jericho and the west bank

hi friends! 

for our field trip this monday we had our first trip into the west bank. we will go there a total of three times while we are here in the holy land. 

all of our trips to the west bank have to be ok'd by the first presidency. when i was signing my papers to come here to jerusalem, i had to go to notary to have two witnesses see my sign my life away as i acknowledged the dangers of traveling to the area surrounding the west bank, gaza strip, and golan heights. it's kind of funny that the faculty here act like it's not really a big deal and such a hassle that we can't go there more often... in my opinion, better safe than sorry! 

it literally only took about 30 minutes to get to the west bank. there is no designated border (or at least not that i noticed..) the only thing that really signified it was a lack of israeli flags, and suddenly everything was in just arabic, and not hebrew. the style of the advertisements were a little different, too. the quality was the same, but you could tell there was something different. 

as we traveled we saw a lot of bedouan shanties along the highway as well as some camels just roaming the desert. it is crazy how quickly the landscape changes here once you get out of jeru and head towards the 'wilderness.' we truly were in a desert. i don't know why israel fights so hard to keep that land. it's not populated and it's totally terrible. oh well. 

our first stop was a monastery in the middle of nowhere. seriously, who knows how these crazy people found this place and decided it was a good idea. our bus went down these crazy hairpin turns down and down the jordan river valley then up to the top of this mountain. as soon as we got there some way dark skinned bedouan guys jumped on us trying to sell us random funny stuff straight out of china. they were super random things like fedoras. yeah, who knows. you could tell they have spent some serious time in the sun. there were also a couple of donkeys with some sweet saddle swag they were trying to advertise for rides. i would have been down but faculty made it very clear we were not to ride the donkeys. unfortunate.

we hiked up to this little covered thing that overlooked his HUGE canyon. it was intense. i felt like i was at the grand canyon. along the rim were a bunch of crosses. this area is the area believed to be the place where christ wandered during his forty days of fasting in the wilderness. supposedly, we were on the mount of temptation! pretty cool stuff. so that's the monastery is really there. i was kind of exaggerating. the crosses mark a trail that pilgrims take to follow the footsteps of jesus. it seemed pretty treacherous, and dr. belnap told us that the area is very dangerous, lots of bandits. i guess in 1995 a german couple was shot and killed on the trail. a couple years ago when byu was there they had to have security escort them on both sides. on our trip we had one guy from the center come with us. i don't think he was armed or anything so i'm not really sure what he was doing but he was always kind of off to the side or breaking trail for us and you could tell he was always looking around. it was a little comforting. i guess. haha. 

the monastery is literally nestled right in the wall of the canyon. it is very petra-esque. it was cool to learn about. it has had a presence for about 300 years but recently the greek orthodox church has acquired it. obviously monks don't have children so they rely on recruiting to keep it populated. kind of crazy right? they had little shacks in holes in the wall where the monks go to experience solitude and draw closer to god, but most days they stay in the main compound. it was very cool. i like the site a lot.

our next stop and the main part of our day was spent at jericho! the oldest city in the world. a citadel there dates back 10,000 years and is therefore the oldest building in the world. can you believe i just saw that? i can't. there is  a huge tel (mound) they have excavated there. it was interesting to see the contrast in the preservation as opposed to an israeli archaeological site. palestine obviously doesn't have the funds.. but at the same time they had this super cool cable car, an amazing gift shop and restaurant at the bottom, and a nice building with an educational introductory video by UCLA at the base of the tel. it was honestly so nice. it was only the tel itself that was missing reconstruction that most of the israeli sites have. it was super american- the whole video was english with no subtitles. and the gift shop was very western and pretty nice... like i said, really interesting. the people were really nice too. i felt really safe. the fact that i was in the west bank really hit me when were sitting on top of the tel and dr. belnap pointed out an old refugee camp next to us. it is no longer in use but the government has kept in intact as a reminder to the people.

jericho was honestly beautiful. what struck me most was how green it was. i felt like i was in a real bonafide oasis. there were palm trees and fruit farms everywhere. totally not what i expected. also, a lot of the homes and buildings were surprisingly nice... kind of how you would picture a nice arabic city in a movie or something, with tan stucco and  spanish tile roofs, lots of pomegranate trees, fountains, and lots and lots of palm trees. 

-this is a draft i never posted but figured better late then never. missing my days in jerusalem a lot- almost on year later now! not missing the heat so much :)
xo

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) 

******

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

******

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.

bonfires with the jews

wow. hi people. my blogs are so behind.

the night before we went to turkey was a cool jewish holiday. it's called the 'Lag BaOmer' and is the 33rd day of Omer. i have no idea what any of that means. but here's my best shot: the jews count the days between passover and the Pentecost. a long time ago, on the 33rd day one of the big rabbis of old day's got this sick revelation. i don't know exactly what it was, and i think mostly mystic jews really incorporate it into their practice... 

the day also aligns with an old pagan holiday that was associated with my favorite summer past times... bonfires. YES. 

so. our professors encouraged to wander out into the ultra-orthodox jewish neighborhoods as the sun went down (signifying the end of the sabbath) and find some bonfires. it was kinda scary and i wasn't sure i was down to go out to a neighborhood we had never been to, with zero guarantee of finding anything.. but it was awesome. 

the neighborhood was nutty. it wasn't nice at all, lots of cement and trash. it looked like a palestinian neighborhood. what did surprise me was how desperate they were in their call for modesty. as we entered the neighborhood, signs like this were everywhere:

maybe it's just my experience, but i feel like you would never see something like this in america. it's interesting to me how the jews expect everyone rise to their standards/what they view as normal. i feel like in america and most other places people are welcome to come as they are. 

anyways, we continued to wander around for a long time, waiting for the sun to go down. it was still the sabbath, so all the jews were in their houses. eventually we got to a school/university thing where young adult jews study the torah. we have learned about these schools in class. it was definitely getting dark and we were starting to worry we weren't gonna find a bonfire, so we decided to suck it up and ask someone. we thought everyone in this neighborhood was hebrew and didn't speak any english... to our surprise, the two students we talked to (young guys with beards, typical jewish getup with the top hats, black suit coats and tassels) were totally AMERICAN. what??? I guess it is typical for them to just take a temporary hiatus from normal life to come to Israel and study the torah. so bizarre to me. we had an awesome, awesome conversation with them and i feel like i learned more about judaism and the culture here in our hour-long conversation then i have in 6 weeks of classes. a lot of the students at these schools are american and both of the guys we were talking to were from new york. as more and more students started walking out (it was getting later, so more and more people had finished their sabbath worship) we drew quite a crowd. there were a lot of people standing around us listening in our conversation. it was funny. i can tell you a lot about those schools now, but i don't think i have the energy to write it all down. if you wanna know, give me a call ;) 

we talked for a while, when finally a car drove by us. the main guy we were talking to paused and said something to the effect of 'that is a stereotypical sign that the sabbath is over.' jews can't do work on the sabbath so they don't drive their cars. i thought it was funny that something as simple as driving a car down the street of your neighborhood symbolized the end of a day. we wrapped up our conversation and they directed us to where we would be able to find a bonfire.

the bonfires weren't hard to find. all you had to do was follow the smoke and the hoards of people. they were HUGE. i don't know how we didn't burn the whole city down. the buildings are so tightly packed, everything would've been up in flames in two minutes. the only thing that saved us is the fact there is literally 0 greenery and every building is stone. 

as per tradition, after passover, the kids start collecting a ton of junk to build these HUGE mounds for the bonfire. there was tons of stuff, pallets, chairs, random junk from houses, plastic, basically anything. it was crazy to me that they let these little elementary kids be in charge of something so massive. the mound itself was in their school playground! they lit the fire and were on the front lines of the crowd watching it. i still can't even put into words how huge and scary this bonfire was. i have seen some crazy ones people build down at lake powell and stuff... i promise this was bigger... and it was in the middle of a residential area!!!! 

at one point a firetruck did show up. it was comical to see it navigate the crazy narrow streets. some firefighters hopped out and soaked down a couple things, just in case. to be honest, they came too late and missed the fire when it was super huge. i think they would've put it out if they saw how big it was at that point

after the fires died down and the people dispersed we headed out to try and find a place with a street name we recognized so we could call a van to come get us. it took a while cause we were definitely in the middle of a place we had never been before. we did find a cool bakery place with awesome hot bread and cookies that opened as the sabbath ended. we all got a little hot loaf and nonmed as we were driven home to the jc. it was cool. when we got home we walked through the biblical gardens and could see all of the city. you could here music and see the glow of fires all over. it was awesome. definitely one of those 'i won't forget this any time soon' moments. it was a cool, cool day and an amazing cultural experience. 

i almost forgot! the day before we had a tour of the underground part of the JC. underneath the JC is series of tunnels, kind of like Disney World's utilidoor. one of the funny security guys led us through. he doesn't think it's that cool cause he's down there every day and it's just pipes and wires, but we were stoked. on one of the levels all of the walls are covered by the names of everyone that has been at the JC since the late nineties and he brought a bunch of markers so we could add our names. it was awesome. i found names of a lot of friends and it was cool to feel like i was part of something more than just my group. 

i hope everyone is doing great! thanks for keeping up with me. 

xo

the pope was my neighbor. (literally)

hi everyone!

so as you know, the pope recently visited the holy land! this is a big deal. this is the first time pope francis has made a visit to jerusalem. it's also interesting because of the politics. recently, the vatican was very anti-israel. that has recently changed, but you can tell there are still sketchy feelings. 

obviously all christians here in the holy land are palestinians (all the israelis are jews), so all the people that support the pope also are hoping for a palestinian state. the vatican openly supports this sentiment as well. this is important background.. i will explain later!

before i get to that, i have to mention... THE PAPAL PALACE IS LITERALLY RIGHT NEXT TO THE JERUSALEM CENTER. THE POPE IS MY NEIGHBOR. hahah. how crazy is that?! at orientation in provo they told us about the pope's visit but i still can't believe it. you would think he would be in a nice area in west jerusalem but he is right here next to us! cool fact #2: the security center ('mission control') for the pope was located on the eighth floor OF THE JC. there are tons of computers and shiz. like 200 people are always coming in and out. cool right? for the past two days we have not been allowed up there. there have been so many different uniforms and security guards wandering around it has been nuts. they are from israel, the vatican, privately contracted companies. it's tight. there are snipers on our roof.  hahaha. how crazy is that? a lot of the security is staying here with us as well, including the swiss guard. this is a big deal. so tight. they are all over the patio where we eat lunch and the backyard of the papal palace that we can typically see is all taped off.

so. we get home from turkey on saturday night, and the pope rolled in early sunday afternoon. we found out that there was a chance we could see him coming out of jaffa gate (old city) at around 6 o'clock, when do you ever get a chance to see the pope? so of course we went for it. 

for a lot of the day we couldn't even leave the building. we left out the bottom gate at about 3 o'clock so 'we could get a good spot.' walking to jaffa gate was nuts. the street the whole way there was lined with police tape and every five feet there was pair of armed guards. it varied from israeli military to common policeman to what look liked privately contracted people. a majority of them were women which i thought was interesting. we must have passed at least 150 people in a mile or so walk. once we got to the old city area a ton of the walkways were closed. we had the hardest time getting to the actual gate, i swear it took us two hours. 

(we had to detour through the old city itself and i saw the armenian quarter for the first time. i am excited to go back). anyways. we finally get there and get this prime spot right on the corner. we were one of the first people there and we were STOKED. we talked to a couple different policeman dudes (they all spoke english) and they said we could stay where we are. most of them said the pope wouldn't come till at least 8:30, if not later, but our teachers and the ABC press release said 6:30. the last officer we talked to, who seemed the most legit, also said that, so we decided to wait it out for the next 2 and half hours. 

at around 5:30, we started to hear bagpipes and a big crowd. to be honest, i thought the pope was rolling in early! as i looked up the street, there was HUGE crowd coming our way with palestinian and papal flags. there were probably about 250 people. a majority of them were families. they were very loud and happy. they had drums and trumpet things and kept chanting 'viva la papa!' (long live the pope in spanish). it was cool, but i'll be honest, i was sketched out and i could tell something was gonna go down. 

they placed themselves right in the middle of the busy road that had yet to be shut down. they stopped traffic going both ways. people in the cars and huge tourist buses were not happy. as they got closer to us, the israeli guards suddenly got very serious and told us to move. we were forced across the street so that the big crowd could take our place. this makes me think the security people knew that they were coming and were anticipating their location, but i'm not sure.

(we were originally by the light pole furthest on the right, but we were moved behind the crowd)

anyways. they continued celebrating, singing, dancing, etc. and it seemed pretty innocent. another group of byu students actually came and kind and joined the crowd, but then eventually went up on the grass bank you can see in the background. some of the kids i was with wanted to do that but i didn't think that was a very good/safe idea. i became more comfortable with them however and did walk up to the outer perimeter of the crowd and got some good video. the most interesting people was this group of self-proclaimed 'arabian scouts for the pope' or something like that. they wore these fancy outfits that made them look like they were straight vatican security. i totally thought they were at first. they were the guys playing the bagpipes and they were very in sync and unified. it was impressive. 

we were just hanging on the walls, having a good time people watching and talking.. but as 6:30 approached the israeli guard started to get super aggressive. they didn't announce it or anything, but they all got in a line, locked arms with each other and started pushing the crowd back and setting up barricades. it was really violent. the palestinians were not down... and things got crazy. it was really scary. a lot of people started pushing back and finding cracks to push through. the two i remember most was a woman that i had seen earlier with her daughters, just a typical mom, and a really overweight guy that may or may not have been super drunk. they pushed through the line and the israeli guards immediately jumped them. they tackled them to the ground and started beating them. it was scary. there was lots of yelling and i actually turned my face away, i didn't want to watch. the mood changed so suddenly and the israeli guards closest to us (we were right up on the front line near the impending barricade, but we were way on the side and actually standing up on some railing) started yelling at us to move back. we were mostly with foreign tourists, i think they were filipino, and everyone was very scared. probably one of the scariest if not the scariest moment of my life. at the moment i thought we definitely should leave. 

our group got all together kind of towards the back of the crowd and decided it was okay to stay. if the center's security decided it was no longer safe they would either call us or come get us from the city. after that scuffle nothing else bad happened. it was scary, but we were okay.

the pope didn't show up until about 8:30. we are supposed to be out of the old city by sundown so that was kind of sketchy as well. oh well. so he rolled up in this huge brigade with probably a dozen cars including 2 ambulances, a bunch of black SUVs, and some limo looking things. he was supposed to be in an open-top pope-mobile as we call it but i guess they changed their minds at the last minute. sooo we were totally anticipating this car and it never showed up. to be 100% honest, i didn't see the pope. hahah. i filmed the whole brigade, and two of the black cars had the windows down and in one there was someone waving out the window. sooo i have him on film but you can't really see his face or anything. needless to say it was disappointing. i don't regret going, however. it wasn't the experience i was expecting by any means, but it was a very eye opening experience. it made the conflict and violence so much more real. it was 100% terrifying. 

the old city was covered in yellow papal flags welcoming the pope. it was so cool. what a unique thing to see the israeli flag flying side by side. 

we had to go home through west jerusalem since the sun had gone down. we walked through this outdoor mall that was totally amazing. tons of little outdoor french cafes, boutiques, and high end american shops, and strung lights everywhere. new favorite place? totally. we now call it 'jerusacreek' like city creek mall in salt lake. hahah. for dinner we went to this little new york pizza place that some people had found earlier in the day. it was real american pizza and it was amazing. 

as we were leaving the jaffa gate area an american guy and a girl joined our group and started to talking to us. i had seen her earlier in the day and immediately thought 'she is mormon.' i was right! haha. it turns out they were two byu grads (just friends) who both live in london and were visiting  jeru for the weekend. they grabbed pizza with us and ended up buying us dinner. they were so nice! it was so cool to run into them. one of them is working for boeing and the other for the state department. pretty cool right? 

overall, the day was crazy and terrifying and emotional but great. we are safe! promise. the jc is very aware and picky about when we can go out. we actually couldn't go into east jerusalem/old city at all today because they were wary of riots. today is 'jerusalem day'- the israelis celebrate the unification of jerusalem when they reclaimed it from jordan about 40 years ago. it's still a rough memory for the palestinians. i am doing great and am so happy i am here! hope everyone is doing well. love to all! xo

desert field trip

hello! surprise, it hasn't been a week since my last post!
so yesterday (sunday) was our free day as usual. for one of our classes we have to go to the israel museum so i went ahead and got that out of the way. i would've made my way over there at some point for sure, and i think i will definitely be going back. it is a world class museum for sure. it is huge. it reminded me a lot of the british museum in london. a lot of the exhibits were outside which i really liked.
we focused mostly on the exhibits we needed to go to for our class- the archaeology and dead sea scrolls galleries. the museum also had some awesome halls for modern art and jewish fashion that i really want to back to. i will keep you updated. the dead sea scroll exhibit was amazing. it has a whole building to itself, and it's incredibly unique. the building is shaped like the pots the scrolls were found in and is mostly underground. you enter through this hallway that has a lot of the artifacts that were found with the scrolls, then the scrolls themselves are in this cylinder like chamber that's supposed to replicate the pot itself. it is so cool. there is this really long copy of one of the scrolls that wraps around this big column in the middle of the cylinder chamber so it looks like it's on a scroll. this probably sounds really dumb but just picture this: we stepped into the clay pots that they scrolls were found in. it was cool.

mini replica of jerusalem! 

top of the dead sea scrolls exhibit! the only part above ground. this is made to look like the lid of the pots. 

the van came to get us from the museum and we had him drop us off at dung gate so that we could go check out the temple mount, specifically dome of the rock. it was intense. we went through the same security checkpoint as we did for the western wall except you take a turn up this crappy ramp that takes you above the wall. all over there are signs warning jews that the rabbi of israel has recommended to not entering the temple mount for fear of entering the holy of holies. as we got to the top there were rows and rows of those shields police officers use when things get violent. it was freaky that they had those just waiting around. it freaked me out a ton.
we got out of the tunnel and as soon as we got to the top these arab guys started giving me a hard time because my sleeves were too short. they stopped almost our whole group. they said we had to put on a shawl. at most places they provide complimentary shawls but they said that we had to pay. some europeans that got pulled in with our group refused but these men were really scary and said it was unacceptable. i'm not gonna lie i was scared. i ended up buying a shawl for freaking 25 shekels. it ended up being a total scam and i was so mad. one of my guy friends tried to get me out of it but i figured i would rather just buy an ugly scarf and not get beaten in public than risk it. now i know better but whatever. it made me so mad. it's no wonder that the arab community gets a bad rap. they have good intentions, but they need someone to police that kind of activity better. that makes them look so bad. the worst was the poor european guys they tricked into buying scarves to cover their legs. hahaha. they looked ridiculous wearing scarf-skirts.
the dome of the rock was totally stunning. i dont think you can get a bad angle on that building. part of the reason might be that the colors are so shocking compared to all of jerusalem's chalky stone buildings.. but either way, holy crap. the 'temple mount' that it sits on is pretty big, which is nice. one thing that i have never noticed is this really ornamental arabic script that wraps around the entire top of the building. it is so pretty.
so the dome of the rock sits on where we believe the temple was during the time of jesus. for the muslims, it marks the spot where muhammed made his night ascent and had a vision of the heavens and the earth.  jews, christians, and muslims also believe that abraham sacrificed isaac (ishmael for islam) on the 'rock' that is inside. so it's a big deal. it was interesting to compare the spirit/feeling that was here compared to the spirit i felt at a place like the garden tomb. this place felt so dirty to me. maybe that will change and i was just mad because of the scarf thing.. but maybe not. i feel like it was such a holy, holy, place and now it has been desecrated. that sounds bad, but it was very definite for me and i thought it was interesting.

we took some pictures and wandered back through the old city, then up the hill to the center. apparently some kids got ratted out by some muslim worshippers on the mount because when they took a picture a boy put his arm around a girl. it is hard to be aware of the cultural sensitivity all the time and is honestly kind of scary. i am usually a pretty strong willed person and know when to get out of a situation but that scarf thing really freaked me out. oh well. yesterday was super fun and i felt like i did a lot of cool stuff.  i had a good time!

today was our weekly field trip! today we went to the negev- the desert area that makes up the southern third of the country. the locations we went to actually weren't that far away from jerusalem, but to avoid traveling through the west bank we had to go a pretty roundabout way. the staff here acts like it's such a hassle and it wouldn't be a big deal to drive through the west bank, but i am so glad the first presidency has put restrictions on us. haha. i'm a wimp but whatever. better safe than sorry right?
the first sight we went to was a weaving center that israel and the UN has set up for the women of a nomadic culture that israel has displaced. these people, the bedouin, are a nomadic people that used to specialize in escorting peoples across the desert. since highways now dominate israel, they have recently become very poor and frankly, quite out of place. luckily it seems like the government has done a decent job giving them school and helping them make money via other channels. our professor, dr. belnap, compared it to the displacement of native americans and i could definitely see parallels. at this weaving center we had a little tour from a very articulate young woman, she couldn't have been much older then me. she spoke really good english, was very clean, and dressed very nicely. we went through a building than into a back courtyard that had a huge tent. this tent was the coolest thing ever. it was lined with weavings and tassels and all the seating was made up of these big cushions with cool oriental patterns. the colors were deep purples and blues and camel tones.. it was so tight, straight out of a movie. as she taught us about the culture and the weaving center itself, one of the older women brought out a tray of hot tea for us all. it was in little glass shot glasses and you could see all the floaty herbs and stuff at the bottom. although it was already hot outside, it was easily the best tea i've ever had. (dont worry, dr. belnap said this tea met word of wisdom requirements ;)) it was such a cool experience.. she showed us how to weave and dye the wool. afterwards she took us into a little shop where you could purchase things the women had made. it was cool and really high quality. apparently it is not unusual for them to get hired out by designers to make things. i got a pillow and a tassel thing for my grandma's ranch in wyoming. it is really cool and i am excited to give it to her!

our next two stops were two different 'tells.' these are giant mounds where little cities used to be and have been excavated. some of them have up to 15 layers of different civilizations and date all the way back to caananite civilization- that's pre-abraham! almost 5000 years ago. it was crazy. the first one we went to, arad, had an israelite temple and that was really neat. it is a similar layout to what would have been here in jerusalem at the time of jesus except a lot smaller. i couldn't help but laugh as we all stood in the holy of holies and snapped pictures.

our next sight was beer-sheba (pronounced bare-shay-ba), which is a world heritage site and is mentioned multiple times in the bible. i forgot to mention, both of these sights were really close to an air force base, and there we literally heard the sound of jets the whole time we were outside, which was probably about 4 hours total. it was nuts. okay anyways, beer sheba was cool. we read a lot of scriptures and the weather was so so pleasant. if anything it was a little chilly today because it was so windy. usually this is the hottest field trip of the year because we are out in the desert! we got so lucky. my favorite part of beer sheba was going underneath the city. they had this really intense tunnel thing down to the water table, where they dug their well. it was DEEP. we must have gone done eight flight of stairs. once we got underground it was awesome. the walls are really white and chalky and super tall. it was stunning. it was also lit up really cool, they did a good job. it felt like we were in a chalk mine. so tight.

we had to wear hard hats to go into the well! this is daniela my roommate from colombia. she is SO funny. i love her latina sassiness

after our beer sheba excursion it was back to the center! it took about and hour and forty to get back but it wasn't bad at all, i slept most of the way. we had a great dinner then fhe. fhe was so fun, we played this game called zombies. it's kind of like a mix of tag and sardines-- totally zoobie and totally great for a place like the center that has so much space and great hiding places. since then i have been studying!
i hope everyone is doing well. i just wanted to give another shout-out to my MOM. i love her so much and i am so lucky she lets me/pushes me to go do cool things instead of convincing me to live in her basement for the rest of my life. i dont know where or who i would be without her. i look up to her more than anyone and would be so happy if i was half the person she is when i grow up. i love you mom!
have a great day everyone! xo