Birthday In the Holy Land!!

Well for those that don't know, I just celebrated my 21st birthday here in the Holy Land. I'm so glad that I got the experience of being able to celebrate it while I am here. I was slightly disappointed to be celebrating it because I had classes straight from 8 in the morning until 9 at night so it made it so I wasn't that excited for it. But luckily I have two amazing friends here that love me and made sure that my day was amazing!!! They did so much for me and it truly made my day probably one of the best birthdays I have ever had!! So I'm just going to do a small list of the things that they did for me.
1. Let me sleep in, and didn't wake me up singing Happy Birthday (At my request)
2. Put a giant banner across my door saying Happy Birthday
3. They screamed Happy birthday and attacked me the minute that they saw me in the morning
4. Put balloons and a note on my chair in the first class
5. Made sure that my first class sang me Happy Birthday
6. Took those balloons for the first class and carried them to the next class and gave them to me there again
7. Made sure they sang Happy Birthday to me in class also when I got up to make an announcement
8. Told me Happy Birthday every time they saw me
9. Gave me presents in Islam class when I was not very happy with my teacher (they gave me a ten virgins oil lamp, a David and Goliath sling, and two bags of my favorite old city gummies!!)
10. Made sure I felt special all day long
11. Wrote me great notes to be put on my door later
12. Gave me a good night hug wishing me happy birthday again right before I went to bed.

Basically I love these girls and they are the bestest ever!!! I had a lot of other things from different people all throughout the day but they were the ones that did most things. Some other things that happens was my roommate kelsey waiting in the room until I woke up so that she could be the first to say Happy Birthday to me. Kim telling me Happy Birthday every chance she possibly could. Chelsea and Brinley sending me a note and sweettarts in Islam class wishing me a happy birthday. And then the whole group wrote me birthday notes and they were put on my room door. Basically everything was amazing and my birthday was amazing here in the Holy Land!!! Thanks for the emails and texts from people back home wishing me a Happy birthday, it meant a lot!!

Love
Cherysh

Meggles C.

So I've decided to do posts every once in awhile about the people that I love here so all of you can develop a love for them also. So the first person I would like to focus on is my dear friend Megan. There are a few (ok a lot of reason that I love love love this girly!!) So here are just a few.
1. She is always happy even when she is mad you can't even tell
2. She always lets me know how much I mean to her
3. Always willing to give to people and to help everyone here
4. Always taking pictures for me and for everyone else
5. Willing to deal with me loving to scare her at much as possible
6. She loves the gospel and doesn't go more than a few minutes without mentioning the blessings she has.
7. Wants to get to know everyone
8. Cares for everyone around her!!
9. Will listen to be go on and on and on and on about random things
10. Goes to BYU-Idaho, which makes her the bestest ever since now I can still hang with her.
11. Will make funny faces with me to have entertainment
12. Always takes pictures of me sleeping on the field trips (you better not let Dr. Jackson know about that ;))
13. Teaches me sign language.
14. Makes me get out of my comfort zone and try new things (such as being in a talent show)
15. Encourages me to be a better and stronger person everyday
16. She is basically the happiest, loving, and amazing person I know!!!

Love you Megan and thanks for being such a great friend to me and doing so so much for me while we are here. You have seriously been an answer to my prayers!

Love
Cherysh

Oh what do I love . . . ??

Well I was sitting here thinking today about all the reasons I love dear old Jerusalem. Why did I get twice as homesick for Jerusalem when I was Egypt than when I got home sick for home when I got to Jerusalem? There are just a few wonderful facts that make this place AMAZING!!
#1 The Tuna here is delicious! Don't ask me why but I can't wait for sack lunch day and sandwich day in the cafeteria because that means I GET TUNA!!! I liked tuna at home but this is so good. I think it may be the fact that they cut up all kinds of peppers (such as yellow, green, and red peppers) up in the Tuna and it makes it oh so delicious.
#2 I love the fact that they give me a massive chunk of Cucumber in my lunch everyday. I used to think that cucumber with skin on it was gross but now I LOVE IT!!! (if you couldn't tell I'm eating lunch right now)
#3 Well I guess since I'm on the subject of food. If you know me very well you know I slightly dislike breakfast. In fact it's probably one of my least favorite things about the day. But in the recent past I have discovered something oh so amazing. And that is bran flakes with freshly but up fruit on them. Can you say YUM!! Sadly soon after I discovered this delicious thing they took my bran flakes for me. So I've had to settle for the less delicious but still good cheerios with the fruit. But hey it's made me love breakfast!!
#4 I love the fact that I can not get ready everyday of my life here!! It's fantastic. If you know me well you know I hate getting ready. It's one of the most inconvenient things in this world (it would be number one, but having to pee takes that one). I love getting up in the morning and what do I do. The same thing I did the day before, take my frizzed out hair and put it into a bun at the base of my head. That's what I call a perfect life!!
#5 I love My friends!! Everyone here is great!! but there are a few people that I have a particular love. These include my dear Megan Connely who is currently teaching me sign language and is the happiest person I have ever known. Next would have to be my wonderful roommate Amy. She is always there to talk, my field trip, bus sick companion, and of course she goes to Hebrew University and downloads BONES for us to watch!! Oh and one more thing about her is she always has delicious treats to share!! Next would be my wonderful Schneiby Schneib or a.k.a Jacqueline. She goes through nursing with me, makes me laugh, and of course is always so complimentary of me. She makes me feel like a million bucks every time I'm around her, which is such an amazing quality one I wish I possessed! And last but not least is sweet Kim. We have known each other for almost a year now and I have never gotten to know her before now. I used to think her quite but I was wrong she is hilarious, sweet to all, and such a great and true friend!!
#6 I love the romance. There are so many love romances going on all over the place! It's great. I love watching these people that were went to be find each other and then have to pretend that they don't like each other to try to throw off all of us and the teachers. Sorry guys we are all on to you ;).
#7 I love being Mormon in this city. I feel like a superstar in the city. As we walk down the street everyone is running after us and calling "MORMONS MORMONS!!" K so it's not because we are super stars from a distant land (but hey let me dream) it's just because they know we have money. But hey it's still great to pretend.
#8 I love the people. We were talking yesterday in class about the prejudices and outlooks that we had on this country and it's people before we came here and man all of us we so so so wrong about these people and how they live. They are just like us, they just cover up quite a bit more allowing men to not have to cover their eyes everywhere they turn. Oh and one more thing these people seem to be a lot kinder here than in the states. They are really sweet and always willing to help you even if you can't communicate that well. They are all just genuinely nice and wonderful people.
#9 I love that my family misses me!! It makes me feel so special when I don't call my mom for three days and the next time I call her she freaks out because she hasn't heard from me for three days. (sorry mom but it's going to be a lot worse when it's for a year and a half, but I'm sure you will survive). I've never felt so loved from my family as I get weekly if not every other day emails from at least one of them (ok so it's mostly Dustin and Kathy and mom every once in awhile) but it's still great to feel the love. (Oh and everyone else if you want to get on that list of people that love me, you should email me and let me know whats up with you and I'll add you;) ).
#10 I love the gospel. Over here I have the unique opportunity to literally walk through the scriptures. As I'm reading about David and Goliath as I'm slinging a rock from the stream that David got his rocks across the field that David flung his rocks I realize how amazing this gospel is and how true it is. Yeah we are studying the Old Testament now but if people would actually really read it, you would realize how much the Old Testament and Book of Mormon is alike. It actually quite amazes me. And also as most of you don't know I started my mission papers 5 days ago and so I'm reading and studying out of preach my Gospel everyday and learning more about the Savior and about this gospel. It's definitely the number 1 thing that I love in my life. I would hope that I would be like Abraham and be able to give up the thing most dear to me (which is you mom) just because the Lord asked me.
So just to some up this whole blog I LOVE LIFE!!!! It's amazing everyone should live one!! Farewell for now and hopefully I'll be better with blogging (maybe I should have more midterm weeks because I'm just trying to find something to do so I have an excuse not to study)!

I Fail!!!!

So basically I fail at blogging so if you really want to know what is going on you are going to have to email me to find out what is going on. I might get on here more but not really because I can't upload pictures so what is the point. So every once in awhile I go to a place where i can get better internet and then I upload a ton of pictures. my email is cheryshhubbard@gmail.com and I'll add you to the list. Thanks!!

I'm HERE!!!

So I'm finally here, it's actually day two. I didn't think jet lag would be that bad and that I would get over it pretty fast but this is false. I have never been so tired in my life. I can't seem to keep my eyes open but I have to if I want to get over this. I can't let myself fall asleep before tonight. Can I just say it's amazing to be in such a religious city! It's great to be somewhere where everyone believes in a God and has a strong faith and follows it and loves, lives, and enjoys having it in their lives. In this country of turmoil and conflict they all have one thing in common and that they all believe in God. In the BYU Jerusalem center we have a very good mixture of muslims, Jews, Christians, and LDS. I thought that of course everyone here would be LDS just like it is at all the other BYU's but its not that way at all the one LDS people are our religion professors and the service couple here. Everyone else is from Israel and is part of different religions. It's great to see and watch and Palestinians and Israelites can work together to make this wonderful program for us students. It's already amazing and I haven't really seen anything yet. I just love the fact that I woke up this morning to the "Call to Prayer" and walked out onto my patio and watched the sun rise over the Dome of the Rock. I didn't even care that it was 4 in the morning because it was totally worth it. I'll post pictures later when I can get to internet cafe. Anyways I love it here, I love the country, the people, the students, and the staff here. Everything is just perfect and it's going to be the most amazing and life experience! If you would like to be added to my email list to receive more detailed information, just make a comment and let me know and I'll be sure to email you!

4 WEEKS!!!

Well Jerusalem is approaching, but NOT fast enough!!! I leave exactly 4 weeks from today and I have a feeling it's going to be the longest 4 weeks of my life. I thought I would be spending the entire time shopping but to my surprise me and my mom got it mostly done in a matter of a couple of hours. So now all I have to do is finish my nursing class that I have to take before I go and try to wait patiently, even though I have a feeling I'm going to get very impatient. But anyways I thought everyone might want an update so here it is, me impatiently waiting for August 31 to get here!!!

The story of how it all began . . . .

So since this is a blog all of my trip to Jerusalem I figured I would share the story about me deciding to go to Jerusalem. So I have taken a few religion classes from an amazing professor, Brother Baron. He used to be a Jew and has visited Jerusalem quite a few times. I was discussing Jerusalem with him last Fall semester and he said "If your single and can afford it, you HAVE to go". I immediately ran up to the religion department and got a brochure and called my parents. They agreed that if I didn't get into the nursing program they would pay for me to go. Well a few weeks later I got my acceptance letter into the nursing program and begged my parents to still allow me to go but they wouldn't budge. They would not let me defer a semester of nursing and go. So I figured my dream of going to Jerusalem was gone. As soon as I had accepted that I wouldn't be going to Jerusalem, I got a letter from the nursing program saying that they were going to take a group of us that wanted to go to Jerusalem. I was so excited and immediately got permission from my parents to be able to go. I started to plan my life around this trip and was 100% positive that I was going. To my surprise there ended up being 14 people from the nursing program applying to go and they could only allow 10. I began to panic and was super nervous that I wouldn't be able to go. They told us that they would take more associate students (which is what I am) than bachelor students. At the last meeting they told us that that was changed that they actually like to take more bachelor students over associate students. I waited a month to hear which students were picked to go and out of 9 associate students that applied only 4 made it in. Luckily one of those students was me!! I now have everything done and I'm just waiting to leave on August 30th. I'll try to keep everyone updated and let you know about all the different experiences I have!