MY BIRTHDAY!!

I seriously have the BEST FREAKIN' ROOMMATES IN THE WORLD!! They are seriously the greatest and made my birthday the best it could of been in Jerusalem!! I love them!! I will tell more later... but I still have more partying to do... (And packing for Galilee!!)

The Rest of Jordan...

A bunch of other things we did at Jordan...

THE BLUE MOSQUE


We went to the Blue Mosque where all the girls had to put on these robes (which made us look like Harry Potter wizards) which were supposed to be like Muslim robes (and kind of smelled)

And Cate rocked it.

One of my favorite pictures... I don't really know why... but I just really like it. (in the Blue Mosque)

JERASH: ROMAN RUINS

Yup. True Blue Roman Ruin.

A really pretty picture of Kara at the Roman Ruin.

Miriam and I... where they would have chariot races and fights (after picture was taken... I beat Miriam to a pulp)

No people... (except for the dancing people)

PEOPLE!!

3 random kids. They think they are something special. Especially Money and Jacob.

3 people that are something special (and the photographer was pretty special too... but in a different way)

I have noticed that there are a lot of groups of 3... interesting. Almost as interesting as this picture. Which is of Miriam and Jessica giving Money a bath. (trust me... he needs it)

THE JORDAN RIVER

Two (not three) kids walking to the river...

Not what I pictured Christ getting baptized in...

But it was still awesome.
(Kara, Lindsay, Marianne and Me)

Especially when you have a gorgeous Miriam standing by the river...
(I am so lucky I get to wake to her beautiful face everyday)

Or Money posing by the river...

Or drinking its contents.

(This has nothing to do with the Jordan River... but he has a caterpillar mustache)

This is Jordan M. He told me a very interesting story about why he was named Jordan (which is inappropriate for this blog) but the main point is that it was after the Jordan River. This was seconds after he told me the story (I was trying to hide shock and disgust from my face)

The Band. We really are a band.

RANDOM

See these? These are THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS!! And whats more awesome then that...

This man (Bro. Skinner who also happens to be my teacher) translated them!! How awesome is that!! (This picture was taken when he was telling us about how he translated the scrolls... He acidently bumped into me and was saying excuse me at the time... hopefully he doesn't see this picture and lower my grade) He is so smart and I love his class!

At the Mecca Mall... where 3 guys tried to pick Richelle, Steph and I up. (and taught us our first Arabic swear word!)

This is Cate's eye. I just like it.

Petra

Petra: Petra: Most Famous For... Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Which is why it was no surprise to find most of the snack places named after Indiana Jones... and we even found a Indiana Jones look-a-like (aka Matt)

Richelle thought she looked like the female version... I guess that's a personal thing.

To get to the Treasury (and all the other cool sites) we had to walk through these beautiful cliffs (I think they are referred to as cliffs... though they could of had a special name that I just didn't know about) They were so beautiful and the lighting was perfect (for sure a photographers dream... I would put up a billion of them... but it would take a long time and I don't think that anyone really cares)

My first view of the Petra Treasury!

Emma Righteous (she really is THAT righteous... she totally deserves that nickname) Rachael (who I have yet to give a nickname) and ME (I have an abundance of nicknames) in front of the Treasury!!

The whole group in front of the Treasury... we are a handsome bunch (if you could see us)

There was more to see than just the FAMOUS TREASURY! We also saw a theatre... where we decided to put on a mini-play.
Actors/Actresses: Cate (with her deadly dagger) Me (who can beat up Cate with my bare fists) Ken (who always saves the day) Miriam (Who swoons over Ken because he is the most awesome guy in the JC) and Chelsea (who saw a camel shirt/purse/pin/anything that can have a camel on it... she has a little bit of an obsession)


Then we had to walk up to the Petra Monastery which had like 900 steps. It was ridiculous. Mt. Sinai the 2nd. But we had a really cute security guard who let us jam to his cell phone and made sure we didn't fall off the cliff (and helped us up when we tripped... which I did several time... the first time was accident...)

But we finally got there... and it was worth it. BEAUTIFUL!

A group of us sitting inside the Monastery... we were in love with Petra (and Miriam was in love with me)

After that... we wanted to check out the "END OF THE WORLD"...

(I wish I could tell you what I saw)

(Nope. It wasn't Indianna Jones/Matt chillin' in Petra... but close!)

No mom... that wasn't on my hand. But I did write it! (I am Nile and Cate is Egyptus)

This picture deserves a longer story... and I will try to give you another one when I get a picture of Belgium and I (from Miss Stefanie Tanner) but the moral is... that I am pretty good at getting free stuff from the Merchants in Petra. (One even fell in love with me... not a joke)

I will tell later... suspensful eh?

Mt. Nebo (On the way to Jordan)

Beautiful Beautiful Kara on the top of Mt. Nebo. I love taking her picture.

Memorial of Moses

This is one of my favorite pictures of Jordan... (well actually it was before Jordan... but on our way to Jordan) Its a little out of focus... but I like it none the less.

Richelle Loves Moon

Kara and I on against a circle rock. I forgot what it was supposed to be... actually I don't think I ever really knew what it was supposed to be. But Kara and I were there. So that's important enough.

I told them to get crazy. This is all I got. Lame.

PreJordanian Times

Before I cover Jordan...

I should catch up with a few things...

We have been working on hygiene kits (yeah not original) in the Jerusalem Center... the cool thing is that they are going only a few miles away... to Gaza. I think our goal is about 50.000? I should check on that though... we have done a ton already and continue to work on them.

The Dome of the Rock... up close and personal. I love this picture.... though Tamara forgot to turn around.
The guy who inspired me to get a Polaroid camera.... ok actually I have always wanted one. But I REALLY wanted one after I met him. He was super cool (especially with his camera)

Lo and Behold I found a camera shop with one Polaroid in the window. It was kind of a sketchy place though. I think he had a total of five cameras in the shop (and a whole lota empty space...) and some creepy pictures on the wall. When I asked if I could purchase a camera he said "Yes. Five minutes" and ran out of the store. We were a bit confused, but waited till he came back. When he did come back it was like 7 min later... and empty handed. He said that he didn't have any cameras... but if I wanted to sell him my nice DSLR that he knew a man that wanted it...
Not planning on going back there any more.

In a tunnel under the city! It was pretty awesome... and wet.

I didn't want to ruin my shoes... so I decided to go barefoot. It was the best choice of the day!

Jacob, Nycole and I (people I convinced to go barefoot with me)

The Tradition Lives.

I honestly love painting boys nails. I am pretty sure every semester I have convinced poor boys to let me paint their nails. Its like a secret tradition for me (though its not so secret anymore)

Jacob loved the polka-dots that I did. They were my best yet.

and they made him look extra sexy.

Miriam did a great job with Money's. Though he ruined them later by trying to put his own polka dots on them. (he was jealous because Jacob's were just so awesome)

And JJ. With the Rainbow nails. He looked pretty fly.

We were all pretty styling (though sadly no one offered to do my nails...)