Maybe...

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." ~ Mark Twain
So Friday I didn't have my woods class so I went home, took the math stupid math test, and went into my room and did english homework. A while later Allyx came into my room and said I had a guest. Ooo a guest. So I went out there and it was Nicole wondering if I had turned in an assignment that we had worked on together the night before, but hadn't quite known how to do. I said no and she said she would turn, did you know tern is a word, it for me. She left and I went back into my room.
A bit later I hear a knock on my door and Kendra walks in! She just wanted to know if I wanted to go to Sit Down For Stand Up with her. I gladly accepted and when she left I realized I had invited the boys over to watch a movie that was playing in the lounge later. I asked Allyx to text/call them and tell them it was off cause she was going out with Ben or Allen or Parker one off the boys she's going out with. She said she would so I lazed around for the next 2 hours and texted Allyx to see if she had told Sea Bass yet. She said no and why didn't I do it. I explained that I didn't have their phone numbers. So she gave me someone's...right after Han arrived.
I awkwardly explained that I had somewhere to go in an hour but if he just wanted to chill for an hour that would be cool. He chose that option so we sat for a while in the apartment. Then Danielle, Kristen, and Patrick left so we had to go outside to talk as the lounge was in use for the movie. Wouldn't you guess it was one of the colder nights that night? Anyway we talked for a bit more and Sea Bass came over from his ultimate frisbee game so we were able to go back into the apartment. Then Kendra came over, the boys left, and we went to SDFSU. Basically it was students doing stand up comedy. Some of them were hilarious and others... well not so much. Then we went to a bond fire. It was my first and it wasn't that great but the fire was huge, I'm not going to lie.
Then we came home, well I came home she went to her FHE brother's house to get help on her homework. It was like 10 something. So I read some more of the Forward in the Odyssey. And then went to bed sometime.
Saturday was really unproductive I stayed in bed and in my pajamas for most of it. I did read more of the forward in the Odyssey. Then I got a call from an Idaho number. I didn't recognize it and neither did Allyx so I didn't answer it. Then it called back ten minutes later. I figured they must be lookin for me so I answered it.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Angela?" ha! they are looking for me....maybe it's the clerk for my ward....
"Yeah?"
"This is Han."wasn't expecting that one...
"Oh, hey!" how did he get my number? My cell phone number?????
"I was just wondering if we were going to watch Dark Angel tonight."
"Oh yeah um..." looks at clock, it is 5pm, "Wanna come over at 7?"
"Yeah sure"
"Sweet. bye"
"Bye"
That was the gist of it anyway.
And yes I was in my pajamas til 530 at night. Anyway I jump in the shower, take one, then got dressed.
I finished watching Lady and the Tramp with my roomies and Patrick. Well I watched it, Kristen and Patrick were asleep on the floor and Danielle was out on the couch. Allyx was who knows where.
Then it finished and they did whatever. I popped in Hunchback cause I had started watching it a week or so before and never finished it. So about the part that Phoebes refuses to set the windmill on fire Han came over. We finished watching it and then popped Dark Angel in. And wouldn't you know Danielle decided to leave. So we grabbed the DVD and took it down to the lounge, but we couldn't find the DVD player so we sat and talked for two hours. It was really nice to just talk. He has the coolest back round too. His house is right on a lake and forest surrounds his house. He gets to go into the forest everyday!! He even had two pet ravens before the annoyed his neighbor. Ah the life of a country boy. *sniff sniff* my dream life.
Ah well I like my life too. Then he went to do homework and I went to do homework, though my computer sucked me in, again.
After a while Allyx came home with Sea Bass, Parker, and Ben in tow. I really can't remember what we didd but I know they made fun of Han for leaving early for homework. Anyway.
Sunday was good. The lessons were amazing and so were the testimonies. God has a way of reminding you he's there. When I got home I felt bummed because in sacrament I had sat alone, my roommates were super late, and Han kinda sat by me after he passed the Sacrament but he sat a seat away. In sunday school I sat alone, don't ask where my roommates went, I have no idea they showed up for relief society though. Then I walked home alone.
So instead of sitting at home sulking I took our lesson to heart and lost myself in service. I made Crystal cookies. It was so hard not to eat some of the mix cause I was fasting.
I went visiting teaching then took the cookies to Crystal. We talked for a while and it was really nice. I like having family up here. And yes, she counts as family to me.
Then I came home and the boys came over for dinner. We had tacos and they helped make it again. Then after Allyx was like "We should make cookies." And Danielle was like "Angela! You should make those cookies again!" they like Lani's recipe for double chocolate chip cookies, so I was like "Got any chocolate chips?" Allyx had some so I made them. Borrowing a cup of brown sugar from Allie. Han barred the way into the kitchen so no one would steal the batter like Allyx had done already.
After they were made I took some to Allie and her apartment as a thank you, then some to my new friends. Allyx started to object but I told her I made them, with mostly my ingredients, and if she really wanted me to I would buy her a new bag of choco chips. Not like she could really complain though. That recipe makes over 3 dozen cookies and I only took 16 cookies. Anyway when I took them down there the girls were really happy. Eileen even gave me a hug. I like their apartment.
When I came back Allyx was in a bind. She was going to go out with Allen but she didn't want the boys to know. So she was wondering how she could slip away with out them noticing. I noticed it was almost 9 so I kicked the boys out on the premiss that we had to go to dorm prayer. And of course I was the only one to go.
On the way back I tried to help my new friends break into their apartment because their FHE brothers had locked them out so they could clean the apartment. The problem? None had shoes/slippers except for kendra and most weren't wearing hoodies or sweaters. For thirty minutes they stood outside! I ran home and got blankets and slippers to help. When we were finally let back in Nicole and I did some math homework together. Then we went over to another FHE brother's house. And we almost stole MC's truck. See he leaves it unlocked and the keys in the truck. So we just got in and locked the doors. Kendra called him and told him a birdy told her that his truck was leaving. Not joking 5 seconds later he was out there fully dressed. It was amazing. Afterwards we had a pretty good laugh.
Then we walked back to our apartments. In the course of talking i learned that Annie is going home for winter semester and the rest of them are still going to be roommates. They were looking for another roommate they knew so they wouldn't get someone crazy. Then they asked if I was staying for winter. They suggested maybe I should room with them. So maybe, just maybe, I found my roommates for next semester.
Monday was uneventful. FHE was kinda boring though I did make it to book four in the Odyssey. To bad I only have two paragraphs for a four page paper due in english.

Pro-Life Day of Silent Solitude

Here is a slide show from the PLDSS. I thought it was kinda cool.

http://www.slide.com/r/CixDvwW-1j-58NpOlWbvipDdOTqreuLI?cy=br

And here's what my arm looked like. I later added one around under my elbow that said Pro-Life. The one on my upper arm said day of silence.



Next year I will hopefully be able to buy the shirt they have as well.
If you want to check out the website it's http://silentday.org/

Friggin Amazing

"Writers aren't exactly people...they're a whole lot of people trying to be one person." - F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Funny thing about college, some weeks are as boring as snails and then others are just friggin amazing. This was one o' those friggin amazing weeks.
Monday was FHE, I won't talk about what else happened cause I can't remember ha ha. Well we all met here at my apartment, well most of us did the only boys to show up were dad, Han, and dad's roommate Andrew. Oh and Patrick. We then drove out to the dunes. I was so excited, I've been wanting to go there ever since I got here. I drove with Kya and Maria. It was so much fun. We blared music and had a dance party in the car, safely though.
When we got there we lit a fire. Though in a unprotected spot so the wind kept threatening to blow it out. When that happened we just poured more lighter fluid on it. I don't think a fire was a good idea when most of us are piros. Anyway there was this huge sand dune close and I wanted to climb to the top, so I asked if anyone wanted to come with. Han, Charice, and Tiffany( they are Kya and Maria's roommates) came with. It was amazing because the clouds that were there when we first arrived had mostly blown over to the eastern horizon so the stars were shining. There are so many.
That's actually a fun memory I have with Lani, going out to the sand dunes with her roommates and mom cause someone had an astronomy class and just looking at how many there were.
Anyway I got to talk to Charice and Tiffany which was nice because I hadn't really before. Then everyone was leaving so we had to run down the hill and to the cars.
Tuesday was good, annoying, but good. It was Pro-life Day Of Silent Solitude. I was silent the whole day, except towards the end when my roomie was saying things that I just had to remark on because I forgot I wasn't talking. Anyway it was hecka hard not to talk in my humanities class. There were so many points I want to point out, and help the other people with their questions. But I stayed silent! In english too. Oh and to anyone who is putting duct tape on their skin soon. Avoid hair. Wrist and upper arm are good places but right below the elbow is not! Oh yeah you were supposed to wear a red arm band or red duct tape to show you were involved. Some people wear the duct tape over their mouths but I would have freaked out so i put it on my arm. And for some reason on bare skin.
Anyway around 7 I got really frustrated with Allyx and walked up to the temple. Would you guess it was the coldest night yet? Anyway I walked around there for a bit, came home, took a shower(I got the duct tape off really easy except the below the elbow one that took water), and went to bed... at 8!
I woke up at 2 because Allyx was texting. You think those buttons are quiet but their not. For twenty minutes I laid there trying to go back to sleep but the click click click of the keys kept me up. So I got up and went and scrubbed the kitchen and bathroom floors. See we've failed two clean checks and our third fail we have to do a white glove check. Bekka being nice said if we got 100% she would erase one of our fails. So I got up and cleaned. I organized the mess in the living room into piles of neatness, then I organized my desk. Oh and I talked to Sea Bass most of the time on FB. Ha ha.
Then for an hour I tried to go back to sleep, it didn't work. So I got my computer and watched youtube for an hour or so. Then I finished reading Sir Gawain. Then I called mom around 9 and talked for a while catching her up on the past three days. Then I did some math, or maybe that was before calling mom... I don't remember. Then I mopped the floors again and made my bed. Then I had to run to class cause I was late. Math was boring as usual, I was really hyper for Provident Living(ask Crystal), and woods I was just plain scared to mess up my clock cause we were putting the glued frame through a sander. If you put it in at the wrong angle it would tear up the side. Luckily I didn't mess it up. Wahoo. Then it was to a meeting for SL, only 5 of us showed up... again.
Then I came home and got ready for the ward halloween social. I dressed all in black and had Allyx draw a barcode on the back of my neck so I was an X5. If you don't know what that is it's okay. So I went and it was okay, it wasn't the best but it was fun. Though somehow the apples Wes and Tayler were juggling kept attacking me. I did meet some new people so that's good. Then I came home and crashed because I woke up at 2.
Thursday was the test on Sir Gawain in humanities. It was sweet because it was another take the test and leave. I only had a problem with the questions that were on the visual prompts we had gone over earlier. I knew the big details but the small ones were the one he tested us on. So I missed like 5 points. Then I went home and chilled with my roommates and the girls next door.
I then finished the reading for english and went there. It was a fun class, as always.
Then I went home and worked on a spreadsheet for math. Sadly when I was almost done I messed it up somehow so I just gave up. Luckily I had saved it half way through so I figured that I would start again in the morning. So I was watching movie trailers, I am so mad there is no more clean flicks a movie is coming out that is the third in a trilogy but it's R grrr, when I got a text from Allie asking if I was home and could I help her neighbor with math. I said yes so Nicole came over and we did the spreadsheet together.
She went back home and I printed them off and walked it over to her apartment and got sucked into a night of fun.
First there was a dance party with strange outfits, then we went to the apartment's FHE brother's apartments to tie the doors together. Though they were awake so we couldn't do it. We did help them jump start their truck though. After running it around the parking lot trying to kick start it. It was kinda funny cause there were 6 girls and two guys pushing, well one driving, a truck around the parking lot at like 11:30 at night.
Then we "left." What we really did was go into the laundry room of another building to look out the window to see if they would go back into the apartments, and in the mean time we broke up a make out session in the laundry room. Sadly they did not go back inside so we booked it back to the dorms, barely making it before the security guards came to lock the gates.
Then I stayed up reading the Odyssey, but only the preface thingy that explains the history of dissecting the Odyssey. Which is really boring but interesting at the same time, waiting for Allyx to come home. She hadn't by 2 and I was falling asleep so I went to bed.
I woke up at 6:19 and she was dressed and moving around, so I asked her when she got in. She said 4. But I don't know if that was true or if she had just gotten in. But I really don't care as long as it doesn't happen again.
Well gotta blaze!

Sunday dinner.

"When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen." - Samuel Lover
So as I was sitting on my couch I heard a voice from outside my apartment "one-thirty TWO!" and then there was a knock. I jumped up, flung open the door and gave a huge hug to Nat. I could never forget her voice. We then played for the next 2 hours. We signed, which I have wanted to for the past two months, danced around in the grass, laughed, and caught up. It was most wonderful.
She left when I got to go to a fireside. I went with the apartment across the way because two of my roommates didn't go and one was no where to be found. The boys were over there too. And what they were doing? Getting dinner. They were supposed to come to my apartment and Allyx and I were to make them dinner too. Well forget that!
Anyway the fireside was really good and I wish that the two roommates would have gone too but oh well. Allyx showed up right before it started so it was all good.
Then the boys came over and we made dinner for them.... well they made dinner for themselves. We just provided the boxes of macaroni and cheese. Ben wanted an apron so we gave him one. The only problem was that the apron we had was really, really girly. But it was hilarious when he put it on. And when... well I'll let you see:

and here is a video
Shown: Allyx, Sea Bass, Andrew, Sam, Danielle, Me, and Ben.

Isn't college life grand? ha ha.

Crazy 8

'Crazy Eights' Tag

8 Things I’m passionate about
Reading
Writing
Family
Loyalty
Rules as pertaining to eternalness
Friends
Pro-Life
Different cultures

8 Things I want to do before I die
Learn to play piano
Travel the world
Kiss a boy
Get married
Go to Greece
Return to Jerusalem
Truly learn Arabic
Learn Greek

8 Things I do now
Clean the apartment
Go to class
Homework
Read
Sign to myself
cook
Blog
Spend time with friends(and family if they were close enough... though I spend time with Crystal so that counts)

Things I can not do
Drive to the dunes
Sing
Finish a story
Write neatly
Go 24 hours without hearing backbiting
Look at wood and metal and not think how it was put together
Stop reading
Be nice to certain people

8 Things I often say
"Okay"
"Later"
"FHE brothers"
"Go ahead"
"Hi mom"
"I'm fine"
"I wish I could go back to Palestine"
"That's college"

8 Favorite foods
Potato Salad
Hamburgers
Macaroni and Cheese
Pita
Hummus
Fruit Loops
Top ramen
Sandwiches

8 Things you may not have know about me
I'm writing a book
i love my humanities class
I want to have deaf friends
I miss my high school life
I can't play water polo this week
I cause a lot of awkward moments
I hold a lot of things in
I want to live on the east coast for a while

8 People I think should do Crazy 8s
Kayla
Rissy
Kara
Mom
Drek
Brooke
And two other people who read my blog.......

"Ink on paper is as beautiful to me as flowers on the mountains; God composes, why shouldn't we?" - Audra Foveo-Alba
Friday night there was to be a surprise birthday party for someone but it was cancelled due to Guitars Unplugged. There went my Friday night plans 15 minutes before it was to begin.
So Allyx called Parkeve and invited the boys over. They came over, two hours later. So we dinked around the apartment for a while then we played frisbee. Then we moved on to walking around campus. While we were we found a cat. Andrew petted it so it followed us around until it ran after someone else. We had decided to go to the Temple and walk the grounds, but the apple orchard distracted us. We ran around in there for a bit, which was amazing because it was dark and I've never done that before. Then we exited to continue onto the temple, or that was the plan. When Han and I turned around to talk to the others they weren't there. They had stayed in the orchard. So Han and I waited for a bit for them to come out. We didn't go back because we didn't want to get pelted with apples. So we walked around so we could enter behind them. Though we found them on the other side walking away. Rude huh?
Then we played a game of tag in the Gardens! It was fun, except when I ran into a wire... that was white and easy to see if you had been paying attention.
Then we went to the boys lounge and hung out there till five minutes before curfew. In that time I lost my shoe to Parkeve, Sea Bass tricked his roommate to think he was locked out, and Han found my shoe again.
Then Allyx and I came back to the apartment. I wanted to finish HP and HBP so I stayed up till 2:45 but I finished! Then I went to bed. I woke up at 12:30 Saturday afternoon. Oops. So I cleaned the kitchen, did the dishes, and after getting the other two to clean up their stuff, vacuumed the living room. Why? Because the boys were coming over as previously stated in another post.
Well 5 rolled around and Han was the only one to show up. The other boys were playing a video game and were at the boss so they "couldn't come." So Han and I watched the first episode of Dark Angel, then I made hamburgers. Guess what? Han knows about Firefly!!! How sweet is that? It was funny because he had asked if I knew of a tv series named Firefly. And I stared at him for a moment in shock. We then launched into a conversation about it. It was grand.
We had just sat down to watch another episode when Sea Bass showed up. We had gotten half way through the episode when Parkeve and Andrew showed up. They were making fun of it the whole time so it was kinda annoying but funny.
At 9:30 Allyx left to go to a movie and the boys went with her. It was cool because I had wanted to go to bed early. Somehow I didn't get to bed till 1:30. Oops.
And church was amazing today. The lessons were just that good.
Well gotta blaze!
Oh and Han liked Dark Angel :}

Going to bed early?

"I'm going to bed early tonight."
Why can that statement never come true? I went to humanities today and had a fun talk on the David and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Then I came home and basically lazed around. I had a meeting with my HR and the other student living coordinators in my complex. Too bad I was the only one who showed up. At least Bekka knows I'm reliable. Anyway I got back from that and didn't really do anything productive because my english class was cancelled today. I read a lot of HP though, nerdy as that sounds. I probably should have gone to the store but I had no energy. Because of that I thought I'd go to bed early. I took a shower around 7:45, got dressed in pajamas, ie my arabic hoodie and pj pants, and stretched out on a couch and continued my reading. Well around 9 Allyx came home with the boys from last night, though Parkeve was with them tonight. Somehow I was dragged to their water polo game that started at 10, don't worry I changed into jeans and a t-shirt. I didn't have my i-card so I sat on the sidelines and cheered them on. But next week I am so going to play. It was a great game. Our team won 9-6. It was sweet. Oh and I got a huge hug from Parkeve at the end. He was sopping wet and I was in street clothes. So I pushed him in the pool. I ran and sought protection from Han who was on the other side of the pool, also in street clothes. He had changed from his swimsuit already.
We had a conversation that pretty much went like this:
"So what series was it that you were telling us about again?"
"Dark Angel"
"What time on Saturday?"
"5."
"5 okay. We were having a debate whether it was 5 or 7."
"Yeah its 5."
"Sweet, I'll be there"
Then we talked about popcorn and other things. Then Parkeve came up behind me and picked me up. I kinda screamed/shrieked, so he let go. Then tried it again. This time I just turned around and pretended to beat up on him. It was pretty fun.
Then on the way back the boys walked us home, it was dark after all. Some how me and Han started talking about werewolves. It was funny. Then we talked about the stars and the vastness of eternity. And how we both love to star gaze.
Then we said goodbye to all the boys at the dorms and I came into our apartment and there were more boys! It was a party till 12 when one of the boys noticed it was curfew! I didn't have to say a thing, wahoo!
Anyway it was a good day after people came over. I'm glad I didn't go to bed early. Ha ha.
Gotta blaze.

A not so quick recap

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart." -William Wordsworth
On Friday I went to woods and got tons of weird looks. That'll happen when you are wearing a bulging backpack, rolling a small suitcase along, and have two tubber ware containers under your arm. I was going home at 4:30 via the shuttle and there was no way I was trekking across campus back to my dorm when the bus stop was right there from the Austin building.
Good news though I did pretty good on the no bake cookies, thanks Lani! Woods was fun too even though I almost killed the middle peace for my clock.
I left early, the cookies were a bribe for my teacher, and went to the bus stop. I only had to wait a few minutes and everything was a go. The bus was full by the time we got to the last stop, or at least was supposed to be. I had given up my leg seats for nothing. Oh well charity and all that right?
Mom picked me up at the airport and we went to a hotel for the night. I don't know about her but I had a blast. he he :}
Saturday we went shopping for winter gear and shoes since mine are kinda falling apart. After a long process we finally found tennis shoes I liked and fit, a warm coat, gloves and a hat that's freakin sweet. Anyway oh and we went to the planetarium too. I was kinda disappointed cause I was expecting what the old planetarium did, cool star shows. It was still good though. I love how I can kinda understand 3d since I took psychology.
Then that night I played nertz with mom and Lani and I got to see megan too. It was a very good day all in all. Sunday mom let me sleep until 1 and then we ate and hung out a little before I left. Luckily no one was left behind at the gas station on the way up again.
I came back and it was snowing. Not real snow but the kind that melted right away again. Then I opened my apartment door and saw this:



Some back round really quickly. All four roommates left for the weekend and we left a key with the neighbors incase one of us forgot the key. Well at least they neighbors love two of us over here.
Anyway I left it up for the others to see and they were not as impressed as me. I felt very left out when they came home but that's okay. Allyx did not come back till the next day.
Monday nothing special happened because classes were as boring as usual and we did not have FHE. Apparently dad slacked off and our parents are getting a divorce. Though they, at least dad, has been claiming that since the second week.
Oh Crystal did make me feel loved and Sea Bass and Parkeve came over around 11. So I guess that is special.
Tuesday I got my test back from humanities. I got 45/45. Apparently the question I was worried about I was close enough to the monomyth he gave me the points, yea!
English was fun too. Though it's always fun in there.
Wednesday was tiring as usual. It's the day I have three classes and 15 minutes to scramble to the next when they are on the opposite side of campus. it starts at 11:30 and doesn't end till 5:20. It's grueling anyway. Math was boring as usual, provident living was really good, and woods... well woods needs it's own paragraph.
So we were supposed to move these huge boards for one of the teachers and Mort said be careful cause this wood is really sharp. Tree, yes his name is Tree, said jokingly "I wonder which one of us will get hurt." I jokingly replied, "Oh it'll be me." I should have knocked on wood, there was plenty around. As I was moving a board with the help of another guy it slid of the other boards and down my hand. I let the other two guys take the board and glanced down at my hand, hoping it was not cut. Luckily it wasn't. I only have a blood blister on my middle finger. Though that hurt until the end of class. Things did not get better. I was putting a cut into the side of my clock with a scary power tool. Well it got away from me and gouged the piece. Luckily Mort said it would mostly be covered up and it was in the back so no one would see it. Thank heavens. Then I was cutting the clock backing and I cut it too short. Hopefully I'll get a new one of friday. By this point I was done and cleaned up. Luckily the class was also done.
Then I came home and vegged. I have finally finished watching Dark Angel. I am highly depressed because it has been my favorite series for a while. I just never finished the second season. I'm kinda sad that fox did not pick it up for a third. Though I'm happy because the direction it was going was getting pretty weird. Even for a sci fi show.
Crystal came over and brought me treats. I think she is the first real visitor I've had since my parents. Other people will come over but always for the others so that made me feel special too.
So around 9:30 I take a shower and snuggle into bed with HP and the HBP and am trying to wind down to go to bed early. Well Allyx comes in around 11 and says some of the boys are here and so is(I will call him Han). I jump out of bed, get dressed and walk casually out and act surprised when I see four boys in my kitchen.
We talk and laugh for the next hour and I don't know what possessed me to do it but I invited them to come watch Dark Angel with me on saturday. Though it was mostly directed at Han. Why did I do it? I have no idea and I am still freaking out at the fact I did. The others are proud of me for doing it but I'm kicking myself. Go figure.
Oh we also got Boo d when we were away so last night, at like 1 in the morning Allyx and I took the muffins she made and boo d another apartment. it was actually kinda fun. You'd be surprised how many lights are on at that time. And how one roommate can go all stealthy like and the other one just laughs at the first. I thought my roll under a lighted window was cool too.
Anyway Gotta blaze.

Only in a Girls Dorm

"The pen is the tongue of the mind." - Miguel de Cervantes

So today was friggin amazing! I got up at 6 for a morning side, not so amazing, then came home and slept again till 10. I then got ready for my class and had fun dancing around the apartment, everyone else either being asleep or at class.
In class the teacher, Mr. Bodily he he clue, decided that after the test we could leave because his other class was to lost when he started teaching because he hadn't put up the assignment on i-learn. So after taking the test on the Hobbit, I'm pretty sure I passed with flying colors, I left. Guess how long the test took? 18 minutes. Well that was going from when the class started so it was probably even less. 18 minutes of class! How friggin sweet is that?
Oh and while I was making no bake cookies to bribe Mort to let me out of class early tomorrow it started to snow!!! Not like heavy stick to the ground type but it was still snow! All the apartment doors opened and all the girls started to celebrate by dancing and cheering. I think you will find that only in a girls dorm ha ha.
Okay so I take it back not all the girls were happy, Kia wanted the snow to go back and it did, but came back later for about 5 minutes. Now it's just cold but it was snow!!!!
WAHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
Oh and Kara my wonderful cousin is coming back to Utah to live with us for a while, I'm so excited for that too!

Um... Oops?

So I'll get to the title in a moment but a quick recap of the week.
Wednesday, provident living was super fun because the group that was teaching did a way fun activity. The topic was time management. The activity was they gave us a sheet of paper that had different things on it like study, go to class, read scriptures, go to the temple, homework, eat, ect. With each thing there was a location around campus, and let me tell you most of them were not close together. We had thirty minutes to go to each different location and find the code to verify that we were there. It was way fun and I almost got all of the things done. I would have if I had been alone because I would have run most of the way, or however long my body would have let me. But since I was with another girl I went at her pace so it was all good.
Side note, if I ever baby my children, please, slap me.
Then, I think it was Friday night I went next door with Danielle and played twister with a strobe light going. THat is really hard cause after a while you start to get a headache. But over all it was way fun.
Oh and I made cookies for my woods class cause apparently at construction sites it's doughnuts every Friday. Everyone seemed to like them cause they were gone by the time I left. Thanks Lani for that wonderful book again!!
Saturday I woke up with a start and yelled AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH for about the first 5 minutes. See it was 11:30 and general conference started at 10. So grabbed my computer and found it on the internet as fast as possible and watched the last thirty minutes. But I did watch the rest of the sessions with diligence, except when my roommates were talking so loud I couldn't hear the computer. They weren't so into watching, and didn't seem to mind they had missed the first session too. I think I found the problem to our apartment.
Then yesterday we had FHE. We played Taboo. The boys kinda didn't do so well but that's okay cause the girls won. Then after that we went out into the courtyard and threw frisbees around. It was way fun. And I might, might ask a boy in my FHE group to go to an oregon concert with me. I'm not so sure right now.
So to the tittle..... I kinda broke the garbage disposal. Apparently you cannot put noodles down there because it will clog the sink and you will be stuck with gross water in the sinks. He he. It should be fixed by tomorrow, I hope anyway because if not my roommates will kill me. Even though that's nothing compared to the mess they have made in the living room.
Oh and I'm sad because Silent Weekend was this past weekend and Miss B. posted pictures from it. I miss high school, the activities, the classes, the social life. And there you could at least get away from drama when you went home. Here it's just waiting to burst when you walk through the door. *sigh*
Well gotta blaze!

FHE

So yesterday was good. I mostly tried to stay in the background with the roommates because of the meeting when I got back. But school was good and my basketball now has air in it so I was able to go shoot some hoops. I am really out of practice.
Oh and I got all my homework done before 5 too. I was really excited. It's nice to having to worry about tomorrow's homework.
Anyway I have the coolest FHE group.
The girls across the way are in our group and they came over and picked me up. At first it was to pick everyone up but I was the only one ready to go. It's cool because one of them is from my home town. Though she is from my rival school.
Anyway we went to the gardens where we were supposed to meet. A hint, when meeting in the gardens give a specific place to meet. It's just to big to say The Gardens. Well after wandering for around for a bit we found our Dad and our adopted brothers, though apparently they are no longer adopted. Then it took a while for my roommates to show up. The whole time dad was saying he was going to divorce mom. It was funny.
Then we found out we had to go to the clerks house, we only had two cars. Luckily the two cars we had were a jeep and a van, plus we only had 13 people there.
We got directions from the clerks son, who was wandering around the gardens. I think we scared him a bit cause Kia yelled at him "We're supposed to be at your house right now!" he kept walking faster. She was contemplating tackling him when dad ran over to him and got directions.
Then we drove around for a bit trying to find the right address. We thought we had the right house when we pulled up to it so everyone got out of the cars but as we looked at the address it was the wrong house. So we all started walking down the street until we saw our clerk and apologized for being late.
We then went inside and played get to know you games and then pass the sign. I love that game so much. It brings up good memories of ASL 3.
Then we had wonderful crepes made by sister clerk. I managed to avoid spilling on the carpet my spilling on my pants instead. Luckily they are my work pants and aren't new.
Then we drove home and I went to bed after chilling in the living room for a bit, then going into my room and reading a bit of the Hobbit and the book of Jacob.
Today was awesome because in my humanities class we talked about the Hobbit for a full hour! It was awesome. Though you could really tell who didn't read because when the teacher called on them they had no idea. And I think that I talked a little to much, but what do you expect? I grew up on those books!
Then I went home for a snack and then went to devotional, which was amazing. It was John H. Groberg. It was really good.
Then I went to english. We played a few games to show the benefits of working together instead of working against each other. Then we listened to rules of comma splices and other rules. It's kinda boring but if it helps, it helps.
Oh and the class now knows I know a lot of random facts, like about Vlaid the Impaler. Oh well.
Well gotta blaze!

Surprise!

"People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories."
-Chinua Achebe

So Friday night my mother called and asked if I wanted to come home for the weekend. Of course I said yes. So that was partly the reason why I stayed up all night... Oh and I'm not allowed to post when I'm really, really out of it cause it will have many problems like the previous one. Anyway so I walked across campus at 4:45 in the morning to catch the morning shuttle. Let me tell you it is not a good idea to walk in the dark after watching a scary movie. NOT A GOOD IDEA!!!
Anyway so I got on the bus at 5 and fell asleep at 6 then arrived home at 10 something. Mom picked me up took me home. My cousin was staying over so I was looking forward to waking her up.
Well I got home and I headed towards the bathroom and the garage door opened and there was Kara. Well she was surprised that I was home so the plan worked. Just not the way I wanted to.
Well the rest of Saturday was amazing because it was spent with Kara and my wonderful sisters. Then today I came back home to a wonderful meeting of roommates. Wahoo.
Well gotta blaze

Under The Stars

Tonight I was going to go to bed right after a piano concert. Ha it's college so of course that didn't happen. Anyway so while I was chillin in the living room Allyx walked by with a blanket and set out in the courtyard area of the dorms. She then called for me to join her stargazing. After I collected some blankets of my own, it's so cold here already, I went and joined her.
Though we could only see more than three stars after staring at the sky for a bit. Then some of the boys we've gotten to know showed up to visit the girls next door, but they came and chilled with us too. And that was pretty fun. One of the boys had brought his guitar so he started playing for us. Then he left with some of the other boys and Wes came out. He's my FHE dad, and he's really nice too. Anyway he stole Tayler's guitar and played for us some more, then the girls from the other apartment came and hung out with us. Then some Allie came and sat on our blanket of music.
Then Kevin, a boy from my english class and ward, walked by and I waved at him, just to say hi. He took it as an invitation and came and chilled with us. Then I kinda kicked the boys out cause it was 1 in the morning. We had listened to the boys for more than 2 hours! It was wonderful. My roommates were proud because I had been social *insert rolling of eyes here*
Anyway then our apartment and the girls next door were supposed to watch a scary movie together. Well since Danielle and Kristen didn't come back for half an hour Allyx and I started to watch what but 1 Missed Call. That is a freakin scary movie, predictable but scary and it has a sucky ending. Which you all know I hate. I have to have some closure! But of course this movie didn't have any. SO to chase all the bad images away we started to watch Raise Your Voice. A cheesy Hillary Duff movie, but it is doing it's purpose.
Oh and it's hilarious because the a wall roomies and the girls next door are watching Prom Night, another predictable scary movie, and we can hear them screaming. So it's nice to be able to laugh at them too.
Well it's early so I gotta blaze ha ha.

When a Stranger Calls

So Tuesday night I sat out in my living room doing homework for several hours. Then I went into my room to check on something and I had a missed call and a voice mail. Now I haven't seen One Missed Call but if I had I would have freaking out I'm sure, ha ha. Anyway I checked the voice mail and it was the ward clerk saying that the bishop wanted to see me right away and to call him back. So I did and right after I said "You called be about an interview...." The call cut off. Well I waited a bit and I received a phone call again. It was the bishop this time telling me that the clerks phone had died and would I be willing to come see him. I of course said yes and we said goodbye. I quickly changed out of my pajamas, the whole time muttering under my breathe. I did not want to be in the Relief Society.
Well I walked over to the building, talking to mother so I wouldn't get attacked as I walked through the gardens. Anyway I arrived and the bishop called me into his office. You are now reading about a Temple Committee member. Wahoo.
Oh and I'm fighting with my roommate. Only because she has issues with kicking out her friend with benefits*, and keeping him from crossing the chastity line. Oh well. It's only two more months there.
I did go and get pictures of Christ to put up all around the apartment to see if that would help with the spirit of the apartment. I was not the only one who wanted them to change the atmosphere of our apartment. Only time will tell I guess.
Laterz!

*apparently I can't call them that because they only cuddle and my roommate really does have feelings for him.

baking

"Each new day is a blank page in the diary of your life. The secret of success is in turning that diary into the best story you possibly can."
-Douglas Pagels

So this morning I woke up to the most wonderful sound, rain. It took me a few moments to realize what it was I jumped out of bed and threw open all the windows. Luckily my roommates love the rain as well.
I had pre-decided that today would be a day of baking because I am a student living coordinator, it's kinda like a mix of Relief society president and an RA, and I hadn't met my girls yet. I thought cookies would be the best way to do that. So I started with no bake cookies. Which I found out are some of Allyx's favorite kind. Then I moved onto Double chocolate cookies. Thank you so much Lani for my wonderful book! Thankfully our oven decided to cooperate so the chocolate cookies came out perfectly. I dropped off over 6 dozen cookies! Of course two dozen went to each apartment so it wasn't that bad. It was funny because Allie and Jossolin were sitting in their doorway watching the rain so they got to hear me talk to the other two apartments and they just laughed when I came to theirs. I'm glad I have friends here. :}
So a review of the week:
Monday was classes and FHE. FHE was really fun because the whole ward went out to this huge field and played different games, they provided dinner too which is nice for us poor college students. ha ha. Oh mom and da also came up this week cause da was doing something with the something or other.
Tuesday I hung out with the parents in the morning and then went to class, oh and we went grocery shopping. It's really nice to be able to put a meal together.
Okay so day by day is really boring basically I hung out with some boys in the ward at our apartment. Well kinda. I sat and watched a movie with them and then went and did homework.
But I did find out how huge and beautiful the gardens here are. And I have several places that I have narrowed down to where Richard could have asked Lani to marry him.
Then yesterday I went to a concert with Jossolin. It was amazing! I think it was called Buckets and Tap shoes. It was really awesome. Then it's today and it rained but sadly it stopped. Hopefully it will start up again.
Well laterz!!!

Why, Oh why?

"Some books leave us free and some books make us free."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
So Saturday I slept in, meaning around 10:30, and when I woke up my roommates excitedly told me there was a dance that night. Now I'm all up for dances cause I think they are fun so I agreed to go. Then Allyx wanted to pluck my eyebrows, then wanted to do my makeup, then Danielle wanted to do my hair. Well one thing led to another so I got my eyebrows plucked, major pain btw, and some of my bangs cut. Here are some pictures:




The first two are right after my hair was done, the middle was a few hours later and the last was after the dance.
It took almost all day but it got done. Thankfully. Oh and we made banana bread too. Only the outside cooked faster than the inside. Our oven is retarded!! Thanks Lani for the recipe!! The dance was fun but not as fun as usual with my friends back home oh well. Though I did get compliments from the people I knew who were there, which was like 5. ha ha

Surprise!

"The path to healing from a loss is different for each person, one which may have many unexpected twists and turns, but a road that has been traveled by many."
-Kirsti A. Dyer, MD, MS
I was surfing youtube the other day listening to some of my favorite songs that aren't on my ipod and what did I discover but that the cd I really really want finally came out in the US!!! Soooo if you are looking for a Christmas present for me go pick up the Within Temptation cd titled "The Silent Force." That was the best news I got almost all week!
Thursday:
Since Allyx and I stayed up late talking again I woke up kinda late. Meaning about 9:30. I slowly got ready and was still ready by 10:30. This is getting to be an issue. I went to humanities and we talked about Adam and Eve through the ages. We looked at different pictures from different periods and that was cool. The first one we looked at I was really proud of myself because the teacher asked what period it was from and I said Roman Empire and I was right!! Though the only reason I knew that was because it looked Greek but it had Christian carvings too. But I guess that's how anyone knows right?
Then I went to the bookstore to buy a bumper sticker for my computer, tis my goal to have it covered in such things, but kinda got distracted. When I walked in to the bookstore I heard a guy selling starving student cards and since my sister told me to buy one I thought, hey I'll go in get my bumper sticker and come out and buy one. Well I started to wander around, bad idea for a book lover! And found a book of Irish myths and legends. Well I love Greek Myths but I thought I would try something different. So I looked at the price and it was 15 bucks. I had twenty and I thought the starving card was 5 so I went to go get a starving card just to make sure. To my surprise it was 20. All the money I had. So I still got it, vowing I would be back for atleast the bumper sticker.
Then I went home, had a quick lunch and went to english. I will tell you the smith building was made for confusion! There is no rhyme nor reason to the numbering system in that building besides the first number being the floor you are on! I walked in one big square before I got to my classroom! I could have just taken the first right and be there but the numbers told me to go left. Stupid messed up number system...... grumble grumble growl.
Anyone once I got there class was good. A quiz was dropped because no one could find the online material. So we went through step by step with the teacher to find it. Also the kids in there are more like 18 19 with only two returned missionaries. So it feels more like a high school class, which I like.
After that I came back home and tried to go to bed early by watching a movie, but Allie came by to grab me cause she was baking cookies. I couldn't resist so I went. She is crazy fun. Then she went out with some other friends so I got to know her roommate Josoline. That was fun.
Then I came home and tried to go to bed but Allyx and I started talking again and the early to bed thing didn't work out.
This morning I went to math. That was fun because Kristen who is in my stake at home is in my class. She's pretty crazy herself. When she saw my backpack she said it was sweet and the color only made it cooler because it fit my personality. It's bright green. I love it.
After class I went to the testing center to take a math test to make sure I was in the right math class. I past the test with an 80!!!! It's not the best but when you figure I guessed on some of them it's still pretty good.
Then I went back to the bookstore. I walked straight to the book of myths then to the bumper sticker bought them and left. I was so happy!!!!!! I read the book until I had to go to woods.
In woods we learned how to make the board all finished and square and parallel and junk. It was really cool because our teacher was talking about how when you cut certain types of wood they'll change colors for just a few moments and then go to a natural color. Anyway in the middle of that he said "It's a special moment you share with The Father" or something to that effect. I just thought it was really cool because anywhere else he would have been in big trouble but here it's just part of normal live. I like it.
Tonight I was surfing an online button collector thingy, sounds stupid but some of them are really funny, and I looked up OTH ones. Well some of them were talking about stuff that hadn't happened yet so I did some checking and it turned out that season 6 started on the 1!!!! So I went online and watched the episodes that have aired so far.
LUCAS CHOSE PEYTON!!!!!!!!! For anyone who cares, or knows what I'm talking about.
Danielle made a cake so we invited our neighbors over so we could get to know them, that was fun. Then they left and some of Allyx's friends came over and everyone left to go over to their house. I stayed behind cause I was waiting for a couple of calls, which came btw.
And now I'm just chilling looking at everyone elses blogs. Megan is so cute..... I miss my family. Good thing mom and da are coming up on monday huh?
gotta blaze!

More college

"If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
So Monday night Joe, one of Allyx's friends, came over and we hung out, the three of us I mean. We had a blast, I don't remember what we were laughing at but we were laughing hard!
Anyway Tuesday I went to class, obviously because that's why I'm here right? I woke up around 8:30 and by 10 I couldn't stand being in my apartment, only because I was the only one here and there was nothing to do. So I scoped out the building with my next class and sat in the sun while doing Sodoku. Nerdy I know but it helped with the hour that had to go by.
So I get to my humanities class expecting there to be at least some people there right? Since it's like 11:25. Wrong there was only one other person. We started talking then a few others showed up then our teacher. WEll apparently those that showed up are all that in my class. There's about 9 of us. I'm real excited because we'll be reading Paradise Lost and Zen's motorcycle guide or something like that. All I know is that Rutter used to rave about those books and now I'm going to be reading em!!!
My first devotional was cool too. I sat with my roomies and accidently put one of them to sleep. Oops :}.
Then I had to bolt to english. That class is okay I guess. We're going to have tons of reading of course but oh well.
That night I just did homework and laughed at somethings my roomies did.
Then yesterday I went to Math, Religion and woods. All being 15 minutes apart. That was crazy because they are all across campus from each other.
Fun weird fact about math, I sat next to Josh Barton's aunt. Can you say awkward?
Religion was fun I guess, so far it's just talking about the class.
Woods was really boring until we got into the shop and cut a 19inch board. There are some cute guys in that class but they are all 23 or older. Not that I'm looking.
I really like having Allyx as a roommate because we stay up talking. Like ti's nothing huge or anything but we just talk. I like it.
Oh something fun about my dorm. In 129 there is Allie, I think I talked about her in my last post, anyway. Everytime I go past her apartment and she's in the kitchen I hear a "Hey!" so I stop and talk to her. It's pretty funny and fun.
Oh so Kristen made cupcakes last night and I snuck one to Allie because we had been IMing. Well not really snuck because I told my roomies because they were standing right there when I did it. Ha ha. The story is funnier because it was at like 1140 at night.
Well I got to get to class now. Laterz!

College anyone?

So Wednesday I hopped in the car with my parents, with a lot of suite cases, and drove to Idaho. We arrived and checked into the hotel, well my mother did I sat in the car with da. Anyway she came out and started talking about a girl she had met that was supposed to be staying in 137 in Kerr hall. The same hall as me only a different apartment. We went to our room and then mom and I went to the bookstore to get my books, only we couldn't until Saturday. We ran into the girl again and I learned her Name was Danielle. We also tried to get my Icard but we also had to wait with that. We were heading back to the car when we saw Danielle again. Only I didn't say hi because by this time I felt like we were stalking each other. Mom and I went back to the hotel and picked up da to go to dinner with one of mom's old friends for college.
Then it was back to the hotel and watched Bones, which I sadly got addicted to three weeks before college and now I don't have a tv here. Sigh...... Anyway that night I couldn't really fall asleep because I was so nervous about meeting my roommates. I think I finally fell asleep around 2 in the morning. Long story short I stood in line for housing and my Icard then went to my apartment. I was the first one there, yea, and I was unpacking when my first roommate showed up and who should it be but Danielle. We thought that was really weird. She took the other room which was okay by me. Then I went and got groceries and stuff with my parents when I came back I met another roommate, Kristen. She is roomed with Danielle which is cool too. Then my other roommate showed up, Allyx. Is that not the coolest way you have ever seen to spell Alex? Anyway we get along really well because she's not super girlie and neither am I, unlike the other two girls, plus she's an artist, only ten times better than me ha ha.
That night was the parents dinner and that was really cool. There was Polynesian dancing and a fire dancer, that was my favorite part :} Then I spent the first night in my apartment. We stayed up till around 130 talking about different things. it was fun. the next two days were just getting to know campus and stuff with a team of freshmen. It was just like EFY and no one really felt in college. My parents left too, and that was kinda sad but I guess it's necessary. Saturday one of Allyx's friends came over and they went to go sketch in the gardens. Allyx invited me along because Danielle and Kristen had some of their boy friends over and she could tell I wasn't exactly comfortable. Her friend's name is Mie Ling, but she goes by Mei Mei, or however you spell that. That was cool because that's what K lah calls me, it's Mandarin for little sister. Anyway
I-night was fun too. Some of campus was set up like a carnival with tons of different stuff. I hung out with one of the girls a few apartments down. We've become good friends too. Then sunday we went to church and a CES Fireside. Oh Saturday night I got an e-mail from the bishop saying he wanted to see me! I seriously thought I was going to be called as the relief society president. Luckily it was a get to know you interview. Thank heavens. ha ha
Today was my first day of classes. They went pretty well. Math seems like it will be fun. Everyone in there is really nice. When I went to my Provident living class I was sitting there waiting for it to start and who should walk in but Crystal! Richard's sister. How weird is that? It was cool and all but I just didn't expect it ha ha.
It was a good first class. So that's about it.
Gotta Blaze

A Day of Mischievousness

"You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it." --Robin Williams
So I wanted a fun way to tell my friends I was back from Jerusalem, apparently none of them listened to when I was coming back. I was going to go to each of their houses on Sunday and give them their presents but I was way to waisted and I had to wait for an aunt and an uncle that never showed. So on Monday I had a stroke of brilliance. While I dropped off my mother at work I called one of my best friends, Jans, and after some grumbling from her, it was a minute before 11 when I called, got her to go on a mission with me.
I drove home picked up some window markers and then proceeded to pick her up from her house. After waiting for a few minutes and scribbling things on the inside of her bedroom window we went on foot to Holl's house. Her car was not the same when we left :} On the back window in big letters I wrote "Guess who's back!" and then wrote all over her other windows, though I did leave the front one clear so she could see out of that one. Then as we started to walk to Kat's house she drove around the corner and down another street. Luckily she didn't see us, but unluckily we now had nothing to decorate. We decided we would stalk her house until my mother called to be picked up from work, a good hour later. So we walked around for a bit and then chilled in the church parking lot right across from Kat's house. She drove up and had her boyfriend and his best friend in the car so an ambush was out of the question. Once they had gone inside we figured we could take all the time in the world to decorate the car... well we were wrong. I had finished the back window "Guess who's back!" and had started on one of the widows that faced her house when I heard the front door open, I yelled "Crap!" and dove behind the car. Jans however was a little slower, but she did make it behind the car. So we sat there quietly laughing at the predicament that we now were in. We kept looking through the window as they walked over, Kat, her boyfriend and his best friend, and finally one of them yelled, "We can see you." Apparently they hadn't seen Kat's half decorated windows. Jans burst out laughing at this while Kat yelled "Jans!" because she had heard her. Well Jans popped up and Kat said something and then I jumped up. There was a high pitched squeal and suddenly there was a Kat wrapped around me. She was across the street too and I was behind the car so don't ask me how she did it. Anyway she must have hugged me for three minutes straight while her boyfriend must have been givin me strange looks. Oh this is the one that she started going out with a week before I left for Jerusalem.
Then there was yelling at me for not telling her I was home for two days. Then she left but in Nick's car so we finished up with her's went back to Holl's and did some more to her car. Then dropped off Jans at her house and went and picked up mother.
All in all a good day, oh and I went and took pictures with some friends later that day it was good.
One more thing, for all her enthusiasm of me not getting shot while I was over there I haven't seen Kat since. Funny how someone says they care but is to wrapped up in their boyfriend to show it huh?
Gotta blaze!

Home again.

"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."
- E.L. Doctorow
Remember how Yasmine's boarding pass was having issues? Well she was able to get it to work at two am. She stayed up late and wouldn't let poor Nadia sleep. Anyway so I went to print it in the morning. It was my first thought after I woke up, and the printer would not work! So I sat there with Host dad and tried over and over again until Yasmine called and said everyone else was at the hotel ready to leave. Thirty minutes early too, I don't think that had happened the whole trip. So I rushed getting ready, someone else took forever in the bathroom like always. And at 8 Yasmine called and said they were outside waiting for us. Oops. So we walked out there and said goodbye to our wonderful host family and Nadia. She almost made me cry because she was almost crying. Plus now who am I gonna say Bumzah with? The original 6 then climbed into the van and drove away. I waved goodbye as long as I could. Oh and we still didn't have a boarding pass for Yasmine.
The drive to the airport was filled with a briefing of what to do in the airport and also joking around. More joking than briefing. And looking out the window as I don't remember a lot of the sights. Only how fruity the cab was and being sick. And yes Kathlene I am mentioning that again, ha ha.
At the airport we went through a line to get to the x-ray machine and Audrey got grilled for the whole group. Then our bags went through the x-ray machine, if it was okay you could proceed to the check in counter if not you had to get your bag searched. I had to get my bag searched. I took it over to the counter and they asked if I had any liquids in it. For a moment my mind went blank, not good.
"Um, I have shampoo?"
Guy looks at data pad thingy and shakes his head, second guy opens my bag and digs into side of my stuff, luckily right past the poster for Al-Nazak, and pulls out sand from the trip to Haifa.
"You pick this up yourself?"
"Yes"
Guy puts it back and tells me to close my suitcase. I fumble with it for a moment and he puts the good to go sticker and I proceed to the check in counter. I get my bag checked in and so does everyone else... well mostly Yasmine was still getting her bags combed over by security. Then finally they seem happy and let her go. She checks in and first phase of security is over. Then we go through a metal detector and carry on x-ray machine. You think we would be done right? Oh yeah we kinda have to get our passports stamped to leave the country. Everyone passes through with no problem. Third phase of security passed through. Wahoo.
We proceed to our terminal and everyone else is hungry, I'm not so I stay with the bags, Josh mostly stayed too. He wandered off once or twice but mostly stayed with me. Then he went to find everyone because they were taking forever. Then Yasmine and Kathlene showed back up. Apparently I was forgotten, thanks guys I felt loved. Ha ha. Then I was hungry so I went off to get food and change money. Well I got food but right as I got it they called our flight to boarding so I ran back, not wanting to get left behind. Then left food with Yasmine so Adam would not eat it and made a quick pit stop and got back in time to load the plane.
It was a nice ride because on a row it was Audrey, Kathlene and I then Yasmine was in front of me. I got to watch two movies I've wanted to see, Kung Fu Panda and Made of Honor. It was great. I only slept and hour on the plane, if even that. Then we landed in New Wark. We went to the passport stamping place and everyone went before me and Josh and waited on the other side, but when I went through they were gone! So I waited for Josh and we had some choice words for them when we found them. Bumzah. We just thought it was funny. Then we picked up our check in bags, went through a security point, re checked our bags, went through another metal detector/carry on luggage x-ray and headed to our terminal. Once settled I went and got my money changed, advice always change money in that country. The rate was way better in Israel/Palestine. And then I totally booked it to the nearest burger stand, sadly it was McDonalds, and got a cheeseburger. It was so amazing!
Then back to the terminal to say goodbye to Yasmine. But we were so tired I don't think it sunk in until I was on the plane that she was gone.
The plane ride to Utah was awful, I didn't have a watch so the whole time I had no idea how close we were. Plus I was in and out of conciseness and had weird half awake half asleep illusions. Like the side of the plane being the Old City wall for example. It was crazy. Then we finally touched down in Utah and as we got off the plane I totally almost asked where Yasmine was. It was just so natural to have her there but she by that time was on a plane to Cali. After everyone was off the plane we went to meet our families. As we walked through the tunnel thing that is only one way before you get to the open part of the airport I turned and bet Kathlene and Audrey ten shekels, my mind is still in shekels, that my mother would cry. Sadly my mother cost me 20 shekels. But oh well, she was close. The group said some goodbyes and we left. It's weird not to be with them today. And I miss Nadia, and my host family. Though I am happy to be back home. I just wish we had had more time in Jerusalem, or that the world wasn't so big so we could see all our friends more. Just something so we won't lose contact.
Oh and some differences I noticed, the sky is so blue here, I don't know if it's because we're closer to it or that we have a lake right there, but it's so blue. And clouds look funny now, and pennys. That might sound funny but when you get used to silver colored money and randomly have a copper one again it just looks out of place. I miss Jerusalem... Maybe I will go back with BYU in the spring. Hey it's only 9600 bucks. I can earn that much in two semesters right? If I don't eat or anything frivolous like that right?

Extra Long

"The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them."
Mark Twain
So yesterday we went back to Ramallah. There we met with the students from Genin that we had met on the Islamic tour. The group from the US made a power point about our trip with the students from Genin made a power point about RI-SOL. Then as a combined group we watched a presentation from the organization Right to Education. It was basically talking about how the universities in the West Bank are having a hard time teaching their students because of the interference from the Israeli Government. Whether it be because of blockades, or shutting down the schools, things like that. Then we had a presentation from Al-Huq, a human rights organization.
Then it was back to Jerusalem to have our final Dabka lesson. That was really fun because Lemise, sorry if I spelt that wrong, came with us. We had a lot of laughs at ourselves because we messed up. But they tell us our final performance was really good so that's all that matters right? Oh and Audrey didn't learn with us because she totally fell asleep on the couch for most of the time. That was funny.
Then we probably did some more stuff with Lemise but I totally can't remember. Sorry.
Then we went back to the hotel and work on performing our power point. Then it was back to the host families. When we went to our bedroom Kathlene and I found T-shirts that say "Someone in Jerusalem loves Me" and a ceramic plate on our beds. Our host family is absolutely wonderful! For dinner we wanted pizza so Muna, Kathlene and I went to the pizza place on the corner, well the Yummy corner is on the corner the pizza place is right next to it. While we were waiting for our pizzas to finish cooking Yasmine showed up because she was getting pizza too. So Muna invited her back to the house to eat dinner with us. That was a great meal. Then Yasmine left and Kathlene and I finished packing.
Today was we were to meet the group from Genin at the US consulate to give our power point presentations. The only problem was that the soldiers at the checkpoint decided not to let them through. So they had to go to a different one and wait there for three hours before finally getting through.
Meanwhile at the consulate our group gave our power point to about 6 people. But it went really, really well. Even if I do talk with my hands to much. Something that comes from taking American Sign Language for four years I guess.
We had lunch and then it was off to Arabic class. At this point the students from Genin were through the checkpoint and on their way to Jerusalm, so Devina, I think I got it right this time, went to meet them. Arabic was only 2 hours today, thankfully. Then after class we were walking back to the hotel when we saw Audrey's aunt, uncle, and cousin. We talked for a bit and then said our goodbyes. We then met the Genin students at the hotel and went to the old city. We went by Shaban's to see if our rings were done, they wern't, but we saw BYU students there and Audrey's aunt, uncle, and cousins again. One of the students that was there grew up in the same neighborhood as Audrey, her family, and I so we got a group picture to commemorate the largest gathering of the Oak Hills 2nd Ward that has probably ever happened in Jerusalem. Ha ha. Then we went walking around the old city. Nadia stopped in this one shop and took forever! She was getting us presents even though she knows she didn't have too. Then we went to this hotel/restaurant by our hotel and had a farewell dinner/dessert thingy. Nadia gave us our presents but in an awesome way. Each gift was wrapped in wrapping paper and it had an often used word/phrase by one of the members of the group and we had to guess who it was. For Josh it was Sah, Adam I don't Know, Yasmine It's for the baby, Audrey (I don't remember hers), Kathlene Naadddiiiiaaa, and myself Bumzah. It was great. The actual present was an amazing wooden box and then some Palestine paraphernalia. My favorite was a bracelet of the Palestinian flag. A girl at Al-Nayzak had one and I had been meaning to buy one in the markets but hadn't. It's a good thing too.
Then we had a wonderful time at the dinner. Then after Kathlene and I went to a wedding at the hotel with our host family. Nadia and Yasmine showed up late. There was dancing and giant sparklers and really loud music. It was fun.
Then back to the house and for some reason I was charged with printing the boarding passes for tomorrow. Heaven knows why. Anyway so I printed Audrey's with no problem. Yasmine's was being difficult and I was about to print the students when the power went off. It came back on and then when I was about to log back in to continental it went off again. Apparently the house does not want me to leave. Ha ha. Actually it was just because the big oven was on at night or something like that.
So I printed the students boarding passes after grief with the printer but Yamine's still won't. Hopefully it will work in the morning, if not we are leaving extra early so we will hopefully have time.
Well that's it. I can't believe this trip is almost over. Three weeks has gone bye so fast. It seems just like yesterday I was saying goodbye to everyone back home. Now I have to saw goodbye to all the wonderful people here. It's so sad. But hopefully I'll be back soon. Hopefully.

Update

To tired to blog tonight. Will make tomorrows post very long.

A Free day

So today was good and bad. It was a free day, that was good. We went shopping for 9 hours, that was bad. I am not a shopper. Everyone knows back home that when you take me shopping you need to either take lots of sugar with us or go for two hours max. Sadly the whole time there was no sugar in sight.
It was good though because I got everyone in my family presents. Wahoo! Also lunch was wicked awsome because we ate at a resteraunt that was on top of a tall building so we had a nice view of The Dome Of The Rock and the Mount of Olives. It was cool. The food was also really good, and there was a lot of it on just once plate. I think the girls could have ordered on plate and we would have been good.
After lunch it was back to more shopping. We were supposed to head straight to the hotel, drop off the things we had already bought, then go back for more shopping. But oh no, Yasmine and Kathlene kept getting distracted by things in the shops, so it took like four times longer than normal to get back to the hotel. But once we were there we chilled for about an hour. I liked that part. Then back out to the old city to look for shirts and hats. I'm so happy I found something for my brothers. I hope they like it. We walked around so much of the old city. We even found the place where locals go to buy western clothes. There were no tourist shops anywhere. It was kinda weird to see that section only because we are so used to tourist shops.
Anyway around 6:40 we headed back to my host family. They are very protective. I like it. Anyway so I got there on time at 7 but everyone else, excluding Audrey because she went off with one of her friends at lunch, went to West Jerusalelm. I couldn't stand more walking and shopping so it was nice to just come back to the house and relax. Muna is teaching me how to make braclets so I finished my first one while we watch MI, which is a hard movie to follow when you can't really hear it and can only understand some of the Arabic subtitles. Ha ha. Oh story, story!!
So I was sitting there making my braclet and Host Dad, I forgot his name so I call him Host Dad, went to the door and told me to come so I did, not knowing what in the world was going on but Muna showed up like two seconds later so I just followed him out the door. Then through this cool gate thing they have and we walked over to the ST. George Hotel. There was a wedding going on. The part where the bride and groom go from the car to inside. It's called Zafa. It was really cool. Theres a small band playing and singing and clapping. I'm going to a wedding with the family on Friday but apparently it's more of a western wedding so that's not going to be happening, sadly. I think different cultures are fun to learn about first hand.
Then it was back to the house to keep working on the intricate design of my new braclet. When Kathlene finally got home, I make it sound so late ha ha, we had dinner. The awkwardness is definatly gone. We talk a lot more at meals now. Ha ha. Well goodnight!

My favorite day so far

Today was an early day. We woke up at 6:30 and were at the hotel by 7:00 am. When we got there we learned that it would be a while before Nadia would arrive because she was delayed at a checkpoint. Argh! I could have slept in! Oh well. When Nadia arrived she had already picked up everyone else in the taxi van so we headed straight to Nazereth. It was a two hour ride with an amazing view. I was proven wrong once again because I though atleast some of the landscape would be sand but it was rocky. And as we went north there were lots of farms and green trees. It was a nice surprise. In Nazereth we toured around and met the Mayor. That was cool because he gave us a history of the city and about Nazereth Elite, the "Jewish" Nazereth. It was really cool. We also toured some churches that are supposedly built on the well that the angel visited Mary at. I like the second chruch that had mostly mosaics from all over the world. It was nice.
Then to my favorite part we went to the Medateranian Sea! It was a half hour drive from Nazereth to Hyfa but that was okay because we were going to the Medateranian!!!!!!!! Can you tell that was the highlight of my day? Anyway, we got there and played and played and played. I didn't have a swimsuite with me and niether did Kathlene so we looked for cool rocks. There were tons of them and it was hard to resist not picking them all up and taking them with us. Then Yasmine and Nadia came and played with us. A lot of picture taking was done, that was tons of fun. I felt like a photographer taking the pictures and directing Yasmine into positions so that her bump of a belly would show along with the Medateranian. Maybe I'll look into being a photographer again.
The boys and Audrey went swiming, well more like wading in because it was a red day and you arn't supposed to swim when it's a red day. Nadia, Yasmine, Kathlene and I had fun walking in the shallow waves, though we did get wet when a big wave came, though only our pants, or when Nadia splashed us.
It was so amazing!! It was so beautiful and I don't know how many hours we spent there but it was so amazing! And we kinda got to see the sunset as we drove back too. Though that drive was very long because 1) Adam was being himself and 2) we were all very tired, very, very tired.

Whatever today is.

This morning was even better than last night. The awkwardness of being in a host family is quickly desolving. Though there is still some. They are so nice, you can't but help to like them.
After breakfast with the host families everyone met at the hotel. Yasmine was happy to report she is no longer the only guest there. There is a family of parents and their older daughter. So now Yasmine is not afraid of the ghosts there. Though I suppose it's our fault for teasing her about it that it made it so concrete. ha ha.
We had wonderful news too! We were able to go on the Islaamic (does anyone still have any doubts that I can't spell?) tour. The boys needed nice shirts and pants so we went a looking. That is until Nadia said that the students from Genin and Nabalis were at the African society. Then we had to book it over there. We meet one boy(Gameel) and three girls(Lemees, Dema, and Zayna). Then we had another Dabkha lesson. Gameel and Zayna had taken lessons before so they were a lot better than the rest of us, but we did a lot better than yesterday. Towards the end we split off into three groups of three so we could learn a series of steps. My group was Josh, Adam, and me. I don't know where the boys and our teacher went but by the end it was only by trying to get down this one move that is really hard for me. So Yasur, a wonderful guy that had taken us around the Old City and the whole reason why we were at the African Society, showed me some steps that were Dabkha but modern. It was pretty cool, but by the end I was really, really sweaty.
Then it was off to the Islaamic tour. That was interesting to learn the culture and the history of the Masqe. I'll post pictures of what we looked like later. Okay other people will because my camera is gabrokey.
Then we went to lunch with the Palestinian students and then we had to run to arabic class, just like always. I think I'm starting to get better at picking up words and things but I'm not sure. Well that was my day!

Sunday

"Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity."
-G. K. Chesterton

So today was a good day. I was able to go to sleep early last night and I'm sure Muna and Kathlene are glad I'm a heavy sleeper because they were making bracelets in the room we share. Then apparently they did other things too. I don't know because I was out cold. But this morning I woke up in a sort of bad mood. Okay I didn't wake up in one. It was when Kathlene started to move around it turned bad. Muna doesn't get up until a while after us but Kathlene was banging things and being as loud as possible. I can kinda get how Lani felt her first semester at BYU-I when she had that 16 year old roommate. But taking my wonderful mother's advice, I'm trying to just go with it.
Then after a wonderful, but awkward, breakfast we went to the hotel and surprised Yasmine by waiting in the 4th floor lobby outside her door. She took forever to come out though. Ha ha
Then we went downstairs and met the boys and Audrey. While Yasmine had breakfast we talked a little about the host families. Adam was put on the spot because of somethings about the their host family and he went into a reclusive mood. So as we were going to Dabka, I have no idea how to spell that, class I started to talk to him about what to get his little brothers. That helped him to get into a happier mood. I think it's funny because I treat him like a little brother because I don't have one, and I don't think he minds because he doesn't have an older sister. It's kinda a reversal of roles because I'm the youngest in my family while he's the oldest. It's actually kinda nice.
So when we got to Dabka we took a tour of the building that the African Society is in. It's actually pretty amazing. Apparently it used to be an old Turkish prison but three generations ago it was given to those people who came from Chad and other countries in Africa. It's pretty cool.
Anyway Dabka lessons went really well, it was a workout though. By the end all of us were sweating bullets. But in a good way. Ha ha. The only bad part was that during the dancing my camera was stepped on a broke the inner screen. I believe the memory chip and everything else is fine but on the main screen you cant see anything but this crack. Hopefully it can be fixed when I get back to that states in 5 days. But I'm not counting or anything.
After Dabka we went to lunch and then split into two groups, Me, Audrey and Adam, then the rest. We went to Jafar sweets to get a certain type for Audrey and we had fun talking. Then we went to arabic class.
It was good but long, very, very long. Yasmine was there so we got a thirty minute break. On that break I got something for my mom. Now I just need something for my sisters, brothers and dad.
Then we went back to arabic class. After that was finished we all went back to our host families. When Kathlene and I went into our room we found cute little stuffed animals on our pillows. So we decided that it would be a good time to give them the gifts that we brought. I brought 6 mugs and a book of Utah and Kathlene brought a ladle holder and some pens. They seemed to like them so yeah. A cool thing is that I gave them BYU mugs and their niece graduated from there. So they have a connection. Also it's getting less awkward, I think it's just because both sides are nervous. But as time goes on it's getting better.
Well goodnight!

Saturday

Really quick details about yesterday. We visited this monestary in the mountain in Jericho and we rode the worlds longest cable car below sea level to do it. How cool is that?
Back to today. Ha ha
So last night we moved in with our host families. Kathlene and I moved into the same house, about a 30 second walk from our hotel. The boys are twenty minutes away and have to go through a check point everyday ha ha. While Audrey, I've decided we are friends and friends use first names, is about ten minutes away.
Our host family is really nice also they speak really good English. That's a bonus because our Arabic is really weak.They are really nice and help us a lot with it though.
It's kinda awkward though. I don't know what to say to them or what to do. Mostly I feel like I'm interrupting their lives. Though they are really really nice. I just feel so weird.
This morning we ate breakfast with them at 7:30 and it was amazing! It was basically what we had been eating in the hotel only better because everything that needed to be hot was. Then it was off to church for the two of us.
We walked the whole way and had lots of fun doing it. We got there an hour early because we left the house an hour early, it was just so awkward to sit there. So we just talked to some people who were there early too. The students we at Galilee so there were only the people form the region and some visitors. And because of that church was only two hours long. They cut off Relief Society and Priesthood. Audrey showed up a few minutes before the meeting started and the boys were half an hour late. Apparently they got to experience the checkpoint first had. It was fast and testimony meeting and that was pretty cool to listen to the different experiences and things of the people there. After church we walked the grounds of the Jerusalem Center. Then Kathlene and I went back to our host family to have lunch with them and some of their friends. It was really good and it was fun to hear them speak Arabic, even if I did only catch a few words here and there.
Arabic was long as usual but we got to talk to some of the kids there. It was intimidating at first but once we started talking it was better.
Then it was back to our host families. So yeah. there was our day

Three days ooo

Wednesday

Yesterday we went to Ramallah. We left the hotel and drove to the Consolut in West Jerusalm and met Alli. Then it was into the armored van with everyone and Slick. I think it's really fun having all the security but I don't think anyone else feels the same. Okay so maybe fun isn't the right word, maybe safer or important would be better. Whatever. The drive out there was really nice. The countryside is not what I pictured but most of what I've seen hasn't either so there was no big suprise there. When we arrived at Ramallah we went to the RI-Sol office. That was fun becuase we got to see where Nadia and a few other people we've met work. Oh and I guess it was kinda fun to play communication games with the students there. But in truth it really was fun. We got potateos for one of the games and sadly I lost mine somewhere. *sniff, sniff* I liked my potateo.
We also watched a movie about water in the villages in Palestine. That was really sad. It made me want to go home, get rich, and donate all my money to build wells, and sewage systems.
Then it was back to Jerusalm for about an hour or two of freetime. Kathlene and Yasmine went shopping, no suprise, Josh went with them for lack of something better to do while Adam, Miss B. and I went to the Tower of Kind David Museum of the History of Jerusalem. That was fun to walk around the citidale and see a lot of history.
Then it was off to AlNaysak for the last time. We learned about circits and using a sodder! I've been wanting to use one of those since I was in my welding class last year. It's been interesting to see how my interests are showing up everywhere around here. Then we had a BBQ with AlNayzak as a final goodbye and it was sooooo good!
We walked home after that and I had some really good talks. One with Miss B. about wether to call her Miss B. or Audrey since she's no longer my teacher. Then one with Adam. He's not that bad once you think of him as a little brother.
When we arrived at the hotel I came upstairs and tried my best to stay up. I took a shower, watched tv, did some soduku waiting for the computer so I could blog. But it didn't work so well. Around 10:10 I was out and out until 1:00 am when I woke up burning up. So I opened the window and went back to sleep and woke up several times after that. I don't know what's going on because this is the second night in a row I've done that. But that's probably more than you wanted to know. Well since I'm supposed to be at breakfast right now and I haven't gotten out of my PJs yet I'll write later.


Thursday and Today
Alright so yesterday, the day I couldn't sleep, started off really bad. I was really tired and my roommate did little things that really irritated me for some reason. Like leaving the door to the room open when I was changing. It's not like anyone would walk by our door since it's the last one in the hall but still. Then for some reason going back to Al Ma'amal didn't help either and art usually does. Oh yeah art. My painting kinda turned out cool, I think it still really needs work but I can't really do anything about it now. We also did another project. I don't remember what it is called but it's based off of traditional Arabic art work. That was kinda fun. Then while everyone else went off into the old city I went back to the hotel and just relaxed for an hour before arabic class. That was as fun as always. But I did get to meet me and Kathlene's host family. They are really nice. Then it was back to arabic. After that I went back to the hotel for some more alone time and just to relax. Then it was off to the dance concert. I really wish I could remember the name, it's like Dabkha or something like that. It was freakin amazing! Also I got to talk to Daveena, sorry if I spelled that wrong, and Ben. They were so much fun to talk to. But yeah the concert was amazing, I really don't think I could do somehting like that ever. Then we came back to the hotel and I had a really fun talk with Miss B. about the future. It was not only fun but it was nice to have a real deep conversation with someone for the first time in what two weeks? Yeah we talk and stuff here but it's not like in depth talk about personal experiences talk. It was really nice.
Then today we went to Jericho. We met two students from Genin, Rowan and Achmed. They were really fun to meet and get to know. We visited a palace and a church in a mountain. That was cool because we actually got to go inside and the monk that lives there, alone no contact with hardly anyone, hardly lets anyone in. So that was really cool to go inside. Then we went to the Dead Sea. That was tons of fun. Everyone tells you can float and stuff but I didn't expect to actually float no effort. It was amazing. Only it was disgusting to lick your lips after they had been in the water since it was so salty. I definatley don't recomend that. But I do say go to the dead sea.
Well Bye!

Another day

This is the day after the last post, so Tuesday I think.

Okay so today I thought would be boring because it was supposed to be the same as yesterday, go to a museum and then arabic training, but it was awsome. We went to the museum named Al Ma'mal and we got to paint! I think on almost every application of a get to know you I said I loved art. Well someone must have been paying attention because we totally did art. It wasn't a boring project either like you have to paint like this or you have to be realistic. It had basic rules but after that you could just have fun. The project was done in steps. The first was to pick some kind of cactus and draw/sketch it with a marker, leaving a positive space, and coloring in the backround with a different color using lines to make an interesting pattern. I really liked my sketch because although it didn't come out like I thought it would it still looks awsome. Well there was a second step to that sketch. We were to pick two color pencil colors and color in some white space or use charcol to add shading. I used color pencil, they call them colored crayons how weird is that? To color in some of my white space. I really hope I can bring it home to the states to show people.
Then we got a huge piece of paper and used the same idea as the sketch only using one of my favorite mediums, acrylic! Paint that is if you don't know art ha ha. That painting isn't going as well as I would like it to but it's still a work in progress. We go back on Thrusday so we'll see how it goes.
We then had about an hour break before Arabic class so I came back to the Hotel and relaxed for a bit. Then we headed to class. Well Me, Miss B., Josh and Adam went. Yasmine was at a staff meeting for RI-Sol and Nadia and Kathlene were shopping in the Old City.
We waited for about five minutes and then we started class. This class was really good because we are really learning things we can use on the street. We even went out for half an hour and had to ask questions to store owners in Arabic of course. That was fun and now I know how to ask how much, what's this and can I look around? It's really nice.
Then we had free time again so we sat around on the couches in the lobby like area of our floor and had a de-brieffing on the past couple of days. Wahoo. It was fun though cause we had a lot of laughs.
Well gotta blaze!

Quick Update

Hey everyone! This is a quick update of one of the days here in Jerusalm. I do believe it was yesterday which was a Monday... I think. I lose track of time here. But don't worry this is just short blog so you can get an idea of what's going on here. I'll be more specific later.

Today was really nice because we were able to sleep in. Something that was desperately needed because I am definitely not used to walking around so much. Also the boiler here was fixed so we had hot water this morning that was another bonus.
This morning there was free time in the morning since our day started late so Miss B., Kathlene and I went to the Garden tomb. That was really interesting, I wish we could have had it more to ourselves because there was this huge group of tourists from somewhere in Europe. They weren’t the nicest people and were really loud. But luckily they were mostly leaving by the time we got to the actual tomb. It wasn’t what I had pictured but it was still interesting to go there. After that we went back to the hotel and
We were all sitting in the waiting room after breakfast waiting for Nadia to come so we could go on a tour of the Islamic sites in the Old City and she showed up. Sadly we couldn't go on the tour because we don't have a permit yet. So we have to wait and see if we can get one at all. I hope we do because how many times in your life will you be an American in the Holy Land with a chance to go into the Islamic sites? For me maybe only this once.
Instead of that we went to the Rockefeller Museum and that was cool. It allowed for time to myself, just to think and be alone. Something we don't get a lot of. IT was also cool to see everything they had there. The Greek inspired stuff was specially interesting because I am really into Greek mythology.
After that everyone but Miss B. went onto the walls of the Old City. It was awesome to walk the ramparts and to imagine being in ancient times. I feel bad for Nadia because at one point we had to walk on metal stairs suspended over nothing. They were connected to the wall and everything but they were over empty air. And it was one or two stories up and poor Nadia is afraid of heights but we talked her through it. The whole thing took an hour or two. We started a Damascus gate, walked to Lion's Gate and back again. Then we headed Jaffa Gate. I'm pretty sure that's where I got sunburned because there was no shade whatsoever. But it was so much fun to be up there and to see the city from a different angle.
We then headed to lunch and ran into a bunch of tourist groups at the restaurant we ate at. That was semi-annoying because one I hate huge packs of tourists and two the price of the restaurant was really high because of them. But I guess that’s part of the life in a huge historical city, sah?
Anyway after that we still had about an hour of free time left so we went to Shaban’s, a store that is really fair and most of the BYU students go to because he is so nice, in the Old City. Nadia really wanted to see what we, the students, had been talking about with Shaban so we went and shopped there. I got this really cute backpack thingy because I hate looking like a tourist with my camera and money purse hanging over my shoulder. For some reason no matter where I go I just can’t stand that look.
After a while in Shaban’s we realized we were a bit late for Arabic class so we booked it to the building. We were late but not so late that the teacher left. We had a really good class. Mostly on simple sentences that we could use around the city and how to answer them. It was really really helpful. Then it was free time again because class was something like three hours today. It was supposed to be five but we went through our lesson really fast.
For free time the students went back to the hotel and just relaxed for a while, and the teachers went to dinner. Well we got hungry too so we went exploring. Someone decided not to go to any of the restaurants we had gone to before so we wandered for some time. Though somehow no matter what street we took we always ended up back at the hotel. Finally I had had enough so I went back to the hotel with Adam and had some snacks my wonderful mother had packed. Josh and Kathlene wandered some more before finally going to one of the regular restaurants. And that pretty much sums up the day. Goodnight!