just today.

Finals:

a heap of stress that blinds you to the hope that can be felt after they are over, until the dreadful things are finished.

Today we finished up two,

so we decided to go to the city instead of studying for the third.

 me+shelby

damascus gate of Jesus' Time.

damascus gate of our time.

shelby, oh how i love this girl :)

the gang chillin at the austrian hospice.

shelby. morgan. crystal. tyson. ashlynn. me.

the girls.

 these light bulbs in the streets are my favorite thing here.

hands down, they never fail to brighten my day.

oh, and the [people], how sweet this lady is.

she probably didn't even know how much she brightened my day,

just by sitting outside her shop and smiling.

it made all the difference.

i'm going to slay my last final tomorrow.

mark    my    words.

it is written.

can i miss them any more?

i don't think so...

ken you are growing up.

jaim you are beautiful.

brookey are you popping your collars?

mom i miss you so much.

lauryn watch your elbows! your bonking ava in the nose!!

dad i love you.

jones you aren't even going to remember who i am next time i see you :(

i miss you all.

-it is written.

what i'll miss.

as i am drawing an end to my time here in jerusalem, i've been thinking a lot about what makes this land i love so special to me.

it hit me like a rock yesterday.

i'll miss the people. a lot.

we left the dome of the rock yesterday and went down an alley way i have never been down before.

these cute girls were playing in the street and i saw one had a 'skip it' in her hand.

i asked her to show me how she skips it.

she laughed and skipped it a few times.

another girl came and took a turn.

then i asked for a turn.

my shoe wouldn't fit through the loop so i took off my shoes and skipped it around and around.

i was quite the skip it queen back in the day

glad i still had it in me.

the girls were clapping and so excited to see me do it.

it was one of my most treasured moments.

never pass up an opportunity to interact with people, especially little kids.

look for the little pleasures of life.

-it is written.

note to self: find me a skip it when i get back to provo.

HP 7.5

this is a shwarma.

i'm not exactly sure on it's exact ingredients.

but it's so good.

a must have here in jerusalem.

falafel's are great too.

i got a shwarma and drew got a falafel.

half way through we switched... best idea ever.

best of both worlds.

but the real important part of this post is what happened at the end of the day.

harry potter

oh how i love you.

When we got back from Galilee 

(Skipping my galilee blogging until i get a huge chunk of time to catch up)

we were all d-y-i-n-g to go see harry potter.

just fyi people in jerusalem don't dress up for Harry Potter.

in fact, if you put a thunderbolt scar on your forehead they might even point and laugh at you.

and if you have a stick for a wand...

enough said.

i went to find my wand before the showing.

was proud as ever to find the perfect one.

it chose me in fact.

tested it's magic.

check.

and had plenty of duels before entering the theater.

it was great.

all 30 or so of us had scars on our foreheads and were so excited to get in the theater.

me. canton. jamie.

we waited and waited for the movie to start in this small theater.

(assigned seats mind you)

ashton. me. jamie.

then about halfway through, in a very intense part, the movie shut down.

mad, confused, sad, panicked.

all of the above.

then we found someone who spoke english.

he said: intermission. 5 minutes.

weird?

but we cast a few spells and it was up and running in five minutes-ish.

if you ask me i'd give it a:

10 out of 10.

two thumbs up.

love love loved it!

if you haven't seen it go see harry potter. if you have, go see it again.

-it is written.

bethlehem.

Christmas in july?
quite literally.
this year i celebrated the fourth of July in bethlehem.
how incredible!
first we had to stop at the Herodian to learn about King Herod the Great.

pretty amazing.

then onto the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

this is said to be the spot where Christ was born.

tyson. jamie. me.

we also saw some picture of when Paul McCartney was visiting Israel and i thought it seemed like a good idea to take the twinner pic:

(Pretty great, eh?) 

we stopped at Bethlehem University for a meet and greet with some students.

then onto Shepherds field.

i love shepherds so much: hence the name of this blog.

{dear to the heart}

you can imagine my great excitement when this shepherd holding this {black} sheep game to pose for pictures. i jumped right up and was the first to take pictures with him, a real life shepherd with his cute little sheep sheep on shepherds field overlooking bethlehem on the fourth of july. like all my favorite things happening all at once.

i got a picture with this tree because i left a super special note in it.

i love leaving my mark all over israel.

it's so exhilarating to know a part of you will stay here forever.

kinda sorta like a horcrux! 

(you can tell i am super excited to see the new harry potter movie)

there it is in all it's glory, a piece of paper rolled up real small and tucked away in this trees roots in the field here.

(don't mind the dirt). 

Bible dictionary: David ::

"As shepherd he acquired the habit of deep reflection"

i think i love shepherds so much because i imagine them as people who have lots of thoughts just like i do. who love to think and really reflect on what is going on in life. they have plenty of time on their own to think about life and how to best better themselves. (sometimes i call it my curse, but i love that i have lots of thoughts. it's what makes me, Me.)

-it is written.

Eilat

we went snorkeling in the red sea, in a place called Eilat.

the water was so blue.

and so were some of the fish.

it was beautiful and a great way to spend a sunday.

the pictures don't give it justice.

this place was beautiful.

the fishys swam all around you and they got close but didn't touch you!

that's my favorite kind of fishys! the ones that don't graze your ankle when swimming and make you freak out thinking you are being attacked by a shark or other wild sea creature!

i man'd up the courage to touch one of the fish while snorkeling and when my fingertips grazed the outermost scales of the silver fish i screamed... bad idea when you are underwater... i almost choked to death! i didn't try to touch another fish after that.

may i also add that we all looked fabulous in our snorkels?

here's a run down of our little crew:

me.

elise.

brittany.

Jeehee.

jamie.

love these girls.

p.s. i have an ever growing love for docks?

i think it all started when i saw this picture on a blog.

mark my words, i will take the perfect dock picture, one day.

"1, 2, 3, that's enough for me."

keep this in mind when drinking at the next drinking fountain you come too...

save some water for the fishys.

-it is written.