Shabbat Shalom

Last night we had Shabbat dinner with one HECK of a cool Jewish family that Rosie met a few weeks ago at Synagogue.  They were so nice, the dinner was delicious, and they were hilarious.  We were almost just being flies on the wall as we listened to them talk about Jewish politics, their Synagogue, school system, and all kinds of things.  I didn't expect to feel so close to these kids in the 2 hours we spent with them, but I was actually kind of sad to say goodbye at the end of the night.

The pictures that I'm in is super blurry, so this will have to do...

 This is from last week at the Garden Tomb before church.  One of my favorite places to sit and think on Shabbat.  We are so blessed to be so close to all these places that are in the pictures section of the BIBLE!!!

Orson Hyde Park

This week commemorated the anniversary of the Orson Hyde Park here in Jerusalem.  A few of us walked over there and listened to Jed read the dedicatory prayer, and it was really cool.  I didn't know much about it until we went, and that night Brother Judd held a short forum about it out on the terrace.

I LOVE these two.

A day of FAILS.

This past Sunday was our last free day before finals week set in, so a few of us wanted to get out for a little while instead of being stuffed in all day studying.  What better thing to see than the Dome of the Rock which closes at 10am??  So we headed off to find a HUGE tour group had just arrived, and we wouldn't be able to make it inside with enough time to look around.

THATwas fail #1.

Our lovely tour guide Jaquel, who is sweet enough to always carrying her Jerusalem Travel Guide with us wherever we go, took us in search of this huge palace in the Old City.  We walked up and down the streets asking everyone we saw if they knew how to get to this beautiful palace--nobody knew at all what we were talking about.  Interesting.  We finally come up on this green door with an old moldy apple smashed to it, and as a COMPLETE JOKE Jenessa says that was the palace!  We look up and realize that "beautiful" edifice from the picture in the guide book is what you see pictured here:

 We weren't sure what was going on because there was a school inside this "palace."  Finally Tommy realized that the last line of the site said "This palace now serves as an orphanage, and is no longer open to the public..."

THAT was fail #2.

We then made our way into the Jewish Quarter to explore because we haven't been over there much.  We came across a really old wall and a lot of other old stuff to look at.

Making our way out of the Jewish Quarter, we saw some little Jewish boys playing soccer.  Remember THIS post about how fun it was to play soccer with the Palestinian children?  Well, Jewish children are quite the contrary.  As soon as we made our way over to play for a minute, I got back handed by one of the kids and we all got yelled at.

THAT was fail #3.

This was my Jenessa picture of the day.  Sweet solos in front of random stuff in the Old City! Ha!

Later that night, there was an in Jerusalem activity to see the movie "Taken 2" because it takes place in Istanbul, which we've all now been to!  We decided to make a trip out of it and eat at this Waffle Bar in West J that we've heard raving reviews about.

The Waffles were absolutely NOT a fail, but fail #4 would have to be my killer outfit out on the town.  

One of the best waffles I've ever had in my life.  And it didn't hurt that they had pizza there too, of course...

After dinner we had to catch a cab over to the movie theater to meet up with the rest of the group.  When our sharut finally arrived THIRTY minutes late, he didn't speak a LICK of English, and started taking us back to the center instead.  Alta was an angel and did all the in between stuff on the phone with security.  The sharut driver finally found the "cinema" after pulling over twice to ask the locals for directions... (Don't taxi drivers know the city like the back of their hand?!)

THAT was fail #5.

Once we got there, the man duped us into paying twice as much as we normally do because of his jaunt around town for the past 30 minutes -- because it was our fault.

THAT was fail #6. 

We made it to the movie only 10 minutes in, and I'd say the movie was fail #7.  The coolest part was seeing all the familiar sights of Istanbul (which was actually super cool.  But dumb movie, I don't recommend it).

After a day of fails we finally made our way back to the center to continue studying for finals week (which has also been a fail).

The greatest part is that we were all cracking up the whole time, and aside from some minor exceptions, there weren't any break downs in the process.  It was a hilarious day--one for the books, as always.

Futbal

Yesterday we played some futbol with the locals.  All I can say about this is that it was one of the best things I've done here yet.  It's cool when we get to do things that make us really feel like we LIVE here, and not just here for a program for 4 months.  I also forgot how much I miss playing soccer (and actually working out for that matter... kind of).

The kids we played with were really sweet, and I'm pretty sure they made our day more than we made theirs.

Shalom Alechem

An ode to Judy:

Thank you for making my afternoons most excellent.

Thank you for teaching me the best Jewish songs on the block that I sing all through the day.

Thank you for teaching me how to say words like "Todah" and "Yom Huledet Sameach," and making me excited when I recognize them in places around town.

Thank you for teaching me a new alphabet so Jaquel can pass notes to me in Israel class telling me she'll kick me in the shins in Hebrew, and for shedding some light on the Jewish culture for me.

And thank you for not giving us F's, even though we really wanted to hoist you into the air and sing Hava Nagila to you.

Thank you for a wonderful semester--Shalom Alechem.

I really will miss learning Hebrew everyday, and spending the afternoon with this fine woman.

Can you believe we are more than half way through this program?!  I'm dying.

Sheffard in training

Today our field trip was to the Neot Kedumim Bible Reserve in the Holy Land.  Item number one on the itinerary was to herd sheep into a little circle of rocks.  You can call me a sheffard (as Urr would say) now, cause we did it pretty quickly.  It must have been all my experience with our goat Mikey when we had him... (Yeah right).

It was actually pretty hilarious cause everyone was just clapping at them like crazy people.

Next we had a demonstration of Boaz and Ruth given by Quin and Mackenzie.  We had this crazy tour guide today who used some choice words, and made us all feel REALLY dumb when we answered a question.  Luckily we all have decent self-esteem or we'd be in trouble.

And sometimes Tommy is funny and we look super casual in pictures... That's the goal, apparently.

Our field trip today was really cool.  We made our own pitas, lentil soup (Which we were all probably a little reminiscent about after Turkey Lurkey...) and we did all this over our fire that we built with our bare hands.  And when I say we, I mean that I actually didn't lift a finger in the whole process.  But gee the people who helped did a great job!  It was super cool to see how people lived life back then.  That's one of the coolest things about this study abroad -- we have hands on experiences about the topics we are learning, and it makes us feel that much more connected to these people in the bible and understand why certain things were hard.
All of these things helped us feel like we were living in Bible times.  Except for the fact that it didn't feel like we were in the bible at all. 

Bluesy One

In Center activities are great.  Paul and Michael are great.  The blues are great.

V.I.P. section for 4 shekels. But it does come with free ice cream.

Thanks to these two and the SHEKEL SHACK for being the calm before this storm that we call finals this week...

Matis

As if I didn't already love this guy's music enough, I rewatched this music video today, and I've been to almost all of the sights it's filmed in.  Tel Aviv, the Red Sea, and even Solomon's Quarry (who just makes a music video in there?? Only cool people like Matisyahu)!!! My post about Solomon's Quarry (Zedekiah's Cave) is here.  Recognize that ish?!  Sick song, sweet artist, incredible video.

It's been fun to listen to my slew of Matisyahu songs IN Jerusalem and realize that I actually understand the concepts he's talking about now.  Even better songs when you understand the depth of it!

Red Sea Snorkel-orkeling

On sunday we took a quick (yeah right, it was 4 hours both ways) trip down to Eilat to go SNORKELING IN THE RED SEA!!  It was SUCH a nice day and the fish were bitin!  But no Piranhas luckily...

And who knew the Red Sea wouldn't be red....

We have a few specials in our group as you can see in the next few shots gearing up.

Jordan's belly is my favorite in this one!  I love these people.

STRUGGS

And it wouldn't be complete without a few Jaquel and Tommy engagements, of course!

And one more awkward turtle from Rosie.

The Red sea is a beautiful place.  

The water is blue, and there are Octopi too!

(I rhyme now).

I love relaxing days out in Israel and seeing everything this beautiful country has to offer.

AND, here is the ever anticipated SNORKELING VIDEO.  And we know we are beautiful under the sea, no need to comment and let us know it.

Red Sea Snorkeling from Andrea Brinton on Vimeo.