sabah el kheer!

Marhaba!!!

Remember that time that I was allergic to the sun? apparently I still am….i didn’t put some sunscreen on my feet….(I was wearing chacos) and….now I have hives…..benadryl anyone? I’d take some but I have about 65 pages to read for Judaism, Zionism, and the State of Israel…..(a super interesting class! But soooo much reading……)

Yesterday was pretty awesome. We walked to this monastery (Deir Elyas) and walked up this hill to see Bethlehem across the wall. (Bethlehem is in control of the Palestinians and when Israel claimed sovereignty over the area they built a wall to keep the Palestinians from coming into Jerusalem. we sang, "O little town of Bethlehem" and....it was awesome. as we were leaving a Shepherd came up the hill a ways. A REAL shepherd! whaaaaat. anyways....he had a baby lamb in his flock...and i held it and took a picture. It's funny that a shepherd was there because the hill we were on was just a little bit from one of the Herodian fortresses....so potentially we all were where the famous old shepherds of Christ's birth were. kinda cool.

anyways. outline of the last couple days.
Sunday was a free day (no class!)----I walked the surrounding wall of the Old City....it was awesome....it allowed us all to be able to see the city and markets from a 15-20 foot height....and see places that would be really scary to be on ground level.....like in the heart of the Muslim quarter where women are covered everywhere but little slits for their eyes.....or parts of the Jewish quarter where orthodox Jewish men spit at you for desecrating their holy city. (Yes, it's happened to me.) Mostly these places are just regarded as theirs and they dont like to see clearly white American people just ambling about.....makes sense. (the walk was called "Ramparts Walk")

Walking through the city though is mostly really exciting if you stay out of the residential areas....the markets are really cool and the merchants know exactly who we are....when they see us coming they call out, "Mormons! we love you!" it's so funny.....because there are other Americans here, but they know us because of our age and clothing. (the dress code for us is pretty conservative...to be culturally sensitive. you can imagine that other American tourists might not get that memo.) Everyone knows about the center and that students come and live there. they say, "we are neighbors! how you like Israel?" (or if theyre Arabs "how you like Palestine/holy land/Jerusalem)
that’s the kinda frustrating thing about living here.....you have to learn multiple names for everything because Israelis and Palestinians refuse to share anything.
the people here are mostly very friendly....if you respect them and their way of life, they respect you. it's not scary, really...just different. A professor here told us that the idea is that they recognize us as Mormons first and not as Americans…even though we’re both……because for most of the local people, they think relatively well of Mormons and the Center because we do a lot of humanitarian work and we volunteer at some of the hospitals, schools, etc around here….and the students are mostly modestly dressed (oh, the dress code)…..unlike other tourists. Some locals don’t think that highly of Americans though, as you might imagine…so it’s good that we have a different reputation to represent us.

I had my first legitimate falafel and it was delicious. I love hummus.
I haggled with vendors in the market....it was fun.
I went to the western (wailing) wall in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City......it was......really cool. I'm going back because on this trip i didnt want to go through security to get up close.....so...i saw it from 100 feet away....the Dome of the Rock was closed (to those who aren't muslim) so i have to go back in the morning when it's open.



(aladdin's market.)


in this church there was a cool chandelier but when i took a picture it came out this way....i thought it was kinda cool.....


olive garden behind the center! it actually belongs to Lutherans! yay KD!



We went to Haas Promenade which was an amazing view of the valleys (Kidron and Hinnom) and Mount Moriah, Mount of Olives. The UN headquarters was on this part, which, ironically enough is also called the Mount of Offense (where it was decided Christ would be turned over to the Romans...i think)

Another awesome view, my favorite actually......was the Seven Arches Overlook where you could get a spectacular view of the East side of the Old City.


Lutheran church of Ascension....a really pretty church with a huge bell tower...which i climbed! I almost died....but yeah.....

We went to Nebi Samwill (a tomb turned christian crusader church, turned mosque, turned synagogue....it's been lots of things...) it was way sweet. (it's the biblical place of Gibeon)

LOTS to do...and i'm just a little sunburnt.....success! I start Arabic, Islamic Civ, Jewish Civ, this week.....to add to the other classes i have, OT, Ancient Near Eastern studies (archeology, geography, etc) fun fun.....lots of work though. It’s cool because the teachers for the Israeli/Arab classes are legitimately Jewish and Muslim. They said that they don’t want to teach a biased view…so….we get both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This is a really extensive play by play…..oh well….no one’s forcing you to read it! ;)