Lindee + Usain Bolt + Goats

 I'm writing this post sitting in bed and doped up on drugs; this is going to be the best blog ever. Ok, I actually could move if I wanted to, and I only popped a couple of ibuprofen. I have a lot of exciting things to share this week! We'll start with our Sunday free day...

Tel Aviv!!!
Eighty out of the eighty-two of us decided to get together and go to Tel Aviv for the day. Best decision anyone has ever made. Tel Aviv is about an hour drive west of Jerusalem on the west coast of Israel. COAST. Meaning we played on the beach and swam in the Mediterranean Sea. When we got there everyone went a little crazy, and we ran down the steps into the sea. Everyone sort of lost all reasoning and within ten minutes people were soaked; about half of us were planning on staying in the city until 8 pm that night. I managed to stay dry except for my jeans. The salt left white marks on everyone and we tasted salt the rest of the day. BLISS. Again, best decision anyone has made in a while. 

Sometimes when you're really excited to see something, the only thing you can do is lick it.

Or perch on it like a raptor.

Or indulge in a rock photo shoot. 

We left the beach for a bit to find the flea market we had heard so many good things about. Let's just say it was the armpit of D.I. You know how people will bring their broken cassette player to D.I. or something? Well this flea market didn't have the entire broken cassette, it just had the broken part. After that disappointment we found a really pretty church to look through. Outside of the church there was a guy selling inexpensive jewelry, and I found something that has fondly become known as my sun goddess necklace. Ya, I commissioned the name, and I don't know if anyone else actually calls it that. It also looks like I plundered Nefetari's tomb or something. Anyway, you won't miss the necklace if you keep scrolling through this blog, it's too... noticeable. 

Paradise, right? Who knew this was here. You can see the Mediterranean Sea and the city in this picture.

Tree huggers

Brilliant.

We picked the BEST day to go into Tel Aviv because our trip fell on the day of Purim. Purim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the story in the Bible of Ester. The occasion has morphed into something kind of similar to Halloween in that everyone dresses up. There were a lot of people wearing costumes through out the city; I saw a boy dressed like a girl: traumatizing. Anyway, the best part of the holiday is the pastry pictured above. I don't ever like pastries but these are amazing. The eternal triangle? Or Purim triangles? I need to find out what exactly because these are my new favorite thing here. Sara, you would love these. I had one early in the day, and I found myself day dreaming of them through out the rest of the day, so we went back to the shop later before dinner.

After our church adventure we sat on a grassy knoll overlooking the beach and ate lunch. A couple of girls were determined to find a better flea market, so we took off in an attempt. The attempt went a little better, and then we found the beach everyone was at. A couple of people were surfing or just hanging out in the waves. We did beachy stuff then six of us went to rent bikes from along the boardwalk and cruise along the coast. 

Shazam!!!! My necklace. A picture with a necklace like that really doesn't even need a caption.

Jenessa made us stop our bike ride at this fountain so she could make a wish. Some people have really romantic thoughts. I wish I'd wished, but I have everything I need. Except for I could have used some wishing for finals week that starts MONDAY. HELP. (Our afternoon crew: Emily, Susanna, Jessica, Jenessa, me) [Hannah banana was taking the picture]

We tried to watch the sun set, but it kind of just snuck behind some clouds. 

For dinner we decided to celebrate Jessica's birthday in style at a really fun typical Israeli restaurant. When we sat down they literally covered the entire table with pita bread and twenty different "salads" to use on the pita. And hummus. I love hummus!!! You can see a few of the dishes in this picture. 

Our main course was called young chicken skewer. I think I may have been the only one who thought it was funny, but for some reason I still think it was funny. 

We wrapped up our perfect day with chocolate gelato on the beach. We all piled into one of the vans that came to collect us right as night was coming in. On the bus ride home I had time to stop and realize how fortunate I am to be here this semester. A lot of things have come together as I've been here, and I'm grateful for all the things that have made it possible for me to be having this experience. After this week of finals we'll go to Turkey for a week and then dive into studying the New Testament. The last half of the semester is geared towards studying the Savior's ministry. 

The next day we took our weekly field trip to a place called Neot Kedumim; this site is geared towards giving tourists a view into the culture of the Bible. We discussed plant names that appear in the Bible, saw an olive press, and herded sheep.

Herding sheep is actually a really difficult thing. Eventually our guide showed us how to push them along together without impersonating the sheep. It seemed like a good idea at the time to get down on their level.

This picture is specifically for Zach. The tour guide told us in Hebrew the name Zachary means "to remember God". HI ZACH! 

Most of the girls in my old testament class among the poppies. It's illegal to pick the poppies, but you can sure smash em down.

We made pita bread. I love pita bread. Courtney, in blue, is the girl who teaches the sunbeams with me. I love Courtney too. 

Jenessa's wish at the fountain came true!! Her mission call was waiting for her when we made it back to the Jerusalem Center after the field trip. She is going to Florida!

AND NOW FOR THE MOST EXCITING PART OF MY WEEK! I RAN A HALF MARATHON!!
For some reason when we signed up I was picturing the shopkeepers putting on a pair of running shorts and some people running in foot length robes. I also pictured the carb dinner we were invited to to be like a relief society meeting in the gym of the stake center. Wow, I was super wrong. We showed up for the pasta dinner and I immediately was out of my element. It was super ritzy and there were a bunch of runners from Kenya who made me feel foolish just by standing there. We had to eat super fast because we had to be back in time for the talent show at the Jerusalem center. All these classy, trim people are standing around sipping water and we stuffed our faces with pasta and ran out the door. Sauce was flying everywhere and people were probably disgusted, but a groups gotta do what a groups gotta do. They had buffet tables with nice white tablecloths (we probably ruined a few of them) everywhere and people were chatting all upper class like. And we scarfed our pasta and ran. If we had ran in the marathon like we did at the pasta dinner we would have taken first place.

At the pasta dinner.
When we went to pick up our race packets we struggled, not only had none of us ever done a marathon before, none of us spoke Hebrew. 

The night before the marathon we faced the fact that after all our big talk a few weeks ago, none of us had been running more than three times. To compensate we drank a lot of water. And I mean a lot. 

The morning of the half marathon started with some serious regret. I literally think that was my worst night of sleep ever. Everyone in our apartment was jittery, and I think at least one of us was awake at any given point. I remember dreaming a lot about the Kenyans who were going to absolutely kick our trash. The alarm went off and instantly everyone was sick; Lizzy thought she was going to throw up and so did I. We finally made it to the vans after choking down a banana and a glass of water. We received blue dry knit shirts to wear, but my roommates and I had decided to have yellow shirts made in the city.  

Jenessa and Hannah also jumped in and bought yellow shirts with us as well. (Jenessa, Lizzy, Sara, Sierra, me, Michelle, Hannah). This was taken right before we took off for the meeting point.

Emily, Sara, me. There were so many people here.

The starting line.
Our bus driver guy couldn't figure out how to get us to the starting point so he dropped us off two miles away from the starting line. And it sort of sprinkled on us. Once we started the half marathon though the rain was really welcome. We were really exuberant and anytime we saw a camera we would cheer; there was a forty year old Israeli man running by us that was just cracking up over the whole thing. At one point he started talking to me. We were going up a hill and he asked if I wanted to go faster. I said yes. He grabbed my hand and took off running at full speed. Basically he dragged me up the hill and we left Jenessa and Hannah in the dust. He told me he was a lawyer in Tel Aviv and if I stuck with him he might make me very rich. Nice guy. Hannah and Jenessa finally caught up to us and I tricked Hannah into holding his other hand.

Jenessa captured a picture of us. If you want to know the story of my white toosh you're going to have to email me.

Hannah and I finished the marathon holding hands in good time. We finished in a little over two hours and didn't walk at all in the thirteen miles. It's definitely because of all the water we drank. 

They had a table of food at the end; I had an orange, two lemons, three bananas, and six slices of chocolate bread. 

Eating a lemon. This picture shows the best how I actually felt.

A third of the way through the event our Israeli hand holding friend decided he wanted to switch over to the marathon. We randomly saw him at the finish line an hour after we had finished.

Most of the people from the Jerusalem Center who signed up for the half marathon.

Unfortunately, no one threw up at the finish line regardless of the prize money I had offered. We made a fake scene to compensate. 

Me and my roommates once we'd all finished.

Most of the other students ran in the 10K. Here we all are at the end of the events.

The half marathon was one of the best experiences I've had. I'm convinced everyone could run a half if they set their mind to it; you get running and your body just keeps a steady motion. We ran through a lot of Jerusalem and saw a lot of cool architecture. 
HOWEVER, today's game of duck duck goose with the sunbeams was PAINFUL. We're all hobbling around today and whining until people tune us out. As you can imagine, there was a lot of screaming coming from our room when we woke up this morning.

My Arabic final is going to be a stretch... I still only know how to say biddi bowsee and biddi puzah. 

Le'heet'ra'ote! (Hebrew? Like I said... the Arabic final is looming ahead)