un petit repos

this is a happy summery blog

and i haven't felt too summery lately

so i'll be back when i do!

gearing up for 2010

one of my goals for this next year is to complete a pretty extensive reading list. the list, however, has yet to be fully compiled.

this is where you come in.

please leave a comment with suggestions or favorites or anything that enlightened, inspired, provoked thought, taught or was just plain fun!

i'll post the list when it's finished- maybe you'll read along with me!

christmas has even more meaning for me this year

i'm so glad i have memories of the holy land where Jesus lived.

may peace and joy fill your lives

merry christmas!

humanities class

the mail today brought my book for next semester's humanities class.

as i turned its pages for the first of many times

i realized that i was saying the following phrases delightfully often:

"oh i've been there"

"oh i've seen that"

and slightly less delightful:

"oh this was closed that day"

home!

headed home early thursday morning

started hallucinating a little bit on the last leg, which was a good 30 hours after i started, and kept trying to talk to the lady next to me like she was miss randi deighton. (she wasn't)

next day- had minor little toe surgery and relished in my foot pain that evening at

the nutcracker by ballet memphis

can't wait to start dancing again!

last hours in jerusalem

the semester is over and it's time to go home! i've got a lot of catching up to do on here with field trips and such.

but- i'm leaving the holy land tonight! we've got a goodbye dinner, a slideshow and some last minute packing (and hoping to squeeze in a couple hours of sleep).

i'm stocked up on gummies and pop rock chocolate.

hoping for some good movies on the plane.

looking forward to some hearty gluten free american food.

but mostly looking forward to time with the fambamily

in a land with no minarets.

shalom!

i have been very, very bad at writing what's actually going on

sorry.

here's a story for you. when my brother was here he bought me a pair of earrings. i liked them very much and wore them all the time. then this summer, one of them went missing. i was very sad. but i realized i could buy a new pair when i came to jerusalem! so i searched. and searched. and searched. and somehow, he had managed to find the only pair of earrings in jerusalem that is not duplicated in every other shop. i was discouraged. and then last week, on one of my last days in the city... i found a shop that had the right beads and the right coins, and so i got a handmade new pair of the same earrings!

here's another story. one day, while walking in west jerusalem, we passed a (very) pregnant woman wearing a (very) tight (sheer) white shirt, and (sheer) white leggings.

dun dun dun dun DONE!

i have spent the last week huddled with a laptop, books and pencils preparing for finals. i'm afraid i may have given myself a permanent hunchback and writer's cramp in exchange for some unfortunately mediocre grades, BUT i am done! fall semester 2009- check!

writing letters

dear jerusalem,

you have been fabulous. i'm going to miss mingling with your people and eating your food and learning all you have to offer

dear falafel,

too bad you have gluten in you. you were great while you lasted.

dear gluten,

you are not so dear. i haven't eaten you since thanksgiving!

dear hawaii,

why oh why are you having 40 foot swells when i am not there to see them? i wish i were going back to you soon

dear finals,

why?

dear christmas,

i am so so so so excited

dear home and family,

i cannot WAIT!

maybe it's because it's fast sabbath

but i cannot wait to make cookies and crafts and all sorts of christmas delights!

(thanks for the photo)

i'm dying to make all the diy crafty-diddles from this website

as well as attempt to make these delicious-looking cookies sans gluten

and mostly i just can't wait to be home for christmas!

post #300

i used to think that i needed to know my plan for the future, step by step, all the way to the end.

i'd stress and worry and still not know much of anything.

now i've not only learned to live with not knowing, i've completely embraced it. now i get that same knot in my stomach if i know where i'll be even a year in advance. a happy medium might be nice. in the meantime,

I see my path, but I don't know where it leads. Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it. - Rosalia de Castro

here's to not knowing where post #400 will come from!

on thursday we went to bethlehem

bethlehem

yep, bethlehem.

at night, we sat in shepherd's field and re-enacted the christmas story

(maybe baby jesus was a water bottle, maybe not)

but sitting in the (rocky) field, looking up at the sky, one star (planet?) even shined brighter than the rest.

it was one of the few places where i have been able to block out the modern world, and picture it like it used to be.

it was so easy to see the shepherds dropping everything and running to the city to find the newborn Lord.

and since i have a newfound love for primary, here are the lyrics to one of my favorite songs:

picture a stable in judea,

picture a sacred, silent night.

and can you hear the angels near

and see the star so bright?

picture the little baby Jesus.

think of his life and words so dear.

sing praise to Him; remember Him as you picture Christmas this year.

picture the kind and gentle joseph.

picture the mother, mary, fair

and can you see so reverently

the shepherds kneeling there?

picture the little baby Jesus.

think of his life and words so dear.

sing praise to Him; remember Him as you picture Christmas this year.

december! you know what that means...

CHRISTMAS!!!

I'm so excited that I broke my own rule of never ever alternating colors every other word, let alone every other letter.

i love christmas.

so much.

i love that there are paper snowflakes in the oasis (that's the jerusalem word for cafeteria)

i love that there is a huge olive wood nativity upstairs

i love that there are green trees and red ribbons and fake presents

but most of all i'm excited that it will be christmas at home!

two weeks!

lesson of the day

mister scorpion asks mister turtle for a ride across the river

mr t. says no, you'll sting me!

mr s. says hey if i sting you we'll both die. what would be in it for me?

mr t. decides that makes sense

so he lets the scorpion climb on his back and starts swimming

halfway out, what does the scorpion do, but sting him!

while poor mr. turtle is sinking he asks why mr. scorpion would do that.

mr. scorpion says, hey, it's the middle east!

from ophir yarden

home from home but not quite home

back to jerusalem from the galilee

spent 11 days discovering the beauty of the sea of galilee and the surrounding places-

capernaum, chorazin, nazareth, beth shearim, tel dan, tiberias, hazor

spent hours and hours studying the life of Christ where it was lived

took a midterm (that i thought was not too bad, but apparently i'm the only one who felt that way. i think this either means i did very well or very poorly. we'll see when the grades come out)

got some nasty little bug and spent a few days in bed

walked barefoot on the beach again

fell in love with galilee and did not want to leave

came home to jerusalem center bedecked with trees and poinsettias and nativities and lights and unpacked to the beautiful sound of christmas music

no ma'am, i don't work at the consulate but go ahead and tell me everything you know

went around the city in a car for the first time

played the carillon bells for a full 45 minutes

christmas songs!

then chased our director around the center for about 2 hours trying to get permission to leave the center tonight

finally tracked him down, then spent another hour figuring out logistics with security.

finally got out

to east jerusalem

to a beautiful apartment, home to a beautiful lady from the branch

who was hosting a "pie tasting"

we made a quiche

and ate lots and lots of delectable pie

and talked to amazing people

and, as the title suggests, were assumed to work at the consulate

score.

on thursday we walked a very, very long way, and ended up at

The Knesset

-the parliamentary center of Israel

- went on a tour, watched a very american-ized video including such quotes from the knesset podium as "there will be no palestinian state" and "we rule over 2 million palestinians"

- went to the supreme court, toured, sat in seats that seem to exude anxiety, and watched a session (in Hebrew)

then on friday we walked a very long way again

and went to the great synagogue

called by one "the jewish conference center"

november 11

temple institute

they have made and gathered all the things they will need to build the third temple. wowza. lots of gold, ephods and things.

talked to (or were talked to by, rather) a man named david, who told us all about judaism and christianity as he understood it.

israel museum

cool cool cool. huge model of jerusalem in the second temple period.

amazing video art of love being the only thing without a price tag, and pulling tar and feathers off of a person. dead sea scrolls from qumran. the shrine of the book.

this morning i looked at my recent searches, and this is what i found:

where is the ark of the covenant?

red heifer switzerland

league of nations article 22

sallah shabbati

eilat

sanballat

stalin how many divisions

fun, huh?

oh, hello nabataean

spices

jerash

the siq at petra

one shabbat i went to a synagogue

welcomed shabbat

sang in hebrew and beautiful, unwritten minor harmony

watched over the curtain little girls on their dad's shoulders

danced and danced and worshiped God

and shamelessly stole this photo from anna daines slash kali clark

i'm crossing over jordan

so many adventures were had in jordan. i loved it. even more than egypt. jordan is amazing.

until i have a few more minutes to describe it all, i will leave you with two border-crossing words:

body. search.

aloha!

mercy

today we had a fireside with Elder Holland. I sat in the front row and shook his hand and gave him a hug (forgot about that Holy land rule. oops.)

He spoke about mercy as the defining characteristic of Jesus Christ. In Matthew, we are commanded to be perfect as our Father in Heaven, but in Luke, we are commanded to be merciful like our Father in Heaven.

Every day, let's find some way to put off the anger and be a little more merciful.

christmas in october in jerusalem

so tonight was the much-looked-forward-to-day-of-midterms-being-over

amanda and i had planned a homework-free movie night with lots of food

lo and behold, i go to her room to set up the movies

and there is a surprise christmas in october party just for me! christmas in october! my favorite thing!

and then we watched elf and had RAINBOW JELLO and listened to christmas music and made a fort and sang christmas songs and made snowflakes

thank you dear dear friend amanda and friends!

somehow it turned into october

and the end of october, at that

no pictures yet, maybe just come find me at christmastime?
lots and lots of tests
went to a synagogue
had arab culture night
leaving for jordan on monday

who knew october was so short this year?

an apology

i'm sorry there have been so few pictures lately

the internet in the center isn't quite fast enough to load pictures

however, i will soon be going somewhere with better internet to do just that

thank you,
photographless alyssa

neot kedumim

bible preserve place

saw a well like Rebekah met Isaac's servant at

(one camel can drink 40 gallons at once, so it's pretty impressive that she watered his camels too)

made zatar out of the zatar plant mixed with salt and something else

made pitas (but did not eat) out of flour, olive oil, water and salt

and planned to make rice flour pitas on the lid of a dutch oven

herded sheep (which involved me standing on the hill and watching the 20 other people do that)

learned about sycamore and almond and pomegranate and mulberry trees

(mulberry trees are very quick to bloom, but the almonds are the last. we should be like them both, the hard part is knowing when)

the end

i've started a little necklace obsession

as well as a "bird escaping from a cage" obsession

and i would really really like to have this necklace from tina tarnoff's etsy shop....

your faith was strong, but you needed proof, you saw her bathing on the roof, her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you

city of david yesterday

we walked instead of taking the bus because the checkpoint for east jerusalem was backed up like nobody's business

stood on the ruins of the palace where david lived and stood as he saw bathsheba

and then where solomon would have stood

we saw a home that could have been there when nephi lived in the city

and a really old toilet

just another day in jerusalem

walked through a 2700 year old tunnel built by Hezekiah as a way to save the water from the Gihon Spring from the impending attack of the Assyrians (?)

Over 1,000 feet through a two foot-wide tunnel, sometimes less than 5 feet tall, with water coming two feet up my legs.

awesome.

ending at the pool of siloam, which is where the blind man, whose eyes Jesus anointed with mud, was told to come wash and receive his sight.

one more reason to grow my hair out

on the walk home this afternoon

a man asked me a question

"are you a girl or a boy?"

i love jerusalem

because it gives me chocolate pudding for breakfast

west side: some men should always wear shirts

played the bells again and felt possessive of them when lots of other people came, too

explored west jerusalem with amanda and tessa

really liked being where local people actually go

went in a piano store. where the storeowner came out shirtless and just stared at us. so we left.

went grocery shopping...for cereal.

ate gelato.

found a bookstore.

today has been amazing in so many ways! i can hardly even believe that it's all been part of the same 24 hours, so i am just going to outline my day from the beginning:

-got up and did ballet with tessa

-took my old testament midterm and felt absolutely great about it
-went to my ancient near east class and learned fascinating things about ancient religions

-helped make hygiene kits for the church humanitarian effort
-went to the old city with anna, amanda and kali and sung hymns in St. Anne's, the traditional -birthplace of Mary, and a cathedral with absolutely beautiful acoustics.
-Followed the 14 stations of the Via Dolorosa, the traditional path of Jesus on his way to Calvary. Tripped right as we passed the station where He stumbled the second time (this was more entertaining than it was a deep spiritual experience)
-Spent time in the church of the Holy Sepulchre when the priests were doing the Friday ceremonies and it was full of devout believers
-Ran from Shabbat as the sun started to set and we had to be back at the center before dark. Really, running back from the old city.
- watched the most incredible film, which i've seen before, but means so much more after what I have already learned and lived here. Journey of Faith, please watch it. Or watch it with me and maybe my excitement about this documentary will make it better for you =)
-talked to two amazing girls about amazing things, wrote in my journal and now can't wait to go to bed

in amazement,
alyssa

dear baby tessabunny and did ballet again this morning

and i love it. i don't think there's anything else in the world (except maybe breakfast or something like climbing mt. sinai) could get me out of bed that early.

i LOVE ballet. and i think i love teaching it and i think i'll especially love teaching it when i'm back in shape.

twirls, love and grande battement,

alyssa

oh yeah when i was in jericho

the salesman told me i had beautiful eyes, so i got a set of pretty candlesticks for $8 instead of $16. deal!

i like them. they will go nicely with my future wedding present of blue and white dishes, and my blue and white spanish gazpacho set.

i'm still gunning for those dishes to be a housewarming present... who knows when I would get them otherwise!

what have i done lately that's worth blogging about?

i've studied. a lot. and worked on papers. and studied some more. and took a test and didn't like it as much i wanted to. and decided to move to france. oh and i have also decided to grow my hair out, and if i end up in a dance major, i will dye it dark, because when blonde hair is pulled into a bun it looks like you're bald.

this is not a terribly jerusalem-ish post i realize, but that's because I have not been able to see jerusalem for the books. maybe gpa and scholarships don't matter?

k bye

so they took me to egypt and made me forget that i'm in school, so now i have two midterms and a paper due tomorrow but i'll still blog because i love

you

today was our conquest field trip

we went to ancient tel jericho, which is really a whole lot smaller than you might expect.

jericho is the oldest city in the WORLD, and there is a tower there they believe was built in 8.000 BC. That's 10.000 years ago. That's old.

There are always a few levels of cities, which you can distinguish by the differences in the walls. There is a rock wall that was probably the one Joshua and the Israelites marched around, as well as a few levels of mud brick walls on top. Jericho is a tel, which is a mound created by the accumulated remains of ancient settlements, so the 10.000 year old tower is 40 feet below ground now, although it was obviously above ground when it was made.

we also climbed up to the quruntal (sp) monastery, which is carved straight out of the mountainside on the Mt. of Temptation, where Jesus was taken by the Spirit and tempted. They even have a rock they claim is the one the devil wanted him to turn to bread. (it was a lot bigger than i had anticipated- it would have been a lot of bread!)

we stopped in modern jericho and saw a sycamore tree, supposedly the same one Zaccheus climbed to see Jesus, and then we went to a lookout point above the Judean wilderness. It is so majestic and beautiful, but it is really desert wilderness. and hot.

this one day, in luxor

i rode a felucca across the nile

and then i rode a camel.

my camel driver's name was ali (like ali baba), and my camel's name was siegmund (like siegmund marley). ali was fourteen and we had a nice, awkward little conversation about sheep, girlfriends and whether i was ok on the camel. i was, but afterward my butt bones were a little sore. i'm pretty sure i also had a midget camel, because i felt kind of small next to everybody else. i rode along the nile (THE NILE!) and then by some fields, and i saw a water buffalo and some furry little sheep that looked like bears.

just realized i forgot to tell the story of the old woman in the bathroom

the bathrooms at the pyramids were supposed to be free.

there was a woman at the door glaring at us and telling us to give her a pound to get in.

we had our own toilet paper.

and the bathroom was free.

so we stood there and glared right back at her for probably four straight minutes.

and then we went inside.

climbing pyramids and knocking old women out of the way of the bathroom

egypt

i was the first one on the bus to spot the pyramids in the distance, and that is one unforgettable moment. a thought flashed across my mind, "are those the real pyramids or are those a tourist attraction?" but then i realized....

so we drove and drove, and slept some and ate some (but not fruit or dirty egypt water or cold food) and then went to the pyramids super early to ace out all those europeans and asians who just can't understand the concept of a line. i can definitely stick up for myself and my place in line, don't you worry. thanks to a little shoving, i ended up with one of 200 tickets to CLIMB INSIDE THE GREAT PYRAMID. You know, no big deal.

So I climbed up tiny shafts that thousands of egyptian workers had carved and climbed, and got up to the tomb of khufu. it was full of mummies and gold and ...well nothing actually, but it was still really neat. there was really a stone thing where i'm going to suppose the sarcophagus was, which is pretty cool. the stones were all original, and they looked like they had been put together just last year. they were so smooth and so perfectly lined up, and believe you me, that was one airtight chamber.

so, first day in egypt i saw the pyramids of Giza and went inside one of the 7 wonders of the world. I feel good about this.

walk like an egyptian

going to egypt and i'll be back the night of the 24th! as for now, i'm going to board the bus headed for cairo by way of beersheba

when i'm back i promise tales of:
egyptian trains and planes
squat toilets (or maybe those stories will be better left untold)
kha al kahlasldijssomething market
pyramids
sphinx
kibbutz
and, i'm sure, much much more

i'm sorry it's been so long since an update! life is busy and life is GREAT!

quick rundown of what's been going on:

-lots of class and LOTS of reading

-I'm taking Ancient Near East, Modern Near East- Israeli Perspective, Modern Near EastPalestinian Perspective, Arabic and Old Testament.

-lots of adventures in the old city

-eating sugar filled pancakes in the dirty trash hole so we don't offend anyone fasting for ramadan

-going to David's Citadel/ Tower of David Museum

-Dormition Abbey

-David's Tomb

-the Garden Tomb and Golgotha

-oh and so many things I just don't have time to type right now....

- and tomorrow... EGYPT!

monday brought us to our first field trip

we went to the bar elyas monastery, which overlooks bethlehem and shepherd's field. we sang "o little town of bethlehem" looking down over Jesus' birthplace and Rachel's tomb. the hill used to be used for raising sheep for the temple sacrifice, so the shepherds were men well-versed in the scriptures and in the prophecies of the coming of the savior.

we also went to nabi samwil, which is believed to be the resting place of the prophet samuel. it overlooks the city of jib, which was anciently called gibeon. that is where saul, king of israel, was raised and met samuel for the first time. the residents of gibeon also played a little trick on joshua that ended up saving their lives but also condemned them to servitude...

life is good and life is busy! right now is the first free minute i've had in two days, and in four minutes i'm going again, but it is all great. arabic starts this afternoon, and then i will have finally started all of my classes- a week into school =)

shalom, sheep and sh..awesome

i can hear the bells

mostly because i'm playing them.

on sunday i played hymn duets on the carillon (click here to see what it is) that sounds out over almost the whole city of jerusalem. is it too late to become a carilloneur? and can i fit one in the house?

today was our first field trip! we went all around to get an idea of the geography and general history of the area. at the augusta victoria cathedral, a lutheran church built by kaiser wilhelm for his wife, augusta victoria, i got to play the hundred year old organ. we did "all creatures of our god and king," which is easily one of the most beautiful hymns ever. i'm hoping to get to go back and play more on that organ because it was such a different instrument than ones i've played before and i want to actually be able to play it well. we'll see....

for now, studying, maybe buying a sweatshirt in the old city, and waiting for dinner!
shalom!

oh hey

still in jerusalem

=)

i have decided that:

the old testament is very best studied when you can see old jerusalem out the window
palestinian kids are the most beautiful ever
palestinian kids are super tough and play with plywood
you shouldn't accidentally try to go into the dome of the rock (or maybe you should...)
it's difficult teaching myself to not smile at people because it's too forward
that i'm going to walk the via delarosa
i'm going to have to study a lot

and that i'm tired.
and that i love jerusalem.

today i:

woke up to the call to prayer

ate cucumber and tomatoes for breakfast

walked down sultan suleiman into east jerusalem

passed herod's gate which goes into the muslim quarters of east jerusalem

glimpsed the entrance to the garden tomb

brushed arms with a woman whose eyes were the only thing showing

was charmed by little kids with big brown eyes

explored busy streets full of treasures in old jerusalem

saw the city from the roof of the austrian hospice

decided to go back to the austrian hospice for apple strudel

found THE place for falafel

went in the church of the holy sepulchre

followed the via delarosa, the path believed by the majority of christianity to be the path jesus walked to golgotha

saw men with black hats and side curls and men in green with M16s

and fell in love with Jerusalem.

Shalom!

changed my mind! i'll just be using this blog, presumably it will work.. so stay tuned!

right now i'm sitting on the floor in the vienna airport, waiting to fly for the last three of twenty hours

cool people, cool places and very cool jerusalem!