Senioritis.

My good friend Laura Clayton posted this as her facebook status today -

Senioritis (n) A crippling disease that strikes seniors. Symptoms include: laziness, an over-excessive wearing of track pants, old athletic shirts, sweatpants, spandex, and sweatshirts. Also features a lack of studying, repeated absences, and a generally dismissive attitude. The only known cure is a phenomenon known as Graduation.

I totally have it! Of course I already knew that I was one of the many afflicted by this all-consuming disease, but this just put it into better words. It's a little difficult being near the end of this undergrad road, mostly because I am struggling to find any kind of outside source to push me into excelling in my final classes. I'm in a major that is difficult for me, I don't want it to lead to any kind of career, and I find myself generally without academic purpose. Grad school is definitely not for me, and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel has made me want to run to it... I'm so close! The problem is, senioritis has definitely crept in, and it's like a disease that paralyzes your legs, making the end impossible to reach. Nevermind that I hate running in the first place.

To make matters worse, I just visited the advisement center (again) to see if I could apply for graduation, and I just found out that I have 22.5 MORE credits to do before I graduate! I thought it was only the 17 from my major, which would be easily done by June, but I forgot about my ONE GE left aaaand the 120 credit requirement for graduation... There it goes, that light at the end of the tunnel has become much more dim. I was hoping to finish by June and then do a term internship somewhere like DC. Looks like that might have to wait until next Fall. Which might be cool, actually.

What I really want to do, I've decided, is start my own business; but how can I possibly start my own business without any kind of business experience in the first place! So much to figure out, so ill-equipped to do so. Luckily, I have great parents who advise me every step of the way. Although, I have felt like they've given me some conflicting advice.

At one point, one of my parents (I won't name who, Dad, don't worry) told me, in more eloquent and rational words, to spend my time finding a husband. Hey, no complaints here (and my interpretation of his words might have been just that - MY interpretation haha). But that adds another stress to my life. I am in Provo - the Mecca of Mormon dating. How do I leave a place like this to spend my time in a singles ward somewhere, with way less options and a much smaller pool? We'll see. I guess I'm jumping the gun. I still have until August here... but then what?

Ok ok! I'm finally putting up some of the best pictures from the rest of my experience in Jerusalem. Mind you there are memories and stories and details and much more that we saw and did, but I think this is the best of what I got! And, it will be easier and much more entertaining to post a ton of pics instead of try to write it all out. No one wants to read all of that! So here goes...

Jerusalem - March and April

Anna and I at the Church of the Nativity - this is the hole in the ground where the manger apparently was.


Church of the Nativity - Bethlehem

Ceasarea! This city was once a huge port on the Mediterranean for Rome. The ruins of the marina are still visible under the water

Church of the Anunciation - Nazareth

This is the boat we took across the Sea of Galilee!

Beautiful view of Mt. Arbel from the middle of the Galilee

This is Gamla. It was so cool! It was like a camel's hump rising out of the valley. It felt like we were in Middle Earth or something.

Top of Gamla. It was a steeeep drop on all sides

Fish restaurant in Tiberias. They basically just gave us an entire fish with slits cut out. We ate the eyeballs AND brains! It was nasty haha

Oh my. Will Emmett. He was the love of every girl in the program. Look at that face!

Cool church

These prayers are written on paper and stuffed through a grate in the floor of this church.

Best field trip EVER! We got to go to this half natural pond (it was dammed) and went swimming! We had beautiful weather and a break from going all day.

Cooool Bet Shean. A huuuuge old city with tons of stuff to see. Complete with amphitheater, bath houses, main markets, public toilets, dwellings, and a synagogue on top of a mountain!

Beautiful sunset on the sea of Galilee. There's 3 of my classmates!

We found Paradise AND Winnie the Pooh's tree! What else could you ask for?

Nimrod's Fortress - WAY COOL. It's a huuuge complex on top of a steep hill and we had free reign for like an hour!

Overlooking Haifa bay above the Bahai Gardens

The Bahai Gardens. Notice our professor, Brother Hamblin, is facing away from the camera. He loves to joke around with us students who he says he despises but actually loooooves.

Palm Sunday - Ethiopian women on the roof of an Ethiopian monastery, adjacent to the Holy Sepulchre.

I believe these guys are Armenian. Cool service in an upper level of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday.

Above Damascus Gate, the gate we usually used to go into the Old City.

So when we left for Jordan, there was a bus stop there. When we came back, it was gone! There had been a few riots in those 4 days!

Oh man, these people were awesome. On the Palm Sunday walk they were right behind us the whole time, singing the same line to the same song and then sounding battle cries. Think OOooOO!!! While moving your outstretched tongue back and forth from one side to the other.

Thouuuusands of Christians, all coming together to celebrate Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem! Palm Sunday was quite the experience!

Terra Sancta. A BEAUTIFUL church in the Old City

Me, Anna, and Ali at Shepherd's Fields outside of Bethlehem

Garden Tomb - Easter Sunday

Anointing Rock, Holy Sepulchre - Easter Sunday. I looove this picture.

PETRAAA!!! Woooow this place was absolutely stunning! This is the treasury, which you may recognize from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This kind of thing went on for an entire valley though. It was INCREDIBLE.

At the other side of Petra lies the Monastery, which is larger than the Treasury. They spent a LOT of time carving these elaborate entrances to like a 30 square foot room.

So we followed some random staircases up some random rocks and found this! It was a cool house or something. Everywhere you looked there would be another staircase to take up through and over rocks.

Mary, Ali and I. We all bought those necklaces there! They were like $1. Unfortunately, mine fell off later that day at the mall by our hotel :(

The first part of Petra that you see as you come out of the valley. so cool.

The Dome of the Rock. Sooo beautiful.

St. Peter in Gallicantu! This church was so cool and I think it might have been my 2nd favorite church ever (excluding temples), maybe even my 1st.

Church of All Nations, next to Gethsemane

Neat door at the Church of All Nations

View of the gated part of Gethsemane

My beautiful roommates and the Old City in the background! Anna, Becka, myself, and Stella. I will love these girls till the day I die!

Home Sweet Home... or is it?

I feel like 2 months isn't really a super long time, but in a 4 month program, it becomes a super long time. Now I am home and reminiscing of the old days in the Old City. One thing at a time, though.
Feelings since coming home...
I feel out of place. It has been strange to come home to a life that I thought would have changed because I had changed. But, life is the same, and I've been working on finding my place in it as a different person. I'm not THAT different, of course. I was only gone for a few months! But I feel like the experiences that I had in Jerusalem kicked me into a different part of my life. And this summer feels like it's going to be important - whether for my own growth, or the realization of a big change. I don't know yet. I guess I'll find out!
Home is still my sweet home, but I'm not the same!

BEACH DAY = BEST DAY EVER

March Madness! This month has been a blast so far. First we celebrated the Jewish Halloween kind of holiday called Purim. It's the celebration of Queen Esther. So we all dressed up and went to this dance studio for a partaaay. The instructor there had come to teach us Jewish folk dancing like a week before and we thought it was just a dance party... it was a Jewish folk dance party haha. So, we did Jewish folk dancing for like 2 hours! It was actually way fun!

Me and the "Just Struck By Lightning" girls... and Alex as a Zombie.

Swing yer pardner round n round!... I mean, Mazel Tov! Most of the dances were done in big circles. Others like the macarena, were in lines. That's basically it though.

This past Sunday (our Sabbath is Saturday) a group of us went to Tel Aviv just to get out of Jerusalem. We'd been cooped up in the Center for so long, a trip out was just what everybody needed! We went shopping at the Sukk, went swimming in the Mediterranean, rode bikes on the boardwalk, and went to dinner. Oh man, it was the best day ever!

The Bike Gang.

Notice the beginnings of the huge wave that is about to come over the jetti...

Aaaaand, the aftermath. We all got owned by this wave! It slowly but very surely took all of us out. Our bikes started just kind of going out from under us and we were all running into each other. Then it went fast once we were down. Hahaha! There were some battle wounds and an almost-lost sandal, but it was all good! Except for the wet jeans...

On the Beach! There's nothing like a good beach day. It made me miss home a lot... and strengthened my resolve to figure out a way to be home for this summer term.

The group at a fountain right on the boardwalk.

Mary and Jess shopping in the Sukk.

Sunset on the Mediterranean Sea in Tel Aviv :)

Boardwalk at night!