So, I know that I'm really behind on blogging my experiences. The main reason is, that I just don't have time. Between classes, 5 page papers on Sennacherib and Hezekiah, and trying to get everything in that I can before I leave in less than two weeks, blogging has definatly taken a back seat. I promise, however, that I will get caught up...eventually. I might not be before I get back to the States, but it will happen.
So, this blog is about all the awesomeness that happened inbetween Jordan and Galilee. And counting down to the awesomness that was our week in Galilee, because really, what could be more awesome than Galilee?
To start with, Bethlehem. Bethlehem is probably one of my favorite places that I've been to this trip. It's in the West Bank, and the center is very serious about people in the JC, including the faculty, about going. They actually have a seperate branch of the church there. It's kind of lame, the members in Ramallah have to drive three hours to go around Jerusalem to get to the branch in Bethlehem, instead of the 40 minutes or so it would take to get to the Jerusalem branch because of the seperation wall.
Anyway, that day our first stop was the Herodion, one of Herod the Great's palaces, and the place where he was buried. It's really cool, they built a fortress, then covered the sides with dirt to make it look like a volcano, but to provide a good defense. From the top of the Herodion, you could see signal fires from Machaerus (I should have talked about this site in my Jordan post) and also Jerusalem, so it was an important place. They actually discovered Herod's tomb there not too long ago. Like everything else cool, they put it in the Israel Museum.
Side story about the Israel Museum. Basically, anything cool archaeologically speaking found in the last century in this area, since the fall of the Ottoman empire, makes it's way to the Israel museum. Dead sea scrolls, the horned alter from Beersheva, the inscription talking about Pontius Pilate from Ceasaerea, it's all to be found in the Israel Museum. Anything found before the fall of the Ottoman empire is in the Istanbol Archaeological Museum. The Israel Museum is definatly one of my favorite places in Jerusalem, just because it has so much cool stuff! It's basically like the Smithsonians in Washington D.C., but all the museums are in one building. Like they have a huge archaeology section, and then a world archaeology section, an art section, and a section just on Jewish culture. And those were just the exhibits that I was able to see in the two free days that I spent there! To anyone who ever comes here, the Israel Museum is a must see. And plan on plenty of time for it!
From the Herodion, we travelled to Bethlehem. Our first stop was the Church of the Nativity. Apparantly, the church of the Nativity is the oldest church that has been continually a church. Fun fact, about 600 A.D. or so the Persians came through and conquered the Holy Land, and were destroying all the Christian churches that they could. When they came to the Church of the Nativity, however, they didn't destroy it. There were mosaics on the wall depicting the three wise men as Persians, and so the Persians venerated the church as a holy place.
Another fun fact. There is a similar status quo in the Church of the Nativity as there is in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. My teacher showed us a video on youtube of a fight between priests in the church where they started attacking each other with brooms.
We went through the chruch, and through the grotto, and saw the places where the Savior was born, and where he was laid in a manger.
After the Church of the Nativity, we went next door to the Church of St. Catherine, and went to Jerome's grotto. That was the place where the Latin Vulgate version of the bible was written by St. Jerome. We weren't allowed to sing in the Church of the Nativity, but we sang just about every Christmas song in the hymn book in St. Catherine's.
We came out, and had some time to walk around Manger Square. There is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who lives in Bethlehem who makes and sells baby blankets. It wasn't on my list of things to buy, and I never intended to buy one...but then I was there...and they were cute...and it's a Bethlehem baby blanket...so my first baby is going to have a baby blanket from Bethlehem.
After some free time in Manger Square, we visited two different churches commemorating the Shepherd's field, and then we went to a legit shepherd's field, with sheep poop and everything. We sang some hymns, and some people prepared musical numbers for the event. We were given free time after that, just to sit and think and write in our journals and read some scriptures.
And that concludes the Bethlehem experience. The only other really cool thing that happened before going ot Galilee was doing the Via Dolorosa. There are a group of Franciscan priests who lead a group every Friday at 4 to go through all the stations, stopping at each station to talk about it. It was really cool, to actually follow the Via Dolorosa.
Coming up next, Galilee!
Friday, August 2, 2013
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
After a very, very stressful week of finals, everyone was more than ready to get away for another out of the center trip, this time to Jordan. I never realized how close it really is, until we drove about half and hour and were at the border. Border crossings are so stressful. I'm always afraid something is going to go wrong, or I'm going to answer a question wrong, and they're going to detain and deport me, or I'll end up in Israeli prison. Luckily though, we all got through safely. There are two guys in our group, one is from El Salvador and the other is from Mexico, they had to drive up to Galilee to go through a different checkpoint. Apparently, El Salvador doesn't really have any relations with Jordan, and they might not have accepted his passport as a result, so the JC administration sent him and the guy from Mexico up to the less strict checkpoint just to be safe. Luckily, they got through without any problems.
Our first day we went to Mount Nebo, Madaba, and Machaerus. Mt. Nebo is where Moses died. Madaba is famous for having a church there with a mosaic map that contained detailed pictures of quite a few cities, and was actually able to lead to several really cool archaeological ruins, such as the Cardo in Jerusalem. The map shows a cardo running from Damascus to Zion's gate in Jerusalem, so some archaeologists just started digging in the area where it would have been and they found it. Pretty cool, right? Machaerus was the site where John the Baptist was executed. During the first Jewish Revolt, it was one of three fortresses that held out after the destruction of Jerusalem. You can still see the partially built Roman siege ramp, and the remains of Roman camps and a siege wall.
All those things were really epic, but the most exciting part of the day was what happened next. After leaving Machaerus, we started on the long drive to Petra. We were only about half an hour or so into our three and a half hour journey when the bus started having trouble making it up the hill. We finally got to the point where the bus started rolling backwards, and so we pulled over to the side of the road. The other bus continued on to Petra while we stayed behind and entertained ourselves while waiting for a new bus to come. We had a grand time, walking along the King's Highway, reenacting the Lion King, and playing after the manner of the adverb. After an hour and a half or so, the new bus came and we were on our way.
As we continued on our journey, our New Testament professor, Brother Judd, said a prayer that we would all be safe (not that the new bus would be ok). He then proceeded to play us the song Horse With No Name, being stuck in the desert in Jordan. A few minutes after the song finished, no more than twenty minutes on the road, the unthinkable happened. Bus number two broke down.
This time, we were stranded in a Beduin community, still in the desert of Jordan. We got off the bus, walked around some, and made our way over to a fence around the archaeological remains of an old caravansarai. We hung out, talking, taking funny pictures, and our tourguide made a fire for us, as it was getting dark and it's cold at night in the desert. As we were sitting around the fire, a couple of guys came up to our tourguide and started talking to him. After a few minutes, we were told the good news. The guys were from the archaeological park with the caravansarai ruins, and they were going to let up walk around the ruins and use their bathrooms while we waited for the bus!
These ruins were one of my favorite things that we got to see. Remember the map I mentioned earlier? The remains of the map aren't very big, and huge chunks are missing. However, at the ruins we visited there were the remains of two rooms in the same church that had the entire mosaic floor intact. After seeing so many mosaic floors in pieces, it was so cool to see one perfectly intact!
About an hour of exploring the ruins, and using the bathroom, our next bus came. We were promised that this bus was the best and newest bus in their fleet. And it was nice. The best part though, was that we were finally on our way!
We got into our hotel in Petra a little after 11 pm. Our tour guide had worked things out so we had dinner when we got there, so no one went to bed hungry, though we all went to bed pretty quickly.
The next morning we walked from our hotel to Petra, which took about ten minutes. Petra was amazing. I would highly reccomend it to anyone interested in travel to the Middle East. The caves are just so cool! I was able to take a quick camel ride for a photo op outside the treasury, which was the tomb featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. By far my favorite part, however, was hiking up the mountain to see the monastary. If you think the treasury was big and ornate, it is nothing compared to the monastary. It is at least twice as huge, and located at the top of the mountain.
A funny thing about Petra, if you take out the ancient tombs carved into the rock, it looks like southern Utah. Just like southern Utah. It's kinda funny, I travelled halfway around the world, and I end up in a place that looks like it could be a few hours south of where I go to school.
Another funny thing about Petra...I got heat exhaustion. Not too bad, but as we were walking back to the buses I was having a really hard time, and Brother Judd went over the symptoms, and I realized that I was in trouble. Luckily, I wasn't too bad, and after an hour I was fine again.
Which is where the unthinkable happens. Yes, you guessed it. The bus broke down again. We were about an hour out from Petra, and were able to make it to a tour bus stop. There, the tour company paid for everyone to get snacks and ice cream. It was pretty great.
That night, I was still not feeling 100%, so I went to bed early. That next morning, we woke up to bus #5. Thankfully, this was our last new bus of the trip.
Our first stop was the Amman citadel, location of the place where Uriah the Hittite lost his life in battle. It was cool, being there. There was also a Muslim palace complex, and an earlier temple to Hercules. Our next stop was the Jabbock River, where Jacob fought with an angel for a blessing.
And then we went to Jerash, which was the coolest place ever. It's the most well preserved Roman city outside of Italy. And it's amazing. A nympaeum, two theaters, a temple to Artemis, a beautiful cardo, a hippodrome, and a gate built by Hadrian, it was amazing! It really felt like I was walking through a legit Roman city, there was so much there preserved. One of my favorite things about Jordan is that they still use the theaters. As in, they've outfitted them with lights, and use them for shows and concerts. You could go watch a concert in a legit Roman theater.
Our last stop of the day was at the Royal Automobile Museum. For me, it was just a bunch of old cars. For the guys though, it was heaven, filled with limited editions and old classics. One car that I thought was pretty cool was one that was built to be both a car and a boat. I was also a fan of the Tron motorcycle.
That evening after dinner, I went out and took a stroll in search of ice cream down Rainbow Street. Yes, that really is it's name, and I have no idea why it was named that. However, they had a lot of ice cream places, so that's the place that we all went. I got Kinder ice cream, and it is the best ice cream that I have ever had. It was amazing.
Along Rainbow street is Iraqi embassy, which is cool because the front of it is painted to look like the Gates of Babylon (as a side note, I saw part of the pictures depicted on the Gates of Babylon in the Istanbol Archaeological Museum). They were quite impressive. I guess that it's not a good idea to take pictures of embassy's, so we would try to take pictures on the sly of the gates.
The next morning we went on a quick jaunt through the archaeological remains of downtown Amman, then drove near the border, where we had a lunch of KFC. It wasn't the best fried chicken in the world, but it was amazing to up poor depraved Americans.
Our last stop before heading back to Israel was Bethany Beyond Jordan, one of the supposed baptismal site of Jesus. It was quite a lovely place, but it was crazy hot and humid. I have never been somewhere as hot and muggy as that was. It was nice to take off our shoes and put our feet in the water. Both the Israeli's and the Jordanians are extremely careful as to who goes to the river crossing there, as it is an international border, so there were people keeping an eye on the tourists from both sides of the river.
From there, it was back to the Jerusalem Center! Because it was the 4th of July, we planned somewhat of a party. Lot's of people dressed up as famous Americans, and we sang some songs and played some tunes. The kitchen staff got in on the fun, and made us hamburgers and hot dogs, fried chicken, corn on the cob, and french fries, with apple pie and ice cream for dessert. It was magnificent.
And that, my friends, is a much delayed post on my adventures in Jordan. Stay tuned next time for Galille awesomeness!
Our first day we went to Mount Nebo, Madaba, and Machaerus. Mt. Nebo is where Moses died. Madaba is famous for having a church there with a mosaic map that contained detailed pictures of quite a few cities, and was actually able to lead to several really cool archaeological ruins, such as the Cardo in Jerusalem. The map shows a cardo running from Damascus to Zion's gate in Jerusalem, so some archaeologists just started digging in the area where it would have been and they found it. Pretty cool, right? Machaerus was the site where John the Baptist was executed. During the first Jewish Revolt, it was one of three fortresses that held out after the destruction of Jerusalem. You can still see the partially built Roman siege ramp, and the remains of Roman camps and a siege wall.
All those things were really epic, but the most exciting part of the day was what happened next. After leaving Machaerus, we started on the long drive to Petra. We were only about half an hour or so into our three and a half hour journey when the bus started having trouble making it up the hill. We finally got to the point where the bus started rolling backwards, and so we pulled over to the side of the road. The other bus continued on to Petra while we stayed behind and entertained ourselves while waiting for a new bus to come. We had a grand time, walking along the King's Highway, reenacting the Lion King, and playing after the manner of the adverb. After an hour and a half or so, the new bus came and we were on our way.
As we continued on our journey, our New Testament professor, Brother Judd, said a prayer that we would all be safe (not that the new bus would be ok). He then proceeded to play us the song Horse With No Name, being stuck in the desert in Jordan. A few minutes after the song finished, no more than twenty minutes on the road, the unthinkable happened. Bus number two broke down.
This time, we were stranded in a Beduin community, still in the desert of Jordan. We got off the bus, walked around some, and made our way over to a fence around the archaeological remains of an old caravansarai. We hung out, talking, taking funny pictures, and our tourguide made a fire for us, as it was getting dark and it's cold at night in the desert. As we were sitting around the fire, a couple of guys came up to our tourguide and started talking to him. After a few minutes, we were told the good news. The guys were from the archaeological park with the caravansarai ruins, and they were going to let up walk around the ruins and use their bathrooms while we waited for the bus!
These ruins were one of my favorite things that we got to see. Remember the map I mentioned earlier? The remains of the map aren't very big, and huge chunks are missing. However, at the ruins we visited there were the remains of two rooms in the same church that had the entire mosaic floor intact. After seeing so many mosaic floors in pieces, it was so cool to see one perfectly intact!
About an hour of exploring the ruins, and using the bathroom, our next bus came. We were promised that this bus was the best and newest bus in their fleet. And it was nice. The best part though, was that we were finally on our way!
We got into our hotel in Petra a little after 11 pm. Our tour guide had worked things out so we had dinner when we got there, so no one went to bed hungry, though we all went to bed pretty quickly.
The next morning we walked from our hotel to Petra, which took about ten minutes. Petra was amazing. I would highly reccomend it to anyone interested in travel to the Middle East. The caves are just so cool! I was able to take a quick camel ride for a photo op outside the treasury, which was the tomb featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. By far my favorite part, however, was hiking up the mountain to see the monastary. If you think the treasury was big and ornate, it is nothing compared to the monastary. It is at least twice as huge, and located at the top of the mountain.
A funny thing about Petra, if you take out the ancient tombs carved into the rock, it looks like southern Utah. Just like southern Utah. It's kinda funny, I travelled halfway around the world, and I end up in a place that looks like it could be a few hours south of where I go to school.
Another funny thing about Petra...I got heat exhaustion. Not too bad, but as we were walking back to the buses I was having a really hard time, and Brother Judd went over the symptoms, and I realized that I was in trouble. Luckily, I wasn't too bad, and after an hour I was fine again.
Which is where the unthinkable happens. Yes, you guessed it. The bus broke down again. We were about an hour out from Petra, and were able to make it to a tour bus stop. There, the tour company paid for everyone to get snacks and ice cream. It was pretty great.
That night, I was still not feeling 100%, so I went to bed early. That next morning, we woke up to bus #5. Thankfully, this was our last new bus of the trip.
Our first stop was the Amman citadel, location of the place where Uriah the Hittite lost his life in battle. It was cool, being there. There was also a Muslim palace complex, and an earlier temple to Hercules. Our next stop was the Jabbock River, where Jacob fought with an angel for a blessing.
And then we went to Jerash, which was the coolest place ever. It's the most well preserved Roman city outside of Italy. And it's amazing. A nympaeum, two theaters, a temple to Artemis, a beautiful cardo, a hippodrome, and a gate built by Hadrian, it was amazing! It really felt like I was walking through a legit Roman city, there was so much there preserved. One of my favorite things about Jordan is that they still use the theaters. As in, they've outfitted them with lights, and use them for shows and concerts. You could go watch a concert in a legit Roman theater.
Our last stop of the day was at the Royal Automobile Museum. For me, it was just a bunch of old cars. For the guys though, it was heaven, filled with limited editions and old classics. One car that I thought was pretty cool was one that was built to be both a car and a boat. I was also a fan of the Tron motorcycle.
That evening after dinner, I went out and took a stroll in search of ice cream down Rainbow Street. Yes, that really is it's name, and I have no idea why it was named that. However, they had a lot of ice cream places, so that's the place that we all went. I got Kinder ice cream, and it is the best ice cream that I have ever had. It was amazing.
Along Rainbow street is Iraqi embassy, which is cool because the front of it is painted to look like the Gates of Babylon (as a side note, I saw part of the pictures depicted on the Gates of Babylon in the Istanbol Archaeological Museum). They were quite impressive. I guess that it's not a good idea to take pictures of embassy's, so we would try to take pictures on the sly of the gates.
The next morning we went on a quick jaunt through the archaeological remains of downtown Amman, then drove near the border, where we had a lunch of KFC. It wasn't the best fried chicken in the world, but it was amazing to up poor depraved Americans.
Our last stop before heading back to Israel was Bethany Beyond Jordan, one of the supposed baptismal site of Jesus. It was quite a lovely place, but it was crazy hot and humid. I have never been somewhere as hot and muggy as that was. It was nice to take off our shoes and put our feet in the water. Both the Israeli's and the Jordanians are extremely careful as to who goes to the river crossing there, as it is an international border, so there were people keeping an eye on the tourists from both sides of the river.
From there, it was back to the Jerusalem Center! Because it was the 4th of July, we planned somewhat of a party. Lot's of people dressed up as famous Americans, and we sang some songs and played some tunes. The kitchen staff got in on the fun, and made us hamburgers and hot dogs, fried chicken, corn on the cob, and french fries, with apple pie and ice cream for dessert. It was magnificent.
And that, my friends, is a much delayed post on my adventures in Jordan. Stay tuned next time for Galille awesomeness!
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Hezekiah's Tunnel, Neot Kedumim, and Seder
Yes, I'm really far behind. What with finals, and then Jordan...sorry all. This post is going to catch up on all the big stuff that happened before Jordan, and then I'll do another on Jordan, and then some things that have happened since coming back from Jordan.
Hezekiah's tunnel is one of the coolest things ever. So, the story is that back in the 7th century or so B.C. the Assyrians were coming. Remember Lachish? Well, every other fortress in the kingdom of Judah was destroyed, except for Jerusalem, and Hezekiah knew that he was next on the list. The spring at that time was outside the city walls, and to protect the water supply they cut a tunnel out under the city to a spot that was inside the city walls. That doesn't sound like too big of a deal, until you factor in that they started from both ends, then met in the middle. They were more or less digging blindly, and happened to meet in the middle. There is an inscription in the tunnel from the diggers, telling how as they got close to meeting they could hear the other team of diggers on the other side of the rock.
So, anchient tunnel under the city...and we got to walk through it. At the highest the water came up to mid thigh on me, but generally is wasn't much above my ankles. It was pitch black, but most people brought flashlights or headlamps, so there was more than enough light to see. A group of people went back the next week to do it again in the dark...I'm not sure quite how they did it. I was generally fine, but some of the taller guys had to stoop the entire time because of the low ceiling. It was a ton of fun.
Neot Kedumim is a biblical preserve located between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It's sole purpose is to preserve the land and to keep things the way they would have been in the bible. Basically, it's the coolest place ever.
We had a tour guide, who was more or less a park ranger, who told us a lot of really cool things about the plants and animals that were around. They had a well on site, and the ranger, who's name was Patrick, had two of the JC students reenact the scene where Abraham's servant meets Rebekah at the well.
The coolest part though was herding the sheep. Yes, I helped to herd sheep. We made them go in a group from one end of the yard to the other, then separated them into the goats and the sheep and then attempted to make them do a figure 8. There was a baby lamb there, and a few people had the chance to pick him up and hold him, until he decided that he had enough.
That afternoon, we made fires and learned how to cook pita and lentil soup over a fire. It was super legit. If we never learn how to make any other type of food here, at least we know how to make lentil soup and pitas over a fire.
After lunch, we had the opportunity to meet with a Torah scribe. Many Torah scribes go to school to learn how to write, but the man that we talked to told us that writing the Torah has been a family occupation that has been handed down through the family for over 10 generations. He showed us a Torah from Tunisia that was over 250 years old, and a page from a Torah that is over 300 years old. Torah writing is a serious business. If you mess up writing God's name on a page, you can't just throw it away or burn it because it's the name of God. The only acceptable way of getting rid of it is to bury it, so in the corner in every Jewish cemetery is a plot reserved specifically for burying pages with the name of God on it.
The last really big thing that happened before Jordan, besides finals (which were not fun at all, and therefore will not be discussed here) was our Seder! It isn't Passover, but our Israel teacher came and had a Seder dinner with us anyway. It was really quite fun. I think that we did a slightly sped up version of it, but we still did all the major things. It's interesting to me how easy it is to trace Jewish traditions back to their source. Like the Seder was started as a result of not being able to do sacrifices in the temple after it had been destroyed, but still wanting to celebrate the holiday.
Our Israel teacher likes to say that every Jewish holiday has the same theme. "They tried to kill us, they didn't, so let's eat!"
Hezekiah's tunnel is one of the coolest things ever. So, the story is that back in the 7th century or so B.C. the Assyrians were coming. Remember Lachish? Well, every other fortress in the kingdom of Judah was destroyed, except for Jerusalem, and Hezekiah knew that he was next on the list. The spring at that time was outside the city walls, and to protect the water supply they cut a tunnel out under the city to a spot that was inside the city walls. That doesn't sound like too big of a deal, until you factor in that they started from both ends, then met in the middle. They were more or less digging blindly, and happened to meet in the middle. There is an inscription in the tunnel from the diggers, telling how as they got close to meeting they could hear the other team of diggers on the other side of the rock.
So, anchient tunnel under the city...and we got to walk through it. At the highest the water came up to mid thigh on me, but generally is wasn't much above my ankles. It was pitch black, but most people brought flashlights or headlamps, so there was more than enough light to see. A group of people went back the next week to do it again in the dark...I'm not sure quite how they did it. I was generally fine, but some of the taller guys had to stoop the entire time because of the low ceiling. It was a ton of fun.
Neot Kedumim is a biblical preserve located between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It's sole purpose is to preserve the land and to keep things the way they would have been in the bible. Basically, it's the coolest place ever.
We had a tour guide, who was more or less a park ranger, who told us a lot of really cool things about the plants and animals that were around. They had a well on site, and the ranger, who's name was Patrick, had two of the JC students reenact the scene where Abraham's servant meets Rebekah at the well.
The coolest part though was herding the sheep. Yes, I helped to herd sheep. We made them go in a group from one end of the yard to the other, then separated them into the goats and the sheep and then attempted to make them do a figure 8. There was a baby lamb there, and a few people had the chance to pick him up and hold him, until he decided that he had enough.
That afternoon, we made fires and learned how to cook pita and lentil soup over a fire. It was super legit. If we never learn how to make any other type of food here, at least we know how to make lentil soup and pitas over a fire.
After lunch, we had the opportunity to meet with a Torah scribe. Many Torah scribes go to school to learn how to write, but the man that we talked to told us that writing the Torah has been a family occupation that has been handed down through the family for over 10 generations. He showed us a Torah from Tunisia that was over 250 years old, and a page from a Torah that is over 300 years old. Torah writing is a serious business. If you mess up writing God's name on a page, you can't just throw it away or burn it because it's the name of God. The only acceptable way of getting rid of it is to bury it, so in the corner in every Jewish cemetery is a plot reserved specifically for burying pages with the name of God on it.
The last really big thing that happened before Jordan, besides finals (which were not fun at all, and therefore will not be discussed here) was our Seder! It isn't Passover, but our Israel teacher came and had a Seder dinner with us anyway. It was really quite fun. I think that we did a slightly sped up version of it, but we still did all the major things. It's interesting to me how easy it is to trace Jewish traditions back to their source. Like the Seder was started as a result of not being able to do sacrifices in the temple after it had been destroyed, but still wanting to celebrate the holiday.
Our Israel teacher likes to say that every Jewish holiday has the same theme. "They tried to kill us, they didn't, so let's eat!"
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Eilat..Another Dream Come True
About three weeks ago, they started sending around the sign-ups. Snorkeling in Eilat. I signed up dutifully, as I had never been snorkeling before, past students have said that it's really great, and we weren't really given the option to say no. It was basically "You don't have to go if you don't want to, but we want everyone to go, so we'll go through every student at least three times to make sure that everyone has signed up...but you don't have to go." Whatever.
The trip was on Sunday. We left at 6:30 in the morning, which was lame, and we got there about 11 am. It was funny, as we were driving, me and a few people on my bus were looking out the bus window, and we realized that the scenery was that of the Judean wilderness. There were camels, and we were surrounded by dry, brown hills. If we had gone around the West Bank, like we normally do, the scenery would have been green, and we would have had green scenery the entire time. It wasn't until we passed Jericho that we realized that yes, we were driving through the West Bank. It was rather exciting, as we had consigned ourselves to never seeing it again.
At some point in our trip, the announcement was made that there would only be enough snorkel sets for half the group to be snorkeling at one time. Therefore, upon reaching Eilat, there was a mad, crazy dash to get ready first to go out in the water. I took too long, so I missed out on the first wave of snorkeling, so I contented myself with swimming in the swimming area. The beach was rocky, which was a but of a turn off, but the water was super clear, and the perfect temperature. It didn't take long to notice the fish that were swimming with us. They didn't pay us any mind, really, they were just swimming around, and away from us if we got too close. In the swimming section of the beach, I saw several fish that looked like Dory from Finding Nemo, a few black and white striped fish, and a straight black fish.
After about 45 minutes I noticed that there were a lot of people who were finished with snorkeling, so I found a mask and headed out. Remember, up to this point, I had never been snorkeling before in my life. I had heard that the Red Sea was really clear, and that it was amazing, but the pieces never really clicked together in my head for some reason until I put my head under the water.
It was a coral reef. I saw a coral reef! Living, thriving, with coral and fish of every shape and size!
Basically, it was the best day ever.
It was so much fun, swimming around and seeing the various types of fish. Big ones as long as my arm, little schools of little silvery fish, bigger schools of striped fish, long thin fish, clown fish, bottom feeders, fish that were hanging around eating the algae off the dock. And corals, every shape, size, color, and pattern! Ah man, I can't even describe how beautiful it all was!
I had two favorite fish. One was longer than my forearm, and had bright green and purple colors. The other was about the size of my hand. It looked like a dirty, reddish brown color, but when the sun hit it just right it shined purple and orange colors. Super pretty. I also enjoyed swimming through the schools of the little silver fish. My favorite coral was one that was grey on the bottom with a periwinkle blue on the tips.
After we were done snorkeling, we had a few hours to just hang out at the beach. During this time, a lion fish decided to swim up next to the dock. If you don't remember what one looks like, I would recommend that you Google it, they're pretty cool looking. And poisonous. Don't worry, none of us really got close, but it hung out next to the dock for about an hour, just swimming increasing and decreasing in depth.
That evening we ate dinner at a kibbutz on the way home. A kibbutz is more or less a socialist commune. Towards the beginning of the 20th century, the Jews who came to the Holy Land decided that they were going to live a socialist lifestyle, to show the world how it is done more or less. Many of the current Israeli towns and villages started out as kibbutz. There aren't as many now, but there are still quite a few around, especially up in the Galilee. Some of them actually do quite well.
Kind of the symbol of the kibbutz is the cow. For some reason, every kibbutz has cows. At the kibbutz that we ate at, there were plastic life-sized statues of cows everywhere. It was kinda fun. And we had ice cream for dinner! They had a ton of cool flavors. I ended up getting Boston cheesecake and hazelnut, which was basically nutella ice cream.
Another four hour bus ride (that I slept through most of) and we were back, tired, exhausted, and sunburned. Despite that, it really was an amazing day.
The trip was on Sunday. We left at 6:30 in the morning, which was lame, and we got there about 11 am. It was funny, as we were driving, me and a few people on my bus were looking out the bus window, and we realized that the scenery was that of the Judean wilderness. There were camels, and we were surrounded by dry, brown hills. If we had gone around the West Bank, like we normally do, the scenery would have been green, and we would have had green scenery the entire time. It wasn't until we passed Jericho that we realized that yes, we were driving through the West Bank. It was rather exciting, as we had consigned ourselves to never seeing it again.
At some point in our trip, the announcement was made that there would only be enough snorkel sets for half the group to be snorkeling at one time. Therefore, upon reaching Eilat, there was a mad, crazy dash to get ready first to go out in the water. I took too long, so I missed out on the first wave of snorkeling, so I contented myself with swimming in the swimming area. The beach was rocky, which was a but of a turn off, but the water was super clear, and the perfect temperature. It didn't take long to notice the fish that were swimming with us. They didn't pay us any mind, really, they were just swimming around, and away from us if we got too close. In the swimming section of the beach, I saw several fish that looked like Dory from Finding Nemo, a few black and white striped fish, and a straight black fish.
After about 45 minutes I noticed that there were a lot of people who were finished with snorkeling, so I found a mask and headed out. Remember, up to this point, I had never been snorkeling before in my life. I had heard that the Red Sea was really clear, and that it was amazing, but the pieces never really clicked together in my head for some reason until I put my head under the water.
It was a coral reef. I saw a coral reef! Living, thriving, with coral and fish of every shape and size!
Basically, it was the best day ever.
It was so much fun, swimming around and seeing the various types of fish. Big ones as long as my arm, little schools of little silvery fish, bigger schools of striped fish, long thin fish, clown fish, bottom feeders, fish that were hanging around eating the algae off the dock. And corals, every shape, size, color, and pattern! Ah man, I can't even describe how beautiful it all was!
I had two favorite fish. One was longer than my forearm, and had bright green and purple colors. The other was about the size of my hand. It looked like a dirty, reddish brown color, but when the sun hit it just right it shined purple and orange colors. Super pretty. I also enjoyed swimming through the schools of the little silver fish. My favorite coral was one that was grey on the bottom with a periwinkle blue on the tips.
After we were done snorkeling, we had a few hours to just hang out at the beach. During this time, a lion fish decided to swim up next to the dock. If you don't remember what one looks like, I would recommend that you Google it, they're pretty cool looking. And poisonous. Don't worry, none of us really got close, but it hung out next to the dock for about an hour, just swimming increasing and decreasing in depth.
That evening we ate dinner at a kibbutz on the way home. A kibbutz is more or less a socialist commune. Towards the beginning of the 20th century, the Jews who came to the Holy Land decided that they were going to live a socialist lifestyle, to show the world how it is done more or less. Many of the current Israeli towns and villages started out as kibbutz. There aren't as many now, but there are still quite a few around, especially up in the Galilee. Some of them actually do quite well.
Kind of the symbol of the kibbutz is the cow. For some reason, every kibbutz has cows. At the kibbutz that we ate at, there were plastic life-sized statues of cows everywhere. It was kinda fun. And we had ice cream for dinner! They had a ton of cool flavors. I ended up getting Boston cheesecake and hazelnut, which was basically nutella ice cream.
Another four hour bus ride (that I slept through most of) and we were back, tired, exhausted, and sunburned. Despite that, it really was an amazing day.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
When lizards attack...
This week, we got lucky enough to have two field trips! Our first was on Sunday, and honestly, it was the one place that I wished that I could have avoided my whole trip here. Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum. I'm not going to talk about it here, frankly because I don't want to, except to talk about something that our Judaism teacher explained to us. After WWII, no one really talked about the Holocaust. Survivors in Israel didn't let people know that they were survivors, unless they had taken part in one of the uprisings that happened. The general sentiment in Israel was that the people in Holocaust should have fought back, rebelled against the Nazi's, and that the people who did fight back were heroes. Everyone else who survived went along with what was happening. They didn't fight back, and because of this, the sentiment was almost like they had brought what happened upon themselves. It took a long time for that idea to change. The change came when the Israeli wrestling team was kidnapped from the Olympic village in the 70's and killed. The wrestlers didn't fight back the whole time that they were in captivity, and these were wrestlers, athletes who were trained to fight. Understanding this background, it's easy to see places in Yad Vashem where the idea of glorifying those who fought back was very much in existence.
Monday was our free day because of the field trip the previous day. I went to the Dome of the Rock again, finally got the chance to go through all of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and then the Rockefeller museum. The museum had a lot of interesting things it it, from a statue of Ramses III, to neolithic toddler bones, to wood work taken from the al-Aqsa mosque after it was renovated.
Two random notes. First, back in Turkey, every public restroom we went to had at least one, generally several squat toilets in addition to Western sit on the seat toilets. Several times we would be waiting in line at rest stops for the Western toilets, and the Turkish women would wonder why we weren't just going to the squat toilets. I hadn't seen a squat toilet here in Turkey, until Monday, when I found one in the Rockefeller museum. My second random thought is for anyone who has seen the TV show Doctor Who. It's a really, really, bad idea to come to a town that has a lot of statues, and while you're looking at a random statue think to yourself "Hey, that looks like it could be a Weeping Angel." Because when you see it once, you see it everywhere. And then you don't sleep at night.
This week in Jerusalem is the Festival of Lights. We're not allowed to go into the old city or East Jerusalem after dark, period, but we begged the right people who begged the right people and we got permission for a one time trip to see the festival. It was for sure one of my favorite things that we've done. The city was just a party. Several people I was with compared it to Disneyland at night. They had three different paths, all starting at Joffa gate. The first went through the Jewish and Armenian quarters to end at the Kotel. The second went through Christian quarter and ended in the Jewish Quarter. The third went down through the Muslim quarter through Damascus gate and then back up to Joffa gate. My favorite lights displays were a pyramid made out of one liter Coke bottles that were filled with water and these flying white manatee things outside of the Joffa gate.
This is where we get to the part of the story that explains the title of the blog. The scene was Monday night in my apartment. My one roommate Maddie was already asleep, and another, Reba, was in bed reading her scriptures. I was getting ready for bed. I walked into the bathroom, and saw something move. It was big, and it was white. My first thought was "Oh crap, it's a big white spider." After a second, I realized that it was actually a white lizard about six inches long. I started yelling "There's a lizard, there's a lizard! Get it!" as it ran out of the bathroom. Reba made a move for it, but it ran under the closet, and we couldn't get it out. we didn't see him all day Tuesday, but that evening I saw his tail as he ran under my bed. A girl named Victoria came and helped me lift up my bed, but he was gone again. I keep hoping that somehow he has been able to find his way out, we've left the door open enough, but I'm preparing myself to find his body in a few weeks.
Tuesday night we went to the UEFA under 21 soccer championship game between Israel and England. Israel won, 1-0. Watching the game, I didn't expect Israel to win. They just didn't seem as cohesive and together as England did. But hey, I'm no soccer critic. It was interesting, instead of vendors walking around selling cotton candy or popcorn, they sell watermelon.
On our way to and from the game, we talked with a couple of Israeli soldiers who were riding the same public transportation as we were. They explained a lot to us about the army, and how it works. The one guy had been at a checkpoint, but was recently switched to Jerusalem. The other was new to the army. He was from Beth-Shemish, and rode a bus into Jerusalem every day. He was also a student at a Yishiva, and was in a program to only be in the army for a year and a half so that he could return to studying the Torah.
Last night (caught up, finally!) our forum speaker was a man who was a Holocaust survivor. He lived through 9 different concentration camps. Because he could work, he was somewhat useful, and was lucky enough to make it through the random killings. He was the only member of his family to survive. After the war, he went to Guatemala because he had an uncle living there, so he spoke Spanish. It was good that we had so many RM's in our group that speak Spanish, they translated for him for the rest of us. It was really good to hear him, and his story. Even after all that had happened, he didn't let things get him down. He got married, had a family, and is now 95 year old. He does yoga for exercise. He's an amazing person.
Monday was our free day because of the field trip the previous day. I went to the Dome of the Rock again, finally got the chance to go through all of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and then the Rockefeller museum. The museum had a lot of interesting things it it, from a statue of Ramses III, to neolithic toddler bones, to wood work taken from the al-Aqsa mosque after it was renovated.
Two random notes. First, back in Turkey, every public restroom we went to had at least one, generally several squat toilets in addition to Western sit on the seat toilets. Several times we would be waiting in line at rest stops for the Western toilets, and the Turkish women would wonder why we weren't just going to the squat toilets. I hadn't seen a squat toilet here in Turkey, until Monday, when I found one in the Rockefeller museum. My second random thought is for anyone who has seen the TV show Doctor Who. It's a really, really, bad idea to come to a town that has a lot of statues, and while you're looking at a random statue think to yourself "Hey, that looks like it could be a Weeping Angel." Because when you see it once, you see it everywhere. And then you don't sleep at night.
This week in Jerusalem is the Festival of Lights. We're not allowed to go into the old city or East Jerusalem after dark, period, but we begged the right people who begged the right people and we got permission for a one time trip to see the festival. It was for sure one of my favorite things that we've done. The city was just a party. Several people I was with compared it to Disneyland at night. They had three different paths, all starting at Joffa gate. The first went through the Jewish and Armenian quarters to end at the Kotel. The second went through Christian quarter and ended in the Jewish Quarter. The third went down through the Muslim quarter through Damascus gate and then back up to Joffa gate. My favorite lights displays were a pyramid made out of one liter Coke bottles that were filled with water and these flying white manatee things outside of the Joffa gate.
This is where we get to the part of the story that explains the title of the blog. The scene was Monday night in my apartment. My one roommate Maddie was already asleep, and another, Reba, was in bed reading her scriptures. I was getting ready for bed. I walked into the bathroom, and saw something move. It was big, and it was white. My first thought was "Oh crap, it's a big white spider." After a second, I realized that it was actually a white lizard about six inches long. I started yelling "There's a lizard, there's a lizard! Get it!" as it ran out of the bathroom. Reba made a move for it, but it ran under the closet, and we couldn't get it out. we didn't see him all day Tuesday, but that evening I saw his tail as he ran under my bed. A girl named Victoria came and helped me lift up my bed, but he was gone again. I keep hoping that somehow he has been able to find his way out, we've left the door open enough, but I'm preparing myself to find his body in a few weeks.
Tuesday night we went to the UEFA under 21 soccer championship game between Israel and England. Israel won, 1-0. Watching the game, I didn't expect Israel to win. They just didn't seem as cohesive and together as England did. But hey, I'm no soccer critic. It was interesting, instead of vendors walking around selling cotton candy or popcorn, they sell watermelon.
On our way to and from the game, we talked with a couple of Israeli soldiers who were riding the same public transportation as we were. They explained a lot to us about the army, and how it works. The one guy had been at a checkpoint, but was recently switched to Jerusalem. The other was new to the army. He was from Beth-Shemish, and rode a bus into Jerusalem every day. He was also a student at a Yishiva, and was in a program to only be in the army for a year and a half so that he could return to studying the Torah.
Last night (caught up, finally!) our forum speaker was a man who was a Holocaust survivor. He lived through 9 different concentration camps. Because he could work, he was somewhat useful, and was lucky enough to make it through the random killings. He was the only member of his family to survive. After the war, he went to Guatemala because he had an uncle living there, so he spoke Spanish. It was good that we had so many RM's in our group that speak Spanish, they translated for him for the rest of us. It was really good to hear him, and his story. Even after all that had happened, he didn't let things get him down. He got married, had a family, and is now 95 year old. He does yoga for exercise. He's an amazing person.
"Ugh, not another dirt mound to climb!"
I know, I know, I haven't posted...in a week and a half, I guess. It's been crazy, with something going on every day. This post will focus on last week, then I'll do a second post on what's been going on this week.
The quote that is the title of this blog post is from my Old Testament, displaying the attitude that we were encouraged not to have as we went on our Shephelah field trip last Monday. The Shephelah is a region located between the Judean hills and the coastal plain, and is characterized by soft limestone, and several river valleys. It's a really fun word to say, and my ANES professor likes to throw is out wherever he can, so we like to joke about the "Soft limestone of the Shephelah." It's also a really easy word to substitute into songs. I know that it looks a little hard to pronounce, you say it sh-fey-lah.
Anyway, the reason my teacher had to remind us to have good attitudes was because it was all day, in the sun, climbing up and down tells, basically being as miserable as possible while seeing some really cool things.
The Shephelah, as my Old Testament teacher called it, is Samson and Delilah country. We went to Beth-Shemish, which is where Samson is from. There wasn't a lot there...yea. A couple of church ruins. The valley was full of fields, so it gave a really good visual for the destruction that Samson would have caused when he lit the foxes on fire and had them run through the fields.
Our second stop was to a fortress called Azekah. It was way up on the top of a mountain. My Old Testament teacher read to us a passage describing how the king of Assyria the first time they came through wasn't able to get his siege engines up to Azekah because the hill was so steep. We didn't have to walk up all the way...but we what we did, it was steep. Azekah looks over the Elah valley, which is the place where David slew Goliath.
Our next stop was Maresha. We went first to a place called the Bell Caves. There were chalk deposits under the ground (chalk is a form of limestone, which is found in the Shephelah), and so the people who lived there would dig down and then around to get the chalk out to make plaster, basically making a bell-shaped hole in the ground. We walked through several of them, and we sang a hymn in the biggest one. So cool.
After the caves was the underground city of Maresha. The people would carve caves out of the soft limestone of the Shephelah, and they lived there! Olive oil, we learned, needs to be kept into the dark, or else it spoils really fast, so a cave is the perfect place to have an olive oil press. Or an olive oil factory. We walked through what would have been a home there...or more like a neighborhood. I couldn't imagine living there, but hey, worked for someone, right?
Our last stop was a place called Lachish. The story of Lachish is begins with King Hezekiah not paying the Assyrians tribute. Sennacherib was a new king, and wanted to show everyone who was really in charge, which meant death and destruction for the Kingdom of Judah. My Old Testament teacher read to us a excerpt from an ostracon from Lachish talking about how one by one, the signal fires from other fortresses in the region, including Azekah, which wasn't able to be beaten by King Nebuchadnezzar, went out, meaning that they had been destroyed by the Assyrians, and that they would be coming to Lachish next. There is an Assyrian relief featuring the siege of Lachish that my ANES teacher showed us a copy of. To get their siege weapons to the city wall, the Assyrians build a ramp up the side of the hill. The defenders of Lachish would have known what they were doing, and would have tried everything to try and stop it, but in the end, there was nothing they could do. Lachish fell, leaving only Jerusalem to withstand the Assyrians.
On our way home, we stopped in the valley of Elah. My Old Testament professor kindly provided us with slings and then gave us the opportunity to sling stones at a rock wall in the same valley where David slew Goliath. Pretty legit.
Probably the other coolest thing that happened last week was our forum address. It was by a journalist who has lived in Israel for the last 25 years. He talked about the discrepancies between what we read about in the news and what life is actually like here. One of the problems he talked about was what he called celebrity journalism, where the news networks use a person to cover a story who is well-known, a familiar face or name, instead of the local person who the viewers or readers have never heard of before. He shared with us one story about how when Yasser Arafat died, he went to the city of Ramallah to see what was happening. While he was there, he saw an American news network...I think it was CNN... get ready to start a live news story. At the last minute, a well-known reporter from the United States who had just flown in jumped out of a car, run up, and kick out the local reporter. The girl who kicked out the local reporter had no idea what she was talking about and got all of her information wrong, all of which the local person would have been able to talk about perfectly. He told us this story to emphasize his point that the news networks can be more obsessed with getting the news out with a familiar face than with getting the story out right.
His next big point was about how journalists want to seem like this is a war zone, and how they are always in danger of some sort, because it makes them look cooler. There are tensions and demonstrations here, but things generally don't get really out of hand. Journalist however like to show the worst of it. And it's easy to find the bad things. Our speaker talked about how he once brought a reporter who was new to the country to Ramallah right after Palestine was recognized by the U.N. The whole city was basically a big party, everyone was just having a great time. Our speaker left the newbie and came back to Jerusalem. The next day, he saw that the story that the newbie had posted was him by a checkpoint where there had been a "demonstration," which was nothing more than some kids throwing rocks at soldiers, instead of talking about the party in Ramallah.
Basically, the moral of his story is to take every news story, especially the ones that you read about here, with a grain of salt.
The quote that is the title of this blog post is from my Old Testament, displaying the attitude that we were encouraged not to have as we went on our Shephelah field trip last Monday. The Shephelah is a region located between the Judean hills and the coastal plain, and is characterized by soft limestone, and several river valleys. It's a really fun word to say, and my ANES professor likes to throw is out wherever he can, so we like to joke about the "Soft limestone of the Shephelah." It's also a really easy word to substitute into songs. I know that it looks a little hard to pronounce, you say it sh-fey-lah.
Anyway, the reason my teacher had to remind us to have good attitudes was because it was all day, in the sun, climbing up and down tells, basically being as miserable as possible while seeing some really cool things.
The Shephelah, as my Old Testament teacher called it, is Samson and Delilah country. We went to Beth-Shemish, which is where Samson is from. There wasn't a lot there...yea. A couple of church ruins. The valley was full of fields, so it gave a really good visual for the destruction that Samson would have caused when he lit the foxes on fire and had them run through the fields.
Our second stop was to a fortress called Azekah. It was way up on the top of a mountain. My Old Testament teacher read to us a passage describing how the king of Assyria the first time they came through wasn't able to get his siege engines up to Azekah because the hill was so steep. We didn't have to walk up all the way...but we what we did, it was steep. Azekah looks over the Elah valley, which is the place where David slew Goliath.
Our next stop was Maresha. We went first to a place called the Bell Caves. There were chalk deposits under the ground (chalk is a form of limestone, which is found in the Shephelah), and so the people who lived there would dig down and then around to get the chalk out to make plaster, basically making a bell-shaped hole in the ground. We walked through several of them, and we sang a hymn in the biggest one. So cool.
After the caves was the underground city of Maresha. The people would carve caves out of the soft limestone of the Shephelah, and they lived there! Olive oil, we learned, needs to be kept into the dark, or else it spoils really fast, so a cave is the perfect place to have an olive oil press. Or an olive oil factory. We walked through what would have been a home there...or more like a neighborhood. I couldn't imagine living there, but hey, worked for someone, right?
Our last stop was a place called Lachish. The story of Lachish is begins with King Hezekiah not paying the Assyrians tribute. Sennacherib was a new king, and wanted to show everyone who was really in charge, which meant death and destruction for the Kingdom of Judah. My Old Testament teacher read to us a excerpt from an ostracon from Lachish talking about how one by one, the signal fires from other fortresses in the region, including Azekah, which wasn't able to be beaten by King Nebuchadnezzar, went out, meaning that they had been destroyed by the Assyrians, and that they would be coming to Lachish next. There is an Assyrian relief featuring the siege of Lachish that my ANES teacher showed us a copy of. To get their siege weapons to the city wall, the Assyrians build a ramp up the side of the hill. The defenders of Lachish would have known what they were doing, and would have tried everything to try and stop it, but in the end, there was nothing they could do. Lachish fell, leaving only Jerusalem to withstand the Assyrians.
On our way home, we stopped in the valley of Elah. My Old Testament professor kindly provided us with slings and then gave us the opportunity to sling stones at a rock wall in the same valley where David slew Goliath. Pretty legit.
Probably the other coolest thing that happened last week was our forum address. It was by a journalist who has lived in Israel for the last 25 years. He talked about the discrepancies between what we read about in the news and what life is actually like here. One of the problems he talked about was what he called celebrity journalism, where the news networks use a person to cover a story who is well-known, a familiar face or name, instead of the local person who the viewers or readers have never heard of before. He shared with us one story about how when Yasser Arafat died, he went to the city of Ramallah to see what was happening. While he was there, he saw an American news network...I think it was CNN... get ready to start a live news story. At the last minute, a well-known reporter from the United States who had just flown in jumped out of a car, run up, and kick out the local reporter. The girl who kicked out the local reporter had no idea what she was talking about and got all of her information wrong, all of which the local person would have been able to talk about perfectly. He told us this story to emphasize his point that the news networks can be more obsessed with getting the news out with a familiar face than with getting the story out right.
His next big point was about how journalists want to seem like this is a war zone, and how they are always in danger of some sort, because it makes them look cooler. There are tensions and demonstrations here, but things generally don't get really out of hand. Journalist however like to show the worst of it. And it's easy to find the bad things. Our speaker talked about how he once brought a reporter who was new to the country to Ramallah right after Palestine was recognized by the U.N. The whole city was basically a big party, everyone was just having a great time. Our speaker left the newbie and came back to Jerusalem. The next day, he saw that the story that the newbie had posted was him by a checkpoint where there had been a "demonstration," which was nothing more than some kids throwing rocks at soldiers, instead of talking about the party in Ramallah.
Basically, the moral of his story is to take every news story, especially the ones that you read about here, with a grain of salt.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
The Fear of Missing Out
There's a acronym that's been thrown around at the center. It's FOMO, which stands for Fear Of Missing Out. We've already been here an entire month, and we've got 2 and a half month left. When we first got here, we were like "Oh, we can come back, we still have 3 and a half month." But way too quickly the time has passed, and seeing as how this could be our only time in Jerusalem, there is a lot of stuff that we need to see. Today, I went to the Temple Mount, the Pools of Bethesda, St. Anne's church, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the Tower of David museum.
There are several entrances to the Temple Mount, but only one of them is for non-Muslims. To get to it, you have to walk all the way around to the Western Wall, then climb up a wooden ramp that is completely enclosed to get to the top of the wall. The Temple Mount is a lot bigger than one would imagine. It's huge! We didn't get too close to the al-Aqsa mosque, but we went right up to the Dome of the Rock and touched it. It really is a beautiful building. The entire middle is covered in tiles, including the gutters. And of course, that golden dome, shining in the sun.
Something that amuses me is the Western tourists who come to these places entirely unprepared as to the the strictness of them. When we were at the Temple Mount, a man put his arm around a woman to take a picture with her, and several people started yelling at them to stop touching. My favorite is that while generally the girls will think to cover up, guys don't always. They think that they'll be ok to go to some places in shorts. Except it isn't ok. So to be able to go to the sites, they go and buy a headscarf and tie it into a skirt because their legs need to be covered. Not going to lie, it totally makes my day to see a guy in a headscarf skirt. They look so uncomfortable!
Our next stop was the Pools of Bethesda and St Anne's Church. There really wasn't a lot to see with the pools. The ruins of several old churches, a cistern with monster spiders in it (I saw one as big as my palm, stretched out. I was so out of there!), and one pool that had been excavated and still had water in it. It was still cool though. St Anne's Church was amazing. It's an old church, very beautiful, and the acoustics in it are amazing. The priest who was there was cool with us singing, and so we sang several hymns. The notes just reverberated around the room. I really hope that I have the chance to go back and to sing there again.
Our next planned stop was the Tower of David museum (remember the castle museum I talked about earlier?), and on the way we passed right by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. One of the guys I was with, Tyler, hadn't been there yet, so we stopped for a few minutes so that he could have the chance to go inside. We didn't really stop and look at anything, just did a quick walk-around, but on our way out, we ran into a former Jerusalem center student from last year there with his little brother. Apparently, they're backpacking across...I'm not sure exactly where, this isn't a great place to be alone and American. But they were near the area, and decided to stop in Jerusalem. It was funny, the former student recognized us as Jerusalem Center students, then we saw their BYU backpacks. Just one of those crazy random happenstances.
Tower of David, as it was before, is AMAZING! It just makes my day, going to a castle. This time, we got an audio tour, and so we got a lot more information out about things. When we were about halfway done, two different schools came and were getting tours of the museum. Lot's of crazy, yelling children isn't good for an audio tour. But it was kinda fun too. For several of the rooms they had museum staff dress up in character and explain things to the kids. There was one guy dressed up like a Crusader. He spoke Hebrew with a French accent, and would hide and jump out and scare the kids. There was this one girl, he scared her so bad she started crying. It was really great.
To end our long, action packed day, we had to go to West Jerusalem and get some ice cream. Ice cream is a ton more expensive here than back home, but that could also have to do with being in a tourist area. Oh well. It was really good. I got pistachio and strawberry with white chocolate. A quick word on pistachios, they're in everything here! Well, deserts at least. Pistacio in chocolate bars instead of almonds. Pistachio ice cream. Pistachio baklava. Chocolate covered pistachios. Pistachios are sold on the street by vendors. I love pistachios...but why are they everywhere?
There are several entrances to the Temple Mount, but only one of them is for non-Muslims. To get to it, you have to walk all the way around to the Western Wall, then climb up a wooden ramp that is completely enclosed to get to the top of the wall. The Temple Mount is a lot bigger than one would imagine. It's huge! We didn't get too close to the al-Aqsa mosque, but we went right up to the Dome of the Rock and touched it. It really is a beautiful building. The entire middle is covered in tiles, including the gutters. And of course, that golden dome, shining in the sun.
Something that amuses me is the Western tourists who come to these places entirely unprepared as to the the strictness of them. When we were at the Temple Mount, a man put his arm around a woman to take a picture with her, and several people started yelling at them to stop touching. My favorite is that while generally the girls will think to cover up, guys don't always. They think that they'll be ok to go to some places in shorts. Except it isn't ok. So to be able to go to the sites, they go and buy a headscarf and tie it into a skirt because their legs need to be covered. Not going to lie, it totally makes my day to see a guy in a headscarf skirt. They look so uncomfortable!
Our next stop was the Pools of Bethesda and St Anne's Church. There really wasn't a lot to see with the pools. The ruins of several old churches, a cistern with monster spiders in it (I saw one as big as my palm, stretched out. I was so out of there!), and one pool that had been excavated and still had water in it. It was still cool though. St Anne's Church was amazing. It's an old church, very beautiful, and the acoustics in it are amazing. The priest who was there was cool with us singing, and so we sang several hymns. The notes just reverberated around the room. I really hope that I have the chance to go back and to sing there again.
Our next planned stop was the Tower of David museum (remember the castle museum I talked about earlier?), and on the way we passed right by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. One of the guys I was with, Tyler, hadn't been there yet, so we stopped for a few minutes so that he could have the chance to go inside. We didn't really stop and look at anything, just did a quick walk-around, but on our way out, we ran into a former Jerusalem center student from last year there with his little brother. Apparently, they're backpacking across...I'm not sure exactly where, this isn't a great place to be alone and American. But they were near the area, and decided to stop in Jerusalem. It was funny, the former student recognized us as Jerusalem Center students, then we saw their BYU backpacks. Just one of those crazy random happenstances.
Tower of David, as it was before, is AMAZING! It just makes my day, going to a castle. This time, we got an audio tour, and so we got a lot more information out about things. When we were about halfway done, two different schools came and were getting tours of the museum. Lot's of crazy, yelling children isn't good for an audio tour. But it was kinda fun too. For several of the rooms they had museum staff dress up in character and explain things to the kids. There was one guy dressed up like a Crusader. He spoke Hebrew with a French accent, and would hide and jump out and scare the kids. There was this one girl, he scared her so bad she started crying. It was really great.
To end our long, action packed day, we had to go to West Jerusalem and get some ice cream. Ice cream is a ton more expensive here than back home, but that could also have to do with being in a tourist area. Oh well. It was really good. I got pistachio and strawberry with white chocolate. A quick word on pistachios, they're in everything here! Well, deserts at least. Pistacio in chocolate bars instead of almonds. Pistachio ice cream. Pistachio baklava. Chocolate covered pistachios. Pistachios are sold on the street by vendors. I love pistachios...but why are they everywhere?
Several days in one post (someone might have gotten a little lazy...)
Wednesday was our Arab culture night. It was really fun, we got to dress up in traditional Arab clothes, listen to a legit muezzin, eat traditional Arab food, and learn a traditional Arab dance. Needless to say, it was a ton of fun.
For the dressing up, they didn't give us a lot of direction as to so what traditional Arab dress looks like, and the internet wasn't a whole ton of help. Our instruction was basically, "Go to the Old City and see what you can find." Yea, not very helpful. But most people were able to find some things. Like I mentioned in my last post, I got a skirt and a skirt, and I wore the headscarf that I got for Turkey.
One thing that was a big misconception before I came here was that the Dome of the Rock was considered one of the most holy mosques in Islam. While it's a beautiful building, it's actually the mosque next door, but also on the Temple Mount, the al-Aqsa mosque, that is the really important one. The Dome of the Rock was actually built as a commemoration of the Jewish temple, and was actually called as such until the recent political situation became more...volatile. Anyway, that whole side note was to more or less explain, that because the al-Aqsa mosque is so important, the muezzin that came from there to demonstrate a reading from the Koran for us and the call to prayer were really amazing.
The food was similar to the food that we eat a lot here, except there was a lot more lamb. It was actually pretty good. The cafeteria here was decorated, everything was really nice. Dancing was great fun. The dances that we were taught from some Palestinian students from a local university went to pieces rather quickly, but we all had a good time. And we ended up making a Harlem Shake video, which we shared among ourselves quite a bit, but that I think a lot of people pray never sees the light of day outside the center.
On Friday evening I had the opportunity to visit a synagogue for the Sabbath service. All of the students get a chance to go, and it was my turn. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I wouldn't have expected what it was actually like. Most of the service was sung, and you could follow along with it in the prayerbook...if you knew Hebrew. It was an Orthodox synagogue, so there was a separation between the boys and the girls. After learning more about it, I think that in some ways, it's a good idea. It keeps certain members of the opposite sex from being...distracted...and focused on the meeting.
Something that I've really come to love about Judaism is how they treat the Sabbath. For them, it's something to be celebrated, cherished, to hold dear and high above all the other days. They compare the Sabbath to a bride, and the children of Israel as the groom. At the end of the Sabbath, everyone stands and bows to the back of the room, to welcome the Sabbath like a bride. The Sabbath is a day to be celebrated, not a day that just a list of the things you can and can't do.
Today, I visited the Garden of Gethsemane for the first time. It was also not quite what I expected. There was a garden of really old olive trees there, then a church, called the Church of All Nations. It was called that because there were people from several different countries who donated to help build the church. It was interesting, they would put little flags or pictures of things representing each country in an unassuming place around the church representing the various countries. We also stopped by an Armenian church next to the garden that was representative of the place that traditionally was where the Virgin Mary was buried.
There are two experiences from today that I'd like to share. The first, walking out of the Church of All Nations through the garden with the olive trees, I noticed that they had a yellow rosebush. My dad's mother, who passed away 10 years ago this September, loved yellow roses. My mom planted one in our garden, so that we would think about her. Seeing one there...it was really special.
The other experience was in the Armenian church. My mother's father, who passed away a few years ago, was Catholic. I've heard my mother say many times about her father that he "loved the Virgin Mary." Going to the Armenian church, seeing the icons, some of the pictures rubbed off from all the people that have touched them, my mom's voice came into my head "My father loved the Virgin Mary." I thought that that church would have been a place he would have loved to visit.
Shabbat Shalom!
The food was similar to the food that we eat a lot here, except there was a lot more lamb. It was actually pretty good. The cafeteria here was decorated, everything was really nice. Dancing was great fun. The dances that we were taught from some Palestinian students from a local university went to pieces rather quickly, but we all had a good time. And we ended up making a Harlem Shake video, which we shared among ourselves quite a bit, but that I think a lot of people pray never sees the light of day outside the center.
On Friday evening I had the opportunity to visit a synagogue for the Sabbath service. All of the students get a chance to go, and it was my turn. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I wouldn't have expected what it was actually like. Most of the service was sung, and you could follow along with it in the prayerbook...if you knew Hebrew. It was an Orthodox synagogue, so there was a separation between the boys and the girls. After learning more about it, I think that in some ways, it's a good idea. It keeps certain members of the opposite sex from being...distracted...and focused on the meeting.
Something that I've really come to love about Judaism is how they treat the Sabbath. For them, it's something to be celebrated, cherished, to hold dear and high above all the other days. They compare the Sabbath to a bride, and the children of Israel as the groom. At the end of the Sabbath, everyone stands and bows to the back of the room, to welcome the Sabbath like a bride. The Sabbath is a day to be celebrated, not a day that just a list of the things you can and can't do.
Today, I visited the Garden of Gethsemane for the first time. It was also not quite what I expected. There was a garden of really old olive trees there, then a church, called the Church of All Nations. It was called that because there were people from several different countries who donated to help build the church. It was interesting, they would put little flags or pictures of things representing each country in an unassuming place around the church representing the various countries. We also stopped by an Armenian church next to the garden that was representative of the place that traditionally was where the Virgin Mary was buried.
There are two experiences from today that I'd like to share. The first, walking out of the Church of All Nations through the garden with the olive trees, I noticed that they had a yellow rosebush. My dad's mother, who passed away 10 years ago this September, loved yellow roses. My mom planted one in our garden, so that we would think about her. Seeing one there...it was really special.
The other experience was in the Armenian church. My mother's father, who passed away a few years ago, was Catholic. I've heard my mother say many times about her father that he "loved the Virgin Mary." Going to the Armenian church, seeing the icons, some of the pictures rubbed off from all the people that have touched them, my mom's voice came into my head "My father loved the Virgin Mary." I thought that that church would have been a place he would have loved to visit.
Shabbat Shalom!
Monday, May 27, 2013
And the walls came tumbling down...
Jericho field trip day! We were all pretty excited, not only because Jericho is cool, but it was also the first of our two trips to the West Bank. To be honest...it wasn't that much different than Israel. All the road signs were in Hebrew, Arabic, and English, like they are here. There was still trash everywhere. I guess there were more Palestinians than there are here, but it is the West Bank.
Our first stop was a place called Wadi Qelt. We climbed up a mountain overlooking a monastery that is traditionally theMount of Temptation. The Judean wilderness by Jericho is a dry, bleak desert. In every direction, there is just nothing there. There really is nothing there, except monasteries and random wadi's. And it's hot. We were there at 9 in the morning, and it was already an oven. But being there really puts into perspective the stories of the Good Samaritan and when the devil tempted Jesus. It really helps to appreciate the stories when you have a visual of the setting.
Jericho itself is very much an oasis in the desert. Because of it's proximity to the Jordan river, and a good, clean spring, it get's some good water. We stopped and looked at the ruins of the city. At Jericho, they found the oldest known human made structure. It's a tower, dating back to 9000 BC. Most things, like towers and walls, don't really stand the test of time, and when you go to the various sites, many are a reconstruction. But this tower, it was still at least 10 feet high, which is very unusual. Especially considering how old it is. Professor Stratford, my Ancient Near Eastern Studies professor, explained that the most likely reason for building the tower would be to protect some kind of agricultural surplus. Again, with it's water sources, always warm climate, and good soil, Jericho is a great place to live, especially if you're a farmer.
Next we visited the source of the Jericho spring, the one that the prophet Elisha healed by throwing salt into it. Being there, and talking about Elisha, it really made me realize how many amazing things happened in Jericho, besides the walls coming down. Near there was the place where both Elijah and Moses were translated. Elisha spent time there. A not so cool thing was that Zedekiah's sons were killed near there. It has a lot of history. Well, everything here has a lot of history. But Jericho, you don't think about as much. At least I didn't.
Our last visit was to Herod's Winter Palace. Apparently, when they first uncovered it, the archaeologists thought that it was a gymnasium because of all the pools. It wasn't till later that they put together it was a palace complex. Herod's Winter Palace had quite the bloody history. It was the place where he had his brother-in-law, Aristobulus, drowned in the pool. It was also where he had his oldest son, the heir to the throne, killed, just five days before Herod's own death. And it was the place where Herod himself died. When Herod was on his deathbed, he ordered all the local Jewish leaders to be taken into the nearby hippodrome, and that upon his death they were all to be killed so that someone would be crying at his funeral. It was only through the efforts of his sister that the Jewish leaders were spared.
At the Winter Palace, we talked about legacies, and what kind of legacy we want to leave behind. Herod was a great builder, built beautiful impressive structures, but no one liked him. So much so, that he wanted others to be killed at his death so that someone would be sad. His own family was probably excited to see him go, just so that they knew that they would be safe from his paranoia. Is that really the way to be remembered?
So that's it for Jericho. It was only a half day field trip, so we had the whole afternoon to play! After lunch, I went with a group of people into the city. We're having an Arab culture night on Wednesday, and they encourage us to dress up, so I went into the city with a group of people to look for some clothes. There's a shopkeeper named Shabban who gives really good prices to the BYU students, so we headed there first. I found a skirt, but as we were walking through the old city I kept seeing these beautiful white shirts with embroidered flowers at the bottom, sleeves, and neck. I finally stopped and asked a random shopkeeper for the price, and we started haggling a little. As we were talking, he asked where I was from, and I told him Utah, that I was at the Mormon university. He got so excited, he had me come to the back of his shop, and showed me notes left for him by previous Jerusalem Center students. Like Shabban, he just loves the students, and gives us really good prices, no haggling involved. It made me so happy, he was so excited to meet me and the other students I was with. It just made my day.
Our first stop was a place called Wadi Qelt. We climbed up a mountain overlooking a monastery that is traditionally theMount of Temptation. The Judean wilderness by Jericho is a dry, bleak desert. In every direction, there is just nothing there. There really is nothing there, except monasteries and random wadi's. And it's hot. We were there at 9 in the morning, and it was already an oven. But being there really puts into perspective the stories of the Good Samaritan and when the devil tempted Jesus. It really helps to appreciate the stories when you have a visual of the setting.
Jericho itself is very much an oasis in the desert. Because of it's proximity to the Jordan river, and a good, clean spring, it get's some good water. We stopped and looked at the ruins of the city. At Jericho, they found the oldest known human made structure. It's a tower, dating back to 9000 BC. Most things, like towers and walls, don't really stand the test of time, and when you go to the various sites, many are a reconstruction. But this tower, it was still at least 10 feet high, which is very unusual. Especially considering how old it is. Professor Stratford, my Ancient Near Eastern Studies professor, explained that the most likely reason for building the tower would be to protect some kind of agricultural surplus. Again, with it's water sources, always warm climate, and good soil, Jericho is a great place to live, especially if you're a farmer.
Next we visited the source of the Jericho spring, the one that the prophet Elisha healed by throwing salt into it. Being there, and talking about Elisha, it really made me realize how many amazing things happened in Jericho, besides the walls coming down. Near there was the place where both Elijah and Moses were translated. Elisha spent time there. A not so cool thing was that Zedekiah's sons were killed near there. It has a lot of history. Well, everything here has a lot of history. But Jericho, you don't think about as much. At least I didn't.
Our last visit was to Herod's Winter Palace. Apparently, when they first uncovered it, the archaeologists thought that it was a gymnasium because of all the pools. It wasn't till later that they put together it was a palace complex. Herod's Winter Palace had quite the bloody history. It was the place where he had his brother-in-law, Aristobulus, drowned in the pool. It was also where he had his oldest son, the heir to the throne, killed, just five days before Herod's own death. And it was the place where Herod himself died. When Herod was on his deathbed, he ordered all the local Jewish leaders to be taken into the nearby hippodrome, and that upon his death they were all to be killed so that someone would be crying at his funeral. It was only through the efforts of his sister that the Jewish leaders were spared.
At the Winter Palace, we talked about legacies, and what kind of legacy we want to leave behind. Herod was a great builder, built beautiful impressive structures, but no one liked him. So much so, that he wanted others to be killed at his death so that someone would be sad. His own family was probably excited to see him go, just so that they knew that they would be safe from his paranoia. Is that really the way to be remembered?
So that's it for Jericho. It was only a half day field trip, so we had the whole afternoon to play! After lunch, I went with a group of people into the city. We're having an Arab culture night on Wednesday, and they encourage us to dress up, so I went into the city with a group of people to look for some clothes. There's a shopkeeper named Shabban who gives really good prices to the BYU students, so we headed there first. I found a skirt, but as we were walking through the old city I kept seeing these beautiful white shirts with embroidered flowers at the bottom, sleeves, and neck. I finally stopped and asked a random shopkeeper for the price, and we started haggling a little. As we were talking, he asked where I was from, and I told him Utah, that I was at the Mormon university. He got so excited, he had me come to the back of his shop, and showed me notes left for him by previous Jerusalem Center students. Like Shabban, he just loves the students, and gives us really good prices, no haggling involved. It made me so happy, he was so excited to meet me and the other students I was with. It just made my day.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Why'd Constantinople get the works...
...that's nobody's business but the Turks!
Great song, great song. Istanbul (Not Constantinople) cover by They Might Be Giants, was more or less our theme song this week, or at least while in Istanbul. According to our tour guide, the name was changed because there was a sign leading into Constantinople that read "to the city" that foreigners thought was the name to the city, and started to call it that.
Basically, this last week was an educational vacation in Turkey, and it was AMAZING! I very much hope that I get the chance in the future to go back. There were so many sites, and just not enough time to see them all. Especially the museums! Ah, just so amazing.
This blog post is going to be the highlights, but there are just so many, it's hard to choose! I think what I'm going to do is make a list of all the places that we went to, and then just talk about my absolute favorites. Here goes. The Sultanahment Mosque (or Blue Mosque), the Basilica Cistern, the Topkapi Palace, a boat ride on the Bosporus Straight, Gallipoli battlefield, Troy, Assos, Pergamum, St. Johns's Basilica, Ephesus, Prienne, Sardis, Thyratira, Bursa, the Hagia Sophia, and the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.
The first that I'm going to talk about is the Gallipoli battlefield. We watched a movie made about it the Friday before we left for Turkey. It's a very good movie, I highly recommend it. In World War I, Great Britain and ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Allie Corps) forces attacked the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey, hoping to gain access to the Dardenelles, a water way that leads to the Sea of Marmara and then to the Black Sea to open a second front. The allies eventually were forced to pull out, but not after a great loss of life.
The reason I liked this site so much was because of the Turkish attitude towards it. Every year, on the anniversary of the first attack by the ANZAC forces, people from all over Turkey gather to the battlefield. So many people come that after a certain time they close the road, just because there isn't any more room. As the night goes on, they narrate the battle. But they just don't revere and honor the Turkish troops. They very much honor and respect the ANZAC troops as well. The best way that I can really show this is by a quote from Mustafa Kemal Attaturk, a very influential Turkish leader who fought in that battle. "Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side in this country of ours... you, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom, and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."
Assos was beautiful. We just visited the acropolis at the top of the hill, but it was so beautiful. It was right on the Aegean sea, on top of a mountain. Behind you there were these beautiful green mountain, and in front of you the sparlking Aegean. It was just beautiful, and peaceful. It's mentioned in Acts 20:13-14 as the place where they picked up Paul, after he wanted to walk by himself from Troas to Assos instead of sailing with his friends. This was during Paul's journey to Jerusalem, and he knew that he wasn't going to be coming back to that place. You could imagine him, walking the 25 miles across the peninsula, thinking about his time as a missionary, and what was about to happen. Walking by himself, so that he could have some time alone to think.
Ephesus is a HUGE city. Well, was a huge city. It was very impressive. It would have been very beautiful. When were were there, there were also several cruise ships in the harbor, so the place was packed. One of the program directors likes to say that "The number one attraction at Ephesus is the cats. The number two attraction at Ephesus is people taking pictures of the cats. The number three attraction at Ephesus is that thing over there (referring to a gladiator show that was put on for the tourists). And then way down on the list is the antiquities." After seeing all the tourist, and taking a few cat pictures myself, I can attest to this.
Before reading the rest of this paragraph, dust off your scriptures and read Acts 19:23-41. Finished?
I was there! I sat in that exact theatre! I stood on the stage of that theatre! As my Old Testament professor put it "There are very few places that we can look at and say with complete certainty that this happened exactly here. But we can say that about this!" To put that scripture in a bit more perspective, that theatre seats 25,000 people. It was such a cool experience, to be there.
Visiting the Hagia Sophia is a dream come true for me. It was something that would have been on my bucket list had I ever though that there was a remote chance that I could have gone there. Having the chance to actually be there...I can't even describe it. The building was beautiful. Just beautiful. The archetecture, what was left of the mosaics, it was just all so breathtaking. It's a museum now, but they left elements up from when it was a mosque, and have uncovered some of the things that were leftover from when it was a church, so it's just a very interesting building. My tour guide said, "I see the Christians come here and cry because they want it to be a church again. I also see the Muslims come here and cry because they want it to be a mosque. I think that it is good that it is a museum because of this." I think I took more pictures there than of anything else in Turkey. It was just...it was literally a dream come true.
The last thing I'm going to talk about is the Istanbul archaeological museum. As I was getting ready to leave the Hagia Sophia, I saw a group of student from the center running out, legitimately running out. I asked them as they passed "Where are you going?" "To the archaeological museum!" "Is it cool?" "They have the oldest know peace treaty in the world there!" That was enough for me to give up my shopping plans and run after them to get there in time. I saw so many just amazing things there. I saw things there that I remember seeing pictures of in history books. One of which being the oldest peace treaty in the world, between the Hittites and the Egyptians. There's apparently a copy of it in the UN building. There's also a sarcophagus there, I believe it's called the Tomb of Alexander the Great, not because it was made for Alexander the Great, but there is a relief covering the outside of it of a battle scene, featuring Alexander the Great. It was amazing. And I got to see real, cuneiform clay tablets! It was so cool! We only had an hour there, but I could have spent a day, at least. We basically just rushed through because we didn't have a lot of time. If I ever get the chance to go back to Turkey, that museum is going to be my first stop.
So, that's the Turkey trip! As I'm sure you've noticed, I skipped over a lot of really cool things. I'd very much encourage every one to look them up. Everywhere we went in Turkey was amazing. The places I talked about were just my favorite.
To end this post, I'm going to talk about the fish. From the beginning, we were told that our very last meal in Turkey was going to be a fish, and entire fish, eyeballs and everything still there. I don't really like fish, but I tried all the meatballs, even though I don't like ground meat, and so I determined to try the fish. It was actually really, really good. And I ate all of it. Yes, I ate an entire fish. Except the eyeballs. I wasn't willing to go quite that far.
Well, that's it for the Turkey trip. In the airport, and again at a few of the hotels, I was able to get pretty good wifi, and they don't block facebook at airports. :) I've posted several pictures, of both Jerusalem and Turkey on my facebook. There's aren't any descriptions, as I couldn't figure out how to put them on with my ipod. But check them out!
Great song, great song. Istanbul (Not Constantinople) cover by They Might Be Giants, was more or less our theme song this week, or at least while in Istanbul. According to our tour guide, the name was changed because there was a sign leading into Constantinople that read "to the city" that foreigners thought was the name to the city, and started to call it that.
Basically, this last week was an educational vacation in Turkey, and it was AMAZING! I very much hope that I get the chance in the future to go back. There were so many sites, and just not enough time to see them all. Especially the museums! Ah, just so amazing.
This blog post is going to be the highlights, but there are just so many, it's hard to choose! I think what I'm going to do is make a list of all the places that we went to, and then just talk about my absolute favorites. Here goes. The Sultanahment Mosque (or Blue Mosque), the Basilica Cistern, the Topkapi Palace, a boat ride on the Bosporus Straight, Gallipoli battlefield, Troy, Assos, Pergamum, St. Johns's Basilica, Ephesus, Prienne, Sardis, Thyratira, Bursa, the Hagia Sophia, and the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.
The first that I'm going to talk about is the Gallipoli battlefield. We watched a movie made about it the Friday before we left for Turkey. It's a very good movie, I highly recommend it. In World War I, Great Britain and ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Allie Corps) forces attacked the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey, hoping to gain access to the Dardenelles, a water way that leads to the Sea of Marmara and then to the Black Sea to open a second front. The allies eventually were forced to pull out, but not after a great loss of life.
The reason I liked this site so much was because of the Turkish attitude towards it. Every year, on the anniversary of the first attack by the ANZAC forces, people from all over Turkey gather to the battlefield. So many people come that after a certain time they close the road, just because there isn't any more room. As the night goes on, they narrate the battle. But they just don't revere and honor the Turkish troops. They very much honor and respect the ANZAC troops as well. The best way that I can really show this is by a quote from Mustafa Kemal Attaturk, a very influential Turkish leader who fought in that battle. "Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side in this country of ours... you, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom, and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."
Assos was beautiful. We just visited the acropolis at the top of the hill, but it was so beautiful. It was right on the Aegean sea, on top of a mountain. Behind you there were these beautiful green mountain, and in front of you the sparlking Aegean. It was just beautiful, and peaceful. It's mentioned in Acts 20:13-14 as the place where they picked up Paul, after he wanted to walk by himself from Troas to Assos instead of sailing with his friends. This was during Paul's journey to Jerusalem, and he knew that he wasn't going to be coming back to that place. You could imagine him, walking the 25 miles across the peninsula, thinking about his time as a missionary, and what was about to happen. Walking by himself, so that he could have some time alone to think.
Ephesus is a HUGE city. Well, was a huge city. It was very impressive. It would have been very beautiful. When were were there, there were also several cruise ships in the harbor, so the place was packed. One of the program directors likes to say that "The number one attraction at Ephesus is the cats. The number two attraction at Ephesus is people taking pictures of the cats. The number three attraction at Ephesus is that thing over there (referring to a gladiator show that was put on for the tourists). And then way down on the list is the antiquities." After seeing all the tourist, and taking a few cat pictures myself, I can attest to this.
Before reading the rest of this paragraph, dust off your scriptures and read Acts 19:23-41. Finished?
I was there! I sat in that exact theatre! I stood on the stage of that theatre! As my Old Testament professor put it "There are very few places that we can look at and say with complete certainty that this happened exactly here. But we can say that about this!" To put that scripture in a bit more perspective, that theatre seats 25,000 people. It was such a cool experience, to be there.
Visiting the Hagia Sophia is a dream come true for me. It was something that would have been on my bucket list had I ever though that there was a remote chance that I could have gone there. Having the chance to actually be there...I can't even describe it. The building was beautiful. Just beautiful. The archetecture, what was left of the mosaics, it was just all so breathtaking. It's a museum now, but they left elements up from when it was a mosque, and have uncovered some of the things that were leftover from when it was a church, so it's just a very interesting building. My tour guide said, "I see the Christians come here and cry because they want it to be a church again. I also see the Muslims come here and cry because they want it to be a mosque. I think that it is good that it is a museum because of this." I think I took more pictures there than of anything else in Turkey. It was just...it was literally a dream come true.
The last thing I'm going to talk about is the Istanbul archaeological museum. As I was getting ready to leave the Hagia Sophia, I saw a group of student from the center running out, legitimately running out. I asked them as they passed "Where are you going?" "To the archaeological museum!" "Is it cool?" "They have the oldest know peace treaty in the world there!" That was enough for me to give up my shopping plans and run after them to get there in time. I saw so many just amazing things there. I saw things there that I remember seeing pictures of in history books. One of which being the oldest peace treaty in the world, between the Hittites and the Egyptians. There's apparently a copy of it in the UN building. There's also a sarcophagus there, I believe it's called the Tomb of Alexander the Great, not because it was made for Alexander the Great, but there is a relief covering the outside of it of a battle scene, featuring Alexander the Great. It was amazing. And I got to see real, cuneiform clay tablets! It was so cool! We only had an hour there, but I could have spent a day, at least. We basically just rushed through because we didn't have a lot of time. If I ever get the chance to go back to Turkey, that museum is going to be my first stop.
So, that's the Turkey trip! As I'm sure you've noticed, I skipped over a lot of really cool things. I'd very much encourage every one to look them up. Everywhere we went in Turkey was amazing. The places I talked about were just my favorite.
To end this post, I'm going to talk about the fish. From the beginning, we were told that our very last meal in Turkey was going to be a fish, and entire fish, eyeballs and everything still there. I don't really like fish, but I tried all the meatballs, even though I don't like ground meat, and so I determined to try the fish. It was actually really, really good. And I ate all of it. Yes, I ate an entire fish. Except the eyeballs. I wasn't willing to go quite that far.
Well, that's it for the Turkey trip. In the airport, and again at a few of the hotels, I was able to get pretty good wifi, and they don't block facebook at airports. :) I've posted several pictures, of both Jerusalem and Turkey on my facebook. There's aren't any descriptions, as I couldn't figure out how to put them on with my ipod. But check them out!
Friday, May 17, 2013
One short day...
A friend requested that I do a post about what a normal day is like here in the Jerusalem center. So I'm just going to go through my day today, give an idea of what we do here every day. One thing to realize though is that really, there is no such thing as a normal day here. The class schedule changes from day to day, week to week. We generally have church on Saturday, free day on Sunday, field trip on Monday, and then classes the rest of the week. Emphasis on generally.
Today is Friday. I woke up, went to the gym, took a shower, breakfast, turned in a paper for my Palestine class, then went Old Testament. I've been trying to go to the gym every day I don't go out into the city or have a field trip, because I'm really afraid of gaining weight. Apparantly it's a thing for people to gain weight while in the Jerusalem center. It's super easy to see why. Three all you can eat meals a day, plus a ton of amazing food out in the city...if I can come out of this place the same weight I was when I came in, I'll be happy. In Old Testament today we talked about the tabernacle, then Joshua, then back to the 10 commandments because we ran out of time to move on to Judges. Next was our Judaism class. We finished talking about the Torah and the Talmud today, and did a brief overview of Jewish history in the middle ages. Not a lot of good things happened to the Jews in the middle ages.
Lunch, hummas today (fresh, real hummas and pitas are the best ever!), then to Palestine class. We talked about the law systems of Islam, and kind of how they formed. After that, I went to a class taught by one of the professor's 12 year old daughter on how to write the letters of the Arabic alphabet. She's been taking Arabic in the international school she's been attending, and so she imparted her wealth of knowledge to us.
An hour break, and then dinner! Today was ice cream day! I got passionfruit and cookies and creme. So good, and so good together. Mmm, passion fruit. They do a good job at this cafeteria making Mediterranian style foods, while still having enough Western foods and variety that we don't get tired of it.
And that's a normal day for us here. Notice, I spent the entire day in the Jerusalem center. One of the religion professors here told us that after a month we'll all be singing "We all live in a limestone submarine...." I'm starting to feel it.
Over the course of the semester here we take a total of 15 credit hours. However, they break the up the courses into two terms, make the first term about a week longer than BYU's spring term, and front weight it. To put that more simply, I'm taking 10 credit hours of classes for the rough equivalent of a term or a block class, and then 5 credits for the remainder of my time here. In a normal BYU term, you generally don't take more than 7, and the limit is 9.
To put that even more simply, we have a ton of homework, at least 6 hours of class on the days that we have class, and we're all dying a little.
But, it's Friday night, tomorrow is the Sabbath, and I'm going to Turkey on Monday! In the words of my friend, Bryce, "We live in Jerusalem, and we're going to Turkey. Dang." So while classes and homework are crazy, we're going to have a week-long extended fieldtrip, and it's all going to be great!
Today is Friday. I woke up, went to the gym, took a shower, breakfast, turned in a paper for my Palestine class, then went Old Testament. I've been trying to go to the gym every day I don't go out into the city or have a field trip, because I'm really afraid of gaining weight. Apparantly it's a thing for people to gain weight while in the Jerusalem center. It's super easy to see why. Three all you can eat meals a day, plus a ton of amazing food out in the city...if I can come out of this place the same weight I was when I came in, I'll be happy. In Old Testament today we talked about the tabernacle, then Joshua, then back to the 10 commandments because we ran out of time to move on to Judges. Next was our Judaism class. We finished talking about the Torah and the Talmud today, and did a brief overview of Jewish history in the middle ages. Not a lot of good things happened to the Jews in the middle ages.
Lunch, hummas today (fresh, real hummas and pitas are the best ever!), then to Palestine class. We talked about the law systems of Islam, and kind of how they formed. After that, I went to a class taught by one of the professor's 12 year old daughter on how to write the letters of the Arabic alphabet. She's been taking Arabic in the international school she's been attending, and so she imparted her wealth of knowledge to us.
An hour break, and then dinner! Today was ice cream day! I got passionfruit and cookies and creme. So good, and so good together. Mmm, passion fruit. They do a good job at this cafeteria making Mediterranian style foods, while still having enough Western foods and variety that we don't get tired of it.
And that's a normal day for us here. Notice, I spent the entire day in the Jerusalem center. One of the religion professors here told us that after a month we'll all be singing "We all live in a limestone submarine...." I'm starting to feel it.
Over the course of the semester here we take a total of 15 credit hours. However, they break the up the courses into two terms, make the first term about a week longer than BYU's spring term, and front weight it. To put that more simply, I'm taking 10 credit hours of classes for the rough equivalent of a term or a block class, and then 5 credits for the remainder of my time here. In a normal BYU term, you generally don't take more than 7, and the limit is 9.
To put that even more simply, we have a ton of homework, at least 6 hours of class on the days that we have class, and we're all dying a little.
But, it's Friday night, tomorrow is the Sabbath, and I'm going to Turkey on Monday! In the words of my friend, Bryce, "We live in Jerusalem, and we're going to Turkey. Dang." So while classes and homework are crazy, we're going to have a week-long extended fieldtrip, and it's all going to be great!
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Shavuot
This post is the story of how twenty some odd college students and one stressed out security guard walked to the Western Wall at 5:30 in the morning.
That's basically the story. Today is the holiday of Shavuot, or the Festival of Weeks. I've been told that it it Pentecost in Christianity, but I'm not sure about that. It's the holiday to celebrate when Moses received the Torah. Jews celebrate by going to the synagogue at 11 pm and reading the Torah all night, until 4 in the morning. At that time, everyone in Jerusalem leaves their synagogues and walk to the Western Wall and say their morning prayers together as the sun rises.
So naturally, we had to go check it out. They don't like us leaving the center that early, before it's fully light out, hence the security guard. It was very different being at the Western Wall today as opposed to Friday night. Everyone there was a lot more solemn, more reverent. There wasn't any dancing or singing, just praying. And it was packed. There was no way to get even close to the wall. They extended the dividing line between the girls and the boys side because there were so many more people. I saw a couple of guys carrying a legit Torah to the wall.
After walking around for a bit in the square, we found a way to the top of an observation tower, where you could look out and see the whole square. It was super beautiful, to see the sun come up over the Mount of Olives and hit the Dome of the Rock. From there, the men's side looked a solid white from all the prayer shawls. At the top of a house behind us were a group of people reading from the Torah. They were just hanging out reading the Torah. Even on top of the house, the women were separated from the men.
Don't worry, we made it back in time for breakfast, but just barely. As we were walking back, all the kids were leaving to go to school. It was fun to see them all in their uniforms waiting at bus stops.
Have a Happy Holiday!
That's basically the story. Today is the holiday of Shavuot, or the Festival of Weeks. I've been told that it it Pentecost in Christianity, but I'm not sure about that. It's the holiday to celebrate when Moses received the Torah. Jews celebrate by going to the synagogue at 11 pm and reading the Torah all night, until 4 in the morning. At that time, everyone in Jerusalem leaves their synagogues and walk to the Western Wall and say their morning prayers together as the sun rises.
So naturally, we had to go check it out. They don't like us leaving the center that early, before it's fully light out, hence the security guard. It was very different being at the Western Wall today as opposed to Friday night. Everyone there was a lot more solemn, more reverent. There wasn't any dancing or singing, just praying. And it was packed. There was no way to get even close to the wall. They extended the dividing line between the girls and the boys side because there were so many more people. I saw a couple of guys carrying a legit Torah to the wall.
After walking around for a bit in the square, we found a way to the top of an observation tower, where you could look out and see the whole square. It was super beautiful, to see the sun come up over the Mount of Olives and hit the Dome of the Rock. From there, the men's side looked a solid white from all the prayer shawls. At the top of a house behind us were a group of people reading from the Torah. They were just hanging out reading the Torah. Even on top of the house, the women were separated from the men.
Don't worry, we made it back in time for breakfast, but just barely. As we were walking back, all the kids were leaving to go to school. It was fun to see them all in their uniforms waiting at bus stops.
Have a Happy Holiday!
Monday, May 13, 2013
To the Fortress!!!
Today was field trip number two. We went to an area known as the Negev. If I remember right, Negev in Hebrew means dry. It's just about as far South as you can be and still be in Israel. And it's a desert. Dry, hot, but also suprisingly windy. It was so windy, you didn't feel sweaty until you were out of the wind or went inside. And then it felt super gross. But out in the wind it was great.
Our first stop in our trip to the desert was a place called Lakiya to visit a weaving factory there. The weaving factory is owned and run by Bedouin women. The Bedouin people were more or less forced to stop their nomadic lifestyle by the State of Israel. They settled down in towns, some sanctioned by the state, others not. The men would go out and work, and the women would stay home and take care of things. The women would rarely leave their homes because they didn't know how to act in the outside world. They had no skills necessary to really do anything outside the home. The weaving project was created to help these women learn skills in management and finance, more or less basic buisness skills, by selling their weaving, something that they had passed down in their communities for generations. It was really amazing being there, and seeing everything that those women were able to accomplish on their own. They have started to market their wares all around the world. If anyones's interested their website is http://www.lakiya.org/. I'd very much reccoment checking it out.
Next we went to Tel Beer Sheva. A tel is the word for an archaeological site where you can't see any ruins on top, it more or less looks like a big hill, perhaps where a hill shouldn't be. After digging down, the archaeologists will run into walls and other things. The tel dated to the Iron Age, so it's not the Beer Sheva that is mentioned in regards to Abraham and the other patriarchs. The site of that Beer Sheva is most likely under the modern city of Beer Sheba. (From what I've been able to tell, the names Beer Sheva and Beer Sheba are more or less interchangeable. My Old Testament professor today referred to Beer Sheva as the tel and Beer Sheba as the modern city. It's Beersheba in the bible. Wikipedia made me think that it doesn't matter. Confusing? Sorry. :P) The Iron Age is the during the time of King David, Solomon, basically through the first temple period. They had a cistern there underneath the city that you could walk through. It was huge! Crazy huge! There was basically a deep, stone lined pit with a hole in the bottom. You walk through the hole, and into a series of huge plaster lined water chambers underground. It was just cool.
The next place that we visited was tel Arad, and the place where I got the title for this blog. Arad had both an Iron Age fortress on top of the hill, and a Canaanite village at the bottom of the hill. We explored the fortress first. My Old Testament professor told us about how when they were excavating the tel they found in one house pottery shards called ostracon. Ostracon are special pottery shards because they have writing on them, used more or less as disposable letters. A few of the pottery shards deal with events leading to the fall of the the Kingdom of Judah in 586. My professor read a few of them to us. When reading about the fall of the Kingdom of Judah, I've always thought that the people deserved what they were getting. They weren't listening to the prophets, and this was their punishment. But even though they weren't doing everything right, they were still people, people who were doing everything that they could to defend their home against the coming armies, but in the end just couldn't do it on their own. They weren't necessarily evil people, just people who weren't listening to the right people.
The Canaanite village was huge, and had a good sized wall all the way around it. It reminded me of the Great Wall of China. The village dates to 2500 BC, so before the time of Abraham. There was a huge well at the very bottom of the village. My professor explained that we don't know a lot about the various buildings in the village, but it was easy to see walls, and what would have been rooms. There are a lot of places around here...well, Jerusalem, where the city is much higher than it was at the time of Jesus. More or less, the only areas of the city that are the same hight as they would have been at that time are the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. But walking through these ruins that have been excavated, people actually walked there. People build that wall out of mud bricks, and you can still see the bricks. People dug that cistern. People who are gone now, but they actually lived. And you can see what they left behind.
One thing that we talked about in regards to the sites we visited were when the people weren't following the God of Israel. In each site that we visited there was some kind of alter or temple that you can tell from various signs that weren't following the Law of Moses. Arad actually had a temple patterned after the temple in Jerusalem. You read about in the scriptures how the people aren't following God, but it's different to actually see the evidence, and to discuss what they were doing wrong. Most of the time they were following a lot of the tenets of the Law of Moses, but there was something, or a few things, that were just off, and they completely missed the mark because of it.
All in all, it was a really great fieldtrip. It was a ton of fun to explore the ruins. And we saw camels! There were camels everywhere! They have camel crossing signs like we have deer crossing signs. Also, there were sheep herds all over the place. We got to see a shepherd herding sheep! It was so cute, the sheep at the front, if they got too far ahead of the shepherd, would stop and wait for the shepherd to catch up before continuing on. Super cool.
Our first stop in our trip to the desert was a place called Lakiya to visit a weaving factory there. The weaving factory is owned and run by Bedouin women. The Bedouin people were more or less forced to stop their nomadic lifestyle by the State of Israel. They settled down in towns, some sanctioned by the state, others not. The men would go out and work, and the women would stay home and take care of things. The women would rarely leave their homes because they didn't know how to act in the outside world. They had no skills necessary to really do anything outside the home. The weaving project was created to help these women learn skills in management and finance, more or less basic buisness skills, by selling their weaving, something that they had passed down in their communities for generations. It was really amazing being there, and seeing everything that those women were able to accomplish on their own. They have started to market their wares all around the world. If anyones's interested their website is http://www.lakiya.org/. I'd very much reccoment checking it out.
Next we went to Tel Beer Sheva. A tel is the word for an archaeological site where you can't see any ruins on top, it more or less looks like a big hill, perhaps where a hill shouldn't be. After digging down, the archaeologists will run into walls and other things. The tel dated to the Iron Age, so it's not the Beer Sheva that is mentioned in regards to Abraham and the other patriarchs. The site of that Beer Sheva is most likely under the modern city of Beer Sheba. (From what I've been able to tell, the names Beer Sheva and Beer Sheba are more or less interchangeable. My Old Testament professor today referred to Beer Sheva as the tel and Beer Sheba as the modern city. It's Beersheba in the bible. Wikipedia made me think that it doesn't matter. Confusing? Sorry. :P) The Iron Age is the during the time of King David, Solomon, basically through the first temple period. They had a cistern there underneath the city that you could walk through. It was huge! Crazy huge! There was basically a deep, stone lined pit with a hole in the bottom. You walk through the hole, and into a series of huge plaster lined water chambers underground. It was just cool.
The next place that we visited was tel Arad, and the place where I got the title for this blog. Arad had both an Iron Age fortress on top of the hill, and a Canaanite village at the bottom of the hill. We explored the fortress first. My Old Testament professor told us about how when they were excavating the tel they found in one house pottery shards called ostracon. Ostracon are special pottery shards because they have writing on them, used more or less as disposable letters. A few of the pottery shards deal with events leading to the fall of the the Kingdom of Judah in 586. My professor read a few of them to us. When reading about the fall of the Kingdom of Judah, I've always thought that the people deserved what they were getting. They weren't listening to the prophets, and this was their punishment. But even though they weren't doing everything right, they were still people, people who were doing everything that they could to defend their home against the coming armies, but in the end just couldn't do it on their own. They weren't necessarily evil people, just people who weren't listening to the right people.
The Canaanite village was huge, and had a good sized wall all the way around it. It reminded me of the Great Wall of China. The village dates to 2500 BC, so before the time of Abraham. There was a huge well at the very bottom of the village. My professor explained that we don't know a lot about the various buildings in the village, but it was easy to see walls, and what would have been rooms. There are a lot of places around here...well, Jerusalem, where the city is much higher than it was at the time of Jesus. More or less, the only areas of the city that are the same hight as they would have been at that time are the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. But walking through these ruins that have been excavated, people actually walked there. People build that wall out of mud bricks, and you can still see the bricks. People dug that cistern. People who are gone now, but they actually lived. And you can see what they left behind.
One thing that we talked about in regards to the sites we visited were when the people weren't following the God of Israel. In each site that we visited there was some kind of alter or temple that you can tell from various signs that weren't following the Law of Moses. Arad actually had a temple patterned after the temple in Jerusalem. You read about in the scriptures how the people aren't following God, but it's different to actually see the evidence, and to discuss what they were doing wrong. Most of the time they were following a lot of the tenets of the Law of Moses, but there was something, or a few things, that were just off, and they completely missed the mark because of it.
All in all, it was a really great fieldtrip. It was a ton of fun to explore the ruins. And we saw camels! There were camels everywhere! They have camel crossing signs like we have deer crossing signs. Also, there were sheep herds all over the place. We got to see a shepherd herding sheep! It was so cute, the sheep at the front, if they got too far ahead of the shepherd, would stop and wait for the shepherd to catch up before continuing on. Super cool.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Welsome Welcome, Sabbath Evening (and morning too!)
Yesterday evening, we went as a group to the Western Wall to welcome in the Sabbath, Jewish style. I honetly didn't know what I was expecting. People more somber, praying, reverant. I was not expecting a party, which was what it was. There was a bunch of singing and dancing, from both the guys and the girls. From what I understand, Jews worship with the men seperate from the women, so to go up to the wall, the men go to one side, and the women to the other. We met a bunch of American girls on the girl's side. I guess they were touring the Holy Land for their senior trip. They also assumed that we were also Jewish Americans at first, but then they still let us sing and dance with them anyway. It was really fun to see the soldiers singing and dancing with everyone else, dancing around with their assault rifles. Some of them also had some interesting colored berets. As in, turquoise blue, lime green, and orange. All in all, it was really fun. We've decided that we want to have our own Sabbath welcoming party every Friday evening.
To add to that, this evening I was with a big group of JC (Jerusalem Center, for now on) students watching the movie the Prince of Egypt, since we're studying it in Old Testament right now. When it got to that one really fun song when Moses is with the Midianites, we all got up and started dancing in a circle. It was so much fun! I dare anyone who reads this to try it next time they watch Prince of Egypt. Hold hands, sing, and dance in a circle. You'll thank me. :)
Today, after church (don't forget, I have church on Saturday, not Sunday) we walked to the Garden Tomb. It is another site that is thought by a lot of people to be where Christ was crucified, buried, and resurrected. We were given a tour, shown the skull image in the side of the mountain, then the olive press that they found, and then taken to the garden tomb. Afterwards, we went to a group of benches and sang hymns for about half an hour. It's amazing how the same songs that I've been singing all my life take on such new meaning when singing them here. Probably my favorite was Nearer, My God to Thee. There were several other groups of people there who were taking pictures and video taping us singing. It was so peaceful.
I've talked in this blog about both the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Garden Tomb, and so now I want to say a word on both. The truth of it is, there is no definitive proof to really support either site as the site where Jesus was crucified and buried. There are historical inaccuracies with both. And there is also no definitive modern revelation from any leaders in the LDS church to support either.
Protestants coming to the Holy Land felt out of place going to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It wasn't the way that they were used to worshipping, as in, much more ornate and Catholic than they liked, so they began to look for another place that they could worship in a way they were used to. The result of that search was the Garden Tomb. It only follows reason that the LDS church would choose to rever the Garden Tomb for the same reason.
Honestly, whichever you choose as the place where you think Christ was crucified and buried, doesn't matter. Both sites are beautiful, and you can feel the presence at the Holy Ghost at both. All that really matters is the reason why you're there. There are spiritual insights that can be had from both places if you're open to it. Don't just dismiss something because it's different that what you're used to.
To add to that, this evening I was with a big group of JC (Jerusalem Center, for now on) students watching the movie the Prince of Egypt, since we're studying it in Old Testament right now. When it got to that one really fun song when Moses is with the Midianites, we all got up and started dancing in a circle. It was so much fun! I dare anyone who reads this to try it next time they watch Prince of Egypt. Hold hands, sing, and dance in a circle. You'll thank me. :)
Today, after church (don't forget, I have church on Saturday, not Sunday) we walked to the Garden Tomb. It is another site that is thought by a lot of people to be where Christ was crucified, buried, and resurrected. We were given a tour, shown the skull image in the side of the mountain, then the olive press that they found, and then taken to the garden tomb. Afterwards, we went to a group of benches and sang hymns for about half an hour. It's amazing how the same songs that I've been singing all my life take on such new meaning when singing them here. Probably my favorite was Nearer, My God to Thee. There were several other groups of people there who were taking pictures and video taping us singing. It was so peaceful.
I've talked in this blog about both the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Garden Tomb, and so now I want to say a word on both. The truth of it is, there is no definitive proof to really support either site as the site where Jesus was crucified and buried. There are historical inaccuracies with both. And there is also no definitive modern revelation from any leaders in the LDS church to support either.
Protestants coming to the Holy Land felt out of place going to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It wasn't the way that they were used to worshipping, as in, much more ornate and Catholic than they liked, so they began to look for another place that they could worship in a way they were used to. The result of that search was the Garden Tomb. It only follows reason that the LDS church would choose to rever the Garden Tomb for the same reason.
Honestly, whichever you choose as the place where you think Christ was crucified and buried, doesn't matter. Both sites are beautiful, and you can feel the presence at the Holy Ghost at both. All that really matters is the reason why you're there. There are spiritual insights that can be had from both places if you're open to it. Don't just dismiss something because it's different that what you're used to.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Jerusalem Day!
Happy Jerusalem Day! Today is a holiday to comemorate when Israel took all of Jersalem after the 6 Days War in 1967. So, it's a party in West Jerusalem, and not a party in East Jerusalem. We walked into what looked like the beginnings of a demonstration as we walked out of Damascus Gate this afternoon. We left the area quickly. The entire Old City was full of military people. We saw them everywhere, where normally there are only a few near the gates. Some of them even seemed like they were touring some of the sites in the city.
The group that I was with decided to go to West Jerusalem for lunch. Falafel is the best food EVER! Walking through West Jerusalem, it feels like a Europen city. As in, there's a train, like the Utah Trax, and people playing jazz in the streets. Couples actually touch and hold hands, and the women dress...not so conservatively. It's just...odd, especially coming from the old city, or East Jerusalem.
After wandering around for a bit, we headed back to the center by taking the long way through the old city. We had some time to kill, and we've heard a lot about it, so we decided to check out the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I was very much not prepared for going into that church.
From the outside, it seems very unassuming. And you can't tell at all how big it is. It just looks like a big stone building, with a random ladder on the outside (I talked about it in an earlier post). But then you walk in, and it's just amazing. Amazing. I can't describe how beautiful and amazing and awe-inspiring that church is. And that's just the church, when you consider what all is believed to have happened there...
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the place where Christ was thought to have been crucified, beautified, and then buried. The site was chosen by a women named Helena, who was Emporor Constantine's mother. Constantine was the Roman emperor who decided to make Christianity the official religion of Rome. Helena came to Jerusalem some time after that to find as many holy sites as she could. The Church of the Holy Sepulcre is one of them. A church was built, but was destroyed in 1009. The Crusaders rebuilt the church, and Saladin let the Christians keep it after he conquered the city.
Inside the church it felt...the best way that I can describe it is holy. The church felt holy. Not like a temple. I'm having such a hard time describing it. Like, you could feel all the prayers, the faith, the devotion of everyone who had ever and would ever come there, like it's seeped into the walls, and is resonating from every stone. I know that a lot of people dispute the actual places of things in and around the Old City, especially when dealing with events in the New Testament. Whether the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the "right place" or not, that place is sacred. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to visit, and to be able to go again.
The group that I was with decided to go to West Jerusalem for lunch. Falafel is the best food EVER! Walking through West Jerusalem, it feels like a Europen city. As in, there's a train, like the Utah Trax, and people playing jazz in the streets. Couples actually touch and hold hands, and the women dress...not so conservatively. It's just...odd, especially coming from the old city, or East Jerusalem.
After wandering around for a bit, we headed back to the center by taking the long way through the old city. We had some time to kill, and we've heard a lot about it, so we decided to check out the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I was very much not prepared for going into that church.
From the outside, it seems very unassuming. And you can't tell at all how big it is. It just looks like a big stone building, with a random ladder on the outside (I talked about it in an earlier post). But then you walk in, and it's just amazing. Amazing. I can't describe how beautiful and amazing and awe-inspiring that church is. And that's just the church, when you consider what all is believed to have happened there...
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the place where Christ was thought to have been crucified, beautified, and then buried. The site was chosen by a women named Helena, who was Emporor Constantine's mother. Constantine was the Roman emperor who decided to make Christianity the official religion of Rome. Helena came to Jerusalem some time after that to find as many holy sites as she could. The Church of the Holy Sepulcre is one of them. A church was built, but was destroyed in 1009. The Crusaders rebuilt the church, and Saladin let the Christians keep it after he conquered the city.
Inside the church it felt...the best way that I can describe it is holy. The church felt holy. Not like a temple. I'm having such a hard time describing it. Like, you could feel all the prayers, the faith, the devotion of everyone who had ever and would ever come there, like it's seeped into the walls, and is resonating from every stone. I know that a lot of people dispute the actual places of things in and around the Old City, especially when dealing with events in the New Testament. Whether the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the "right place" or not, that place is sacred. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to visit, and to be able to go again.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Some of the Coolest Things
So, I realized today while we were out on our fieldtrip, that I'm not going to be able to write about everything here. After writing in my journal, and then various emails that I send out to people, just not going to happen. But the coolest things for sure are going to be here, so don't feel like I'm leaving things out.
I don't know how many people are reading this (I know that my mom isn't :P) but feel free to comment, or make suggestions. Like, if there's something that you want to know about in particular, or something that you'd like to know more about. Just, whatever. That is all.
The first of the coolest things. On Saturday, after dinner, we had some time before sunset, so I got together with 4 guys and 2 other girls to go check out the Western Wall. We had just gotten into the old city when we passed by a school playground with a soccer field. It wasn't a legit field, it was made of concrete, and the goals posts were concrete. But it was pretty large. As we walked by, one of the guys in our group noticed that there were a bunch of young Palestinian boys, like 9-10 years old, who were playing soccer together. One of the boys noticed us, and invited the guys in our group to come play with them. Which they did. It was so much fun to watch, the American college students playing with the Palestinian kids. The two other girls and I were wearing skirts, so we opted to just watch. After they had been playing for a while, a group of Palestinian boys about our age started gathering at the entrance to the soccer field. These older Palestinian guys challeneged our guys to a legit soccer game. They played until we had to leave to get back to the center before it got dark. The end score was tied, but our guys claimed that the Palestinians were going easy on them. While the older guys were playing, all the younger kids came over and were talking to me and the other girls. They took pictures with us, and laughed at our names. It was really fun, and really unexpected, and just all around awsome.
The second of the coolest things. In my Old Testament class last Friday, my teacher had tickets for the Tower of David museum, and encouraged us all to go. I took a ticket, and made plans to go with some people on Sunday. (Remeber, Sunday is like Saturday for us. Church is on Saturday, free day is on Sunday.) We walked up to it, and next thing I know I'm crossing a bridge over a moat built by the Crusaders to enter in the front doors of a legit castle. A CASTLE! It was a castle, in the middle of Jerusalem! It's been around for a crazy long time. It was apparantly first built around 300 BC. Herod added on to it, and the Crusaders used it, and it was even used during the 6 Day War back in 1967. It was being used as a castle in my parent's lifetime. I dunno, I just think that's so crazy. And cool. And it's the first castle I've been able to go to! Just so cool.
Today was our first field trip. To get us aquainted with the area, we drove to various outlooks around the city, pointing out various landmarks, also to help us get ready for our test on the area on Wednesday. Probably my favorite was going to a place my Old Testament teacher called the Bethlehem overlook. Our bus took us to a monastery, and then we climed up the hill behind it to get a panoramic view of Bethlehem. Bethlehem is located in the West Bank, so there's a concrete wall seperating it from Jerusalem. While looking at the city, we got out our scriptures and read about some of the things that happened in Jerusalem. First, we talked about Rachel's death, and her tomb. Apparantly, when they were making the wall to seperate the West Bank, the Israeli government put Rachel's tomb on the Jerusalem side of the line. There's a synogogue there, and according to my teacher it's a very significant place.
We then talked about Ruth, and her coming to Bethlehem with Naomi from Moab. Moab is in what is now Jordan. It is really neat to be able to know this area, and where things are. The places in the bible aren't just names anymore. I've had to learn where these places are. Mostly because I have a test on it on Wednesday, but still. These are actual places, actual people.
Last, we read in Luke 2. Mind blowing is the only way to describe it. I've read that story so many times throughout my life, to think that I could actually see where it happened...everything is so much more real to me. It's like the stories in the bible have just come to live in front of me. It's indescribable and amazing. Just amazing.
I don't know how many people are reading this (I know that my mom isn't :P) but feel free to comment, or make suggestions. Like, if there's something that you want to know about in particular, or something that you'd like to know more about. Just, whatever. That is all.
The first of the coolest things. On Saturday, after dinner, we had some time before sunset, so I got together with 4 guys and 2 other girls to go check out the Western Wall. We had just gotten into the old city when we passed by a school playground with a soccer field. It wasn't a legit field, it was made of concrete, and the goals posts were concrete. But it was pretty large. As we walked by, one of the guys in our group noticed that there were a bunch of young Palestinian boys, like 9-10 years old, who were playing soccer together. One of the boys noticed us, and invited the guys in our group to come play with them. Which they did. It was so much fun to watch, the American college students playing with the Palestinian kids. The two other girls and I were wearing skirts, so we opted to just watch. After they had been playing for a while, a group of Palestinian boys about our age started gathering at the entrance to the soccer field. These older Palestinian guys challeneged our guys to a legit soccer game. They played until we had to leave to get back to the center before it got dark. The end score was tied, but our guys claimed that the Palestinians were going easy on them. While the older guys were playing, all the younger kids came over and were talking to me and the other girls. They took pictures with us, and laughed at our names. It was really fun, and really unexpected, and just all around awsome.
The second of the coolest things. In my Old Testament class last Friday, my teacher had tickets for the Tower of David museum, and encouraged us all to go. I took a ticket, and made plans to go with some people on Sunday. (Remeber, Sunday is like Saturday for us. Church is on Saturday, free day is on Sunday.) We walked up to it, and next thing I know I'm crossing a bridge over a moat built by the Crusaders to enter in the front doors of a legit castle. A CASTLE! It was a castle, in the middle of Jerusalem! It's been around for a crazy long time. It was apparantly first built around 300 BC. Herod added on to it, and the Crusaders used it, and it was even used during the 6 Day War back in 1967. It was being used as a castle in my parent's lifetime. I dunno, I just think that's so crazy. And cool. And it's the first castle I've been able to go to! Just so cool.
Today was our first field trip. To get us aquainted with the area, we drove to various outlooks around the city, pointing out various landmarks, also to help us get ready for our test on the area on Wednesday. Probably my favorite was going to a place my Old Testament teacher called the Bethlehem overlook. Our bus took us to a monastery, and then we climed up the hill behind it to get a panoramic view of Bethlehem. Bethlehem is located in the West Bank, so there's a concrete wall seperating it from Jerusalem. While looking at the city, we got out our scriptures and read about some of the things that happened in Jerusalem. First, we talked about Rachel's death, and her tomb. Apparantly, when they were making the wall to seperate the West Bank, the Israeli government put Rachel's tomb on the Jerusalem side of the line. There's a synogogue there, and according to my teacher it's a very significant place.
We then talked about Ruth, and her coming to Bethlehem with Naomi from Moab. Moab is in what is now Jordan. It is really neat to be able to know this area, and where things are. The places in the bible aren't just names anymore. I've had to learn where these places are. Mostly because I have a test on it on Wednesday, but still. These are actual places, actual people.
Last, we read in Luke 2. Mind blowing is the only way to describe it. I've read that story so many times throughout my life, to think that I could actually see where it happened...everything is so much more real to me. It's like the stories in the bible have just come to live in front of me. It's indescribable and amazing. Just amazing.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Fast Saturday
"Oh yea, tomorrow is fast Sunday."
"No, it's fast Saturday."
Here at the Jerusalem center, we follow the Jewish tradition of the Sabbath being on Saturday, and Sunday being a free day. Not going to lie, it feels really weird. But I like it. Instead of partying all day Saturday and then not wanting to do homework the next day because it's Sunday, we do Sunday all day Saturday then can do whatever we want on Sunday. As in, homework. Because yes, I still do have homework, and a lot of studying. In one of our classes, Anchient Near Eastern Studies, there are only 10 A's and 12 A-'s given out to 79 students. So yea, some studying is going to happen.
Today after church, being forced to fast until 4 when the cafeteria opens, the majoirty of the students decided to go out into the city. I joined a group that was headed for the Garden of Gethsemane. I say headed, because we couldn't find it. And we ended up getting turned around and a little lost on the Mount of Olives...but we made it back! And in time for dinner!
We knew that the Garden of Gethsemane was located somewhere south of the Jerusalem Center, and so we just started walking. There was this one road that we knew would lead us directly there, but some of our tour guides from Thursday had told us to avoid the road at all costs, so we took the long way around, and ended up exploring the Mount of Olives.
As was explained to me by a guy in our group, it's Jewish tradition that when Christ comes again, the first people to be resurrected will be those buried on the Mount of Olives. So everyone wants to be buried there. And the hill is just covered with tombs. They are everywhere, squeezed into every available space. It's kinda sad, the Mount of Olives is in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of the city where the Jews don't go, so the cemeteries aren't as kept up as they could be.
As we were exploring, we stumbled on Dominus Flevit, which is the church that marks the place where Christ wept over Jerusalem. From the church you have a perfect view of the Dome of the Rock, which is located in the place where the temple used to be. You could almost see Christ sitting up there, looking down at the city, and the temple, knowing exactly what was going to happen to it, and just being so sad.
After that, we just kinda took streets in the general direction of the Jerusalem center until we found it. We could keep our bearings because of the Hebrew University tower, which is on the hill behind the center. And we were in a pretty big group. Remember how in my last post I mentioned how we always needed to have a guy with us? The guys in the group I was with were very good about keeping an eye on the girls. Making sure that we were all there, not letting us get seperated in the crowds. They know that our safety is partially on them, and they're taking that seriously. Another reason why you all shouldn't worry about me. :)
"No, it's fast Saturday."
Here at the Jerusalem center, we follow the Jewish tradition of the Sabbath being on Saturday, and Sunday being a free day. Not going to lie, it feels really weird. But I like it. Instead of partying all day Saturday and then not wanting to do homework the next day because it's Sunday, we do Sunday all day Saturday then can do whatever we want on Sunday. As in, homework. Because yes, I still do have homework, and a lot of studying. In one of our classes, Anchient Near Eastern Studies, there are only 10 A's and 12 A-'s given out to 79 students. So yea, some studying is going to happen.
Today after church, being forced to fast until 4 when the cafeteria opens, the majoirty of the students decided to go out into the city. I joined a group that was headed for the Garden of Gethsemane. I say headed, because we couldn't find it. And we ended up getting turned around and a little lost on the Mount of Olives...but we made it back! And in time for dinner!
We knew that the Garden of Gethsemane was located somewhere south of the Jerusalem Center, and so we just started walking. There was this one road that we knew would lead us directly there, but some of our tour guides from Thursday had told us to avoid the road at all costs, so we took the long way around, and ended up exploring the Mount of Olives.
As was explained to me by a guy in our group, it's Jewish tradition that when Christ comes again, the first people to be resurrected will be those buried on the Mount of Olives. So everyone wants to be buried there. And the hill is just covered with tombs. They are everywhere, squeezed into every available space. It's kinda sad, the Mount of Olives is in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of the city where the Jews don't go, so the cemeteries aren't as kept up as they could be.
As we were exploring, we stumbled on Dominus Flevit, which is the church that marks the place where Christ wept over Jerusalem. From the church you have a perfect view of the Dome of the Rock, which is located in the place where the temple used to be. You could almost see Christ sitting up there, looking down at the city, and the temple, knowing exactly what was going to happen to it, and just being so sad.
After that, we just kinda took streets in the general direction of the Jerusalem center until we found it. We could keep our bearings because of the Hebrew University tower, which is on the hill behind the center. And we were in a pretty big group. Remember how in my last post I mentioned how we always needed to have a guy with us? The guys in the group I was with were very good about keeping an eye on the girls. Making sure that we were all there, not letting us get seperated in the crowds. They know that our safety is partially on them, and they're taking that seriously. Another reason why you all shouldn't worry about me. :)
Friday, May 3, 2013
Safety, in case you were wondering...
This blog post is directed at my mom and her sisters. Hello mom, Aunt Marie, Aunt Jeannie, and Aunt Susie! I know that you all are probably worried about me being safe. This is to kinda to address all that.
First of all, to discuss the terrorist side of things. People really don't mess with Jerusalem. There are so many people who consider it a sacred, holy place that it generally get's left alone. While everyone would be ok with getting rid of their rival's holy sites, their own holy sites happen to be just down the street. And Jerusalem has the Dome of the Rock, the third most holy site in the Muslim religion. No faithful Muslim is going to do anything that could possibly harm the Dome of the Rock. What happened back in December is very, very rare. As a generally rule, Jerusalem is safe from terrorist attacks.
As I mentioned in my last post, the Jerusalem Center is located in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of town. We are surrounded by Muslims. There's a mosque across the street. No Palestinian is going to bomb the Palestinian neighborhood. They'd go to West Jerusalem, where the Jews are. So I'm safe in that way as well.
Also, they take no chances when it comes to bombs here. If there is a bag of any sort that is unattended, it get's blown up. They don't even inspect it, they get everyone away then blow it up. There are also Israeli soldiers around everywhere.
But if there were to be a problem, there are two bomb shelters in the Jerusalem Center. Both are large enough to hold everyone who lives and works in the center plus some extra. There are also bomb shelters throughout the city. If there is a legit problem, we would have about a minute and a half to get to a safe place. That's plenty of time while in the center, and security would help us if we were outside the center. So I would be just fine.
Bombings are something to be ready for and aware of, but not to stress out about here.
We have a lot of rules to keep us safe in and around the city. Whenever we're out, we have to be in a group of three, and there always needs to be at least one male in each group. We cannot be in the Old City or East Jerusalem after dark. Period. Not even to walk back to the center. We can stay out until midnight in West Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, but then we'd have to take some kind of transportation home, like a taxi. No public transportation after dark.
There are also some places that we just aren't allowed to go. There is one road that we were warned to never, ever go down, no matter how many people we have in our group. And to go to the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden, we need at least 10 people in a group, and at least 2 boys.
We were all issued cell phones by the center that have the security for the center on speed dial. We are required to take these phones with us whenever we leave the center. They allow for us to keep in touch with security in the event of something happening. The security guys here are very good, they can get to us or get us whatever we need really fast. My tour guide yesterday said that she saw one security guy get to somewhere in the old city in about 3 minutes. They're good, and they've got our backs.
There is a problem here with Arab men having a poor image of Western, particularly American, women. Having grown up watching Western shows that show the women as being morally loose, they assume that we all are, and they can be a bit...forward...to put it mildly. If there is ever a problem with a guy messing with a girl from the center, we call security, and they will come, hunt down the guy, and threaten him with his and his family's lives if they ever catch them harassing another Jerusalem Center girl again. They are very serious, and very convincing. They don't get repeat offenders. So if there is a problem, there are people here who take care of things.
So, this was supposed to help you all not stress out. Basically, don't worry. We're being taken care of.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
First Day, First Day!!!
Last night things were pretty mellow. We got into Tel Aviv, then through customs with no problems. An hour bus trip and we were at the center! It was almost dark by the time we got here, but we were able to pick out the Dome of the Rock as we were driving in. A quick tour of the center, dinner, and then we were left on our own to unpack and get some sleep. Being tired from the flight, we were all just kinda "meh" about everything. It didn't quite feel like Jerusalem, you know? Hadn't really sunk in yet.
Today, however...
AHHHH! I'm in Jerusalem! This is so amazing! AHHHHHH!
After breakfast we went through a tour of the city. Guys, I'm in Jerusalem. The legit Jerusalem. I'm just so mind-blown right now.
An important thing to know is that Jerusalem is kinda in three parts. East Jerusalem, West Jerusalem, and the Old City. East Jerusalem is the Palestinian half of the city, and where the Jerusalem Center is. It's not very modern, and there is trash everywhere. According to Sister Shade, our tour guide, Muslim people do a great job of keeping their homes very neat and tidy, but there's no sense of community to keep the rest of the town clean. She said that we'd get used to the trash eventually. We walked from the center, through East Jerusalem to the Damascus Gate of the Old City. Damascus Gate is apparently THE gate, the one that was made to be super ceremonial and beautiful by Suliman the Great, the guy who built the current walls. It's also a great place to get pick pocketed. While walking through the gate, don't keep anything in your back pockets, and put your backpack in front of you.
And then we were in the Old City! It's Holy Week for the Greek Orthodox church, so there were several sections of the Old City that were particularly crowded. There was one time, there were so many people trying to get through at an intersection that nobody could move at all, we were just stuck there, with people pushing on us in all directions. Crazy. We walked down a part of the Via Dolorosa (I have no idea actually how to spell it) which is the path that Christ was supposed to walk from Pilate's to his crucifixion. We passed by the place where Simon helped Christ with the cross. We also walked by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but didn't go in because it was so busy. The church is the place where Christ was thought to have been crucified and resurrected. There has been so much fighting over that building, as to what religion owns what parts of it, that each religion knows to a centimeter what they own in that building. Like, one church will own one step, and another will own the next, it's just crazy and confusing. There's a ladder on the front of the building that's been there for centuries, apparently one church owns the ledge that the ladder rests on, and another owns the window sill that the ladder rests on, and they still quarrel about who's job it is to take down the ladder.
From the church we left the city through the Joffa Gate to West Jerusalem. West Jerusalem is the Jewish side of things. It's very modern, with big, open paved streets and something like a Trax. In our orientation packet we were given 30 sheckels, and we were shown a fairly busy street with several food places, and were given the chance to get some food. I tried falafel for the first time, and it was so good. Just so good. You take a pita shell, and put in hummas, then these balls that are chick peas ground up, mixed with spices and some other things, then deep fried, and then an assortment of veggies (one girl in my group described this part as like being at Subway). Just so good! It's kinda lame, because we have everything cooked for us, I'm never going to really learn how to cook middle eastern food. But oh well.
After that it was back to the center! It it completely surreal being here, and just crazy and amazing. I can see the Dome of the Rock from the back door of my apartment. It's just so surreal. It's weird to think that I'm actually going to be here for three and a half months. I'm going to have the chance to explore every part of that city, know it back from front. It's going to be so great.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Goodbye, America!
Well, this is it. The Jerusalem Center modest clothes have been bought. The bags have been packed and weighed (90 pounds just isn't enough :P). And the goodbyes, well, most of them, have been said. In the morning I'm leaving on a plane to go to the BYU Jerusalem Center.
It's really hard to believe. In less than two days I'm going to be halfway around the world. I'm going to be in Israel. It's just kinda weird to think about, the fact that I'm not going to be living in the United States. I think it's going to take actually being there to make it seem real.
I'm not used to blogging, so I don't really have a lot to say. I'm sure that I'm going to get better at it. And I don't really have any cool stories at the moment. The only really thing that I can talk about that's cool is my backpack.
I have the coolest backpack ever! It's made with the perfect sized pocket for everything! Laptop pouch, water bottle pocket, phone pocket, ipod pocket, a pocket for your laptop chord...it's super legit. It's totally worth a study abroad for the backpack. If I can figure it out, I'll post a picture of it. It's just super legit.
Anyway, the whole purpose of this first post is to say, goodbye America, I'll miss you. It's going to be an interesting few months without you, but it's going to be great!
It's really hard to believe. In less than two days I'm going to be halfway around the world. I'm going to be in Israel. It's just kinda weird to think about, the fact that I'm not going to be living in the United States. I think it's going to take actually being there to make it seem real.
I'm not used to blogging, so I don't really have a lot to say. I'm sure that I'm going to get better at it. And I don't really have any cool stories at the moment. The only really thing that I can talk about that's cool is my backpack.
I have the coolest backpack ever! It's made with the perfect sized pocket for everything! Laptop pouch, water bottle pocket, phone pocket, ipod pocket, a pocket for your laptop chord...it's super legit. It's totally worth a study abroad for the backpack. If I can figure it out, I'll post a picture of it. It's just super legit.
Anyway, the whole purpose of this first post is to say, goodbye America, I'll miss you. It's going to be an interesting few months without you, but it's going to be great!
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