A Few Beach Pictures

You can sort of see the pretty blue water in this one, 

and wind surfers.

This was a fun beach, and I liked the soft sand!

Heather and me with the Mediterranean in the background.

Mediterranean Magic and First Falafel

Yesterday was an awesome day! We organized a trip to Tel Aviv and spent a lot of the day at the beach. Tel Aviv seemed like a really cool, modern beach city- looking far more westernized than Jerusalem. We walked the city a little and went to one mall, but most of our day was centered on the beach.

I love the Mediterranean Sea! I thought it may have been just my limited beach experience that made me think it was so incredible, but even seasoned beach-goers in our group quickly fell in love. The white sand was really fine and soft, and the water was super clear, warm and calm. There were lines or rocks a little farther out that sort of blocked the big waves, and the water stayed pretty shallow all the way out- not really ideal if you want to surf or something, but still great. That made it really fun to just swim out there and stand on the rocks. I had never seen water like that before, so pretty and clear! I just wish all the men here wouldn’t insist on wearing Speedos. Nasty! In our walks, we also saw a separated beach. It is all blocked off, and has different swimming days for men and women. Very Israel. Later at night we made our way back and just sort of walked along the edge of the water and sat in the sand. We also saw a big, beautiful almost-full moon above the buildings. There are restaurant/bars along the beach and they have chairs and lights out on the sand, so that was fun to see. We also saw a group of people dancing on the beach, which may have been a dance class or maybe just a little party. It looked like a blast!

For dinner I had a falafel, my first one! Tragically, I think it may also be my last. People kept talking about how delicious they were, so I was really excited. I didn’t find it totally gross, but it wasn’t terribly appetizing either. Next time I’ll try a shawarma . . .

Another first for the day was that an Israeli guy at the beach asked me out. Yikes. It actually was not nearly as creepy as that makes it sound, but if you know anything about my dealings with males in general (Drew), you will understand how uncomfortable I felt. haha!

The Tel Aviv trip was lovely, and a great thing to do for the official two weeks in Israel celebration. I even managed to avoid sunburn for the most part, and our van driver narrowly avoided killing us on the ride back to Jerusalem. I’ll just say again, the Mediterranean was nothing short of magical! I was thinking last night on the beach about how I had this idea that being here might sort of satisfy my craving for travel, but in actuality it has made it lots stronger already! I think I have a problem. An addiction? Whatever it is, I’ve got the bug! I love being here and seeing this very different part of the world. Next week I’ll be in Egypt !!

One Week

Well I have now officially been here in Jerusalem for a whole week! That is pretty awesome to say, and today was a great way to mark the first day. We had a geography field trip just around the area to different points with good views of the city and everything around it. Riding on the bus around here is ridiculous because every five seconds the professor is on the microphone pointing out something that has major historical significance. They're trying to put in a light rail system in West Jerusalem but it's taking ages because everywhere they dig they pull up new archaeological things and then people have to come in to examine the area and stuff. Walking through the city really is just like walking right through history. The views today of the city from every side were pretty cool. What was really crazy was to look down over the West Bank, see the Separation Wall, and just think about all the wars that have been fought over this area and the struggle that is still going on. I think being here will actually make it virtually impossible to choose a side in this conflict because we see so much, and specifically get to know great people on both sides. It's a sticky situation with bad things coming from each group, which is something we talked about a bit today. The other thing we talked about was a TON of history. I can't keep it all straight. Brother Skinner knows so much! I don't know how it fits in his brain. 

My favorite thing today was Augusta Victoria. They have a hospital, school, church and a lot of things on the compound on the Mount of Olives. One of their objectives is to give aide to Arab Christians in the area, who struggle a lot because they are such a minority with persecutions and not really having anyone to be a voice for them. The Mount of Olives is where Christ ascended into heaven, so being in the chapel there and having the opportunity to sing was incredible! We got to sing a few songs, like How Great Thou Art, Love One Another and Nearer My God to Thee, as well as listen to Brother Squires play some Bach on their organ. Brother Squires and his wife are in charge of music and concerts and the center and he is an organ master, seriously. It is majorly impressive. Singing those hymns will probably be one of the most memorable things from this trip. It was absolutely beautiful and the feeling in the church was so great. 

Hebrew U & Head Scarves

This is one part of the Old City.

 In most places it's a lot more packed in, 

but this is probably the prettiest spot I've seen there so far.

These are some houses across the street.

Yesterday we had a lot to study, so a group of us decided to take a short walk over to Hebrew University to look around and buy stamps. Hebrew U is really close to us, pretty much just up the hill and across the street. It is huge, and it's a fortress! We think the security we have here at the BYU Center is pretty intense, but the stuff they have surrounding that campus is crazy. We have two bomb shelters, and I'm sure there must be like ten at Hebrew U. We saw two just walking up a ton of stairs to get up from the entrance. It's surrounded by big walls and massive fences and there were even some guard towers. I don't think there was anyone in them at the time, but inside it looked like prison walls or something. There is only one place we can go in and we have to show our BYU security cards to the guard at the gate, who carries a gun, by the way. Inside the campus is beautiful! There is cool art and pretty buildings and lots of grass and trees. The students are really nice, and we think it would be a nice place to go and study when we need a change of scenery. All the signs were in Hebrew and there wasn't really anything in English. I was pretty impressed at being able to recognize a few of the letters. Our Hebrew professor, who actually teaches  English there, told us that many of the students come from all over and speak lots of different languages. At the school the teachers all lecture in Hebrew, but almost all of the textbooks are in English. Wow, that is some multilingual learning!

Today Heather, Kelsey and I just went out into the City for a couple hours. As we were heading down the street one of the men who works at the hotel across from the Center came out and said, "Good morning Mormons! Our nice neighbors." First we went to get some money at Aladdin's. The exchange rate was 3.55 Israeli Shekels to $1. After that we headed into the Old City again- this time on a mission of buying head scarves. We are all going to the Western Wall for the beginning of Shabbat on Friday night, and we heard that if you want to go all the way up to the wall you have to cover your head. I am so excited to see that! We're not allowed in the part of the city after dark, so this will probably be our only chance to be there for the beginning of Shabbat. I bought a pretty (GREEN!) pashmina to cover my head for 15 Shekels from this really nice guy. He had tons and tons of scarves! 

I was looking around today and seeing that the women in East Jerusalem are really so much more covered than we are, and that was while wearing long pants and a shirt with sleeves past the elbow. I don't know how they stand the heat because I was dying in light pants. Most of the women are covered from head to toe, often in a lot of black. They wear a lot of long black dresses with long sleeves and wrap their heads all the way around their faces. It looks miserable to me, but I guess there is an element of faith and I'm just hoping it's not as hot in there as it looks. 

Pictures!

Now that is an outfit for walking the city!

Heather and Kelsey on our rockin balcony!

Million Dollar View

Heather and I after a long trip to Jerusalem

Exploring the City

            Today was a pretty busy day, but it was sweet! We started off with breakfast at 7:00 and then our Jewish Civilization and Arabic and Islamic Civilization classes. Those were intense! There is a whole ton of reading, and it is super hard to understand. Class is really interesting, but a lot of it goes over my head. I hope I will start to understand better and I’m excited to learn all they have to teach us. The professors are so awesome and knowledgeable. After lunch I had my first Hebrew class, which was so fun! The alphabet is ridiculous, but it is really cool. Our professor is so fun and she kept telling us that Hebrew makes so much more sense and we will learn how to write and read and speak and translate. I’m thinking that will be just a few phrases . . . Today we just learned 2 letters, a couple expressions and a song, which was stuck in my head all day!

            After class we went and walked around the city for a few hours and that was really cool! We walked through the Old City and went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is considered one of the most important places in the Christian world, and definitely the holiest Christian site in Jerusalem. The different parts of the church are controlled/maintained by six different religions, and apparently that causes issues sometimes. The Armenians might get upset if the Catholics sweep some of their stairs and silly things like that. Inside the church they have all kinds of things related to the end of Christ’s life and His resurrection. The main thing we saw was the Anointment Stone, where it is believed they laid Christ’s body after the crucifixion and anointed it for burial. We didn’t get to really see the other things because it was packed with people, so we will go back. People also believe that the church also houses the site of Christ’s crucifixion and burial. Protestants generally accept the location of Christ’s burial at the Garden Tomb in another location in the city.

            After coming back today people were saying that if there was one thing they could have right now it would be a lot more money. I’m pretty impressed with myself that I didn’t buy anything today- I think I need to hold off for a while and make sure what things I really want. There are so many cool/cute//hot/rad things. The merchants in the city are hilarious and we were wondering where they have learned some of their English. One guy called everything radical or rad and told a girl she had a “hot smile.” They all tell you they will give you a special price because of your beautiful eyes or hair. And they all ask us about Utah/Salt Lake City and try to get the Mormons to come to their shops. I’m thinking they know from experience how much money the students tend to spend on souvenirs in the Old City.

It is pretty stinkin hot. They keep talking about the dry, desert climate, so I can understand where the heat thing comes from but I’m left slightly confused about the 84% humidity we had goin on today. Despite all our security warnings and such, being out in the city feels mostly safe to me. The people have all been nice so far. Pickpockets are supposed to hang around, but my nifty fanny pack seems pretty secure. I’d say the biggest threat is probably the maniac drivers speeding around and honking their horns constantly. 

I was thinking that everything here was completely different from the United States, until I noticed some interesting similarities!

1. Thank goodness most people speak English pretty well. Arabic and Hebrew are pretty crazy, and I will probably only be able to speak a few words of Hebrew by the end.

2. The kids are totally cute, and they like a lot of the same things. I saw like five little girls today decked out in Dora the Explorer gear. The boys seem to like Spiderman and soccer. I saw some Sponge Bob toys, and in our cafeteria we have yogurt with Sponge Bob on the package. (It’s pretty gross)

3. You can find Coke, Fanta (orange, to be specific), and Snickers, along with a few other American foods.

4. In West Jerusalem on Ben Yehuda Street they have at least one McDonald’s and two Burger Kings. Have you ever seen a kosher Burger King before?

5. People wear Crocs. They’re all over. Is anyone else to find out that Crocs and their imitations have made it to the Middle East? I sure am!

6. Some of the early teen-age boys were walking around playing American music- very different from the music played in the shops!

I will have to continue with lists as I see more funny things=)

Locked In

Well today we are on lock-down in the Center. Security is concerned about the mass of pilgrims coming into the city for the first Friday of Ramadan. They are expecting about 100,000 people to come in today who will overflow from the Dome of the Rock and Temple Mount. Apparently the sermon on Temple Mount tends to get pretty fiery and is generally quite anti-American. We're never allowed in East Jerusalem or the Old City on Fridays before 3:00 because it is their holy day, but today we can't go out at all. I think most of us want to go out and see all the people, so it's probably a good thing Tawfic said we have to stay in. Somebody would probably go do something or go somewhere dangerous, and we don't know the city yet. 

We started classes today so the plan is to finish up the my homework so I can go out and play later! It is awesome to sit out on the balcony and read about things that happened right in the area that I'm looking out! Living with our professors is a little strange, and I think that adds to the feeling that we're not in school. Even studying and being in class didn't feel much like school, maybe because I'd eaten dinner at the same table as my Ancient Near Eastern Studies professor the night before. It's pretty cool to be able to be that close with them and ask them for questions and help at any time! I'm sure as the work picks up and we head into tests it will feel very much like school, but so far it is just fun!

Arrival!

We made it! Our trip started out Tuesday when we met at the Salt Lake airport at 7:15. My bag weighed in at 52 pounds so we had to do a bit of rearranging. Our flight left SLC at 9:50 and then we had a layover at JFK for about 4 hours. We went to Chili's for lunch and had some of America's favorite yogurt (TCBY) before leaving the good ol' US of A. We had to go through security again before getting on the plane- only annoying if you had just spent 3 dollars on a bottle of water for the flight and they make you dump it out. Yep. We arrived in Tel Aviv at the Ben Gurion airport at about 3:00 in the afternoon yesterday- 6:00 a.m. MST. The bus ride to Jerusalem was less than an hour, and it was so cool! Every couple minutes along the ride they were pointing out important historical places and sites of battles. Coming up the hill and seeing the city was incredible! Heather was sitting next to me and we both just gasped, while I was bouncing up and down in my seat. We were excited to see the sign pointing toward "Mormon University." The entrance to the Center was beautiful and the view through the windows when you go inside is incredible! We had dinner, some orientation and a tour of the Center before I semi-unpacked my things last night but was a bit too tired to feel like organizing, even though the jet lag wasn't nearly as bad as expected. I felt pretty well rested! I'm thinking late afternoon is the perfect arrival time. 

The Center is in East Jerusalem, which is the Palestinian area. This month is Ramadan, so it is a big celebration. There were lots of Christmas lights up and they were shooting off fireworks in the street. The call to prayer this morning at 4:30 woke most of us up I think. They played a loud prayer that went on for about a half an hour. 

This morning we got to go out into the city for the first time. We split into small groups and the professors and directors took us into East Jerusalem, through Damascus gate into the Old City and then through Jaffa gate and over to West Jerusalem. West Jerusalem is the Israeli/Jewish area and it is much more modern and European. It is also so much cleaner. East Jerusalem is a lot dirtier and louder, maybe because of the partying. We met Aladdin, the money changer, and Omar, who sells olive wood carvings, in the city today. They were great! Everybody knows the "Mormons" here. People were saying "Hello Mormon people! You from Utah? We saw some of your Mormon friends. They went that way." It is so awesome to be here and almost hard to believe that I get to stay for more than three months! We start our official classes tomorrow, so it will be busy and we will learn a lot. I am so excited to get to know this city and the history of the area!