Jericho, Yom Kipper, and Seder Meal

Jericho, Yom Kipper, and the Seder Meal.

So we got back from Turkey on Sunday, and I uploaded a ton of pictures. We had one recuperation day, (That would have normally been Sunday, a free day anyway, but we had it as the Sabbath because we weren’t here on Saturday).

On Monday we went to Jericho for a field trip. It was pretty cool, we were back by 1, so it wasn’t to long. We started at the tel. At the bottom, there is a fountain for Elisha’s Spring. It is a really pretty fountain, and the Spring is the life-line of the city. Because Jericho is on the edge of the inhabitable part of the Judean Wilderness (because of the lack of water) the spring is what keeps the city alive, and has been flowing 1000 gal/hour for thousands of years.

Inside the Tel, there is a few famous things that are still there. Jericho is the oldest known city in the world, and the oldest structure is the tower that dated back to 8 or 9 thousand BC. It is a watchtower, and because of the sun, we didn’t really get any good pictures, but we did get some shadow pics J I don’t have the big one where we spelled out “JERICHO,” but I will later.

Kathleen Kenyon was an Archeologist in 1952 that dug at this site. She dug a big trench out of the side, and although she found a lot of other stuff, she is famous for Stratigraphy. She found 23 Strata, or occupation layers. I took some pictures, but I can’t even see it, so I won’t put them on here. The other thing that she found was the remains of a melted mud-brick wall that dates to the Middle Bronze Age (about 2200 BC, close to Abraham’s time), and that Jericho was barley inhabited at the time of Joshua’s conquest. However, there seems to be an ongoing discussion of the timing.

There was a group of Italians that dug there in the last 15 years, and uncovered part of a old city wall from the Early Bronze Age. Because they dug there more recently, it is easier to see outlines of structures and what not.

We went to the springhouse next, where the underground spring comes to the surface, it was pretty cool, and there was waterfalls and fountains that made the place even more pretty. We talked about it for a while, as it was one of Elisha’s first miracles after becoming the next prophet.

After The Spring house we stopped for just a moment at Zacceasus' tree for pictures. This man was a wealthy promiant man, but he had a good heart, and the Lord knew it. 

Next we stopped at Herod’s winter palace, which was the place he died. We talked about the legacy of Cruelty and death that he left, and what our legacy was going to be. The quote “What you are to be, you are now becoming” comes to mind. What is your legacy going to be?

Our last stop was the Wadi Qlit. This is the road from Jericho to Jerusalem, and the setting for the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We got to sit, and talk about the story, and the fact to remember is that everyone is our neighbor, and we should look out for them all. Then we walked along the top for a little while, back to the bus. It was cool to be able to walk that road and think about “What can I do to be the god Samaritan today?”

The rest of Monday, I just did homework, getting ready for Tuesday’s classes. We had a response paper and double reading for Old Testament, and Israel, and Palestine. It was good though.

Tuesday was Yom Kipper Eve, so we talked a lot about it in Israel, and in Palestine, we also talked about it a little, but more about the Muslim version, where that night was the night that the Skies opened to take all our sins. It was a really cool day, although I didn’t really recognize it until that night when I watched the sunset over the city while I read my scriptures and thought about/prayed to God. I know that My Redeemer Lives, and that He loves me. Because He loves me, He suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane for my sins. Then He died, so that I could be resurrected, and return to my Father in Heaven someday. It was amazing that even though the Jews and Muslims don’t believe that Jesus was the Christ, they see Him as a great prophet, or a great example, but they do believe in an Atonement, the don’t let the goat go out of the city with the people’s sins on it anymore, but the do still celebrate that day, as a day of repentance and repenting of their sins.

So Wednesday was the actual day of Yom Kipper. We had Old Testament and ANES, and then I went out to the city with a few people. All the Muslim and Jewish shops, and sights were closed. We had started out seeing if we could go to the Dome of the Rock/Temple Mount, but it was closed, so we wondered around the Christian quarter of the Old City because it was open. It was fun. We ended up at Domitian Abby, the traditional place of Mary’s death/burial. I am always amazed that every traditional place, or church, it may not be the right place all the time, but not matter what, the Spirit is there as the people reverence a sacred event that happened.

Thursday, our only class was a midterm for Old Testament. After that, I got to help make Charoset and set up for the Seder Meal that night. Passover is really in the Spring, but because we are here in the Holy Land, they do a Seder Meal every semester. It was so cool, our Israel teacher, who is a Jew came and lead the Passover, and did some of the Hebrew passages, as well as explaining everything along the way. He also helped a few groups learn the songs that are sung before hand so that they could perform it to us during the dinner. The program itself wasn’t that much different than the ones that I have done with my family, except for they don’t really set an extra seat for Elijah, but instead pour him one glass of grape juice/wine towards the end of the program. It was a special night.

Friday I got up and went on a run – the first way to long. It is very hilly here, as we headed out, I kept thinking that since it was uphill on the way out, it had to be downhill on the way back. Not so, there was a stretch of relative flat as we ran down part of the Kidron Valley, and one short downhill, but other than that it was mostly up. It was good to get out though.  After that we had 6 hours of class, and then a group of us went out to find the grocery store. It was kind of funny, as we were trying to get directions from security, they didn’t really know what we were talking about, Mr. Hayett could see that we were confused (after we were just trying to decided where to go, and that is when he saw us), and gave us a ride there. He made sure to tell us that it wasn’t going to happen again though:) After we got back, there was a group playing Basketball, so I went and played that until dinner, then we watched part of Sampson and Deliah because we are going to be talking about them on our field trip on Monday, then we went and rented Finding Nemo from the library and had a roommate party. Sadly, I didn’t make it to far into the movie…

All in all, it has been a great week, and I can’t wait to see what next week will bring!

(Bonus pic of the Camel at the Gas station!)

Turkey!

It has been a great week. We went to Turkey for a week, and toured around there. It was really pretty, lots of ruins, mainly from the Roman time period. We basically started in the Europe side of Istanbul, then after touring a little on that side, we crossed over to the Asian side of Turkey, we toured down the coast of the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits, which included the Marmara Sea, and the Aegean Sea.

We stopped and traveled along a lot of places that Paul visited on his missions to Asia. There were a lot of places that Paul was meaning to go somewhere else, and the Spirit told him that he couldn't and that he needed to go here. I hope that I can be in tune enough to the Spirit, so that I can follow his ways.

Monday, September 17th


So we started in Istanbul, we went to the Blue Mosque, The Hippodrome, the Basilica Cistern (An underground water Cistern that looks like a palace), and the Topkapi Palace. They were all Beautiful.

The Hippodrome only has 3 columns/monuments left. It used to be a big track that had seating for 100,000 people, and was used for chariot and horse races, as well as social and civil events. It was built by Constantine, and has since been turned into a park.

The Column in the front of this pic is taken from a temple in Egypt, the next one that you cant really see is 3 serpents that have been twined together, and then the last one they don't know where it came from, or the significance of it, but they do think that it was covered in bronze plates that were taken when one of the conquers (I think it was the Romans, but I could be wrong) used it to make money.

Next we went to the Blue Mosque. It is really but, but not the biggest in istanbul even. It was completed within 8 years, and has over 20,000 blue tiles decorating the inside.  It has one main dome, and then 20 smaller partial domes that cascade down from the center.

The goal of the Sultan that built this (Ahmet I) in 1603, at the Age of 14, was to build something to remember him by, that surpassed the grandeur of the Hagia Sophia, that is located just across the street. One thing that is significant of this Mosque is that it has 6 minarets, which was the same amount of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, where Islam began. The Authorities didn't like this, and told him to take one down. Instead of changing his however, he sent money and builders to Mecca to add a 7th Minaret to the Grand Mosque. The tiles in the Interior (Over 20,000) were made in Iznik, (Ancient Nicaea), and because he wanted it done so fast, they exhausted the material there, and so it is the last of the tiles to come from that location.

Next we went to Topkapi Palace. This was built in 1459 by the Sultan Mehmet II and was the primary residence for Sultans for the next 400 years. It was huge, and included 4 courtyards. The set up was such that there was an outer courtyard that was open to the public, it has lots of buildings, including the Hagia Irene where one of he 7 Ecumenical Councils took place. The 2nd courtyard had the Royal Kitchens, the Tower of Justice, a Throne Room, and the connection to the Harem, where the women and children of the palace lived.

Below the Tower of Justice was the Imperial Council room, where the Council would meet to make decisions to pass to the Sultan. Sometimes the Sultan would come and listen behind a window that the council couldn't see through, so they would never know if he was there, thus they would always have to be careful of what they said, and make sure that they were always working.

Other rooms included the Treasury - home of an 86 carrot diamond. The holy Relics room has many relics, some that I am almost sure are not correct, but it was a good thought - including private things of Muhammad (a hair from his beard, his cloak, and footprint among other things), and some Christian collections.

The fourth courtyard was the gardens and included a view of the Bosporus strait. This picture includes Europe (closest) and Asia (farthest).  It was a great view, although a little bit hazy.

Next we went to the Basilica Cistern before lunch. We didn't spend tons of time here, but we did walk through it. There is about 336 Columns in this room, that are decorated like a palace, even though it was usually full of water. It was found by some explorers in the 1400's I believe, after it had been closed up in the 5th century.

In the back, underneath 2 of the columns are bug Medusa Heads. They are tipped (one upside down, and the other on its side), there are lots of theories, including the fact the the columns are recycled from other places, and so they needed it to make them fit. However, others believe that it was because it was built during the Byzantine Period, where the country was turning Christian, so they were trying to show that God would turn the people's gods (and goddesses) on their heads in a way to show how much power He had.

After lunch we went to the Grand Bazaar. This picture (Of my friend Jaquel) doesn't show how busy it really was at times. There were some places, especially the places with every day stuff were packed to the max! Istanbul has a population of about 13 million registered people, with about a estimated total of 16 million. That is a lot of people, a lot of the places that we went to that were very packed. I didn't buy anything, but it was fun to go look:)

Next we went on a boat ride up the Bosporus Straight. Again, this has Europe on the right, and Asia on the left. It was really fun, and noce to realax for the 2 hours.

Tuesday, Sept 18th

We had a long bus drive this day, our first stop was Gallipoli.

This is the place where the ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corp) landed during WWI on April 25th, 1915 at 4:30 am. This started a very bloody war where about 250,000 troops died on both sides before the ANZAC withdrew. It was a very sobering place, but also very peaceful. Remember the troops that have died, and continue to give their lives to keep our country free.

This is just a picture of the cemetery. beautiful overlooking the coast.

Next we stopped at Troy. It was fun. We don't really know if the Trojan war was real, but we do know that this was a city called Troy. There were VII levels of Trojan cities, and if the Trojan war did happen it would have been between the VI and VII levels. We do know that Alexander the Great, from Greece came here and sacrificed before his major battles.

After Troy, we stayed at a resort on the Aegean Sea, which was beautiful. After swimming for a little while, we watched the sunset on the dock, it was gorgeous!
While we were here Skylor found a Sea Slug, and then Brad found a Sea Snail. It was an interesting experience when we put then together! pretty nasty. Brother Jackson wanted a picture of Skylor eating the snail (While it was drooling all over), while Rachel, who was holding the slug got inked on, with purple all over! I don't have the pictures currently, but I will get them.

Wednesday, Sept 19th

This was probably my favorite day. We started really early, and drove to Assos. I loved this spot, we got there at like 8:30 am, and we were the only ones there. Walking up to the city, we walked through a little village that reminded me a little bit about walking through the Peru or Indian Reservation villages, only all the sites were in stone instead of mud-brick.

The ancient city of Assos is on the top of a hill, and used to be a harbor city. We had a view of the Sea, land, a beautiful sky, and we were the only ones there. We also had a view (Across the sea, you could just see the outlines) of Greece. It was Gorgeous! This was our view from where we were sitting having our devotional. It was overcast, and the sun was just peaking through.

This is the main thing that we looked at, although there were other ruins on site. This is the Temple of Artimos.  There are lots of them, and this is the one in Assos.

Switching from Assos to the Pergamon acropolis, which is were we went next. This was another favorite of the greeks, and had a Trajan temple, pictured above. It was cool, but my favorite was the Theater.

The Greeks built this one, and they build them like Tuachan, where they want to see the scenery as well as the show. Later the Romans added a removable stage since they wanted to focus more on what was happening on the stage. But this picture shows the view from the top.

Thursday, Sept 20

Wednesday night we drove to Ephesus, so on Thursday we went around Ephesus and Miletus. We started at St. John's Basilica, and it was really pretty. This was a big church where some people believe that John lived, they are just not sure which John it was, although many believe that it was John the Theologist.

The picture above is a picture of what was another Temple of Artemus. This one was the biggest, and was one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world. The people rioted, and in the process of the next years, it was almost all destroyed. Many of the pieces were recycled and used in 3 other buildings. This was all that is left.

After those quick stops, we went around the corner to the Third city of Ephesus. You find that there are lots of cities that either built on top of each other, or located really close to each other. We spent a long time at this stop, but it was also one of the busiest stops as well. This was the Library, but there is a whole city worth of buildings that have been restored by Archeologists from America. This city was pretty cool, mostly for its ruins. There were lots of bath houses, a theater, library, temple, small theater, government buildings, and more.

This picture is cool, it is godess Nike. I don't remember much about her, I think she was over Victory. The athletic store Nike was named after her, and you can't see it very well, but this is how she appears in all of the statues of her, and she is in kind of the swoosh position.

Our next stop was Miletus, and as you can tell, its main thing was a theater. These benches were really cool, I like the lion's leg at the end. Miletus was also a Harbor city, but there is one river that has filled in most of these harbor cities with silt, pushing the sea 5K plus away, so it isn't very big anymore. This was the last place that Paul visited before heading back to Jerusalem after his last mission.

Friday, Sept 21st

Our first stop this day was Sardis. The main structure here was a Gym, that had a really cool Jewish Synagogue attached to it. The gym was huge, and had a bath area in the back that had a big pool. It was pretty cool as well. 

Next was Thyatira, we only spent a little time here, and it was raining, so I didn't take any pictures, and we really didn't look around any. We did talk about Lydia, who was one of the first to accept the Gospel in Macedonia, and was a shopkeeper, selling purple stuff from the dye of a specific sea Snail. She had church in her house for a while, and was from Thyatira.

Our last stop this night was Bursa, and the grand mosque there. We got there right as they were going to pray, so  we did wonder around the shops for a little bit, and ate some Chewy Ice Cream:) It was a weird texture. Anyway, I really liked this Mosque, it was simpilar, but it was peaceful. I liked it. I tried to talk to Sara on her birthday, but we didn't connect, mostly my fault.

Saturday, Sept 22

This was our last day in Turkey, we started in Nicaea, It was cool, we didn't spend a ton of time here, but it was cool, it was on a beautiful Freshwater lake, and the pier that you can see poking out is the wall to Constantine's palace where they tried to define the nature of Christ, and emerged with the Nicaea Creed.

Our last stop was Hagia Sophia, back in Istanbul. It was the biggest church for almost 1000 years, I think now it is like number 3 or 4, but it is really big. It was beautiful inside, but also really crowded. I really liked it. It was peaceful, and a great way to finish off our day.

After going to the Hagia Sophia, we ate dinner (Our only fish... that was whole) and then went to the Airport. Our plane didn't leave until 12:55, and got in about 3 am. Then we had a 45 minute drive back to Jerusalem. I was so tired, I slept most of the bus ride, and all of the plane ride.

Over all it was a great week, but I am grateful to be back to where I know that I won't get sick off the food (There were a lot of people that got sick, I'm grateful it wasn't me), to know that there will be toilet paper in the bathrooms, and that it doesn't cost to get in to use them, and to stop living out of my suitcase:) 

Jerusalem Week 3:)

It has been quite a week. I think that I wrote last Saturday, so I will give a brief update on what is happening.

On Sunday, (We treat it like Saturday since church is on Saturday here), we went to Tel Aviv. It started as just being a little group, but soon grew to be a pretty good majority of the students here. Tel Aviv is located right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, so we all started out at the Beach. It was really fun, there were really big waves, and the sand was really fine, however, the Sea was really salty, more so than the Pacific, and the Atlantic I believe. I spent a few hours there, we had a really fun Ultimate Frisbee game, and played in the waves for a while, then I went out with a group and we rented some bikes (They had lime green bikes that you could check out electronically and ride around, and drop them off at any other stop) However, because it was electronically, and we didn’t look at the bikes before, I ended up on a bike with a really low tire, it was stuck in the lowest gear, and it had very little break. It was really fun though, we rode around Jaffa, through the stores and around the streets, then we went back to the coast and rode the trail that went along the coast for a while, then went back to where we had to meet. It was really pretty.

After Riding, we went back out to Jaffa, and shopped a little. I didn’t end up buying anything, but we spent a lot of time at this little shop that had all sorts of little instruments – most of which we have at home, but the girls that I was with hadn’t seen. It was pretty cool. We stayed out shopping for about an hour, and then we had to go back to where the vans were picking us up because most of the group was leaving at 4 so they could be back in time to clean up and do homework before dinner at 6. The group that I ended up being with wanted to stay until 8, one of the girls in the group had heard of a really good burger place called “Moses” that we tried to find. We walked around for about 1.5 hours before we found the place, and then even though they were really good, they were a bit expensive so not everyone got one. After we ate, we went back to the beach, taking a long way and shopping a little, and then we swam one more time before we were picked up and brought back to the center.

On Monday, we went on a field trip to the Negev. The Negev is the southern part of Israel, and it is mostly hot desert. We started at a Bedouin women’s weaving factory and got a tour/explanation of what they did there. It was pretty cool, its amazing how the women could start it up and earn money/educate the other women through this factory. It was a really cool experience.

Other places we went include Tel Sheva (Be’er Sheba in Solomon’s time), where we say many things, including their housing, their gate system, storage, and a huge underground water system that we got to walk through. Then we went to Tel Arad, which had 2 parts to it, one was from Israelite time (including a Fortress, from after the time that the Children of Israel came in and concurred) and a section that was from Canaanite time (Before the Children of Israel). On the way back, we drove past the Dead Sea which is 1300+ feet below Sea Level (We sang “Under the Sea” as we dropped below), and we also passed Jericho, we will be going back to both of those places later on. This was also by where Lehi and Nephi were when Nephi and his brothers went back to get the Brass Plates from Laban. It would have been about a 22-day journey to get there, and the Babylonians were around, very dangerous. It was cool to learn about the different places, like we will be doing often these few months:)

The rest of the week we had classes, I went out to the city a few times, but only went shopping. We talked about a lot of interesting things, in all of our classes. We had a lot of interesting discussions, but it is school, you know how it is.

One thing that I did think was interesting was in Palestine class. The class is basically about Islam, and what they believe, their history, etc. Yesterday, (Friday) when we had it we started asking questions because of some things that happened here. Sometime this week, there was a YouTube video that was degrading the Islam religion, and their prophet Muhammad. From what I understand, someone in America posted it, and it was really offensive, and degrading.  I have heard that it might have been an Israelite Jew that lives there, but that was just from one other student, I don’t know if it was true. On the surface, this doesn’t seem to be a big deal, it was one movie, and yes it was offensive, but not big enough to cause a ton of trouble. However, there is more to it. Here in Israel, Jerusalem is divided into two parts, East and West Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is occupied by Palestinians/Palestinian-Israelis, and it includes the JC center, the Mount of Olives, and Old Jerusalem as well as other important places. Both George Bush and Barak Obama have made references to helping make Palestine its own state, but has not only gone past the times that they said it would, but have been working/supporting against it, especially with the election coming up, and with so many Jews in America, they want to be voted in, so they are making almost pro Israeli statements.

In reaction to the movie, there were a few (I think it was 3) Americans that were killed by extremist Palestinians. Not all Palestinians believe or act that way, in fact, all the people that I have met have been really nice, and are very willing to help, or point in the right direction.

Friday is the Muslims prayer day, where they all gather at the Dome of the Rock, so we are never allowed out of the center on Friday’s before 3 O’clock. The Old city is divided into quarters, and things tend to get a little tense between the Israelis and Palestinians on prayer day. We were kept in this week as there were some little conflicts, but nothing big. I know that the news shows violence, and the extreme, but it is not really what we see here in the center.  Right now, you can tell that everything is a little tense with 9/11 a few days ago, the Jewish holidays this week (There is 2 big ones in the next 2 weeks, Their New Year, and the Day of Atonement), and so things do get to be tense anyways, and then adding the movie on top. However, we still went out to the Garden Tomb today, and we were perfectly safe. We will be leaving to go to our Turkey field trip this week, and so we wont even be around this week.

That information was meant to calm any fears that you might have, and to assure you that I am ok. I hope that it will clear up any questions that you might have had if you had watched the news. Everything is good here at the center, and they are paying close attention, but don’t have any reason to keep us in today.

P.S. I will Post Pictures Soon! (Probably in the Morning)

Jerusalem Week 2

What a week! It has been crazy busy, and lots of fun.
We had our first field trip on Monday, we went to a few places around Jerusalem/Overlooks from different viewpoints. It was a long day, and it seemed that the same things were pointed out to us from different directions, but it was fun to learn some of the new testament history behind the sites. We read about when and where Rachel died, overlooking the hill they think that she was on, we talked about the Nativity story overlooking shepherds fields, and Bethlehem, David also watched his sheep in the same hills, we talked about Samuel and Saul overlooking their hometowns, and lots of other historically significant places.

Tuesday we started three new classes - Israel, Palestine, and Hebrew. Israel and Palestine are classes on the history of Israel from their different perspectives, and also Modern Day Israel from their viewpoints as well. We have about 30 pages of reading for each class, to be donne before each class period, which means that we had a ton of reading to do. We also had a test on Friday (That was only this morning?) that everyone was freaking out about. It meant that we all studied, probably a little to much for the test, and didn't spend as much time out in the city as we should have.

However, I did go out a few times. On Sunday, a few of us went into the city and and did a few things. We started at the money changers to get some Shekels, then we saw Golgotha (It has been turned into a bus station now), then we went to Zedekiah's cave/King Solomon's Quarry where Zedekiah tried to escape Jerusalem, and where King Solomon got his stones to build the temple. After that we did the Rampart's walk around the top of the city wall around Jerusalem. That was pretty cool, and we had a great view of West Jerusalem, as well as inside the Old city. After that we finished at the Western Wall, AKA the Wailing Wall where the Jews go to be close to the temple since they cant go on temple mount.
Wednesday we also had classes, and then I went out with a few other people. We started at a olive Ward Carving place, called Omar's Souvenirs. He was really cool, he has lots of amazing Olive Wood carvings, many depicting Christ, but also other figures from the bible and Book of Mormon. After that we just shopped for a while, which was a very interesting and cool experience.

Thursday I caught back up from not studying much on Wednesday, and then today I also did homework and then we went to the Western Wall for the beginning of the Sabbath. The place was covered in Jew's, it was amazing. There were all types of people, Jews and Tourists that were there to see.

Tomorrow is the Sabbath, we have district conferenct then we will got to the Garden Tomb, then Sunday, (Treated like our Saturday) we are going to Tel Aviv to the beach. I will write about it next week.

Jerusalem

For those of you that didn’t know, I am attending BYU Jerusalem this semester. I left Utah on August 28^th, so I have only been here a few days, but it seems a lot longer than that. I can’t upload any pictures right now, but I will get up early tomorrow and upload some. It is a great experience to be here. I have meet most of the 82 other students that came with me, and we have become fast friends. 

Our days have been pretty full, and we are still trying to get over the jet lag, but it ha been fun. Jerusalem is a lot denser than I thought that it was going to be. There are tons of buildings, and it seems that almost of the buildable land has been built on.  I am looking out over the city right now, from my patio, I can see many landmarks like the old city, including the “Dome of the Rock” (the Muslim temple where they believe that Abraham was going to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, and the Jews and Christians believe it was Isaac), the Church of the Holy Seplicure (Lots of different sites there but manly where the Jews believe that Jesus was laid to be prepared for burial before going to the Garden Tomb), Rockefeller Museum (the first Archaeological museum in Israel, I haven’t been there, but it is supposed to be cool), and many other area’s that I don’t know what are yet, but I’m sure that I will learn. 

The Jerusalem Center is in East Jerusalem, where the Palestinians (Muslims and Palestinian Christians) live. I am still having a hard time with directions because the Center is on a hill (Mount Scopus) and directions are diagonal (My patio points southwest I believe), the other side of the Old City starts West Jerusalem where the Israeli’s (Mostly Jews) live. 

Our first day here, we landed in Tel Aviv which is right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Driving here took about 40 minutes, and although we were all dead tired from being on a plane for the previous 11 hours, and having left Salt Lake a day and a half ago, it was col seeing what we could out of the bus window. I have learned that the drivers are a little crazy, and there are next to none sidewalks, however, the drivers will usually give you a honk before flying by you. Also, there is no flat country here. The song “Far, Far, Away on Judea’s Plains” Should have been “Far, Far, Away on Judea’s Hills” or I guess for us it is “Near, Near, so Close, on Judea’s Hills.” Any place that doesn’t have buildings on it, has olive trees, they are all over here. I went to Peru a few years ago, and there were terraces built into the mountains everywhere for farming, It is close to the same here, only it is olive trees instead of gardens. 

The first day was mostly orientation meetings, which seem to have been happing in some way every since Monday. The second day, we where split into groups, and got to have a tour of the city. The Palestinian part of the city is kind of older and trashy. Going into the Old City, I was expecting to see old building everywhere, and have it seem like a special place in the sense that it was peaceful, and people respect it more that it was. Immediately after walking in through the gate, (We entered from Damascus Gate), it was like an outside farmers market, until we left. There were people selling things everywhere.  There was anything and everything you would ever need, shoes, jewelry, fresh produce, Jerusalem bagels, candy, pharmacy, blow dryers, silver works, clothes, anything you would need was lining the small streets in the old city. Then suddenly, you would be in the courtyard of a church, here there wouldn’t be any merchants, but there would be huge tour groups with the leader yelling the history of that church, and what was inside. There were also some merchants that were handing out their business card, with a map of where to find them. It was a little crazy. However, It was really cool to be there.  We only went into two churches, and a hospice, but there is so much more to see, I can’t wait to see the rest of it.  We came out of Jaffa’s gate, into West Jerusalem. That side of the city is more modern, there was a modern mall underground that my tour guide pointed out, and then we walked through a courtyard that had real looking concrete pillows (Brother Judd warned us that they were concrete before we saw them, and we all kind of laughed thinking that we would be able to tell that they were concrete, but they looked authentically like a pillow, colored and textured with indents to sit on, it was kind of amazing), then we hurried to Ben Yehdan Street. This street was like a main street? There were strip malls on both sides that were very modern. There were also sky scrapers, and other things that you would expect to find in a big American city.  We spend a little time there, and then got on vans to come back to the center.

Today after church, we went to the Garden of Gethsemane, which was really neat. There was a sectioned off garden, that was full of really old olive trees, and then on the outside was the Church of the Nations. It was really peaceful there, even after the other tourists started coming, it kept that peaceful feeling that I had been expecting. I tool my Bible, and read the accounts what happened there in Mathew, Mark, and Luke, and then wrote in my Journal. I will be returning there often. 

Other things that happen here often: There is call to prayer that is blasted through a huge speaker system that fills the valley 5 times a day, I haven’t decided exactly what times it is at, but it does include about 7:00 pm, and about 4:30 am, it is going on right now, I think it also goes off about 10 pm, and sometime in the middle of the day.  There are fireworks that go off all the time, at all hours. You can’t see them, but it sounds like a firecracker. 

We started classes yesterday, and I am overwhelmed already. And we only had two classes, which were both two hours long instead of the usual 50 min. There will be a few days that does that, but it will be mostly 50 min. Old Testament in interesting, I knew when I came here that I was coming to where the Savior walked, and healed and performed miracles, but it didn’t really click that most of the Old Testament happened here as well. It is really cool to be here and learn in the places where special events happened. The other class that we had was Ancient Near Eastern Studies. This is the class that I am freaking out about. We have a test next week, and it is on the basic Geography, History, and Archaeology of the Middle East. I am excited to learn about it, but it has been a lot of information in a very little time.

 Anyway I will write again later, and try to keep this blog up to date. Lots of fun things happening!