A is for America

That's right. I'm back in America. Home of the free, land of the brave. It's good to be back where everyone speaks English, or at least tries to! I'm excited to be home, but sad my adventures have come to an end. Not to mention I will not longer see my dear friend Heidi who I have spent pretty much every waking morning with since April 30th till July 5th. I realized when I got back how bad I was at keeping in touch via email and updating the blog, as well as journaling. So, I'm either going to be making changes on the blog, or making a scrapbook, which everyone will be welcome to see! If anyone wants a preview of what I did, you can look at Rachel's blog. We weren't there at the same time, but she is there now and keeps it very updated and I have done pretty much all the same things!

Anyways, it is great to be home. I was separated from my Europe partners, Heidi and Spencer in Washington D.C. when they stopped there and I was going on to OKC, and I realized during my 4 1/2 hour layover, that it was the first time I have been by myself doing my own thing since before I left for Jerusalem. What did I do to past the time? Well, the first hour was spent getting through customs and dealing with a crying baby. At this point I wanted to slap a little kid in the face and be like SHUT UP ALREADY! I know, this doesn't sound very kind, but this is after I was on a flight for nine hours when half the time some people in the front, I never even saw them, let their baby scream and scream and scream. There was a point where they let it scream for about an hour or two straight. No exaggeration, ask Heidi and Spence. No one picked it up, or tried to help it or anything. I think they were French.

Anyways, after customs I proceeded to the terminal where my flight was. I left my cellular in Provo, so I called my mother from a pay phone. I used a phone card for the first time in my life. The phone card was a gift given to me by my neighbors for my high school graduation. Being a college grad, I decided to cheat the system by calling her and giving her the pay phone number to call me back. So she did, and I felt like a drug dealer answering a ringing pay phone. We then talked for over 90 minutes. The other two hours were spent wandering the halls wondering what I should do with myself. I think I walked the terminal 15 times. Finally, I was able to get on the plane, I pulled my pillow and blanky out of my bag, got my sudoku and ipod and patiently waited on the 3 hour flight back home.

While on the phone with my mother, I told her if anyone loved me they would be at the airport, with signs, when I got home. This was my welcome crew.

Yes that sign says, welcome home Lauren when are you going to get a job? And yes, that is toilet paper AD is holding. She always has had potty humor.

Yes I look nasty, but keep in mind that I just backpacked Europe for the past 17 days and I had been traveling for around 22 hours (that includes traveling to airports, waiting time, and flights).

I'm home safely and just chillin in OKC. My four little boys are coming today so our house will be a party for the next two weeks! If anyone wants to visit me, arrangements can be made. :)

Love Lauren

U is for Update

Sorry guys, long time no update.

I love Jerusalem! It's been amazing here! I've been able to do so much. Here is a brief update of what has been going on. We went to Galilee for ten days and it was absolutely wonderful! We went all over the place in the Galilee and swam in the sea of Galilee. Brief places that I remember going are Caesarea, Mt. Tabor, Nimrod's Castle, seeing a 2000 year old boat, Mount of Beatitudes, and the Galilee Branch of church. We have been to soo many places, those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head.

The other day we had a really exciting field trip, we went to Masada, walked around there and saw one of Herod's castles. It was pretty cool. We then went and floated in the Dead Sea and found mud and put it all over ourselves, not going to lie, it wasn't that fun and with open cuts the it breached being painful, but it was all worth it for the crazy pictures we took. We then went to Ein Gedi, the spot where David hid from Saul. There were amazing waterfalls there -- so pretty! After that we went to Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. It was then we found out how much of a baller our professor is--he is a master of Israeli things and Hebrew and helped to translate one of the scrolls. Amazing. Anyways.

Here are pics. Enjoy!

Love Lauren

heidi, me, and allie at masada

floating in the Dead Sea

ethiopian women, we let our hair down, literally

ashley, me, dr. seeley, and heidi and qumran

random pic, me and allie overlooking the dome of the rock, mount scopus and the mount of olives, if you look to the top left, the "mormon university" is cascading down the top

and no worries folks, they have diet coke in israel, boo yah

E is for Egypt

I just got home from Egypt late last night. Man that was an intense trip. I'm having a lot of fun here at the Jerusalem Center, but the work load is really, really, really intense. We got back last night around 11 and breakfast was at 6:30 this morning followed by 5 hours of class, and 2 assignments due at 9am, not to mention every class had reading due. Straight. Needless to say, it is now almost ten and I just finished my paper and I'm about to attend my first class of the day. I do have a good excuse, I was sick on the miserable bus ride home from Egpyt. I can barely talk right now and I'm betting I can vomit on command.

Well folks, better update to follow when time permits. I'm having trouble attaching pictures or they would be ALLL over the place. I have some great photos. Peace.

Love Lauren

J is for Jerusalem

Long time no update. Jerusalem has been a TON of fun! Pretty soon I'll just put up a link to pictures because I have a LOT and the internet here is horrible and won't let me upload anything. Anyways, I'm having a great time, I'm leaving for Egypt in the morning for a week, but I will update when I get back!

me in a cave
israel independence day in tel aviv
ice cream in tel aviv

N is for New York

Last Wednesday, I decided school would be over for me (even though it didn't officially end till this week). I needed to get out of Provo, so I convinced my mother to fly me out to New York to go to my dear friends beautiful wedding, make contacts and do interviews. I then emailed my teacher, Professor Kelly, asking him how mandatory the only mandatory class all year was. If you are a Comms major at BYU I highly suggest taking every class from him, he's great. Also Dr. Mouritson, but he's retiring. Here's a sample of what I did.

Thursday -- I travelled half the day, then went to my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Gary's apartment in Manhattan where I met up with them and my cousin Kelli, her daughter DeLaney, and two of their friends. DeLaney badly wanted to go on a carriage ride, so we walked to the carriages at Central Park and had a pleasant ride through the park. It is always interesting to see how people use Central Park as their back yard. It's as if they have no shame. For example, here is a man waving flags in the park last year. What the heck?

After the carriage ride I headed directly to Madison Ave to meet up with Ashley Burnett. We then went down to the Shake Shack to meet her friends for dinner, and were exasted when we got home, but stayed up to watch American Idol. Ashley fell in love with the Daughtry video, and we may have watched that 100 times this weekend. Love you Ash :)

Friday -- All my friends had to work, so in the morning I ran from Ashley's apartment to the park and down to my Aunts. Below is how far I ran, but it was in the park, not a straight line as shown.

I showered when I got to my Aunt's, then went shopping and to lunch with Kelli and DeLaney. Then we all took wonderful naps. DeLaney slept on the bed, but ended up sleeping on the couch with me, so everyone was on the couches and no one slept on the bed. After that we went to my favorite place for dinner, Patsey's (on 74th and Columbus -- check it out if you live in/visit NYC). They went to see The Little Mermaid and I went to spend time with Ashley.

Saturday -- A WONDERFUL day! Amanda Johnson married Matthew Dalton in the Manhattan Temple in the morning and had a beautiful reception at Battery Park Gardens in the afternoon. It was a great time with good friends. Sad story from the day--I had two really cute pairs of earrings that really helped to pull my outfit together, and I put one in each ear to ask Ashley which one I should wear. It wasn't till I was on the subway half way to Battery Park that I realized I still had one in each ear. I then debated which was more embarrassing, going to a wedding with clearly mismatching earrings or going naked (without earrings). After much deliberation, I went naked.

This is me with Amanda. see-no earrings :(

Amanda had beautiful fake crystal decor at all the tables. Unfortunately, later we found out these had lead in them! But, good news, we are all still alive and kickin it! Below are examples of some of the fun easily entertained girls had at the wedding:

Crystals. Everywhere.

Fun at the air vent.

Sarah's Great.

The Drunk The Stoner

The Beautiful Bride Amanda

Bottoms Up The Delicious Cake

After the wedding, I met up with Bridget (who just got back last week from playing professional volleyball in Spain) and we went to Whole Foods and chilled in Central Park. The pic below was taken at One Central Park West, but sorry the pic is bad and you can't see the amazing view of the Park and the East Side. I miss my Bee! What happened to Florida for grad school 08?

Bee left the city around 8 and I spent the rest of the night with my old roomie Natalie. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pics.

Sunday -- Ashley and I went to church and then to Cathy and Gary's to break in the dining room table. We made delicious salmon, red potatoes with rosemary, and green beans. It was so good, I'm thinking about making it again this week. That night, I just hung out with Ash and Kimmy, and then their friend came over and we had pazookie. And man, I'm dang good at making pazookie.

Monday -- I job shadowed my friend Jane at Mindshare for a couple hours to see a media planner in action. Then I met my friend Kenton for lunch at Union Square, where I went shopping for a little bit. Then I met Ashley to go see Rent. It was amazing. I love the soundtrack! I'm actually even listening to it right now... The only thing that sucked was my allergies started to get bad and my eyes were itching? and we tried to take a picture and I looked nasty, then we took another one but my eyes were closed, and then we took the one below but I look goofy. So I gave up. Some days are just bad picture days. Aren't Ashley's eyes such a beautiful peircing blue? I'm jealous.

Ashley and I at Rent in New York

Tuesday -- Hung out with Cathy, lunch with Ashley, went home.

Well, that was a little sum up of my trip to New York. I'm so excited -- I leave for Jerusalem in ten days!!!

H is for Homely

Last week, my mother told me that homely people need to get married too.

Thanks Mom.


Below is the definition of homely provided by urbandictionary.com


Homely:
(Adj.)

Not attractive or good-looking: a homely child.
Lacking elegance or refinement: homely furniture.
Of a simple or unpretentious nature; plain: homely truths.
Characteristic of the home or of home life: homely skills.

Examples:
That is one homely child.
Your trailer is homely!
You are kinda homely aren't you?
You are one homely dresser!

elle is for lemons

If life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

As you can imagine, this week life dealt me lemons. Literally. My roommate went to CA and brought back lemons from a lemon tree in her yard.

So what do you do when you get lemons? That's right, make lemonade.

16 lemons + 2 girls + homemade simple syrup = delicious lemonade

Whit found the recipe online recipe and mixed the "simple syrup" to perfection.

I squeezed the lemons. Not as easy as it looks.

Proof it's from Whit's yard--it still has its umbilical cord attached!

After hard work, twenty minutes and starting from scratch, we finally achieved our glorious lemonade. Boy were we happy! It's delicious, if you live in the Provo area, you should come get a glass of our hand squeezed ice cold lemonade. Maybe we'll set up a booth or something.

This is Whit and I excited about our lemonade!

Prior to making the lemonade (which happened around midnight), Whit and I decided to work out. We decided to do Boot Camp--a DVD Whit bought at the grocery store last week. And man that was a work out. We were both glistening by the end of the workout and simultaneously decided that we would probably be sore tomorrow.

Not going to lie, this is not the original picture we took. The original consists of us holding this with frightened faces...

Love Lauren