Here Goes

Yeah. This is happening. I'm writing on my blog. I realize it has been two months. And they have been two very very very exciting months for me. Where to begin! I am going to try and list a lot of things I've done. I do not expect it to reflect these last months very well at all. I also do not expect it to be comprehensive in the slightest. What I do expect is for all of you to be absolutely faithless concerning this coming list. Enjoy.
-My calling at church is primary pianist. I absolutely love it. I've been able to play for the kids to sing on Mother's Day and Father's Day. They are really cute. Primary is a party every single week.
-I took a one credit arabic class. Even though I learned only a few essential arabic phrases and nothing more (except this stellar song I made up to memorize the numbers up to 10) it was so fun! I learned a ton about arabic culture. Our teacher Ayman was a real hoot and I enjoyed a lot of laughs. My favourite thing to yell is "ashera ashera ashera!!". It means ten ten ten. They always have it playing on recordings in the old city. It means that everything costs 10 shekels.
-Oh, and while we're on the topic of shekels. I love shekels. I call it fake money. The best part is that it is either a third or a quarter of a dollar. I can never quite decide so I just create a range of price in my head that it could possibly be. Somewhere in there. I really do love shekels. In fact the word shekel just feels nice to say. Not sure why.
-Okay so one time I went to Tel Aviv and loved my life. First of all, I hadn't been to the beach since I was 12. Now I remember why everyone loves the beach so much. The sand was amazing, the water was the perfect temperature, and I was amongst good company. Tel Aviv was a highlight.
-So for some reason there was this phase where all the little Palestinian kids were walking around with these vibrantly coloured chicks. I'm talking like super bright live chicks. One day we stopped and lingered for a moment beside them. Next thing I knew some kid shoved one of them into my hand. I completely PANICKED. I'm talking full on panic. And all my friends did nothing. No surprises there. I was pretty much hyperventilating with a bright pink chick poking around my hand. Finally the kid snatched it back and I ran away. I didn't touch anything with that hand until I'd washed it at least 5 times. I was still nervous after that.
-Alright let's just go ahead and skip to the part where I went to Turkey for a week! This is like 7 blog posts in and of itself but let's just say that Turkey was amazing. Perhaps I will tell more stories from that trip later.
-One important discovery I made in Turkey (specifically the Blue Mosque where you have to remove your shoes) is that I am extremely sensitive to the smell of feet. I can't stand it.
-In Jericho there was the worlds oldest discovered tower. I know. It sounds super amazing. 8000 BC or something ridiculous like that. Lesson learned from this? Rocks shaped into towers looked the same 10,000 years ago.
-We had an Arab Culture Night that was great fun. We all pretended to look like Arabs (even though we're the whitest bunch you can imagine) so that was entertaining. I loved that the father-son duo from the Al-asqua mosque came and performed the call to prayer for us. That is truly an art, I love how it sounds. Later on that night some Arab teenagers came and danced with us. Everyone just bounced around and acted crazy for awhile. It was great.
-I have been so blessed to be able to play the piano A LOT here. I absolutely love it.
-One time we went to the western wall and watched the sunset and ate tasty bread and went to the Dome of the Rock. I LOVE the Dome of the Rock. I really do. This one other time I went to the western wall and met Julie Beck there. Pretty cool stuff. We went to the Dome of the Rock super early in the morning and it was so peaceful and beautiful and it's honestly one of my favourite things that I've done here. And one time my friend went to close to this one wall and an anonymous voice starting yelling at him. Amazing.
-We went to a service at Christ's Church for Pentecost and it was a party! A lot of singing, praising the Lord, raising hands to the sky. All that good stuff.
-We go to a lot of cisterns (if you don't know what that is, look it up, it's important) and caves and we often get to sing in them. I love it! Plus I love these places because they are a beautifully cool temperature. Very important.
-I went to the valley where David fought Goliath! And I slingshotted some rocks. Ah yeah.
-Sometimes I drink 2.5 litres of water before 4 pm and it's still not enough. Wow.
-I have had numerous people tell me that I have the features of an elf from Lord of the Rings. Mission accomplished my friends. Mission accomplished.
-One Friday night some of us went to a Jewish synagogue for our Israel class. While it was interesting and involved lots of pretty Hebrew singing I didn't love it. It was weird because I don't think it feels very spiritual. It feels too rehearsed.
-Sometimes on Saturdays (which are the new Sunday in these parts) we walk through Orson Hyde Garden and go to the Garden of Gethsemane. I love that place. Very pretty. Very significant. There is a cool church right next to it called the Church of All Nations that we sing in. Something pretty funny happened while we were there. My roommate (and friend!) was taking a picture of me. All of a sudden these people (some sort of foreigner, I'm not good at racial profiling, probably a good thing actually...) gave Rachel their camera because they wanted her to take their picture. Perfectly normal so I went to step out but he avidly motioned for me to stay in it (bit of a language barrier here). So I awkwardly smiled and walked away. Then the other guy runs up next to me and points to a picture he took (of the back of me...) and smiled. Either I'm a celebrity in their country or they just loved my white blondeness. It was borderline creepy to be honest.
-The Garden Tomb is one of my favourite places in Jerusalem. Because of what it represents, the spirit it creates, and the peacefulness of it all. I love the sign on the door of the tomb that says, "He is not here, for He is risen." It makes no difference to me whether or not that is actually Jesus' tomb. What matters to me is that the Atonement is real and Christ is present in my life, for He is risen!
Okay so I am pretty much through most of May (minus Turkey). Wow there is way too much to say. I will speak of June soon. And pictures are coming!!
Oh I can't finish this without commenting on how great all the people here are. Really great.
I love it here! But I miss home!