O Little Town of Bethlehem

I am for sure playing a game of catch-up that I really do not think I will win, but I plan to give it my best shot so here is to our Bethlehem field trip.

Since it is in the West Bank, going to Bethlehem is kinda a one time dealio despite it being so close to us. The sad truth. However, we for sure made the most of it. The main attraction was definitely The Church of the Nativity which is where Christians everywhere come to celebrate the birth of Christ that is believed to have taken place in the grotto under the church. We joined in the celebration/pilgrimage and made our way through the small front door then down a small yet packed staircase to get close to the grotto. Some pilgrims light candles at holy sites which make for a beautiful setting. My favorite part was not the grotto thought. My favorite part was sitting in a side room of the church with our class singing Christmas songs about Jesus' birth. That is when I truly felt the spirit.

After we left the hustle and bustle of modern Bethlehem, we headed to a shepherd's hill outside of the city where we had the pleasure of having a devotional and singing many Christmas songs. It was such a neat experience. One I will never forget :)

ps below is my nativity I bought out of olive wood :) more pictures to come!

Jerusalem Marathon!

The rumors are true. I did in fact participate in the Jerusalem Marathon. However, I am sad to report I did not in fact run 26.2 miles. Rather, I joined the crowd and ran the 10k. Even so, I am pretty proud of that. Here is our lovely group, shout out to Tucker who arranged it all (on the left)

So ya this is me, early morning, freezing cold, pre race...good times.

We ran through rain, sunshine, wind, and even hail through the streets of west jeru, east jeru and even part of the old city. It was an awesome experience that I will always remember! Shout out to Letty my dearest running partner. (I would not have made it without you.)

With our metals at the end of the race. 

(also, no real race in Israel is complete without guys in short shorts with AK47s attached. Just a day in the life)


Well uncase I haven't told you recently, I LOVE it here and never wanna leave. Love you all!

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble...TURKEY!

Okay so life these days is going by way to quickly and I am just trying my best to live it up with the time I have left so I have been a slacker at my blogging. For this I apologize and realize it would be a hard time to make up for it all but I will do my best to at least share some of the highlights of the trip. Here goes nothing.

TURKEY. What an unbelievable gem that never would have been on my list of places to travel. I am so lucky to have experienced it for a week.

The adventure began even before stepping foot in the country however when I was selected to test out new airport security and pretend to be another girl in our group (kylie). We had to switch passports and memorize birthdays and all this stuff (don't worry guys it was legit I promise) Anyways long story short apparently I am either really believable or just a really good liar cause guess what? I got through!Yep possibly getting the guy fired and I feel kinda bad about it but really?! You are gonna let me pass as girl pictured by me? He did question it and kept being skeptical but at the end of the day I got through. Pretty proud. Don't worry guys. Tel Aviv airport is now more secure because of me. I do what I can :)

Day 2: We started out the day by hitting up the hippodrome, Topkapi Palace, Basilica Cistern, Blue Mosque then ended the day with a boat ride on the Bosphorus

at the hippodrome in Isambul

teaching people to use cups as instruments at the restaurant and discovering Jake's hidden talent

boat ride

Bro Ludlow and I posing for a pic at the Palace

^^ Me imitating the Medusa heads in the cistern. Always a fun time!

Okay so this is where I'm gonna get a little lazy just cause I know you (my parents) would like to see some pictures. I'll tell more stories about the pics later but if I am ever to catch up I need to just do this...sorry!!

the lovely blue mosque

We visited almost all of the 7 churches of Asia mentioned in the book of Revelation (at least drove past them all) and they all kinda had the same deal: columned ruins and you know what columns bring out in us? We love our column pics. Here is a couple.

Assos

Pergamon

There are also these huge theaters. What Brennan and I decided was a great place for hand stand pic (a tradition we have started at every safe opportunity to do so) Also in the theaters we sing. In this one, after we sang, a group of Asians went down and put on a singing dancing number looked kinda like hula...fun surprise to say the least but I did not understand it at all.

Left to right: Rachel, Dane, Rachel, Me, Brennan

Then came the many bazars (Davis modeling in this one) that we shopped through. Don't worry I bought a bowl in Istambul get it?

The view after the boat cruise down the Bosphorus

We were lucky to have 2 of our hotels as beachfront. What else are you gonna do other than take way too many sunset pics and have a huge beach bonfire dance party at night. So that is exactly what we did.

The huge underground cistern

what it looks like with a flash 

Typical lunch along the way not complete without pita :)

Sadly the highlight of Troy was probably the fake wooden horse we got to climb up and take pictures in. (I am in the upper left one with Dane if you were wondering) 

Back to the beach pics (sorry it is really hard to rearrange them once I upload them on here)

The classic jumping pic

Sometimes I get wayyy to excited to be on the beach. It just reminded me of home :)

The bonfire

Put a ton of 20 somethings on a beach with fire and music and a dance party erupts. More of these to come in Galilee and I am sooooo excited!

EPHESUS

Okay whip out your scriptures and in the pictures part check out the one for Ephasus. Now look back at my photo. Look familiar? Yep. That's right. 

Hugging the statue claimed to be of Hercules...my hero!

Sardis

This is the reconstructed gymnasium or at least part of it. Naturally, there were several wrestling matches going on and also our hand stand pic for which Abe joined and was a champ. Me...not so much.

Classic roommate pic in the well preserved church that over looks what was once the temple of Artemis. Also, this church is one of a few places they claim Peter(?) is buried. Sorry I need to get all my facts straight. Anyways it was a cool church for sure.

Classic shot with roaming animals. This time featuring sheep with annoying cow bells attached to them.

our class looking down to what once was the temple of Artemis.

Hagia Sophia:
what was once one of the largest Christian churches, it was converted into a mosque when the turks came to power. Still, it is amazing and beautiful!! Just take a little look.

Ethan and I 

And that ended our lovely visit and stay in Turkey. I miss it already. Such great times that were not pictured here include: chicken fights in the pool, star gazing fests every night, crashing the disco inside the hotel (consisted of only JC students and 2 randoms...such a party), late night hallway chats, long bus dates, Negipt our tour guide who kept saying "the Turkey" which never failed to make me giggle, thinking immediately of the Chronicles of Narnia when we were offered Turkish Delight, eating way too much Baclava for dessert, all the amazing devotionals by our New Testament teacher Brother Harper, Bonnie's Bus, Ipod Karaoke, soooo many posed pictures, singing hymns everywhere...the list goes on. Basically I would not be able to capture everything we did but all you need to know is I had an absolutely amazing time and am so so grateful to be here having all these experiences.

Loving life!!