I am in heaven.  Can I just tell you that?! Today was my third day in Jerusalem and I can honestly say that I have loved every second of my being in this land! It is as different as it gets, but that's just what I love. Here is how the past few days have gone down...

Tues. Aug. 30th/ Wed. Aug 31st. : Travel days.  There were 6 different groups of traveling students (81 kids total) and we definitely got the best end of the deal!  Our first flight left at 11 a.m. and we had one hour-long layover at JFK and then it was back on the plane to Tel Aviv!  We made it safe and sound without any complications! Things went so smoothly for me for a while...the biggest relief was probably that even though my bag was 6 lbs over the weight limit, the nice lady let it slide! ;)  God bless nice people. :) I felt really lucky because on our 11 hour flight to Tel Aviv I got a window seat and hence slept a lot of the flight.  My traveling friends were not so lucky.  The trouble started when we were going through customs.  They warned us in our orientation meeting before we left that a couple of us would be questioned a lot about our stay here and they told us the exact answers that we should say! And of course...I happened to be one of the lucky few who got this grand treatment!  Ha let's just say that my customs lady was a sour lady who had me thinking I would have to hop on a plane back home! Ha but another girl Rachel had troubles also, so at least I wasn't alone!  They ended up taking us into a back room to the head hauncho where we had to answer to him....and then he signed our papers.  Haha it was a little bit scary!  The trouble didn't stop there though! Once we got through customs, we found out that 51 of our fellow students were still stuck in Phoenix from the day before.  They had all gotten from SLC to Phoenix, but not past it.  We felt so bad!!!! Only 30 of us had made our trip! I didn't have a roommate for the first few nights but I do now so my dreams of getting murdered in the night by a guy with a machine gun can stop. Haha (don't worry mom, it was only a dream. I am VERY safe here!)  They didn't think that they would be able to get them out here until next Tuesday at the earliest, but already 17 flew in today (on a horrendous flight of  2 days and 4 connections) and we have more arriving tomorrow on 4 separate flights and the rest on Sunday.  So that is going to be nice!  We have honestly gotten really comfortable and close with the group of 30 of us, but it will be fun to add some new dimensions!  When we did get to the center though, we all were on the verge of tears because we were so excited!  The view is breath-taking.  I have never seen anything so remarkable.  I haven't gotten a picture of it yet, but I will soon! And the center is the most beautiful building on earth!  Devin and I already talk about how our houses will have the same construction as the ones here. Haha

Thurs. Sept. 1st: JERUSALEM!!!! Oh my gosh.  I don't even know what to say about the city!  We had a couple of orientations this day (they never end) but then we got to go out on a walking tour of the city!  It was amazing!!!!! I have never been in a culture that is so different!  It kind of makes you nervous at times, but you just have to remind yourself that different is not bad!  We live in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian side, and so we walked all around the East side for a while.  Most of the shops were still closed because it was the last day of Ramadan (a Muslim holiday where you fast every day for a month and only eat dinner and then the last three days you party all day), but we still were able to see a lot.  We went all around the Old City as well, which was really eye-opening and fun! I will have to take pictures because I don't know if I can describe it.  But think of small, cobblestone streets lined on each side with vendor after vendor and usually covered overhead too.  It's awesome :) So colorful and full of smells of spices and the alleys turn every which way so it is very easy to get lost! Ha next came West Jerusalem and that is a completely different world.  It is clean, orderly, expensive....a lot like America. Our tour was amazing and really helped orient us in the city.  I taught lots of people how to play wackee and they loved it of course! And we played lots of games together that night.  I love everyone!!! I am already feeling like we are all best friends. :)

Fri. Sept. 2nd: Israeli Museum, Garden Tomb, and Jerusalem.  Our morning was spent at the Israeli Museum.  It is huge and so packed with everything you could think of so I will definitely have to go back! Ha but it was really neat!  Some highlights that I saw there were the Dead Sea Scrolls, artifacts that were waaaay old, and beautiful jewelry up the wazoo! I seriously considered breaking the glass for some of the Egyptian jewelry that they had there! Ha after lunch we got to go to the Garden Tomb. Wow.  Since only 1/3 of our group is here, they have rescheduled the last couple of days so that we don't start classes, but that we go on field trips that the other groups can catch up on later.  You could say we've been having a little bit of fun :)  As Mormons, we do not know if the Garden Tomb was the exact tomb where Jesus was, but it is a very good possibility. The thing I realized today was that it doesn't matter if it's the exact tomb or not!  All that matters is what happened--Jesus Christ died for us and was resurrected for us and He lives again today! It was incredible! We got to sing some hymns and take pictures.  See!

Ummm....this is Devin Neff. She is my new bff. And I love her a lot! We have been having sleep overs because we both don't have roommates. But now I do! :) And yes, I do look this frumpy every day.  Attractive right?  After the tomb, we got to go exploring around the Old City for a few hours BY OURSELVES!!!!!  It was exhilarating to say the least! Dev, Leslie, Whitney, and I just walked around for a couple of hours.  We had a couple of attempts at pick pocketing, but we prevailed! We also navigated ourselves without any maps and didn't get wrestled into buying anything.  It was great fun! Sorry this is forever long, I just have so much to say! And this isn't even a dent in it.  Plus, I am also kind of using this as a journal, so I can remember everything I can! I wish everyone could come here and experience this!  It truly is amazing and already so life-changing.  I am so blessed!  That is my constant thought lately.  I love Jerusalem!