Jordan!

So we just got back from Jordan today! We left early Monday morning, and returned home this afternnoon. Besides getting pretty sick last night, I LOVED Jordan! Petra, Mount Nebo, King Abdullah mosque, Roman theatre, nutella fruit salad, Jordan River, ect!!

The sun was setting over the dead sea! This picture doesn't do it justice, but it was beautiful!!

The place where John the Baptist was beheaded, it was so cool to see

At Petra! There was definitley som humming of the Indana Jones theme song at this point!!

At the King Abdullah 1st mosque! We had to wear big black capes, with hoods on them!

The remains of Hercules Temple

Palestinian children are so cute!!

At the river where Jacob wrestled with an Angel of God for a blessing, and here his name was changed to Israel.

I loved this sign!

The Monastery in Petra

The chariot/gladiator show we watched in Jerash, and apparently this is also where A Knight's Tale was filmed!

The River Jordan

Olive Squishing!

On Tueday, we got to press the olives that we picked the week before! We used the old-fashioned olive press on the center grounds, and it was fun, messy, and hard work!

We had to push the giant stone around, so it would ground the olives down into mush, and this may look easy, but it was super heavy and hard!

Then, when it got full, we had to pick up the squished olives, and put them into woven baskets

It was messy, oily work!

So then we stacked the baskets filled with the squished olives and pressed them all down, and all the olive oil got squeezed out, like a sive.

The oil sits in these holes in the ground for a week, and then it seperates, and the top layer has to be scraped off, and then it is ready to go!! I have a whole new appreciation for olive oil now!

So I have decided that I have to live in a place where I can go snorkelling at least once a week! I love snorkelling so much! We all went to Eilat yesterday, and went snorkelling in the Red Sea. It was SO cool! I love being able to see underwater! And I am so mad because my camera is waterproof, but I was just so scared to drop it cause we were swimming in really deep water, but now I wish I would have! But there was beautiful, bright coral, and lot's of bright fish, and the water was so clear and blue!

Then today for our field trip we went to the City of David, and in there is Hezikiah's tunnel, which was so cool! Like it was built when David was king! And then we all went to the pool of siloam, which is where Jesus healed the blind man, and we saw some other really interesting things.

One of the lookout points from the City of David

Going down into the tunnel!

The water level was really high in some places!

It was a really fun field trip!

Okay so ya know how usually talent shows are like okay, a few people sing, play the piano, tell jokes, ect? Well last night we had a talent show here, and it was the best one I have ever seen! Improv, hilarious skits, audiovisual, re-written raps, original songs, flexibility, baking, dancing, licking of the elbow, ladies dancing in bathrobes & curlers, videos, violin, memorization & singing of the whole periodic table, clogging, the list goes on! Like my mouth hurt from laughing so much! And I'm sad to say that I forgot my camera so I didn't document any of it! Sad eh?

Then today at church, we sat next to some visitors, and Kimberly and I started talking to them and they just had the coolest story! They are going all over the world taking pictures of children, and then they are going to put those pictures into a childrens book, and then for each book they sell they are going to give a book back to the children in the places they went. They have already gone to 11 different countries, and they only stay a few days in each. They are in Jerusalem for 1 more day, then they go over to Egypt, then to Africa! They gave us their business card, and the website is E3Imagine.com, but because of the dumb internet policies here, I can't go to the web page! I just love hearing about organizations like this, I love them, I just want to go volunteer with all of them! Like one of my friends here, Kimberly, her family started school in Kenya in honor of her brother. http://www.koinsforkenya.org/sms_mission.php. Thats the link to the website, and I totally would love to go over there for a while and help out with the school! I just love finding opportunities to be able to serve and travel! I was just thinking today about volunteering for the Peace Corps, but I looked it up and you have to be a U.S. citizen, so I guess I'll just have to settle for ILP in Mexico!

Then today, me, Kaylie & Kimberly all wore our matching, but slightly different dresses that we bought in the old city! I love finding dresses are long enough and have sleeves!

Blood Drive, West Jeru, Olive Picking, and the Tower of David Museum!

So they had a blood drive here a few days ago, and I had never donated, so even though I HATE needles, I did it! After I got it done, I was feeling okay, and they made me sit down for 10 mins and eat snacks and drink juice, and so I was doing that, and all a sudden I started to get really dizzy, and then Dr. Chapman came over, and he said my face just turned completely white, and he felt my pulse and it was down to 45, and I started to black out, so I had to put my head between my knees, and then they brought me a mat and I had to lie down, it was quite embarassing since I was the only one it happened to!

Then later that night a bunch of us went down to West Jerusalem! There were some people doing hair wraps, so Koryl and I decided to get them!

Then we got delicious crepes!!

Then the next day we got to pick olives from the trees around the center! We are the only semester who gets to do this, and before we started, we had a forum on how the olive tree and the olives relate to the gospel and Christ, and it was so interesting! Then next week we get to squish them with the old olive presses we have here! But I have a whole new appreciation for olive oil now, it`s hard work to get it!

They told us all to bite into an olive! It`s flavor was total and complete bitterness!

Then today for our free day we went to the Tower of David Museum! It was like the coolest place ever and had the most beautiful view!!

We got shwarma in the old city, and it was one of the best things I have ever eaten!!!

Then we stopped by Omar`s on the way home! I have such a love-hate relationship with that store, because I love everything, but it`s all so expensive! I have already gotten a nativity, but here`s the latest thing I fell in love with! I love olive wood!