Gobble Gobble! Part One

I'll give you one clue as to where I was for a week....here it is:

If you guessed Turkey because that is a turkey in the picture then you were sure as heck correct! What is better than seeing a turkey in Turkey? A lot of things. Haha let me tell you about all my adventures there! 

Day 1: Tel Aviv to Istanbul (Sunday)

This day is pretty much described in the title.  We left the JC (Jerusalem Center to you) at a leisurely time of eleven in the morning.  With a group of 95 we had to be at the airport three hours before our flight (plenty of time for some quality pictures).  We stood in a lot of lines, went through customs (always scary), and if Brother Ludlow didn't try and send me the wrong direction by myself I would have classified the airport as fun. (Just kidding, it was a lot of fun). 

Sarah, Sam, and I waiting patiently for our flight!

Taylor, Sam, and I happy to be in Turkey!

After our safe arrival into Turkey, we made our way to the Cartoon Hotel in Istanbul which was a tall hotel on a busy street corner decorated fabulously in all Disney attire.  Imagine this: Donald Duck in your shower, running into Mickey's nose as you walk down the hallway, and turning on Daisy Duck's hat to get some light. It was awesome. My roommate for Turkey was Kara and we had many a laughs! 

We ate a late dinner at some fabulous Turkish restaurant that we walked to from our Hotel.     Too bad we didn't know to appreciate the normal food we ate at that place, because the food for the rest of the week was sure an adventure all on its own.  By the second day, we could predict what we would eat for ever meal. Since Turkey is a "third world" country, we couldn't eat a lot of things that were given to us, even at the restaurants.  You could say that our limited food options got a little annoying.  Breakfast included white bread (wheat if you were lucky), fresh honey off honey comb, and some water from your water bottle. The fruit and vegetables and dairy and meat were all off limits unless cooked. Lunch and dinner were always the same--rice, french fries, mystery meat that was supposedly a meatball (?), sometimes chicken if we were lucky, lentil soup, fresh salads that we couldn't eat, white bread, and watermelon for dessert. Sometimes we had more dessert choices, but in reality they all tasted the same--like fake chocolate.  Everything was soaked in grease. If you pressed on the desserts, they would ooze out some sort of gooey something that didn't taste that good to me. Oh and absolutely no street food from vendors!  Doesn't that sound yummy?! Ha it doesn't sound that bad, but after a week of that we were all very excited to not feel sick and eat some wonderful JC food! Turkey was an experience to remember, and the food was part of that experience!

Dinner! Jeff, Michael-Sean, Tyler, Lacey, Shannon (roomie), me, Aubs (roomie)

Day 2: Istanbul (Monday)

Day two of Turkey started our week of getting up at 6 am and earlier.  It's a good thing we had a lot of time to rest on the bus because we were sure sleepy at times!  This day is when we met our wonderful Turkish tour guide Fatih.  He was a character! One of the definite highlights of the trip was hearing "Come on, hobbits!" yelled at you, on the headset microphone and in person by your Turkish tour guide.  Fatih made Turkey ten million times more enjoyable than it would have normally been.  He loved us so much that he is going to take all the future JC students! Anyways, back to our travels.

First, we visited the Hippodrome.  This was an Egyptian column from way back when.  But it happened to be right outside the Blue Mosque we were planning on visiting.  Upon entering the Blue Mosque, we had to take off our shoes to show respect and keep it clean. At first, I thought that I could never see a grander or more beautiful mosque.  However, the end of the week would prove my thoughts wrong as we visited perhaps the most beautiful of all...(the suspense is killing you, right?)

This is the hippodrome. It's ancient! From Egypt!

The Blue Mosque

Awkward kitty photo #1. There are as many stray cats in the near east as hairs on my head, arms, and legs. Maybe even more.

Taylor O., Taylor B., Devin and I inside the Blue Mosque.

 We went to the Tapkapi Museum which is really this huge palace of a past sultan.  It was the most beautiful and ornate set of buildings I have ever seen!  Bright mosaics covered every wall, arched doorways and windows surrounded you with views of the bay, and gold ornamentation was everywhere to be found.  There were multiple gates and acres of land to walk through before you even got to the sultan's quarters! Throughout the museum were displays of clothing and other artifacts that they have kept, perhaps the most impressive being the 86 carat diamond. (Can you imagine?! It was huge!!) At the museum, we also visited the huge Harem--where the sultan's concubines all lived together.  It was kind of disturbing to see that and it made us all really thankful we live in modern times.  The Tapkapi Museum was grand in every aspect.

 

The palace view...

The beautiful mosaic tiles that covered almost every surface of the palace! I am obsessed with these now.

Lindsay and I just sittin' in the harem! We won cutest picture of the day award. :)

After the museum, we walked around in the Basilica Cistern.  A cistern is a giant underground hole, basically, carved out of rocks that the ancients would collect rain water in to last them throughout the year for agricultural and living purposes.  The Basilica Cistern is HUGE. And even though it is all underground, it is ornate as well. 

Caleb, Sam, and I at the creepy upside-down Medusa head in the farthest corner of the cistern. 

That afternoon we had the opportunity to go to THE Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.  This was amazing! It is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world.  It encompasses more than 58 covered streets, 4,000 shops, and between 250,000 and half a million visitors daily! It was a little overwhelming but so much fun.  Kara and I bought some Turkish delight and other souvenirs!

Following our shopping excursion, we went on a couple hours long boat ride on the Bosphorus Straight (one of  my favorite things in all of Turkey!).  We had a huge boat all to ourselves and were really able to enjoy the beauty of Turkey.  One one side of the straight was the Asian side, and on the other side was the European part of Turkey.  Then we went to dinner at a restaurant where I tried sardines! They are super salty...but not too bad besides that! And maybe our dinner was a whole fish? Ha it was yummy! Afterwards we headed back to our hotel and went out for ice cream (pistachio gelato never gets old!) and window shopping on the streets. What a great start to our Turkey trip!

Sam. Me. Water. 

Yay for boat rides! Yay for Devin and I being BFF's!

Lacey, Ben, Caleb, and I windblown but fabulously happy, as always. :)

Yummy :).

Day 3: Istanbul to Troy (Tuesday)

Day 3 included a lot of traveling for us.  Good thing I don't get car sick! We bussed it up all morning and after lunch on the water's edge we loaded up onto a ferry to travel across the Dardanelles, which is another straight.  This is where we made our switch from Europe to Asia!  If Turkey taught me one thing, it is that I love boat rides. Troy happened to be just inland, so we stopped there next of course!  It's hard to imagine Troy (and all of the other ruined cities for that matter) in their grandeur, but we still had fun exploring and learning about Troy and its people.  

THE Trojan horse. Find my head!

Troy tunnel...with frogs.

Brielle, Kaleb, Samsung, and Robin.

Hello ancient pillars that Brad Pitt probably lounged on also.

When we pulled up to our beach-side resort, the Ida Kale Resort Otel, we could not contain our joy as we dumped our belongings in our room and hurried out to swim.  One of the great things about Turkey was how they Turkish spelled things--phonetically.  For example, taxi was "taksi."  We had a private dock that went far out into the clear blue water where we could watch one of the most beautiful sunsets seen by mankind.  But it gets better...Fatih arranged for us to get some fire wood and a sound system, so maybe we all spent the entire night having a dance party around a huge bonfire on a soft beach in Turkey...maybe we didn't. But I'll tell you that we did. To end the night, we all piled up on a giant stack of outdoor bean bags to look at the stars.  My life is a fairy tale.  

Life is Beautiful

Another week came and went...just as beautiful as the one before! If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I think I'll just post pictures this week so you can see for yourself the beauty of my new life.  :) The first one below is of the old city Jaffa, or Joppa, in Tel Aviv.  This name may ring a bell as the city where Jonah was sent to preach at before he was swallowed by the whale. It looks nice from afar, but even prettier up close!

mmmmm :) It's so magical!

Jericho: the lowest place on earth. 1300 feet below sea level. 10,000 years old. Unfortunately, we did not march around the city and blow trumpets.  But Devin and I did take a cute photo... :) Here we read in the Bible when it talks about the palm trees around Jericho and the luscious valley it is nestled in.  It is still like that today!

This is what it all looks like! Haha some parts of Jericho are more excavated than others.  We saw the oldest tower on earth!

And below is a special little resort I like to call Kind Herod's Winter Palace. Jerusalem gets cold in the winter, so he built this palace somewhere it stays warmer year round..and man, was it hot! Ha. There was some incredible work that went into his personal resort like his fish-net brick laying, and heated pools that are still standing.  Despite the fact that he was very mean and hated ruler, his buildings are grand.  

St. George's Monastery: A spot nestled in a crevice in the Judean Wilderness in the Wadi Qilt.  This diamond in the rough commemorates the time Jesus spent in the wilderness.  I literally never want to be trapped in the Judean Wilderness ever.  It's so dry and hot and it all looks the same: brown mountains of barren sand.  I almost went crazy and thought I was hallucinating the Bedouin people out in the middle of nowhere offering us donkey rides. Turns out they were real. 

But all in all, this graffiti in Tel Aviv reminded me one thing: life is beautiful! Every place I visit is different and maybe I don't every want to live there, but it has its own unique beauty.  Israel is beautiful! 

Tel Aviv!

Hola! Today I spent the day trying to convince all of my friends that you pronounce it "comma esstis." Haha it didn't really work.

Since our Saturday and Sundays are switched here, on Sunday we went to Tel Aviv for the day! It was beautiful! And now I can officially say that I have swam in the Mediterranean!!! So far it is the saltiest ocean I have ever been in! My nose and throat were literally burning every time I went under the water! Ha but that didn't stop us from having fun! See for yourself!

Devin and I enjoying some sun and soft sand. :) Maybe we want to visit Tel Aviv every week, so what?

Katie and I eating some gelato! Yummy!!

Well, I have to run.  I am going to Turkey land tomorrow for a week! So it will be a while before my next entry. 

Shabbat Shalom!

I really like my life. So what? Today is the Sabbath.  And no, I am not confused..our Sabbath is on Saturday here in the Holy Land, not Sunday!  So naturally, Shabbat Shalom! Or for you who need a translation: Happy Sabbath! (I think.) I'm actually in the Arabic class, not Hebrew but I know the Shabbat Shalom song by heart because the stupid children sing it all the time.  And by stupid I mean smarter than me and by children I mean my roommates.  Okay so I join in and sing it too. What? It's really catchy.

This week we started our classes. Yay!!?!?!?@39e302203##$$*j!!?!?? Precisely.  But actually I was excited to start all my classes here because I feel so culturally naive about the world I now live in.  I am taking Arabic, a field trip class, Old Testament/New Testament, a class about the Ancient Near East, a class about Judaism, and a class about Palestinian history.  All in all it is 15 credits. I don't know if you're new to college, but that's kind of a lot.  Especially when you are trying to find time to go see sites too!  We have gigantic readings for each class so that keeps me busy.  But I find time to go out into the city as well, don't worry! I did lots of fun things this week! :) Mom don't read the following: I sometimes a lot go out into the city instead of doing my homework.  I like to have fun.

This week I went to a number of sites! Here you go:
1)I went to Mary's tomb and the place of the betrayal of the disciples (when they fell asleep as Christ was in the Garden) which are both at the bottom of the Mount of Olives.  They were really neat!
2) One of my favorite places we've visited is the Church of the Holy Sepluchre which is inside the Old City in the Christian quarter.  It is a beautiful church where many people believe Christ was tried there, hung on the cross there, and buried there.  As Mormons, we don't necessarily believe that, but it is still a wonderful and spiritual place.  I have learned to appreciate so much the devotion many give to God.  They inspire me.
3) We have gone to many different gates of the city which is fun to see the Old City from a new angle.  I have been through so far Damascus Gate (beware of pick-pocketers), Lion's Gate (less busy) , and Dung Gate (beautiful name, I know), Jaffa gate (which leads to the West), and gone right up to the Golden Gate/East Gate which is actually sealed.  But if any of you know your facts, Christ is supposed to come down the Mount of Olives and go through the East Gate.  In an effort to stop Him, the Muslim's built a huge cemetery outside the Old City Walls and sealed up the East Gate.  Apparently Christ cannot go through cemeteries or walls, but I have a feeling that He can do whatever He needs to.  We'll see though.
4) I went to the pool of Bethesda. Twice! They are another one of my favorite spots.  The first time, our little group of seven was sitting in the church built there to honor Mary and someone said, "You can sing!" and so we did! The echo in that church is unbelievable! I have never heard a prettier sound in my life.  So we sang some hymns and afterwards some South African women talked with us and looked at our hymn book.  They knew a lot of the songs in there but laughed when they saw the Christmas ones.  I'm still not really sure why.  The pools are all dried up without water, but still so amazing because you can just envision Christ there with the sick man!  Wow, I couldn't get enough of it!  It was such a beautiful, peaceful place in the midst of a busy, dirty city.  Did you like my comparing words?  People tell me I'm smart all the time in my head.
5) One place that I love is Shaaban's shop in the Old City. He loves Mormons!!! Ha in his shop he has BYU flags, Relief Society magnets, leather scripture cases, and a whole bunch of other stuff.  Every time we walk past his shop he flags us down, gives us a chair to rest on, pours us a glass of juice, and let's us talk to him! He is the best! And he gives us awesome deals and exchanges our money.  What would we do without Shaaban?  He told us the other day that he knows when tourists are Mormon or not Mormon because the girls are covered all over their backs and arms and legs.  I thought that was a real compliment. There is another funny man named Nasir and he also loves Mormons (everyone knows the Mormons).
6)We took a field trip on Monday to go to 5 different overlooks of the Jerusalem, some close and some far.  It was really neat! We even saw Bethlehem.
7) We went into the Room of the Last Supper at Dormition Abbey!  Sometimes a lot I write about things and then think, "I can't believe I actually did that!"  This would be one of those times.  It was neat to think that that is where the Holy Ghost was first given to Jesus's disciples.  Also there was Kind David's tomb.  History literally presents itself to me daily! I love it!
8) We went to West Jerusalem a couple of times which was a wonderful time.  It is very American-like with lots of shops (Nike, Nine West, etc.) but the best place to go is Ben Yehuda street.  We went there one night and some friends played guitars/sang and tried to make money!  They did at one point, but by the end of the night they found that they had actually lost money.  We're still not sure if I stole their money or the angry grandpa that kept cursing at us in Hebrew and flipping us off did.  It was probably the former, let's be honest.
9) We also had a girls night or two which were incredibly great fun! We painted our nails and did mud masks (the woman at the store was an expert saleswoman and when she told us she was 50 and looked to be literally 35 we thought we must try her secret!).
10) My week was amazing, as you can tell.  I guess you can probably see why I haven't been blogging a whole lot.  But of all the magnificent things that I did, my favorite place to date that I've gone is the Western Wall/Wailing Wall.  Maybe you've heard of it.  It is literally the most fought over piece of land in the entire world.  And it's probably smaller than a football field in length.  Sabbath for the Jewish begins at sundown Friday evening and ends at sundown Saturday evening, Saturday being their Sabbath.  To welcome in the Sabbath, they celebrate of course!  So tomorrow we went to the Western Wall just before sundown in order to view this celebration.  When we got there, we were able to worship at the wall.  What an amazing experience.  I have learned things there that I have never learned before.  The Herodian Ashlars (fancy name for the type of stone at the wall at our level) were the same exact stones that were there when Christ walked the Earth.
*side note: the call to prayer is sounding throughout the city right now.  Everyone complains of waking up to it  at 4:30 every morning (they pray 5 times a day), but I have never woken up to it.  Some of you may know why.  It is a man's singing voice projected over the city.  Sometimes when I sing, Sam thinks I am imitating the   Arabic man singing the call to prayer, but in reality I'm singing english songs like "Party Rock." In other words, I have a dang good voice.
Back to the good stuff.  Christ may have indeed touched the stone I did when I prayed at the wall! Who knows! Then we sang and danced for almost an hour with the Jewish women there at the wall!  There is a wall separating the men from women at the wall, so each celebrate separately.  But I LOVED IT SO MUCH!! I cannot say that enough.  The women were so beautiful and nice and welcoming and they would hold out their hands for us to dance with them in a circle and we would clap along with their songs and they were so happy! I loved their idea that Shabbat is something that needs to be celebrated every week!  We talked with some Jewish girls our age after and they were some of the most beautiful and nicest girls I have ever met!  The gave us kisses on the cheek and hugs when saying goodbye.  I love the people here.

Anyways, I'm sorry that is so long.  I cannot write enough about my experiences! Our group is bonding so fast and well.  I love my roommates!  Their names are Aubrey, Marianne, and Shannon.  I will get a picture with them soon!  Until we talk again...Shabbat Shalom! :)

Sam and I at the pools of Bethesda. Maybe I love her a lot? Good friend, good friend.

This is just a view of the city from one of our look-out spots. You can almost see where I live. Isn't it neat though?!

Oh, little town of Bethlehem? You betcha. Back there behind me and to the right.

Dormition Abbey: Nick, Michael-Sean, and Sam.  See mom, I've made friends!

Russell brosef, I don't think you read my blog, but this is for you! I'm hanging out with your friend in Jerusalem.  What now, beef ball?!  Josh and I in the place of Mary's birth. It was three stories into the ground and smelled like mold so I hope she was okay.

Also at the place of Mary's birth: Jared, Leslie, and Whitney.  The girls+Devin and I bonded on our first wait in the airport. :)

This is from the Muslim cemetery right next to the wall of the Old City.  Hence the gravestone.  But do you see that many arched building in the background? That's where I live. Call it beautiful if you would like.  I am incredibly close to the city with a spectacular view!

West side of Jerusalem at night! Natalie, Nick, Rachel, me, Justin, Lizzie

I am having fun. I have to run. I go to beach tomorrow to get some sun. Bye Bye now.

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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!

Shalom....Jerusalem, here I come!!

Well, the day is finally here, and I honestly cannot believe it!  I remember looking at my calendar a month ago and thinking that this day would never come...well it has!  And as many can attest--a little too soon! Ha I had a bit of a struggle packing, but with the help of some great friends I think I got the job done! :) I am off to the Holy Land for a semester abroad. I cannot wait!!! I will be able to maintain this blog while I am there, but Facebook is a no-go.  So just in case you want to get in touch with me, us one of three options:

1) send me an email!
   brielle.kern@gmail.com

2) write me by snail mail! (expect 7-10 days until I'll get it)
   Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies
   Brielle Kern
   P.O. Box 19604
   Jerusalem, 91196 ISRAEL

3) or if you're feeling REALLY ambitious and missing me...send me a package, padded envelope with surprise, etc! (Alison I really love Twix, Reeses, and love letters)
   Jerusalem Center for the Near Eastern Studies
   Brielle Kern
   Located on Mt. Scopus
   Near Augusta Victoria Hospital
   Jerusalem, 91196 ISRAEL

Isn't that address legit? Haha i wish our addresses were like that in the U.S.! Ha one thing is for sure, that I'll miss my wonderful friends and family!  Here's some visual shout outs to some of the people who helped me get ready and who I love.

I am the luckiest girl in the world because I get to nanny these three beautiful babies!! Henry, Cole, and Ava (from left to right) make my life so happy and I'm going to miss them so much!

Sometimes it's hard to take pictures.

 Two of the other kids I nanny: Grace and Max. What cuties!

 Lovely packing, Maddie. Thank you!

 I love you best friend! You'll be the greatest missionary! Make me proud :)

Sorry that was a lot of pictures, but I don't really know if I'll be able to put pictures up so this may be it for a while! Alas, it is early in the morning and I still need to pack last minute things. Haha I love you all! Thanks for your support! :) I'll see you in 4 months!!! Love, Braille