I adore/love/cherish my roommates.

I have been so lucky with roommates this year. Fall semester my roomies were the bomb.com, and we had a blast. This semester, I've been equally lucky. We make up a very eclectic group. Very eclectic. But somehow, it just works. We have dance parties all time, stay up late talking and doing each other's hair, and watching episodes of "The Voice" (which y'all should start watching too!). Anyway, this post is dedicated to my roommates and some of the fun things we've done these past few weeks.

During our finals week, right before we left to Turkey, we were swamped and stuck in the Center for far too long. Thus, we decided we should celebrate later in the week for all the hard work we'd been putting in. Concencus on the best place to celebrate: West J at the Waffle Bar! I've never been particularly into waffles, but these are seriously the best. waffles. ever. My waffle had white chocolate chips and chocolate whipped cream (so good), as well as a heaping side of ice cream. De-li-cious.

My waffle! So. Good.

The roomies and I outside the Waffle Bar

Janae and I- her with her delicious pizza and me with my waffle

We take any chance we can get to celebrate here, and thus, leap year was no exception. To celebrate it here we had various activities, including an iPod dance party and a giant steam roller in the hall at midnight. Additionally, we used it as an excuse to dress up (because we're always on the lookout for those...). The idea was to switch identities with another person. Many students dressed up as professors, but we decided to switch things up as roommates. Even though we woke up a little late, we managed to pull it all off pretty well. I dressed up as Lee, Lee dressed up as Sarah, Sarah as Janae, and Janae as me. It was a blast, and everyone was impressed with how much we looked alike.

Janae, me, Sarah and Lee... or should I say me, Lee, Janae, and Sarah... :)

The cowboy hat on Janae gives it away... Oh, to be a Montana girl... :)

Finals was crazy stressful. When we finally made it through, we wanted to have a little fun, or at least something to look forward to. So, as roommates, we instigated "80s Day." It was the first day we've been able to sleep in all semester (which felt so good) and then with an extra hour before lunch we did our hair and makeup (limited clothing didn't really allow for dressing up as well). We rocked the 80s like no one's business. My hair was glad to finally get a chance to show off. ;)

Lee, Sarah, Janae, and Me

And again. Popped leg... yes.

Janae and I, rockin' on.

Probably the only picture I have where Sarah's not making a face... :)

Roomies! Love her.

"Forbidden Love"

Holidays in the Center aren’t like holidays anywhere else. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be here for Fall Semester, and celebrate Labor Day, Halloween, and Thanksgiving here. We experienced our first holiday away from the states on February 14^th, Valentine’s Day. We celebrated in the ways we could. Most everyone wore red and pink, and Sarah and I cut out hearts which she decorated and put up all over our apartment. The faculty handed out heart-shaped suckers, and we listened to purely love songs (of the country persuasion) while in the apartment. That Friday, however, we had our Valentine’s Day Dance. As stated various times before, dancing is kind of my thing, so I was pretty psyched.

Roomie pic before the dance!

The theme of the dance was “Forbidden Love.” It’s an inside joke of sorts for the Center. Dating within the Center is against the rules here, both so that we can concentrate on our studies, and also so things don’t get awkward with breakups and whatnot. This makes for a lot of awkward “almost-relationships” around the Center among the students here that aren’t otherwise committed. 

Bonnie, me, Sarah, Lee, Grace, Janae, and Loie

Me, Becca, Sarah, and Lee

The dance itself was a blast. Almost everyone here loves to dance (I think it’s a BYU thing in general, and it’s only exaggerated among the JC students), which makes for a stellar party. Wesley DJ-ed for us, and thus we had sweet music all night long. Sarah and I sometimes danced “dance-off style”… which happens basically every night in our room, but this time, there were other people to notice. More than once, we ended up being surrounded by everyone, yelling, as we went hardcore for forty five seconds or so. Way fun. We’ve now heard more times than we can count “woah- I didn’t think you guys could dance like that,” which is either flattering or slightly offensive… we haven’t decided which yet. Haha.

Halfway through the dance- Madison, Me, Amy (up above :), Becca, and Loie

Janae, Becca, me, and Sarah

Wall pic- haha. Becca, Sarah, me, Janae, and Lee

The best part of Valentine’s Day, however, was getting Valentine’s mail!! Both a Valentine from my diligent Aunt ‘Reen’ who’s sent me a Valentine every year since I can remember, and a package from the ever incredible Mitch. With plenty of Valentine’s candy and even Justin Bieber valentines. :) 

Thus, I had a most lovely Valentine’s Day, even though I couldn’t spend it at home.

Seder Meal

We had an early Seder Meal, or Passover Dinner, with our Judaism/Israel teacher a few weeks ago (yes- I'm now playing catch-up). We went through most of the traditional activities, including the whole ritualistic/symbolic dinner—bitter herbs and all. I remember doing a Passover meal of sorts in Sunday School nine years ago or so. It was fairly short, and all I could remember was eating weird foods without much understanding of the symbolism behind the activities. This time however, it was nothing close to short, and I understood each step. We did most of the readings in English, but occasionally Professor Yarden would read the material in Hebrew. All the songs we sang were in Hebrew too, which helped the authenticity feel of it all. 

The book we used and the place settings

In any case, I’m grateful that I’ll now have a picture in my head every Passover when I imagine how other people are celebrating their tradition.

Our table for the Seder-- Daniel, me, Cameron, Brother and Sister Graham, and Crystal

Right after the meal- Annaliese, Crystal, me, and Codi

After the meal with Lee and Travis. Rachel Huntsman had just said something really funny, hence the odd expressions on our faces

After the meal, however, we had to get back to work. The next day was an Old Testament midterm, and there was still much studying to be done. Especially when there’s this many “A” and “J” names to know about… in addition to everything else:

Neot Kedumim Field Trip!

A couple of weeks ago we went on a “Bible Experience Field Trip” to a Biblical Land Preserve. In other words, it’s 620 acres of land that has plants that would have been around in the Biblical era. This led to some kind of neat explanations, such as Adam and Eve’s use of fig leaves to cover themselves. We compared fig leaves to leaves of other plants that they most likely would have had at their disposal, and wound up at the conclusion that fig leaves were by far the biggest of the time, and thus would have been the most practical to use in their tailoring.

We also got to make our own hissop (Hebrew word) or zatar (Arabic word). It’s a spice here that’s used on tons of food, especially bread. We played “ancient people” and smooshed the leaves into a thousand pieces… possibly more. After this, we moved over to another part of the preserve which largely resembled Birch Creek (imagine for just a second how homesick that made me). We then made dough for our own pitas (awesome!), and lit some fires to cook them on. As soon we lit the fires it felt like a giant camping trip. The only thing that could’ve made it better was some good fishing.

Smooshing hissop! Yum!

With the pita dough! Me, Madison, and Jen

Putting the dough on the hot pan! I actually really miss cooking here... Pathetic, I know.

However, the thing I was looking forward to most in this trip was the promised “sheep herding.”  I'd been really excited for the herding for a while, ever since they told us that it would be part of the "experience." I was more than ready to show off my well honed sheep herding skills. For some reason, I guess I was picturing some beautiful mountainside scene, reminiscent of Scotland or the sorts, where we'd be taking hundreds of sheep down into a lush, green valley. You can imagine my reaction when we found out that we would be going in groups of twenty to herd four sheep and four goats from one circle to another. Not exactly what I had been picturing. Regardless, I did my thing, and it was pretty fun. Another feather in the Montana-girl hat.

Standing with the... multitude of sheep and goats

We found this sign that said marriage straight ahead, so we followed it. However, I remain unmarried. Lies.

Fake crying with Danielle's giant bunch of myrtle. Putting it above your bed is supposed to bring wealth to your life. I have a little spring on my corkboard here, but, again, no luck yet.

We ended the day with hearing from a Torah scribe telling us about copying the Torah. It was fascinating.

Two Fridays ago we had another Humanitarian Activity. The first time we did our humanitarian activity we made 800 school kits for local children. Additionally, we had a totally rad dance party, both while, and after, assembling the kits.

This time we were assembling hygiene kits. We had a goal of assembling 1500 in the two hours of the activity, in order to get us on track to beat the previous records of 10,000 total kits assembled in a semester. With this goal in mind, we made kits like no one’s business. I was rolling toothbrushes in towels so fast that my hands were literally chaffed by the end of the activity. We took no breaks, and our dancing was definitely tamed. Our line in particular was flying—we created an eventual backlog because the second groups couldn’t keep up with us. But, in the end, it was so worth it. We made a total of 3400 kits! Those other semesters ain’t got nothin’ on us.

That night we watched Alladin for our “Friday Night Movie.” I had forgotten how great of a movie it is. It’s particularly more enjoyable now though, having lived in the Middle East. I was able to identify with so many more of the jokes. Like when Genie says, “Wake up and smell the hummus!” …oh, like the hummus I have almost every day here? Or when the shopkeepers are trying to get Jasmine to buy their products; that’s literally exactly what they’re like. Super pushy, and selling products you don’t need for prices that are far too high. Dad would love the bargaining here. :)

That Sunday was another free day. We started off by attending an Armenian Orthodox service. Except that service isn’t exactly the right word, or, at least, it stirs up the wrong picture in the mind. A group of fifteen or so young men stood in the middle of the chapel and did call and response with the priest while everyone else sat in the back. The song/chants were almost hypnotic… or maybe that was just a side effect of the strong incense. Either way, it was a beautiful service and we enjoyed the foreign nature of it completely.

Outside the Armenian chapel

A close up

After the service, we embarked on an adventure to find good food—the best kind of adventure, in my opinion. We wandered around the Jewish quarter for half an hour looking for a donut place we had heard about, before talking to a British Jew selling candied almonds who told us that the donuts were no good. He did suggest a little bakery called Marzipan though, so we made our way there. After deliberating between various tantalizing treats, I settled on one of the best cream puffs I’ve ever had. We then left to wander some more of the Jewish quarter, before heading back to the Christian quarter to get some hummus that our Arabic teacher suggested. And wow, was it good. It had a different texture than any of the hummus I’ve at home, or even here for that matter. It was ridiculously smooth and flavorful, and the fresh, hot pitas we got to go with it only made matters better. 

The delicious pitas and hummus

In the restaurant

Devouring pitas

We then wandered some more around the Christian quarter, before heading back to the Center. On our way we were distracted by a man advertising milkshakes. It was a fairly warm day, and a milkshake sounded just like what we needed. We decided to split a large between the three of us, and I was more than happy to pay 5 shekels for my share of a milkshake. Or at least I would have been, if it had been a milkshake.  The liquid we received, however, was straight chocolate milk. The foam on the top did make it appear as if he had, quite literally, given our milk some shakes… making it a milk-shake of sorts. We were happy for the refreshment nonetheless.

Awkward picture with our "shaken milk"

Road sign to "Mormon University"

All the locals here call the Jerusalem Center Mormon University

Later that day we went to Hebrew University to upload some pictures and get some school supplies. This turned out to be more of an adventure than we had bargained for, however. Hebrew U has two book stores- One with textbooks, and one with school supplies. We found the one with textbooks, but after ten minutes or so of wandering, we decided to find a map to help us find our way. Well… we found a map. And if anything, it just confused us more. The only part of the sign that was in English was the title. Another way of saying that would be that the least useful part of the map was in English. While we were trying to decipher where we were even just standing on the map, we heard two students walk behind us speaking English. At this we all whipped around and proceeded to chase them down to ask where the book store was. We had significantly better results with this method. It was such a helpless feeling though to look for something and not be able to find it, and moreover, not being able to do anything about your helplessness.

Sarah and Becca looking clueless next to the useless map

City of David and Hezekiah's Tunnel!!

The sixth of February we went on our field trip to the City of David and Hezekiah’s Tunnel. It was a chilly day, and we had to leave the Center at 7:30 in the morning, but we made the 15 minute walk to the oldest part of the city in good spirits. When we arrived we sat through an informational video. Most of the “informational videos” we watch at these sites are really corny and seem outdated. This video, however, was great. It was in 3D (and good 3D, at that… not the silly red and blue glasses kind), and pretty exciting.

On our way to City of David (quick note: I didn't bring my camera on this field trip, for fear of it falling into  the water, so all pictures are stolen from Huntsy (aka, Papa Hunts, aka Dr. Huntsman)

After the video we were pretty psyched for seeing the city. We walked through the remains of the City of David, which have been taken care of fairly well. They were more extensive than I thought they would be. They looked pretty similar to the multitude of other ruins we see on a regular basis, but a few of the places we saw were places that Christ actually would have walked. The added significance definitely brought these a notch above the regular rocks. :)

Our OT class, with part of the City of David in the background

After the ruins, we proceeded to Hezekiah’s Tunnel. The tunnel is about 1750 feet long, and at sometimes only three feet or so wide. There’s anywhere from six inches to two and a half feet or so of water running through it at all times as well. Being a cold day (for here, at least…) we weren’t particularly looking forward to drenching ourselves in water. However, once we got in, we found it to be way more fun than we were expecting. We pushed thoughts of flash floods out of our minds, and wandered through the channel, which was manmade in under Hezekiah's rein, around 700 BC. It's mentioned in 2 Kings 20:20: "And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?"

 For the first five minutes everyone had their headlamps on and flashlights out, but one by one, we all extinguished our lights in favor of complete and utter black. This prompted a lot of sudden grabbing of arms, and subsequent screaming, which added to the creepy ambiance. Of course there was also plenty of bumping into the person in front of you, uttering apologies, and then going slow with your arms stretched ahead of you to avoid the problem, only to realize you’re now 20 feet behind them. In any case, it was quite the thrill, and we all had a great time. By the end, with our pants soaked three-quarters of the way up our legs, we didn’t even realize we were cold.

After coming out of Hezekiah's tunnel--notice how soaked (and yet how happy) we all are.

Sitting on the steps by the pool of Siloam

We finished off the day at the Pool of Siloam, where Jesus sent the blind man to be healed in John 9. This is one of the few places where we can actually say, “I walked where Jesus walked.” A lot of the city of Jerusalem is built up ten or fifteen feet from where it would have been two thousand years ago, so though we’re walking “close to” or “directly above” where Jesus walked, it’s not quite as effective as sitting on some steps, singing hymns, knowing that Jesus had sat where you were. It’s mind-blowing, actually. Sometimes I think it’s hard to realize that Jesus was, at one time, a man. Or at least for me it is. We read stories about Him countless times, sing songs praising Him, and pray in His name. But to take time to actually picture Him, walking around, just like you or I—that’s a powerful image. He’s not just some idealized character. These stories took place, on Earth. They really happened. He really came. And thank God for that.

Videos!

Some quick videos that I finally got a chance to upload! :) 

This first one is from the hotel in Jordan where we had our impromptu dance party. This video doesn't accurately capture the best of the dancing, but I was a little busy during those moments...

This next one is from our Palestinian folk dancing clinic after our Arab Night dinner. At this point most of the organized dancing had broken up and we were just jammin' to the Middle Eastern music.

And this last one is a guilty pleasure that hopefully Annie and Slavy will appreciate. Lemurs galore!!