February – 2009 – Wanderings and Ponderings

Jerusalem

I am nuts… for nuts.

27 February 2009

I LOVE RAIN.

I love nuts too, especially love nuts, or kabuki, or sycamore nuts, or peanuts. No one really knows what these nuts are called, but they are so good. And I just like calling them love nuts.

Luckily for me, I have a really good roommate. Her name is Shamra, or Shawarma, or Sharma, or Shammie Lambie. Anyway, she said she’d brave the bitter storm with me and go buy some nuts. So we got Jacob and put on our some warm clothes and headed into the rain.

After I bought my nuts, I saw a dead shark on ground. It’s better to spend your money on nuts rather than sharks.

When I first got to the Old City, I bought an umbrella for 10 sheks ($2.50) because I figured it’d be a good little investment with how much it’s been raining around here these days. It worked fabulously all day long, until five steps outside of the gate of the center, when a big gust of wind came and completely destroyed it. My poor little umbrella…

We were totally, completely, almost 100% soaked after our little rain adventure, with the exception of my bum. I don’t know why it was dry. Funny. hehe.

Chelsea and Sham Sham, braving the elemtents.

I LOVE THIS PICTURE.

Considering how much work I put in to getting my love nuts today, I think I have an addiction.

My name is Chelsea, and I am a nut-aholic.

Jerusalem

Hunting for a Leather Camel Journal

27 February 2009

Another rainy day here in the Holy Land. I love stormy weather.

A few girlies and I went to some stores today where they have all these cool things and sweet leather journals. I love journals. They’re the best.

In our cab, there was a Muslim prayer rug on the dashboard. And in the little compartment, there was some weirdo doll. Random. It reminded me of all my little random items, which Stacy always seems to discover as she snoops through my things. :)

Chelsea and Richelle making fishy faces, but I don’t remember why. Hmm… maybe just for fun. That’s always fun. And I guess Lauren wanted to be in the picture too, because she’s poking her little head into the picture. Silly people.

I love this. I love adventures in giant taxis.

After buying my fabulous little leather journal with a camel on it (which I sadly don’t have a picture of), we went to a book store. Guess what was there… TWILIGHT in Hebrew! Yay! Aw… Edward and the vampire kind are gracing the whole world with their magnificence.

Elyse and I are clearly so excited to be out and about on the town in the rain.

Richelle is such a cool girly.

Look at the cute little baby pineapple! I love it. I miss yummy yummy fresh pineapple. Ah… Hawaii.

After our little outing to the stores, we were going to go the the Jewish market to buy produce and NUTS! I was sooooo badly craving the yummy delicious nuts that I always buy these days, and it was all I really wanted to do. I needed my nuts. But we had some miscommunication/lack of communication with our taxi driver, and he brought us back to the center instead of taking us to the market. I was so bummed. I was really so so disappointed, just because I didn’t have my nuts. Kinda funny. I think I’m addicted to these nuts.

Jerusalem

Passing Over for Pass Over

26 February 2009

We had a little Passover/Seder party. This year this lovely Jewish holiday is actually in April, but we celebrated it early, for convenience purposes. Passover is a holiday commemorating the Exodus mostly, and the freeing of Israelites from slavery. We sang a lot of songs and did a lot of readings and ate lots of food.

The group I was in sang “the Four Questions.” I’m a pro at Hebrew now.

This is the nasty grape juice that we were served four times from. It was weirdo.

This is perhaps some sort of appetizer/food of plate full of symbolism that I don’t really know about.

Our lovely little appetizers. Except that is fish, which I’m not a hugest fan of. But I tried a miniscule bite of it and it was waaaay to fishy for me. I guess I’m just used to Homer, AK’s world famous halibut, which isn’t very fishy at all.

Then we had some soup. I love soup. I really love Holly’s soup. She’s such a fabulous sister, always making me her vegetable chowder, always hooking me up with whatever I need. I miss my dear family. They’re the best.

Yay salad! I loved this course. I love salad. Vegetables are the best.

And for the main course… delish. I’m normally not a meat fan at all, but this chicken pretty much rocked my world. It was so tasty. And yummy yummy steamed broccoli, and carrots, and mashed potatoes. Mmm… I’m hungry.

Then we had a delightful little fruit bowl. I love fruit. Yum. I can’t wait for summer nectarines, my favorite.

Then they brought out all these little treats. Our kitchen staff here at the JC is the best. They’re so good.

I realized I only have food pictures from Passover Feast, but we did do a little more than just sit around and it. It was quite the feast though. And it was so cool having our Judaism teacher, Ophir, teach us all about the Jewish holiday, Passover.

Jerusalem

Almost Kissing

25 February 2009

I almost got kissed today.

Good thing I’m so speedy at dodging those things, or else I would’ve been kissed by an Arab shopkeeper that I bought shoes from.

Shamra and I outside of Damascus Gate, an entrance into the Old City

We took a quick stop at the 7th Station, which is where Jesus fell the second time as he was carrying his cross. These two Nigerians were with this Israeli tour guide and they asked my to take their picture. I will be emailing it to them very soon. Also, the Israeli woman asked is I was from here. She said I looked like I did. That’s so cool beans. It must’ve been the genie pants, Jesus sandals, and pashmina I was sporting. But I really liked this Nigerian couple. There are a lot of Nigerian people that come here touring.

There are these cool shirt shops all over the Old City. They have a bunch of sweet Israel prints and a bunch of Palestine prints and Jerusalem ones and ones with cartoon characters and ones with sports teams and ones with peace. They’re the coolest. But you can get them made in about 2.76 seconds. You just pick your print and your shirt size and color and they make it for you. And… they’re all only $3 or $4. Excellent. Things here are quite on the expensive side. This is a picture of the little Dora shirt I bought for little Natalie Girl. Love it.

Now for the kissy face story.

We were going home and I stopped in a shoe store just for fun and just because I like shoes. And I was looking at this pair and bartering with the shopkeeper. He told me to walk around in them, so I walked to the other end of the shop, which was about 20 feet away from Shamra and Sharon, and I was liking those shoes. They were pretty pretty.

But the shopkeeper followed me as I walked in them. Then I turned around to walk back and he looked at me and said, “You have very beautiful name.”

Then he pinched my chin and leaned in with his lips all puckered up to kiss me!

I leaned to the opposite side and dodged it and was like, “No thank you!” I looked at Shamra and her eyes were huge and horrified. Funny girl. She kept looking at the shopkeeper and said that she thinks he felt badly and ashamed, which would make sense. You don’t just go kissing girls that want a pair of shoes. Who does that?

Anyway, I bought the shoes and got out of there. That tall, skinny, old man just wasn’t my type.

Jerusalem

City of David and Hezekiah’s Tunnel

25 February 2009

Every year from about third grade through a high school, I’d go on a field trip to Homer’s most fabulous Pratt Museum. But let me tell you, the field trips I go on here are 500 million times cooler. The Pratt Museum is still wicked cool though.

Today we went to the City of David and Hezekiah’s Tunnel and it was definitely one of my most favorite field trips thus far. The City of David is pretty old, as everything is around here, and it is the area where David first established for the capital. It’s in Jerusalem and just right outside of the Old City. Hezekiah’s Tunnel is this big ol’ long tunnel that follows a natural crack in the rocks. A long long time ago, people carved this tunnel so to help protect the city from the Assyrians. By the way, “What… is the capital of Assyria?” and “What… is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

We got to watch this sweet 3D movie about the City of David. Me, Cate, and Lauren rock those 3D glasses like mad.

I found some gold. And by found, I mean I put it in the dirt. And by gold, I mean a coin worth about 2.5 cents.

Who can find the ancient toilet?!?!

This sign shows the water level of Hezekiah’s Tunnel. Good thing my legs are so long, I mean not long.

Roomie Lauren and Me frolicking through the tunnel

The tunnel was pretty skinny and pretty awesome. As you can see by how wet Emma’s pants are, that’s about how deep the water was at the beginning.

When we came out of the tunnel, we were splishin’ n splashin’ in the Pool of Siloam. Here’s Brother Wilson, who was one of the big splisher splashers.

Alaska!!! I love AK so much. There are four of us Alaskans here at the JC this semester. We’re taking over.

Since we were already wet, Anne, Stefanie, and I decided we’d just plop down and have a little seat in the pool. So we did. Then we decided to lay down.

Since I was on the bottom, everything but my face was under the water. I was completely soaked. It was awesome. I love water so so much. It is one of my most favorite things in the world.

some cool members of the Jeru Crew

Yay! More bug pictures!

This is what I was looking after the field trip, and what I look at everyday. Jerusalem is the coolest. I love being here so so much.

with Stephanie, my Egypt roomie

The chaco craze has clearly hit the JC students. They’re just so perfect over here.

I love field trips. I loved going through Hezekiah’s Tunnel because I love water. I love being in water. I really miss the ocean. I also got to see an area where Lehi and his family probably lived before they left Jerusalem. Wow. And I got to walk where Christ and the apostles walked today. I walked on the actual stones he would’ve walked on. Amazing? Yes.

Jerusalem

New Gate, New Adventures

23 February 2009

The Old City has quite a few gates to go into, but we usually always go in through Damascus. But today… we went through New Gate! We explored unseen realms of the Old City! Marianne, Cate, Lauren, and I were on a hunt for churches and pools and other historic sites, but we didn’t find too many of them. We did have a fun little adventure today though, as always.

We came across Casa Nova Road… oooh la la.

The streets are the coolest.

There are sweet doors too.

And there are the biggest cadbury bars ever. Coo coo ca choo huh? Yep.

We were hunting for Hezekiah’s Pool and thanks to Shabaan, we found it. Basically, it’s this dried up little cesspool that has turned into a garbage can. The old pictures of it are sweet though.

I think we found St. Jean’s Church too, but we had to go through a secret mini door to get into the courtyard. It was pretty though.. And if you look closely enough, you’ll see a mini Marianne and a mini Chelsea in the bottom of the picture.

We also went back to Christ Church today. It is so lovely. Everything is amazing. Hopefully we’ll go to mass there this Sunday.

After our sightseeing, we of course we through the little shopping district. We did a little exploring in one of the many amazing bead/jewelry shops. I of course bought more nuts too. Mmmm…. yummy.

We exchanged money at Aladdin’s too, and on the way is this store with these child mannequins outside. One has a huge megaphone in its head, and this one has its face bashed in. They’re a rough looking crowd. I’ll end with this today.

Jerusalem

Sunday in the Holy Land

22 February 2009

Here in J-Town, Sundays are not the Sabbath, Shabbat is the Sabbath. We have church and everything on Saturdays, but in the city, some other Christians still have services on Sunday. So some lovely ladies and I decided to check out what the mass was like at a Lutheran church that I do not remember the name of. Then I wandered home through the Old City, bought some nuts, bought some fruit, and in the evening I went to the movies. What a lovely Sunday.

This is the courtyard at the church. I loved going to mass. I have never really been to other church services and it was so fun to experience it. We sang some cool songs too. I’m still singing the first one we sang…. “Shine, Jesus, shine… Blaze, Spirit, blaze…” I loved singing it. It was just so good experiencing more religions though. I love being here.

After buying more love nuts, or sycamore nuts, or peanuts, or whatever they are called, we went to “Costco.” It’s this warehousey store near the center that has so so many fruits and vegetables for so so cheap. It has a lot of bulk stuff too, which is why we call it “Costco.” I bought five mandarines and five apples and a box of strawberries for only $4. In AK or HI, I’d pay that much for like three apples. This is the best.

Later that night a bunch of us went to the movies. They had all of these cardboard High School Musical people up. How could you not take a picture? I didn’t watch HSM of course. I watched Valkyrie, talk about intense and depressing, but good still.

Half way through the movie, with zero warning, with cutting the speaker off mid sentence, the curtain comes down and the lights come on. They have like a little ten minute intermission or something. Hmm… interesting. Valkyrie was intense though. It was a good movie, but definitely not a Chelsea movie, and probably just a one time watcher. I do love going to the movies now and then though.

I love Sundays.

Jerusalem

Aladdin is my life.

20 February 2009

I watched Aladdin today. My life is just like that epic cartoon. I love it.

I make wishes.
I live in a palace.
I wear genie pants like Jasmine and Aladdin.
I ride camels.
I have been in the Cave of Wonders.
I shop in a bazaar with shopkeepers just like in the cartoon.
I had a pet parrot.
I make animal towers like the Sultan.
I change money with a man named Aladdin.
I will marry a prince.
I am in a Whole New World.

Jerusalem

Ye Olde City

19 February 2009

After much sightseeing, we of course we through the Old City. I love the Old City. Just wandering around and shopping there is my most favorite thing to do. There are so many cool things to see.

And look at this wall. Is that not cool or what?

There are some sweet rings around here do. Check out these beastly ones. Aren’t they the coolest?

Here’s Marianne and I in a jewelry shop with a lot a lot of beads. You just tell the guys what you want and they’ll make you sweet earrings and they’d probably do necklaces and bracelets too. Pick whatever beautiful stones you want. I got two pairs of lovely earrings today for 10 sheks each, which is only $2.50. Pretty good prices here in the Holy Land.

Another favorite Old City purchase of mine is nuts. I love them. Yummy yummy. I buy these ones that we call love nuts, but I’ve also heard them be called sycamore nuts. They have other ones just like them that are more peanuty and they are goooood. And some of the almonds are just delightful. I am loving those nuts these days.

Then we went to West Jerusalem today, which is way way more modernized than East Jeru and Old City. But West Jeru is kinda just like a regular city, but cooler, and with cooler stuff in the shops. The Old City is my favorite.

Here’s Kara and I next to a grafitied wall in West Jeru today. I was trying to be one of the Hebrew characters. I think I need more practice.

Shopping here is fun fun fun. Everything is just really cheap. Today I bought cool things too, a new bag being one my favorites. Ok, the ring is lovely too, and the little stuffed camel and funny Jerusalem pen are a crack up. Speaking of crack, I think the nuts were one of my favorite purchases or the day. Hmm, I think I want some now…

Jerusalem

Mary-ing

19 February 2009

After our one hour Old Testament class, I did some serious sightseeing. I went to a lot of places of a lot of Marys. I went to the Church of Mary Magdalene, Old Roman Road, Church of All Nations, Garden of Gethsemane, Mary’s Tomb, Gethsemane Grotto, birthplace of Virgin Mary, St. Anne’s Church, and the Pools of Bethesda. It was quite a productive day. And then after that, I wandered around the Old City, bought some goods, and then went to West Jerusalem for a while too. I was gone for eight hours today, a very long day, but a good one, as always.

walking up to the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene

The church is beautiful. It has I think seven gold onion things on the top. It was beautiful inside too. I’ve never seen such amazing churches.

This guy there had this crazy jacket. I secretly took a picture of it. I am so stealth.

These few steps my feet are on are part of the Old Roman Road. You might notice a cat in the picture as well. They’re all over Jerusalem.

Christ walked on these very steps on his way to Bethany.

I walked on them too.

Next we stopped at the Church of All Nations. These churches are so amazing inside. They would take so much work to build them and make them all beautiful.

a pretty door at the church

This is apparently the Garden of Gethsemane, which I didn’t know. It was just a small little courtyard looking thing. But there’s another place that is privately owned or something that they think is the more likely the place of the atonement.

This was in Mary’s tomb. There were all these chandeliery things all over the ceiling, all over.

Janay and I outside where her tomb is. Beautiful.

Mary’s tomb, though I’m not sure which Mary. And I don’t think they’re positivo that this is the place. There’s a lot of Mary sites around here. I hit them all up today too.

There was a monk from Greece there that we talked to for a while, and we got a picture with him. Yep, it’s pretty cool being here.

This leads into the Gethsemane Grotto, which was pretty cool beans. It’s kinda just like a big cave. But it’s the spot where Jesus came a lot when he was in Jerusalem, and it’s where Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus with a kiss, and I think Jesus was arrested from here too.

Birthplace of the virgin Mary. Wow, it makes me love hospitals. I don’t think I’d like giving birth in a cave. No wonder Anne became a Saint.

This was at St. Anne’s Church, another beautiful one. I love all of these amazing churches here, and all of these significant historical sites.

At the Pools of Bethesda, which really aren’t pools anymore, unless it rains a lot. But there are ruins like crazy. Awesome possum.

These pools are where Christ healed the man who had been ill for 38 years. I was here.

Before shopping, Bethesda was the last place we went. I love ruins.

We also tried to go to Dome of the Rock today, but we finally made it to where we were supposed to enter, and the line was really long, and it was closing in a 1/2 hour, so we decided to go a different day. But all of the sightseeing I did today was great. I saw a lot of good Mary stuff. I love being here in this city so much.

Jerusalem

Go Team

18 February 2009

I played volleyball tonight. I miss it. I miss playing with my team even more. We had such good times. Gotta love those Lady Mariners.

Jerusalem

Mount Herzl

18 February 2009

Right after Yad Vashem we went to Mt. Herzl, which is a cemetery and memorial where Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism, is buried. Our Judaism teacher, Ophir, came and gave us a tour there for a few hours and told us all about zionism and other stuff. However, the whole time we were there, I had zero desire and zero ability to pay attention to anything. So I just wandered around and took a lot of random pictures.

Anne, Chelsea, and Annie being a human menorah, sort of

Ophir telling us about zionism perhaps

a classic field trip pose

Chris and Annie sitting in the sunshine learning some good stuff

Jeff field trippin’

this is what Heidi looks like after touring all day

Chris on a bench

Moon offering some drugs aka tylenol pm she got from the bus doc

Cate and her pretty purple lips. It got a wee bit chilly.

Random Picture #1: my beautiful bag on the ground

I love trees.

I love ones like this too.

I love little flowers.

I love flowers. I especially love them in my hair.

I love when people where converse, especially Moon.

I love taking pictures of myself in people’s aviators.

See, I really do like it.

I love butterfly kisses.

I think this is the grave or memorial for Hertz, but I’m not sure. I wasn’t listening at all. My attention span was only so long, and it was all used up at the museum.

Instead of listening, I took pictures of the army people that were there. Every person has to do like two years of civil service. We see groups of them quite often around this Israel land.

These two girls had sweet little hats on. And the one had a purple hat and a purple bag. You gotta dress up those drab army clothes somehow.

When we were walking out I saw this sign and how could I not pose like a little puppy dog by it. You know I’m a puppy.

Here’s our bye bye field trip faces. Bye bye.

Jerusalem

Yad Veshem: Holocaust Memorial

18 February 2009

We had a field trip to Yad Vashem today and it was so eye opening. Yad Vashem is the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem and it was really good going there. By the way, none of the pictures in this post are mine, since we weren’t allowed to take pictures.

The museum is a concrete, triangle shaped hall with rooms weaving off the sides. To get to the other end of the museum, you have to go through all these rooms that go chronologically through the Holocaust. It was really busy today so I couldn’t take as much time as I wanted to in there, looking at everything, at all the possessions of Holocaust victims, at explanations of the ghettos, and the concentration camps. I got to see how all of these people that were murdered, humiliated, and tortured were real people. They were regular humans just like us, who went to school, went to work, had families, had hobbies, and did the same things we did.

There was a lot of anti-semitism during that time and all throughout history really. Many Jews just haven’t had it very good. Hitler had a particular hatred for them and when he was in prison he wrote Mein Kampf, which is both an autobiography and writings explaining his socialist, nazism, political ideologies. In there he wrote how Jews are not even people, that they cannot be considered human beings. Because of those thoughts, they felt it was okay to completely exterminate them.

Six million Jews were exterminated during the Holocaust. These people were brutally murdered. Why? No one really understands. Jews have been persecuted for so long. Some people think that they might have been singled out because they wouldn’t assimilate with all of the other people. They had their own religion and their own practices and it was just easier for them to live together. Also, Jews were powerful and had money. They were just different people. The earlier roots of some of their persecution also is that Jews were responsible for the death of Christ. However, none of these reasons justify what happened to them. Nothing could ever justify for the physical and psychological pain and suffering they were subjected to.

This is the Hall of Names inside the museum. They have named as many victimized, murdered Jews as possible. A large part of Yad Veshem is research and they study all about the Holocaust and about the people. They want to name and recognize as many as they can. It was so much more real to me going to this Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem because this is where all of the Jews are at today. It is such an important part of these people’s history.

More gruesome notes on the Holocaust:

-In some concentration camps, the people were given a slice of bread and some yogurt or something, which is hardly 200 calories. How could you survive? You couldn’t. Many people’s goals was just to survive another day, another minute. So many of them couldn’t do it. The few that did survive were subject to the most intense psychological horrors.

-They had to go on death marches, where they walked around Europe, in snow often times. One blanket was given to four people.

-“A child is orphaned when it loses its parents. A nation is orphaned when it loses its children.”

-There were over 1000 ghettos in Eastern Europe; zero in Western Europe.

-Jews were stripped before they went into gas chambers, so humiliating. Then they would be packed into the gas chambers and annihilated with Cyclone B, which was an insecticide. After they were all dead, officers would go in and take the bodies to the crematoriums. Officers would also get gassed after being there for too long. They had to be cycled through.

Adolf Hitler was only one man, and because of him, six million men, women, and children died.

“Liberated but not free – that was the paradox of the Jews.”

Jerusalem

Churches and Nuts

17 February 2009

After Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies this morning, and after writing a paper about camels, I went to some churches and sights in the Old City. There is so much to do here; it’s slightly overwhelming, but so good. I went to the Dormition Abbey, a lot of places related to King David, the Upper Room, and Christ Church. It was good getting some sightseeing done, as opposed to the usual shopping in the Old City, and I love seeing all these amazing things.

A street we walked down on our way to the abbey. There’s a lot of Mercedes around here, a lot. Even the big buses we cruise around in are Mercedes, and the fire trucks on the corner, and the giant taxi vans. It’s pretty coo coo ca choo.

In front of the Dormition Abbey: “May Peace Prevail On Earth.” Amen.
The Dormition Abbey is the place where they think Mary was buried, or died. I’m not sure. But I think there quite a few different churches that think that is where she died.
The artwork inside was completely amazing. I loved looking at it. There were so many incredible, intricate mosaics.
This is in the crypt of the Abbey, where they have a sculpture of Mary.
Pray for peace for Palestine and Israel. These were the main prayer requests in the church.
outside with some cool JCites
Next we went to this area that was all about King David. There was a little sign that said “the World Peace Center” too, and it wish it was true.
Jerusalem is the coolest city. Check out this sweet door.
A very very pretty sign outside of Christ Church.
more peace plaques. need more peace.
Inside Christ Church, which was the first Protestant church here in Israel. It is used to share the Gospel with Jews. There are many Jewish symbols inside and a lot of the stuff is in Hebrew, so Jews can understand.
Beautiful stained glass window of tree with father, son, and Holy Ghost
Beautiful table outside with this fabulous painting on it. Love it.

After this lovely venture to the city, I stopped at a little spice and nut shop and bought some sweet nuts. They are soooooo delish too! I ate about 500,000 of these nuts today too. They’re hyst so goood. I love being here so so much.

Jerusalem

Bombing

16 February 2009

A night full of excessive laughter, dancing on chairs, doing cartwheels through the halls, drawing camels, leg wrestling, doing animal impressions, and doing very very little studying for this Ophir’s midterm is not a proper way to prepare for an exam. Needless to say, I bombed my Judaism midterm today, big time.

I thought since I was one of the ones that didn’t do any studying last night and all I did partied up a storm, I could use a little something extra with my test. So I drew a lucky camel on top of it. And even though I studied this morning for a little while, the lucky camel didn’t work too well for me. Maybe I need to perfect my drawing. I’m not that good with camels yet.

I passed though! Yay! Maybe the lucky camel did do a little something, but a 13 out of 24 is a 54% and that’s not quite what I was hoping for, but it’s pretty hilarious anyway. I’ve really been cracking up about it all day. Not very many people did very good on this test and we only the study guide yesterday evening, so I wasn’t expecting to do that great, although I was expecting to get a little more than a 54%. Oh well, I suppose you have to bomb your first test sometime. Today was my day of bombing it up and it was a special day indeed.

This is the picture I drew in class instead of taking notes. None of us did so good, but my score I’m pretty sure is the worst out of everyone. Funny funny. hehehe It really is funny bunny. There are a few people that got 14s though, so that’s cool. But yes, today was a day of complete bombing for me. But last night was so fun and so worth it. It was the best. I love this place.

Jerusalem

The Knesset

15 February 2009

The Knesset is Israel’s legislative branch of government and some of us went there today for a little tour and something to do on a fabulous free day. The prime minister is the main leader, but there is a president too that that prime minister elects, who doesn’t have a lot of political significance. There are quite a few different parties. The Knesset (pronouced kah-ness-it) has 120 different members and is pretty much the main power in Israel.

It was really interesting listening and learning about the government here in Israel. And they just had elections last week, so it’s amazing being here. Now I need to go to DC and check out America’s government. :)

with the street sign that points to the Knesset on a beautiful sunny Jerusalem day

picture of the main building, which had some amazing artwork by Marc Chagall inside

Carly and I and our sweet, camel leather, 50 shekel, 12 dollar Jerusalem cruisers, as we were waiting for the taxi

Jerusalem

My Loves

14 February 2009

Today is the day to celebrate love. I am celebrating.…….

…………….

I love my dearest mother. I love her so so much. I wish I could hug her right now. I wish I was laying in her bed talking to her. I love how funny she is. She always makes me smile and laugh. I love her openness to the world. She never judges. She thinks the best of people. I love her bread. It is the most amazing. I want some right now. I love her house. It is home. I love being with my mamma so much. I love her so so much. She brings so much joy into my life. She wants the best for me. She sacrifices so much for me, and others too, always. I love how she loves me. She always will. I love her too. She is my most favorite person in the world.

I love my cool beans dad. He is one of the coolest dudes on the planet. He has made me life so good. He has taken me on so many grand adventures. He has taught me about what really matters in life. He is always there for me. He is a crazy schlumberger who has brought out the goodness in me. I love how healthy he is. I love his love for flax seed. I love that he is so domestic and such a good dad. He always takes care of me. I love his love for nature and the outdoors. I love how he has passed that love on to me. I have learned so much from him. I have so much fun with him. He sends me the greatest emails. I love this crazy ol’ man. I love my dad.

I love this sister Holly Girl. She is one of the most amazing people on the planet, honestly. I admire her so much. She does so much for everyone around her. She takes care of so much. I love being around her. I love her drop dead gorgeousness. I love the ring she let me take from her. I love how amazing she is. She is such an incredible mother and she impresses me every single day. I watched her give birth and it was the greatest experience ever. I had no idea how incredible she was. She never ceases to amaze me. Amazing and incredible are clearly good words to describe her. I look up to this dear sister of mine so much. I love her. I cannot wait be in her house again, eating vegetable chowder, laughing, talking, being happy.

I love Jordin too. He is such a wonderful person. How can you not like this cool dude? I love being around him because he is always optimistic and cheerful. He looks for the best in people. He doesn’t judge. He is not easily discouraged at all. He is so generous with money, which used to work out really nicely for me when he’d always pay me $20 for a five minute foot massage. Fun times. I love Jordin because he loves my sister so much. He needs Holly and she needs him. They have such a great marriage and they are so good to be around. I love the Keintz family. Jordin is a wonderful dad and a wonderful husband. He does so much good for the world and I don’t know what I would do if he weren’t around. We need his coolness in our family, big time.

I love Stacy Girl. That Silly Sally is one of the world’s greatest sisters. I love how close we are. I love the fun parties we have in her tiny cottage. I love being able to always count on this girl for whatever I want to do. She is always there for me. I love always talking on the phone with her. I love watching her laugh. You know she has a good belly laugh. She cracks me up like crazy. We have such good times together all the time. She tells me what is wrong with me too and it’s funny. I’m glad she’s so honest in that aspect, because sometimes you need to realize where you can improve. I am so excited to be with her again. She is so important to me and I need her so badly in my life. What would I do without my Sally Girl? I just love her so much.

I love my most favorite brother in the entire world. Of all of the brothers in the world, this one is my favorite. I love it when he emails or calls me. It completely makes my day. I love his geniusness. What a smart boy that Jakey Bob is. I love fishing with my dear brother. He is one of the greatest captains and I love watching him. I love his Sigler mobile, and how he can pull it off like no one else can. I love going on adventures to haunted houses and taking old bikes from them with my dear brother. Jakey Bob is quite a cool dude. My life would have such a void without him. I love when he beats me up. It is pretty fun stuff. I like to try to do what I can to attack him back, but am usually uneffective. I love when he shoves nasty beef stick salami in my face at New Years. I have fun fun with dearest Jakey boy. I love little N Girl. Natalie Ann Keintz is the cutest little girl. She brings so much joy to my life. My goodness she is so cute. I can’t get over it. I am so happy she is in my life. I am so blessed that I got to see her come into the world. I love her big toe. I love her little haircut. I love how she’s a carnivore. What a crazy cutie patootey little girl. Oh my, I love her so much.
I love Baby Katy. Katy Lynn Keintz is the most precious and sweet soul that I currently know of in the world at this present moment. I love this little baby. I love holding her. I love watching her sleep. I love her little who nose. I love her baby fingers. I love her baby toes. I love my baby niece. I love my Carlita lobster. Carla is the greatest friend in the world. Honestly, she is the best. I love her so much. She makes me so happy. Every single time we are together is pure happiness. We are girl soul mates, bosom friends, best friends. I love how similar we are. I love how good she is to me. I love how we have stayed best friends even though we haven’t been around each other much for a long time. But everytime we are back together, it’s exactly like it was in elementary, and middle school, and a little bit of high school, and it is amazing. You don’t come across good friends like this every day. I love this beautiful girl so so much. I love me some Cala Cala.

I love Lilly. I love that she is the best roomie in the world. I love all that she has taught me. I love her charity, her generosity, her kindness for everyone. I love being around this dear Lilly girl. She is such a wonderful person. You wouldn’t believe how wonderful she is. I realize it more every day that I’m away. I miss being around this girl. I miss staying up late with her. I miss living with her. I love Lilly so much. I love her being my roomie. She is the best. I am so glad she has been in my life, because she has made it so much better.

Of course I love Robby Reeves too! How could you not love this cool kid? I love how happy he is. He is always content with whatever he haves and whatever he gets. He is happy with whatever life gives him. He wants others to be happy to. He always wants everyone to be happy. Rob is so good. I love him. I miss being around him. He makes me happy. I am so happy he is in my life. I love Robby Reeves, that crazy dude.

I love love.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Jerusalem

Friday the 13th!

13 February 2009

I love Friday the 13th! What’s with people saying it’s a bad luck day anyway? It’s the greatest day ever. And in the history of my experiences at the JC, it’s definitely the best night ever.

We had a Friday the 13th dance party/dress up crazy weirdo party. Carly, Lauren, and I did whatever we could to out hair, loaded up on the eye makeup, put on black shirts, and majorly rocked the genie pants. Uno word, fabulous.

What pretty girlies!

Aren’t you absolutely in love with genie pants?

I love dance parties. I love dress up parties. I love eyeliner all over my eyes. I love buns all over my head. Tonight was a good night.

Everyone looked so crazy good. Emilie is definitely included in that bunch of fabulous dressed/make upped people.

…………

After the dance party was over, Nycole, Lauren, Chelsie, and I saw two fine boys with a flashlight on the search for a “cave.” So we foolishly and naively followed them. Clearly we were slightly frightened to be wandering around outside at midnight. This is us in the cave/place under the JC.

AHHH!!! We took a picture of the empty room to get some more light and there was a creepy man just sitting against the wall! We ran screaming up the stairs as fast as our little leggies would go.

Only to found out shortly after that it was Jeff sitting there like a creeper with a pillowcase over his head. Matt, Josh, and Jeff just wanted to scare some helpless girls that evening. They got us goooooood.

……………..

We went back to our room and I took all of my little buns out. This hair was the result.

Lauren and I decided we hadn’t taken enough pictures for the night, so we had a mini photo shoot in the bathroom. Fun fun.

Isn’t Friday the 13th the greatest?

Older Posts

February 2009

I am nuts… for nuts.

Hunting for a Leather Camel Journal

Passing Over for Pass Over

Almost Kissing

City of David and Hezekiah’s Tunnel

New Gate, New Adventures

Sunday in the Holy Land

Aladdin is my life.

Ye Olde City

Mary-ing

Go Team

Mount Herzl

Yad Veshem: Holocaust Memorial

Churches and Nuts

Bombing

The Knesset

My Loves

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