So. many. pictures.

The fambam wants to see pictures from Jerusalem.

Which is understandable.

But we have more than 7500 pictures from the 117 days we spent not in California.

And looking through the pictures and finding ones that they would care about is becoming quite the task.

Seriously, there are SO many pictures. Plus, it doesn't help that there are so many duplicates from Nicole and I taking pictures of the same thing, but with different cameras and at different times.

But it has been really fun to look through all our pictures that seem like they were taken so long ago. There are so many pictures though. Ahhh. It's overwhelming.

And I haven't even tried to upload them to facebook. Oh gosh, this is going to be dangerous. haha

But it's funny because Charlotte and I have SO many pictures together. And we are so attractive in all of them. haha so I've decided to dedicate this post to Charlotte and our marvelous pictures. :)

Miss you Lottie Dottie! :((

As a little bit of a sidenote (and sorry for stealing all your glory Lottie),

I also found this great picture:

I miss this kid, especially after our skype date yesterday. :(

Long distance marriages are really tough, let me tell you.

Oh Jerusalem. :(

Sweet Home California.

Well team, I'm back home again.

And I keep thinking about tons of things I should blog about but then I haven't done it... and now I can't remember all the things I wanted to say. Oh well.

But I've been home since Tuesday night. And we finally got our luggage from SFO on Thursday, which was super exciting.

AirFrance said that they had two bags at SFO and that the other one was in LA still but we still wanted two so we drove up there to get them and it turned out they had all three! Super exciting day!

Our snowglobes (the items that we were pretty worried about) made it safe and sound. :) So great. We were a little worried about them because we didn't pack them super duper well but they made it. And I just looked at all the little tags on my bag and it went from Vienna to Paris (with us) and then once it was left there it went to Atlanta, and then LA and then it came to SFO. What a world traveler. :)

I want to do a super fun "I miss Jerusalem because it was Christmas which makes me think of Bethlehem" post but I don't have the energy for that right now. haha

So yep, tomorrow marks my "One week home" point. I can't believe it's been a week. haha

Oh! Yesterday at church, Lindsay Hall was there, super presh.

And today, I skyped with Josh Ludlow (and thus, Junior, Joe and the rest of the family... except for the little girls because they were sleeping). But it was so fun. I love that family. :) It's weird because there is a 10 hour time difference. So it was like 10:30 at night there and it was just after noon here. Strange. It was really fun though. Obviously we're going to have to do it again.

Let's seeee. I suppose this is the end of this super informative post. Four more days of this year. Ahhh! Crazyyy.

Productivity.

Obviously within the first couple of days being home, it was necessary to take some super fun webcam pictures. And no one really wanted to take any with me so it was necessary to take some with whoever would join... and then by myself.

Twinners. :)

And now we're the same person.

Look at my cute little headband Jack made.

Typical.

I was laughing so hard when this picture was being taken, clearly.

With little Nate and Kiki.

Shmack is back!

Such a funny day.

Close up of my eye, obvi.

Three seeesters. :)

And that's how I spent my second morning home. Totes a good idea. :)

What the?!

Good news: We are home!

Bad news: Getting home was much more of a hassle than we had anticipated.

We got to wake up in Vienna at 3:45. Finished packing and getting all organized and then meet our taxi (and our new airport friend) on the curb at 4:30. After loading our bags, and waiting for a little bit so that our friend could go get her passport, which she had forgotten, and then we drove to the airport. On the way to the airport, we realized that we needed to repack almost an entire bag due to the contents that couldn't be carried on. Haha I would go into more detail but some people who read this will be getting some of these items for Christmas. SO it's a super secret, for now. :)

At the airport, Nicole repacked and I checked us in... well tried. We went to AirFrance but apparently it was an AirFrance flight operated by Austrian Air. So we had to check in with Austrian. Which was the best part about the entire day. The guy that helped us was SO nice. He didn't care that both of out checked bags were overweight (23.8 kg for mine/24.4 kg for Nicole's). He didn't even mention it. He just put the little tags on them and sent them through. So nice. :) We then had to go and pay for our third bag which was SUPER lame because it was 75 EUROS. Boo. :( The only issue though was that he tried to check our bags straight through to SJC but he couldn't find our flight. haha he says that it didn't exist. So he just checked them through to LA. But going into the day, we knew that we were going to be stuck, at least for a while, in LA. Always a good feeling...

We then went to wait for our flight. Aka go sit right outside Starbucks until we could go through security/to our gate. In weird European airports, they have personal security for each gate... so we had to wait until it was our flight's time. But once we went through, we waited at the gate and the annoying lady tried to convince me that I needed to check my other suitcase because it weighed more than 8 kgs. I kinda went along with it because she was leaving it up to me but since I didn't really know where I was supposed to take it and because that's ridiculous, I just brought it on the plane with me and it was fine. :)

The flight to Paris was great. There was an empty seat between us, I sat at the window and they fed us a DELICIOUS chocolate chip muffin. So yummy. I also got to watch the sunrise over Austria which was beautiful. Great flight.

Once we landed in Paris, we had an hour and a half, exactly, before our flight to LA left. We had to run through the airport, find the new terminal, run down the huge airport, cut through the huge protest, and then arrive at the Border Control line. Which took FOREVER. We were in the line for a good 35 minutes before they let us cut because our flight was going to leave in 15 minutes. haha so we zipped through that, ran down the airport, got on a little train, went through security, and then arrived at our gate. We literally walked on the flight at 10:45, which is when the flight was supposed to take off. We weren't even the last ones on the plane and we didn't end up leaving for another hour and 15 minutes but it was still nice being on the plane and being able to relax. :)

Once we finally took off, it was a great flight. The food was not good, but we still ate it. We had our own tv's so we watched Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother, Friends, etc. And then I took a little nap, which felt like 5 hours but it was only an hour, and then we just wasted time. I did some stuff on my computer (aka money stuff to fill out the customs form, and played solitare), and then watched Slumdog Millionare (SO GOOD.) and before we knew it, it was time to land! It didn't really feel like that long of a flight, which was weird because it was like a 12 hour flight. And we sat on the plane for an hour before we even took off. BUT the best part about the whole thing was that they had Häagen-Dazs ice cream that we got to eat on the airplane. This is a concept that I have never participated in and it DEFINITELY gave them some gold stars. Good work AirFrance. The hour before we landed though felt like FOREVER. Probably because they made us put all our fun activities away and we kept thinking that we were going to land at anymoment. Not true. It took far too long. But once we did land, it was great.

We then had to deal with our lack of airplane ride home. And we kept forgetting that we weren't in one of our airports. We walked to Passport control, where we got to wait in line for a while, and then we walked up to the desk and the guy was super nice and cool about letting us into our own country. Which is surprisingly not normal. haha But he was super nice and he made that part much better. We then waited for our luggage... that never came. So we had to report that all while trying to figure out how to get on a plane home... It turned out to be REALLY good that they lost our bags (well, not lost, just not placed on our flight) because then we didn't have to recheck them and pay. haha :)

We went to Alaska Airlines and checked in and apparently our flight had changed to 9:10 or something late but there was another flight at 5:57 that we wanted to be on but it was a $25 to change... so worth it. We basically payed $25 to get out of LA 3 hours earlier; SO worth it. haha so we went and hung out at our new gate, charged our phones while updating facebook/texting peeps and the like.

We finally boarded our little baby plane, they gate checked my bag (the best thing ever) and sat on the plane. Our last flight and it was only going to be an hour. Easy peasy. But it felt like SO long. Probably because we were so tired and done being stressed and the like but it was ridiculous how long it felt. And the funniest part was when we landed and the people behind me stood up and I heard them say "Ahhhh. Wow, it feels so good to be able to stand up and stretch our legs." To which I was thinking... "Riiiiiiiiight, because that hour long flight really takes it out of you..." By that point, Nicole and I had been flying for 15 hours and sitting in airports/traveling for 30 hours? Ridiculous.

Haha we got our gate-checked bag, headed through the little airport and then waited for our family to pick us up. They greeted us with sticky pop and red-hot cookies. Delicious.

We then drove home and ate enchiladas and they grilled us about all our adventures. Too bad our bags were still in Paris or we could've shown them all our goods. haha but then we hung out until mighty late (okay, like 10) and then we went to bed.

Andddd the good thing about jetlag is obviously waking up at 6:30 in the morning. Boo. That wasn't fun at all. haha obviously the way to begin a much productive day. :)

It's good to be home. Although I still miss this place like crazy:

Another list.

Things that are going to seem strange, in the States.
1. Having a top sheet. I'm going to miss the european duvet. :(

2. Driving. And the lack of honking horns.

3. Suburbia. First time not living in a capital city since August (okay, September...)

4. Free public bathrooms!

5. Cleanliness of the world.

6. English as the dominant language. And not getting strange looks when asking people to speak english...

7. Lack of falafel/shwarma.

8. Not having to mentally convert prices to dollars.

Tis all for now. More to come, I'm sure! Homeward bound now! :))

A list for you. (First Edition).

Things my brain hasn't fully put together, about being home from Jerusalem: First Edition, Clearly.

1. When I see Israel in the news, it takes me a while to realize that I don't live there anymore and thus it isn't as big of a deal to me (still a big deal, but not as personal).

2. I keep forgetting that in just a couple short hours (well, 33), I will be flying back home to California... not Israel.

3. Being out at night, with just two people, and no boy, is not a problem.

4. Late night chats with my **hubby are NO MORE. Infact, I might not ever see that kid again, at the looks of things which is even sadder since we didn't have a proper goodbye (or any goodbye at all...) :( Which also reminds me that there is a potential I won't see half of these friends again. Not okay.

5. The next time I'll have to live out of a suitcase, besides now, is April. No more random week-long field trips.

6. It isn't as fun to take pictures with our digital SLR because taking random, creepy pics in a giant city are just that... creepy. No more Brother Ludlow paparazzi or funny random shots of the Jru happenings.

7. No more pita lunches. (JOKES, my brain has FULLY accepted this one.)

8. French toast made from pitas and my favorite cereal are no more. This one is actually distressing.

9. No more messy roommate, or favorite Canadian roommate. Or people walking in randomly to hang out.

10. Not needing to check the weather for Jerusalem... but doing it anyway because I care.

We'll keep it at that.

I miss you Jerusalem. This separation is harder than I had anticipated. :(

And ignore the super happy picture, I just thought the world like might like to see this jem: jumping over the Dome.

**Special HAPPY BIRTHDAY shoutout to the best husband in Jerusalem, Josh Ludlow! You're finally 17 years old! All the lying for the past two months is no longer a lie! :) I hope you have a marvelous day, even though I'm not there. Good thing you already got your birthday kisses (except not from me....). HAPPY BIRTHDAY STUDLOW... number three! :)

Sabbath... on Sunday.

Since September 3, we've had church on Saturday... So we would always say shabbat shalom and the like. It has been really nice and I've actually gotten really accustomed to having a free Sunday!

Today though, we went back to the normal world and we had church on Sunday. It would've been strange had we had a real schedule and our schedule was just thrown off. But we've been so busy and traveling and such so we really don't have a distinction between weekdays/weekends/Sabbath. haha

We went to a super small little ward/branch? but it was pretty good. We took a bus and then a tram and then walked a block to get there and we got there right on time, perfect!

The funny thing was that there were SO many missionaries in that ward.

A Senior Couple, a companionship of Elders and a trio of Sisters. Out of control.

And people were super excited to hear that we had just gotten back from Jerusalem. One of the Sisters went there in Winter '10 and there was a girl in the ward whose parents were in town and we were talking to the mom, from Lindon, UT, and her other daughter just got back from Jerusalem in April. Crazy.

It was a fun little adventure.

We then went downtown to visit a couple of churches. And just like the Taylors told us the other day, it was weird going into a church and not having to put on our ears and listen about the Byzantines and all that. haha and for the record, insense still makes me nauseous and gives me a headache. Good thing there is none of that in the States. :)

And now it's time to pack and get ready to leave soon. Tomorrow is our last full day and Tuesday involves leaving for the airport at 4:30 am or so. Normally I would complain about that but that is the theme of this trip so we've come to accept it.

:)

Vienna.

Well, we've been here for three days.

And it's gotten colder and colder each day.

Infact, today we even had snow/rain/slush, that came from nowhere! New rule: always bring an umbrella.

We've been poured on three times now.

But we've done lots of fun and exciting things, of which I will update on later.

Palaces, Natural History Museum, Christmas Markets, Churches, Treats, Christmas Markets, etc.

AND the funniest part is that we have people confuse us as locals ALL the time. Infact, even once we tell them to speak to us in English and not German, they still think we're local. So great.

It's been... fun. But it's also been busy and cold. And it'll definitely be nice to be home and just be able to relax. But in the mean time, we have three more busyyy days. Including: Church on a Sunday(!), Christmas shopping on Monday and then flying home allll day Tuesday.

Here we go!

Oh my gosh, Wow.

Longest. Day. Ever.

I woke up yesterday at approximately 7:30 am. And let's just say that I haven't gone to sleep since then. And it is 6:30 pm in Vienna right now (7:30 is Israel). I did take a couple short and not good naps on the plane ride this morning... at about 6:45 or so.

But, let me fill you in on our last adventures in Jerusalem (sad) and our first adventures in Vienna.

We started the day yesterday bright and early. I think we were like the first ones to leave the Center (okay, not really true since a whole group went to Mass at 6 BUT we were the first ones who were at breakfast...) and we left at about 8:30... I think.

We walked down and across the Kidron Valley and over to the Garden of Gethsemane. We wanted to go to the grotto which was a quick little trip and it made us feel super productive because we had finished our first item of the day before 9:15.

The three Musketeers on their final day in the city: Kidron Valley.

We then headed to the Garden Tomb, which is where we had been the day before but also the first real site that we went visited on the trip. Just bringing it back full circle. Nicole wanted to go back because it's a favorite and Charlotte wanted to buy a painting (which we all bought in the end). Our Garden Tomb experience that morning was... unique. haha

We got there and it was SO crowded. Normally (actually, always) we get there at two when they open again after being closed for lunch. But we got there at like 9:30. So there were tons of tourists from Nigeria. Which was cool. They were swarming the tomb so we decided to go into the gift shop and make our purchases while they finished up. Well, the gift shop wasn't much less crowded. But we finally picked out our purchases (three identical water color paintings) and we were waiting at the counter to pay for them but the poor lady working there was being attacked by curious customers asking the prices of every single item in the store. Apparently Nigerian tourists always pick things up they like and ask how much they are instead of, oh I don't know, looking at the price tag themselves. It was funny because when I would walk around the store, I would be asked the prices of things too. Apparently if you're white, you work there.

Once we finally bought our paintings, we went back outside and the groups were pretty much clearing up so we went and waited by the tomb for them to finish. As we were sitting there, I causually mentioned that it was weird that they hadn't wanted to take pictures of us because we're blonde (except Lottie), white American girls. Well, not 4 mintues after I said that, these three guys walk over and all get a picture with us, separately. And they made us move apart so that they could sit in between us for the picture. The first guy to get a picture with us was... how do I say this, creepy? hahaha just take a look at this picture that his friend insisted we needed to take on our own camera...

Yeeeeeeeeaaaaaah. Maybe he was creepin' on Nicole.

After all the picture taking, he asks us if we have husbands.... we say no. Without really thinking his implications. He was excited to hear that because guess what? He is looking for a wife. Ha. Sorry buddy, it's not going to be any of us. But he is extremely persistent and he asks each of us individually if we have phone numbers or contact information. To which we respond no. But he decides that he should give us his information.... clearly. But we don't have a pen or paper for him. He runs off to write it down and we go to the empty tomb and start taking our pictures when we see him running back with all his contact information for us. Name, phone number, address in Nigeria. And he reminds us not to forget to get into contact with him. Unfortunately, we had forgotten before he had even stopped talking to us.

New Nigerian friends info. Yay.

We then take our pictures in front of the tomb, as is customary. It's still funny that this was the first place we went to in September (both just the Chosen 30 and then when Phoenix got here...)

September:

December:

Does anyone else thing that my hair looks way blonder than normal? Thought so.

Let's see, before we left the Garden Tomb, we got our picture with at least two other Nigerian men... hahaha so great. Other than that, we just walked around and enjoyed our last time there. :(

Now that it was 11, it was obviously time for lunch. Shwarma and falafel in the Old City for the last time! The shwarma was heavenly. So good. And we ate it as we walked to West J. to get our final Hanukkah donuts. Obviously. What else would we do on our last day than eat all the delicious food.

Shwarma (and In-n-Out Falafel for Lottie) in front of Damascus Gate.

Delicious chocolate donuts. For the last time. :(

And look! He even drew hearts on them for us. :)

On the way to the Shuk (?) (and our thus, our donuts) we passed this great mural and obviously had to take some pictures... Love these model men we walk past everytime we walk into W. Jru.

Dottie and I... trying to fit in?

Just hanging out with giant models. nbd.

Just your typical Shuk shot. Sad that it was our last time there. :( Although looking at all the strawberries was torturous...

We also passed this little gem of a shop:

And after all this excitement, we were tired. Because it had been a busy week. So we decided to head back. But our plan was to walk through the Old City on our way back and spend the rest of our sheks on peach o's. Obviously the best idea yet. And we also found my new watch that I've been wanting! Yay for successful last days! And then we got back to the center at like 2 in the afternoon... which is when some people were just leaving. But we were super productive and it was a great day out.

New treasures: Green watch and 11 sheks worth of peach-o's. Who knew you could get so many? So stoked. :)

We then packed, packed and packed the afternoon away. And then we went to dinner late because we were trying to figure out baggage for the flights. But we ate our last dinner meal ever with the Chapmans. So presh.

Following dinner, picked up our Center shirts, took Center pictures and then were suppose to watch a slide show.

Getting the camera set up and ready involved me taking some sweet pictures. Aka this one:

This just proves my ability on being a professional jumping picture model because this was on 10-timer mode. So I was the one who had to time this perfectly. And this was my first attempt. :)

And then we took pictures with everyone in the Center:

82 students, 17 members of faculty families and 6 Service missionaries (3 couples).

And a funny picture, obvi.

And then we took these:

Just the students although I think some people didn't participate...

We then wasted a lot of time re-showing special JC songs and such while the slideshow exported off a Mac. That was pretty fun, I suppose. No, it was good, it just ate up a lot of our lives.We used a little bit of the time to show the professors sneak peaks of their videos that we made them. And our slideshow was really good, once it finally worked.

And at the end of that, they had all of us Vienna travelers go to the front of the room so that people could say goodbye to us because we left at 2 in the morning... That was semi awkward because it was just so many people saying goodbye. And I didn't cry until Suzy came up to me, bawling. I cried twice last night because of her. I'm going to miss her tons and tons. :((

Nicole and I wanted to get pictures with all the faculty families but then it was really late so then we just decided to get pictures with our professors and their wives... and then we really only tried to make that happen with the Ludlows. And of course, Joe was more than willing to take some pictures for us. Of course, Brother Ludlow being the dedicated professor he is, was grading our finals at 11 or so when we wanted to take this picture. So we went up to his office to find him.

And he clearly did not get the "wear your new shirt" memo. Oh well. Also, fun fact, Sister Ludlow and I were wearing the same pants. So we were really twins. :)

And Mr. Hayet was also in his office that late (poor guy) so we got a quick picture with him before he left. He is so funny. He might not realize it but he's my best friend. haha It was funny though because he was trying to leave but we stopped him and he opened up his office so we could go in there and take a picture with him.

haha And then he left. But he kept coming back to tell/ask the Ludlows stuff. Cause we talked to them for quite a while. I'm going to miss their family lots. :( But Sister Ludlow did tell me to write Junior on his mission... haha she just doesn't realize that I've already chosen one of her other sons to be my husband. haha

Following that presh chat, I found my real hubby who had a song for me that I used to make Brother Ludlow's slideshow (with all my stalker pictures...) and then I went down to my room to finish packing/call our family to use up the rest of our phone card/make said slideshow. Little did I know that it would be the last time I saw him because he was hiding when I was getting ready to leave and then we were gone when he came to say goodbye (because we left like 20 minutes before schedule for some reason....) I'm still sad we didn't get to have a proper goodbye. :(

I finished the slideshow in record time (even though it was lamer than it was the first time I made it) but I just wanted to get it done... So I finished that, we got all packed and everything was great. We were even super early. Which was lame because the Ludlow's got up to see us off but we were gone by the time they were up to the 8th level. Supes annoying. I wanted to see them again before we left. :(

We then drove to the airport, at 2 in the morning with zero sleep. And at the airport, the madness started.

First they got confused or something so we had to go back and scan our bags which was chaotic.

And then they were SUPER stupid about checking bags. Apparently they didn't care how heavy our biggest one was but our carry-ons couldn't weight more than 8 kilos. Which means my suitcase was basically empty. And we had to check an additional bag: $83 to Austrian Air. And we'll get to do that again on our way home. BOO. :(

And then we got to sit around at the gate (aka go on facebook) and then we boarded. The flight to Vienna consisted of a bunch of naps. And they fed us breakfast that I semi slept through. Nicole gave me her delicious peach yogurt though (my favorite that they offer in the Oasis) and some yummy rolls.

And when we landed, we went through passport control in approximately 15 seconds because the EU doesn't care who comes in... which is such a drastic change from Israel. haha And then we had to wait for our bags, which were some of the very first ones off, lucky us!

We then took a train thing, and then a subway and then a tram to our hostel. And then we met with the lady in charge of our hostel, Yulia, who was super nice and helped us a lot.

And then at about 1:30, it was time for lunch cause we were starving. We headed down the street and went to a Chinese restaruarnt which was delicious. Maybe because it was Chinese food and maybe because it was our first real meal in 19 hours. haha

Then we headed into the city and took a tram around to just see the big sights and such. It was good to get aquainted a little bit. And seriously, Vienna is adorbs in the Christmas season. There are the quaint little Christmas markets and there are lights everywhere. It is also mighty chilly here so everyone is all bundled up and it drizzled for most of the day. We stopped at a little cafe and got some hot chocolate and cake which was delish.

And now we are sitting in our little room, surfing the interwebs and uploading as many pictures and I want to my blog because the upload like lightning! I'm also trying not to think about the fact that Jerusalem is over because it's starting to set in and it's making me really sad. :((

I think a lot of it is sleep deprivation so thinks seem worse and I'm more emotional than normal.

Now that I've successfully been awake for 38 hours with some baby naps on a plane (which don't really count), I think I'll go shower and then go to bed.

Tomorrow is a full day of Vienna. It shall be good.

(Also, I apologize for not having pictures of today; in our sleep deprived state, we forgot to bring a camera with us but we did take some pictures with Nicole's phone so I'll get those soon...)

T minus Three.

Here's the deal:

I have no more Oasis lunches (which means sack lunches.... :// )

One more field trip (Which means one more day with a headset!)

Two more Oasis dinners.

Three days left in Jerusalem.

Four more days until I don't "wake up" in Jerusalem.

Five more hours left of packing (okay, that's probably an exaggeration...)

Six more days until I go to church on Sunday again.

Seven hours (well, less) of sleep I'll be getting for the next couple of nights.

And eight more days until I'm back in the western hemisphere.

Team, this is out of control.

It's going to be so weird to leave and go home.

Oh Jerusalem, you've been everything I've hoped for... and more.

I shall miss you.

Two days to party, let's goooo! :)

D.O.N.E.

Guess who's done with finals? And school until April?

This girl. :)

Oh gosh, it's been a rough week and there has been much mayhem but it's alllllll over now! :)

And my last test went pretty well, if I do say so myself. Hopefully I'll get it back soon and for it being worth 300 points, I'm actually pretty excited to get it back and see how it went... because I feel pretty good about it. Obviously there was stuff I didn't get right but overall, I was pretty prepared for it. Even though I didn't start studying until this morning. haha

Tomorrow is our last Sabbath here which will be a little sad. But it'll be super great, obviously.

And then we are on field trips or have free days the rest of the time here. How crazy.

I am getting super sad to leave! Especially since the Skinners left us tonight. Supes sad. :(

We did have our Christmas concert pt. 1 tonight which went.... well I would say. Hopefully we can polish it off a little bit before Sunday. haha

And on that note, time to go and... not be productive because I don't have to do that anymore! Woo. :)

(Also, I wrote this entire post in two, 3 minute breaks from having my nightly chat with my hubs. haha I'm so sneaky.)

Motivation: Lost.

I have lost all motivation.

After clocking a good 9.5 hours in the library on Tuesday and then another 5 hours yesterday, I'm so over school.

The only problem with this is that my New Testament final is tomorrow afternoon and I should definitely study. But I just can't find the self control to buckle down and do it.

Plus, I've gotten so used to his SUPER easy grading and my ability to make lots of stuff up to get points. (Well, not make stuff up but you know what I mean...)

So I have looked at my study guide briefly. And I know some stuff. But I just can't focus anymore.

I just want to play. Even though there is seriously nothing to do here. hahaha why is it that when you have so much to do, you find so many things to fill your time with but when you have nothing to do, you can't seem to do anything? Such a problem.

We did have a fun day today though. We first had breakfast and then our final choir practice since we perform tomorrow. We then had a pretty chill morning, a decent lunch and then we headed over to Hebrew U. Which equated to approximately 18 youtube videos watched, 27 people stalked on facebook, and a whole 3 hours of wasted time. Definitely productive. In a not so productive way. haha

But I suppose I need to start studying. Argh. I just want to be done with school until April. Which will happen in approximately 18 hours. I can do it.

Beautiful Jerusalem Sunset. Oh how I will miss these.

Cause I won't see them again after next Wednesday. Ahh!

Okay. The end. Have a lovely Thursday!

346.

That's how many hours I have left until my plane touches down on Bay Area soil (I was going to say Californian soil but we stop in LA before then...).

Two weeks and ten hours and I'll be looking out an airplane window and looking at the beautiful bay, Moffet Field, familiar bridges, gorgeous foothills, and HOME. :) (And no snow!)

Flying into a familiar place is always the best. Just looking out the window and seeing familiarity makes me so happy.

Most people will be getting home at the end of next week but not us. We are going to Vienna first which should be an adventure.

I'm weirdly not that homesick, which I think is an interesting thing to know about myself, but with everyone here being so excited about going home, I've joined the bandwagon. It'll be nice to eat "real" food, have ice cream whenever I like (including breakfast!), cuddling in my snuggie, driving my car, etc.

It'll be good.

And on that note, let's finish finals!

One down, two point five to go. :)

All Four Seas.

I've finally done it.

I officially swam (er... floated) in my last sea today.

We got the Med(iterranean) when we went to Tel Aviv in September:

Got the Red Sea when we went to Eilat in October:

Checked off the Sea of Galilee while in Galilee in November:

And today, I finished off the list by floating in the Dead Sea (in December!):

Looking at this now, it's semi-awkward that we didn't get a jumping picture here... butttt we didn't really have a place to do it slash Nicole was injured at the conclusion of our adventure so we are floating in the sea. Good enough, I'd say.

The Dead Sea was... unreal. I spent my afternoons in high school teaching my body how to swim and then I entered this water and my body didn't know what to do. I was floating by myself. I couldn't put my feet/legs under water. It was funny because we would flip onto our stomachs and try to swim but our feet would be sticking out of the water. (Notice Matty behind us, exhibiting this.)

I would also find myself subconsciously eggbeatering and then I would realize that I am floating regardless of what my legs are doing underwater. So weird.

All that hard work learning how to swim for so many years, gone out the window. Although, knowing how to heads-up freestyle was definitely helpful.

Good day though. Even though we were caked with salt after. Super gross.

BLEH. SO SALTY.

People told me that they were going to come to my hair when they needed to salt their food at dinner. FUNNY.

Definitely a good experience. And now I can say I've swam in all the Seas here in Israel! Yippee! :)

ALSO, This is my 200th blog post! Wow. That's insane.