Bethlehem

Today we had our orientation for Galilee. Tomorrow is Shabbat and we leave for Galilee the day after (Easter Sunday). At first we were planning to leave Jerusalem early and not see any of Easter Sunday but our leaders made arrangements for us to leave at 9:00am on Sunday so that we can go to a sunrise ceremony at 5:30 am at the Garden Tomb. This sould be a really cool experience. The garden tomb said they are expecting over 1000 tourists to be coming!

I'm so excited to go to Galilee. At orientation they told us that in the next few days we will do something we'll probably never get to do again in our lives. We will have the opportunity to do nothing but study the life of Jesus Christ for 11 days. We will be staying at Ein Gev in little bungalos that are a few feet from the sea of Galilee! (we can't touch he water except for one designated time because there's no lifeguards on duty til later in the season (after passover)). Anyway I'll tell you the rest of Galilee after it happens.

Now I'll tell you about this past week. Last Sunday, March 16th was Palm Sunday. I've never celebrated palm sunday before but it was really cool. There were a lot of people there. Lots of singing and waving palms. Here's a little video clip (sorry its kind of crazy).

The other big thing about this week is that we had a lot of finals. On Monday we had class in the morning, our Arabic and Hebrew finals after lunch and a paper on the Selah Shabbati movie (its a funny movie you should watch it) due by email to Ophir by four. The next day, Tuesday, we went on our field trip to Bethlehem. Which meant that our final 14-page research paper on the feasts and pillars of Islam was due in the morning. Most people of course had not started on this paper yet, so it was a party! I don't think I've ever written a paper 14 pages long and I didn't think I could do it. Adnan called this project a 'web-search'. He wanted us to find out about Islam by browsing the web and then writing about it and reflect what we thought in our paper. Wikipedia was everyone's best friend. In order to make 14 pages there were a lot of quotes and a lot of personal reflection (ie stream of consciousness sometimes). I can't say it wasn't the highest quality thing I've ever written. Some people stayed up the until 4 or 5 am or the whole night, typing! I printed mine at 12:45 or so and went to bed. The thing that was humorous was that on our study guide for the final, our teacher had the 14-page web search as counting for only 5% of our grade. What, all that work for only 5%!? I did learn a lot about Islam from studying wikipedia and it ended up that Adnan liked our papers.

The following morning bright and early we left for Bethlehem. This was a really eye opening field trip. We had to go through a militarized check point and through a big cement separation wall to get in. The entire city of Bethlehem is walled in and occupied by Israeli soldiers. While on our field trip we got to really see how the Palestinians feel about this. Our first stop was a technical school where we met our MNE 347 teacher (palestinian narrative teacher) Adnan. We went into the basement of the small school and one of Adnan's friends gave us a presentation on the conflict. He talked about "outposts" that are being set up in the West Bank. 'Outposts' or 'colonies' are the palestinian term for Israeli settlements in the West Bank. When Israeli's come, soldiers come with them to protect them. This carves up the land for the palestinians. When they want to travel anywhere they have to go through Israeli check points. A trip that would normally take 30 minutes takes 2 hours with check points. Adnan our teacher has not been able to get to class to teach us a few times (he lives in Bethlehem). He tells us all the time that we should be grateful in American for our freedom of Mobility. We can drive wherever we want!

Our second stop on the trip was Bethlehem University. We are the first BYU group who has been able to visit Bethlehem University (Adnan teaches there). While we were there it was very interesting. We had a tour of the campus and watched a video. Bethlehem University was actually shut down for I think 7 years becuase things got so bad a few years ago. The people keep on going dispite all the opposition. There's an American guy who is an administrator at the school. Every morning he uses his American passport to leave Bethlehem and get the daily mail for the University. After the video they had a panel of 4 Palestinian students who we could ask questions. The students described how everyday they don't know if they are going to make it to class. They have to leave home two hours in advance. There are the regular check points to go through and then there are the roving check points which are suprise. The Israeli soldiers always harass them and treat them like terrorist like they are going to blow themselves up. At first our questions started out with small talk,' 'what's your major etc.' But eventually things started to get a little heated. One of the boys in our group wanted to know how these students felt about the terrorist attack that happened in West Jerusalem a few days ago. He made the mistake of calling it terrorist (what else are we supposed to call it). The student's kind of outspoken teacher began to explain to us that the killing at the Yeshiva in Jerusalem was in response to the more than 100 Palestinian women and children killed in Gaza. She explained that CNN and FOX the media that we get in America focuses on the terror done by Palestinians but does not see what the Israeli's do to them as terror (it's seen as defense). One of the students in particular (a girl who was very sweet) did not seem in the least bit sorry for what had happened at the Yeshiva, she wanted us to pay attention to what had been done to those in Gaza and what they were doing in Hebron her home town. Another question someone asked is if the students had ever talked to other Israeli students or had a dialougue with them (I bet they were thinking Hebrew U and Bethlehem U could talk). The students said they had never seen an Israeli except for a soldier (Israeli's citizens arn't allowed to go where we went). Before we left the University they gave us addresses for websites we could go to for news that wasn't biased and got our email addresses so they could send us their newsletter.

After the University we had lunch at a restaurant called "The Tent". After lunch we went to Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity (ps the picture is of a poster displayed in Manger Square, apparently these four men were assassinated by Israel not long ago). The Church of the Nativity has many different churches of different Christian faiths stuck together. My favorite part was when we went into a section that was just a cave, much like what it must have really been like when the Savior was born. (Animals were kept in caves not barns during that time). After our guide was done explaining thing we pulled out our hymn books and sang "Away in a Manger." The tune is so familiar and brought me immediately back home. Even though I've sung this song many times, I heard it with new ears. I was expecting the song to feel so out of place, in the middle east in a cave in March. But it didn't. Next we sang Silent Night. Without the destraction of it actually being Christmas I really listened to the words of these hymns. I realized how completely simple Christ's birth really was.

After the Church of the Nativity we were free to go shop around Manger Square. This is the Olive Wood Nativity capital of the world! I wonder if this is where you got your nativity, Mom. I found the exact shepherd with the pipe and the removable stick I grew up with. In addition I found all those Christmas tree ornaments that we have. Everyone bought Bethlehem wood flutes and Heather got a drum. On the way out we marched down the street back to our bus whistling and beating like a marching band. Bethlehem is turning into a bit of a ghost town, we livened it up a bit.

At the separation wall an Israeli soldier came on our bus and we showed him our stack of passports. Throught the check point we were off to "The Shepherd's Field." We found a nice field overlooking Bethlehem got our flashlights and split into classes. We had sack lunches and then a devotional. Someone read the account of the angel coming to announce the birth to the shephers. I sang in a musical number with four other girls, "While Shepherds watch their flock by night, all seated on the ground" (we were seated on the rocky ground). Brother Draper taught about the 'rouge Angels' and the heavently hosts. Following the devotional Lauren had asked me to bring my violin to play some hymns on the site. Someone held a flashlight and a hymn book for me and I played a bunch of Christmas hymns in the dark for everyone (don't worry nothing happened to my violin, I was careful). After I played everyone got to go off on their own, then we came back together and sang the rest of the hymns we had not sung yet including "Angels we have Heard on High" and "Joy to the World the Lord will come" (brother Draper had us change the words).

The rest of our week was dedicated to studying and studying. Wednesday was a free day and I stayed in and studied. Thursday was our Israeli-narrative final and today was our Palestinian narrative final. I've learned so much about the Modern history of Isreal-Palestine in the last two days!

Wow, I have been sitting here typing for a good 2 hours and 20 minutes! I haven't even gotten up to get a drink! I feel so good about myself when I get all these experiences on paper, but it's 1:30AM! I plan on taking my computer to Galilee. There's no internet, but I'm going to try to blog often even if I don't put it on the internet til I get back. That way I won't have tons of catching up to do!

PS, send me a comment if you've been reading all this, I wanna know who reads my blog!

thanks, EM

White socks

Quick little entry. Today was Shabbat. Right after church we had an Enrichment activity (its hard for people to get here during the week- one lady in our presidency is from Bethlehem so often she can't be here at all.) We played a game in the Oasis where we got in groups and competed to see who could match up the names of the people in Relief Society with a fact about them. We had cake and ice cream, yum! After enrichment I went out on the lawn in front of the auditorium with Anne and Annie and Heather. The plan was to study but we all fell asleep. There are red, purple, and white poppies springing up all through the grass, amazing!
A bit about yesterday. In the morning we studied the Greeks in NES. We studied the famous sculptures and architecture it took me back to my AP Art History days. My high school art history class was awesome. I actually remember a lot. Following NES we started New Testament! We learned about the background of the gospels and started at the beginning with Zachariah and Elisabeth. It reminded me of 'The Savior of the World' musical that I played the orchestra pit for at BYUI. I thought I didn't know the scriptures very well at all before I came here, which is true. But it's also suprising how much I've picked up just from being around for a while.
Anyway, in the afternoon I was planning to just stay inside and work on the dreaded '14-page paper' for MNE 347 that is due Tuesday, but I felt like I needed a nap. Before I laid down I went out into the hall to fill up my waterbottle and I saw Lyle on his way to Mea Shaream (an orthodox Jewish neighborhood in West Jerusalem). I had wanted to go and thought everyone going there had already left. Lyle told me I could come if I hurried and he would tell them to wait. I grabbed my purse and ran all the way up from the 4th floor to 5th to 6th across the marble floor by the oasis up to the 7th where I said 'hi' to Tarek the security guard, up to the 8th out the door and all the way to the gate. Looked in my purse and I didn't have my proximity card. Everyone going was already in the Sharut. Sarah jumped out and told me to hurry and go put on a black skirt and come back up. I didn't know if I felt like running all the way back down but they were waiting for me. I started to run back, turned around and waved for them to just go but I don't think anyone saw me, so I started running again (they were probably royaly confused). I ran all the way back to the 4th floor and into room 305. Roomates:' Did they leave you'
'No, I have to be in a skirt'
'should I still go?'
'yeah, go'
'okay, ahh, my black skirt doesn't match'
'its okay, you gotta go!'
'ahh, I can't wear this! (I was wearing the green shoes and white socks I already had my long black skirt)
'go!'
I grabbed my purse and started up all the stairs again. Halfway up the 6th floor my cell phone rang. It was Kimberly wondering if I was still coming. 'yeah, I'm on my way up the stairs'. I ran out to the sharut. Wind blowing showing off my lovely white socks over my green shoes. I scanned my proximity card, jumped in the van, and sat down, out of breath and breaking a sweat.
"nice socks"
"I know, it looks bad."
I probably would have been more modest if I had stayed in what I was wearing earlier and I would have been warmer. Oh well, makes for a good story to write on my blog!
Orthodox jews pretty much where all black. Men, women, and children from head to foot are covered. I had some nice bare ankles and I felt funny. When we got to Mea Shaream everything was starting to close in preparation for Shabbat. Pretty much all I wanted to do was find a place that sold women's socks. Half of the group went into a used Hebrew book store (it was a tiny store with way too many books for how big it was). The rest of us unable to fit and knowing they'd be a while split off and continued up the street. Everyone was thinking about what they wanted to see. All I was looking for were socks. We passed a flower store on the corner that was really busy (its tradition for the women to have flowers on the table for the lighting of candles for shabbat meal.) Right next to it I spotted a store devoted completely to socks and leggings and tights, yeah! I found some nice thick black knee highs. The guy spoke English '10 shekels'. I got some navy ones too cause they looked cute. I bought them and came out onto the street. I made Lyndsay come with me back into the store to help me change my socks. It was a tiny store that didn't even have a corner really for me to get out of people's way in. I must have looked really funny balancing on one leg trying to pull up these socks. They're a really thick material and really tight. My thumb is still bruised from soccer so it hurt to use it to pull them up. My shins are also bruised from soccer, ahh! When I finally got the socks on they felt wonderful! I marched out onto the street feeling confident and covered (now I have authentic Mea Shaream socks). The rest of our time I looked for a Torah to get for myself. (After my Hebrew class I'll have a start on reading the bible in Hebrew.) All the stores were closing and most of the book stores only had the full Tanak. I'll have to find one later. While walking through the neighborhood we heard some kids singing in one of the buildings. I think it was a school of some kind, yeshiva? It didn't look like a significant building outside but through the I could see pretty chandelier lamps hanging from the modestly high ceiling in a room pretty red walls. On tippy toes we could see inside. There were little jewish boys (curls and everything) cheerfully sitting at desks with books, chanting things in Hebrew. Their little teacher was walking around. I seriously felt like I was in a movie. I wanted to take a picture but I didn't.
We watched the clock and got home just in time for our optional field trip to the Western Wall. This was the second and last time we would get to go see the Jews bring in Shabbat at the Western Wall. This is a party! All the people gather and dance and sing. There are a lot of students and people our age. The men's side is especially crazy. Army groups in one section singing and dancing. The fur hat, orthodox groups up in their corner. Sometimes there are even guys on shoulders in the crowd. It's an exciting gathering to be a part of.
I was remembering the first time they took us. It was at the end of our first week here and we didn't know what to expect. We weren't quite used to being here yet. Sister Heyes said she liked to look at all of our faces when we first left the security passage way and entered the western wall plaza. This time I understood so much more. I made sure I touched the wall (I didn't bother to squeeze through the crowd last time). We know a couple Jewish songs from our Hebrew class so we could join in singing this time too!

Mass Hysteria.. (did I get your attention)

Okay, time for an update. I haven't finished telling you about Jordan and Eilat yet but other things are happening! I'll press forward now and go back later. We are not locked down in the center anymore. On Tuesday we were allowed outside again! In the words of Talfeek we were advised "just be careful, use your judgement, keep the cell phone with you, charged; make sure you are in lower gate before dark. In general avoid isolated areas in the Old City and crowded places in West Jerusalem, as always, bus stations and bus stops are off limits, just use your judgement, we can't be everywhere at every time." Everyone was really excited to get outside although some made themselves stay in to study for out big Old Testament final which was the next morning. I decided to go out in the city. We went to a pizza place for lunch on Ben Yehuda street (it was good but I burned the roof of my mouth on my cheese pizza (jews don't have pepperoni pizza)), got ice cream and then came back to the center early to study for the exam. It's really funny to be around here the night before a big exam. In the words of Bro. Seeley it turns into 'mass histeria'. Everyone tries to get in the best study group and wants to know, did you look at this part, are we supposed to do this?...etc. Well, I shouldn't say everyone is hesterical some are very chill. Some students study by themselves and some are so chill they don't study at all. Some students don't study until about 11 at night when they break into histeria and stay up all night. Everywhere you walk around the building you can't help absorb more information. "Abraham came from Ur?...Ezekial during the exile, was it Jeroboam or Jeroachin or Jeroakin or Jaaah!.....?" Sometimes maybe absorbing mis-information... "Job, Psalms and Proverbs and Ecclesiastes song of solomon isaiah jeremiah lamentaions ezekial daniel hosea joel amos...." sorry I got carried away. The Old Testament books primary song wafted around for an extra 10 points.
I ended up going to bed at 1:30 and got up in time to be to the test at 7 am. Room checks were administer during the exam. As roomates we ran out of time to clean so we didn't get cookies. Our room was pretty clean anyway though. The test went okay. It had like 80 questions, two short essays, one long essay. We had from 7:30 til 9:30 to take it and we could come a half hour early at 7 if we wanted. I started at 7:15 and went full blast til 9:45! If nothing else exams are the best study sessions known to man. The classroom was utterly silent. I learned a lot while taking the exam.
After the exam a lot of people took off. We organized a later group so we could take a little nap (Iwas tired). When we finally went outside was a gorgeous day! One of the best so far. Spring has definitely sprung. We went to the Armenian quarter of the Old City and then on to mount zion (the south end outside the wall) where we went to Dormition Abbey, the Upper Room, and King David's tomb, none of which I have been to yet. I noticed that the city was much more crowded than before we went to Jordan. Brother Seeley told us today that it's because this Sunday is Palm Sunday. I'm so excited to experience that! I'll have to put up some pictures from yesterday because the city was especially charming! I love the blue sky contrasted with the alabaster limestone buildings and the blossoms and poppies are out, it's lovely...
I want to tell you about an especially interesting thing that happened while we were in the Upper Room. There was a group of Asian tourists gathered when we walked in. They were taking pictures and their guide was talking to them. We weren't paying much attention to them and they began singing a hymn together, it was nice enough. Soon their hymn singing started to get louder. As they sang they raised their hands up and started to pray. We didn't think this was too out of the ordinary. We were over in the corner reading out of our Michael's Jerusalem guide about the history of the upper room (the room looks much like a mosque nowadays, probably what it was last). Until the praying just kept getting louder and louder and more intense. They started garbeling jibberish words, yelling, and wailing. All of them were doing different things, but making as much noise as possible. You'd think they were at the peak when another lady would wail out on top AHHAHAHBHUudfjkdlwiewre! or whatever. It reminded me of the professional mourning woman that are hired to mourn at funerals in tonga (If you've ever seen The Other Side of Heaven) except all of them had worked themselves into a frenzy. Us over in the corner didn't quite no what to do with ourselves (I took a video of it). Just as the Asians started to calm down a group of Nigerians came in. I wanted to hang around to see what they would do. Hoping they would sing or something. Heather was freaked out so she left. The Nigerians came in and immediately started to spread out and individually sing/pray. There was one guy near me who was praying pretty loudly (it was in a different language) and they all started to kneeled down. We had to leave at this point to catch up with the rest of the group. I'm glad I got a video of because it was intense. Chris told me later that the Asian group we saw were probably Evangelical Christians 'speaking in tongues'.
Anyway, today we had class. Our 347 teacher's wife is having a baby so we watched a movie. It was called 'Salah Shabbati'. It's a comedy about Oriental and Ashkenazi jews immigrating to Israel. It's really funny. It was great to hear everybody laughing in class. I know everyone so well that you can pick out people's laughs and you can almost predict what they are going to laugh at. I didn't get to see the end because I had to leave early to go to Hebrew class(I'll have to rent it later). After lunch we had a field trip where we learned about the Separation Wall. Danny Seiderman a lawyer from Jerusalem came and gave us a lecture where he explained why Jerusalem is the way it is today. It was an excellent presentation. When I say excellent I mean excellent. Every word the guy said I wanted to write down. He explained everything with just the right words and analogies and stories. The man was like a good book in human form. I seriously could have listened to him all day.
After the field trip I practiced violin, studied, had dinner, went to choir practice, studied, wrote on my blog, and now I'm going to bed!!!

Jordan

Today we are not allowed to go out of the walls of the center. Even though we're locked down we are still going on a field trip to the Kotel tunnels tonight. This is a tunnel built by the Israeli's that goes under/along the western wall. Apparently to get a tour you have to book like 6 months in advance. We're still going because if they were to cancel it, we wouldn't get to go. We're going into the city in 3 groups. Our tours are late at night 9:30 and 10:00 pm! Security is escorting between the tunnel and dung gate where we will ride vans to and from the center. Eran updated us this morning on the security situation. He said things are still tense. Each side is waiting for the other to retaliate. They're worried about riots and demostrations. They don't know yet if we'll be able to go out tomorrow or when, we'll just have to see. Our Palestinian teacher couldn't get here for class this morning because the border to Bethlehem was completely closed off.
Now I will tell you about our trip to Jordan. We left early March 3 (getting to the border first is the key to not waiting in line) and crossed the border at the King Hussein Bridge (near Jericho). After crossing the border we went to Bethany. Bethany is the site on the Jordan River where Jesus Christ was baptized. Brother Ostler and Brother Draper talked about the scriptural significance of the site. It really is a place of crossing for so many important events, the children of Israel, Elijah and Elisha, he also compared it to the Sesquahana river in America where John the Baptist again appear to Joseph and Oliver. The river Jordan is in the rain shadow so it's very desolate. I don't know if it's always like that or just in the winter. There were lots of hedges but none had leaves. The water is really green (muddy) and it's not very wide, they said not as wide as it used to be (Israel has been piping the water other places). We decided to go see Bethany right when we crossed the border instead of on our way back because it was open (you never know if it will be open). Its a touchy political area. When you look across the river, right there is the Israeli border. On the Jordan side there are guys with guns. I guess they are making sure no one swims across the river. Also near the river is a new Catholic Church that was dedicated in I think 2003.
Next we visited Mount Nebo. Mount Nebo is the place where Moses looked from when he first saw the promised land. Next we drove to Madaba where we had lunch. (One thing you notice when driving around Jordan is the picture of the king Abdullah II is everywhere! Basically after seeing him so much you begin to think he's the coolest guy ever, kind of like Princess Diana.) In Madaba we went to St. George cathedral where we saw the famous Madaba map. Its a map of the holy land done in Mosaic tiles on the floor of a church from the Byzantine era. It's really old! Parts of it have been destroyed from earthquakes (the earth's movement over time). But it's really detailed and looks cool. Next we drove to Wadi Musa the home town of Petra! Wadi Musa is a tourist town like Park City (it has lots of Turkish baths, restaurants, and souvenior shops). After dinner in the hotel we explored down the street a bit and went to bed. Early in the morning Day 2 March 4 we walked down to Petra (it wasn't far from our hotel). We were really smart to go early because it was cooler and not crowded. Petra was amazing I can't really even describe it. It reminded me a lot of southern Utah (lake powell maybe). Red rocks, sandstone, pretty place to hike. I wasn't expecting much at first. Our guide was showing us small Nabetian carvings at the beginning of our tour and we went through the sandstone 'siq' (arabic translated 'the shaft'). He showed us the red dirt and how the nabeteans actually used it for blush (We tried it it really works!). Our guide had us come stand at a certain spot and turn around toward the way we had come and look up. He said we would need a sharp eye to see what he wanted to show us. "Does anyone see the carvings"? We were all looking carefully for something small. Then he said, "oh its over here". We turned around. Up through the crack in the rocks was a magnificent glowing facade! Wow! It was the treasury! (so it is called because the legend was that a pharoah from Egypt came and hid a bunch of treasure there). It didn't even seem real but it was! We walked further down the siq and it opened up into a large space with the treasury temple opposite. Now I know why Petra is one of the 7 wonders of the world. (For your info the 7 wonders of the world according to the New Open World Corporation announced January 1, 2006 are: 1. The Great Wall of China 2. Petra (Jordan) 3. Christ the Redeemer Statue (Brazil) 4. Machu Pichu (Peru) 5. Chichen Itza (Mexico) 6. Colosseum (Italy) 7. Taj Mahal (India). Egypt was not very happy because the Great Pyramid was an honorary candidate #8.)
Anyway, there were lots of Beduion peoples around the ruins. They actually live there in the caves. It's crazy if you were to ask some of them where they were born they'd probably say, 'that cave over there'. When tourists come through they sell cheap necklaces. They say they're made from real camel bone. Furthur into the park is the monastary. It's quite a hike to get to it so there are Bedoin boys around offering to give rides on donkey's. It was a lot like our camel rides in Egypt. Mass chaos as all the donkey boys attacked us and yelled at each other in Arabic. My donkey was really slow. I ended up getting left behind the rest of the group (just my luck). I think my donkey was sick. I felt bad for the 15 year old kid who was so eager to give me a ride. About every 10 seconds he would yell in arabic at the donkey and hit it, then say in a soft freaky voice "Its okay, relax" and "the middle, the middle" (he wanted me to sit in the middle of the saddle which I thought I was doing) followed by another yell at the donkey. The donkey liked to walk right along the edge which was a bit scary (p.s. my donkey's name was Michael Jackson). When I finally got to the top I got off my donkey paid my 5 bucks and walked a few steps to find Emily S pouring water on Cami's foot which was bleeding. Apparently she had fallen off the back of her donkey and hit her heel on something. The other girls had pulled out some paper from their bags to try to bandage it up. About when I got there a bedoin lady came up and tore up some cloth and bandaged it. She did a really good job but Cami probably wished she had hand sanitizer. We walked the rest of the way to 'the Monestary'(cami is tough). When we got there students were singing hymns from inside 'the Monestary'. It was really cool to turn the corner to such a beautiful sight accompanied by glorious echoing sounds (I got it on film). We walked back down from the monestary and had lunch at a buffet restaurant place at the bottom of the hill (there were a lot of tourists eating there, from all over the world!) We then had free time to walk back the way we had come and be back on the bus by 2 pm sharp. A bunch of people wanted to go to "the high place" which was some ancient alter up top somewhere. They had to hike really fast and hard to make it up there and back on the bus (I heard). I didn't realize how far we had hiked back there and I didn't realize there would be so many tourists! We finally made it back to the bus and there were only a few people that were late (they got in trouble later). It was an eventful day. I would say my top two favorite things I have seen so far on my study abroad were the temple of Karnak in Luxor, Egypt and Petra. They both blew my socks off.
In Amman we arrived at our hotel, had dinner and then we had free time to explore the city. Our curfew was 11:30 and we had to sign out at the hotel desk. Bro Huntington had given us a paper with the options of what we could do. Downtown Amman was strictly off limits. There was Mecca Mall, or city mall, or a bunch of museums that were already closed, or (under the table) a really cool supermarket stripmall down the street from our hotel that had some stores, one of which was a really cool place to get pirated DVD's for about $2.50 American or $1.5 JD (Jordanian Dinars). Bro Huntington was reluctant to tell us where it was because he wanted to go get the good movies for himself before we all cleaned them out! Everytime I went to the store(I went three times in the two nights we were there) it was packed with BYU students. They bought complete seasons of TV shows and all the hottest new releases(that arn't released yet). I got two new National Geographic films. One called 'inside Mecca' and another about national geogaphic photographers. The first night in Amman (after stopping at the video store)I went with a group to Mecca Mall. The taxi ride there was the most exciting part. We had to have a guy in each car who would sit in the front, girls in the back. We got to practice our Arabic with the driver and try to communicate where we wanted to go and argue about the price. Mecca Mall was a HUGE mall. It was fun to explore. It was really American except for we were the only blonds around. Some people had no shame in staring. It was really fun to look through the book stores, they had a lot of interesting books. It was so funny, in one of the book stores we found Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" in Arabic, and "Saints and Soldiers"(can you believe it)!
The next morning Day 3 March 5, we went to Jerash. Jerash is in northern Jordan. Northern Jordan is really green, different than Petra and Wadi Musa. Jerash is a city of Roman ruins that are remarkably well preserved. I took pictures.
Oh wow...it is suddedly 8:57 pm. I need to go so I can study for my Old Testament quiz and get ready for our crazy cool field trip to the Kotel tunnels tonight!

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem

Hey everyone, short update. We got back from Jordan today, I'll put some pictures up soon!
In case you haven't seen the news (or in case you have), there was a shooting in West Jerusalem about 2 hours ago. A Palestinian gunmen killed at least 7 people (according to bbc, cnn and fox they all say different things, it just happened so no one knows)in a dining room of a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem. Things are really hot right now here in response to what is going on in Gaza. Two Isreali soldiers were killed a few days ago and more than 100 Palestinians have been killed during the recent Israeli operation to stop rocket attacks from Gaza. When we got home from Jordan today there were signs posted saying East Jerusalem was closed for us until further notice. Now I wonder if we'll be able to go into West Jerusalem. I'm pretty sure Eilat (snorkeling trip) is still on for tomorrow. This is such a tumultous area it makes me think, what if I've already had my last time in the Old City, have I seen everything I want to see? It could be a while til we get to go back. I may have a lot of time in the center to write on my blog and study for class. I'll update you soon. Gotta go to bed we leave for Eilat at 5:30 am!
Love, Em

Purple Thumb

Someone told me today that two days ago was the half-way point of our time here! The end will be here before we know it! Can't believe it. Last night I went running around the center and then we played some soccer. I really love playing soccer here with everyone. Last night however DS kicked the ball and it nicked my right hand at just the wrong angle. Hyperextended my thumb I think. It started to throb and then swell up a little. I got some ice from the freezer in the 'holy city hot spot' (our student snack shack) and it started to turn purple after I took a shower. ah! I had President Heyes look at it tonight when I saw him in the hall before dinner (he's an orthopedic surgeon so..yeah). He had me move it around and pinched it for me. He said if it were broken I'd probably be squirming a lot more when he pushed on it. I guess it's a good thing that we're going to Jordan the day after tomorrow. No class (so I won't have to write) and no playing my violin (I've been playing really often lately I love practicing while looking out at the city), bow hand thumb, and no playing soccer for a while. Pres Heyes told me to be really careful with my "million dollar thumb", now that its injured it wouldn't take much to do it in the rest of the way. Other little side note about President Heyes today at church he got released as our branch president because he is going back home four days after we get back from Jordan. His wife left back for home before we went to Egypt because her mother is having health problems. They have been separated for a while so he will be happy to go back to his wife but sad to leave Jerusalem. Bro Lee (bro and sis Lee are our housing couple) was called as the Branch President today.
Yesterday morning we had a really big test in Near Eastern Studies 336. It was on pretty much all of the history we've studied so far. Canaanites, Assyrians, Egyptians, the United Kingdom, Divided kingdom, the works. As Bro. Seeley often says, his class is one big "gross overgeneralization". To prepare my roomates and I divided the 11 topics among 11 people and we formed a study group. I had topic 3 'the rise of civilization'. It delt with the Neolithic Revolution (beginnings of agriculture) Jericho, Sumer, the Akkadians, and comparing the Epic of Gilgamesh to Abraham (don't I sound smart). Each person answered their topic's questions from the study guide and then typed it up and we taught each other. Thursday night we had a big Ramadan celebration. This was the first semester that had done it so it was kind of an experiment. We had a speaker lady who came and talked to us about the traditions of Ramadan. And then we had an amazing dinner. It was so amazing that we had to have sack lunches to give 'Jimmy' (the cook) extra time to prepare. We had floral arrangements and assigned seating (I sat by Bro Galbraith so I think whoever made the assignments figured us music nerd could talk more, which we did) and great middle eastern food including baclava and almond milk and other crazy stuff. After dinner we went to the gym where we learned how to dance the debka (spelling?). It was really fun and cultural. I love the middle eastern music. In the debka everyone dances in a circle with one guy in the middle leading and doing more embellished moves. It reminded me of break-dancing circles. Or maybe break-dancing reminds me of the debka? (Middle-eastern music lends itself well to break-dancing moves, as some of the students discovered, crazy kids). I think I want to get a CD or two of music from here before I leave. (My thumb is starting to get sore because I use it to press the space bar, owe!) Anyway, I (everyone) had to force myself to stop dancing so we could finish getting through the massive study guide for the test. I ended up finding a couch area and about four of us went through the rest of the study guide for four and a half hours without moving! Wow! (I was known as the 'slave driver' of the group because I became very driven, I wanted to go to bed and I wanted to get through the study guide I would interupt people with "okay, what were the five points of Jeroboam's apostacy?" so we could move down the study guide.) There were papers and books all around us by two o'clock AM when I went to bed. When I fell asleep my head was chanting words "Sennacarib, Akenaton, Ahab..." The next morning at breakfast there were a good dozen people who had never gone to bed! Crazy people. The test was okay, I know I missed quite a few things that I couldn't remember (we went over them shallowly). I would have recognized them if it had been multiple choice put I couldn't conjure them up for short answer. dah!
To move back in time further, Wednesday was our field trip to Hezekiah's tunnel and the city of David. I need to leave right now to go to a fireside. I'll tell you about the field trip after the meeting and when my thumb has rested a bit.
Okay, I'm back from the meeting. It was really great by the way. The dean's of religion from BYU spoke. It was nice to get some perspective. They are leaving tomorrow and have been here for about a week. (I think they've all taught here before). Mostly they discussed what it means for to us to be here in the holy land. Why we are here, what this experience means. This is really a unique experience that we have. We are put together with people we have never met and then come to love them all. We get to leave our other lives behind and study things of God. He, the speaker, compared it to the MTC. He said our experience could also be compared to the pilgrimage our Muslim friends make to Mecca. Not all Muslims get to do this and when they come home their friends want to know what they learned, what they saw, what they felt. When they come home they are supposed to be a different person. In fact a person who has made pilgrimage changes their title to have the word 'Haj' before it (Like Haj Muhammed etc). The dean who spoke to us suggested we could add SAJ before our name "Semester at Jerusalem" haha. When we come home from the Holy Land our friends and family are going to want to know what we saw, what we learned, how we felt. He urged us to be thinking about this and to be learning and growing as much as we can. He said later we will be pinching ourselves when we think that we were in the holy land. He said he hoped that we would rejoice in our experiences here, that we would look back on this as a golden time in our lives.
As I have been here so far the one word that has come to mind to describe what I have felt is 'richness'. There is a richness of culture here. The people here are seeped in rich tradition and they live their religions so faithfully. There is a richness of history. It seems nearly everything happened here or in close proximity (When I walk through the city I wonder how many eventful places I am passing in every step). The food is rich (its good), the colors everywhere are rich, the smells are rich. The streets are richly packed with healthy excitment and life. Here at the center there is richness, everyone loves and takes care of each other. Everyone is excited and generous. Most of all there is a richness of the spirit. We study the good book everyday. This is such a wonderful time to be in Jerusalem, to reflect on the great things the Lord has done in the past and look forward to what he will do in the future to bless his children.
I need to do my Old Testament reading now so I'll tell you quickly about our field trip Wednesday. We went to the City of David. There's a place (museum type thing) set up there where you can watch a really well done 3-d movie that shows exactly what the city of David probably looked like. Where it is in relationship to the Kidron Valley and present Jerusalem. Next we looked out over where the city would have been and saw how David could have looked down from his palace and seen Bathsheba on the roof of her house. Next we went to 'Area G' an archeological dig site that shows an acropolis (city center) from probably David's time with some Hasmonean ruins and stuff from other times mixed in. Then we went through Warren's shaft (another tunnel discover by a man named Warren) and then through Hezekiah's tunnel. It was really fun. Kind of awkward and spooky stepping into cool running water in the dark. There was one spot where it got pretty deep up to mid thigh but mostly it was just up to the calves. I really want to go back when its hotter, its like Jerusalem's only water park. The tunnel is 1/3 of a mile long I think. We wanted to stay in their longer so we sang and scared each other, took pictures and doddled. At the end of the tunnel (a little ways down) we saw the Roman steps of the pool of Siloam where Jesus put mud on the eyes of a man who had been blind for 40 years. He washed in the water and he could see! After basking in the sun for a bit (its been nice weather lately) sharut vans picked us up and we went back to the center (It was only a half-day field trip).
Looking forward: tomorrow we have class in the morning with the afternoon off. Monday morning very early we leave for Jordan! I'm excited to see Petra (apparently its in an Indiana Jones movie). Thanks for taking the time to read! Have a nice day, Em.