The Red Sea!

 

 Pictures will be coming by the end of the week! Except this one just made me too happy. This is from the Famous Tessas blog HERE.

Have you ever seen a beautiful ocean? I think this one blew all the others I've seen out of the water. I have NEVER been able to see 50 feet below me perfectly clear before! This water was gorgeous but WAY saltier than I have ever experienced in any ocean. I can't wait to see what the Dead Sea is like! It was kind of a nice sizzle when the waves splash your face. =)

So this was an "out of the center field trip" Not planned by our teachers and we definitely had some hiccups. Eilat is supposed to be in the top 3 snorkeling places in the world, so I was SUPER excited for it. I forgot what a different world is in the sea. We got to the place and no one told Brandt (who is in charge of these trips) that we needed our National Parks cards to get into the really cool places, so we went to the beach right next door that was free. It was fun, they played music and we even had a cool floaty thing to play on in the middle of the ocean. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting, but we didn't know what we were missing so we had fun!

There was a really random black floaty thing a ways away Josh told me there was a metal chair at the bottom of the pool. I headed over to get some sweet underwater pictures and he swam to the very bottom! It surprised me so much in the video I took of him i'm screaming underwater because I was so excited. Then Cherysh went down and I was thoroughly amazed. I seriously love snorkeling because it's such a different world under the water! I kept humming "Under the sea" while enjoying the scenery. I saw some super pretty fish, and tons of people kept getting stung/cut on something in the water/ coral. I was a bit disappointed I didn't get any battle wounds from the Red Sea though. I'm so grateful for my underwater camera. Everyone kept taking pictures, so I got a lot more than I would have originally had.

I pretty much stayed in the water for the whole 4 hours, and when we were out eating lunch I was watching the love connections forming. Oh, I love love. It's kind of ridiculous. A lot of the girls here do too, so it's pretty convenient we can talk about the ones going on around here. Lots of love triangles and twisted-ness, but I think that there are about 4 positive potential marriages after this. Most of all, I love to watch the boy watch the girl. Usually I see things from the girls point of view, but when i'm entirely not involved I can watch from both parties and see the real admiration from the boys to the girls. Some girls are so blind, but then again so are boys. (i'm actually sitting in a room with a darling couple =) They're studying Old testament together. I can't wait to do that one day! Then make it a lifetime habit with him!) Okay, done with the gush of infatuation.

After the beach we had about 2 hours to wander around in the town of Eilat. We went to a shopping mall and it was WAY too American for us. (funny huh?) It'll be weird to go back to a normal mall where no one is pestering us to buy their things and we can't barter! That'll be sad when things really are as expensive as they say on the price tag. We really wanted some candy and got super ripped off. We should have expected it though, old city candy is a way better deal than a high end candy store that no flies and no people can touch. We went to a store similar to bath and body works, hung out on the balcony overlooking the ocean that everyone smoked on, couldn't handle the smoke, went inside and wandered for a bit longer until heading outside.

Cherysh, Amy and I had seen some fish figures a couple blocks away when we were driving in, so we decided to take fun pictures with these massive fish. They were so creative and right next to 2 different museums and a beautiful park. We were all kinda pooped and just sat down to chat about elementary stories, got bored and headed back to the beach to soak our feet until it was time to head back to the bus.

The four hour bus ride was SO amazing. I love making friends into better friends. I sat by cute Kylie and heard all about her love for graphic design. Seriously, this girl is SO passionate about it. She also was telling me how Heavenly Father has orchestrated her life at the perfect time to come here and write music! Amongst other things, this girl taught me so much. I can't wait to find that one thing that I absolutely adore, for right now I like most things, but can't feel passionate about one particular...  I'll figure it out sooner than later.

Our bus driver was seriously a crazy driver. I don't think he was ok. He and I had become friends on the ride to Eilat because I was car sick and sat next to him for about an hour just talking about how life is here. I learned a lot, and I love the love that is growing in me for these wonderful people. I know it'll be so hard to leave. (Less than 2 months now. Deep breath.) Anyways, Sister Judd was super nervous and had me go talk to him to see if he was ok. He immediately asked me for some water and I tried to chat with him, but it was too scary being up there. I didn't want to distract him anymore so I got to visit with other random people on the bus. I loved it. Kim told me her story of she and Jared. It sounded like a fairytale. This boy would come over to her house every day, even when she wasn't and he would be making dinner with her mom, or helping Kims siblings with homework, or just waiting to see her. He'll get home before Thanksgiving and I'm so so excited she gets to talk to him before she gets to see him!  He'll also be at BYUI so I'll get to meet all these wonderful people I hear about!

I was thinking about it. We traveled four hours there, and four hours back. That's like traveling from Idaho to Utah and back! I now know I can do it. Probably will soon. I'm SO grateful for a car. We came home, showered, and climbed into a much wanted bed. It was magical. We had a crazy field trip to Yad Vashem today. It's the Holocaust museum in the farthest west point of Jerusalem. Hard/frustrating day to see so much pain and suffering. I have lots of history to post tomorrow! For now, I need sleep. Goodnight everyone. I'm sending love from Israel.