This was actually written January 10th, 2008 :)

Sorry it took me so long to answer I just got on the internet for the first time since I got here. It is about 11:00 pm on Thursday night here. I don't know what time it is there. I just got back from going to a concert they had in the center (for the community). It was an Isreali dixieland band. Very interesting with two British guys a russian. Anyway, it was fun. Today we had a walking tour of Jerusalem mostly the old city. There is a lot to see here. I'm glad we have four months but that still won't be long enough. It will take a while for me to get oriented but like they'be been telling us Once you've 'lived' in Jerusalem it becomes your city. They urged us to explore and 'make the city ours.' During our short tour we they showed us where we can change our money, The garden tomb. We entered the Old City through Damascus Gate, which is kind of an intense area, lots of pick pockets and crowded. They told us not to go through Damascus gate without a guy. They said probably don't go through Herod's gate cause its more residential and sometimes little kids throw rocks. Next we went on the roof on an Austrian hospice for a view of the Old City. It's a little hotel you can stay in right in the old city. Then we went past the Christian Church of the Holy Seplucure. The whole way through the city we were nearly attacked by merchants "BYU! BYU!" They know who we are, some gave us their card and free drinks and stuff so we'd come to their shop.
Anyway, I love the center here. When we came in last night from the airport in Tel Aviv we were so tired and everyone was so hospitible. When our bus pulled up their were a ton of security guys waiting to take our bags to the 5th floor (my rooms on the 4th) We came straight in and had dinner at the Oasis. Didn't enjoy that meal as much because all I wanted to do was sleep. Then we had a couple hours of orientation with our teachers and a tour of the center then we went to bed. Slept so well until it got a little cold, had to turn up the heat at 4 am. (I didn't even here the call to prayer at 5 though) I love the center and the food oh its soooo good. Everything just different and unexpected. Particularly this morning I had the best cream of wheat type stuff. It had a really good mellow taste and in the city today we had circle bread with salty blue stuff forget what its called.
The Proffessors and service couples are so cool. There's Aron the director and a bunch of security and secretary staff that are from here. They are very professional and sensitive (street smart). The professors and they're wives took us on the tours of the city in groups of ten I went with Bro Huntington's wife Sandy.
Also interesting, Bob Galbraith is the Organist up here. He's also a violinist. Aparently he and his wife met playing violin together in the Utah Symphony years ago. He now works in San Fransico for the opera there or something, My religion and Ancient Near East classes are the best. (I haven't been to any of the other ones yet, they will be taught by natives, so cool!) It's kind of overwelming because there's so much to do and see and only 4 months to do it.
The classes have to push things along quickly to get through it all. Speaking of which I have more Old Testament to read so I'd better go because I love sleeping. I really didn't plan on writing this long I thought it would be only a few sentences.
I'm excited for tommrow, we go to The Western Wall. In only 2 weeks we go to Egypt.
I guess I'll post this up on my blog as well. It probably has lots of errors so sorry. But yeah the purpose of this message was to tell you they let me into the country and none of my baggage was lost or stolen. Oh, something else interesting on our plane ride from New Jersey to Tel Aviv there were lots of jews on the plane and in the middle of the night they all got up in the aisles to pray. It was cool.
Anyway, I hope everything is well at home and wow mom 45 emails when I checked today, its gonna take me a while to read them all. Thanks for everything. Also I'm trying to decide whether to get a calling card or not it cost 40 bucks and its huge like more than 1000 minutes. I don't think I'll talk that much. Maybe I'll pay someone to let me borrow theirs sometime or something.

Love ya, Emily