day #1. the beginning.

so i'm here.
finally.
in jerusalem.

to tell you the truth, i never thought it would happen. and now that it has, i keep thinking that i am going to wake of from this amazing dream and it's all gonna be over. i've made so many new friends over the past few days (it's already starting to feel like i've known some of them for-ever!) i love it when you start something new - the hope and amibition that you feel, the anticipation of the adventures you are going to have, and the limitless possibilities that are in store. it seems way too easy that i just sat in a metal cylinder for 16 hours and it brought me all the way here.
today we toured the city. we got up at 6 in the morning, and after finishing our orientation, we set our feet towards jerusalem. the history geek in me was jumping up and down inside of me the whole time... it took a lot of restraint not to look like a complete idiot and do the same.
what else has happened??? honestly it feels like i have been here weeks and not hours.
last night, we left our door open because it was such beautiful weather. (we came to find out today that the hill on which our lovely abode sits is in the migratory path of a certain species of poisonous viper. definitely NOT sleeping with the door open again.
due to jet lag, i woke up at 2 in the morning. to roosters. i thought that they were supposed to wake up with the sun. really? i kinda wanted to be doing a little thing called sleeeeeeping. yeah. thanks a bunch.
they basically are forcing us to get used to our new waking hours. talk about brutal! waking up at 6 in the morning after being awake for almost 24 hours straight is just plain mean. i need my beauty sleep people! haha...  oh well.
after breakfast and orientation, we started our walk through the city. my house is literally like a 10 minute walk from the city. we walk down into the kidron valley, and back up, and voila! we're there. so we cruised on into the old city through damascus gate, while most of the shops were just beginning to open up. we met some really nice merchants that have been really great to past BYU groups that go through. i can't wait to go back and explore the rest of the city! we really only saw a very very small portion of the old city. they didn't let us take our cameras (in an effort to help them keep the pace of the tour moving) so those will have to come later. we left old jerusalem through the jaffa gate, and made our way over to west jerusalem where we did a lot more window shopping. and tried falafal. oh yummy goodness. i need to learn how to make it soooo badly. a cookbook has definitely made its way to the top of my shopping list.
and they feed us like kings here! i definitely don't think that i will be wanting for food this summer. but the thing that i do like is that we have lots and lots of salad! the green food junkie inside of me just about keeled over from sheer delight at dinner last night.
and the peanut butter! mmmmmm.... we have peanut butter, nutella, and some really sweet deliciousness at every meal that can go with (get this!) pitas! they have bread there too... but why would you want plain 'ol bread when you can have the real deal?
that pretty much sums up my entire day. how was yours? :)