Hello Dear Family,
As I am writing you this email, I am sitting in a chair while gazing out on the old city of Jerusalem from the window across from me. There are so many windows in this building, that pretty much wherever you are, you are looking out at the city. The Jerusalem center is up on a hill, making it much easier to view pretty much the entire city. And it is gorgeous! My flight for Tel Aviv left from New York around 9 PM on Tuesday night. The plane was ridiculously huge- it was a double decker! I had the fortune to have a window seat, which allowed me to get much needed rest. I watched Money Ball on the plane, which was pretty good, then ate dinner, which they served. After that I pretty much slept the rest of the flight. And I do have to say that the flight wasn't bad at all- it went by really really fast, much to my surprise. We landed in Tel Aviv around 2 in the afternoon the next day. And we smoothly went from the plane to the bus with no problems. As I rode from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem I just looked out the window, amazed at the fact that I was literally in the middle east! My dream of many years was finally coming true- and it felt (and still does) so unreal! At this point I was dead tired, as was everyone else, even though I had slept on the plane. Plane sleep doesn't seem to be as restful as regular sleep somehow. When we first arrived, we went to the main auditorium, where we will be having church every Saturday. The curtains were closed around the windows that take up the entire wall in front of us, and we couldn't wait for them to be opened. We had a little welcome meeting where the director of the JC welcomed us- his name is Aran something.... He is a palestinian Jew- while the other directors are Arabs. He seemed very nice- and the JC is the only place in the church that isn't completely run by an LDS person and staff. The goal of the JC is to be a bridge between East and West Jerusalem- which is the Arab and Jewish sides. They have people from both sides working there with the requirement that they have to leave their politics at the door. And apparently it is working very well and is a good example to the rest of the country that these two groups can work together. After our welcome meeting we took a tour of the building, and it is absolutely gorgeous. The rumors are all true! We then unpacked into our rooms. My roommates are Maddie, Sarah, and Hailee and we all seem to get along very well. Everyone here seems very friendly and nice so far as well. Anyway- after we unpacked, we went to dinner. The food here is pretty good. At least the first meal was. After dinner we had introductions to our classes- which seems very intense, but doable. Afterwards we all were so happy to be able to go to bed. I was soooooo tired. I went to bed around 9PM. I woke up this morning at like 5 AM to the wonderful sound of the calling to prayer. So authentic! I guess because I'm still on UT time, but I woke up feeling very rested and had plenty of time to shower and get ready for breakfast at 615. So I just ate breakfast, and am now emailing you all with the few minutes I have before we go to our orientation meeting and then on a walk of the ancient city! I will write again soon- Write me back!! Love you all!
Hello again from the Middle East,
Well I just finished lunch at the Oasis- which is what they call the cafeteria here. All of the food so far has been quite good- I haven't eaten anything outside of the JC yet though. So yesterday after I finished emailing all of you, we went on our orientation walk around the entire city. It was quite the hike! We weren't allowed to bring cameras so that we could get through the city as quickly as possible and because they say we will be seeing these sites a hundred times before we leave. Hopefully that's true because I have yet to even take a picture yet- I know, surprising. But there really hasn't been time. I am going out today on free time though- and I will be taking pictures then. Anyway- the orientation walk was pretty legit. Walking around the actual city was really fun and everything here looks so ancient. One thing is that there are cats EVERYWHERE. And no dogs. And all of the cats are really gross and homeless. We see them roaming around the grounds of the center as well. We split up into groups of 8 for the orientation walk and my group was guided by Sister Bentley- who is one of the senior "service couples." There are 3 couples here- and they aren't allowed to be called missionaries since there is no missionary work in Israel, but they do a lot of service and even pay their own way out here, just like normal missionaries would. She showed us the main roads of Jerusalem and we saw a few of the sites, including where we can exchange money and such. My favorite part, however, was when we entered the old city, which is enclosed inside of a concrete wall. Once you walked through the gate it was like you were in another time period- with a few modern adjustments since people were wearing jeans and talking on cell phones. The old city is broken up into different quarters for Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Armenians. And each quarter has a lot of different shops. I can't wait to go back and go shopping! All of the people are very friendly and constantly call out to us saying "Hello Mormons!" Inside the ancient city, we went to the holy church of the seplechre (I'm not sure how to spell that...) and some other sites that I will be going back to to get a better look. We then walked to West Jerusalem, which is very different from East Jerusalem. It is much more modern and European looking, and apparently much safer as well. We then met the buses to take us back to the center, where we ate lunch. I then had a meeting to go to because I am the chair of the birthdays and special occasions committee. After that I read a lot for my classes. and boy is there a lot of reading. I was also suffering from jet lag all day long, which was really difficult. Hopefully it goes away soon. Then that night we had dinner and then a group activity in the gym which involved get to know you games. After that I went straight to bed because I was sooooo tired. I awoke this morning to the call of prayer once again around 6 AM and felt very awake. One good thing about jet lag is that it has been very easy to wake up in the morning. We had our first classes today- 2 classes that were 2 hours long each. That was pretty rough. My old testament class will be great from what I can tell. My near eastern studies class seems really boring.... boo. Oh well, I don't think it will be too hard or anything. Or maybe it was just the first day or something. Anyway after class we had lunch and now I am emailing you. I still have yet to blog because I haven't really had time because I have spent all of my time writing everything to you. Maybe I will copy and paste.... So that's my life right now! I can't wait to see what church is like tomorrow. After I finish emailing you, I will be going to another meeting with my committee and then we have free time the rest of the day. So until next time! Love you!
I will try and blog somewhat often- so stay in touch!
1 comment:
I didn't notice the comment about cats! Italy had lots of weird homeless cats everywhere too...It totally struck me as odd. And now that you mention it, I didn't see many dogs if any. Wow....So jealous! And gorgeous pics. <3 :)
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