No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel...

...until he comes home and rests his head on his own, familiar pillow.
Lin Yutang

photo source here. 

Woke up today at 5 AM. Oh the perks of jet lag. 

Spent 30 minutes playing fetch with Ginger. 

Got on facebook. Bored. Went off facebook.

Wondered what time it was back in Jerusalem.

Ate chex with ice cold milk. At my kitchen counter. In my pjs, with bare feet.

It's good to be back.

***

The first day home in America was a blast.

I slept in, then proceeded to make waffles and bacon. No more kosher kitchens!

source. 

Then I hung out with my family, listened to Christmas music,

and played our baby grand piano. 

Lunch. Cafe Rio (+ the good ice). 'Nuff said. 

source. 

Don't you love how so much of being home involves food?

Next came shopping at Costco. The place was crazy! 

I sort of just walked around dazed by the aisles of food

and people racing to and fro. 

But the taste testers were great. I might have gone back to the cookie one 3 times. 

At night I went to a movie at a theatre. First time in 4 months. :)

I have never slept through a movie before, 

but apparently my body didn't know that

because I slept through most of the movie. 

Strange. 

I guess I'll have to catch up with Holmes and Watson later. 

Leavin' on a jet plane.

One of my last sunsets in Jerusalem.

Sitting in the Ben Gurion airport. 

Made it through all 5 check points.

Successfully answered questions concerning my chocolate bars.

(I'm still wondering about this too.)

Bags safely checked. 

Am I really going home?

It seems a little surreal, like Jerusalem was just

a dream. 

I will miss it all:

the people,

the places,

the memories.

But I am stoked

to come home!

America has never sounded so good.

See you on the flip side.

Dreaming of a White Christmas.

I'll be home for Christmas. 

You can count on me.

2 finals down, 1 to go. 

The end is in sight!

That means going home

is just around the corner. 

I can't wait to:

talk and laugh with my family

eat the good ice at Cafe Rio (oh, and also a chicken salad)

drive by myself in a car

get a good book from the Holladay Library

go skiing and sledding

play in the snow (please let there be snow when I come home!)

bake something delicious

hang out with friends

go Christmas shopping with my mom

turn off the lights at night and watch our lit-up Christmas tree

listen to Christmas music on the radio

sleep in my own bed

But, lest you think I'm too trunky,

here's 11 things I'm going to

desperately miss

about Jerusalem:

sunset over Jerusalem. 

sunsets 

friends I've made

7 shekel falafel at Damascus Gate

the Garden Tomb

having church overlooking Jerusalem

exploring the Jewish Quarter

people watching in the Old City

date bread

the prayer call

the Garden of Gethsemane

Bethlehem

at Shepherd's Field, near Bethlehem. 

Ode to a mechanical pencil.

So long, dear friend.

We met in 7th grade,

I thought I was so cool

to have a real mechanical pencil.

You were there for me,
through the spanish tests
and the history essays.
The ACT
and AP Calculus exam.

You spent many hours
in the BYU testing center.

You traveled to Peru
and England,
California and New York.

You even came to
Israel.

I'll never forget taking the ANE Midterm
when suddenly
you stopped working.
Just like that.

If pencils could talk,
you'd have some great memories
to share.

A short video, in remembrance.

[insert awesome title here.]

My brain is too tired to come up with a clever blog title. I wasn't even going to blog, but the interwebs was working magically this morning and uploaded all my pictures in record speed, so... I blogged. It's your lucky day!

This past Sunday was our last all-day field trip. Sad day. :( We went to Masada, the Dead Sea, Ein Gedi, and Qumran. It was one of my favorite field trips. The weather was perfect: sunny, but not too hot. The sites were pretty cool: floating in the Dead Sea, seeing the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, walking around Masada. Yep, I'd say that's pretty cool. And the company was, of course, brilliant! I'm going to miss my 80 new friends. 

Here are some pictures from the sites. Take a look through why don'tcha.

Katie, me, Desiree, and Katelyn at Masada. 

Herod's palace on one of the edges of Masada.  

Floating in the Dead Sea!

Awesome picture of the Dead Sea.
I'd like to take a moment at this time to
thank Danielle for her sweet camera skillz. 

AnnaLeah, me, and Danielle at Ein Gedi, where the future
King David hid from King Saul. 

One of the beautiful springs at Ein Gedi.  

Danielle and me with a sweet natural arch in the background.

The big waterfall at the top of the Ein Gedi
nature preserve. 

Danielle, me, Suzy, Rachel, Desiree at Qumran.
Those black dots on the hill in the distance are caves
where some of the scrolls were found.  

View of the Dead Sea from Qumran. 

The only lame thing about a study abroad?

The studying part. 

source.

We're down to 11 days here in Jerusalem and the next 5 of them will at some point involve 

reading, 

paper writing, 

and insane amounts of studying. 

Yep, it's that time of the year again. 

source. 

Can't say I've really missed you too much, Finals Week. Let's just say that the library and I will be spending some quality time together. 

But when it's over,

a whole week will be left for me in Jerusalem,

sans homework, tests, or stress. 

It's going to be pure bliss. 

Surprise!

And you thought I was done with Galilee. :)

Well, because I haven't taken too many pictures over the past couple of days and because I just got the rest of the Galilee pics from Danielle, I thought I'd put up some last pictures from my time up north. I realize more and more each day how much I love Galilee. It was so beautiful and quiet up there and a day didn't go by that I learned something new and saw something incredible. Enjoy!

Me at the Jordan River. We went there at night. Randie comment,
there were these strange water rats that we saw there. I'm not
quite sure what they were, but I know Peter and James would
have loved to see them swimming around. 

AnnaLeah, Danielle, me, Taylor, and Maddy at a site that has currently
slipped my mind. But it's a beautiful view, right?!

AnnaLeah, me, and Danielle at Megiddo, the future site of Armageddon.
There was a storm brewing which made it even cooler. The views were great.

Me and Danielle pointing to the Syrian border while at Tel Dan. Those little
white houses in the background are in Syria. 

Jared, me, Danielle, and Suzy inside some bunkers left over
from the previous wars between Israel, Syria, and Lebanon. 

Maddy and me at a waterfall near Caesarea Philippi. This part of Galilee
was beautiful because the changing colors on the leaves reminded me of Fall.

You can't really tell, but in the shadow on the sign are the words
"secret tunnel." I couldn't resist.
Beneath the clothes, we find the man...and beneath the man,
we find his...nucleus. 

Suzy, me, and Danielle having a little too much fun at
the ruins of a crusader castle. 

Ok, check it out! Ben found this awesome chameleon at Sepphoris
and we might have spent more time playing with it then looking
at the rocks. :) It looked just like the chameleon from Tangled so
we called him Pascal, and he even changed colors depending
on where we put him. It would have made the perfect pet!

Sunset on the Sea of Galilee. This picture is taken right from the
cabins where we stayed. We had a sunset like this seriously every
night. I am amazed by how incredible the sunsets are over here.
They're one of the things I will miss about Jerusalem.

Speaking of which, we are down to 2 weeks. That's right, 2 weeks! Ahhh! Where has the time gone? The other day at our announcement meeting they told us about the JCLDS syndrome. (Jerusalem Center Last Days Syndrome). I definitely have it. It's a bitter-sweet feeling. You're excited to go home and experience family and Christmas and snow and all the little wonderful things about America. But it slowly dawns on you all the incredible experiences you've had in Jerusalem. And the amazing friendships you've created. And the falafel and date bread and sunsets and memories that you will be leaving behind.

It's a funny thing about coming home. 

Looks the same, 

smells the same, 

feels the same.

You'll realize what's changed 

is you. 

source