First Week!

Hello from Jerusalem!!! We've had quite the adventures over the past few days, but we're definitely loving every second of it all! They pack quite a bit into our schedule and with jet lag and adjusting, that's been kinda crazy. It's all super interesting though! We've mainly had a lot of orientations (going over the same stuff about 17 times to make sure we REALLY get it...hopefully we do now!). On Thursday though, we went on an introductory tour of Jerusalem, primarily the Old City. (PS--did we mention we're in the Holy Land? SO cool!) Then on Friday we had free time after class and got to do some exploring on our own! We went to the Western Wall and did our best to get lost in the city. However, one of the students with us was a wonderful tour guide and prevented that from happening.

Friday was also the first day of class. Maybe we should have listened a little more in depth during early morning scripture study. Being awake could have helped us now. We thought we had studied our assignment for Old Testament quite thoroughly...until the pop quiz. "Who was Eliezar?" and "Where in Canaan did Abraham go when Lot faced Sodom?" must have missed our radars. All in all, the class average was probably about 15%. We're all a little more terrified and more intense in our studying now.

Today is Shabbat, so even though it's Saturday, it's really like our Sunday. We had church in an amazing room overlooking all of Jerusalem with an incredibly international ward. It's amazing to see how many places people come from! Imagine singing sacrament songs IN Jerusalem. It's even better. This afternoon Sara had the chance to go to the Garden of Gethsemane. There is a public portion and a private portion. Generally everyone just goes to the public part, but a few of us snuck away from the group and were able to go into the private section. It was nothing like I had ever imagined, but it was a truly remarkable experience.

Liz got to go to the Orson Hyde memorial park. She walked around.

Did we mention we can see all of Jerusalem from our balcony? Or where we eat? Or where we have class? The view is amazing and the center is FULL of windows! The Dome of the Rock sits inside the Old City and we can see that from almost anywhere in the center. Sara woke up this morning, moved her curtains and took in all of Jerusalem before even sitting up in bed! We live in a museum/palace/resort. It's pretty legit. The center is absolutley incredible! The limestone makes it super fun to slide around in socks as well. There are 8 floors and virtually everything we need is here.

The food has been excellent and pita bread is a frequent snack. They combine native foods with American foods so we can broaden our horizons but feel at home as well!

OH!!! And you should all be happy to know that we occasionally have the BYU football games broadcasted in our Forum room!!! On Friday they showed the game live at 5:30 AM. Guess who your dedicated fans are??? (Actually, Liz was there at 5:45. Sara had to work out first, so she didn't make it until 6.) Unfortunately class started at 8 and they threatened us with not showing the games in the future if we were late, so we didn't see the end. Luckily though, nothing significant happened after we left! Also, we learned the BYU/Utah game will be shown. Woot woot!

Our group is great and everything is magical here! We're determined to know everyone as soon as possible, so we've been introducing ourselves and playing lots of games with people to get to know them better. Occasionally we hold study parties with them too in order to multi-task. :)

We love you! Keep writing and updating us on everything! Let us know if you have questions, because we really don't know what to write on here. :) Thanks! Love you!