26 July 2011

It was rough waking up this morning. I had gone to my room with the intent of going to bed before midnight last night...however, like every other night, this did not happen. I got distracted by this and by that, and before I knew it, it was well past midnight and well past my bedtime. I climbed out of bed and headed straight for the shower, letting the warm water relax my tense muscles and wake up my body. I quickly got dressed and pulled my hair back, grabbed my scriptures, and ran up the stairs for breakfast. There were pancakes - my favorite! Once finished with eating, I skipped off to the Lounge on the Sixth Floor to finish reading for New Testament that morning. At 7:55, I wandered into Classroom One and class began.

We had New Testament for two hours this morning, but it wasn't too hard. We spent the morning discussing the Gospel of John - my favorite book in the New Testament. We were then released for an announcement session (which went far too long, as always) and linen exchange. There is nothing better than clean linens! Unfortunately, as soon as our beds were made, another hour of New Testament began. There are ups and downs to the beginning vs. the ending of the semester. We only have two classes now, but those classes last for hours. Luckily, it's the New Testament and not Calculus or Biology. There is no way I would make it through three hours of derivatives or cell divisions; I would be long gone as soon as I walked through the door.

Lunch brought two of my favorite foods at the J.C. Oasis: pizza and salmon. There is nothing better than eating cold salmon right off of the fish! (Dad, you would love it!) The food at the Oasis, while it repeats itself every week or so, is tolerable and I wouldn't mind acquiring the recipes for many of the dishes that are served. In the middle of lunch, a flashmob broke out in order to say goodbye to our Doctors, John and Christine. It was time for them to go home, so we thought it only appropriate to give them a loving goodbye. A song was written by a few students, the signal was made, and the dancing and singing began. It was hard to say goodbye to them! But, they were excited to go home to see their children and to see their grandchildren. Eighteen months is a long time to be away from your family. Tears, hugs, and promises to visit were exchange, and then we all dispersed to spend the afternoon in the Old City.

After much debate, I decided to go to the Tombs of the Prophets with Andrew, Julie, Lizzie, Jenny S., and Jeehee. The Tombs of the Prophets is located on the Mount of Olives, near the Seven Arches Hotel. Medieval tradition holds that these catacombs were the burial plots of the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the last three prophets of the Hebrew Bible. As we neared the catacombs, the excitement set in: another burial site. But in all reality, burial sites are a lot cooler than they sound. It is so cool to explore the different passage ways and get lost in the many tunnels. Inside this particular catacomb, many of the tombs are connected by narrow tunnels that you have to crawl through. No one in my group dared crawl through these tunnels; we had no way of knowing where they would lead to or what we would be crawling through. (Jerusalem isn't always the cleanest of cities, and caves and tombs are used by many as more than just burial sites...if you know what I mean.) Instead, we decided to light some candles and do some stop-action photography. This brought me back to my freshman year! Haha it was pretty fun. Andrew enjoyed 'blowing fire' as the girls wrote out different sayings, like "I love you." However, just as we were getting the hang of it, the priest at the entrance requested we leave because we were being irreverant in a holy site... More likely than not, a couple who had been in the tombs with us were annoyed that they couldn't get passed us and complained (especially since I had taken pictures like this once before and was never asked to stop). But that's okay. We climbed out into the daylight and decided just to head back to the J.C. On the way back, I stopped and grabbed a popsicle - it was more of an ice push'em. And to my surprise! There were gummi bears frozen into it! Best. Thing. Ever.

I spent the rest of the afternoon doing homework and trying to get caught up on my adventures in Galilee. Being without a computer gets more and more frustrating every day, but at least the J.C. has computers I can use! After dinner, I had planned to go to Independence Park in West Jerusalem to play Ultimate Frisbee, but the fact that I was falling asleep in my mashed potatoes kept me from leaving. Instead, I spent some time outside on the seventh floor reading the scriptures and writing letters. I also took a few pictures with Kymberly! As soon as the bugs came out to play, I decided to go inside and see what everyone else was doing. I ended up in the Student Lounge watching Mama Mia and listening to Chris sing along to every song. It was most exellent. I didn't make it through the entire movie, but it was nice to watch part of it. I had forgotten how funny that movie is!

Back in my room, I finished writing a letter to my new friend, Elder Cline, and climbed into bed. I was beyond exhausted and fell asleep within minutes.