snippets

this is for my mom. and all the many people who have reached out to me this past week. thank you so much! i have been so bad at keeping everyone updated and i feel bad. so i will make an attempt to make up for it now.
i was pretty good at blogging almost every day in may. then midterms hit and we went to turkey, and everything hit the fan. so... i present to you... updates as of our turkey trip! which was almost 6 weeks ago. i'm the worst. hahah. here goes.

arab culture night
a fun tradition here at the center! shaban, one of the shopkeepers in the old city lets us borrow scarves, dresses and more from his shop for the ultimate cultural experience. he has a good relationship with the kids here at the center and offers us fair fixed prices so we don't have to barter/get ripped off in the old city. he is great.
i used a scarf i bought in bursa, turkey, then got an awesome dress from shaban. we started the night with a visit from two sheiks that do the call to prayer at al aqsa mosque on the temple mount. it was so cool, and they are a big deal. this role is passed down through the family, so we had a father and a son. they performed a passage of the quran for us, and i learned so much. i never realized how musical it is. the men that do the call to prayer are really singers more than anything else. in fact, if you want to become an arab singer, the best way to start is doing prayer calls! there is a very definite art to their voice influction, and there is a right and wrong way to do it. some people are better than others, and they actually have competitions amongst themselves! the son that came and performed for us has won multiple competitions across the middle east. he had an amazing voice. it was also cool because the passage they did is the one about mary (yes, she's in the koran!)

the two men also prayed for us, which was cool. it was also neat to see that they were pretty normal people. they weren't wearing headscarves and were very personable. it was an awesome experience.
an amazing dinner, complete with decorations. the oasis/cafeteria was closed all day for set up. they had all the food beautifully presented outside on a huge circular table with pretty sheets draped from the floor above us. it was so cool. we had a huge schwarma and falafel station that was to die for, tons of hummus, bizarre stuffed vegetables, tons of different baklava type pastries, and my favorite.. the iced watermelon slushy. so good.

after dinner we had a lesson in traditional palestinian/arabic dancing. oh man. we looked like idiots. everyone totally let go of their inhibitions and had a great time, though. it actually reminded me a lot of river dance, sans the tap shoes. there was a lot of heel-toe touching and jumps and leaps. we looked completely ridiculous. the cute tweens that came to teach us are actually the nieces of some of the security guys that work here and live in nearby neighborhoods. it was fun stuff. we were all sweaty and exhausted by the end.

throughout the night we also had a super fun Photo Booth. good stuff! i love my 'harem' here at the JC :)

movies in west jerusalem

so a couple weeks ago we found this amazing movie theatre. it's huge. it's called cinema city. it's incredibly corny... and it's covered in disney paraphernalia. i'm all about it. there are these plastic life-size figures everywhere and it's hilarious. if it was anywhere in the states, i think people would just laugh. it's in a funny mall that mostly exists just because it's there. you have to go through security to get in, and once your in it's almost all just dessert places. it reminds me of something you would find in provo because it's great for a date. i counted last time i was there and there were like 4 ice cream/yogurt places, a pastry shop, a waffle place, a bunch of jewelry places, a juice bar.. you get the idea. they have a big fountain and a light show thing. it's like a funny attempt at trying to be las vegas or something. we have gone twice now, the first time to see x-men, and recently to see the fault in our stars! it's nice to have an american experience and kind of escape everything that has been going on. and not to mention.. the ice cream there is amazing! 

shephelah field trip

the geography of israel is divided into 5 areas. coastal plains, the shephelah, judean highlands, jordan river valley, and another one. don't judge me. it's kind of late. on each of our field trips we try to get acquainted with each one, and this one was obviously the shephelah! this is the are responsible for most of israel's agriculture. it's generally green (for israel's standard, at least) there was lots of olives, fig trees, sunflowers, it was pretty!

we actually spent a majority of the day underground. in ancient times, that's where a lot of civilization  in this area retreated to because of the heat, and lots of natural caves in the area! we went to about five stops throughout the day and i think almost every one had an underground feature. one of my favorite was the underground pigeon/dove farm kind of thing. they used doves for sacrifice, fertilizer, a food source, and ways to carry messages. the caves are nice and cool, almost a green color, and covered in different sized holes for the birds to nest in. 

there were also some cave complexes that were used for residential purposes. it was crazy how intricate and how BIG they were. we were given about an hour to make our way through the biggest one and it was amazing. i would get so lost, and get so sick of stairs if i had to live there! i guess back in the day they'd give the students a whole day to just explore the area and check out all the caves but then someone got hurt. it's too bad. the point i'm trying to get across is the whole system is ginormous and impressive. it was cool! 

one of the stops we visited was a national park with an awesome, awesome natural cave. the acoustics  were unreal. we have had the opportunity to sing hymns in some pretty cool places, but this was by far my favorite. 

the tourists that hear us sing always think we are a traveling choir, and the locals that have become familiar with us visiting love it when we sing and always ask us to, so it is a cool thing to be able to do at various places. when we first got here i remember the staff explaining that while we can't proselyte, we can sing, and that definitely helps people feel the spirit. so that is our missionary work.
we sang the EFY medley, which i love. so beautiful.
there was also a super cool natural hole in the ceiling of the cave, and the sun was beaming down through it just right. i think a bunch of boys got some sweet 'first vision' reenactment shots. there was also a huggeee colony of bats living down there. it was cool stuff.

to wrap the day up, we went to a couple different places that are associated with the story of david and goliath. it was an amazing thing, to be in a place where a story apparently took place that i have heard about since i was a teeny kid. of course, no trip to this area would be complete without... learning how to use a slingshot! the center has a whole bunch of them, made out of this hemp material in various pretty colors. there were two ways to go, the underhand and the overhand. if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to use a slingshot.. i would definitely recommend overhand. it's kind of like pitching a baseball. lots more power. basically i am a pro. i have some great footage care of carley, so if you want a slingshot lesson when i get home, you know who to call! 

i am gonna try and get some sleep. i am nowhere NEAR caught up, but a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step right? haha. 

before i head to bed, i will give you another security update. since my last post, we have been in the bomb shelter again twice. although our curfew is much earlier now (4 pm) we can still go out into the city and west jerusalem. we had an informal q&a with our program director, Mr. Hayet a few nights ago and it was very reassuring/ comforting. the security staff here at the JC has everything so figured out it amazes me. they have awesome sources and are always on top of things. 

i can't lie to you and say i'm not scared when i first hear the sirens go off, or hear big bangs in the middle of the night. last night i kept waking up, and it's not always easy, but i still haven't ever felt that i was truly unsafe. a little edgy, sure, but how can you not be when you know at any moment you might have to drop everything and run? one thing i have noticed, is that as soon as we get in the shelter, everyone is all smiles. seriously. it's almost fun. i feel so safe in there. i still know there is nothing to worry about. also... what is there to worry about when we have the IRON DOME? seriously that thing is too legit. wow. in your prayers, thank god for the iron dome. 

that's all for tonight! i will try to do little blips for the next couple days. i have had lots of downtime and have been reading a lot, but maybe i will redirect to blogging again. again, thank you SO MUCH for the texts, Facebook messages, it is so so nice to hear from people and know that you care. know that we are so safe and honestly in a world of our own here at the Jerusalem Center! love to all! 

security updates

hi guys!
i am so embarrassed. i am so incredibly behind and now i can't help but post something. i can't hide anymore! haha. a lot of people have been reaching out to me and my family about the recent security situation here in israel so i figured i would address it on here. there is way too much going on for a tweet or a Facebook post. before i start i want to let everyone know: i trust 1) my intuition and 2) the leaders of my church and 3) the very educated staff of the JC. when i know to get out of a situation i act on it. i have NEVER felt unsafe enough that i need to leave Israel. i am not dumb. if i did, i would be on a plane home. but i have never had a bad feeling. so i will stay here.

so. last week we went on a trip to Jordan. while we were in Jordan the bodies of three kidnapped Israelis were found in the West Bank. they had been kidnapped a few weeks earlier while hitchhiking in the west bank (this is a common thing, but in my mind still incredibly stupid). one of them had dual citizenship in america, so you may have seen it on the news. it was very, very sad. hamas, one of the political islam parties of palestinians, claimed credit for the kidnapping and murder. i still don't know if this is entirely true but either way it was real bad. of course a lot of israelis were very upset. pretty soon after (the first night we were back home in jerusalem) a palestinian teen was kidnapped and was later found dead in a forest near jerusalem. this was also very sad. for a couple days following the discovery of the bodies, during the day but especially at night israeli mobs would gather on the border of palestinian neighborhoods. they were pretty fired up and were ready to be violent. thankfully the police shut them down (this is where the CNN guy got shot with a rubber bullet). these streets/neighborhoods are the streets i walk by almost everyday to get to the Old City, where we go and explore/hang out. so that was pretty scary... i literally recognized all the buildings.

(side note: security doesn't tell us all these things. a couple weeks ago a journalist came in and gave us a forum lecture on the scary realities of journalism in the middle east. basically don't trust anything other than local sources. i talked to him after about some good sources to follow and he gave me a couple good twitter accounts. this is where i get most of my information. i follow both palestinian and israeli law enforcement accounts. if you are interested, my number one suggestion is @IsraelHatzolah on twitter.)

okay. so. as soon as we got back to jerusalem from jordan we got put on lockdown (we can't leave the building at all) because of all this stuff going down. not only were israelis gathering.. but palestinians definitely were too. it is ramadan (biggest muslim holiday, they fast all day for 30 days) right now so it is bad, bad timing. once the sun started to go down, things would get pretty crazy. the JC is located right on the border of palestinian/israeli neighborhoods (specifically hebrew university) so we were RIGHT NEXT to some crazy stuff. every night for probably three nights as the sun went down, things would get real. two nights we couldn't even go outside because there was tear gas in the air. it smelled really bad. outside, we could hear loud bangs and all sorts of stuff. i'm not sure exactly what it was because i went to bed and didn't go outside to watch. I had no desire to see anything. butttt one of my roommates stayed up until 4 skyping her boyfriend in brazil so she told me what she saw/heard. a lot of the boys also stayed up and told me stories the next morning. i guess they could hear a lot of screaming and wailing. some riot police came up the street right next to us, with the shields and everything. they saw one guy get beat up pretty bad. the people who have apartments on the far side of the building also said they couldn't sleep because these flash bomb things they use to blind people were lighting up their windows all night. this happened for a couple nights. pretty crazy stuff. when it got bad security would come and make them go inside and lock the doors.
it all sounds pretty crazy and when you're trying to sleep at night and hear that, it is, but the past week i have become so aware of how inspired the location of the jerusalem center is. seriously. it sounds scary that we live in east jerusalem (technically in the west bank if you look on google maps) but it's actually really smart. all the palestinians really like us. we interact with them on a daily basis, give them good jobs, buy stuff at their stores, and they know we aren't israelis, so they won't attack us. israelis obviously won't attack us. can you imagine what would happen? hahah. we are also in a good position for rockets because all the people that fire rockets are palestinian. they wouldn't want to hit their own community, and even more so, they don't want to hit dome of the rock, which we are really close to. seriously. i would rather be in the JC than anywhere in west jerusalem, or even  tel aviv, or anywhere in this country. this is by far the safest building in the country even though it is sometimes surrounded by crazy stuff because of it's location.
so we were on lockdown Thursday night, friday and saturday. on sunday the center encouraged us to get out of the city. so i went to tel aviv. it was great and i felt really safe there. on monday we went to bethlehem and also had a great experience. i will try and post about that soon. when we got home monday night most of our security restrictions were lifted. at first the old city/east jerusalem (palestinian side) were off limits and we had to be back by dark even if we were in west j. but pretty soon we could go in east jerusalem as long as we were out by 4 pm.
then yesterday happened. haha. a lot of people went out into the city yesterday. everything was getting back to normal, more or less. we had a security meeting in the morning that lifted most of our restrictions. meanwhile, i was following stuff on twitter, and a lot of rocket stuff was going down.
so at about 9:50 pm i was doing homework when one of the service couples was walking down the stairs. she was looking at her phone then said, "i think we are about to have a security meeting." that was kind of freaky because it was totally unplanned.. and it was late. so something was up. then out of nowhere security came over the loudspeaker system and announced that at 10:00 we were having a security update meeting in the forum. everyone was way freaked out. the service couples (who have been here for almost a year) were also freaked out because they had never heard the PA used before. so that caused a little panic.
so we all got together in the forum. just as the director of the center was about to start talking the PA system came on again. it said something like "this is an emergency, everyone assemble in the 6th floor bomb shelter."this meant that rockets were being fired AT jerusalem and the sirens were going off.  um FREAKY. hahah. i don't know if this has ever happened to you guys, but sometimes extreme things happen so quickly you don't really know how to deal emotionally... so you just start laughing. that's how i took it. haha maybe that's what hysterics are or maybe i really wasn't that scared. maybe that was foolish of me, but honestly i felt so at peace the whole time. i think everyone did. as we all gathered in the bomb shelter there were no tears, no looks of fear.. everyone was very calm. i think everyone knew that things were going to be okay.
we were in there for about 15 minutes or so. the director and some of the security staff was in there with us too. again, i felt totally safe. while we were in there he gave us an update on what was going on outside and protocol for rocket threats and what to do if we were ever caught outside the center. all of the service couples were in there as well as the faculties families. it was sweet to see our professor's wife playing with the other professors daughter as everything unfolded. it's cool to see the human spirit in times of distress. people are legit.
we have a phone in the shelter so top floor security called down to let us know when the all clear was given. we then met in the forum, talked about more security guidelines, and were released for the rest of the night. a lot of us were pretty riled up. we called our parents, did a lot of research, then eventually tried to go to sleep. i slept with my slippers by my bed just in case something happened during the night, but we were fine.
this morning we have had class as usual. we were told that security would let us know of any restrictions this morning, and they did. about halfway through class the director came in to let us know we are again on lockdown, this time for rockets. he said they will update us again after lunch.

so here we are, on lockdown again.. and i'm actually not that scared. you guys shouldn't be either! let me give you a quick breakdown on what i know of rockets, and why i'm not scared of them.
palestinians have no money. seriously. the only time they have had legit missiles and have been a legit threat is when they have been funded by foreign third parties like saddam hussein in the nineties or sometimes syria. that is not happening right now. the rockets that gaza fires are really, really weak. especially the long range ones that would have potential to hit jerusalem. in order for them to get more range, they have to make them lighter, so they take off the warheads... so for these things to hurt you they would literally have to hit you right on the head. not likely. even if they hit the building you are in they kind of just put a hole in the wall then sit there.

what Israeli strikes on GAZA look like

vs... 

gaza rocket "attacks" on israel. very small. inaccurate. no big explosions. 

(these pictures are from twitter (@IsraelHatzolah), not me) 

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all the scary images you see is what israel does to GAZA. not what is happening in Israel. 

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the things you see on CNN- the burning buildings, the smoke, the injured citizens.. that is what israel is doing in gaza. while over 200 rockets have been fired into israel the past couple of days, no one has been hurt. seriously. the rockets are not accurate. they mostly hit open fields. it's kind of sad. when israel does detect one that might hit something, it is shot down by what's called the iron dome. it is a mobile anti-aircraft missile thing that shoots a faster rocket at the rocket that has been fired towards israel and detonates it in the sky so that it doesn't hit anyone. it's pretty cool stuff. (to follow the iron dome, follow @IronDomeCount, it is ran by an Israeli soldier that operates the iron dome.)

like i said earlier, the JC is in the best place we possibly could be. Palestinians would never want to hit 1) us, because they like us and we aren't israeli 2) their own neighborhood and 3) the dome of the rock. if that's not enough, our two bomb shelters are actually the nicest and cleanest ones in the country. seriously. we are fine.

i really do appreciate a lot of people getting in touch with me. it is nice to know that people care. please don't hesitate to text me, Facebook me, whatever. i would love to answer your questions and i like clearing up things for people. it is hard to understand what is going on from thousands of miles away. i am right in the middle of everything and it is still hard for me to grasp everything. the one thing i hope everyone remembers is that there is something bigger going on here, and both the students and faculty of the Jerusalem Center aren't dumb. if we were in danger, we would come home. Israel has rockets launched at it literally every month. it has just escalated in light of recent events. I have made a promise to my dad (and that's a big deal) that if i ever feel uncomfortable i will come home, and i plan to stick to that. i have faith in my intuition, my church leaders, and this facility. you should too! seriously :) don't worry. i will try to get back at my blogging with all this free time i have. i love all you guys! i hope everyone had a great fourth of july.