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.