Studying!

So last week i finished 3 midterms, which hopefully turned out well...and this upcoming week is Finals week, so i have 5 finals within 3 days. Should be great right?! But after that we will only have 2 real classes! yay!

And not that im counting or anything but only 15 days until Galilee! So excited!!!
Bring it On!!!

Herodian Fieldtrip

Last weeks field trip was titled the "herodian" fieldtrip because we saw a bunch of different sites that all had to deal with the Herodian Age, which is exciting for me because the Herodian Age is when Jesus lifetime was! No offense to all the Tels, but im excited to start to actually focus on Jesus sites...

First we went to the Western Wall, except we went on this tour that led us to an underground level of it.  A fun fact about the Western Wall is that apparently only an eighth of it is actually showing because the rest of it covered by homes and building from the Jewish Quarter.  We went down where the Western Wall begins

Starting where it began also meant that we were on the same ground that was back in Herodian Age too, so we took a picture of the ground that Jesus probably walked on haha

Then we went on the outisde of Wall and went to an archeology site, which these are the rocks that were pushed off the Western Wall when the Romans were trying to destroy it during their destruction in 70 AD

Then we went around the Wall corner and went to Entry Gate, which is a picture in the scriptures, which is where Jesus was also likely to have walked

Here is the view from the side of the outside Wall, showing all the Jewish graves, which they are barried there so when the Savior "does" come they will have front row seats basically...

Then we also went to the Burnt House which was a musuem of an archeology dig where they had dug out a couple of houses which was neat to see the sizing and they had a few artifacts, but we couldnt take pictures in there.

But while we were walking around in the Jewish Quarter, there was a Bar Mitzva, which i decided i wanted to relive my 13 year and have one

And then here a lovely picture of our sack lunches..The yummy sandwitches that are basically mayo and corn, with maybe a bit of chicken, which apparently makes it into a chicken salad sandwitch..haha

But ill take a chicken salad sandwitch any day, to be here!

David's Citadel

Today for our free day we went to David's Citadel. I went there with Ryan and Alex, but met up with a bunch of kids there from the Center. We didnt stay long though because these next two weeks we have Midterms and Finals. Its crazy! So we only stayed for a little bit...

But some history for you, David's Citadel is also known as David's tower.  It was build in the second century BC but it has been destroyed and rebuild a bunch of times.

Here is the center of it, where the gardens are at

And then Alex, Me and Ryan

And then our model shot

Can you tell that we love to model..? haha

City of David

Today, we went to the City of David.  This is where Jerusalem all began, apparently...according to the 3-D movie that we saw. Here is John, me and Ryan with our sweet 3-D glasses on

Here is the view of the Kidron Valley in the City of David

Then we went to what everyone was most excited for, Hezekiah's tunnel.  Hezekiah built this tunnel from each end and met in the middle.  He created this tunnel when the Assyrians were attacking Jerusalem.  Creating this tunnel made it so that he could water in a safer location. Thank goodness the water level wasnt too high, because we were told that sometimes it can come up to your waist but it only came up to the top of my thighs.

(me, Anna, and Mary)

Then there was a pool area right out side of the tunnel that had some fun pillars that we, oviously, did some posing on

(Katie, Ryan, and me)

And sadly we kinda have a joke about Professor Brown.  He always does really funny hand motions, and i think he knows this, so he posed for us...haha, we all loved it

We also went to the Spring of Siloam which is where Jesus healed a blind man, it was all dried up so i didnt take a picture...haha

But i guess that can just be for your information :)

Chagall Windows

Every Sunday is our free day, so at breakfast we get a sack lunch and are totally free for the day to do whatever we want. This Sunday i went with 14 other kids and went to Chagall Windows which are located next to the Hospital in Jerusalem.  There are 12 windows, each representing a tribe of Israel. They were beautiful!

Afterwards we explored around the quaint town and went to two other churches.  I didnt feel like i was in Jerusalem anymore though because the town felt so European.

This is us at a super cute gelato cafe that had amazing gelato!

(me, Bentley, Emmy, Ron, Anna, Lindsay, Emma, Mary, and Kinzie)

The first chuch we went to was called The Church of the Visitation. This is where they believe that Mary met Elizabeth that she would carry the Savior.

Kinzie and i, outside in the beautiful garden

Next we went to another church called The Church of John the Baptist. This is where they believe that John the Baptist was born.  It was so neat though because on the outside wall there was a scripture that they put into probably like 20 different languages all over.

This is apparently where he was born..

It was definitley one of my favorite Sunday outings

Moustache Meeting

Seriously i think we have the best group that has ever been at the Center and here's some proof.

The boys in our group thought it would be funny to start a moustache group, which most of the guys did do it. The deal was that they all grew out moustaches for 10 days and after 10 days they could shave it. I guess it was to create unity or brotherly love or something?! So at the end of the 10 days they had a big meeting, but it was the best meeting! Personally i have nothing against moustaches, some are dirty and ugly, but whatever i dont have to kiss them anyways, so there's no harm, right?

Since i was a pro-moustache supporter, i was asked to speak during their final meeting. So Katie and i decided to do a little performance for them, first we started off with a poem that i created...

The Moustache

Some girls like the bods

Some girls like the mods

And while some girls like the cash

My man needs the 'stache

Its prickley to the touch

For some girls its just too much

And while the skruff is alright

The moustache is tight!

And it was sad to see

That some didn't grow so far

So i guess i can see

Who the real men are

No, no please don't fret

And dont shave those 'staches just yet

Some girls wont talk to you

But there just a bunch of foo's

And just to end this story well

I have one secret to tell

I know that most girls gave you trash

But i will miss the dirty moustache

-Ali Huish

So p.s. we kinda got really into it and yes, i do have a moustache and yes, i do have a picture of a moustache on my shirt. Sitting below me, is Katie with the bongo drums

And then there was the Rap...

The Moustache, cant trade it for cash

Them prissy girls all be cheesed

but here we are on our knees

beggin to keep the patch

that you all call the moustache....cant trade it for cash

many men grow it long

them we consider strong

shaving is not a choice

now men raise up your voice

Moustache, cant trade it for cash

i dont mean to diss

but when we kiss

i tend to miss, the pleasureness

The moustache, cant trade it for cash

I dont mind the style

mexi, french, or pedifile

10 days aint enough

now men show your stuff

Moustache, cant trade it for cahs

you few who want it gone

for you this is your song

boys will you please recruite?

to you we salute!

-Katie Bourne

Us getting a little too into it again, with our shades, and hoodies... breaking it down

Here i am with all the boys...

Another p.s. i am holding up my nuckles because i wrote moustach on each one. True Thug.

And here is their salute

Just another crazy fun night at the Center

(me and Katie)

Field Trip to Valley of Elah

Every Monday we go on a field trip and this field trip we went to Valley of Elah, Beth Shemesh, Azekah, Bet Guvrin, Lachish, and Micah's cave.

First we went to Beth Shemesh, which sadly i forgot my camera out of the bus. Basically it was just a Tel, and sadly im kinda getting over Tel's, honestly they all look the same. And Lachish was a Tel also, so..sorry no pictures.

Anyways then we went to Bet Guvrin which had some sweet sites.

The Bell Caves

And then we went down into some old archeological site digs of where the some people lived (i forget who?!) but they were dove breaders and they used the doves for sacrifices, meat, and fertilizer.  So basically these people had a lot of doves and they had little birdhouse like coops for them, so this is Katie and I in one of the coops that i dont think was for the doves but whateves..

(us pretending to be doves)

They also made wine too, so this is the wine press that is still intact!

Outside all the caves and underground places, the outside was beautiful! And it had just rained a couple days before which probably explains its greenery.

(me pondering)

Then we went to the Valley of Elah, which is where David slayed Goliath.  It was way fun because our leaders gave us slings so that we could try out our skills of sling shots, sadly i dont think i could have slayed Goliath

And us acting it out: me being David, with Corina on top of Aaron

Next came the Micah Cave's which seriously was the coolest thing! We climbed through this tiny little opening of a cave and had to crawl on our hands and knees which led to the big opening of the cave, but the sweetest part was that the big opening led to three different tiny openings which we got to explore around, and all of it was crawling on our hands and knees, and sliding on our backs and stomachs! It seriously was like a playground for archeologist, or for us :)

This is a picture of my friend Taelor, but it shows how small the openings are...

And we got REALLY dirty

(Anna, Ron, John, Taelor, Katie, John, Carrie, Diana, me, Dan)

And for some reason our group has a thing for butt pictures?! So we had to take one of our dirty bums :)

(Carrie, Leslie, Katie, Anna, Natalie, and me)

And here are our cute diry boys

(Ron, Jeff, Alex, Brian, John, Aaron, and Dan)

And this is a random picture that i took of me trying to be artsy, which i thought worked out very nicely

Then lastly we went to a mountian/hill called Azekah which basically was a look out for the Valley of Elah.

Here we are doing a jumping picture

(Carrie, me and Katie)

Super fun field trip, and so grateful for hot showers :)