I am official finished with school in Jerusalem!!

I just finished my last final and I am so happy and excited to be finished with it. I have been waking up every morning this week at about 5 am, with todays exception being 4 am and have been juggling field trips and studying all week long. I am tired and so proud to be finished and have had survived this long week. Now i can truly enjoy the last week here, and really cherish Jerusalem with no distractions!! I am celebrating and rewarding myself with a shopping trip in the old city!! :)

Family Mail

It is always exciting to be one that receives mail, since mail takes along time to get here, and we receive it about 3 times a week, so I was excited to see that I got two letters from home today. I knew they were coming, and were articles from dad, but it was still exciting to receive a little letter from home.
Part of the article that dad sent, was due to me visiting a relative's grave site while in Galilee area. Our class went to the gravesite of John Clark, who is my great-great-uncle, becuase he was my grandpa's uncle, is what I understand so far. He was sent to turkey on a mission and came to the area of Jerusalem to teach Arabic to the visitors that come. He died of small pox, I believe, and was buried rather quickly for fear the disease would spread.
So I was excited to see the grave site of a relative all the way in Israel, and to know that he is part of my family. Here is a couple of pictures of his grave site, more to come once I get the pictures others took of it due to my camera being out of commission that day.

Masada, Daniel in the Lions Den?

On the same field trip to the Dead Sea, on Monday, we also went to Masada. This is a city ontop of a huge moutain making it the perfect fortress that is isolated from anything else. Herod the great built a huge palace on the edge so that it had some shade from the hot sun. We were allowed to wear shorts for this field trip, and I am very greatful we were able to because it was really hot, and I do not understand how these people survived the heat. Then again I wonder the same things with people from AZ and UT hahah. We went around exploring the area and we found a huge cistern, a place to store water, and it reminded me of the story Daniel in the Lions Den. Here is a picture of me in the cistern...

It is True, you do float in the Dead Sea!

I have always enjoyed swimming, I love being in the water and have always had a hard time floating. I just sink, but I have found a body of water where I can and did float!! The dead sea has such a heavy amount of salt, that you will float. Want evidence? here you go...

After my time in the dead Sea, which was short because the salt was hurting a cut I recieved from getting in with the huge salt blocks surrounding the shore line. I went to get a mud treatment. The mud is famous for making skin very soft, and I had to try it out. My friends and I walked to where the mud was located at, and I saw many ladies loading up plastic bags with this black mud. I had a blast just covering up my entire body with mud. So here is another lovely picture of me covered in the famous Dead Sea mud...


The best part, is that my skin is very soft, and it was free!!
(The white stuff i am standing on is not snow, that is the salt that is slippery and sharp)

Here is me in front of the tomb. The service was alot of singing, by a very cute man with an attractive accent with a couple of passage readings. It was another Jesus party, and it was awesome! I really enjoyed it because of the happiness, joy that was felt because he has risen, and that is what is important about the Easter season.

Easter Week in Jerusalem

I have always loved the month of April because of a week off from school, warm weather but mostly because of Easter. my love for Easter grew alot this past week because I was not only able to be in the place where Christ died, but follow the account of the entire week with reading passages in the New Testament and was able attend different churches.

It started off with palm sunday, the day that Christ came into Jerusalem. It was a Jesus loving Crazy Mob! here are some pictures

I ended the week, the following Sunday, attending a service at the garden tomb. the service started at 6:30, right after sunrise, meaning we had to leave the center at 5:15, which meant I got up at 4:30 that morning. Boy was that hard, its been a long time since I have gotten up that early for anything. It was worth it though. The service was amazing, the place was packed with people from all over the world. I loved my spot, I was on the stairs just a few yards from the tomb inside the place. It isnt the exact tomb of Christ, but they believe it to be in the place but the important part is that "He has risen".
I am also on TV, they had a live broadcasting of the service.

Who is the true Disney fan?

I have been enjoying the sea of Galilee, but it isn't the same as the beach. It did make me miss the beach even more because I was so close to water, but knew how much better the ocean is then a sea. So when we were able to go and see the Mediterranean Ocean, I was really excited. I know its not the same as the Pacific Ocean, but it comes from the same body of water right?
In honor of my ability of speaking Disney fluently, I decided to take some great pictures inspired by one of my favorite princesses. So lets see who knows their Disney Princesses..

After getting a bit wet and sandy, I knew that if we are by water some more, I was going to go all out because I am already wet and sandy why not become more.

So when we went to Caesarea, a very prominent and flourishing city during Herod's time, there was a spot where the waves would splash over. All I could remeber was flashbacks to Sea World and wanting to be in the Splash Zone. So i knew I was wet and sandy and wanted to do something I would not do usually, so i went and waited for the perfect wave to come over and get me soaked. It was so much fun just watching this huge wave and leaning over the rail and getting soaked. I loved smelling the sea salt and just wanted to be on my beach again. This is how I know that you can take the girl away from the beach but you cant take the love of the beach out of the girl.


Here is Dane and I a few moments after the big splash. The back was alot worse due to having my back to the water the first time so that I could look at the camera when the water would come over.