Preschool

I have wonderful news! This semester I'm helping teach at the preschool on BYU campus! I absolutely love it! The little boys just melt my heart and the girls are so darling! Ill keep you posted as the semester goes on, on all the adventures I have with the 4 yr olds 

Condoleezza Rice at BYU

Condoleezza Rice focuses on foreign affairs at BYU - ksl.com

Mt Sinai

May 20... Yes yes i know what you're thinking? ages ago... well I was brave today and decided to attempt to use my computer which has all my pictures on it, it has been having a really hard time working. Anyways, on to Sinai here's my story:

So at 2:15 someone knocked on my door telling Erin (my cute roommate during Egypt) and I it was time to get up. So rolling out of bed i slipped on my shoes, i was all ready dressed lets be honest 2 am? We grabbed out flashlights and water bottles and slipped out the door to meet up with everyone for hot chocolate by the buses. It turns out the hot coco was defiantly a  let down, I guess they just havent figured out the secret recipe yet.

by 2:45 I was at the base of Mt Sinai looking up into the darkness at the billions and brazillions of stars! It looked like someone had taken a paint brush and just wiped it across the sky! I couldnt stop looking at it. It actually started to be a problem, it's just a little hard to walk on a rocky trail in the dark while star gazing... Im just i didnt get hurt or run over a camel! The whole way up the trail there were camels to give the faint hearted rides. There were just a few things that I didnt like about the camels:

      1. They smell horrendous

      2. They were really big on the small trail, if you werent                  careful you might get squished by ones going up and others coming down.

      3. I got really sick of being asked if i wanted a ride
      4. They are NOT very comfortable to ride
      5. I was scared of getting spit on
However; good news I got past the camels and to the giant staircase that leads to the summit of Sinai! We got up there just before sunrise and sang hymns it was magical. After hanging out on the top for awhile and getting pictures we went down a little ways and had a class testimony meeting! I got to bare my testimony where Moses received the 10 commandments and during the time the Children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness he went up 6 times to talk to God. Pretty cool if you ask me! 

Sorin' over Mt Sinai 

Matthew Judson Kennedy and I 

Watching the sunrise over the Sinai Wilderness... breathtaking

What a great hike! Loved it!

Me, Maddie, Chrissy, Lisa
Just watching the sunrise I love these girls!

Happy 4th of July!

Today I spent the 4th not riding on the Miss Orem float in the Provo parade like i have the past 2 years; but in Tel Aviv, Israel on the beach with 26 of my friends! Does life get better? We came back to Jerusalem had a BBQ, with a decent rendition of apple crisp and vanilla ice cream, a "carnival" where I wasted Katie Packer in a bobbing for apples competition! and to top it all off sparklers! So no we didn't celebrate with massive fireworks like these (it's not Israels Independence Day...) but I feel like it was an overall success! I just hope our country can keep it together long enough for my kids in 20 years to have the chance to celebrate our countries freedom.... enough said. 

I hope you all had a marvelous day filled with picnics and fireworks! The only thing that would have made it better would have been if my family was here to play with me! I miss you guys! 

Quote of the day:

This week is finals at the Jerusalem Center fro Spring term. Ive studied for my Palestinian and Judaism classes so much today that i feel like my brain is melting... really messy... Well I was reminded of a quote I read while I was at Oxford a few years ago touring with my family. It illustrates my feelings at this moment beautifully.

The more I study, the more I know
The more I know, the more I forget
The more I forget, the less I know
So why study?

-Oxford University, Oxford, England

Happy studying :)


PS.... The stashes are still rockin' it even though the US is out.. hummm maybe the World Cup was just an excuse to show their manliness...???? I think yes. Also, Ive now officially cut my 2nd Euro-mullet... another World Cupism {pictures to come}{they look good!} 

Cheetah vs Tortoise

Dear Timmy Howard... Please dont let the Uganish team score any more goals...

Nearly all 80 of us (in the study abroad group) are crammed in a room watching the World Cup game! There is a lot riding on this game, a lot of "hair" you could say. Some of the boys have grown mustaches since the beginning of the World Cup with the plan to shave them when the US gets beat out. It would be really awful to wake up tomorrow with clean shaven men. mostly because it cracks me up to hear the girls complain about it.

Stacey brought on a interesting conversation comparing the US and Ghana... She said "I just imagine the players like animals playing each other..." We were all intrigued and wanted to see what animals she was imagining on the field. Stacey: "Ghana are all like cheetahs cus they are so fast... Im still working on what we are..." so after a few suggestions (tortoise, horses)... Blake a beautiful blonder surfer from Cali yelled "Golden Retriever!"

Im really excited to see if the Golden Retriever can oust the Cheetah, and if my men will have stashes for a few more days

Bible Box

My really good friend Mike Eddington (sweetest guy ever) gave me the beautiful idea of creating a Bible Box... I talked the olive wood carver Jimmy into making me a box with "Jerusalem" carved on the top. The plan is (should be self explanatory) to put things in the box from the stories of the Bible to use when I teach my "unborn" children or in primary or heaven help me Relief Society.... 


So far I have gathered the following items:

* Davids Sling {rocks included}

* Myrrh

* Shepherds Flute

* Shells from the Red and Med Seas

*Sheckles

*Leaves from Garden Tomb and Gethsemane

* papyrus 

*Pot shards from tels {archeological digs}

(i know I still have a lot to gather)

Things I plan on tracking down:

* Oil Lamp

*Olive Oil

*Widows Mite

*Ram Horn

* Mustard seeds

I plan on finishing it up after Galilee.... Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Feast of Camel!

Two days ago I went on a dangerous journey. about a week ago I received an email from a dear friend and fellow student at the Jerusalem Center inviting me to go get camel meat with a group for lunch in a few days. This was the PS of the email:

P.S.
I did a brief search on Wikipedia and discovered that one danger of improperly inspected camel meat (specifically the uncooked liver) is the bubonic plaque. Therefore, as a courtesy to the rest of us, please refrain from ordering uncooked liver. Other possible diseases are as follows. Camel is also unclean under Mosaic law and will render the consumer unclean upon consumption. Purification rituals will be held upon return to the center on an individual basis.

OIE List A Diseases
Foot and mouth disease
Vesicular stomatitis
Rinderpest
Rift Valley fever
Bluetongue

OIE List B Diseases
Anthrax
Aujeszky’s disease
Echinococcosis/hydatidosis
Heartwater
Leptospirosis
Q fever
Rabies
Paratuberculosis
Screw-worm
Bovine anaplasmosis
Bovine babesiosis
Brucella abortus infection
Tuberculosis (M. bovis)
Dermatophilosis
Haemorrhagic septicaemia
Theileriosis
Brucella melitensis infection
Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia
Equine encephalomyelitis (Eastern and Western)
Trypanosomosis including Trypanosoma evansi

Other Diseases of Concern
Epizootic haemorrhagic disease
Borna disease
Melioidosis (Burkholderia pseudomallei)
Salmonella Enteritidis
Salmonella Typhimurium DT 

No big deal right? I instantly saw this as a challenge to not get sick so I added my name to the group. The next thing I know I get an email from the Director the of the Center send an email saying that they didn't want it to be a center planned activity to go eat this dangerous meat and that they did not support us going.... so being obedient we called off the trip.

The plot thickens... our dear Student Body Pres, Nate, decided to get a few of us who really wanted to go to take the daring trip down to the little cave where they serve camel. I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to be infected, so I enlisted in the secret camel lunch. 

There were 13 of us who went, (an unlucky number to begin with...) the restaurant looked like a hole in the wall but once you went inside it opened up to a cave like room with the table about a foot off the ground and couches all around. Im not going to lie I was a little bit of a lot excited nervous. The first course was petas with humus and some yummy yogurt that looked like sour cream or sour cream that tasted like yogurt.. we couldn't figure out what it was.... Anyways after we wiped them out the first of three rounds of camel was served! They cooked it 3 different ways so the first was brought out in a clay pot, it was super hot, and poured into a big dish. It was like a roast with the meat, potatoes, and carrots. it was so tender and delicious! Round 2 was ground up like meat balls with some intense spices on a skewer. It was good but not my favorite... and round 3 was supreme! It was cut into pieces and put on a skewer and grilled. It tasted like Tuchano's! 

I am happy to report that I am still alive and if given the chance I would eat camel again.