I went to bed last night at 9:00 on accident. "Wake me up in an hour" I told my mom, and then I felt like I had been hit by a bus and I went and climbed into my own bed and woke up at 4:30 this morning. I couldn't sleep.

Naturally I went to gchat and found another who was suffering from jetlag! Lovely. She ended up calling me and we had a beautiful chat as the sun rose for her in Arizona over the desert, and for me in Oregon over the enormous douglas firs. Just a few days after we watched the sun go down every night for four months over Jerusalem.

Love you Anna!

(picture of Anna taken by me at the Tel-Aviv beach at sunset)

happy easter

palm used for palm sunday outside church of the holy sepulcher

Lord, Who createdst man in wealth and store,
Though foolishly he lost the same,
Decaying more and more,
Till he became
Most poore:

With Thee
O let me rise,
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day Thy victories:
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

My tender age in sorrow did beginne;
And still with sicknesses and shame
Thou didst so punish sinne,
That I became
Most thinne.

With Thee
Let me combine,
And feel this day Thy victorie;
For, if I imp my wing on Thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

-Easter Wings, by George Herbert

a pleasant surprise in a forwarded email from my mother:

Dear Emily:

I am pleased to inform you that you have won honorable mention in the Vera Hinckley Mayhew Creative Arts essay contest.

You and a guest are invited to the English Department Awards Banquet, Tuesday, March 30, 2010, at blah blah blah. Your achievement will be recognized that evening and further details about your award will be given to you at that time.

Kindly RSVP. Please let us know if you require a vegetarian meal or have other dietary needs. We regret we will only be able to seat guests who respond by the March 22 deadline.

I congratulate you on receiving this award. We look forward to honoring you at the banquet.

Sincerely,

(the chairman)

Dear Chairman,

I regret to inform you that I cannot attend said banquet due to my current whereabouts in the holy land.

Sincerely,

Willow Calling (my pseudonym for the contest. i was pretty proud...)

why i know i'm actually five years old:

when i hear the crinkling of plastic and look over and hope so badly that it is candy.

midterms suck in the jerusalem center too.

we all wish we were back here:

this is from the border of egypt.

i'm pretty sure i could be on a fieldtrip indefinitely. or atleast the rest of my life.

everyone told us we would get sick from eating the food...so we bough snickers and sprite and cheerios. and we heard we'd run out of money, so we got a ton of one dollar bills. then i got too confident, ate the food one morning...and the next night on the way back to jerusalem...without giving too many details...mmmmmmmmmmmm

me: (so tentative to professor...) um...i have pharaoh's revenge...how much longer to jerusalem...?

professor: (turns to other professor in front) did you hear that?

other professor: yes i did. (to me) are you okay pulling off to the side of the road?

me: yes, yes. i really don't care.

the bus pulls over. i run out. success. i come back, look at both professors, who snort, silently laughing while i sit down in my spot with unimaginable relief.

aren't you glad i disclosed that to the entire blogging world?

ukuleles taking the world by storm...

elissa (the girl on the far right) and i have single-handedly convinced a bunch of people at the center that they should play uke! what?? some of the them are the type of people that are always like, "i always wanted to learn to play guitar," and now they're like, "well, maybe i'll just play uke..." and then other people see elissa, and of course that makes them want to play because they realize it's awesome...

also, i played my sis cami's song "black sheep" that she wrote last year before she went on her mission to finland in the formal talent show. it's one of my favorite songs on the album she made before she left, and i basically wanted to bring her ukulele here to jerusalem so that i could learn that song...mmm anyway, so, after a lot of wishing i hadn't signed up at all, and after sound checks where it was like one of those dreams where you open your mouth and try so hard to force something, anything to come out, and nothing does...it was bad. not to mention i'm pretty sure i looked like a freaking deer in headlights that were an inch in front of my face. but that was during the soundcheck. but then prayers were answered, i cracked a few jokes, and i enjoyed myself up there. anyway...pretty fun! i wish i could figure out how to put her song up here! does anyone know?? if you want the song, please email me and i will send it to you.

for now, i will tempt you with pleasant lyrics:

there are sheep in line,
one is darker than the rest
she hopes they won't confine
her from the herd.

she says i spend much time
thinking about what they say to me
i can't get it out of mind

over again, why can't you think of me as your own
think of me as your own
can't you think of me as your own
think of me as your own

when a man with stick walked over
told her she's not alone.
i choose who is in this fold
and you are in it too.

think of me as your own
think of me as your own
think of me as your own
.
.
.

sort of famous bodies of water:

felucca rides on the nile in luxor. this is when we were sailing up stream. i love this picture:



this was taken while i was on a camel: this kid steered our boat and every girl on the boat wanted to take a picture with him. so, of course i was too embarrassed to get one.



the red sea: greg, me, andrew, jeff, elissa, gretchen, ron. three people decided to jump into the water and got grounded on a free day when we got back to the center. it was so warm...i sort of wish i would have. but, yeah, i was still a bit sick......

(thanks for this last pic gretch!)