Love...

4 days.

That's really all I have left here... I can't believe it.

I'm literally going to be heartbroken when it's time to go.  In all honesty, I have come to love this place--I never imagined I'd get to the point where Israel felt like home, but it really does.  A home where I'm one of the only people who is blonde and doesn't speak Hebrew or Arabic, where the food is crazy and the bathrooms are crazier... where I can walk where Jesus walked, and life is incredible...

I'm just happy :)

 

The other night I was studying for finals-- and here was the sunset outside my window. Oh my goodness.

 

Masada is right on the Dead Sea, and is hot and dry year-round... but for some reason, the day we went it, was raining cats and dogs back in Jerusalem (the first rain!!) and we got unbelievable winds and this gorgeous rainbow out of it :)  Everything was just stunning that day

  

 

At En Gedi with two of my favorites!

My other favorite there-- Ibexes everywhere :P

 Swimming in the Dead Sea!! Oh, that water is so salty...

 

Qumran, where the Dead Sea scrolls were found! (Here's Cave #4)

Hezekiah's Tunnel!!  (yes, that's my fantastic fanny pack I'm keeping from getting wet)

Last day of class with Dr. Muhlestein :)

Holidays are the BEST

We get to celebrate both Christmas AND Hanukkah here.  Double the holidays-- can life get any better?

Last night was our Christmas concert!  Every year the students here put on a concert for the community that is always sold out and is so much fun to perform!  We had a few solos and small ensembles, and then the full student choir (for which I satisfactorily messed things up on the piano... :P) Fun night! And it was great to have a mostly Jewish audience, too--this concert is a wonderful opportunity to share messages that we aren't allowed to share otherwise.

Tonight is the sixth night of Hanukkah!  One of our professors here teaches Jewish studies at BYU and has lived in Israel off and on for 30 years, so he's become rather assimilated into Jewish culture.  As he likes to say, "Without Hanukkah there would be no Christmas!" and gets a great deal of enjoyment out of celebrating the feast of lights-- he invites us down to his patio to light the candles and sing.  And none of us begrudges any excuse to celebrate.... My marvelous roommate Jacqueline bought a hanukkiah (Menorah) so we have our own celebration every night of Hanukkah!  Tonight it was my turn to light the candles--isn't it pretty?

So, in Israel, Hanukkah is not Hanukkah without gorging oneself on the traditional holiday treat: sufganiot--donuts filled with jam, cream, caramel or chocolate! Absolutely heavenly... Jenna and Megan and I found some in the Jewish quarter that were so good we went back and bought a second round.  Oh, goodness.  Here's a super messy, mouthwatering, strawberry jam filled one! Donuts here definitely don't taste like Krispy Kremes :P  One thing I was interested to learn about Hanukkah foods is that, for the most part, anything goes as long as it's cooked in oil, reminiscent of the oil that burned for eight days following the rededication of the Second Temple at the time of the Maccabean Revolt.  Not the healthiest symbol. but I'm not one to complain ;)

And then tonight we watched a recorded broadcast of the First Presidency Christmas Devotional :) I am so for Christmas at home with my family!

Merry Christmas!  
And Happy Hanukkah! :)

Temple Mount

The Dome of the Rock is gorgeous in the morning light...

...especially up close!  The outside is covered with colored tiles and all sorts of geometric and floral designs; images of people or animals are forbidden in Islam.  If only it were still open to the public-- it's only been closed within the past few years, so we just missed it! 

I really do love the Western Wall, though; it's one of my absolute favorite places in the city.  Yesterday Jenna and Megan and I just went and spent close to an hour there, just sitting and watching and thinking.  And I absolutely loved it.  

 

These cute twin boys were looking up at the wall with their mom and getting just a tiny bit fidgety-- reminded me of my brothers in church ;)

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

We just got home this afternoon from our adventure deeper into the Middle East!

A few reasons why I've developed a newfound love for Jordan:

• Weather. Highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s in late November. 
• The way the Jordanians have pictures of King Abdullah everywhere
  
  
  
  
• PETRA!

     The Siq--Pictures (at least the ones I take!) can't possibly do
        justice to how gorgeous and vibrant the walls of this slot canyon were!

Rounding the bend at the end of the canyon...

The Treasury!!!
Or, perhaps more commonly recognized as the place Indiana Jones found the Holy Grail ;)


It is absolutely incredible to me that something like this could be carved into the face of a rock...

Petra doesn't end with the Treasury! Here's the Great Temple

• The people!  Especially the kids :)

Here's Musra, the adorable (and conniving) Bedouin girl I made friends with as she followed me around that morning in Petra trying to sell me things

Another little Bedouin girl.  Isn't she gorgeous?!

• Jerash- the ruins of the Greco-Roman city Gerasa.  Some of the most amazing and best preserved Roman ruins discovered!
  
  
  
  
  
  
   With Charles and the plaza in the background.  This city was huge!
  
  
  
  Whit Nasty, Katie, and the ampitheater! 
  
  
• The long black hooded robes the women got to wear this morning in a mosque in Amman.  And how creepy we all looked wearing them (the word "dementor" was thrown around a few times, and not by the girls...)  Beautiful mosque, though! :)

• The landscape.  Hilly, desert-y, blue skies, sunshine... 

On top of this hill are the remains of the palace where John the Baptist was beheaded. Yikes.  

Ajloud Castle!  There really are castles in the Middle East! :)

The Jabbok River (Genesis 32)

Bethany (Bethabara) beyond Jordan.
The traditional, and geographically probable, place where John the Baptist baptized the Savior :)
Loved visiting here today.

• Arab bagpipe players!  Apparently, bagpipes have a history that goes way back here (though I highly doubt that "Scotland the Brave" was part of their original repertoire...)