Walk like an Egyptian? I'll see what I can do.

So... we are leaving for Egypt in... 7 hours!! Cairo and Luxor will be my home for the next 8 days. To be honest, I still can't believe I'm in Jerusalem, so I guess we might as well add another mind-bender to the equation and go to Egypt. My heavens. While we're there we'll be seeing the Giza pyramids, Sphinx, the Muhammad Ali Mosque, touring Valley of the Kings, riding camels, visiting the Karnak temple and Luxor temple, going for a carriage ride, seeing mummies, and hiking Mt. Sinai! (Just to name a few of the things on the agenda.) For some reason, I remember being fascinated when we learned about Egypt in 6th grade World History. I just loved learning about the pyramids and all the Pharaohs. I am SO excited that I get to see everything with my own eyes now!

One thing I am NOT excited about is the food situation. Sanitation isn't really up to US standards, so we have to be really selective with what we eat so we don't get sick. Being a picky eater really doesn't help much, but when a person has a phobia of condiments, like myself, it makes eating difficult at times. Luckily I stocked up on snacks for the trip; the only trick will be rationing those snacks so I only eat them when I have to skip the condiment-laden meals. (By the way, Emily, I HAVE been able to find food to eat when all else fails in Jerusalem: toast! Oh, and the best hot chocolate I've ever had. Literally.)

Speaking of snacks, Lizzy and I are on the snack bar committee and we decided we really wanted to mobilize it since we have a 12 hour bus ride. After we harassed our fellow students into paying what they owed on their snack bar tab, we walked to the "costco" that is on the way to the old city. We were there for ages, debating which items the students would like the most and would be willing to buy from us. We spent our 500 shekels wisely and ended up getting a pretty good variety. I mean, who doesn't like Tutkos cookies?? (It should be noted that I have NO idea what they taste like.) In all sincerity, I daresay that one of the things I'm most excited for tomorrow is unveiling our fantastic selection, especially since our snack bar selection hasn't been the greatest so far.

Our water situation is super sketchy, so we will only be drinking bottled water during the whole trip, as well as always brushing our teeth with it. Kids usually end up getting sick in Egypt every semester no matter how careful they are, so I really hope I'm not one of the lucky few! Preventative Immodium? I think so. After all, no one wants to be remembered as the kid who crapped their pants in Egypt.

Well, I better finish my packing since it's currently 1:15 am. I wouldn't be true to myself if I wasn't procrastinating. By the way, the blog will be on hiatus while I'm gone since I'm not taking my laptop. Don't fret, I'm planning to go to Hebrew University when I get back to upload some pictures. I know I'm already behind on my blogging, but I'm having a hard time finding the motivation to blog when I can't post pictures of everything we are doing! Did I mention we went to Jericho a few days ago? I still need to blog about that, as well. Being able to see all of these places where stories in the Bible took place is the best thing ever. I just love it. If anyone reading this is even remotely debating whether or not they should come to the Jerusalem Center, and I know who you are, the answer is easy: COME! You will LOVE it. I can guarantee you won't regret it.

Garden Tomb

Alrighty, it looks like I'm more than a week behind on my blog. Awesome. I'm still planning to post about the days I've missed for journaling purposes, but right now I'm skipping ahead to our Sabbath visit to the Garden Tomb a few days ago. It's still fresh on my mind and I don't want to forget it. I didn't take a camera this time because I plan on going back as much as I can so I plan to take pictures later. Translation? You're getting a feelings post instead of a picture post.

We had a Baptist minister as our guide, and he was awesome. He is from the States, and he comes to Jerusalem twice a year for 3 months at a time w/ his wife to volunteer as tour guides for the Garden Tomb. He took us to the place they believe to be Golgatha and gave us their 'evidence' for this location, then he took us down to the tomb and gave us more 'evidence.' None of the evidence is entirely conclusive, but he told us that's when we have to let our hearts decide what we believe. The best part of his tour was when he told us that his heart tells him this truly is the place where Christ was resurrected. His words were so powerful and, little did he know, he was literally bearing his testimony to us. His is one of the best I've heard of our resurrected Lord and Savior.

After our tour we walked down to the tomb and got to go inside. I'm assuming this is the tomb the Mormon artists use as a reference, because it looked like all of the pictures I've seen at church. After going inside I walked back up the hill and stood for a few minutes overlooking the tomb. I tried to imagine the glorious events of the Resurrection as they took place. As I did this, I felt the Spirit stronger than I have felt it in a long, long time. I don't believe I felt it so strongly because this is without-a-doubt the correct location (like I said, evidence is not conclusive), but rather because I was focusing on and thinking about the Resurrection in a way I had never thought about before. The resurrection of Jesus is something that actually happened, and that is what matters. Instead of being a story that has been recited countless times, I realized, more than ever, the literality of it. It's interesting that being in the Garden Tomb isn't what made me feel the Spirit so strongly, rather it was my thought process. It is so important that each of us develops a personal relationship with our Savior. He lived on this earth just like every one of us and endured undescribeable pain on our behalf. Who then could possibly be a better Friend to each of us than Him?

Once we had all been in the tomb, our class had a mini-devotional and sang a few songs. The most significant song for me was the first song we sang which was "He Is Risen." Up until that point, the only thing I had really been thinking about at the Garden Tomb was Jesus and his final days on earth. But then, partway through the first verse, we sang the words "He has burst his three days' prison." For some reason when we sang these words my thoughts jumped to Tyler. The word prison really stood out to me, and I thought that is how Tyler must feel about his current ... situation. A prison, to be without his body. In that moment, it really necessitated the need for a resurrection. The next words in the song were "Let the whole wide earth rejoice." That phrase seemed so much more significant than it ever had before. Christ broke his three day prison and because of that we can rejoice. It is not the end when we die. Not even close, and we have Christ to thank for that most precious gift. Thinking that during the song, my eyes welled with tears. I'm not a big crier, but I've never realized quite to that extent just how grateful I am for my Savior.

I am so happy I got to go to the Garden Tomb. I loved it. When we got home, Kelsey came to my room to chat for a bit. In her talk at church she had briefly mentioned that she had been in a really bad car accident. Usually I don't like to hear a lot of details about car accidents these days, but for some reason I wanted to hear all about hers. To summarize, she got broadsided by a car and the car she was in rolled 2 1/2 times and then slid a long ways. The car was crunched in all around her (she was by herself), and they had to use a crow bar to get her out. Miraculously, she was fine, minus some bruises. Medics on the scene couldn't believe she had survived and kept running tests on her. I asked her what went through her mind when she got hit and she said the whole time she was rolling all she felt was peace. She wasn't scared at all and she knew she was going to be fine while everything was happening around her. Total peace of mind. The whole time she was explaining, I was thinking about Tyler since he had been on my mind a lot that day. When she said she felt peace during the whole thing, my eyes teared up for the second time that day. I hope so badly that that is what Tyler and his dear family felt. Listening to Kels made me feel like that is what had to have been going through Tyler's mind. He and his family were probably as prepared as anyone could be in such a circumstance. Kels was protected because it wasn't her time. Clearly, it had to have been Tyler's time. It seems like such a logical thing to say, but the more directly a situation effects you, the longer it takes to come to terms with a statement like that.

What a perfect day. I love the unexpected times when I learn and grow more in my understanding and feelings regarding Tyler. Throughout the last 8 years, my thought process has evolved a lot concerning him. To be completely honest, sometimes I really wish things weren't the way they are, but I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have had to grow in so many different ways.

Life is good, people. Oh, and so is Jerusalem. That's all.

Picture Post

Continuing with the update... We had a free day last Sunday and so nearly everyone went into the city. We started off with a fairly large group, but we ended up breaking off somehow and ended up w/ just five of us. It was actually really nice to have a smaller group because we moved around places a lot faster and there were a lot less people to accommodate. I was with my cute roommate, Morgan; Kelsey; Johnathon (who was really patient in a group of girls); and Tarah (I haven't talked to her very much so I'm way glad she came so I could get to know her). Most of the other students were going to Aladdin's to exchange money, and we didn't want to get stuck in a huge line, so we headed for the Old City first.

Morgan and me, outside Damascus Gate
(Damascus is the entrance we use for the Old City)

After wandering the streets of the Old City for a bit, we walked over to the Holy Sepulchre since we finally had lots of time to explore it adequately.

This was taken in the courtyard of the Holy Sepulchre.

First, we climbed the 'Hill of Calvary' via these stairs:

(These are the stairs that put Vickie's to shame)

Then, we walked around the top, admiring all of the architecture. We took pictures of each of us touching the supposed spot where Jesus was crucified.

Touching the spot where Christ was crucified.

We walked back downstairs after this and saw Golgatha. I was a little confused what we were looking at on that one. Couldn't really make anything out. Then we went to what I guess would be called the basement of the Church. The Crusaders believe they found remnants of Christ's cross down there. (Brother Chadwick thinks they really just found parts of the wooden beams that used to be in the ceiling of the church, and that they were confused about what they had found) There were a few different areas in the basement commemorating this 'find', as well as a section that was closed off where they had found the actual wood.

When we went back upstairs we could hear a lot of singing and bells from all of the different church services going on inside the building. (A lot of different denominations 'own' areas of the Church) We eventually found one of the services in the little room that is by the entrance to the tomb we had gone in the day before. We watched the singing and chanting going on for awhile, and I must say it was pretty intense. Everyone around us was chiming in during different parts of the singing, and we just stood there like the dumb tourists we were. The incense was also really strong, and Johnathon speculated that the incense probably causes some of the special 'feelings' they have during these services. Excellent point, if you ask me. When we were getting ready to leave, a lady behind me pulled me aside and told me that the language they were all speaking was Aramaic, which was the language Jesus spoke. I kinda wish I would have known that sooner because for some reason I just assumed they were speaking in Greek. Probably would have made it even cooler to listen to if I had known that.

Greek Orthodox (I think?) service we attended by the tomb of Joseph of Aramathea

After we left the service, we stood in line to enter the tomb where Jesus was placed after His crucifixion. (This was a different one than we saw the day before. Yes, it was in the same building, though. Crazy, I know.) While we were waiting in line, there was a Polish tour group behind us. Johnathon knows Russian from his mission, so he was able to talk to them and understand them a little bit since the languages are kinda similar. It was fun talking with them and learning why they were here. We told them we were doing a study abroad in the Holy Land and that we are gonna be here till Christmas, and they were amazed that we are staying here for so long. At that point, I realized, once again, how blessed I am to get to be here, spending so much time focused on mostly studying the Old Testament and the life of Jesus. Christmas seems like a long ways away, and I can't believe I'm STILL going to be here until just before Christmas. It's a little weird to think about. I love befriending all of these people in the Holy Land.

One of the supposed tombs in the Holy Sepulchre where Jesus was laid.

After seeing the tomb, we went and touched the 'center of the world' again. (I think I wrote about already doing that in my last blog post...) It's called the center of the world because it is exactly halfway between where Jesus was crucified and where His tomb was.

This painting is seen when you look up from the center of the world.
Christ's eyes are directly over the center,
allowing Him to look down on it, as well as the rest of the world.

Touching the center of the world

We were finally done w/ wandering around the Holy Sepulchre, so we went outside for lunch. These are the cool stairs we sat on while we ate.

Then we went to the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, which is close by the Holy Sepulchre and represents the Prostestant denominations in the Holy Land. We wanted to climb the tower, but it was closed for the day so we settled for looking around.

Tower of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer

Inside one of the rooms in the Lutheran Church.
(Yes, I am rocking a fanny pack. I dare you to use one and see how dang convenient they are.)

We went to East Jerusalem to exchange our money for shekels and made our way to Omar's to look around. He sells wood carvings and, while they are a little expensive, they look amazing. The best part is that since he mostly sells to the 'mormons', he has a lot of Mormon-themed carvings. He had just finished a carving of the Mormon pioneers and he also had Nephi, Captain Moroni, Joseph, Emma, and tons of others. It's gonna take me forever to decide what (if) i wanna get anything from him.

Loved this sticker in Omar's store!!

For our last stop of the day, we went to Zedekiah's Cave. This is under the Old City and is where they quarried (is that a even a verb?) the stones for the walls of the Old City. The best part? It was SO much cooler inside. And quiet. Small piece of heaven.

Entrance to Zedekiah's Cave.
(Props to Johnathon for taking the picture and therefore failing to be in it.)

Lesson of the day: lose your pride and sport a fanny pack. Just do it. Trust me.

First Shabbat

It's been a busy last few days; I do believe it's time for a recap of the goings on. The day after our tour of the Old City, we had our first two classes: Old Testament, which I am loving (although the reading and studying is taking up a lot of time), and Ancient Near Eastern History, which is... ok. Brother Chadwick teaches that one and, while I love him, the material is a little boring. Mostly maps, so far.

After that we had our committee meetings. I am on the Snack Bar committee, which we have named The Holy Land Stand for the semester. We are open for an hour each night, and I am in charge of running it on Thursday nights. Kinda crappy I have to spend time in the Holy Land 'working,' but at least it is only once a week for an hour. We had the rest of the day unscheduled, but we couldn't leave the center because it was Ramadan. (We've left since then and it's still Ramadan so I'm not entirely sure why we couldn't leave that particular day.) Good opportunity for a 4 hr nap, if you ask me.

Saturday was our first Shabbat, or Sabbath, in the Holy Land. I loved it. It brought a whole new meaning to the Sacrament being able to overlook so many holy sites where so many events have taken place. We are so blessed to get to be here and see and experience so many things this semester. Our Gospel Doctrine teacher is from the States, but she is currently attending Hebrew University. She is SUCH a sweetheart. And our Relief Society President is a Palestinian from Bethlehem. She was originally Greek Orthodox, but attended BYU Provo where she became a convert to the church. After BYU Provo, she attended University in Turkey to get her PhD in Statistics before returning to Bethlehem. (One smart cookie, if you ask me.) She used to have a difficult time getting through the Separation Wall so she could attend church at the JC, but has a bit of an easier time now because she works for the UN and has a special pass.

After church a bunch of us wanted to walk down to the Garden Tomb, but word on the street was we weren't supposed to go there on our own until after next Sabbath when they take us as a group. So instead we went on a walk to the Tower of the Ascension. (Like the JC, it is also on the Mount of Olives) Not gonna lie, I was miserable. I felt like I was walking through the desert because it was so HOT.  Furthermore, when we got to the tower they said we had to pay to climb the stairs to the top... So we promptly turned around and walked home for dinner. I'm glad I went though because I learned a valuable lesson: I will only be taking skirts on our trip to Egypt in two weeks. The heat was bad enough in a skirt. No need to add pants to the equation.

Another bright side of our little trip was I finally used my camera in Jerusalem. I now present you with the Augusta Victoria Tower. It's not the tower we walked to, rather this one is actually closer to the center. You might think we were dumb for not going to the tower closest to us, but we knew our field trip was taking us here a few days later, so we didn't bother w/ good ol' Augusta this time.

Augusta Victoria

After dinner a few more of us decided to walk back to the Old City to visit the Holy Sepulchre. On our way through the Old City streets we followed a cart that was pushing a rack of raw meat. Josh, being the nice guy he is, got in front of the cart to help guide the cart through all the people. Gotta love the Old City.

It might be hard to tell here, but Josh is pulling the front of the cart.

In the courtyard outside the Holy Sepulchre
My roommates are on both sides of me: Morgan on my right, RaeLynn on my left.
Shout out to Charles for being the photographer and having to miss out on being in the picture.

This is the Anointing Stone inside the Holy Sepulchre.
Most Christians believe this is where Christ's body was laid after He was crucified and before He was taken to the tomb.
(Mormons believe the Holy Sepulchre wasn't where all of these events occurred, however)

After walking around the Holy Sepulchre someone asked us if we would like a tour of the place. He took us to the spot where Christendom believes the center of the Earth is. We got to touch it, and then he asked if we wanted to go inside the tomb where Jesus was laid (once again, this is according to most Christians). We said sure, and he said that we could pay him our 250 shekels (!!) after the tour. We told him we didn't have any money on us (we didn't) and that we don't spend money on this day (Sabbath). He said it was fine and that we could just pay him if we do another tour in the future. We were kinda stressed for a second there, thinking we owed him a whole bunch of money.

He gave each of us a special honey candle and took us to a place in the Sepulchre (the building is huge, btw) where they believe Joseph of Arimathia's tomb was. We each got to go inside to see the empty grave in there, which was cool to see. So many people view this spot as sacred ground and I felt blessed that I got to see it. And even though the Spirit isn't always felt in these places, there is still a feeling of reverence that is difficult to describe.

Inside the tomb

I am so lucky to be here! I just love it so much. I must say I'm still not impressed with my Chacos, though. I got mega blisters walking to the Old City so I haven't worn them since. I'm determined to break them in though, once my current blisters heal. I'll provide an update later if I ever decide I like them.

Dreamland

DISCLAIMER: Excuse the lack of pictures. I'm working on it.

The reason for the title is twofold: 1) I am beyond tired and wish I WAS in dreamland; and 2) I feel like I AM in dreamland being here. It honestly doesn't feel real. I mean, I've heard, read, and studied all about Jerusalem in various shapes and forms for the last 24 years. And now I'm actually here? It's almost impossible to wrap my mind around the fact that I am in a place where SO much history has happened. Wow. (Ps. I'm sure the phrases 'wow', 'crazy', and 'SOO cool' will begin to sound extremely redundant in a few months time. Sorry about that. Words entirely fail me here.)

I was completely out of it for my last post, by the way. I just realized I left out two things that I loved from Wednesday. First of all, once we got settled into the Jerusalem Center (henceforth known as the JC), we had an orientation meeting that night in the auditorium. Now, mind you, this is no ordinary auditorium - no, this one comes complete w/ a panoramic view of Jerusalem. We opened the meeting w/ a hymn, and so the very first song we sang in Jerusalem was "Israel, Israel, God is Calling." Loved it.

Second of all, in a later meeting Brother Chadwick (the professor mentioned in my last post)  discussed 2 Nephi 25: 5-6 with us. He said that through this program we are able to be like Nephi because even though we won't always stay in Jerusalem, we will have a better understanding of the scriptures because of our experience here. I just loved his analysis, so I'm going to share the scripture and bold the parts to which we paid particular interest. You can then draw the conclusions, for the sake of brevity.

5 Yea, and my soul delighteth in the words of Isaiah, for I came out from Jerusalem, and mine eyes hath beheld the things of the Jews, and I know that the Jews do understand the things of the prophets, and there is none other people that understand the things which were spoken unto the Jews like unto them, save it be that they are taught after the manner of the things of the Jews.

 6 But behold, I, Nephi, have not taught my children after the manner of the Jews; but behold, I, of myself, have dwelt at Jerusalem, wherefore I know concerning the regions round about; and I have made mention unto my children concerning the judgments of God, which hath come to pass among the Jews, unto my children, according to all that which Isaiah hath spoken, and I do not write them.

I might add that the end of verse 5 was significant because it explains WHY Nephi loved the words of Isaiah so much - he was able to understand them because he had personally been taught after the manner of the things of the Jews. Awesome. (This is one of those parts of my blog that is probably only interesting to me, and boring to the rest of you. Sorry. Just wanna remember some of these things later, ya know?)

Moving on. Yesterday (Thursday) we went on our first walking tour of Jerusalem. It. Was. Awesome. Somehow my little group ended up w/ Brother Chadwick as our guide. (I SWEAR there are other professors here!) I am SOOO glad we had him. He is an archaeologist and knows tons about Israel. The tour was great, although it was a little bit of information overload. Some of yesterday's highlights were:

• Eating pudding for breakfast that was labeled entirely in Hebrew.
• Learning about the different stones that make up the wall of the Old City. (Brother Chadwick showed us the differences in the stone that came from the Crusader era, Herodian Era, etc.) Wanna know which stones were here when Christ was? Come visit me and I'll show you.
• Walking through East Jerusalem (the muslim area). A lot of the shops were closed up for Ramadan, but we still learned all the good places to go later. Also, we each had large water bottles w/ us, but we couldn't drink at all in the muslim areas because we had to be respectful of the fact that they were fasting.
• Walking past the Garden Tomb entrance. (We didn't go in, though.)
• Stopping outside Damascus Gate for a drink before we went in through the muslim quarter of the Old City. While we were drinking, some of the JC security guards came up to us and told us to stop because we were offending the muslims who were walking by us. Brother Chadwick told the security guards to relax because the muslims clearly know we are not part of them and are not fasting, and he didn't want us getting dehydrated, dang it. Cultural sensitivity is a HUGE issue here.
• Entering the Old City through Damascus Gate and seeing all the shops.
• Taking a tour of the Austrian Hospice. This place is a hostel in the bottom and a hotel and restaurant in the top. Or something like that. Way cool though. It looked really medieval-y and I just loved it.
• Following a Procession of the Cross. Almost everyday Christian pilgrims follow the route that Jesus likely took when He was carrying His cross. A few people in the front carry a cross, and the rest of the people follow and sing/chant. There are 14-ish stations where they stop to talk about what happened at that particular station. It's amazing to witness the dedication so many people have toward their religion. The cool thing about being here is instead of being afraid of other religions or instantly categorizing them as something 'bad' because they are different, we are actually encouraged to participate in their various traditions and learn from them. A religion doesn't have to have the restored truth in order to have good qualities. I love that.
• Eating Sesame Bread from the City. (Yes, I ate the bread. No, I did not dip it in the weird spice that came with it.)
• Going to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Most Christians believe this is where Jesus was crucified, anointed, and buried. We climbed the steep stairs (which put Aunt Vickie's stairs to shame. seriously). When we were at the top, we could see the spot where most Christians believe Jesus' cross was, and Bro. Chadwick explained why our church doesn't believe this was the true site of the crucifixion. But if anyone asks, we can now say we have climbed the Hill to Calvary.
• Walking through Jaffa Gate.
• Exploring West Jerusalem. This is the Israeli/Jewish area and it has a WAY different atmosphere. Kind of Mediterranean-ish. I went with my roommates to buy shampoo & conditioner, and it took us a while to figure out what bottles were shampoo in the shop. Since everything was in Hebrew, we weren't sure if we were looking at body wash on accident. (Turns out we were.) We got some help and the lady thought it was hilarious that we couldn't read anything and were 100% helpless, which we were. Literally. 
• Deciding to skip dinner in favor of an hour of SLEEP.
• Playing get-to-know-you games in the gym. I swear I see new students everyday, which is weird since there are only 80 of us.
• Staying up till 3 am w/ Kelsey, reading 20 chapters (!!) of Genesis and taking in-depth notes. Our reading had to be done by 8 am the next day, and last night was the first chance we had to work on it.
• Loving the love stories. (Isaac & Rebekah, Jacob & Rachel)
• Feeling kinda bad for Hagar, Ishmael, and Leah.
• Taking a study break and doing Ab Ripper X in the library at 2 am.
• Choosing to (finally) go to bed rather than update the blog. Best decision ever.

Are you falling asleep yet? I certainly am.....

I almost peed my pants.

Well folks, this post is coming straight to you from the Jerusalem Center! First things first, this must be prefaced by saying I am extremely tired so don't get your hopes up that you'll be reading something clever. To do so will only result in your severe disappointment. Also, as a disclaimer, this blog has potential to be entirely boring to anyone but me. I'll try to make it interesting and not let it turn into too much of a travel log, but I'm also using this as my journal, so consider yourself warned.

Flying to Jerusalem wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. Am I dead tired? Yes. Are my ankles severely swollen? No. At least, not yet. See? Not that bad of a trip. For the flight to Denver I was tired from not sleeping at all the night before (literally), so I zonked out almost instantly. I feel a little bad about that because Meredith, a fellow student, was trying to chat and ask the obligatory get-to-know-you questions, but it wasn't happenin' on my end.

The flight to D.C. was when the near-disaster threatened. I got a Jamba in the Denver airport and happily gulped it down like always. Then I had a lovely flight, spent mostly listening to music and sleeping. I woke up from my nap when the pilot had turned on the fasten seatbelts light and said they were getting ready to land. A few minutes later I realized I HAD to go to the bathroom. The Jamba had run its course and was ready for exit, immediately. I didn't dare get up from my seat since we were landing any second, so I just tried to focus on remembering if I had packed any extra clothing in case I didn't make it. That's how bad it was. The possibility of needing extra clothes was extremely real. We still weren't landing so then I focused on counting to 24, over and over again, until we landed. I chose this number because I wanted to remind myself that I'm 24 and should therefore NOT PEE MY PANTS. Apparently it worked since I was able to make it. The second we finished taxiing I jumped up and pushed my way forward to the plane bathroom. There is NO way I could have waited any longer.

Wow, I'm really rambling. I'll try to summarize. The flight to Vienna and then Tel Aviv were not too eventful. Before we flew to Tel Aviv we had to go through security again right at the gate. Never done that before. And then when we got to Tel Aviv, one of our students is Canadian, so going through customs, or whatever it's called, took him a lot longer than the rest of us. The bus ride up to Jerusalem was amazing. Brother Chadwick, one of our professors, told us about a few of the places we were driving past. He said that you can barely drive a mile in Israel without passing some type of significant place where something important in the Bible happened. We drove up through the mountains on a fairly windy road, and then finally got to Jerusalem about 40 minutes later. I had no idea it was SO hilly.

When we got to the Center, Kelsey, the sweet girl I was sitting by, said she couldn't stop her eyes from watering. For some reason when she said that, mine started watering, too. It's just so hard to believe that I am TRULY in Jerusalem of all places. WOW. When I was younger I always hoped I would travel a lot when I was older, but I never imagined that I would go to Jerusalem. Ever. For some reason, it was never on the list (neither was Hawaii, for that matter). Funny how life turns out, isn't it?