Manscaped...

This week was fun.  On our free day a group of us decided that the hairs upon our heads had gotten too long for our liking.  So we headed to the Old City, the girls went to one fancier salon up in the Christian Quarter and me, Mark and Cory went just inside Damascus where I had previously gone for a trim.  I guess you can call me a regular at this particular barber because I just went in, the guy recognized me, asked if I needed a cut, I said yes, he asked, same as last time, I said yes, and he just went for it.  The style I get is interesting, and probably not one that I’ll continue when I’m back in the US, but I like it good enough.  I will say that the men who cut my hair are like machines, the scissor action they wield is like nothing i’ve seen before.  An unfortunate part of the cut is the gel or industrial cement or whatever you want to call it that they smear onto every strand of hair that has emerged from my scalp.  Seriously, this is the hardest gel I’ve ever felt in my life, and its slathered on like butter on my toast.

Later that night Cory and I fulfilled one of the goals that we had made weeks ago.  We had wanted to experience the smoothness of skin that girls get to feel on a regular basis.  So after an intense soccer tournament, Cory and I slyly made our way out to the patio and were then joined by Spencer E. and Taylor  where we proceeded to remove the hair from the lower two appendages.  I'll let the pictures and this short sentence say the rest... sliding into bed was a wonderful experience that night.

Where are you Christmas?

I was sitting in my Ancient Near Eastern Studies class yesterday preparing for our field trip to Bethlehem, when all of the sudden Brother Chadwick started ruining the traditions of my youth.  It was almost unbearable to hear; so I have decided that I don’t want to live by myself in this defiled Christmas land of false traditions, so all of you better read this, ponder and question everything you have ever known. JK

First hope, dream and tradition of happiness dashed: Jesus was not a wood carpenter.  He was a stone mason.  No one used wood in Jerusalem in that time (or in this time really).  Also see number 4.

Second hope, dream and tradition of happiness dashed: The City of David is not Bethlehem, it is Jerusalem, and Jesus was not born there.  

Third hope, dream and tradition of happiness dashed: The cave that Jesus was born in was not a stable.

Fourth hope, dream and tradition of happiness dashed: The manger was made of stone, not of wood.  It was not full of hay, because hay wasn’t used, it was a stone, watering trough.  

Fifth hope, dream and tradition of happiness dashed:  Santa isn’t real, yeah, I took it hard too.

So, just to clarify, “Once in royal David’s city DID NOT stand a lowly cattle shed, where a mother DID NOT lay her baby in a manger (but in a TROUGH) for his bed.  Mary was his mother mild, Jesus Christ her little child.”  Oh, and Santa aint not comin to town!

Anyways, i'll post what else I learn after our field trip to Bethlehem on Monday.  Til then...Be good, don't be bad.  And don't call me Shirley!

Yad Vashem

Our field trip this week was headed by our Judaism professor Ophir, he took us all to Mt. Herzl (Israel’s version of Arlington Cemetery) and Yad Vashem (Israel’s holocaust museum).  To be quite honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to this, I’d been to Holocaust museums and concentration camps in Europe before and I don’t enjoy seeing the sickening and gut wrenching images that are usually there.  This museum however, was much more hopeful and historical than I had imagined.  It was interesting to have Ophir talk to us before hand about the Israeli perspective of this historical massacre.  Our tour started on what is called the Warsaw Uprising Plaza, here stands two statue reliefs.  One is of a group of Jews marching, presumably to their deaths, their faces are full of despair and you can see hints of Nazi soldiers behind them.  The other statue is of men and woman who were members of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, their faces are courageous, their arms strong and willing to fight for their freedom.  Ophir pointed out that this is how Israeli’s like to see the Holocaust, not as sheep heading to their slaughter but as heroes.  

We walked through the Path of the Righteous Gentiles where Carob trees have been planted in thanks of those who 1) saved Jews during the Holocaust and 2) did it for no personal gain.  One of the more famous trees here is that of Oscar Schindler. 

The view when you exit the museum.

The museum is very interesting, both for the building design itself and for the items and stories told within.  It is a long triangular tube that essentially cuts through the crest of the mountain.  You zig zag through the museum passing through that corridor over and over.  The displays are very well done, and chronological in order.  You start with a display of what life was like  for the Jews before the war began.  Then you move into a display of the Nazi rise to power, and then move into the more graphic and gruesome parts, featuring what life was like in the Ghettos, then concentration camps, and then how the camps were liberated.  Then you see what life was like following the war.  You end in two very moving rooms, one the hall of names where the names of everyone who died is listed in huge volumes of books.  The final room is dark, with cello music playing and quotes of survivors and those killed are projected onto the wall.   

We couldn't take pics inside, so this is as much as I can show.

Outside the main museum is the Children’s memorial, where mirrors are everywhere with a candle in the middle.  It is designed to give you an idea of how many Jewish children were killed during the Holocaust, over a million and each reflected candlelight is supposed to represent one child.  Its like trying to count the stars, its an unfathomable number really.  

Also outside the main section is the hall of remembrance, this is like a national memorial, with an eternal flame in the middle.  This is the first building that was built as a Holocaust Memorial and it is still where people come to lay wreaths in memoriam of those who were killed.

We then went up Mt. Herzl to eat some lunch and then see some graves of some very important people in the history of Israel, including Theodore Herzl who was the father of the Zionist movement, he died in Austria but was brought to Israel when the state was founded in 1949.  In addition to being a resting place for the VIPs, soldiers can also be buried in this national cemetery.  This was explained to us as the sacred mountain for the secular jews, whereas Mount Moriah is the sacred mountain for the religious jews.  We also saw the grave of Teddy Kollek, who was the mayor of Jerusalem, friend to Mormons and an instrumental part of the creation of this center.  

It was a fantastic field trip.  

Addendum #1

Pretty cool pic, right?

While we were up on top of Mt. Herzl next to Herzl’s tomb, I spotted a perfectly waving flag and decided that it would a wonderful shot to have me next to the waving Israeli flag.  So I grabbed JenGub and asked her to come take this pic for me.  To make it go quickly and to show her what I wanted, I had her pose for me so that I could demonstrate how to get the shot I desired.  I took a few of her and then told her to come where I was and I switched her places.  She struggled, and soon Bro Judd came by and told us to catch up to the rest of the group...So I never go the shot that I wanted... let me just share with you what the end results were

Well, this is what I got.  Not quite the same.

Luckily we found another flag, and this time we took a picture, had Jeni stand right next to me and just try and hold the camera as stationary as she could.  She redeemed herself.

This week in pictures...

So we have finals this week and things are bound to get a bit crazy, we're going to Yad Vashem (the Israeli Holocaust Museum) tomorrow and I'm sure I'll want to write a big long post about it, so I decided that to sum up this week I'd share just a few pictures. 

Jen, Denise, Mark and I just took a trip to the old city for a quick lunch outside the Hurva synagogue in the Old City.  Sometimes you just need to get out, even if its just for an hour or so.

Thursday night we had our Passover Seder Meal.  It was soo  awesome, I'm pretty sure it was as legit as you will get, especially with the temple mount in the background.  

Me cleansing my hands.

And acting drunk off of grape juice.

Friday afternoons we get to put together hygiene kits, and then commence with a giant dance party afterwards.  They've had to cap how many we do because we're so dang efficient.

Later Friday night we had an impromptu ipod Karaoke party.  Rules are, blast the song in your ipod and sing your guts out.  No one can hear the music but you, and you can't hear yourself...its quite the activity.  This is my heartfelt rendition of "My Heart Will Go On". 

No one got as into it as Cory, with his extremely lively version of Katy Perry's Hot and Cold.

Sabbath brings out the competitiveness in Miss Gubler.  This was her first game of chess ever, and she was pretty proud of herself.  Even though the game pretty much ended up like playing checkers with chess pieces.

This is my family celebrating Audryn's birthday on Sunday!

Oh, and BYU kicked butt against SDSU!  It was wonderful, Jimmer rocks Jerusalem!

Anyways, that's gonna have to do for right now, but like I said, expect a long post soon about our trip to Yad Vashem and Mt. Herzl.  Love ya all, and don't call me Shirley.

I just haven't met you yet...

Me, Lisa's daughter, Linda's son, and Suzie's daughter.

This post is dedicated to the moms.... the moms of my friends whose acquaintances have yet to be made.  Linda Laney, Suzie Gubler, and Lisa Gordon.  I'm glad that you enjoy reading my blog and I hope that you will continue.  I'm sorry that your children's blogs aren't interesting enough for you, hopefully you'll find joy in perusing my thoughts through the written word.  I promise that I'm taking good care of your respective children, and they take care of me.

Mrs. Laney I would like to formally invite you to continue looking in South Jordan for your next residence, as a long time resident I can honestly say that it is a great place to live.  I'm sure you and President know that already but I thought I'd offer my testimony of that as well.  However, Highland is nice too.

To Mrs. Gordon, I am hoping that you wont go back on your offer of having a Madi-Jerusalem-friend-table at the wedding, I've heard youre doing dutch oven.  Yeah, I'm a fan.  But, even if I don't make it to the wedding, I can't wait to meet you nonetheless. Your daughter is hilarious, and I have a good many pics of her that I would love for you to see sometime.

Finally, to Mrs. Gubler, I can't wait to meet you and prove that my hands are still clean and that my heart remains pure.  I anxiously await my visit to St. George where I can finally taste your vegetarian lasagna, salmon and wheat pancakes.  I've heard its all fantastic, on days where I just eat Nutella and pit it sounds especially delicious.


To all those who may have no clue as to who those formerly mentioned are:  Hey, don't worry about it friends!  I hope everythings going well.  I'll be updating you soon on what all happened this week, its been fun.  As a quick summary, we learned how to dance like the Israeli Folk, we did some serviceable stuff, had a seder meal, and we're watching Jimmer right now... 15 BYU to 10 SDSU....not a bad start.  Go Cougs! and don't call me Shirley!

Once, In Royal David's City

Beifuss and I stoked for this movie.

So, its that time of week again.  Yes, my JC Comrades and I took another little field trip, this time we didn’t go far, just down the valley to the ancient City of David, Salem, Ancient Jerusalem etc...  It is a common misconception that Bethlehem is the City of David, this is incorrect.  Bethlehem is only referred to as the City of David once.  The city of David is Jerusalem..This is the Jerusalem that Nephi and Lehi would have lived in, this is where David reigned from, Solomon, Hezekiah and a lot of other kings that I’m not about to try and write down.  So Monday morning came, I packed my little backpack with a towel, put on a swimsuit underneath my pants, and donned my watersocks.  We made our way to the visitors center where we were all treated to a fantastically produced 3D movie

Me and the ancient toile

Madi and I inside, ready to go.

Men, being men.

about the history of the city, and of course flying doves, because what Israeli 3D movie would be complete without doves flying at your face.  My favorite feature was the sound system throughout the park that had subtle harp music playing, yes folks, I heard that secret chord that David played, you know, the one that pleased the Lord.  We saw the ancient Millo, its a big stone structure that used to hold up David’s palace.  Also seen here is an ancient toilet seat with two holes, what the ancients called one and two.  After seeing all those rocks, we went to the main attraction, Hezekiah’s tunnel. This is a giant underground tunnel that King Hezekiah built as a means to protect the water from the Gihon springs, as well as provide the growing city of Jerusalem with water.  Now its just a big tourist attraction, and rightly so.  It was a blast to walk through this dark ancient tunnel getting wet, making creepy noises and splashing around.  The tunnel ends up in the pool of siloam, here we had a quick, but wonderful devotional.  This is the site where Jesus healed the blind man in John 9:7.  

The Pool of Siloam

This a random pic of me and Mark at Absaloms Pillar

A pretty nice nap/study spot on a Sabbath day.

I love my life. Period.

So I haven’t blogged in a while.  I know that you were all worried, and waiting to see what your favorite blogger has been up to.  Sadly I don’t have much time, due to the fact that we have a ginormous paper due and to be honest, sometimes there are cooler things to do than blog.  So I’m going to see how quickly and thoroughly I can share with you what shall heretofore be known as...this week.

Statue of David, outside Dormition Abby

The Upper Room

The week started on Sunday, we walked out to Mt. Zion to see the Upper Room, David’s tomb and Dormition Abby.  It was a wonderful place, we sang a few hymns in the upper room, while the room itself is not the same, the airspace is almost positively the space where Christ and his apostles supped for the last time.  We then went through the Jewish quarter, ate some nuts, the girls shopped and we headed out of the city to eat some pizza.  It was good.

Monday, Valentines Day, Sister Muhlestein’s birthday was a quick field trip out to the border of the low hills (Shfelah) and the coastal plains to a place called Neot Kedumim.  This is essentially a big biblical garden.  This was created by Israeli’s and Palestinians to show what the land would have looked like in the time of the Bible.  The highlights of this trip was a sheep herding challenge, and making fresh pita.  The pitas were delicious, especially with date honey and zatar.  It was pretty awesome.  After the field trip we had a Valentines Dance, it was hot.  Oh and the temperature was pretty warm too.

Denise, Jeni and Me grinding our own Zatar.

Our well herded sheep.

Pretty skies.

Madi and I makin us some pita.

Valentines Dance.

Thursday was pretty cool, our Judaism class was canceled and we took a trip over to Dominus Flevit and the Church of Mary Magdalene.  They were both beautiful and had awesome views of the Old City.  We also had our formal talent show that night, it was really really cool.  I sang a song and then accompanied the famed Jeni Gubler, the whole thing was really awesome.  I have a really awesome picture that the one and only Kevin Collier took, hopefully I’ll get it so that I can post it, cause really its freakin awesome!

Church of Mary Magdalene (Russian Orthodox) from Dominus Flevit

Church of Mary Magdalene from the Church of Mary Magdalene

Just displaying how difficult it is to live in an environment where there is a 3 to 1 ratio of girls to boys.

I got Jeni's autograph following her smashing performance, she only gave out two.  It was quite an honor.

Fridays we aren’t allowed in East JRu until after three, so we took taxis to West J so we could make it to the shuk before Jews started their Sabbath.  We wanted to get some more Challah or Sabbath Bread, its sooo good, we had to get some more.  It was fun, the shuk is like this awesome market where they sell olive oil, nuts, bread, fruits, veggies.  Its pretty sweet.

Challah, or Jewish Sabbath Bread...its delicious.

Which brings us today, Sabbath.  The day I look forward to, because I don’t feel bad for not doing anything.  We enjoyed church, took a nap out on the warm lawn, and have been watching movies and playing games since.  I love spending time with my big happy family here.  Anyways, hopefully thats enough to keep you all happy and reading.  In the words of Bro Judd, “you guys are awesome.  be good, don’t be bad.”  Oh, and don’t call me Shirley.

I just want to say to all my friends and family.

Happy Valentines Day!