news from J-town, yes, that's right....J-town.

oh hey....it's the Dome of the Rock...

just noticed that my photo album website is not gonna work from here so.......that will have to wait until i go to Hebrew Univ.....so.....sorry! only like a couple pictures at a time.

OK. A proper update....hopefully with some adequate description.

Today is Shabbat, or Sabbath and mostly all of Israel closes down. Since the city is basically closed we have our church meeting on Saturday too. It's funny....because at BYU everyone talks about religion and this is a BYU campus extension but we aren't allowed to talk about religion....or politics...AT ALL. The Jerusalem Center is one of the few buildings in Israel that is "integrated"......as in Israelis and Palestinians and others work together. We're here so obviously there are Mormons and i think the director is Catholic as the Christians, there are Muslims, and finally Jews.....anyways....in their employment contract they cant talk about such things.....and neither can we. :)
Church was really really good. Im in the Jerusalem Branch and it's mostly made up of the students and faculty here and then some members and families that work at the US consolate and then some tour groups that might be Mormon passing through. Today we had so many people but it was completely humbling and awesome to be in the Holy Land where my Savior lived and walked. It's so cool.

I dont want to make this super super long....but...probably it will be.
I LOVE THIS CITY! it's so awesome and i sometimes have to pinch myself and remember that im here. I have the best view outside my window. I look out to the old city, i can see the Dome of the rock and the mount of olives which is beautiful.

the weather here is awesome. i know it will get blazing hot but for now it's like in the 70's.....and cloudy and breezy. it's excellent.


I have made a list of things im absolutely going to see, and try. obviously filafels and shawarma's. we found this great (and safe) place in the old city to get some....only 7 shekels! I started classes and i have a lot of reading/homework to do for them. It's so weird living in the palastinian suburb.....and not so cool waking up at 4AM because of the call to prayer from the minarets. the transition from east(arab side) to west(jewish side) is drastic, with the signs in arabic to hebrew. we spent (i feel like) a little more time in west and the old city so mostly what i saw and heard was hebrew and Jews. funny though because you go from the ultra conservative muslim women wearing long black tunic and headscarves to the Orthodox jews and finally to the israelis in the middle in jeans and tank tops.


the food here at the center is SO GOOD. and it's local. our Palestinian chef cooks for us and it's not kosher.....not entirely. they serve cheese and even yogurt once on one side and a meat dish(in the same room) on the other.....but the dishes are excellent. we eat a lot of olives and cucumbers....tomatoes....that's our salads, and we have chicken and beef.....but NO PORK. absolutely not. the mushrooms are great, the breads too, and really great potatoes. (all the dishes are a lot more fancy and have legitimate names, but unfortunately i have no idea what they are....so......all in all, it's not american food...and i love it. we found this israeli pizza place and im really excited to try it. it is kosher though, because it's in the West side....anywho........I love everything about jerusalem right now and am really excited. i cant believe im going to live here! seriously....i dont know how id be able to see all the stuff i want to if i was just here for a visit.

Yesterday we had some free time so i grabbed some people and we went back out to the old city. it was kinda cool being a little independent of the center, i actually feel like i live here and not at a summer camp or something. We walked through the old city christian quarter because the Muslim quarter is off limits (especially with all the skin us americans expose) and the jewish quarter is ok, but not on fridays because theyre preparing for the Shabbat and tensions are a little higher towards those not dressed in orthodox fashion.

The market place looks like Aladdin's....its super awesome. everyone will have to tell me what souvenirs they want....there's SO MUCH.

Walking through everything is kinda surreal. there are bullet holes in the buildings and old destroyed tanks have been fashioned into dumpsters.....it's kinda awesome...but scary because i have no idea when all of that specifically happened in my area. probably awhile ago...right?

Officially though, i have been stoned!
the group i was with were walking past a group of kids....and they wanted us to buy gum...we declined so they threw rocks....yikes. no one was hit though......and we figured...all kids through rocks, right? a nice old arab man came and shewed them away....which was nice.

Right before we got back to the center more kids from across the street in a muslim neighborhood were calling to us to come over. i was totally hesitant, but something told me to just do it. there were young girls in the group...which i figured meant they wouldn't throw anything. girls are a bit nicer. :) so there were about 7 kids all speaking arabic and very little english. I crossed the street....and went to talk with them and they were SO NICE! A girl teenager spoke a little more english and i talked to her and promised to come back so she could help me with my arabic. then i played a little futbol....which was awesome...and then i went back "home"...i love my neighbors. besides the rowdy kids, all the Palestinian and jewish peoples are so nice....the conceptions i had about the people here have changed so much. I love this experience and i cant wait to live here and see more things.

ALSO. I'll be in Egypt in 12 days! on monday we're doing more exploring, going to see some more sites that are around here......specifically i have no idea right now, but.....it's AWESOME!