Halloween Hodgepodge.

I haven't really thought about dressing up for Halloween... which is tomorrow. But people keep asking what I am going to be. Here's the deal: I normally only dress up when I am forced to. I think this year I will be able to go without dressing up. Yay.

But earlier this evening, Brother Ludlow comes to outside his apartment to throw away their pumpkin guts from carving and I happen to be sitting in the lounge outside their apartment. He shows me the guts (because Middle Eastern pumpkins are different from American pumpkins) and then he asks me what I am going to be for Halloween. I tell him I don't know and that I haven't really thought about it. He tells me I should be papparazzi. He's hilarious. I tell him I couldn't really do that because that's what I am everyday. So I suppose we've found one thing I can't be.

About an hour after that, Joe Ludlow comes and starts talking to me. He then informs me that I look like an actor (although I'm pretty sure he meant actress) but he can't remember which one but that she is from the Disney Channel. Definitely narrows it down. I suppose that's an option.

On Friday, at the service project, Malia tried to convince me to be a character from Candyland with her. I would do that if I actually had any means to get a costume.

These Ludlows are all extremely helpful.

Tomorrow, we are going to go and buy some candy at Arab Costco so that we can have trick-or-treaters! I'm super excited! :) Maybe I'll throw on my comforter cover and be a ghost... or something. haha I still have time...

We are also watching a silent film, The Phantom of the Opera, that will be accompanied by President Ohman on the Jerusalem Center Organ. It's going to be awesome.

Plus, we only have one class tomorrow! Halloween will be a good day!

Perfect Timing.

Friday night, after I had just gotten used to being home from Jordan and whatnot, my immune system decides to collapse and I start feeling a little sick at around 9:30. We were in the middle of Wacky Six so I kept playing for a little bit.

I went to sleep and slept in a little bit since on Sabbath we have breakfast later but I still woke up feeling a little bit worse. The Carmacks were visiting though so that made church a little more fun and different. But as the day progressed, I was feeling worse and worse and worse by the minute. I went to the fireside but I was miserable and then I went to choir practice and I didn't feel good either. And I'm pretty sure I had a fever by that point. We then called our fam-bam and then I went to bed at about 10.

Today, I woke up feeling gross again (surprise, surprise) but I didn't want to spend my free day doing nothing. And Charlotte needed to go to Hebrew University to get her Coldplay cd from iTunes. So we headed over there, which was fun because we had a nice little facebook/youtube break and it got us out of the Center. Then we came back and I watched movies and played solitare and slept the rest of the day. I wasn't even hungry for lunch which is a definite sign of me being sick. I stole some orange/lemon juice from the cafeteria and it has tasted so good. I've been drinking it all day. Plus I've been taking Vitamin C and Zinc so HOPEFULLY I'll be better soon. Although, I really don't know what type of illness I have. Flu? Weird cold? No idea.

This week is finals week which I am beyond excited for. Old Testament for two hours on both Wednesday and Thursday. Field Trip final on Friday. Plus a couple of projects and papers interspersed. It's going to be a swell week.

Luckily tomorrow we have our first class at 9 (instead of 8) and then a pretty free day. And then Tuesday is an all day field trip to Bethlehem (and our first field trip with Poppa Hunts!).

It's going to be a crazy week.

Blocked.

While we were in Jordan, the security guys at the Center obviously realized our recent internet obsessions: Pinterest.

And now it's BLOCKED.

No more Facebook.

No more YouTube.

No Twitter.

No online videos.

No music.

And now no Pinterest.

I don't think you realize how seriously depressing this situation is.

How am I supposed to take study breaks now?

Hopefully Google+ isn't next.

Not that I actually use it much.... but still.

Home again, Home again.

Well, we got back from Jordan about an hour and a half ago. After we had been gone since early Monday morning.

It's so nice to be home. Although, Jordan was dandy. It was nice to finally come back to Israel and feel at home. :)

Obviously at some point I will write a couple of blog posts about our adventures but I need to do other things first.

But here is the worst part about Jordan:

I got approx. 10 bug bites. And the funny thing is that I have 6 in a circle around my calf. Like a circumference of bites. SO annoying. I have some on my arms as well. So great.

:(

Alrighty, welllll tomorrow we have class and then next week we start finals. OH GOSH. Luckily, I finished my Hebrew final the night before we left for Jordan. So that is a lot less stress. But next week is going to be mayhem. And a week from tomorrow, we start the New Testament and switch teachers. Oh boy.

For Aldergator:

This is my littlest sister, Allie. Or Al. Or Aldergator.

Today is her birthday and she is turning 10 years old. Which makes me feel really old.

And I figured that I should write a little happy birthday blog of sorts for her even though I know that she won't read it... probs.

It's so funny because I remember her birth (well, not the actual event...) very vividly. Probs because I was misdiagnosed with chicken pox the week she was born so both Jacque and I missed a week of school but were still able to go to the hospital to see this little nina.

It's super strange that she is 10 now. She's lived a decade. But she most definitely has the sass and attitude of a teenager. Oh those years are going to be quality.

And she's done some pretty cool things in her short life. Most people are never as well traveled as her and she's been across the world.

(For instance, none of these pictures except one were taken on American soil. They were taken in: (from top to bottom) Venice, Italy; Anchorage, Alaska; Ephesus, Turkey; Trevi Fountain, Rome, Italy; Ephesus, Turkey (oops, a repeat!); Giza Pyramids, Cairo, Egypt; BYU Jerusalem Center, Jerusalem, Israel.)

And it's cute to see how her personality is so uniquely her's. Spunky, sassy, full of energy and LOUD. Plus she is such a shadow. Like exhibit A: If everyone else is taking pictures, she needs to as well.

She's super precious and I realize that we should be better big sister influences because all this being a boy business has got to stop. haha although it is cute sometimes. Maybe we'll have to have nail painting parties and such when we get home. Sister bondage time. :)

She makes our family juuuuuuuust right and I'm super glad she's my sister... for eternity. :)

Have a super fun birthday Al! :)

I love you!

Midterm Madness.

Anddddddddddd....

We are FINALLY done with Midterms! Ahh!

Old Testament. Done two weeks ago. Along with Judaism, Islam, and Hebrew.

And today, Brother Ludlow was a jem and gave us our lovely midterm.

After studying for approx. my whole life, I took the short little test.

It was super wonderful that most of the stuff I studied really well wasn't even on the test. And there were some other random things on the test that I didn't really study. That's always the best.

But overall, I feel like I did pretty good.

The importance of this is for me to inform my dear, dear, readers that since we just took the midterm for our full semester class, that means that the semester is.... halfway over! What the?!

How did this happen!?

It's funny though because I have conversations daily with people about going home. For instance, we had one yesterday about the first thing we are going to eat when we get home:

In-n-out was a frequent answer.

As was Mexican food.

It's really funny because we talk about the stuff we miss all the time. And then it makes me feel really bad because a Ludlow is usually sitting with us and they don't get to go back to the States until July. Or August. Probs August.

I can't even imagine that....

Hahaha so yes, halfway there.

Monday morning, we are headed to JORDAN!

Tonight we watched Indiana Jones. The one where he goes to Petra. Because on Wednesday, we'll be there. Craziness.

Alright, well. Tis all.

(and I find it quite funny that no one cared about Nicole's little incident in my last post.... okay.)

Olive you. (part 2)

Whew. What a craaaaaaaazzzzzzzzy day Monday was.

Sunday was our Eilat trip, which in itself was a crazy day. (See blog about that here.) Then after getting home at 10 or so and then getting all ready for bed, we didn't get to sleep until approx. 11. Except it was really later than that.

Then Monday, we had a field trip to go on. Which involved us waking up super early. Let's just say we were exhausted.

BUT the field trip was the bomb. Hezekiah's tunnel and the City of David. Soo swell. Probs my favorite field trip of all of them... thus far anyway...

We did Hezekiah's Tunnel and we saw the ancient rocks, obvi. And, Brother Harper was sick so Brother Ludlow was our leader. And the kids are still out of school so his whole family joined us! :) Quality bonding time with the Ludlows. :)

Before watching our super exciting 3D Movie about the City of David: Where it all began....

dun dun dun.

Bathsheba's rooftop. Super Scandalous.

Preparing for the tunnel! (Me, Charlotte, Katie, Katie).

In the super fun tunnel! :) But really, it was supes fun.

Standard after tunnel pose. With The Suze and The Lottie.

The Group. More or less.

We then got back to the Center for lunch-bunch and then after that, we got to make our olive oil! Woot.

That was super exciting. We first mashed up the olives and then smashed out all their oil. And we did it on biblical presses. And I wish I had some cool pictures to show you but my camera died pretty soon after we got there and Nicole didn't bring one. Plus, we didn't really do all that much to contribute. hahaha but here is one!

Nicole, Me, Charlotte, Suzy, Cali. :)

And our olive oil has been sitting outside separating for the past week. It's going to be exciting to see our final product. I will post about that in part three. hahaha

Monday was also the day that Josh (Ludlow) and I decided to get married. Let me tell you, it was quite the day.

And that's a wrap.

Exciting Day.

Today was a rather exciting day.

Nicole passed out (and sneezed while she was out) which always adds to my exciting life.

We were sitting in the Forum waiting for Announcement time to start and she had been reading her book The Help and apparently she got to a pretty graphic part so she stopped reading and put her book away and she felt like she was going to pass out. Well just after she put the book away, I turn to her and ask her why she wasn't reading and she says that she feels like she's about to pass out. And about 3.45 seconds after that, she passes out.

Her head kinda flops back and she kinda convulses a little bit and her eyes were open (creepy!) so being the superstar sister that I am, I support her head and help her (?) and I sent for the doctor (i.e. I tell Charlotte that Nicole just passed out and she runs to the back and gets Doctor Chapman). They both come running back and I quickly explain what happened and we are just about to lay her on the floor when she comes to. And then he helps her lay down on the floor. hahaha and she sits there for the duration of the Announcement meeting. Everyone around was wondering what happened because I didn't really make a huge deal about it but some people saw her passed out and were kinda freaking out. haha sorta. They thought that I was super calm about it but there really wasn't much I could do in that situation and I figured that there was just a graphic scene that made her queezy. I was right.

The doctor walked her home and then she has kinda been resting for most of the day. Which is too bad because she has a huge paper due tomorrow for her Old Testament class.

In other news, we also had our last Hebrew class today. So weird! It was such a fun class and it's going to be weird not having it anymore. We don't even have to meet again to take our final because she gave us our final today and it's a take home due in like 2 weeks. So crazy!

When we got out of Hebrew class, we were informed that East Jerusalem and the Old City were off limits to us today because of all the recent events (i.e. the Israeli soldier coming back to Israel and how him being returned equals the return of 1000 Palestinian prisoners). Which means that we are on lockdown today! We've been waiting for this day this whole semester! This is so exciting! haha although, it shouldn't be all that exciting but it is. And we are safe as can be in this little Center. :)

We leave for Jordan in 6 days! Yippee!

And they informed us today that at the end of this week, we will reach our halfway point of the semester! Insanity.

Anywho, that is the exciting-ness of my day today.

Big News.

This is Josh Ludlow.

He is almost 17 years old.

And we decided today that we should get married. No big deal.

I figured the blogging world might like to know.

Three years age difference is not a problem at all.

And I might be slightly biased but I think we're pretty cute together.

:)

Too bad it might've been a joke.... at least for now! haha

Actually, today was good bonding time with the Ludlow Fam. Love them. :)

Oh! And Victor Ludlow was just in the building. He is a major celebrity in the Mormon world... apparently. He even has his own Wikipedia page! That's legit. But he is Josh's grandpa. haha super exciting. I saw him walk past me. Basically made my entire life.

Olive you. (part 1)

While we were in Turkey, Jerusalem got it's first rain of the season. And you know what that means!

Olive Oil Making! :)

Yesterday, we headed out on the grounds to pick our lovely olives off our 60+ trees on the property. It was quite the task, let me tell you. We had to fill a large tub of all the olives and we only got partway. Like 2/3 of the way done. Mostly because all the olives are WAYYY up in the tree which makes things difficult.

Adam and I... obviously matching on purpose.

So we went back today and did some but lots of students didn't feel like it was a priority so they didn't come. Apparently when people give you amazing opportunities to do something completely different that what you could ever possibly do again, it's nice to not participate. So while there were more than 90 people helping pick olives yesterday, today included about 10. And that is not an exaggeration. Ooooooh well. Some people just need to be selfish. That's fine. (end rant).

Very candid shot.

Anyway, haha today it was fun because we also explored our vineyards! I don't know why we don't make wine (or grape honey!). It sounds like a wonderful idea.

Vineyard! Woot.

Yesterday, they told us to try an olive if we wanted and Lindsay and I did... definitely the worst thing I've ever tasted. haha

Today, AnnaLeah and I decided to eat some of the grapes fresh off the vine.... Divine. :)

Overall, olive picking was pretty neat-o.

Monday, after our field trip, we are pressing them! This should be exciting! :)

That post will come, my friends. i.e. wait just a couple more days!

Good Karma.

Guess what exciting thing I did yesterday?

I'll give you two hints:

1. This is now hanging on my bulletin board (it's a magnet but it's sticky-tac-ed up there):

2. This is currently what my left inner elbow looks like (although, it looks much worse in person.):

-------------------------------------------------------

If you guessed giving blood (and for the first time I might add), you guessed right! Too bad you're not here or I'd give you a happy hippo as a prize.

It was easyyy peasy. Mostly because I'm not afraid of needles, blood or even being poked by needles. haha The actual poking process didn't hurt one bit. And then I watched a lot of blood flow out of my arm. I got to lay down on a sweet table (instead of awkwardly reclining in one of those chairs they have in the States. Plus, I had the opportunity to hold Caleb's hand. hahaha

The best part though, by far, was all the chocolate chip cookies I got to eat after! I have seriously missed those while I've been here.

Cookies, bruise and an adorable blood droplet magnet: all worth the 40 minutes of my life (and my 1/2 liter of blood out of my system).

I feel like this might be a recurring event now. :) The world wants my blood.

So yes, I feel very accomplished after that. (and sorry if this post went into too much graphic details for my readers... haha)

Whine, Whine, Wine.

Obviously things have been SO busy.

Last week was ALL homework. I kid you not. I didn't leave the Center AT all last week. Except Monday when we went on a fieldtrip but that doesn't count.

My days consisted of waking up, eating breakfast, going to class, eating lunch, going to class, eating dinner and studying until the wee hours of the night (like 11) and obviously there was studying going on in between class/meals. haha but THAT my friends, is how my life was. Not fun.

I also had to give a talk Sunday which means I had to write the talk and get all ready (haha) which obviously cut into my homework time.

And we had a death paper due yesterday which basically took over my life this weekend.

But our fieldtrip yesterday was pretty fun (AND HOT!). Except we didn't get to fight Goliath. :(

In the very near future, I will be blogging about it for real. As well as the other two field trips we've been on AND I'll finish Turkey. haha oooops!

Today though, we were out in the (Old) City and doing stuff ALL day long. It was a really good day. Except I got stabbed by palm fronds and so my hand really hurts. haha but it's all good. And I had the most enjoyable dinner tonight with the best table.

But more of that to come. I just had a spare couple of minutes and I figured I should write SOMETHING.

And this picture will sum up my day:

Jared got drunk off our "grape juice" aka wine.

We got fed weird strawberry/banana ice cream.

And we got to eat lots of unleavened bread.

Basically, it was a wonderful evening.

Backslash..... again.

Remember how I said I was going to recycle a talk?

Not so anymore. I just wasn't feeling it. But I'm writing a super good talk anyway so don't you even worry about it. :)

I should stop posting things on my blog that are obviously not true.... haha

Update: It went really well. Actually way better than ever before. It must've been pure inspiration. Someone also told me that when I was talking they felt like the Relief Society General President was speaking.... I don't know how I feel about that but I guess it's a compliment? hahaha so yeah, very good day today with the talk. :)

Backslash.

When I said I missed Rexburg, I was obviously kidding. I do NOT miss that.

It's almost 3:00 pm there. And it's 35 degrees and snowing.

It's almost 11:00 pm here and it's in the 60's.

The best. :)

Have fun in the snow friends in the 'Burg! :)

Scary. :/

Well, I'm glad things ended well(?) and I'm glad it's over. Seriously Cupertino, please stay our of international news. That'd be the best.

(So glad everyone at home is safe and well!)

But really, with the passing of Steve Jobs AND the shooting, I saw the name "Cupertino" way to much in the news. And I'm sure the Jobs news will continue....

(Click here for the story if you didn't hear about it.)

Happy Hippos.

Cutest thing I've ever eaten.

Also the most delicious.

Oh the Happy hippo.

Only 2 shekels at the shack!

(I'm going to go bankrupt!)

Study break with Lottie. Notice all the Old Testament we've been learning behind us on the whiteboard.

Love Midterm week.

One down, 3 to go.

Tomorrow we'll be halfway through.

For now.

:)

(Also, I hope all ya'll appreciate my new webcam pictures blogs. hahaha such an original idea. Maybe more real blogs soon/this is better than nothing during h-e-double hockey stick midterm week.)

Strange.

I kinda miss Rexburg right now.

Mostly just my little study nook at the David O. McKay. :(

And of course, good old Rexburg Idaho.

Sometimes, I just want to walk to class or the post office without 2 people following me. hahaha

Not that I don't love the JC. I just have a yearning for Idaho currently.

Israeli Peach-o's: my new study snack. :)

(AND only 1 shekel at the shack!)

Inspired.

Remember that one time when my dear, dear friend Erin took this picture?

She inspired me to take some of my own:

And then I decided it would be a good idea to document my lunch instead of studying for midterms.

Graham cracker squares filled with nutella (it's really cereal that we smuggle out for lunch).

Cucumber smile!

My favorite part of lunch: cherry tomatoes! And today I got three instead of two!

Green Tangerine. Totally normal.

The remains of my apple that I ate before I started my photo expedition.

Also, I didn't intentionally wear tie-dye to match her (Erin). We're just the same person so naturally we would match. Infact, I did say the phrase "How can Erin and I even live apart?" today. I suppose you kinda had to be there to understand why that came up but just know that it did. Actually, that doesn't really make sense without knowing the story:

I was acting rather normal (or strange) and Nicole asks me "How can Erin even live with you?" to which I responded "More like how can we even live apart."

Good story, I know.

Another fun fact: I get to speak next Sabbath in Sacrament meeting. Boy do I love recycling (old talks that is!). :)

Come listen to a prophet's voice.

It's 6:30 pm in Israel right now.

Which means that it's 9:30 am in Rexburg, Idaho right now.

I've been to church for three hours, rested for 3 hours, ate dinner, and now I'm blogging. I've been awake for 10.5 hours.

And I'm sure some of my (old?) roommates are just waking up.

In time for GENERAL CONFERENCE.

Our live session starts in t-30 minutes.

I love technology.

And getting to hear these men speak. :)

Also, the funny thing about being 9 hours ahead of Utah (and having a super crazy busy academic schedule) is that we're going to be watching conference in Church for the next three weeks. :)