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.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
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!
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