Settling In Part II/ The Sabbath in Jerusalem

Okay! So back to Thursday! They split us up into groups of about seven and then sent us out with members of the staff to learn where all the important locations, like the money-changers, the post office, the best falafal shop :-), etc. are. The money-changer they want us to use is named Aladdin (unfortunately he does not pronounce his name like the Disney character... how tragic!). He is pretty hilarious though! He loves to just sit and joke with the students as we come in to change our money. He has notes posted all over his wall from previous students saying how much they love Aladdin. After showing us around East Jerusalem, they took us into the Old City through the Damascus Gate.

Okay, let me take a second to explain the set up of Jerusalem to you. The area of the city closest to the Jerusalem Center is known as East Jerusalem and it is inhabited by the Palestinians. Brother Brown, our program director, told us that these Palestinians have actually been given the right to vote in the Israeli elections, but they refuse to actually exercise that right because they feel that doing so would be a way of validating the Israeli government. Farther out on the top of the hill (if you are looking from the patio of the Jerusalem Center) is West Jerusalem. This is the Israeli portion of the city and it is much newer, cleaner, modern, and definitely much more patriotic!! This part of the city looks pretty much like any strip mall back in the States. It has its Burger King, its Adidas store, etc. In between these two halves of the city is the Old City. This is the portion of the city which exists within the original wall built by the Turks (I think...) in 1500 AD when they conquered the city. It is built on top of where the original Jerusalem wall is supposed to have stood. Anyways, this is the portion of the city which existed when Christ was alive. Obviously most of the buildings are new and it looks way different than it did 2000 years ago, but there are tons of AMAZING historical sites within the Old City which are related to the Savior and all sorts of historical figures. The Old City is the religious center of this nation and it is the area which all the different religions are always fighting over. The Old City is divided into four parts, and each part is owned by a different religious/cultural sect. The Palestinians own one quarter, the Jews another, the Christians another, and the Armenians the fourth. It is really interesting to walk from quarter to quarter and feel the cultural change that takes place within just one block.

Okay, so back to our tour. They took us through the Old City, but we stayed mostly in the Palestinian quarter. This is the area of the city which has small shops and stands set up along every street. I love it! It was amazing to walk through the little streets and just get the feel of the city all around you. The streets here are crazy! The city kind of has the feel of having been built on top of itself. The roads are all so uneven! As you walk down the street, one part of it will drop off suddenly in steep stairs while the other side continues in a ramp. You really have to watch your feet here or you will definitely end up on the ground! We also visited the Jewish and Christian quarters, but I think the Palestinian part of the city is my favorite. It feels the most alive. As we toured through the city I saw so many fun things to buy as souvenirs :-) I think I'm going to have to buy a second suitcase here to bring everything home with me :-) The staff members pointed out one shop in particular run by a man named Shaaban. Apparently he loves the BYU students and they say he always treats us really well. Whenever a student comes to visit his shop, he insists on giving us a drink of grape juice for free :-) They also showed us to the Austrian Hospice in the middle of the city. There was a great view from their roof and they have a couple of benches up there that I can't wait to visit again. I think that on one of those days when I only have about an hour or so of free time I'm going to go back to those benches so I can sit and read a book while eating some falafals and listening to the sounds of the city around me.

When we got back Thursday afternoon we had even MORE orientations. These ones were mostly about security. They've given us a cell phone, which we are required to keep on us whenever we leave the center so that they can get in touch with us immediately (these phones also have a GPS system in them so that they know where we are at all times), and a proximity card, which we have to scan whenever we leave or enter the center, so that they always know who is here and who is gone. That night we played some getting to know you games in the gymnasium. They kind of reminded me of EFY (probably because some of the games were the very ones I used as a counselor... :-). I had made a goal to learn everyone's name as soon as possible, so I actually had all 78 names down before we ever even started our getting-to-know you games. For dessert, we had the biggest brownies I have ever seen in my life!! All the food here comes in very LARGE portions (well, at least within the center...), which may not necessarily be a good thing.... It's a good thing we walk A LOT here or I would definitely come home much heavier than I left :-) As it is, I think I'm doing okay :-)

Thursday night was actually the first, and only!, night that I've done homework so far. It's been glorious! I spent about an hour and a half reading and I was completely done!

On Friday we had our first day of classes. I went to Old Testament in the morning and it was great! We talked about the creation and the beginning of the history of Abraham. What I thought was most amazing was when we talked about altars in relation to the creation. According to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, the very first piece of land which broke through the seas when the Earth was created was the first altar. This is the place where the Gods stood to finish creation of the Earth. Thus, an altar is meant to be a marker of a place where divinity has touched the Earth. This was really interesting to think about in relation to temples (which are the places where God dwells on the Earth) and in relation to the story of Abraham, because if you examine his history in the Book of Genesis, every time the Lord appears to him on the Earth, Abraham builds an altar! What an interesting connection! After Old Testament we had our first Ancient Near Eastern History class. We pretty much just spent this hour outlining what we are going to be studying this semester and talking about why it is important to study Near Eastern History. We talked about Ancient Near Eastern history really provides a foundation for modern Western civilization, which was also an interesting connection that I had never made before. My teacher in this class is named Brother Skinner and it is INCREDIBLE how much he knows! He just stands there spouting off information and it blows my mind how much he has learned. I'd love to be able to just get up and talk like that one day! Of course, the same could be said of Brother Brown, our program director here at the center. He has written lots of books on Jerusalem and has led some of the church archeological expeditions to explore this surrounding area. He is the district president (meaning he is over the three branches that exist within the state of Israel) and he knows so much that I really think that he could just sit down and single-handedly write a whole encyclopedia if he wanted to!

After classes and lunch we had our first opportunity for free time in the city! (It took us until Friday before we had all the necessary security measures - proximity cards, cell phones, passport copies, insurance copies, etc. - in place). The first thing I did was visit Aladdin's to cash a check for some Shekels. Then I finally got to go buy some shampoo! Woohoo! I was finally able to take a shower! :-) Never fear, although I now my roommates wouldn't put it past me to go five days without taking a shower, I promise that I did clean myself before that! After this necessary purchase I just went and wandered around the Old City for a couple of hours with some kids from the Center (we are never allowed to be in a group of less than three people). I window shopped a lot but didn't buy anything yet, I was mostly scoping out the shops for the best deals and the nicest goods :-) It is really neat to walk through the city and to have the shopkeepers call out "Hey! You must be the new group of Mormons! We love the Mormons!" That's what everybody in Israel knows us as. The Jerusalem Center is even called the "Mormon University" on all the maps and road signs. (speaking of roads... the drivers here are crazy! I fear for my life just walking down the street :-) We are required to leave the Old City before nightfall, but we are allowed to be in West Jerusalem until midnight. Still, after dinner on Friday night everybody just stayed in the Center. I played some pretty intense speed scrabble and jungle Uno with some of the other kids in the group for a couple of hours before turning in for the night.

Okay, Saturday (I promise I'm almost done now!). Because Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath, we celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday as well. As a whole this actually wasn't too strange. I just forgot that it was Saturday and then the day just seemed like any other Sunday. Today was Fast Shabbat, so no breakfast in the Oasis :-) We had ward (or branch...) choir at nine in the auditorium. The auditorium is the most amazing room in the whole center. It has HUGE windows that have one of the most impressive views of the Old City and the Old Temple site (where the Dome of the Rock now stands) that I have ever seen. We had our sacrament meeting in the auditorium, and it was so incredibly powerful to take the sacrament and sing these hymns about the Savior while looking at the sites where they actually took place!! It was a real struggle to not cry! Oh, guess what! I got a calling today! I'm a junior primary teacher!! I've been in a student ward for so long that I'd almost forgotten that primary exists in normal wards, so this call came as a surprise. Still, I'm so excited!! Our junior primary only has five kids in it. Three of them are in the younger class (2-4) and two of them are in the older class (5-7). The senior primary only has four kids in it, and I think they are divided into two classes too. Anyways, I will be teaching the 5-7 year-olds, so I have two boys. Sebastian is 6 and Bryson is turning 7 next week. They are INCREDIBLY cute!! But they also have so much energy! It's crazy!! My friend Lydia kindly informed me that I will have my work cut out for me, and I don't doubt it! I think that if I can get Bryson to sit still next week for two minutes in a row I will have accomplished an incredible feat!! I hope I'm not giving you the wrong impression, though. I'm actually REALLY excited to be serving in the Primary! It will be such a new experience! The way they have things set up, I will still be able to go to Sunday School, and then I'll pick up my class after Sharing Time. I guess that President Allen's one stipulation in calling students to primary positions is that they still be able to attend either Sunday School or Relief Society. So while I will be missing Relief Society for the next four months, at least I'll still be able to go to Sunday School. I actually had to miss both today, though, because I was playing the piano for Singing Time (they haven't called a primary pianist yet). Next week I'm supposed to be teaching about the Holy Ghost, so if you have any suggestions for a lesson directed to a 6 and 7 year-old about the Holy Ghost, I'd love to hear them.

After lunch I walked down to the Orson Hyde Memorial with about five other girls and one boy from the Center (apparently this garden has turned into kind of a rough spot and we aren't allowed to visit it without a boy. Poor Alex, I'm afraid that we actually woke him up from his nap to go with us, but out of the 19 boys in our group he was honestly the ONLY one who was anywhere to be found this afternoon!). While we were there we had some girls in our group read Orson Hyde's dedicatory prayer for the Holy Land out-loud to us. It was really neat to read his prayer and be able to see some of its fulfillment right in front of us! He dedicated the land for the gathering of the Jewish people, and there we were sitting in the Jewish state that lots of people thought would never exist! I guess that's what I love the most about being here. It's so powerful to learn about these things in the exact places where they occurred!!

Well, I've pretty much spent the rest of this night writing this novel of a post... sorry if I've bored you since it's been so incredibly LONG! But I'm planning on using this as a form of my journal, so sorry for putting in lots of details that you may not necessarily want to hear.

Anyways, I love you all! Live has been great here (although it has also been surprisingly chilly :-)! Let me know what you have been up to! Have a great Sunday tomorrow!
Love,
Megs

Settling In

Hey Everybody!
Well, the first three days have been pretty crazy. Wednesday evening, after we arrived from the airport, we got hit with a flood of orientation sessions! I heard so much information there's no way I can remember it all... which is not necessarily a good thing cause it was all pretty important information! Later that night we went on a tour of the Jerusalem Center and it is without a doubt the most beautiful building I have ever seen in my life! They say that it costs more than any of the temples that the church has built, and I believe it! Everything is built out of limestone so the whole building is white. All the furnishings and decorations are in teakwood, which is absolutely georgeous! Brother Brown (he is our program leader here) compared staying here to living in a five star hotel, and he is absolutely right! My room has it's own balcony that looks right over the Kidron valley into the Old City where the Dome of the Rock stands on the old temple mount!
Thursday morning they took us on a tour around the city, so we could learn where all the important locations, like the moneychangers, the post office, the best falafel shop :-) etc. are in the town...
Yikes! I just looked at the time and its already almost 11:30! I've been in bed by this time EVERY night since getting here! Aren't you proud of me! I haven't gotten less than 6 1/2 or 7 hours of sleep since I got here, and it's been glorious! I want to keep that trend up so I'm actually going to finish this blog tomorrow. Sorry! But I'll write again soon :-)

Waiting in the Airport

Hey Everybody!! So I guess I'm really going! I'm sitting here in the New York airport just waiting to fly out to Tel Aviv. The flight here to New York was great... I definitely slept the whole way. Which actually makes me kind of nervous. I'm afraid that I won't be able to sleep on the flight to Israel now, and this flight is twelve hours long!

Well, I don't really have much to say yet, but I just wanted to let you know that since I can't call or get on Facebook, I'm going to do my best to keep this blog updated so that you know what's going on over in the Middle East. Just to let you know, though, I can't upload any pictures because the internet at the Center can't handle it. So I guess you guys will have to wait till I get back to see all my pictures.

Anyways, I love you all! Have a great summer!