Last Days at the Garden Tomb

The last two days in Jerusalem are to be spent recounting the last week of Christ's life.  Because it's winter time in Jerusalem, our last field trip was rained out and we weren't able to go on it.  We were still allowed out if we were willing to brave the rain, so of course these hoodlums and I did just that.

We went to several churches, shopped in the old city, and basked in the fact that it's actually Christmas time, even though it didn't feel like it!

The last item on the itinerary for the day we WOULD have had planned was a testimony meeting at the Garden Tomb.  This was one thing that we still were able to do, luckily.

We made our way over a little earlier in the rain, and took pictures.  Our class sat under a canopy at the Garden and had a testimony/reflection meeting for about 2 hours.  It was one of the best memories I have from Jerusalem, and definitely something I'll never forget.

How can you not love them?

So I have the lyrics to this song printed out in my journal that I got one week in Relief Society from my ward this last summer, and every time I went to the Garden Tomb I would read these lyrics and think about how blessed I am with the knowledge that I have a Savior who loves me.  I wanted to do something with this song at the Garden Tomb so I could always remember.  With the help of Rosie and Jack, we filmed this little montage at the Garden Tomb as a reminder of our beautiful experiences we had here - including that last testimony meeting we had with our classes.  I finally got around to editing it today!

"Behold, the Wounds in Jesus' Hands"

Garden Tomb - Behold the Wounds in Jesus' Hands from Andrea Brinton on Vimeo.

Oh Galilee, Sweet Galilee

So it's been really great to be home the last couple of days, even though I'm crazy jet lagged, and sound like a villain from losing my voice.  It's Christmas Eve and I love spending time with my family!  Now that I have dece internet, I want to finish posting about Galilee and a few other last day events that happened in Jerusalem.  For starters, here is the Galilee video from about 4 weeks ago!  Enjoy :)


Galilee, Sweet Galilee from Andrea Brinton on Vimeo.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good NIGHT!

HELLOOOOO FAMILY!

My family arrives at the Jerusalem Center in T minus 15 hours!!  This is how stoked I'm feeling about that:

Until then, I'll happily spend some quiet time in the Center playing cards with the Benches, eating breakfast with the Judd's, and working on some serious video reminiscing/editing.

I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU, FAMILY!!  It's been a long, but excellent 4 months.  I can't wait to show you the things I've learned.

Jerusalem, If I Forget You...

As I sit here in the Jerusalem Center with no students left except for Jed and Jordan who are peacing out in about 3 hours for London with their parents, I am feeling a STRONG case of bittersweet emotions.

I'm going to have to kind of back track on this whole blogging thing, and catch up during Christmas break, because from floating in the Dead Sea to the final footsteps of Christ's life, to the Sea of Galilee, there have been so many things the past month that I have yet to update and document for myself.

To start off our last day in Jerusalem, we headed over to the Western Wall for one last glance.  It's Hanukah this week, so there was a huge Menorah in front of the wall. 

I'm going to miss this scene being the norm.

Double duty.

Because it's Hanukah, we of course had to eat Hanukah donuts all week... One for every day we celebrate is what I say!  Bring on the 8 delicious donuts.  We have found many bakeries around West Jerusalem that have found a nice little sweet spot in my heart.  These donuts are no exception.

We then made our way down to Damascus Gate for my 4th Schwarma in a row this week, and I'm not regretting it at all.  The scale when I get home might be a little upset, but calm down it was my last day in the city with these fine people and we wanted to EAT all the good things that were going to be dead to us after today.  Which means 2 rounds of gelato - 1 at 10am & 1 at 3pm.

2 donuts - 1 from SAMBOOKIE and 1 from that cutie Hanukah donut joint.  And plenty of Sour straws that I've been hiding out in my room to "take home."

Yes, that IS in fact me at the top of Damascus Gate.

After we picnicked in the square, we headed down the road and met some of our other friends for slack lining in front of Jaffa Gate.  It was so fun to see people come over and try it out.

I love this little cutie.  So happy we could come to Jerusalem together after all our splendid days in High School.

Oh, does that balloon look similar to the one from this post? That's because Jaquel and Tommy bought ANOTHER one for today!

On our way home, Jaquel REALLLLY wanted to climb to the top of the Lutheran church in the Old City, but they just changed the price from 5 shekels to 15 shekels... considering most of us were heading home in the next couple of hours, it would be ridiculous to exchange more dollar bills for shekels which we didn't have.  SOOOO while Tommy and Jack climbed up the stairs for a precious 30 shekels, Staish and I raided every pocket of our bags until we scrounged up exactly 40 shekels - Just enough for all 4 of us to get the last ice cream we'll ever eat in Jerusalem. 

And because they are the best friends in the world, these fine people took me up to the rooftops, which was one of the last things on MY list of things to do as well.  A little over rated, but nonetheless, a cross off the list!

And this below is most definitely not a staged event... They REALLY did race through the city and the hide in a window as mannequins while Staish and I walked right past without even noticing.

We made it home just in time to pack our bags and watch the last Jerusalem Sun set of most of our lives.

I LOVE THESE PEOPLE.

Glad Jack talked/forced us into buying these friends 4ever Minnie Mouse "Jerusalem" shirts.  Seriously though.  One of the best shirts I own.  Minus Rose, whose shirt was in the wash...

And we LOOOOOVE Mckay.  With all our hearts.

Today couldn't have ended our last day in the Holy Land any better.  I'm feeling a little anti-climatic because my family is coming tomorrow afternoon, and I'm still actually AT the Center now, but I had some SERIOUSLY tearful goodbyes a few hours ago, and I already miss the amazing people that I've gained such incredibly close friendships with.  Last night the girls and I had a final girls night hoorah where we did everything from telling our biggest secrets, which BLEW all of our minds, to throwing our 2013 goals off the back balcony, and having a heart to heart testimony meeting where we each told each other the best things that we love about them.  Sometimes those can be awkward, but with these ladies, we were all crawling over each other to be the next to say something nice about the others.  I never imagined to find so many amazing and influencial LIFETIME relationships in my time here, but I think it's safe to say my expectations were SERIOUSLY exceeded in every way in Jerusalem.

"Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if I forget you...."

Waffles

So we are in the middle of Finals right now.  They are hard, we don't have much time left, and we want to go out in the city instead.  Some of the faculty here call it JC LDS -- Jerusalem Center Last Days Syndrome.  I've got a bad case.  I'm losing motivation, and I just want to spend my last week before my family comes visiting my favorite places one last time.  The other night we took a dinner break from the Oasis and headed out to West Jerusalem in the pouring rain to this cutest waffle shop in town.

It was so delicious, and exactly what we needed to re motivate ourselves to study... Kind of.

Mormon University

This is the best place in the world.  Period.

Yeah, that's real.  And this doesn't even do it justice. Oh yeah, and #nofilter.

The view from the Oasis at the Center.  A beautiful way to eat all your meals.

Golden Sunshine

On one of our last free days in the city, we wanted to hit a few sites.  Turns out we had another day of fails and nothing was open that we wanted to see, so we ended up finally filming our Sunshine music video that Jack is so kindly producing.  I'll post that when she's finished with it, but you should be excited cause it's so great.

So Rosie likes to blog stalk.  Sometimes her resources aren't the most credible, however.  We didn't know this though until we found ourselves watching this man cook us "pizza" from inside that little hole, and we were about to eat something that would supposedly "change our lives"...

You tell me if that pizza looks like it'll change my life for the better....  She never did quite specify whether it was a good change or bad change, I guess.

Jaquel has been wanting this gigantic balloon for months now, so we figured it was about time.  8 shekels... we'll take it.

The best of friends.

7 to 11.  Sound familiar?  This is just down the street from the Center.  I pass it almost daily.

West J

Sometimes when I'm in West Jerusalem, I forget I'm in Israel at all.  It feels more European to me than Middle Eastern.

Rosemary taking pictures in the Rosemary bushes!

Love love love love love these girls.

Happy Birthday, Tawni!!

HAPPY 22nd BIRTHDAY TO ONE OF THE BEST PEOPLE I KNOW!  I am so glad my brother married you, dear.  Go listen to Taylor Swift's song, 22 and be glad that's not what your life looks like, and you're having a BABY GIRL instead!

Okay I have so many good things to say about this beauty, but I'll keep it to 3 of my favorite things.

1. She and Robert always call me to hang out and they don't mind hanging out with me and my single friends even though they are married, and she lets me sleep over in her guest room just because.

2. She is hilarious and makes me laugh all the time, like when we went to Footloose and during the credits she said "THAT WAS JULIANNE HOUGH?!!"

3. She is always so nice to listen to my drama and is genuinely interested in talking it out with me.  She always has the best advice, and she's such a great example to me. Really.

I LOVE YOU!  Can't wait to see you in one week!

It feels like home to me.

The JC is my home.  For the past 3.5 months I have fallen in love with this building and all the people that live inside that is my family and home away from home.  I'm really glad I was able to come during Fall Semester because all the faculty try to make the holidays feel as much like home as they can.  When we got back from Galilee, there was a huge Thanksgiving Feast waiting for us all decked out with Turkey and the best rolls in the world and of course STUFFING.

And there was even Christmas trees and lights set up on the 8th floor as well.  My FHE family, which is made up of some of the best people in this center decided to take some Christmas Card pictures up by the tree.

With Love, The Ahping family.

Seriously though, I am DYING that I only have 9 days left to live in this beautiful building with these fine people.  I'm excited to see my real family and go back to my real home, but I sure will miss this time of my life.  I never expected to love these people as much as I do, and fall in love with the Center and Jerusalem as much as I have.