Dear Emmy (Day 71),

Emily! I freaking miss you. Knowing I will be rooming with you in the fall is a glorious idea that makes me smile when I get homesick for my favorite times with the girls in Lafayette 18. I'll be home soon enough, my dear.

Remember the birthday present you gave me? My favoritest necklace clock? Yeah, well I decided today that you and I need to time travel to the 1800's. This post is dedicated to you because of my adventure today:

me pretending I lived in the 1800s

This afternoon I went to the Islamic Art Museum. Wondrous. It's kinda like the exhibit at the BYU MOA right now...but cooler because it's here. :) Here are some cool things I discovered:

• I think. ALL THE TIME. And I've started recording my thoughts cuz I think they are kinda cool. Obviously, or else I wouldn't think them. If I thought something was uninteresting, I wouldn't pay too much attention to it, now, would I? Anyways: I love thinking and I thought lots today.
• One conclusion was that my mother is AWESOME! I was reminded of this fact two times today: The first being that my mother has taught me to love museums. I feel like I have a love for history mainly due to her pure excitement in museums. And I love her for it. Cuz I've learned a lot of history, and I've learned a lot about how to love history. #2--My mother has taught me to love photography. In the moment, sometimes we all say, "Aww, Mom! Do we really need a picture here? Come on!" But looking back, we have documentation of so many great adventures. I have grown to really have a hobby for capturing moments while on this trip. So when the security guard told me I couldn't take pictures in the museum, I felt like he had just asked me to leave a part of my heart at the entrance. (Love you Mommy!)
• "If conquering was socially acceptable...would we all be as crazy as these historical figures?"
• Tradition survives. Because somethings are priceless.
• depicted and described and central across SO many years: the Kaaba
• turns the simple into complex and detailed: sketches
• beauty: gardens (Sassanians take from Iran/Persians)
• doesn't get any better than beautiful words in beautiful writing: calligraphy
• since the beginning of civilization: personalized pottery
• every women should feel regal: jewelry
• bringing it all to the home: beauty in it's most intimate form
• Sarah Barlow and I had one of my favorite discussions of the trip today. She is WONDERFUL. We got talking about all the fancy things in the museum. All the cabinets, tiles, gold, and overly-ornate items that filled the majority of the museum. "This can't be representative," we stated. "This can't be what the average Ottoman's home looked like. All this stuff; all this fancy, intricate items: they are just stuff. And the truth of the matter is that most people don't live like this." So why are we here? Why do I get to enjoy the spoils of having money. Or being above the common's income. Why do we need it? Can't we have pretty stuff for cheap? Can't be decorate our future homes in beauty but not overly-expensive things? Can we change the world? Or is it enough to just change the worlds of our precious children? Can we be the ones to teach them? Can they learn the importance of history and news and books and reading instead of the flippant things that money can buy? Isn't that enough? To be a mother than changes her family's lives? Will we be enough to take that responsibility????
• Then my world CONTINUED to be blown as I walked into the "Sir David Salomons Collection of Watches and Clocks." IN.TENSE. Only the people I was with today could testify of how wonderstruck I was. Each clock was simply a masterpiece. The whole time I was in the exhibit, I was thinking, "How can something so simple be so beautiful? And yet, how come something like the art of timekeeping be taken so lightly? Of all the precious things to adorn, what better representation than that of the passing of time?" Emily, I wish you could be here to share this with me. http://www.islamicart.co.il/en/catalogue.asp 
• Good to be here. The adventure is still alive.

this tile is actually from St. Andrew's church...but it's a testament to the style of Islamic tiles

 We then went to the Monastery of the Cross. Seemed kinda like any other olden-awesome-church...until we found out this place had some of the best acoustics I've heard on this trip (see video). Which is saying something: we sing everywhere.

 Relief Society activity. I love the joy we can find in a simple game of musical chairs. I love my sisters.

Sometimes (Rachel M and I decided in our bonding talk on the way home), we wear the same outfits in the same places and wrong camera dates throw us off. Such is life in Jerusalem. I love it here. I love that everyday is an adventure. I love that finals are over and we finally have so much FREE TIME!!!! Alicia and I pinned this trip and myself pretty accurately this morning: "You WOULD have a bad experience here because this trip is too good and you can't do everything." hahahaha I love Jerusalem.


And you! See you soon, EmHales! Thanks again for letting me feel classy with our matching-favorite-necklace-clocks. Your FAVORITE roommate, Chloe'