happy mother's day! and the amazing (not) race... all over the city.

a quick recap of my day:
we had a free day today!!!
so after getting up at 6 (which is actually happening this semester. yes, be surprised...) we decided to go out on the town.
we started by going to the dome of the rock.

we couldn't go inside, but we got to to walk around for a bit.

and get scammed into buying overpriced shawls...

they wouldn't let us in without them.

it's a harsh way to have to learn the law of supply and demand.

ta da!

after that, we left the muslim quarter and went to the ariel jewish history museum. nice history lesson, but that's about it. 
then. this.

only 4 shekels baby! (we split it 5 ways)
if you want to know how good it was, just look at ashley's face.

the really funny part is that we weren't even talking about the ice cream... we were talking about her ex-boyfriend. i picked up the camera because we had just demolished the entire bowl of ice cream. luckiest. picture. ever.
then, we walked the WHOLE WAY across the city of jerusalem to go and see the knesset. closed.
i blame you justin.
so we walked back across town to go back to see st. james armenian church... can you guess what happened? it was closed too! ugh. this day wasn't planned out so well. 
good thing we have the whole semester.
i also got called sweetie by every store owner that we saw in the old city today. i don't know what it is about me, but people just can't seem to resist calling me that. what if i don't wanna be sweet? huh? huh?!


anyway, we finally got back to the center, ate a delicious dinner (hummus and can you guess? more pitas!!!) and then played an awesome game of basketball!
love love love love love...
<3


i should be going to bed... since breakfast is at 6 tomorrow morning. field trip days are funnnnnnn...




one last thing - HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MUM!

aren't they cute? i think i'll keep them.

despite the fact i think i look like a loser in this pic, i had to put it up because my mom is such a babe!!! :) 
she doesn't look -- does she? (haha she likes it because everyone always asks if we are sisters!)


ten things i love about my mom.
(this list could go on forever... i had to limit myself so that i could actually make it to bed tonight.)
1. i can talk to her for 40 minutes on the phone and not notice that my ear is sticking to the phone because i haven't moved in so long...
2. she can do anything. if she doesn't know how, she can find out. i mean, she taught herself how to tile for goodness sake! and she uses powertools like a pro.
3. when i have a bad day, talking to her just makes me feel automatically better.
4. we do fun crafts together.
5. we bake yummy goodies together!
6. she encourages my habits of obsessively collecting recipes, being a packrat, shopping at thrift stores... and whatever craziness my scattered brain decides to concoct next. 
7. she wakes up with me at 4 in the morning to take me to the airport. (that takes serious commitment!)
8. she makes me get off my lazy butt and go do things! (which i initially hate, but then when i decide to get over myself and be happy, it always... and i mean always, ends up being great!)   
9. she lets me take her baby to jerusalem with me. (which is super nice, because this would be a very boring blog without all these pics!)
10. she is my bestest best friend in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD!


I LOVE YOU MOM!
happy mothers day. 

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i think i've made this fairly clear...

but i'm thankful for my mom!