Dear Connections,: Dear Jerusalem Day 35,

There is a psychological phenomenon...which I can't think of the name of right now...that basically says that your current mood effects the way you perceive your memories. So when you are happy, painful past experiences seem less harsh. And when you are sad, happy memories are tainted with your bias attitude.

So as I sit here in the JC, showered, filled with french fries and saffron rice, nibbling on chocolate...our field trip today seems like a breeze. However, my happy mood is TOTALLY making me forget everyones uncomfortableness.

Some sources said 90, some said 110...so somewhere in that range is the temperature in which we melted in today.Welcome to summer in the Middle East.

Conversations today included one of the following:
#1--"When I get back to Provo, 70 degrees is going to feel like freezing compared to this."
#2--"It's ok that I'm sweating through my clothes because we all are, right?.....RIGHT? A little social justification here people!!!!"
#3--"Well this is cool."
#4--"Let's take a picture."
#5--........."Can we sing here?"

So basically today was hot and awesome. If you wanted a summary of my day, you can stop reading here. For details that probably only my mother cares about, read on.

Today was Shephelah Field Trip. Basically the desert South of Jerusalem. Who knew there was SO much to see there! 9 hours of ancientness.

Ok. Here we go. Hold out your right hand in front of you with your palm facing you and all your fingers pointing to the left, fingers spread. Got it? Jerusalem is your knuckle on your pointer finger. Your fingers are now mountainous-hilly-land, and in between each finger is a valley. In between pointer finger and middle finger is where Samson was born/where his first wife was from. In between your middle finger and your ring finger is where David fought Goliath. At those are just 2 of the 6 or so places we went today. All in about an hour's drive from one another. Crazy. You would not believe how many things happen in the Holy Land. I brought a yellow crayon with me and I highlight my Bible every time a city appears that I've been to. It's AWESOME!

So #1 and #2 make sense now that you know I've been in the desert all day.
#3 is obvious now that you know at least two famous bible stories that happened here.
#4 happens all day every day, so that's not new.
But #5 makes sense if you know Dr. Huntsman. (Also called Huntsy, Papa Hunts, Hunter, etc). For those who don't know him: here is a brief intro. Imagine a studly-macho-man that can pull of an Indiana Jones hat, sang a few years in mo-tab, hyperness, enthusiasm for all things Roman&Byzantine&Christian, a nerd for all things Jesus, and overwhelming love for his family all wrapped into one personality. He's SO legit. I love listening to him talk. Never ever a dull moment on his adventures, I swear...
So basically we sing all the time. Like every site. Because he loves it. And we love it. And if I do say so myself: we're pretty dang good at it too. The harmonies that we can produce still amaze me. So then we love it even more. We went to these underground caves in the limestone that had awesome acoustics, so I sang like 10 songs between breakfast and dinner. Including the quintet that my friends friends so graciously invited me to sing in for the talent show on Thursday. I LOVE MUSIC SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Music. Heat. Ruins. Jerusalem. -CMS