Valentine's Day package!!
Dan sent me a BEAUTIFUL Valentine's day package that got here only a little after V day!! I was SO excited to get a package from my valentine!! <3 Guess what he sent me? He sent me a rose in the form of an adorable pink purse, complete with green ribbon stem. He sent me a bunch of princess pencils!!! He sent me princess valentines (I LOVE the Disney princesses!!) and on each one, wrote me why I was better than that particular princess!! EEEEPPP!! :):) He sent me deodorant (which I needed...)! He sent me a flash drive with "Saving Gordon" on it, my favorite video with my favorite actors of all time--Daniel Soffe and Gordon the Gourd!! He sent lots of yummy yummy chocolate for me to eat!! My favorite kinds, too--Reeses Peanut Butter cups and Cookies and Creme Hersey's chocolate...delicious. And then he sent a movie, 2 packages of popcorn, and MORE chocolate so that I could have a movie night with my wonderful roommates!! Last and the BEST, Dan sent me a beautiful, hand-written, scent-soaked (our room smelled like a boy for a week, ha ha) LOVE NOTE!!! What an incredible boyfriend I have!! I love him, and I'm so glad that I had a true and wonderful and kind valentine this year!! :)
Here are the rings that Dan made for each of my roommates (and me!) The double knot one. The rings all fit perfectly! We all LOVE him for his sweet gifts!! :) Also, check out that beautiful watch on my wrist. It was the crowning jewel of Dan's package...it is a beautiful leather and fancy leather map-face watch. What map is the face, you ask? A MAP OF MIDDLE EARTH. IT'S A LORD OF THE RINGS WATCH. Probably one of the best gifts I've ever gotten in my life. I am transported to Middle Earth every time I check the time.
A little summary of all the gifts that Dan got me!! I am so grateful and I LOVED it!! Rainbowda says thank you, too! We love you, Dan!! :)
Passover Seder
Part of our education here at the Jerusalem Center includes studying the cultures, lifestyles, and religions of the Israelis and the Palestinians. As part of our Israel class, we celebrated Passover with our Israel teacher, Ophir Yarden. (Remember Arab Culture Night? That was for our Palestine class. Both are equally important classes!)
Passover is a time for Jews to remember Moses and the Exodus, to relive that story and remember the mercies of the Lord. Each of the rituals performed and many of the foods that are eaten on Passover are
Our tables were decorated absolutely beautifully.
Each setting had a program that we could follow, and a children's book explaining the Passover (complete with pictures!) that we could refer to. I took pictures of the actual Exodus story in this book, but I didn't include it in this post because it's like 70 pictures long. It is in a "quote scripture than explain a little" form, so that the Jews are reminded of the sufferings of their fathers, the mercy of Jehovah, and how to remember the Passover in their daily lives.
Our table had plates of ritual food and a bottle of "wine" (grape juice, cause we're LDS). You can see that there is a piece of chicken, a boiled egg, some bitter herbs (red stuff), some yummy apple-pie-filling-paste (brown stuff), some parsley, and some lettuce. I can't remember what most of them are for, because our Passover was abbreviated from an actual one, but we did partake of the parsley (explained later), the bitter herbs, and the yummy stuff.
Some of the lovely girls at my table!! Michelle, and Jane Ostergar! They are super awesome and I love them! :)
Artsy, eh? My name on a Passover pamphlet with the ritual foods :)
This is our teacher, Ophir, leading us in the first of four symbolic wine-drinkings. There were special prayers that you say before every time you drunk. If you want to get a feel for the rituals of Passover, think of Tevye from "The Fiddler on the Roof:" He says that Jews have a blessing for everything, and it's true! It's a very neat way to live, always constantly remembering God, even every time you put a bite of food in your mouth.
The parsley was dipped in a bowl of salt water and eaten. This is because it was spring when the Israelites left Egypt, and the greenery of the spring was salted with the tears of the people. (I think--I'm unsure on a lot of these things.) It was super interesting to have the different tastes in your mouth and think about the meaning.
We participated in a ritual washing and cleansing of our hands, which we had to do in silence until we said a certain prayer.
This is me eating Matzah bread (unleavened bread, basically a cracker) with the bitter herbs on it. It didn't taste that bad! We got to wash down the horseradish with that delicious apple-pie filling stuff.
Sister Bench trying to get a spoon to stick to her nose. She's so cool. I hope I can be like her when I'm older :)
Okay, so after dinner, there were a bunch of fancy desserts. Maybe I cleaned my own bowl and also the table dessert plate. What can I say? I like food. A lot. :)
There was some extra "wine" left over after Passover. This is as close as I'm ever going to get to drinking alcohol, so I might as well revel in the moment and take a wine-bibber picture :)
This is Ophir and his super adorable daughter. I loved his class and I learned SO much. He is a phenomenal teacher and an even better man. I really admire his faithfulness and dedication to his religion, because I think it would be a very hard thing to live it.
Roommate Movie Night!! (every Thursday)
Picture of us eating the delish chocolate Dan sent us! Michelle is REALLY enjoying it... :) I don't know where Lindee was at this moment. Probably doing her homework like a good student.
I'm eating a lot of pitas and chocolate, and it's getting too easy to make this double chin. Hehehe :)
We put all the chocolate on the beds to that we wouldn't have to move to reach some to eat, and when we woke up, there was chocolate surrounding our mattresses. Hehe, we are slobs! :)
Tel Aviv
The students at JC took a trip to Tel Aviv, which is a big city along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. This is where we flew into Israel, in the Ben Gurion airport. Me and the lovely roommies, in front of the Mediterranean Sea!
The little mermaid? I legitimately was trying, but I don't think I nailed it. :)
What can I say, I do love the kid! I want to let every beach in the whole world know! :)
This sea was sooo beautiful! It was so nice to get out of Jerusalem (can you even believe that I'm saying that? But it's true!) and visit some other places! To me, the ocean has always been a mighty testament of God's incredible power! There's nothing better to help you recognize the magnitude of God's character than seeing the brilliance, ingenuity, and astonishing beauty that the natural world has to offer.
A statue in front of a restaurant. Chivalry isn't dead!
I'm not sure why this store was selling giant statues of strange things, but this picture is for Millie and Victoria. LOOK, A UNICORN IN REAL LIFE!!! If I had a way to get it back to the US, I would've bought it and placed it as the centerpiece of our apartment. :)
A fuzzy ball cap that I found at the flea market. I'm not even going to talk about how tempted I was to buy this.
I think this picture is really funny. I collected shells to give to my nieces and nephews as souvenirs and they were REALLY awesome. I told some people that they could take some, and then before I knew it, almost all my shells were gone. Oh well. This pic is when I realized that I had to go up and down the beaches again to get more shells. What a disappointment. ;)
Michelle and I! We pretty much do everything together. 'm lucky to have an amazing friend like her!!
So, had thought ahead and brought swimsuits to go swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. I, unfortunately, was not one of those people. As I was sitting on the beach and looking out at all these people having fun, I decided that I was only going to be here once, and who cares if I have a swimsuit? How many times am I going to swim in the Mediterranean Sea? So I borrowed someone's swimshorts, took off my panties (under the cover of a beach towel) and went in the water with all my clothes on. Perhaps the best decision ever :) The waves were so fun to play in, and it was even more exciting cause I had to fight to keep those swimshorts on. We can ALWAYS find ways to make life an adventure! YOLO!! (you only live once!)
I convinced Alyssa and Michelle to get in the water with me, with all their clothes on. Except that Michelle had a swimsuit, so that doesn't quite count. But Alyssa was a star and got in the water with her shirt and jeans!! Atta girl!!
So I have a riddle for you guys: What happens when all your clothes are wet and salty, you don't have a towel, and you have to be in a city for the rest of the day? That's right--stay in the wet and salty clothes :) Luckly I had taken off my undies, so those were dry. And I had a jacket so I didn't have to wear my wet shirt. But it was really fun trying to dry off from a couple hours' drenching with little toilet paper squares from the bathroom :) Eventually I just gave up and put all the clothes on, despite the wetness and salt. This picture is how I felt--uncomfortable and wet, but very happy :)
We went back to the flea market and saw those statues again. I don't know how I missed this, but there was a statue of a giant banana with a MONKEY on it. What the heck? People can be so weird in their taste sometimes :) This one is for Mom. Look at that monkey, Mom. Monkeys only eat bananas, not people. :)
There was a store that had crystals from broken chandeliers for sell. I loved this store. Look at all those beautiful jewels!! :)
No better way to end the day than with a giant ice cream cone :)
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