It's Christmas in July!

Hey, everybody! This past week was great. I'm done with my two hardest classes, I saw some super-fun sites, and I celebrated two holidays this past week!

Eilat (the snorkeling trip) was so much fun. The beach was alright (pretty rocky), but the coral reef was beautiful and the fish were plentiful! We also stopped at a dairy farm kibbutz thing with possibly the best ice cream I've ever tasted. We also played some super-fun games on the bus on the way back, so if that's not the best way to end the day, I don't know what is. I didn't bring my camera for fear of it being stolen or sunk... sorry about that.

Alright, so last Monday we celebrated the 4th of July and Christmas... on the same day! We took a field trip to Bethlehem all day, which was wonderful. Lots of fun things to see--one of Herod's palaces, the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem University, Shepherds' Fields--plus I got 20 olive wood ornaments for 20 bucks! Not a bad deal. Anyway, my favorite part of the day was going to Shepherds' Fields... we're pretty sure that if angels didn't appear to shepherds in that field, then it was one that was extremely similar. Anyway, we all had a devotional and got some alone time afterwards--I went to a patch of field by myself and took a video while I read the verses in Luke 2 about the angels appearing to the shepherds. It was pretty neat. Oh, and playing my violin there was special as well. The day was one that I won't soon forget.

Oh, American knock-offs...

Peace!

We got to talk to some of the Bethlehem University students and ask them questions... it was awesome.

The stones in these mosaics in the Bethlehem University chapel are naturally these colors

Climbing around Herod's palace

Jefferson and Herod's upper palace (we're at his lower one in this picture)

Shepherds' Fields

Alright, let's see... After Monday I had a test and a paper to worry about, so we didn't go out into the city as much (although I did discover a big open marketplace in West Jerusalem... that was awesome). So I'll just skip to Friday, where we had our 4th (more like 8th) of July celebration! We sat outside and ate American food and listened to American music and threw an American carnival and just had an American good ol' time. I got a little photo-happy that night (especially with the face paint)... feel free to skim through these if you're not as interested.

American food is the best.

How much more patriotic can you get?

My semi-candid, courtesy of Morgan Crockett

Okay, prepare yourselves for a lot of facepaint...

...We had a lot of fun, as you can see. It was such a great night!

Yesterday, I played violin and conducted our choir for Glenn Beck's family... apparently they were there at our church with us, which is interesting. Today we did a little bit of service at Auguste Victoria hospital--we played games with some children who were there for a day camp. True to Rebecca Winters fashion, I had a little helping of humble pie while I was there... I was fully expecting my games to be the best... After all, I was the one who had a class on elementary music education, not anyone else. Yet, the games that the kids enjoyed the most were London Bridge, Duck Duck Goose, and face paint. Go figure. Oh well, we still had a blast--here are some pictures:

Too much fun with Duck Duck Goose

I also went on a big group date with a few kids here at the Jerusalem Center today! That was really fun. We had a photo scavenger hunt out in the city... kind of a "stereotypical Mormon" date idea, but still really fun. Highlights included having a fake break-up fight:

Being awkward while eating free hummus on the street:

Getting ice cream from a bald man:

And having my date sample whiskey ice cream... whoops.

Alright, that is it for this week! I'll be in Galilee for the next 11 days, starting tomorrow. Supposedly it's the highlight of the trip, and since I can't imagine life getting much better than this, I'm pretty dang excited! I'll have internet, so if I get a certain mission call that I'm expecting in a week or so, you'll all be the first to know. Thanks for being great, and be good.

Love,
Becca