of me and so I went to tag him and instead totally spanked him on his bottom…whoops!  Luckily I’m in Israel, had I been in America, who knows what kinds of court cases we’d have had.  I didn’t mean to and hope all the mothers didn’t see.  Ha ha.

Now I’m back to the center for some more long hours of studying.  This Islam take-home mid-term is like 15 pages of writing…dang! 

Speaking at the Sea of Galilee Branch in Spanish

Can life get better than this???.... I dare say, it cannot.  Uruguayos (2 sisters) saints at church, Sacrament Meeting over-looking the Sea of Galilee, yummy lunch after and bonding with the members.  It was seriously such a wonderful day. 

On our way to Galilee this morning they pulled us off to do a security check.  I laughed with my roommate Kelsey while they armed men examined our vehicle and said, "Wouldn't our families and friends just get a kick out of us if they had a bird's eye view.  We're in our dresses, heading to Galilee, chilling in the middle of no where in the West Bank.  Three of us students got special permission to go there with one of the district presidency members.  He would have been driving there anyways and wanted some spanish-speakers to come with him.  We all gave short talks in both Spanish and English and then Kelsey and I sang, "A Child's Prayer" in Spanish.

One the wall behind the podium are 4 different hymn page numbers for the opening hymn.  Everything lesson was taught in English, Spanish and Hebrew and the Sacrament prayer was done first in Hebrew and then in Spanish.  It was so neat.  These saints really touched my heart!   They treated us as honored guests and gave us a million hugs and kisses.  I was battling all the sisters in Relief Society to slow down and so I could translate for them.  A passionate latin sister would raise her hand and then go off on a complicated tangent for 5 minutes and not let me translate until the end.  ha ha....I felt sooooo at home and like I was an Hermana Missionary again. 

I got kinda sick on the way back as we wound up and down through the hills on those narrow roads....and then pretty much only wanted ice cream for dinner.  ha ha. 

If anyone comes to the Holy Land, they've got to spend a Sabbath in Galilee!

Shabbat Bread and Synagogue

Feb. 11th, 2011
Happy Birthday Yesterday Justin!

This morning I woke up at 4:30am to start my studies.  I’m really starting to get hooked to this whole “Go to bed early and wake up with the trumpeting Arabic Melody of Muslim’s Call to Prayer” thing.  It is so refreshing.

Today we had 4 hours of class and then after lunch a few friends and I headed out in a Taxi van to the Shouk (a Jewish Flea Market.)  While we were driving over there I said to them all, “Guys!  We are in Jerusalem, it’s raining, we’re going to buy traditional Shabbat bread and having fun with our friends!!!”  It’s cool when you realize that you’re doing something that you’ve always anticipated.  I’m learning that it’s also important to recognize the good moments while you are in them.  I sometimes wonder if in the future I’ll say to myself, “Oh, the good ole days when I was 23.”  Am I appreciating this moment?

So we got our twisted Shabbat bread and some incredible croissants.  They tasted like a chocolate chip cookie + a cinnamon roll.  We also got fresh squeezed Pomegranate/Orange juice.  We walked about 45 min. back through the old city to the Jerusalem Center. 

When we got back, we went to the Synagogue with our Judaism Professor and his little boy.  His six year old son had a little Kippa/Yarmulke (or a lid on his head, as our professor called it.)  I really really enjoyed it!  We sat by a woman who said that she goes there to pray every day.  She is in mourning for her mother who had passed away 6 months ago.  She’ll be attending that frequently for another 6 months.  She told us that in the local Jewish community a typical family will have 4 kids and that a family of 7 kids is really big.  She was so friendly, as was everyone there, and the synagogue looked like a cultural hall at one of our churches.  There was a lot of singing and praying and standing and turning.   It was fun to see all ages and types of people there, just like at our church.  I’ve come to really respect these faithful and devoted people. 

I’m falling in love with this city and the good people here.  I’m going to be speaking in Galilee in Spanish and singing in Spanish and helping with Primary!  Yay!

PS- Everyday here isn’t like this.  FYI- I’m studying a million hours a day and in class, I just don’t want to bore you all with those details.