SO MUCH TO SAY! so little time to say it!

First of all, there are no words. I don't think I'll be able to catch everything up in just a short while, so it may end up taking several blog posts to describe everything that has happened since the fourth of July. :) So, I updated right before dinner on that shabbat when we went to the Western wall. That was such an incredible experience!!! Let me just say, I really with that Mormons would get as excited about the sabbath as Jews ;). I learned a true lesson in appreciation for having a day of rest from the Lord, a day when we can worship him and be free to do nothing but simply think about all our blessings and everything the Lord has done for us and be grateful and happy to be alive and be able to worship Him. We walked down into the Old city of Jerusalem in our groups (Draper and Ostler) in the late late afternoon, just before sunset. I always love walking through the old city with Brother Draper (My religion teacher), cause he's brilliant and loves to answer all my questions (there are a lot) and I think he thinks I'm kinda funny because I'll just ask anything that I'm wondering about and I'm always delighted with his lengthy and articulate answers. I love Brother Draper! He's fantastic. Anyways, so we walked down to the Western Wall to welcome in Shabbat. We couldn't take our cameras or JC (Jerusalem Center)-issued-cell-phones because the Jewish law states that no work shall be done on the Sabbath and so since they used to count like, lighting candles and stuff, they think the use of electricity falls under that law (unless it is already in use before the sun goes down... it's kind of confusing, I'll ask Brother Draper to clarify it a little bit better for me next time I remember to ask him.) Anyways, so I don't have any pictures from the Western Wall, but it was kind of nice to not have to worry about it so I could just enjoy the experience. Shabbat was a good idea. :) The wall is separated on Shabbat, so the men go on one side and the women go on the other side (I noticed slightly begrudgingly that the women's side was much smaller... but I got over it, haha). I walked up to the wall and was (miraculously) able to find a little nook to stick a tiny little prayer into. I felt a little bad taking up the space next to the wall for a few seconds because I'm not Jewish, but then I figured it was okay because part of my prayer prayed for peace in the middle east... (highly original, I know). When my friends and I were done with our time right next to the wall, we followed the custom of backing away from it while facing it (apparently you're not supposed to turn your back to the wall). It was fun until I wasn't sure how far the rule applied and I felt bad turning my back to it 100 feet away... haha. Anyways, it was cool to be over there with all the Jewish women. They worship in a really interesting way. They are always moving when they worship--rocking back and forth or singing little songs. And then the young girls, (about Young Womens age) were WAY fun. They all dance in big circles and link arms and sing songs in Hebrew. We watched for a little while until a few of us brave souls decided to see if we could join in, and we were welcomed quite graciously! Eventually, most of the girls from the JC were dancing in a big circle with all these Jewish girls, and it was so fun! Something that Kim is definitely right about is that Jews know how to party, no question about it. After singing and dancing for a little while, my friend Jenni and I decided to go see what was going on with some bookshelves that they had set up. We grabbed a couple of copies of the Torah, and after asking my other friend Janelle if it was right side up, we tried to recognize any symbols that we had learned in class (unfortunately we didn't but it was still fun to be reading a Torah... even if it was pretending to read.) I felt a lot like the pirate in the 2nd pirates of the caribbean when he was sitting in the dingy boat pretending to read the Bible, and his buddy said to him, "You know you can't read! What are you doing?" and the pirate says "It's the bible, you get credit for trying!" and then the other pirate says "Pretending to read the bible is a crime against... *points upwards*!" Anyways, sorry about that tangent. So we looked at the Torah a little before going back behind the barriers (where they separated men and women) to watch all of our guy friends dancing around wearing their little kippahs/yarmulkas (they had to wear them to be respectful, although some decided to wear cowboy hats that they had purchased earlier in the week. I personally would've chosen to wear a kippah, but that's just me. :) ). Anyways, we walked back to the center feeling quite happy. On our way back to the center, a few of us were singing some fun fourth of July songs, (as many of you know it is my favorite holiday, so I was one of them for sure... perhaps even started it, I don't know.) And THEN!!!!! Some Muslims in the Holy Land decided to get married, and there were FIREWORKS!!!!!!!!!!! It was a miracle and I was utterly ecstatic (as many of you could probably imagine me jumping up and down with excitement.) It seemed like Muslims were getting married all night long because there were sporadic fireworks throughout the evening. After we got back to the center, me and a few of my friends decided to go outside and play with my glow-sticks. It was really fun, and my friend Nathanael got the bright idea to have one person toss them in the air while the rest of the group laid on the lawn looking up at the sky, so we all took turns doing that for a while, which was hilarious and seemed surprisingly like fireworks. Then we organized a game of capture the flag on the center grounds, which turned out to be really fun (despite the fact that I spent most of the time in Jail with my friends Paul and Jon, talking to Kate and Caroline who were our guards). My friend Jenni said it was probably her favoirte fourth of July ever, and I think I'd have to agree that even without the traditional steak and watermelon and corn on the cob and fireworks and mosquitoes, that it was really cool. I have to go eat lunch now, but i'll be back later to write more about our trip down to the Kibbutz and Egypt! But for my 4th of July I was quite happy. :D Bye!