Brealynn, Emily, Me, and our little friend Emma sitting on one of the walls at Herod's Winter Palace

Sunset at Tel-Aviv over the Mediterranean with Old Jaffa.

Me and Brealynn at the BYU Jerusalem Center overlook of the city.

The top two pictures of this post go with the previous post. The field trip was great and I absolutely loved going to Tel Aviv after. The beach was way fun and the sunset was gorgeous! Plus, I kind of like being able to say I swam in the Mediterranean Sea! I included the picture of Brelynn and me at the JC because I thought I would explain what goes on with the students here. I will start with Sunday. Sunday is our free day. However, it is also the day when the nursing students have clinicals from 7 am to 3 pm with the rest of the day free. Monday is when we go on our fieldtrips (which we are told we will have a test to cover all of them at the end...) but if we get home early, the rest of the day is free time. Monday night we have FHE in small groups. Tuesday-Friday we have classes. We are currently taking Old Testament (everyday), Palestine, Israel, one language class, either Hebrew or Arabic (I am taking Arabic), and an Ancient Near East (ANE) class. The nursing students are not taking the ANE class however, because we are taking different nursing courses. The bachelor student have an online class they are taking through BYU-I while us associate students get to study OB and Pediatrics with our instructor here in the center. While it is extremely time consuming, I absolutely love it and can't think of a better way to spend my time! I have found Saturday to be my favorite day of the week. We have Sabbath on Saturday, because the majority of religions have Sabbath on Saturday. It was a little weird at first, but it's great now. I decided to join the center's choir even though I am a terrible singer (I'm sure my mom and Whitney can attest to that). It has been the best decision that I have made here. The chapel where practice and have church is surrounded with windows and the seats face so that you overlook Jerusalem, similar to the picture I posted above. It is crazy to think I have been here almost a month! But I love it here! The professors are amazing, as well as are their families! I have made some really good friends and have found how easy it is to have a good attitude here despite all of the hard work we have to do. Next weekend is General Conference and we will be watching is live, so we will be watching it at night, which might be kind of odd. Also on Sunday we leave for Turkey!! I can't wait and I will do my best to keep this blog updated!! I love you all!! 

St. George Greek Orthodox Monastery in the Wadi Qelt near the road from Jerusalem to Jericho

A group of us inside Zedekiah's Cave underneath the Old City.

On the rooftops in the Old City of Jerusalem. Both the BYU Jerusalem Center and the Dome of the Rock are in the background.

I have had a very busy week and this last weekend was crazy! Luckily I was able to go explore the city some more on Sunday after our clinical at Makassed. The pictures are kind of out of order (some places mentioned will be in a different post) so hopefully everything makes sense. On Sunday I went and explored Zedekiah's Cave. It started out as a small cave that they used to get stone from to help build various parts of the Old City, turning it into a really big cave. I had so much fun just exploring and climbing all over the cave. We then explored the Old City. We spent most of our time in the Jewish and Armenian quarters, which were absolutely beautiful! We found some metal stairs and decided to go up them even though there was no sign or anything and we ended up on the rooftops! It was probably the best view from the city of the surrounding areas! There were some younger boys playing around up there. We watched them for a while jumping around and doing flips. It was really cool!
Monday, we had our Jericho field trip, which included the St. George Greek Orthodox Monastery and Jericho where we saw the site and some remains of Herod's Winter Palace and Tel Es-Sultan. At Tel Es-Sultan we saw what some consider to be the oldest man-made structure in the world, a tower that make Jericho a place dating back to the Neolithic period. Elisha's Spring was also here which is supposed to be the water of fertility (might have tried a little just because). After the field trip, the nursing students and some others were able to go spend the half the day at Tel-Aviv. We explored Old Jaffa and then ended the day playing in the Mediterranean Sea and watched one of the prettiest sunsets ever (Picture on different post)! Overall, my experience here in Jerusalem is only getting better. I feel like I am learning a ton!

Jules, me, Kara, Kaitlyn and some photo bombers sitting in a weaving hut at the Lekiya Negev Weaving.

Beer Sheba ruins

My roommate and me standing in front of the temple site inside of the fortress at Tel Arad

Our field trip this week was really cool! We first went to the Lakiya Negev Weaving. This is a group of Bedouin women who raise money to essentially teach Bedouin women different things like how to read and write, especially in Hebrew, and different skills. They give them more opportunities to further their education. Women donate their time and talents to weave rugs and other things to sale. These women were very nice to us and taught us a lot. They rugs and other things they made were beautiful. They spin and dye all of their own wool. I was also able to try herbal tea for the first time. The smell of it reminded me of Junipers for some reason, probably because I have crashed into junipers a few time and had them practically shoved up my nose, (thanks to my inability to stay on a trail while dirt biking) so the smell is familiar. However, is tasted way better!
The second picture is of Beersheba, which you might recognize from the various scriptures in the Old Testament. The excavated town, some of which you can see in the picture, dates back to 900-700 BC. I learned that when they do these excavations, they have to differentiate from that which is original and that which is remade. The common way they do this is my putting a cement line between the two. You  can kind of pick out this line in the picture below. This picture is shows the upper entrance into a huge underground system. You can't really tell from the picture but they only had to rebuild maybe a fourth of the outside upper wall (and maybe the stairs going down into to the well and cistern). This well has four chambers lined so that water wont seep through. It was quite amazing! Also, while I was standing on top of a look out tower here, off in the distance, I hear a glorious sound; one that I have missed. I heard a dirt bike!! My face instantly lit up and I whipped out my camera to get a picture of it. If you look towards the left bottom corner of the picture above you can see it.
The third picture above is of the ancient city of Arad in eastern Negev. The site contains ancient Canaanite cities that spand 128 acres with a surrounding wall. This place in literally in the middle of the dessert. They built the cities on top of a huge hill and then protected themselves with walls. My instructor mentioned in the Bible the story when spies are sent to check on the Canaanites so they could be taken over, but they were too scared because of the walls and strength they had built up. We also talked about a protection strategy found in many fortress walls. It has been found that most gates into cities don't open directly to the city, but rather, you enter a gate and then have to turn left to be in the city. It makes sense because the majority of people are right handed and if they have to turn right, they will have to stop and turn and essentially be exposed for a period of time. It's kind of interesting to think about. They found a temple site with an alter inside the fortress, including a spot for a Holy of Holies. While all of the ruins were very impressive and beautiful in a weird way, I couldn't help but get easily distracted by all of the lizards and other animals, because they were everywhere. But I had an amazing time! School is takes up most of my time, but I am loving learning about the Old Testament. There are so many things that I have never realized. I also really like our Israeli and Palestine classes. It's interesting to hear all of the beginnings and perspectives of Islam and Judaism, especially when they are compared to Christianity. It's a lot of work, especially with all the nursing but I love it! We had our first clinical and it was amazing! We work in all Palestinian hospitals, and the people are so smart and kind. Even though I mainly observe, I learned a ton! Everything is going great!

Well wall at Beersheba showing distinction line of ancient artifact and excavations.

Western Wall

On Friday night, we took a field trip to the Western Wall. The picture above was not taken on the field trip because we went at sundown, which is the beginning of the Sabbath, so pictures are not allowed. I took this picture on a visit earlier this week. But I want to talk about the field trip. We took a long walk to Western Wall, and even though it was the evening, it was rather hot (I'm not sure I'll ever get used to the heat). I really admire the people who live here because they are champs when it comes to the heat. Once we got to the wall, we were given opportunities to go up to the wall which is completely open to visitors. The women are to go on the right and the men on the left. You can kind of see the separator in the middle of the wall. At the wall, there are millions of tiny paper of prayer of past visitors and worshipers. I am learning very quickly that it is very easy to feel the spirit pretty much anywhere. It was amazing to think off all the prayers that had been said here and the faith that had been displayed. It's comforting to know that such faith and hope exists all over the world, and especially here. I truly had an amazing experience. For a less serious note, right before I sat up to leave the base of the wall, one of the lovely Pigeons on the wall decided to give me a departing gift which splattered on my finger and skirt. I think the Pigeon wanted to make sure that I remember this experience fully.
Today we took a trip to the Garden Tomb. It is one of the most beautiful gardens that I have ever seen. I hope to have pictures very soon, because I will be back there a lot. It is a very peaceful place in a very busy city. I also love the emphasis that the caretakers and tour guides of the garden make that while this may not be the true tomb in which Jesus Christ laid, but the fact that Jesus Christ died for us and rose again is true, and that is what really matters. 

Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount

August Victoria Church

Reagan, Me, and Lauren, standing on the Mount of Saint Elijah (Javal Mar Elyas of Herodian). The city behind us is the city of Bethlehem which lies in the Western Bank. Just to the left of this area not in this picture is the area where Ruth lived.

This last Sunday (09/08/13) I was able to visit the beautiful Temple Mount and stand by the Dome of the Rock, the second most holy site to the Muslims. This Dome is absolutely breathtaking with amazing tile work all around the building. On Monday we took our first field trip to places surrounding Jerusalem to learn geography mostly. We looked over Jerusalem from the Seven Towers Hotel, the Augusta Victoria Tower (there are lots of stairs in this tower by the way, but very worth it), and the Tayelet (south of Jerusalem). We also stopped at Jabal Mar Elyas of Herodian which overlooks the city of Bethlehem and Nabi Samwil from which we could see Tell el-Ful. Tell el-Ful was under Jordan's control from 1948 to 1967. In 1964, the King, Hussein started building a palace here, but was never finished due to Israel gaining control of the area. The palace remains there unfinished. There is so much to tell. I think one of my favorite things is looking out and turning to a scripture and learning that the event of that scripture happened at the place I am looking at. For example, and this might be a bad example, but when we looked out over Jerusalem from Tayelet, it is probably the same view that Abraham had when he first saw mount Mt Moriah before he journeyed there to sacrifice his son. Even though it might have not been the exact spot where Abraham stood, but it really makes the story real. This man really loved and trusted God that he was willing sacrifice his one of his most precious things because God asked him to. This place is just amazing. A week ago, I don't think I could have understood how amazing the experiences would be and that I would be having them everyday (even with the food, because its amazing!) I love it here!

This is the view from my apartment terrace. This picture doesn't do it justice at all! The gardens here are full of rose bushes and pomegranate trees. Also if you can see on the left the tiny gold spot, that is the Dome of the Rock. It looks a lot bigger from this view in real life.

This shows part of the wall that surrounds the Old City of Jerusalem. Just to the left, not in this picture is Jaffa Gate.

Theses first couple of day have been amazing and I have already had some amazing experiences. I have been out into the city twice, once on a small group tour walk around and once with the two lovely ladies in the picture above and one of their uncles. All the sites and people I have seen so far are amazing! There is so much knowledge and history here that I hope I can learn as much as possible. Our schedule is pretty busy but I am loving it so far! We have our first field trip on Monday and I will hopefully have something wonderful to post!

Finally in Jerusalem!

Hello from Jerusalem! We finally made it to the Holy Land today! The long flights, interesting airplane food and the loss of feeling in my legs for about six hours became instantly worth it the moment we came over a hill and saw for the first time the city of Jerusalem (I'll take pictures as soon as I can!) It got even better when we arrived at the BYU Jerusalem Center. This building is amazing! I cannot believe I am going to be living here for the next few months. My school schedule with the nursing clinicals is pretty crazy, but I know it will all be worth it! I hope to get some pictures up soon, but for now you'll just have to trust me that this place is truly amazing!