first week

I'm here! I'm finally in Jerusalem! It has been a crazy week. I am barely getting over jet lag and every day has been go go go! We have had non stop orientation meetings and other random stuff. This is a pretty crazy adjustment....I still feel a little overwhelmed to be honest! Anyway, we had a long day of flying on Tuesday and got into the BYU Jerusalem center on Wednesday afternoon. The Center is GORGEOUS. I can't even explain to you. It's on the Mount of Olives overlooking the whole city and there are so many huge glass windows...everywhere you go in the Center, you can see the most stunning view of Jerusalem. I haven't been here long, but my favorite thing about Jerusalem so far is the call to prayer at sunset. It comes on 4 or 5 times a day, but my favorite is at night, when I can see the whole city from my balcony, the call to prayer echoing everywhere, and sun setting. It is so surreal. I love it! We've been doing a little bit of exploring so far, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. 

With the BYU Center in the back and to the right of us. 

Chacos, fanny pack, and backpack while exploring the city today. I don't want to talk about it.  

Two of my roommates, Rachel and Susan. (There are like, 7 Rachels here. Go figure with a group of Mormons in the Holy Land...)

Conquerors on top of the Old City wall. 

The Western Wall. It's a sign of respect to walk backward when leaving so you're always facing the wall. That's what everyone in this picture is doing. 

We were asked to wear shawls at the Wall because our sleeves were too short. 

Pictures do NOT do it justice...the sunsets here are stunning!

I really swear I'll write more later, but I have to run! We are at the Hebrew University right next door, which is the closest place we can upload pictures. We're not allowed to walk back to the Center at night, so the security guards called a van to pick us up. P.S. the security guards are SO great. One who I ran into earlier today just walked up to me and said "You again! What's your name?" I said "Rachael, what's yours?"

"....James Bond."

i'm off!

so i'm at the salt lake airport waiting for my first flight to new york, then from there to tel aviv. this is so crazy! i'm feeling a broad spectrum of emotions. maybe it's a lack of sleep, but i'm feeling everything from fear to giddiness to bittersweetness. i can't believe i am finally going to jerusalem! i know that when i get there, i'm going to feel at home really fast, but for now, all i see is a long day of plane rides, strangers, and my family back at home. i went to orientation yesterday and for the first time, i got actually REALLY excited....I AM GOING TO JERUSALEM! AHHHH!

this morning at like, 3:30 or 4:00, i was packing and my mom pointed out the sound of a ukulele being played somewhere. i wandered around the house until i realized the sound was coming from outside, so i walked outside and found the best surprise ever waiting for me on the trampoline playing my ukulele, who had driven down from rexburg at midnight to say goodbye one more time and then left 4 hours later to get back for work. seriously. i don't think anyone has done anything so sweet for me. 

wish me luck!

see ya in august! 

more to come

oh, hello blog. i forgot i had you. actually, i didn't, but i just couldn't think of anything to blog about for the past six weeks. i've just been too lazy and not creative enough to write anything. for real, guys, i'm so excited to go to jerusalem and become productive again. a 21 year old can only do so much babysitting before she starts to go a little bit crazy. so ya....things in these here parts are going to get really interesting next week.

speaking of jerusalem, did you know that the dress code for the BYU JC center is more rigid than the missionary dress code? it is NOT easy to wear ankle length skirts and dresses without looking like a nun. luckily for me, this whole maxi thing is in right now. so i'm not totally doomed. my mom told me today that i don't seem that excited to go to jerusalem...and to be honest...it hasn't hit me yet that i'm going. when i think about it, it's like "oh. wow. i'm going to jerusalem next week. i need to get ready." i don't think i'll actually get really excited until we touch down in tel aviv, you know? the idea is still too abstract for me to grasp. 

anyway, i just got home for the first time in two weeks. i went to st. george with my family for a week, which was so fun, as always, even the part where we tore out wooden shingles on the roof. seriously, i found out there is nothing more therapeutic than shredding the heck out of a roof. and i got in a workout and a tan at the same time. perfect. then my friends picked me up on the way to california and we spent a week there. don't even worry, i went to a legit luchador wrestling match in tijuana. with masks and capes and everything. and i loved every second of it. pictures of the week to follow. 

oh, and we all got lifeguard certified in san diego. it's pretty much equivalent to getting married in vegas.  

stuff

i remember my sixth grade teacher, mr. sain, had a thing about the word "stuff." he thought it was hilarious or something. he's also notoriously psycho. he wears mocassins and turtlenecks every day. he always wears a creepy wig with long bangs in the yearbook every year. his vocab tests included words like juxtuposition and other garbage that i didn't use as a twelve year old and i still don't as a twenty one year old. and his best friend is the author of the "bathroom book", who, every year, dresses up as a weirdo and comes into mr. sain's class to freak the kids out and then give them all copies of the bathroom book. i know, right?

anyway. sorry. that was a long-winded way of saying that mr. sain would probably read the title of my post and laugh until his face turned purple. i don't know why. sorry, mr. sain, that i forgot all your ridiculous vocab words and that my blog title reflects the reading level of a four year old. but.....

can we take a second and rejoice that it is march, which is the month that spring officially starts?

i had the most excellent night on monday. it was unnaturally warm and i went to pick up emma from a friend's house right as the sun was setting. on our way home, we decided to stop at a park which is right above my house and has the most amazing view of salt lake. whenever i'm able, i hop in the car barefooted, and drive to the park to watch the sun set over the great salt lake and the capitol downtown. those kinds of moments never come enough, ya know? (one night last summer, my brother and i hopped in the car with my ukulele and drove to the park to play while the sun was setting. when we got there, there was just a man standing towards the city, playing the bagpipes. how cool is that?! so we three just sat, looking at the city, playing our music. joseph and i always laugh about that night.) anyway, emma and i drove to the park on monday and kicked off our shoes and swung on the swings so high that our bums were lifting off. and then we went to the playground and reenacted the scene in lion king where scar lets mufasa fall into the herd of wildebeest. spring makes me happy!!!!!!!! i used to think i was a cold-weather person.

then i moved to rexburg.

 HAHAHA.

anyway, march...i love you! i can almost take my beach bike out of hibernation! this is my baby, daisy. i bought her after graduation. she also has a wicker basket and a pink metal bell. isn't she beautiful?

also, i just read over this post and it's not very coherent. it's late. i'm tired. maybe that's why my post is titled "stuff."

goodnight.

if you say "awkward" ten times, the word starts to sound awkward

on saturday, i went to a birthday party for a friend that i hadn't seen in a long time. her family has moved since the last time i saw her, so i was driving up the street that she told me, looking for the house number, which, by the way, was hard to find because there were no street lamp...and now i am trying to remember why i was squinting to see her house better because it most definitely was dark. ok, anyway.

i found the house number, walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. it was kind of dark inside the house and the lady who peeked out the window looked just like my friend's mom. so when she opened the door and said "hi!" i said hi and walked right on in. it wasn't until i was standing in her entry way and the door was closed that i realized she was not my friend's mom and i was standing in a stranger's house. but i was really confused because the house number was right and thought that maybe she was a sister or a family friend who was greeting guests. 

she just awkwardly looked at me, the random girl who just invited herself into their house, and asked who i was looking for. i confusedly told her my friend's name and she confusedly told me she didn't know who that was. and then her teenage son came out and invited me to eat pizza, and i felt even more weird. 

then we figured out i was on a street over from where i was supposed to be and we laughed about it. i left after apologizing like, sixteen times, and the woman and her son waved me goodbye and told me to come back for pizza if the party was a dud. 

and then i got in my car and drove away, still not even knowing what just happened. and came to the conclusion that you should not invite yourself into strangers houses. 

the seatbelt strangle

i love st. george.

my family has been going there at least three times a year since i was born. we have a house in bloomington that is older than my dad and has the most hideous home decor you can imagine a la my grandma 40 years ago. the roof is leaky and the barstools are way too high for the counter so you get those line marks in your legs after eating lunch.

but it has the most comfortable recliner that i like to curl up in for hours and read a good book--or maybe one of my brothers' calvin and hobbes collections. there's a ladder in the back hallway that leads to a loft that has a king and a queen bed in it, along with a tv, so it's the ultimate man cave. and when it's warm, we like to drag the mattresses on the roof and sleep out there. the stars are pretty bright in bloomington and in the summer, you get bats that fly over your head.

i love the mountains that are literally right outside the back door. you hike up the first part of the mountain and then the very last part, you have to literally rock climb to the top. i still get a teensy bit nervous doing it, but it has the best view of st. george up there!

i even love the ride down to st. george. we always leave salt lake in the evening and don't roll into the grocery store parking lot till eleven or twelve, because of the dinner stop, the occasional bathroom stop, and the "we're pulling over until everyone can get buckled and get along" stop. speaking of buckle, i just came up with the perfect name for my biggest car pet peeve...."the seatbelt strangle." you know how when you lean forward in your seat and the seatbelt won't give you any slack, so you lean back a little and then forward, but the seatbelt has only pulled tighter, etc etc, until you are literally trapped against the seat? that happened to me, like, eight times this weekend! but anyway, i really like the smell of skunks on the side of the road because i only associate the smell with fond memories of driving to st. george late at night. my favorite part is when we finally get off the freeway exit and the engine suddenly goes really silent, which is everyone's cue to wake up because your body knows that feeling--it means you've arrived! and then everyone drags their suitcases into the house rosy-cheeked and bleary-eyed and face plants into bed.

it doesn't matter that you fall asleep without changing because you were in your sweats to begin with.

and so begins another trip to st. george. 

love notes

at the expense of sounding cheesy, i would like to welcome february by telling you all how much i love love. it is magical. it lifts you, expands you, makes you happier than any scientist can explain, and has mystical powers on the glow in your skin. i'm talking about every kind of love. just knowing that you have people in your life that love you is the best confidence booster out there.

i really like valentines day. i like that for weeks before the day, you see pink and red and glittering hearts everwhere. i like all the shmaltzy love quotes that float around the internet and hallmark cards. i like that papa murphy's makes a heart shaped pepperoni pizza that somehow suspiciously tastes better than it's circlular counterpart. i like how even if i'm not in love on valentines day, i can think back on the feelings of love and giddiness and infatuation and get excited for those feelings again in the future. i like how my mom always gives me valentine presents (one year, it came with a card that said "you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince!") and how it's the only day where i can pull off wearing a pink bow in my hair.

have a great february! it's an awesome month. always has been.