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!