So when I got back from Egypt, I got a little bit sick and so I relaxed for the next few days and got back into the swing of classes. On one of my free days I went and got my nativity set and I also went to the YMCA. We get to play the bells on sundays and so I went and heard Brother Whipple play it. He then let a few of us try it out and play hymns and I got to ring the bell two times for noon. :D
That was fun! Oh, man, the Whipples are AMAZING. They are seriously the cutest couple. They started dating, 11 days later they were engaged and 6 weeks from their very first date they were married. How crazy is that? (Although last saturday I heard a story of a couple that met and got married 6 days later!-they're going on 50 years together!!! Oi...) But Brother and Sister Whipple are just so funny and so cute. Whenever the call to prayer goes off, Brother Whipple goes and finds Sister Whipple and kisses her and tells her that he loves her. Also Sister Whipple is so funny. She is smart as a tack. She always has the funniest comments.
After that we went and I got my nativity set. Yay! Then we headed over and went to the Third Temple Institute in the Jewish Quarter. That was an interesting experience. It was neat to be able to see all of the different artifacts that are described in the Bible.
One of our field trips was going around different sites that were important in terms of conquest. We went to these bell caves and those were neat to see the lime caves and the way that they have been dug out throughout time. We saw where Sampson was probably raised and where David probably killed Goliath. That was neat. Then we also went to Lachish. That was SO cool. I've seen so many pictures of that tell and I've learned so much about that siege (one of the first instances of a siege ramp in history). After Lachish we went to this cave and got to crawl around and that was fun.
A little bit later we had an arab cultural night and that was WAY fun. We heard the muezzins that do the call to prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. That was cool. It was a father and a son and it has been done in their family for hundreds of years. After that we went in and had food. Oh man, it was good. It was SO tasty. After that they then made us dance. Haha, that was good but a little difficult on a full stomach.
On the 6th, I had another free day and I went down to Eilat. Eilat is on the Red Sea and it's where we went down to snorkel. It was AMAZING!!!! Oh man, I loved it! The water was gorgeous and there were so many different types of coral and fish. I can't wait to go back there!!! On our way back we went and had dinner at that same Kibbutz that we had eaten at on our way back from Egypt.
A day or two later I went with Greta, Erin and Lindsay into the city. We wanted to get some errands done and make sure that we went to the Citadel for Hamblin's class. We got falafel and found a side street to sit down and eat. As we were eating on some steps a guy came down them and invited us up. His daughter took us into her living room and we talked and finished eating lunch. It was such a neat experience to talk with her! She gave us this drink called tamarhindi which is like dried dates that is boiled with cucumbers and something else into this thick syrup. If you taste just that it almost tastes like cough syrup. But then you add water to it, and it was a super good drink! It was really cool to be able to try that and listen to her story. Her name was Rabiyya' and she had an interesting life. She had studied at University in Amman to become a nurse. And she came back to Jerusalem and was one for a while. But then She became a headmistress for girls schools all over Israel. However, she got imprisoned for political purposes and then couldn't find a job. She became imprisoned again for political purposes once more and this time in prison she was beaten. Ever since then she has a bad memory and cannot remember certain things. She is so disabled that she cannot even live alone anymore and that's how she came to live with her parents in their hospice.
It was incredible to just talk to her and get that perspective. But we couldn't stay too terribly long and so we went on our way to the citadel. We got there and sat in on the movie that was played and it was one of the funniest things that I have ever seen. Oh man, it was interesting. Then we explored the rest of King David's citadel. It was neat, but not the most interesting thing.
The next few days were fairly rough. Since Egypt I've had: 2, 15 single space page papers, 2, two page papers and 6 tests. But we still had some fun. Some people found some wedding dresses in the Manna Cabana (our snack place) and so a few girls pranced around in dresses. It was hilarious. Riley came up to me and was like, why are they so excited? So I had to explain to him that it was big girl dress-up. :P
Our next free day I went to the Biblical Zoo! It was so much fun! I love going to zoos. It was also really fun because we read a few stories in front of the animals. Riley, Chris and I read about Elisha and the bears in front of the Syrian Bear exhibit, we read about Noah's ark in front of the ark (it was a welcome center thingy), and we read about Daniel in front of the Lions.
The next day we went to Bethlehem. That was a really neat experience. We went to Bethlehem University and it was neat to be able to talk to a few of the students and hear their experiences. After that we walked around the city for a little bit and then visited the Church of the Nativity. That was gorgeous. It was very ornate. It was also neat to explore the city and see where Christ was born.
Also while we were there we had lunch at a Bedouin Diner. It was SOOO good. Seriously the best meal I've had here. There were so many yummy dips. They had this garlic one that was SO good.
After Bethlehem I didn't really do anything because I was busy with tests.
This past sunday we went to Yad Vashem which is the Holocaust memorial. It was pretty intense but it wasn't as bad because the tour guide really rushed us through and I didn't really have time to appreciate the events. Yesterday was probably even more impacting than Yad Vashem. We had a guy come and speak who had been a survivor of the Holocaust. He had been a worker and traveled around to 9 different places in 5 years. He had been at Auschwitz and Dachau and a few other camps throughout the war. He had been in the Lodz ghetto and while he was working his father died of starvation in the ghetto and his mother, 5 sisters and brother were sent to Chelmno and murdered. It was an incredible story and it was made all the more incredible by the fact that the man was so happy and cheerful. He had met his wife in a rehabilitation camp and they moved to Guatemala before they moved to Israel in the 60s. It was quite humbling to hear his experiences.
Today we had a really awesome forum speaker. We heard from freelance journalist Matthew Kalman. He was really fascinating and it was a fun experience to hear from him. It was an interesting view of journalism. He told us a story about when the second intifada started and 3 weeks later there was a meeting between Mubarak, Clinton, Sharon and Arafat and they made a deal to end the intifada. He went to a family's house to listen to Arafat's announcement of this, but it never came and on that day he learned that things in the Middle East really happen different from expected. As he put it, the Middle East is a different mindset, it's crazy, it doesn't make sense. He also told a funny story about how he was with this palestinian christian comedian and they were visiting his village and as they were driving, the guy told him to turn into an olive grove. Matthew and his driver were like umm... ok. And they did and then midway through the grove there was an Israeli checkpoint with cars backed up on both sides. They pull up and explain what they're doing and ask the comedian to get out of the car. The guard looks at him and says, "ok, do Arafat" and so he did an impression and the guard called to everyone else saying "look everyone, it's the guy from tv!" And so the guy did a few more impressions before getting back in the car. The guards let them go through and they gave directions to his village. They were like, yeah, at the third olive tree on your right take a right and then follow the road. Mr. Kalman said it was one of the most bizarre experiences he had ever had. It was so funny to hear that. He was very enjoyable and it was an interesting perspective on someone who is published in multiple news sources.
So... phew! That's basically it for here in Jerusalem up to this point! I have finals next week and I'm preparing for that. I have a talk on Saturday in church. Then we leave for Galilee on the 4th of July. I'm so excited! :D I'll be there for 10 days.
And I'm sorry about not posting pictures, I've tried but the server here is not very cooperative.
Cheers!
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