En Kerem

6 of us took a bus to En Kerem, to explore some churches and a really pretty town that our teachers told us about. It was absolutely gorgeous, I loved it so much. Picture a perfect green countryside, warm weather, hills, and wildflowers.

Now, picture the spring where tradition says Mary met Elizabeth after finding out she was to become the mother of Jesus. We reenacted the event.

Sarah and I, loving life. She is seriously so much fun.

Russian Orthodox Church

We almost didn't get in the grounds, but this really, really sweet nun opened the door for us and we had the grounds to ourselves. It was a really huge complex, and we only got reprimanded by one nun, one time. And it was seriously one of the prettiest churches I've seen.

Other events from the day included a long nature hike, picnic lunch with Phantom of the Opera music and dancing by Greg and Sarah, seeing 2 other beautiful churches-for John the Baptist and Mary and Elizabeth, and almost plummeting to my death when Nathanael leaned against my railing, which was only being supported by a piece of yarn or something even thinner. But anyway, we all made it back, exhausted but loving life.
Oh, and my gorgeous roommates, who I love very, very much.

We're off to Galilee for 10 days! Yay:)

City of David

Inside Hezekiah's tunnel

"Stepped stone structure"

Dear ol' Bro Judd

I LOVE Audryn. So so so so much.

I absolutely loved our field trip to the City of David.

This was the city that David built, and is the oldest neighborhood of Jru.

During the reign of Hezeiah, he wanted to stop paying tribute to the Assyrians, and so prior to doing that, he prepared his city by building a different tunnel to protect their water supply. So that's what we walked through. It was a rainy day, so the water level was higher, but it was so much fun. Singing our way through, I loved it.

The stepped stone structure (millo) was built to hold up David's temple and the building projects on top of the mountain. Another wall there dates back to Melchezidek's day. Neat, eh?

Windy City

We braved the wind last week and a little bit of bad weather, and had such a fun time! We explored West J, and Mishkenot Sheananim, the first Jewish neighborhood built outside the walls of the Old City in 1860. The windmill didn't spin...can't imagine what it takes to get that thing moving, because it was blowing hard, but that's besides the point.

We found some really fun parks, a really nice bathroom, and made a wish for Jru :)

Friends Can Be So Nice!

My cool cool cool friend and roomie and role model and everything I have yet to become...Kaitlin O' wrote the nicest blog post, dedicated to moi, and I honestly think it's the nicest thing ever. For reals, I was so excited when I found out. And I want to show my mom that I've made friends here, so,

Here's the link :)

http://kissmekaitlin.blogspot.com/2011/02/friend-focus-jessica-madson.html

Thank you Kate, from the bottom of my heart! I love that girl so much.

Also, if I ever get behind on my blogging, or you just want to see something that's actually cute, check hers out.