Sidenote

Marhabah from the Holy Land!!!

For those of you who don't speak Arabic, Marhabah means "hello" to which you would respond Marhabteen (hello twice). ;-) I am learning spoken Arabic, so I don't know written Arabic and those words are spelled how you would say them... 

ANYWAY. A few random pictures and stories:

A week ago when we went as a group to the Garden Tomb for the first time, I tripped on our way back to the JC and scraped my knee up a bit... It looks a lot worse than it really is... There is a pretty deep gash on my knee (now it is much better--bruised and hurts to kneel, but not a big deal) and I scraped up my hand, which was inconvenient for a few days, but now it is totally fine. I was chatting with my cousin Katie while we were walking and I tripped on a branch, and then kept tripping over my skirt (it goes to my ankles--it's just pulled up in this picture) and ended up faceplanting in this dirt/branch strewn area... We walked back and I was going to just clean myself up, but Katie insisted we go see the Doctor (a retired Doctor lives at the JC) and he patched me up. So now it's all better, and I washed all the blood out of my skirt and sewed up where my skirt was ripped :-)

Before we arrived, Professor Stratford sent us study material to prepare for an exam. We had our first test of the semester last week, and these are a few pictures of us studying together.

The exam included knowing time periods and a historical overview of the Holy Land from 3200bc to the modern state of Israel, knowing a detailed map of the land formations and major cities of the Holy Land, knowing the contributions of certain leading archaeologists, and memorizing archaeological terms and other information... It was a lot of material, but it provides the basis for our whole semester, so I'm glad that I now know a general overview of this land where I will be living :-)

My map is color coded :-)

We live on the third floor, and the second floor has a laundry room. Our balcony allows us to see the second floor hallway (the hallways to the bedrooms are all outside). John was walking to the laundry room and stopped to chat, and we thought it looked like Romeo and Juliet, so we snapped a few pictures :-)

"Swear not by the moon; the inconsistent moon. Or if thou wilt--swear by thy gracious self"

I call John "Romeo" now :-)

My cute roommates back in Provo (Sam, Kelli, and Bert) (and also Jeff) slipped notes into my suitcase before I left, so when I arrived, I found letters from them :-) I put them on my bulletin board above my bed so I see them every day :-) Those girlies (and sometimes Jeff) are the best!!! ;-)

That is my sidenote for today!!!

love you!

-Erika