Turkey: Day 7.

Ah! Last day in Turkey. What a whirlwind!

We woke up early, and it was quite the day.

We first went to the Mosque where we got to wear head scarves. That was unplanned and brief but good.

All the girls!

And then we went to the silk market which was really cool.

After that we went to Nicea! Lake Nicea and some churches. Pretty fun.

The white shirt club!

Lake Nicea with Nicole.

Then lunch and our ferry ride! The ferry ride was fun because there was the CUTEST dog there. And it's owners were actually super nice to us because they let us take lots of pictures of it and they helped us get a good shot. Like they brought the dog over to this side of the car for us. So nice. :)

With Jeff Perry. :)

Cuteeeee dog! :)

After the ferry, we drove to Istanbul to Hagia Sofia! Yippee!

It was pretty big but not really as big as I was expecting. Mostly because nothing is that big once you've seen St. Peter's.

We took lots of fun shots in there. :) Like the best one of the trip.

Ceiling!

Inside with Charlotte (above) and Suzy, Brother Ludlow, Charlotte and Alyse (below)

Outside with Suzy!

("Carry me!")

We went to the bazaar where I got a $6 Istanbul shirt which was a steal! And then we finally got Magnum bars which were delicious! Last ones in Turkey. :(

Mary, Kaylee, Kimberly, Jared (J.J.), Me, Nicole, Shelley, Charlotte, Alyse

We had a fish dinner (not the best) and then we headed to the airport.

The flight home was obviously enjoyable. We left at 12. Flew for 2 or so hours. Got fed dinner at 1 in the morning on the plane (which was delicious as always). Landed in Tel Aviv, went through customs which was a breeeeeze. And then drove home. Getting home at 3:30 in the morning? Always good.

Turkey was the bomb. :)

(Which, speaking of bombs, there was a bomb in Turkey when we were there but they didn't tell us! Yay!)

Turkey: Day 6.

Friday, we woke up earlier than normal. And we headed out to Pumalakke. There are these super cool hot springs that turn the mountains white! It was so weird because I felt like I should be cold but… I wasn’t. My brain is so used to connecting white (snow) to coldness. And it was funny because as we were walking around to see the surrounding ruins, there were hordes of people coming in in their swimsuits. Haha But yeah, it was a cool place (and we might’ve gotten a little bit tired of all the ruins but it wasn’t that bad). And there was a necropolis there which was the biggest ancient cemetary in Asia. It was enjoyable especially because Fatih was there being our strange guide. Like he would call us hobbits. Definitely good times. Haha

Snow!

Me, Charlotte, AnnaLeah, Maryanne, Jessica, Cali

Maddy and I being zombies. Obviously.

Kathryn, Fatih, and Maddy being zombies.

Then there were a nice little bus ride (aka like hours long) and we stopped at a grocery store/mall to get a little snack to tide everyone over before lunch. Since they made us wait like 8 hours in between meals.

(Notice Nick and Rachel's eye in the behind us.)

Bus Bonding Fun.

We then went to Thyatira (Rev 1:11). That was pretty funny. It is in the middle of the city and people thought we were quite the spectacle. We were only there for a short little while (like 10 minutes) haha but it was great fun.

Elyse, Whitney, Brielle, Me!

Then we had more bus ride! Wooo! Definitely some good bonding happening there. Haha we then got to our hotel which was hands-down, the best of the trip. We had a short little Sacrament meeting which was really good and then we showered in our amazing shower that had shampoo, body wash, CONDITIONER, and other random bottles of liquid. Haha we got 5 legit bottles where at most hotels we had barely one, two if we were lucky. The hotel also had super comfortable beds that were bigger than normal, slippers and robes in the shower. It was heaven. Haha such a good way to end the week. :) We just hung out and used the interwebs and got all rested up.

The hotel! Yes.

Turkey: Day 5.

Thursday was what I would call the Day of deja-vu. We woke up at our normal time and got all packed up and ready. And then we left for Ephesus. It was fun before we left though to see all the cruise ships come in (all 5 of them!) It was a little ridiculous.

Anyway, we headed to Ephesus and somehow we ended up super far behind the Hunt’s group which turned out to be okay. But we beat lots of the cruisers there but by the end, it was Disneyland-packed. It was a little boring being there a second time especially since Fatih didn’t really share any knowledge.

In front of the famous Library with Charlotte and Kaitlyn. Excuse my crazy bangs that are blowing in the wind...

Flip open to your Bible pictures.... look familiar? (Robin and I in front of the theater)

BUT the one exciting thing that did happen was that Kiptyn and Tenley were there. For those of you who don’t know, they were on the TV show, The Bachelor/ette. So we stalked them a smidge and then we got a picture with them. They were SO nice and friendly. I would totally be friends with them. It was funny though because she was wearing a BRIGHT orange dress so we could always spot her in a crowd from a distance to know when they were going to be coming near us. Haha Ephesus was pretty cool though, just not as exciting as the first time.

Then we went to lunch and then to the Temple of Artemis. Which was also not as exciting as last time. Mostly because it’s just a pillar and Fatih didn’t enlighten us at all.

After that, we drove for a little while and then we went to Miletos. This was actually a lot cooler than I had anticipated. We had to go on this hike through the wilderness to find the temple but it was kinda interesting to see how untouched it all is still. And of course, we got more ice cream. :) Always makes the site better.

Theater in Miletos.

Following Miletos, we had a loooong, rainy drive. We got to our hotel just in time for dinner! Delicious. There was our whole group plus this whole group of French people at the restaurant. It was funny because the people were acting like they’d never seen Americans before. And our hotel was pretty nice. Plus, they had a hot springs pool so we went and hung out in that for a while (although I seriously thought I was going to suffocate because I hate hot water).We played the fun fact game with Brother Ludlow, which was fun. It was a fun night, minus the hot water situation. hahaha We also tried to use the internet but it wasn't doing hot so we just went to bed instead. That's always a good part of the day. haha

Turkey: Day 4.

If you haven’t already guessed, the theme for our trip in Turkey was driving in the bus. On Wednesday, we did a lot more driving. Haha we woke up early and drove for a while and then stopped at Assos, which was super cool. Probably one of the coolest places we went because it was overlooking the Aegean and it was so untouched. We took pictures for a while and played up there, which was fun.

And then we drove again. For quite a while. In fact, we drove so much that at about 12 (noon) they stopped for us to get some snacks because we would be driving for at least another hour and a half. Haha they’re such jems. So we obviously got some delicious cookies. :) And most everyone else got themselves a Magnum.

After that driving, we then stopped at lunch! Wooo! Although they made us eat kinda fast because we were on a tight schedule. We then headed up the road to Pergamum which is this ancient acropolis high on a hill. The fun part about it was that we got to take a little gondola to the top. The not so fun part was that once we got to the top, it started pouring on us. And there was lightning and all that jazz. It made the experience memorable, that’s for sure. We hurried through all the sights while we were getting soaked and practically blown over from the wind (and there was so much dust blowing into our eyes!) But yes, it was an experience. And then on the way down the mountain, there was so much fog and we couldn’t see anything and our little gondola just stopped. And some people were kind of freaking out but I thought it was kinda fun…. So yes, that was an adventure. :)

Dry on the way up. (And look how you can see out the window!)

Wet at the top. This was maybe 15 minutes after arriving at the top...

On the way down. Soaked. And look how it's all foggy outside. Plus we're steaming up the gondola. (From L to R: Jessica (my JC roommate), Me, Charlotte, and April (my Turkey roommate).

After that, we drive, drive, drive. And at one point we hear this big thud so we pull our little bus over and we check it and the teachers all get back on. We thought nothing was wrong with the bus. About 40 minutes later, they stop at a rest stop because apparently our tire blew (and I guess they were waiting for something…?) So we got to use the bathroom (which was seriously SO needed) and we also got some ice cream treats (also much needed). We then kept on driving until we got to our little hotel in Kusadasi.

(Side note, when they were taking my suitcase off the bus, it feel over into the nasty road mudpuddles and so my suitcase was all wet and muddy… :( and it still has dirt dried onto it...)

We got to “freshen up” before dinner and then after dinner we attempted to walk to a cute little lighthouse by our hotel but it was in an secured area and thus we couldn’t go. And it started pouring on us so we went back to the hotel and played some games in the lobby. Super fun. I went up to shower/bed but Suzy was locked out of her room so she came and hung out with us and then used our shower until her roomie got back from being out and about. And then we went to bed! Haha busy day.

Turkey: Day 3.

Tuesday was a fun day because it was a “drive and stop” day. We started the day with a 2 hour drive, stopped at a rest stop for 20 minutes and then drove another 2 hours. We then had lunch overlooking the Aegean Sea and then we boarded a ferry to take us to the other side of Turkey. The ferry was fun, of course. After the 30 minute ferry ride, we got back on the bus and drove for another 2 hours and then we got to TROY!

We played on the giant horse that they have there for quite a while… and then we went around the ruins. It was quite exciting. Especially since Fatih didn’t do a very good job of explaining anything. It was still fun though. I think we played more in Troy than anywhere else. Lots of fun pictures. :)

(I'm second from the right)

(Obviously.)

We then drove for an hour back to our hotel (because oh yeah, we passed it on the way to Troy). We got to our hotel and it was the bomb. SO good. :) They were little condos with a gorgeous pool in the middle and they all overlooked the ocean. The best. We went for a little swim in the pool for a while which was good bonding and then we played on the pier and had a bonfire/dance party on the beach. Seriously, such a good night. J This was probably my favorite day of the whole trip except the part when my roommate went missing and I thought she had been abducted by crazy Turkish men. It turned out that she was just hanging in someone else’s room… with our key. Not cool. But it all ended well so it’s all good. :)

Ironic that my shortest post is about my favorite day. haha :)

Turkey: Day 2.

We woke up early (which by the end of the trip, I had actually gotten used to and even still). We headed to the Blue Mosque which is called that because of its thousands of hand-painted tiles that decorate the interior. It was pretty massive. We basically walked in, took a couple of pictures and then walked out. It was a short little jaunt.

After The Blue Mosque, we headed to Topkapi Palace which was where the Sultans lived and it is a massive place. The grounds are huge and there are lots of little buildings throughout. We learned from Uncle Ricky/Stevie lots about it as we went through. We saw the huge famous diamond and lots of other jewels. We were there for forever.

Next up was the Basilica Cistern which was hands down one of the coolest (literally and figuratively) things that we saw. It was a MASSIVE underground cistern that was built like a church. It was so cool. Haha I don’t know how else to describe it.

(I feel like the man on the left gives the picture good scale.)

After that, they finally fed us lunch at 2. A good 8 hours after we had eaten breakfast. Even Brother Harper was complaining about starvation at the Palace. Haha

(After lunch, Nicole was leaving the hotel that we ate at and she saw the Whitlocks. How presh. (I was already in my bus because we were ahead of the game/schedule)).

Once we left lunch, we headed to the Grand Bazaar. It was HUGE. I think they said it was like 60 streets with a big number of shops. Haha I would say a number but I know I would be wrong so just know that there are TONS of shops. It was a little overwhelming. We didn’t end up buying anything; we just took it all in.

After a little confusion about where to meet the buses, a professor getting lost and witnessing a fight between a taxi driver and some other person, we headed to our boat ride! We took a cruise down the Bosphorous which was awesome. I love boats and it was perfect. The temperature was amazing, the sun was setting and the city was gorgeous. Istanbul feels like the Eurpoean/Asian San Francisco. I loved briefly being home. :) Such a cute city.

After the boat, we at dinner at this fish restaurant which was…. Interesting. They gave us a whole fish. Like eyeball and all. And! I ate like half of it because it wasn’t all that fishy tasting. They also had anchovies on the table with our salads and people ate those. Apparently they taste like eating the Pacific Ocean. Haha just really salty. Bleh. Overall though, it was a pretty good dinner. And it was a fun table.

After that, it was bedtime for Bonzo (which apparently is a real thing! My mom used to say that to us all the time and we thought she was making something up: not so! I’ve heard 2 other people here say it and we’ve googled it… it’s a movie!). I went back to the hotel and showered and then facebooked/relaxed for the rest of the night. :)

Turkey: Day 1.

Wow, these past few days have been insane.

On Sunday, we flew from Tel Aviv to Istanbul. Our flight was super late and such but it was one of the best flights ever. It was short (like two hours) and they fed us the best airplane food I've ever eaten. Seriously, delicious. Plus, the upholstery in the plane was a really pretty teal color which was way more relaxing and inviting compared to the normal navy blue.

Good flight. :)

Customs was then also a breeze (which is normal when you fly in to most countries... most people were just comparing it to Israel though).

Baggage claim was also easy peasy. (Oh yeah, we had to check our suitcases because apparently you can't carry them on if they weigh more than 8 kg... and ours were 12...)

And that's when the madness started.

People were getting lost left and right. Apparently our class left some people at the airport so the other class took them.

Then we went to the hotel, Cartoon Hotel, which you'd think would be super sophisticated but in reality, it was Disney-themed.

It was also designed like a maze so it took some people a SUPER long time to find their rooms. Because of that, our group of 90 thought we were all present and accounted for so off they went to dinner. Except 15 or so who got forgotten, myself included. Apparently they didn't realize that they had forgotten us until a little after they got there. So a rescue team (Brother Harper and Brother Ludlow) were sent back to retrieve us. And then we got there all safe. And dinner was pretty good. After that, we went back to the hotel and went to bed because it was like 10:30 and we were exhausted.

Gobble.

Well friends,

In less than an hour and a half, I will be leaving the city of Jerusalem and heading to....

TURKEY!

So, for the next week, don't expect any blog posts (but I might sneak a couple in) because I will be too busy waking up at 6 and site-seeing all day long.

Traveling in our giant group is going to be.... interesting.

------------------------------------

I suppose that I should write a quick update about the recent happenings.

This past week, we haven't really done that much (hence the lack of an exciting blog update) but we went to classes and went to class. That's kinda all we do when we're not our on field trips.

We've also been spending a lot of time in the library writing papers and doing homework (and sometimes not being very productive....) but yesterday, we finally escaped!

Nicole, Charlotte, Eliza and I all headed to the Old City. We went to the Jewish Quarter (again) because we wanted to get some Hallah (Sabbath Bread which is DELICIOUS). But we stopped at the Pools of Bethesda first (where they let us in for free!) which was super cool. And we just explored some other churches and stuff that we walked past. And we happened upon the Stations of the Cross walk with a whole bunch of monks. That was pretty cool.

Once we ditched that after station 9, we headed to the Jewish Quarter but by this time, everything was closed because it was so close to sundown (aka Sabbath). So we just meandered around a little bit and then walked home leisurely from Dung Gate.

It was a nice little adventure.

And the Jewish Quarter is basically the only place that we've ever gone... haha that will change, after Turkey!

Yesterday we had church and then we just rested and hung around for the day. We had a fireside last night with Brother Skinner (our Associate Director of Academics) and it was AMAZING. Usually I don't really like firesides that much but it was SO good. :) And then we had a really good/fun choir practice. It's amazing singing Christmas songs while looking out the windows and seeing Jerusalem. :)

Good week! And now onto Turkey!

Bon vogage!

pssssst.

I uploaded some pictures to a couple of my older posts.

Just if you are interested and you don't frequently go back and read my posts again, I'm letting you know. :)

Also, pretend that I didn't just break the rules doing that. :)

Best Friend Bonding.

Yesterday, we had the marvelous opportunity to go underneath the Jerusalem Center.

They take us on this tour to kill our curiousity because apparently kids try to escape and they go under there and explore so they take us so we don't feel the need to go down there...

Anyway, we went with Mr. Hayat (who is the Executive Director of the JC AND my best friend (but he doesn't know that)). We suited up aka put on our awesome green hardhats and headed down to the dark abyss.

The Center is built on pylons(?) so basically the entirety of the building has a secret above ground basement that they use for A/C, water heaters, plumbing, electrical wiring, etc. It was pretty cool. And a super fun adventure with Mr. Hayat.

At one point on the tour, we get to a room (if you can even call it that) and the walls are COVERED with other students names. So we got to add our names to the wall. :) Nicole randomly found her friend Emily's name when she first walked in.

But seriously, the best part was hangin' with Mr. H. We asked if we could take a picture with him and he was like ".......uhhhh sure. Just don't do anything crazy with it like put it on facebook...." Which I'm pretty sure means I can still put it on here! Enjoy!

(Also, this picture makes me crack up everytime I look at it. Hilarious.)

What a super fun adventure. I felt like I was in a movie or something. It was totes intense.

(Also, don't tell anyone I just uploaded three pictures which is most definitely breaking the rules.... OOPS.)

"My Seminary teacher said...."

Yesterday included a fieldtrip to JERICHO!

(Which, just a fun fact, Jericho is the lowest inhabited place on the planet at 800 feet below sea level!)

We drove past the "Sea Level" marker on the side of the road (it's like a huge plaque haha) and I really wanted to take a picture with it.... but we were on a tight schedule.... sad day. :(

We went to the Tel es-Sultan (which is a ginormous pile of dirt that has accumulated from settlements from thousands of years...). At the tel, they have excavated a whole bunch of cool things including the Tower of Jericho. In some of their excavation pits, there were stairs and other random things and since we were all so tired, some crazies in our group were talking about how when you are in a discussion (i.e. argument) with someone and you quote your seminary teacher as saying something, it becomes automatically legit.

So they kept saying "My Seminary teacher said that those stairs were the stairs to Adam's bathroom." Or sometimes they would use President Monson instead of seminary teacher. It was funny.

It was also fun because we assumed that everything we saw was ancient. Especially the trash. It was super exciting to see an ancient Nestle water bottle.

Anyway, after the tel, we went to (a fake) Tree of Zacchaeus (where a vendor got REALLY mad at us.... for no reason) and then we went to Herod's Winter Palace which was cool because they don't really protect it so we could walk all through it. And sit in his little hot tub. It was pretty cool (but not temperature wise because it was probably in the mid 90's with 90% humidity. boo).

Finally, we went to the Wadi Qelt overlook which is basically just looking at a crazy dried up riverbed. And there is a crazy monastery stuck to the side of the valley wall. It was intense.

After that, we left the Judean Wilderness (look in the back of your Bible at the pictures of the Judean Winderness: that's where we were) and headed back to Jru for lunch-bunch.

Supes exciting.

Tel Aviv Adventure!

Today we went on an adventure to Tel Aviv!

Beautiful!

Seriously, that beachside town is GORGEOUS. I totes would go there on vacation. Nice beaches, clean city, cute downtown. I loved it. Plus it's Israel, which is legit.

Hahaha we left Jru at 10 am and started our little drive to the sea. We got to TA at about 11:30 or so. I don't know. But then we went to the beach and ate out little lunches (picnic time!) and then Nicole, Kelly and I decided to explore the city! We wandered around and around (and basically in circles) trying to find what we wanted. We got some (rather expensive) ice cream and ran into some of the boys who had found a wonderful market so we followed their directions and headed that way.

GOOD DECISION.

It was such a local market. There were lots of good finds.

-Treats for some amigos back home (Nallie)

-10 candy bars for 10 NIS (SCORE).

-Nicole got her Coca-cola shirt.

Basically, it was super fab. We spent a long while just exploring the city and visiting all the quaint little stores (like some bookstores) and it was super fun.

Plus we hung out with Kelly and she and Nicole are birthday buddies. Like same month, day AND year. Crazy. It was super fun.

We then headed back to the beach and we played in the water (heavenly) and sat around talking and meeting new friends which was great. It was a swell day! :)

We then headed back to Jru at 5 to be back in time for dinner.

Good day.

:)

(the only thing that would've made it better was if we didn't come home to hours and hours of reading.... booo.)

((more pictures to come.))

Festiclown.

Yesterday was SUCH a busy day.

We wake up everyday at 6:45 to get ready and then get to breakfast by 7:15 or so. We then eat before going to class which starts at 8.

We had Old Testament from 8-8:50 (Fifty minutes classes are really nice, for the record) and then we had Ancient Near East (with my favorite Brother Ludlow) from 9-9:50.

At about 10:10 we headed over to Hebrew University to get some school supplies from their bookstore. Nicole and I came home with two new Hebrew planners. Which means that everything is backwards. haha it's fun. We got back a little before noon so we made our Hebrew flashcards before going to lunch at noon.

After lunch we had Hebrew from 1-2:50 and then at about 3 we left to go into the Old City. We walked around and just explored. We had a really good group of 5 consisting of Jeff, Shalyn, AnnaLeah, Nicole and I. We got some gelato (delicious) we saw a military promotion thing at the Western Wall, we saw some old ruins and then as we were leaving through Damascus Gate, we saw this circus performance and it was SO cool.

This man and women were performing and then had this huge wheel that they would do their tricks on. It was seriously amazing. I wish I could adequately describe the amazing-ness of it but I can't. haha it was such a random occurance that we even saw it though.

We then walked back and got home just in time for a wonderful dinner. The food was delicious and our table was so fun. We told random facts about ourselves (like I can wiggle my ears) and then we told embarrassing stories and we were seriously all dying of laughter. Such good times.

After dinner, we had to go to a forum which was... interesting but WAY long.

And finally, a little after 9, we got to start our piles of reading we had to do.

Although we got a little distracted planning for our birthday surprise today (which didn't even turn out).

So we went to bed late and now I am definitely regretting that. Plus I'm behind in my reading. haha swell.

I feel like I will try to write more posts like this so that they aren't crazy long all the time.

Shalom!

J-Ru:1.

I suppose I should be better at blogging more frequently so that my posts aren't 30 years long. I will work on that.

After "sleeping" in Holladay last Monday night, we woke up at 3:30 am to get to the airport by 4:30. Which was rather funny because the airport was COMPLETELY deserted when we got there... But we got our itineraries and checked in and got to our gate where our little group of 10 hung out for far too long before our flight took off.

That flight took us to Atlanta.

Once we landed in the ATL, we got some lunch (Chick-fil-a, obviously) and then sat around again. We then got on another flight that took us to JFK.

That flight was pretty uneventful except for our connection was fairly close and that was worrisome and there was a medical emergency that they had to deal with on the flight before we could get off which made things more stressful.

Luckily, our two gate were just across the way from each other so we got off one plane and got on another.

This plane was going to take us to Tel Aviv and it was crazy. It was a super full flight and there was lots of drama. Security guards and passengers getting upset and then rearranging the seating on the flight.

Nicole and I both were assigned middle seats with me the row in front of her but luckily, there was a family that was all throughout the plane and they had three really small kids so they rearranged our whole area so Nicole and I got to sit together. So lucky. :) The flight was pretty good, we mostly just slept and rested.

Once we landed in Tel Aviv on Wednesday afternoon, we found out from some other kids on our flight that all the other students (who were flying US Air) were stranded in Phoenix. So there were only 30 of us arriving that day.

(Their connecting flight from Phoenix to Philly was cancelled so they were stuck and at first they were told it was going to be a week before they could get on another flight...)

We got through Customs and got our bags and then found our professors all waiting for us. Once we all got there, we loaded up the bus and started our journey to Jerusalem. By this point we were exhausted and not feeling good so we just drove. When we got to the Center, we got a little snack and then we went to our rooms.

Nicole and I are roommates and our two roommates were still in Phoenix which was nice because we got to decide how everything in our room was going to be. We had a little free time in our rooms and then we had a tour of the center and dinner and then brief classes (which were basically only there to keep us awake). After that, we went to bed.

The next day, we went on an Orientation Walk and then we had lots of boring Orientations and just kinda hung around in the Center.

Friday, we went to the Israel Museum (which was super cool) and then to the Garden Tomb. These were two "special" field trips that we went on because we were still waiting for everyone in Phoenix. Friday night though, the first group of 16 arrived from Phoenix and our roommate Catie got here.

Saturday we had church and then just a rest day which was nice. (More people also arrived.)

Sunday we just had a free day but since I started feeling kinda weird on Friday afternoon and it got worse on Satuday and Sunday, we just decided to stay inside and do homework (because we had a lot of reading to do). I also took a nice little nap. :)

We tried to go to bed early but when we got back to our room, we found that we had a new roommate so we had to talk to her. Her name is Jessica and she is Canadian (so I obviously love her). She's super cool but kinda shy. After we talked to her, we went to bed. Unfortunately, I felt awful last night and even though I was in bed by like 11, I couldn't fall asleep until like 2. And even then I was in and out. Definitely the worst.

Especially since we had a field trip today.

I woke up this morning and didn't feel all that much better but I sucked it up and went on the trip. We went to a bunch of overlook locations which was kinda cool but I totally wasn't feeling up to it so it was pretty lousy. Luckily we got back from it pretty early so we just got to chill before lunch/class.

Classes officially started today and they went pretty good. It was weird only having class for 50 minutes instead of an hour. But I think I'm really going to like Brother Ludlow's class (Ancient Near East) but hopefully they'll all be good. :)

Right now I am not feeling good at all so it's hard for me to do homework but I know I need to. I just want to go to sleep and wake up feeling better. The hardest part is that I don't even really know what my symptoms are. I have a sore throat but it isn't a normal sore throat yet I know I've had it before. Argh. This is super annoying.

Well, that is all.

(The last student arrived here at the Center at 4am last night so we are all here now!)

Pre-week.

Wow (Wow Wubzy). haha

Hello friends!

I am currently in Jerusalem, Israel and things are going swell (at least for us!).

But before I start in on my crazy adventures thus far in the JC, I feel like I should start the story out at the beginning (and I realize that this is INSANELY LONG so if you don't feel like reading it all, I've included a shortened version at the end!):

Last Friday (8/27) Nicole and I flew out of SFO at 6:30 in the morning (which involved us waking up WAY too early). We flew to Vegas and then to Salt Lake. Luckily, I slept a little bit on the plane (unfortunately, I don't remember which flight it was but I did sleep! haha) We then got our bags and headed to Temple Square (taking the courtesy shuttle) and we met up with (Sister) Erin Fine and (Sister) Echo Palmer who Nicole served with in Georgia. We then went to lunch where Erin (Alpaca) met us and we all hung out for some quality time. We then went back to Temple Square where we met up with tons and tons and tons of Nicole's missionary friends. It was a little ridiculous because they were all freaking out and they were so stunned that she was back so we felt like we were hanging out with The Biebs (Justin Bieber). Erin and I should've used our time better and gone to the temple but I suppose there is nothing we can do about that now. (Next time.)

Our grandma then picked us up and took us with her as she ran a couple errands, we dropped our big bag off at her house and then we headed down to Orem! We got to Orem for dinner and then we hung out/helped Becca-boo pack and then off we went to bed because we were exhausted. I slept in Annie's bed and it was delightful.

The next morning, we got to sleep in a smidge which was nice and then we got all ready and then off to Logan we went! We stopped first at Best Buy to buy Becca her new laptop and then at our standard Hires Big H for the family lunch which was presh. We then started back up to Logan. We got to Logan in the middle of the afternoonish and we brought all of Becca’s stuff into her apartment and then we headed to the USU Creamery for some ice cream. Nicole has a super awesome experience when some guy practically proposed to her with all of us watching. Absolutely awesome.

After ice cream, grandma and grandpa left and we Annie and I unpacked/organized Becca’s room while Becca, Nicole and Elsa went to the grocery store. We were basically done unpacking and setting up before they were back. And they were super impressed because of how organized it was. (I credit that to the fact that I’ve had to do it so so so many times. Thanks track system. Haha)

We then went to Chick-fil-a for dinner even though we weren’t really all that hungry so Annie and I got kids meals which were delicious. We then went back and dropped Becca off and started our long drive back to Highland. It was actually pretty interesting because Nicole and Elsa had a pretty insightful conversation and I sat in the back and listened. They then dropped us off at the Bement’s house (after we got a little lost….) and it was fun to see them. It had been almost two years exactly since Nicole had seen them so to her, they were huge but it had been less than a year for me so they hadn’t really changed all that much. Ryker was super shy and scared of me at first and he even asked to go to bed after we had been there for a little bit. Millie was adorbs and she liked me a lot. J Brianna was on a date so she got home a little after we got there and she flew through the front door with her posey in tow. It was cute. J

We just hung around there for the evening and then we went to bed but as we were brushing our teeth and such, the power went out from all the thunderstorm-ing which was definitely an adventure.

The next morning, we went to church and luckily it was Laurels-are-in-Relief Society week so Brianna (and Maryn) were both in there with us. After Church, Ryker really wanted to walk home so Brianna, Nicole, Ryker and I walked home from church. And Ryker and I obviously held hands the entire walk home. After church, we just ate lunch and hung out and then had some delicious homemade pizza for dinner and then they (Brother Bement and Ryker) drove us to Elisa’s house in Provo.

We dropped our stuff off at the house and then we walked down the street and waited for Julie to come and pick us up. We walked around/sat on campus talking to Julie which was quality times. Basically the entire trip I was Nicole’s shadow and we just hung out with her friends which was actually pretty fun. After we hung out with Julie, we went and hung out with Marcie (who should’ve been my friend long ago….) and that was quality. We were supposed to hang out with Markus and Danielle but they were too tired and jetlagged or something haha. So then Marcindra dropped us back off at Elisa’s house were we then hung out with Elisa and her roommates and her other guests.

Oh yes, fun fact, Elisa lives in a HUGE house with two other girls. The night we stayed there, they took in 5 hobos (ourselves included.) We got the entire living room in the basement, they had two girls in the real living room (one on a therapist couch turned twin bed and the other on a fold out couch) and then one in the extra bedroom. It was a hoppin’ place.

We finally went to bed (a little later than we should have) and the next morning, we woke up and went off to the Y again. We hit up the bookstore and then we went to the Tanner building to wait for Mark. After he got out of class, we went to lunch with him and his wife (who had nothing else to do since they couldn’t move into their new apartment like they were supposed to…) and it was presh to see them since I haven’t seen them since they got married (in May ’09) and I haven’t spoken to either of them since Mark found out I was dating a Georgian and called me when I was in Idaho (and it also happened to be their 6 month anniversary) Hahaha so yes, it has been a super long time. Lunch was good but we had to unfortunately cut it short so we could head to our orientation meeting.

I don’t even know where to start with that. Oh geeze. Such a long meeting and nothing was really all that new. But it was probably for everyone to get on the same page and such but yeah… waste of four hours. We did get our shmackpacks though (that’s what we call our new Jerusalem Center backpack, in honor of Shmackely). After that we quickly headed to the Wilk where we met up with Emily, Nicole’s friend from the mission/a JC alumni and where I saw Melissa for about 30 seconds (because she had to rescue her lost husband). We then went to dinner at Bombay House with Elisa and it was yummy. After that, we went home (and we thought we were late) and waited for Grandma and Grandpa to pick us up. They were rather late so we hung outside watching her famous neighbor’s and their super cute house. (Seriously though, her neighbors across the street actually are famous. And I saw one of them!)

Once the grandparents arrived, we headed back to Salt Lake. We took showers, got all packed and ready and went to bed. I wish I could say we went to sleep but neither of us really slept…. Hahaha which was a bummer.

….Mostly because we were up at 3:30 the next morning for a loooooooooong two days of traveling.

Sparknotes Version:

-Left home at 4:50 am on 8/27.

-Arrived in Salt Lake (via Las Vegas) shortly before noon.

-Spent the day at Temple Square.

-Drove down to Orem with the grandparents.

-Ate dinner with the cousins.

Saturday:

-Slept in.

-Headed to Logan (with a short pit stop for a family lunch in Salt Lake plus a computer buying break).

-Moved Becca in.

-USU Creamery.

-Unpacked B's room with Annie while Nicole, Elsa and Becca were grocery shopping.

-Headed to Highland to see the Bements.

-Hung out with the Bements.

-HUGE thunderstorm knocks out our power.

Sunday:

-Went to Church with the Bements.

-Nicole, Brianna, Ryker and I walked home.

-Had a super relaxing Sunday afternoon and delicious pizza for dinner.

-Headed to Provo to visit more of Nicole's peeps.

-Hung out with Julie and then Marcie.

-Went home and hung out with Elisa and the gang.

Monday:

-Went to the bookstore.

-Lunch with Markus and Danielle

-JC Orientation meeting (for four hours)

-Met up with Emily for a brief second and then Melissa for even shorter.

-Dinner at Bombay House with Elisa (yum).

-Drove to Salt Lake/Holladay.

-Finish packing before leaving super early the next morning.

Tuesday: to be continued...