Pics for my peeps

So heres the skinny from jeru. life has been a bit busy with tests and papers lately... i can't believe i find myself worried about still trying to get good grades being that i'm done with school. but i also can't stand worrying about school when there is so much to be do out here. in retrospect, this isn't far different than the way i felt about school back in ptown... except there isnt a dang thing to do back in provo.

our main field trip was out to the lands of shephelah this week. it was more of a military/phillistine outing than anything else. these pics actually tell the whole story of everything we did... and how we felt about it all. so without further ado:
Walt Whip and I (and the Big Cat in the background). This is probably my favorite man ever. Here's the pedigree: overcame deathly heart conditions to serve a mission, became an expert pianist and organist, played as an honorary guest for mo tab, went to poland for a violin-making apprenticeship, called to be the first mission pres of poland (because he learned polish as a apprentice... among other reasons too) (he prob went home a year before dust man went there), now he's translating the book of mormon into polish, now he's the music ambassador for the center and tomorrow i'm going with him to play the bells/organ at the ymca here in jerusalem. The whipster is one of the boys! today he fell asleep during sacrament meeting right as we were supposed to sing the closing song (hes the accompany guy)... we had a good minute of pure silence before he woke up to play the organ. I should follow that story up by saying he is also one of the most down to earth, simple yet intelligent, kind, giving, funny, and spiritual guys i know. This pic was on our way to the valley where david slew goliath.

Bet most of yall didn't know that i was caught up to heaven while i was here. this was at the bell caves which are these limestone quarrys that the peoples of antiquity made.

Steph, my cave buddy and I. Being two of the smaller people here, steph and i went spelunking through the caves less traveled. funny story - right after she took the pic of me up top, she all of the sudden disappeared. No joke, one minute she was there and the next she was gone. the only form of life left was histarical laughter. The girl, unknowingly, was right in front of a whole in the floor. when she turned to keep going down the tunnel, she shot down through the floor. by the time i got to her, 1 foot, 1 arm (holding the camera), and her head were sticking out of the hole. it was an instant classic. good thing that hole wasnt a never ending abyss.

This pic says it all @ tell lachish. this is about how interested we are when we sit out in the sun all day and listen to endless stories about a town than none of us have ever heard of before. what you don't see is me and a few others either looking for pottery shards or throwing rocks off of the walls of the city.
I found this painting buried deep in the jewish quarter yesterday. its pretty much my favorite thing ever. i tried to buy it but they want 1800 bucks. i offered him 10, plus one of the girls that was with me. still no dice.
the old city is gummi and candy heaven. i normally grab myself a hefty bag of candy before each sabath... because they don't feed us lunch. every sabath is pretty much a fast sunday. thankfully we eat at 4 instead of 6. the crappy thing is that we don't eat again until the next morning. this definatly sucks because my stomach shrinks so much that i can never eat enough not to be super hungry. i've lost all kinds of weight since being here.
This is the early morning of shavout. judging by my hair i'd say it was about 5 in the morning. many jewish people stay up all night long reading from the torah and praying. we got to the wailing wall as things were winding down. apparently it was way more packed earlier... hard to believe.