Monday, June 8, 2009
News Flash from the Cherrys
This family officially stinks at blogging! Well for those who haven't already heard, Bri & I are having a baby. December 4. I am 14 weeks. We are excited. I think I have been away from home long enough to idealize having children and forget about how many diapers a day you go through. Tamarra has been calling me at strange hours of the day and night with name suggestions. Though I have to say her forte is definitely the middle name. Let me know if you guys have any suggestions. We dont know if it is a boy or girl yet. But I only have 5 months left to find the PERFECT name. Love you all.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Pictures
Both of these were taken in the Old City--one in markets with my new friends and the other about to take my first bite of falafel (I have since then had four and am 20% serious when I say I'm going to open up a falafel shop in Provo when I get back).
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Hello From the Holy Land
Everyone I'm so happy! I'm so grateful, and so, so tired. I'm sorry i haven't had time to write earlier, as it is i don't have time now what with all the orientations and such. Jerusalem is the best place on earth. disneyland for the heart and soul. and it is very, very safe. they are being so cautious, in fact, that some of the teachers are like "oh brother" and all the advice of Ayelet i've received three or four times now.
the plane ride over was funny. i really have no other words. the adults in charge were like "here are you're tickets have fun in the holy land" and from then on out it was just us students dragging hauling ourselves from utah to (ha) colorado, DC, vienna, and finally tel aviv. i had no concept of times and days, went in and out of consciounsess, and overall i have no idea how long it took but the flight times which don't include lay overs, etc. it comes out to about 14-16 hours of flying. i've never traveled in a group--sometimes i was sitting next to two people from our group and sometimes i was completely isolated. like on the 8 hour flight over the atlantic where i watched dark knight and nearly died of depression. very well acted, very well done, very bad timing for me to be watching it. other than the movie, though, it was utterly delightful. yes i am going to spend time telling you about this flight becuase it was just so funny. i walked on and just started laughing--it was Austrian air and there was full-on orchestrated music playing that you usually here at the climax of an over-dramatized documentary. the color scheme of the inside was a sort of neon-primary color splash that, combined with the entirely red nylon outfits of the stewardesses, made me think that teletubbies were going to jump out of the bathrooms or at least be seated in the back.
arriving in tel aviv was surreal. i've flown over many major cities in the US and this was something else altogether. it was like a white-washed, shorter version of new york, except as we got closer i realized it was far more residential than new york and therefore really not like it, and in the end something i'd never seen before. it was so pretty.
driving through the countryside between tel aviv and jerusalem was like walking onto the scene of a very familiar book--i imagine i would be no less tickled to have walked into hogwarts. it's just how i imagined it in the sense that it is hilly and green with white rocks sprinkled across the land like they don't belong there, like they're too pristine to just be natural rocks. but it's not at all how i imagined it in the sense that it's 2009, not the years 0-33 AD. There were BMW's and really well-paved highways and the most beautiful residential communities with red roofs built in and through and on top of each other set upon hill tops every so often that reminded me of tuscany. or what i've seen of tuscany in pictures, at least. except, i will admit, i was sorely disappointed to see that the kidron valley was like the size of two football fields.
The jerusalem center is a middle eastern CASTLE. to say the ceilings are vaulted would be an understatement, and since the group is so small and we all know each other fairly well at this point, it feels like living in a huge manor with a bunch of friends, and this manor is complete with arabic-speaking chefs and security guards that double as personal trainers (even if i didn't love weight lifiting, i would definitely get on Tafec's, a 230 lb palestinian, exercise class, just to say i had). it's all arches and all windows and all stunning. that first afternoon, ok just 24 hours ago i guess, we went down the switchback-marble staircase down to our separate floors and then our hallways branched off of this main, vaulted, middle part. the hallways where our rooms come off of are open air, with trees and sun and rain and mist and yesterday it was sun and perfect, weightless air. (i can't tell you how cool it is to be walking down these limestone/marble corridors and look up and see the blue sky!) well last night i felt kind of sick to my stomach i was so tired, and i hadn't eaten since we were over Italy, and i just general wanted sometime to put me out of my misery but i approached my door, the tree outside it rustling, entered and there was the sun setting behind the dome of the rock and all of jerusalem, reflecting of the gold and the white and washing it all with its own gold color, and i could see it all from my patio. i put down my stuff and just went out and with rachael and suzy we were all giddy and in shock. and if this sounds overly romantic, well it gets better, because as i was looking out over the kidron valley, a place i studied just as a little girl, and the Holy City, the evening prayer began and my beloved arabic was sung out over the hills for roughly the next fifteen minutes.
I could go on for hours, about the food!!! and talking with the chefs in arabic, and how incredibly cool everyone is, how there are no cliques at all--everyone is trying so hard to reach out, the beauty and complexity of the city itself (we were there briefly today), what it's like to see "Bethlehem" on a street sign, but i'm sure i've already gone on too long and i don't have much time (our itinerary is no joke--we're booked constantly).
Anyways, if you have any questions or concerns email me at tamarra@gmail.com
Pictures to come,
Tamarra
the plane ride over was funny. i really have no other words. the adults in charge were like "here are you're tickets have fun in the holy land" and from then on out it was just us students dragging hauling ourselves from utah to (ha) colorado, DC, vienna, and finally tel aviv. i had no concept of times and days, went in and out of consciounsess, and overall i have no idea how long it took but the flight times which don't include lay overs, etc. it comes out to about 14-16 hours of flying. i've never traveled in a group--sometimes i was sitting next to two people from our group and sometimes i was completely isolated. like on the 8 hour flight over the atlantic where i watched dark knight and nearly died of depression. very well acted, very well done, very bad timing for me to be watching it. other than the movie, though, it was utterly delightful. yes i am going to spend time telling you about this flight becuase it was just so funny. i walked on and just started laughing--it was Austrian air and there was full-on orchestrated music playing that you usually here at the climax of an over-dramatized documentary. the color scheme of the inside was a sort of neon-primary color splash that, combined with the entirely red nylon outfits of the stewardesses, made me think that teletubbies were going to jump out of the bathrooms or at least be seated in the back.
arriving in tel aviv was surreal. i've flown over many major cities in the US and this was something else altogether. it was like a white-washed, shorter version of new york, except as we got closer i realized it was far more residential than new york and therefore really not like it, and in the end something i'd never seen before. it was so pretty.
driving through the countryside between tel aviv and jerusalem was like walking onto the scene of a very familiar book--i imagine i would be no less tickled to have walked into hogwarts. it's just how i imagined it in the sense that it is hilly and green with white rocks sprinkled across the land like they don't belong there, like they're too pristine to just be natural rocks. but it's not at all how i imagined it in the sense that it's 2009, not the years 0-33 AD. There were BMW's and really well-paved highways and the most beautiful residential communities with red roofs built in and through and on top of each other set upon hill tops every so often that reminded me of tuscany. or what i've seen of tuscany in pictures, at least. except, i will admit, i was sorely disappointed to see that the kidron valley was like the size of two football fields.
The jerusalem center is a middle eastern CASTLE. to say the ceilings are vaulted would be an understatement, and since the group is so small and we all know each other fairly well at this point, it feels like living in a huge manor with a bunch of friends, and this manor is complete with arabic-speaking chefs and security guards that double as personal trainers (even if i didn't love weight lifiting, i would definitely get on Tafec's, a 230 lb palestinian, exercise class, just to say i had). it's all arches and all windows and all stunning. that first afternoon, ok just 24 hours ago i guess, we went down the switchback-marble staircase down to our separate floors and then our hallways branched off of this main, vaulted, middle part. the hallways where our rooms come off of are open air, with trees and sun and rain and mist and yesterday it was sun and perfect, weightless air. (i can't tell you how cool it is to be walking down these limestone/marble corridors and look up and see the blue sky!) well last night i felt kind of sick to my stomach i was so tired, and i hadn't eaten since we were over Italy, and i just general wanted sometime to put me out of my misery but i approached my door, the tree outside it rustling, entered and there was the sun setting behind the dome of the rock and all of jerusalem, reflecting of the gold and the white and washing it all with its own gold color, and i could see it all from my patio. i put down my stuff and just went out and with rachael and suzy we were all giddy and in shock. and if this sounds overly romantic, well it gets better, because as i was looking out over the kidron valley, a place i studied just as a little girl, and the Holy City, the evening prayer began and my beloved arabic was sung out over the hills for roughly the next fifteen minutes.
I could go on for hours, about the food!!! and talking with the chefs in arabic, and how incredibly cool everyone is, how there are no cliques at all--everyone is trying so hard to reach out, the beauty and complexity of the city itself (we were there briefly today), what it's like to see "Bethlehem" on a street sign, but i'm sure i've already gone on too long and i don't have much time (our itinerary is no joke--we're booked constantly).
Anyways, if you have any questions or concerns email me at tamarra@gmail.com
Pictures to come,
Tamarra
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