Monthly Archives

March 2009

Jerusalem

Hill of Spring

6 March 2009
Field trip to Tel Aviv day, and the day after we got back from Jordan too. Tel Aviv is about an hour away from Jerusalem and is a much much more modern and less conservative city than J Town. 
First we went to a Jewish History Museum or something in Tel Aviv. It was such a sunny sunny day and everything is getting so beautiful.

Then we went to this other place where some Zionist stuff happened and some meetings back in the day, but I fell asleep there and I don’t really remember what was going on. But here’s Annie, Heidi, and I in a significant room, with a picture of Theodore Herzl, founder of Zionism, in the background.

Then we were free! We wandered around Tel Aviv and came across some interesting souls, and there were cool ones too. Here’s a dude playing some sweet jams. It was so fun being in Tel Aviv. It’s such a cool city, and a very nice contrast from J Town.

This was one of the more interesting people we came across. I don’t know what he was doing or what he was dressed up as, but he looked good either way, obviously.

We saw a kosher Burger King too! Fun fun. There’s a lot a lot of kosher stuff around here, since it’s a Jewish state and all.

After wanderings through the streets… TO THE BEACH! I went to the Mediterranean Sea… yay! So so happy. I need the sea so badly. I miss it so much.

Except this beach was way to Waikiki-esque for me. Too many people, too crowded. I prefer Hukilau or Temple Beach all to myself. That’s the greatest. I miss the beach so much. 

happy feet in the sand and sea

happy girls on the beach

Seriously, as soon as my feet touched the sand, I was so happy. This was such a good and needed beach reunion.

I wanted to go swimming so badly, but we didn’t have enough time. I did get into the water though, but just up to my knees, and I got my skirt all wet, and it was so happy.

Then we had to walk back to another part of town and on the way, we stopped for some delightful frozen yogurt. Yummy yumkins!

I want this car. Other than my sweet 1991 Subaru Loyale, this is the only car I would want. I want one big time. I don’t like new cars. I only like old cars, and junky cars. Junky cars are the best.

a door

walking in the hot sun

THE WISHING BRIDGE. I LOVE WISHING! They have all of the zodiac signs and you put your hands on the plaque and look out at the sea. This is my wishing spot.

My wishes always come true. And what more could I wish for right now?

Jerusalem

A Mosque, More Ruins, and the Jordan River

4 March 2009
Day 4 of Jordan. Our first stop was this mosque. 

Since we don’t cover all of our skin, the women had to put on these black robes and had to have our hair covered. Pretty much the only skin you could see was face and hands. As you can see in this picture, Lisa and I our using our lovely revealed hands to hold fake wands and pretend like we were students and Hogwarts and casting spells. Cool huh? I love magic, and Harry Potter.

Look at all those pretty ladies!

Everything inside the mosque was so beautiful and so detailed. It’s incredible how much work they put into it. Here’s a picture of the carpet. It was cool You have to take your shoes off to go in too. And these mosques are probably full of devout Muslims during the many many many times they pray to Allah. So many Muslims are so dedicated and do so much for their religion.

coolest ceiling I’ve ever seen

These pictures do it no justice whatsoever. It was beautiful in there.

We were sitting in there in our little black Harry Potter robes listening to our guide, Iyad, tell us all about Islam and the mosque.

This is Stephanie, my roomie in Egypt and Jordan.

Our Jordan guide’s name was IYAD. Check out the sweet name tag.

We hit up more sweet ruins in Jordan and lucky Moon discovered a fuzzy little Jordanian caterpillar! Yay for bug pictures! 

This is for sure the coolest of cool. 

Tree.

On our way back from Jordan to Israel, we had a little stop here, at the Jordan River.

Jesus Christ was baptized in this area. What a lucky ducky I am to see all of this! I am so happy to be here.

I love trails.

Chelsea and Heidi on the River Jordan. 

I couldn’t do this post without the picture of this fly. Gotta love those bug pictures you know!

Jerusalem

When in Rome (in Jordan)…

3 March 2009
Day 3 in Jordan was spent in Jerash, which is an ancient Roman city in Jordan. It was awesome. I loved it loved it loved it. I’ve never seen anything like this so it was so wicked cool.

This is Stephanie, Miriam, Cate, and I at the place where they’d have fun jousting parties just like in A Knight’s Tale.

Here’s our tour guide Thaar and in the background is a cool dude in a sweet Roman costume. 

Cate and Chelsea are in Jordan! Yay! I love traveling the world. It’s the coolest of cool.

It was so so beautiful in Jerash. I absolutely loved this day. First of all, I was wearing a skirt. I love skirts. They are so much cooler than pants. Also, it was a beautiful sunny sunny day. And… things were green. I didn’t feel like I was just chillin’ in the dessert. I love green.
All of the ruins were so incredible. Check out this staduim. Wow to the max.
And so so many pillars. Isn’t it the best. It was so beautiful there. I had such a fabulous day. 
I’ve seen quite a few ruins and ancient things lately, but Jerash is definitely one of my favorites.

I love flowers. I love beautiful flowers in greeness and in ancient Roman ruins. By the way, not that these are dandelions, and not that dandelions are technically flowers, but dandelions are pretty much my favorite flowers anyway. 

Chelsea and dear Kara leaving the Jerash. Cool beans huh. Yes. I love it.
We left Jerash and stopped at this beautiful lookout here in Amman, Jordan. I am so happy to be in the beauty. I love nature! Yay!
With the end of our Jerash visit, we went to the Amman, Jordan branch of the church. We had a little fireside thing there. It’s so interesting experiencing what the church is like over here. Not only are Mormons minorities, but Christians in general are huge minorities. Jordan and Egpyt are Muslim countries and Israel is a Jewish country, so it’s so different thinking that only a few people around you believe in Christ.

Favorites, Jerusalem

Petrificus Totalus!

3 March 2009
Day 2 in Jordan was spent in Petra. Your first thoughts for Petra might be Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but my first thought it “Petrificus Totalus,” which is a Harry Potter spell. Cool huh? Petra is an ancient Nabatean city famous for it rock cut architecture. There are such incredible structures that are completely carved out of rock. How would you do that? I don’t know Joe.
This is me and my bus buddy, Stefanie. Are you ready for a funny funny hilarious story?
   The whole group of us left the hotel in the morning and we started for Petra. We were just walking on the sidewalk with pretty planted trees on it and things, to the trailhead type thing for Petra. Anyway, this little ol’ bus buddy of mine had a bit or an orange juice mustache, so I was telling her, because that’s always a good things to do, always.
   As I was looking to my right, focusing on Stefanie’s beautiful face, a lost focus of what was right in front of me. Then >WHACK
   It was the funniest thing of the trip. It was sooooo funny. I can’t even tell you. And it was funnier because one of our professors was walking right next to us when this incident occurred and he was genuinely concerned. He was just like, “Are you okay?!” And I was just bent over in half cracking up. It was so awesome. Oh man that was hilarious.
   So heads up, look out for the trees.

After walking through the wadi, or the ravine, we came to THIS! This is the treasury in Petra. This is what’s shown in Indiana Jones. It was so amazing. On the walk in we saw some carvings in the rock walls and I thought those were amazing, because how do you make such good carvings out of rock like that? Then we got to the treasury and it’s this huge cave inside and the outside is the detailed, symmetrical, totally amazing architecture.
You might already know this by my camel sweatshirt I’m wearing and all of my random camel paraphernalia, but I have a strange obsession with the beloved, awkward camel. They’re the coolest.
As we walked further inside, we saw more and more amazing architecture and things. Here’s remains of a Roman theater behind Cate and I. The Romans conquered this for a while and there is a lot of Roman influence in all the architecture.
I also used a wicked cool bathroom here in Petra. The ceiling and walls were the beautiful rock that surrounds Petra. Then there were stalls inside and fortunately for me, there was a squatter! I love those squatter toilets.
This is it. This is what it’s like. There weren’t too many squatters around, but every time there was, you know I took full advantage of the opportunity and used it.
Along with the fascinating squatters, there was also this mountain shaped like a camel. Yay!
Then we hiked up 850 steps or something, and a big ol’ mountain, up to the monastery, which is probably the most amazing part of it all right now. This is Heidi and I in the beautiful rocks.
Then… we made it to the monastery, which is similar to the treasury kinda, but way cooler. Wow. I love being here so much. I have never seen things like this before. This is the most incredibly experience. I am such a lucky ducky.
We were trying to spell J-o-R-d-A-n.  We did pretty fabulously.
Hooray for this. Lisa, Elyse, and Chelsea… Petrified in Petra. Check out that monastery behind us, totally just carved right out of the rock. It’s perfect.

Then we kept hiking past the monastery and came this view. I love the beauty of the earth.

On the hike out I discovered another cool little buggie bug. So I put my camera on super macro and took some sweet pictures of little bug.
All in Petra there are Bedouins and little children who are trying to sell you things. This one girl was soooo cute. All of the kids here are just so beautiful and so sweet and are so interested in us. I love them.
As I said goodbye to Petra, I thought I’d throw a goodbye kiss at the camel too. Actually, I didn’t really kiss it, it was scary. It’s creepy putting your face so close, especially with their beastly long tongue. Who knoww what could happen.
Petra was so incredible. I need to think of more adjectives to describe all of these things, but they really are just incredible and you need to see these things for yourself. Petra is 100% awesome though. Loved it muchos.

Jerusalem

Mustaches in Jordan

2 March 2009
One thing I learned in going to Jordan, was that mustaches are extreme. You’ll know what I’m talking about by the end of this post. So we are lucky duckies and had another wicked awesome field trip to another middle eastern country. We bussed it up of course, but the drive wasn’t that long, especially compared to Alaska, where you have to drive four hours to get to the nearest mall or to the airport. A four hour drive to a completely other country is just awesome possum.
   
Our first stop was Mount Nebo, which is where Moses was given a view of the Promised Land. There was this big cool round stone there, that Kara Kara and I took a picture in front of.

There was this wicked old and wicked awesome mosaic inside this smelly tent that smelled like a big, animal poo smelling, burlap sack. But the mosaic was pretty sweet. 
Just standing on the hilltop looking out at Jordan. I love being here so so much. It is amazing.
Moon is one of the coolest girls in the world. She took “I was here” pictures all over Jordan. She is seriously so wonderful.
Next stop was Madada, where the oldest map of the Holy Land is. It’s a huge, detailed, incredible mosaic on a church floor. It dates to 6th century AD. Whoa dude.

Cate, Chelsea, and Rachel inside the church, sitting on fabulous chairs. There is so much hard work and detail put into this church, and to all the churches I’ve seen around here. It’s amazing. 
The church at Madaba was full of mosaics. It was like they were paintings all over the wall, but they were actually mosaics. There were so many. Could you imagine making these. Look at all those little pieces you have to put together. Wow.

This is an ambulance I saw parked when we first go to Jordan.

And to end this post, here’s the MUSTACHE MAN. Look at that beastly mustache. Who does that? It is out of control. By the way, I had to very stealthily take this picture on the bus. People were kinda trying to take pictures and he wasn’t a huge fan, but I got a good one. 

Being in Jordan is the coolest.

About Me

About Me

"What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family." -Mother Theresa

Today is a good day

March 2009
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