i celebrated my 21st birthday on monday! it was amazing! mondays are our field trip days. this field trip was our jerusalem overlook field trip. we went to various vistas around the city to help get ourselves better oriented with the city and even the whole country. jerusalem is very hilly, it's not a valley like a typical settlement in utah or the states. there are also no high mountains. sooo, if you get to a high point, you can see for miles! because israel is such a small country we could even see jordan at some points.
because our group is so large, we split into two groups, depending on who your teacher is for old testament. we started at opposite ends of a loop around jerusalem then met in the middle.
my group started at a hotel called seven arches. there were tons of tourists there and a guy with a camel ripping everyone off to get a picture with it. it was hilarious. hahah. so cliche. next we went up to august victoria which is a german church/hospital/school up on the hill above us. literally, it is right above the center. the germans have a ton of churches here thanks to kaiser wilhelm who wanted a presence in the holy land. the church was beautiful. it was very european but they made an effort to incorporate middle eastern color schemes in their design. they also had a cool replica of the ark of the covenant in the back. ah they had a lot of cool stuff. i really like augusta victoria.
(throwing up 21 to remember my bday in the holy land)
we split into two groups here, half of us went up the HUGE tower and had an amazing view of the city. we could see all the way to Jordan, our neighboring country. we then switched and sat in the nave of the chapel and sang hymns. it was so cool. before we sang, one of our professors explained that while we can't proselyte during our time here, one way we can do missionary work is through music. apparently the community loves it when we sing, and there's no doubt the spirit is linked to music. anyways, the acoustics were amazing and it was a super cool experience.
next we headed over to a monastery on the other side of the city. i forgot to mention, monday was israel's memorial day. it was a very somber day. israeli holidays start at sundown of the day before, so it started with some cannon like things being shot at sunset. they sound kind of like gunshots so it's kind of scary but i've gotten used to it. i feel like there are loud bangs every single night. not always sure what they are... welcome to israel right? so, for memorial day at 11 am they set off this alarm system throughout the city. the entire city stops and stands for a moment of silence. when i say the entire city, i mean the entire city. all traffic stopped and everyone got out of their cars. it was insane.
the next site, the monastery hill was my favorite spot. it was a hike to get to the top, but from there we could see bethlehem. there also happened to be a shepherd with a flock of sheep and goats at the top. it was so cool. shepherds are my jam. they are my favorite. this site was also super cool because there was a ton of razor wire, bunkers, and trenches left over from the jordanians from the conflict in the sixties. significant sites in jerusalem are so interesting to me because they are still very much alive. the modern politics are so interesting. at the bottom of the hill was also an olive grove... i love olive groves.
our last stop on our little field trip was a lookout over the city. i guess it's believed to be on the path that abraham took with isaac when he was on his way to sacrifice isaac. it was a cool view. we took a lot of group pictures here, but my favorite part was the ice cream truck that brother belnap let me grab a treat from. i was hoping for a white chocolate magnum bar, but sadly the little vendor guy couldn't find any. he pulled out every single ice cream bar he had, and i chose a traditional vanilla/chocolate bar with some brownie bits in it. it was so good and a fun birthday treat! it was definitely a unique, special birthday and i will never forget it!
chocolate i got from the birthday committee! they were so sweet and made sure i was well taken care of. i got sang to at least seven times, had a poster waiting for me when i woke up, got a nice little crown at breakfast, and of course some chocolate! i really had a great day.
when we got back, we had family home evening, which is kind of funny to me since we are all so tight knit anyways. we met in the library and just played get-to-know-you games. then we had some downtime, i organized pictures and hung out in the manna-cabana (student run snack area lounge thing) then went to bed. i had such a great day. thank you so much to the people back home that reached out to me.. but more than anything the people here made it so memorable. dr. belnap made sure i got sung to on the bus, let me take a million ridiculous pictures, everyone made a huge fuss over me even though they dont even know me.. everyone here is so sweet and i am so blessed. just being here to meet the people is worth the price of the program.
so for most of the week we have had a ridiculous amount of CLASS. on tuesday we literally had class from 8 am to 9 pm. it. is. intense. most of our class periods are two hours long and that is a lot to handle. luckily... i love every single one of my classes. i am not just saying that. you know those classes you take and you just love it because you can feel that you are learning something and it's genuinely interesting? that's how all of my classes are. we have two professors that are locals here and they are amazing. they teach our 1) palestine/islam class and 2) judaism/israel class. they are very sought after and super engaging. i love them both. our palestine teacher is dr. bashir bashir. he has studied all over america and england including places like harvard and oxford. he is in his late thirties and is unmarried (but looking, he told us). he is so funny. he always starts his thoughts with 'my friends..' he has the most amazing vocabulary ever. you can tell he is so smart. he is a non-practicing muslim and is fascinated with religion. our student group is unique because for the first time.. we can discuss mormonism with him. this sounds like a minor thing but i feel like this is a big, big deal. (by small and simple things great things come to pass right?) it was funny, i guess for a long time he has wanted to know about mormonism, mostly so he could teach us better, but the administration won't let him because of our non-proselytizing agreement. finally he kind of just said 'screw it, this is so stupid' (he literally said that to our class) hahah. and the rest is history! it was so funny when he was describing how dumb he thought it was that he couldn't talk about it with us. it has been so so so interesting to discuss the gospel with him. i live for this kind of stuff. he has great questions and you can tell he has done his homework- so cool. i am so excited for this class.
(side note- the other day after i wrote this paragraph he made a comment about all the mormons he has taught here. he said something to the effect of 'One thing I can always tell about you guys is how eager you are to talk about your religion and share it with people. I could tell it was so hard for you to hold back and that it was your favorite thing to talk about.' I thought that was so cool he could see that desire in our eyes. He also said something about how no other religion is like that. I thought that was very telling!)
tuesday was israeli independence day (fireworks!) so our class schedule was a little off and gave us a bit of a free day on wednesday. (doesn't make much sense, i know) i headed to one of the nice malls in west jerusalem with some friends who needed some things you can't exactly get in the old city. going to malls in foreign countries to me is so interesting. this one was pretty american... except that nothing was in the english alphabet and there were pigeons flying around. it is the most overwhelming thing when you realize you literally can't understand anything. it's one thing to have things be in french or spanish, but when you can't even read the letters that's a whole different level. the mall had h&m, zara, adidas, nike, some british stores i recognized, but nothing too standout-ish / uniquely isreali. i did get some jewelry in a fun boutique but nothing super notable.
to get from place to place, we have vans take us everywhere. they're organized through security on the eighth floor and are very efficient. our van was kind of late this day, and when he came he yelled out the window 'mormons!' so that we would go over to him. it was so funny to me. hahah. i love how we are recognized here. i also got my first schwarma in the food court and it was pretty good. not as good as taza's in london, but pretty good. hopefully we will get there. ;)
this week i also had my first arabic class. oh my goodness. if i learn anything in that class it will be a miracle. when you come to the jerusalem you get to choose if you take hebrew or arabic, and i obviously chose the latter. our teacher is so funny. i have learned nothing, but have had the best time. he is the director of a local high school and doesn't take our class seriously at all, it is so refreshing! everything here is so serious. he teases us so much and spends all his time trying to help us make the 'kh' sound in the back of our throats. it kind of sounds like a cat hissing and is used a lot in arabic, but not in the english language at all. it's hard to describe in words but oh my gosh, he is so funny. he got our names all memorized really quick and calls me 'ehli'. there is also a girl in my class from georgia. her name is charlotte. he calls her 'miss georgia' in a thick arabic accent. it's so funny. i wish i could record it and share it more. it is so fun.
this wednesday we had our first forum. typically we have distinguished political leaders, but this time we had dr. whitchurch, our program director. he shared the story of how we obtained the land for the center. it was crazy. i will spare you all since this post is forever long, but i strongly, strongly encourage everyone to find the story somehow. basically this place was not for sale or even on the list of options for the church, but the prophet stood here and said something like 'this is the place.' a bunch of jewish people were really really mad, and it was a total miracle. i'm totally short-selling you but you get the idea. look it up! i'm looking forward to future forums.
this week there have been crazy intense rainstorms. mulitple places across the city have flooded, including the kidron valley below us. it was so incredibly cool to watch the thunderstorms roll in over the hills. i will never, ever get over the view we have from our patios. plus the smell of desert rain is hard to beat. i happened to be talking to christopher that night and stood outside the whole time. i got drenched, but it was so cool. at some points there was definitely a chance that i was gonna get struck by lightning but it was worth it :)
after hours and hours and hours of more class and reading, we found some extra time to head into the city again on friday. the boys had to get kipas for our night at the western wall so we headed into the jewish quarter. this was my first time back in the old city since our orientation walk on the first day (like i said, SCHOOL is off the chain). i'm not gonna lie, my first experience in the old city kind of freaked me out, but i am a huge fan of the jewish quarter. it is a lot cleaner and has nice cafes and shops. at the entry to the jewish quarter is this art gallery with THE most beautiful mosaics and gates. i think the jewish community really makes it a point to keep their quarter clean. i will definitely be going back!
we also got to go into another german church, the church of the redeemer. here in jeru there are very strict building codes. everything has to be built from the same white/yellow stone you see in all of my pictures. this makes the european churches interesting because they aren't as ornate as what you are used to seeing in their home countries. in keeping with this plain look, this church had the most interesting stained glass windows. they were mostly green and blue and were very geometric, nothing like the crazy stories or portraits you see in europe. they were so beautiful. it was so clean and straightforward. i really liked that church. they also had a beautiful organ above the chapel that was being played. it was very peaceful, especially after walking in from the streets of the old city.
oh! i forgot. before we went into the city on friday, we had our first group humanitarian project that me & my committee are in charge of. typically we make kits but we don't have our supplies yet, so we did a cleanup of the the jc property. since we are in a palestinian neighborhood the trash pickup system isn't very good because israeli government doesn't come pick it up. there is tons of litter everywhere. there are lots of little kids in the neighborhood that love the JC kids, so we met them for the first time. at the bottom of the property there is a playground that they hang around, as well as right by the gate. the boys don't talk to us much, as a matter of fact they mostly throw things at us, but it was fun to talk to the girls, they are so cute. they were 6 & 7 i think, and they speak awesome english. they are smart. one of the girls name is nadine. i can't remember the other. there was also another girl, she was older, about 13, and she went and got gloves and helped us! i have seen her for a couple days in a row now walking around and she is almost always wearing a byu shirt. it is cool to see the friendships the JC kids have made.
it turns out we went way further down then we were supposed to and ended up cleaning this playground at the bottom of the property. i thought it was ours, but i guess not? i will find out and let you know. it made security a little nervous, but the gunthers, the service couple in charge of us, were so happy it was 100% worth it. they are so sweet. i love them. it's been two days now and the property is already trashed but it was an awesome project. if nothing else all the people driving down the street saw that we cared and wanted to help the neighborhood look nicer.
friday night we headed to the western wall to bring in sabbath with the jewish worshippers. like i said, in israeli culture the day/holiday the day starts at sundown. the western wall is pretty intense. there is a big security checkpoint before you get there. we had to go through scanners like at an airport and they went through our bags. there is a boys entrance and a girls entrance. just like at nabi samuel, we were seperated. because it was the sabbath we were all dressed kind of nice (girls in skirts, boys in collared shirts) and all the boys wore kipas. there were TONS of people there. there were some that were pretty casual, and some that were very dressed up. there were also lots of very orthodox worshippers. there were the stereotypical orthodox jews with the curls and tophats and suitcoats, then there was a whole new level i hadn't seen before. they have the curls and the nice suit outfit, but their hats were insane. they are shaped like a donut and made out of fur. they look straight out of russia! (and apparently they are). on the girls side, there were tons and tons of girls from the states that were there on birthright trips. can i just say israeli girls are BEAUTIFUL. i met a lot of girls in Agoura when i went down to visit Erika (freshman roommate) but holy crumbs. they are so pretty. it was cool to see how many young people were there and how seriously the took it. when our group met to go back home we all talked about how impressed we were with how young so many of the people were. it is cool to see young people be so devout.
it was so cool to watch all the people worship. a lot of people write prayers then find a crack in the wall to tuck them into. the jewish people consider this an incredibly spiritual place because this is as close as they will get to the temple mount until the Redeemer comes. they don't want to accidentally enter the holy of holies on the temple mount, so they just go to the wall. it is cool to see that they have such spiritual experiences. a lot of the girls were very emotional. it was cool. similar to how we get at testimony meetings. they all have a torah or borrow one from a some shelves or carts they have on the side of the area. it's hard to explain what it looks like. towards the front of the crowd near the wall there is a lot of praying. they rock back and forth like you expect. a lot of them bring a chair up right to the wall and rest their head there. they really get in the zone. it is impressive. some people just touch or kiss the wall then walk back out. some of the orthodox people won't turn their back to the wall so they walk out backwards. i had no idea what was going on at first so that was kind of a funny thing to figure out. hahah. picture me just looking weird at all the people backing out of this HUGE crowd. hahah. i'm a very dumb american tourist sometimes.
we met this group of israeli high school girls and they latched onto us and we started talking a lot. it was fascinating. they were in town just for the sabbath. on the sabbath jews don't believe in doing any work, so they wouldnt drive home that night, they were staying in jerusalem for the night. the most interesting part is that they were from an illegal jewish settlement across the green line. i asked if their parents were asked to settle there. the girls were very quick to reply that no, their families wanted to be there and were even honored to be in the settlement. it was so interesting to me. (these settlements have been declared illegal by the UN. they are in palestinian territory and are israel's attempt to expand their territory. they will send in settlers to build new cities. it is a lot like colonization)
this was our first and only time in the old city past dark so we had a security escort the whole way. i will never get over the security thing. it is so funny to me. they followed us in cars then would hop out randomly and funnel us through certain places. they are great. once we got home we had the grand opening party of the 'manna cabana'! the manna cabana is the student run snack bar. they have otter pops, chocolate bars, soda, etc. we also have a movie night every friday and it was super fun. i love all the people here so much. i can already tell it will be hard to leave them.
the next day was the sabbath! holy crap, i can't believe we have already had our second church meeting. it was district conference (stake conference) and people from all over israel came. so cool. we had a lot of people there that didn't speak english so a lot of the kids on the program did translations on headsets. it was super well organized. the foreign people were so thankful and it was so cool. all the members of the district presidency spoke and one of them was middle eastern. how cool is that? i have said this before but i have so much respect for foreign members of the church. my favorite part of the conference was when we chose to sustain the general authorities of the church. it was amazing to think how close i live to these men and the amazing buildings and institutions we have in utah. if you ever want to be thankful for utah, just leave it for a little bit. the lady that i talked about last week, carmen, also brought her husband. how exciting! i'm not sure what it all means but she was so happy to have him there. she talked in conference and did a great job. they had a lot of women talk and they were such strong members. it was so cool.
after church we headed to the garden tomb. this is the thing i have been looking forward to most and it didn't disappoint. it is just outside of the old city and is owned by a coalition of christian churches. the current director is british and our tour guide was as well. he explained the argument for the authenticity of the garden tomb (orthodox believe the crucifixion and burial of Christ was where the church of the holy sepulcher now sits). he never really said that he believed that this was the spot for sure, but what he did emphasize was his knowledge that the tomb is empty, and that jesus christ did in fact die for us. he wasn't mormon, but it was so neat to hear him bear his testimony. i love british people. they are so well spoken. after he gave his little spill we were free to roam the garden. there were a lot of different groups throughout the garden (it was surprisingly big), it has a couple different seating areas for groups. most of them were tour groups and would start singing. before the director left he told us how much he liked it when the byu kids sang. he said the first sabbath he was hear as director he was in his office and had the window open when he heard beautiful singing outside. he joked that he thought he had died and gone to heaven. he urged us to sing as much as we wanted to. we sang some resurrection hymns as a group then the boys decided to sing some more. it was beautiful. seriously. everyone in the garden stopped and listened to us. music is definitely our missionary work here in the holy land. i think the people in the garden thought we were a professional choir that were brought into the garden just to sing.
after the singing we finally started walking around. the garden is beautiful and really well kept. i loved it. it is my favorite place so far. i went down into the tomb and we had to wait in a really long line because of all the tour groups. while we were waiting a spanish lady pulled one of our girls aside. "where are you from?" she asked. our girl (chelsea) explained that we were from the states and were mormon. the lady started to tear up. she gave her a huge hug and said "i could tell you were different." it was so cool. there are a lot of little plaques throughout the garden on traditional israeli pottery. i love the colors and designs here. it's really mediterranean and colorful.
(it's empty!)
towards the back of the garden is where they believe golgotha was. there is a skull face in the mountain and it is pretty intense. i can totally see it the crucifixion happening there. i had no idea that the tomb was so close to christ's burial place. the garden had such a special spirit about it and all the people there were very reverant. it was so cool. such a different feel from the holy sepulcher. i honestly felt like all the people were in there were mormon too, everyone had a special spirit about them. basically i love the garden tomb! it will definitely be my go-to.
the rest of the day was mostly writing this monstrous post and skyping my mom and.. my three besties in california. hahaha. i skyped christopher, danny and stephen and i felt like i was right there in the room with them eating ice cream.
wow my brain is fried. i have been writing this post for a week and i'm so sorry it's so long. i will try not to get this far behind again. i just covered a whole week! i will keep you updated on everything this week! ;) love to all and HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!
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