Thursday was pretty much a free day because we only had one class in the morning. I went to the Israel museum with a few other people to do a homework assignment. There were actually a lot of really cool things there. The highlights were seeing the dead sea scrolls and a huge model of Jerusalem during the second temple period. I love being able to look at it and recognize what's still there and places I walk all the time. After the museum I went to the city with a few other friends and saw David's tomb and the Dormition Abbey.
Tommy's birthday is coming up real soon and I needed to mail him his package pronto so friday was the day. Well we're not allowed to leave the center until 3:00 on fridays so at three I went with a couple friends who also needed to go to the post office. Guess what we forgot? Everything closes up on fridays. So we got there and saw that it had been closed since noon and were way bummed. I'm a terrible girlfriend. His birthday package is going to be probably like a week late now... Oh well. Happy 21st Tommy! (October 23 in case you're wondering. You should all email him or send him a card)
So I've mentioned how strange the place is that we live in, but I haven't said too much about how strange the people are that I live with (myself included). Friday night's "informal" talent show would be a good way to show off just how strange we all are. It was hands down the best talent show I've ever been to. It was hilarious, super creative, and really impressive. There were skits, flexibility performances, singing the periodic table, singing, dancing, etc... All of the performances were really good and really entertaining. Unfortunately my friends and I didn't get the memo that "informal" didn't mean untalented.... We did this super embarrassing song and dance. Ok I'm not actually embarrassed about it but I probably should be. Let me preface it: So everyone here on this trip is super baby hungry... kind of joking, kind of not. I've never met a group of people so open about how badly they want to get married and have children. I love it. One day while we were sitting on a bus in Turkey I looked over at the bus next to us and there was the cutest little baby looking at me. I started playing with her and then everyone else saw the baby and all of us started freaking out about how much we wanted a baby. Well fortunately my friend got all of this on video. So for friday night's talent show we played the video to start off with and then walked out with our pregnant bellies and sang a song to Justin Bieber's "Baby" about how we're all baby hungry. It was so funny.
Saturday was great. At church we got to watch the general relief society broadcast which was way good. Everyone should read Elder Uchtdorf's talk. It was incredible. Then I had every intention of doing my Old Testament paper but took a three hour nap instead. Oops...
Yesterday was awesome! We all took a trip down to Eilat and went snorkeling in the Red Sea. Apparently Eilat has the second best snorkeling in the world. I loved it! I could have floated on my belly all day long looking at everything. The bus ride was quite long but totally worth it! I want to go back! And on the drive home we stopped at a rest stop along the Dead Sea and the moon was out and there was a long beautiful walk down to the shore. It was magical. I swear I've been to the most romantic places while on this trip. Such a waste...
Today we had our City of David field trip. It was super awesome! The City of David is just south of the temple mount in Jerusalem and it's where King David and Solomon ruled over the twelve tribes of Israel. The highlight of the field trip was definitely Hezekiah's tunnel. Hezekiah made the tunnel in an attempt to hide the Gihon spring from the Assyrians in 701 BCE. So we got to hike through the tunnel with water up to our knees the whole time. It's a good thing I'm not claustrophobic or I probably would have cried. I loved it though!
Remember how I said we picked olives last week? Well today was the day that we actually got to press the olives we picked and make olive oil. I understand more now why olive oil is so expensive. It's a lot of work! First you crush the olives in a huge wheel thing, and then you put the mush into baskets that you then smash to squeeze all the juice out. It runs down some contraption and then sits there for a day or so until the oil rises to the top and everything else settles on the bottom. There are so many parallels to the atonement. Probably most of you already know this, but Gethsemane literally means "place of the olive press." As I watched the crushing weight of the stones smash the olives I kept thinking about the crushing weight of the atonement causing Jesus to suffer and bleed from every pore. It brings a new visual light to the incredible event that took place just down the hill 2000 years ago.
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