The Last Week

It's the last week, and I'm pretty sad about it. I knew it would fly by, and it did. We only have four more days until we go home. It's too much to handle for me! I try not to think about it.

We finished finals yesterday. What a relief it was to get those off my chest! Classes are OVER and all we need to do now is go into the city! It feels good to not have to worry about anything. It's also really weird. I'm conditioned to always have SOMETHING to do, and now that I don't have anything I'm at a loss for things to do. It's so much easier to entertain yourself when you're procrastinating something.

We did our first of two Christmas Choir concerts yesterday. We didn't do that well, but hopefully the audience was forgiving about it. One of the students, Katie Graham, played two beautiful harp solos. She's a music major and has been seriously missing the harp, and you could see her just glow as she played it. It was a great thing to see.

After church we went to an olive tree garden just to sit and relax. Neil and Andrew both had the time of their lives playing with the Palestinian kids there. Neil loves kids that age. It's when he's in his element. He was picking them up and throwing them around and chasing them and they LOVED him. Meanwhile a few students were trying to get their quiet study time in...that didn't work so well.

Tomorrow is our last free day before we leave. I don't know what I'm going to do. I'll probably going to go to the Temple Mount, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Church of All Nations--the normal stuff. But it's definitely worth one last visit. Honestly, I feel good about what I've done here and there really isn't anything that I am in dire needs of seeing, but I do want to get out and about and just be in the city. Buy a Jerusalem bagel. Talk to the vendors. All of the stuff I love doing in Jerusalem. 

We have two last field trips to go. We're going all over Jerusalem, tracing the last week of the Savior's life. I'm looking forward to it. 

Observations of the City (Neil)

A friend emailed me with some questions about Jerusalem. I thought you might find the questions and answers informative.


What is the architecture like? (and I add greeting culture)
East Jerusalem (Arab) has an aging infrastructure. There is generally a lot of trash on the streets and it isn't very well maintained. The buildings themselves aren't awful, just fairly modest as a rule, and generally there will be up to five floors in apartment buildings, which are the majority style of building over here. Few houses are one story, with multiple levels being the rule. It strongly reminds me of Latin America, with Arabic
switched in for Spanish and different gender communication expectations. In Latino culture, you greet whoever the heck you want and almost all will reply. Here, guys say hi to guys who will almost always reply, and same goes for girls-girls (at least I imagine this would be the case if any of the girls I go into the city with would
believe me...) It is considered improper in many places for guys to say hello to women who are strangers and even more so for women to say hello to men they don't know.

Architecture in West Jerusalem? High rises, apartment buildings, light rails, clean streets, very western-looking. Almost all buildings in this area--like all of them--are faced with a beige/tan chipped limestone that hardens and grays somewhat with age when it is in the sun, but this only makes it harder and stronger. Which is good if your house is made out of it. The Jerusalem center is made out of this same limestone, keeping with tradition. In West Jerusalem you can try saying hello to anyone you want, and they probably won't acknowledge you, period. It just really isn't a greeting culture.  Israelis here, secular or religious, just aren't quite as friendly to strangers (you just have to get to know them first.)


Architecture in the Old City? This is interesting. You have structures in the Old City that are ancient, but none quite dating back to the time of Christ (Jerusalem has been burned down and rebuilt seven times.) There are probably a couple of small churches that are older, but the Dome of the Rock is really old. It maybe dates back to....691 AD? Yes. The temple mount itself does date back to Herodian times, as it could not be completely destroyed by the Romans when they destroyed the temple itself in 70 AD.  The city is divided into four portions, called quarters. They aren't equal in size. You have the Muslim, Christian, Armenian, and Jewish quarters. Nothing in the Jewish quarter is older than 1967 when it was rebuilt following the Six Day War. The other quarters have  a mix of building, most of which I would say are very old.  Portions of the city are very residential, others are like church/synagogue/mosque areas, and there are many, many merchants.selling all kinds of stuff along the roads. Much of the stuff sold in the Old City is stuff for tourists, but locals also buy clothes, spices, and food there. And fluorescent pink pickled jicama root and cauliflower, which doesn't quite classify as food. The entire city wall (which has also been destroyed every now and again) was rebuilt by the Ottoman emperor Suleiman the Magnificent in 1536. You can walk along almost all of the top of it, which I find incredibly enjoyable because it is like I am on really old castle-y walls. Because I am. Other stuff about the Old City since we are talking about it--the smells in the Old City shift quickly as you walk through it.  Let's imagine.
(Dreamy harp noise sounds as the air before your eyes blurs....)


You are looking at Damascus Gate, one of the large gates of the city. There is no room for cars, so most everything is moved with carts or on foot.  Trash is carried out by  a small, slim tractor hauling a short and tall-walled trailer--like 8 or 9 feet tall. After it passes, You walk past a bunch of fruit vendors immediately, and all around you people are selling clothes, food, cheap toys, electronics--this is the what you could say is the bazaar. The bazaars in this portion of the world are indeed very similar to mercados in Mexico or Paraguay I've been to. When it is closed, a metal or roll-down metal door can be used to close it, and it is full of lots of things, and the kind of thing depends on what kind of shop it is. For tourists, you have ceramics, scarves, leather bags and sandals, assorted souvenir junk, and also religious merchandise and supplies for pilgrims--incense, candles, portraits of saints, etc. The smells shift constantly Some are good, some are bad.. One second it is recently butchered meat : P , next it is incense, then some guy in front of you exhales and you get a faceful of cigarrette smoke (which I think they mix other things into. It's still revolting but into a different way). Then, you walk through the smell of freshly baking bread, then you smell a leather shop, a motorbike putters by in the narrow streets where only pedestrians can fit.  Then comes the smell of pickled foods, a  tiny tractor hauling garbage drives by, and all the while the background scent of big, open spice shops pulses beneath it all like the market's lifeblood.  To figure that out....take every spice in your cupboard and open them all, and take a big, deep breath. Kind of like that.


And I love it.


Is it similar to Salt Lake?
West Jerusalem is a lot like Salt Lake but made all out of stone. East Jerusalem and the Old City are pretty different. I don't really like West Jerusalem as much. I feel like a lot of the students prefer it because it is more similar to what they are comfortable with, which I suppose is no crime, but I came here in part to try to get to know something else entirely, and so far its been pretty good.

What is the vegetation like?
When I got here, very brown. Very. Imagine Nevada in summertime. Yes, Ethan, maybe we are hanging out somewhere by Mesquite. Israel often alternately looks like Nevada or portions of Southern California. It can be incredibly green when there is rain, but that is just beginning now. Galilee (where I was recently) is much greener as there is more rain that falls and more water in general. Galilee looks more like Central California.


I like plants and pay attention to them. So I was surprised when I saw so many unfamiliar plants here. Which leads us to---

What kind of trees grow there besides olive trees?
Lots of pine trees (gymnosperms if you want to get botanical) and piney things grow here.
Cedars, juniper trees, pine trees that look really, really dry and so flammable.
 Date palms, and other relatives that are inedible but  inevitable as you walk around.
Nopal cactus (look it up) is pretty common. This surprised me, as it is from the Americas, but it was introduced here and thrives, but not invasively--it's not taking over or anything.
Jujubes/jujube trees. Also pretty common.Supposedly used to make the crown-of-thorns for Jesus back in the day.
Eucalyptus trees from Australia are all over. One of the world's more
invasive species.
Lots of thorny plants.
Pomegranates. Citrus of all sorts. Loquats. Lots of rosemary-like
bushes, but they're not. Laurel trees. as well.
Most of the dates are grown on plantations by the Dead Sea. Bananas are also grown, and in low-lying areas such as Galilee I have seen small mango trees. There are huge plantings of them but none are more than a couple years old. Looks like someone is investing a lot, because they aren't big enough to have fruit yet. It gets cold here in the winter but doesn't freeze, so anything that can tolerate up to being frozen does just fine, and better if it needs little water. Water is a major issue here. Gardens aren't watered with sprinklers, but drip  irrigation systems which are far less wasteful. Most of the water comes from the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee. By the time the Jordan River reaches the Dead Sea, 90% of its water has already been taken away. So the Dead Sea is...dying. But if it gets into your eye while you are there, you are reminded that you are
very
much
alive.
(Based off of the volume and frequency of yelling from my peers. My eyes maintained normal salinity.)


What is campus like?
Campus is really pretty cool. It is a beautiful building and probably the nicest one I will ever live in during my entire life. Two drawbacks--you see everyone else all the time, which is usually good but it can be hard to get quiet time. Second--since the Center takes its security very seriously (which has been reassuring of late)you
don't see a lot of the neighbors, so it isn't always like living in a foreign country...I occasionally feel like I am coming back to my palace in Agrabah away from "those irksome locals." I have come to terms with this, though--I am not as integrated, but I can do my part and talk to people anyhow, so I've been able to meet some new acquaintances in their homes, which has been really enjoyable. Annie pointed out to me that yes, the Center is more isolated by nature, but it doesn't make it bad, just different.


I am really going to miss it here.

Dead Sea (Annie)

For years and years in the back of my mind I had this vague notion that if I were ever to go to the Dead Sea it would be fun to see if one actually floated in it. I never quite believed that they were serious when they said you floated effortlessly.

Today, my friends, my hazy dreams of floating in the Dead Sea have been realized. And I will tell you one thing: they weren't kidding.

 You actually do float.

 The Dead Sea blows my mind! I guess I never completely believed the textbooks when they said you can't sink in the Dead Sea. You don't need to paddle or tread water or anything. All you need to do is keep your arms out for balance and you're set. I tried to swim a few different strokes. My legs wouldn't sink in far enough to actually do anything. It was like swimming on top of jelly.

As time progressed and I got over the initial shock of seemingly physics-defying properties of the water, I started photo-bombing everybody else's pictures, as has become a recent habit for me. The Dead Sea provided a great opportunity to do so, as I could swim behind random people and stick my legs and arms in the air and do all sorts of crazy poses that I never in a million years would be able to do in regular water. 

Then I floated on my tummy with a few friends and took pictures with our hands propping our chins up and our ankles crossed in the air. I also laid flat on the water and floated for a minute, enjoying the sensation of being weightless. I was careful not to duck my head under--the water STINGS when it gets into your nose or eyes. Not only that, but as I have a cold right now my nose, eyes and mouth are already more sensitive so it would be even worse if I got salt in them. As it was I got a fine layer of salt on my face. And a thick layer of salt everywhere else.

 After our lovely Dead Sea experience we went to En Gedi, which is a series of waterfalls and pools where I washed all the salt off. It felt heavenly. We also went to Masada , which is located on the top of a small mountain-like structure that is surrounded on all sides by steep cliffs. It is here that thousands of Jews committed suicide after the Romans conquered the city. It's hard for me to imagine anyone living in Masada. It is located in the middle of the desert and there are no plants to speak of. But the view from the top is breathtaking.

Our last site of the day was Qumran, near where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. We were able to see Cave 4, one of the 11 caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Then we headed back to Jerusalem and sang "Viva La Vida," by Coldplay, which my professor has adopted as his bus theme song. It's the last time we'll be singing it, as today is our last fieldtrip on a bus. It was a very sad moment. I'm really sad to see this experience winding down. It will be hard to leave Jerusalem when the time comes.

The Tombs of Atuan

I enjoyed a visit I had to the nearby Tombs of Atuan...er, the Prophets.

Jerusalem and the Holy Land are full of caves and tombs of all sorts. It's principally limestone, so if you put on your geology hats you will remember that limestone loves to form caves just like the area under the bed inexplicably creates dust bunnies. What is a dust bunny, anyways? Anyways, any way I could lead into this story in the way most obtuse and with the most similar-sounding things sounds rings of goodness to me.

One Sabbath Saturday we waddled ( I find I frequently walk faster than others in my group) down to Gethsemane to see if we could pop on in and do a study session in the private portion of the Garden. Well, we took our plea to a locked door with no one inside, and we decided to keep on going somewhere else. We walked past a couple other churches and cemeteries on the Mount of Olives before the people with me declared their intentions to go to the Tomb of the Prophets. Wait, who died? We walked into someone's yard where there was this big green gate and signs in this yard pointing to some stairs leading down about two stories into the solid rock. When my eyes had adjusted I could see in the dim light I stood in a domed room about 25 feet across carved out of the rock. To my right and left were tall passageways leading into darkness. The only light in the room came from the doorway behind me, a small hole in the ceiling which flowed to the surface above...and the wan light of a single candle held by a man standing by the stairs. I don't remember the exact story, I'll tell you if I remember. In decent English he said that when his family had moved into the region, they rediscovered the cave and used it as a home for several months while conditions above were unfavorable. Later, during the Six Days War in 1967 they again spent a few days below to wait out conditions above. He also told us that according to tradition, the Old Testament prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi are buried here (this is probably just tradition—the style of the tombs dates closer to the time of Christ or 1^st century AD.)

He then gave us each a lit candle and set us free in the tombs. The place was wasn't enormous, but it was decently sized. If your candle went out, you would be plunged into near-total darkness. It reminded me of something I read about in a book called the Tombs of Atuan, a fictional underground maze where no light reaches. When I closed my eyes, I could imagine I was there.

“He kept his right hand on the wall. As his hand brushed against its damp mass, loose pieces of dirt and rock crumbled off of the limestone beneath. His torch long extinguished, the inky blackness pressed against his open eyes, robbing their sight. He counted each opening he came to. Some were passageways, some tombs, and some were both. How many openings had he passed? Seven...eight...nine. Right, then left, then right again. It would be a miracle if he found what he was looking for. He couldn't leave without it, but if he searched much longer he might never leave at all. His soft footsteps echoed quietly off of the walls, sometimes wandering off and never coming back when he passed a pit or crossed some dark crevasse and they were lost in the depths. The air was stale. How long had it been since anyone had come this way? Fourteen...fifteen...sixteen....or was that seventeen? Panic rose up in his throat. His worst fears began to realize themselves as—no, wait! A draft of cool air on his right cheek. He was close. Very close indeed....”

One September Morning

           You've likely heard things over here have been a bit, well, different. Rest assured we are safe. Instead of commenting on one of Israel's pricklier problems, I'd like to take some time to focus on one of the things I love most about this place. Here's a little bit I wrote some time ago.

            The rough-hewn limestone is bumpy. It is neither warm nor cool, it simply is. It is over an hour before dawn, and no pre-dawn rays yet lighten the ink sky. A warm breeze blows gently over me as cool rain sprinkles lightly over my prone form. My arms and legs extended, I lay on an upper balcony of the center in the first clothes that I could find in my dark, heavily air-conditioned room—in this case, a two-toned pair of blue of athletic shorts and a charcoal-gray hoodie. I realize right away when I step outside I am dressed warmly for the occasion, but I don't really mind. Before me lies an ethereal view. West and East Jerusalem meld with the Old City, lit by the glow of streetlights suffused in the clouds, the amber moon sinking low over the horizon. The Haram al Sharif—the Dome of the Rock—is bathed in an even more intense golden glow. My arms and legs are spread-eagled, my eyes closed as the rain continues to patter over my skin. It tickles when it lands on my eyelids. The call to prayer drifts over the valley from five different mosques, their individual sounds becoming louder, then softer as the invisible valley breeze churns them. Though I hardly understand a word said, for a moment I can grasp the tremendous faith and devotion of my brothers and sisters of another faith as they turn their minds to God. I try not to let my thoughts get ahead of the moment, seeking instead to take in the experience and live. Stone, wind, rain, prayer—for a moment they all blend perfectly. Then, as quickly as it began, it is over. The rain stops first, and one by one the mosques finish their prayers. The Haram-al-Sharif is last to go. Its final echoes fade into oblivion, the only sounds now the distant hiss of cars on the empty streets and the whisper of the wind through the outstretched leaves of the olive trees.

On Fieldtrips, Menorahs, and Blood-donating (Annie)

This week was really exciting! It has finally gotten rainy and I am SO excited! It cleared out the air here and cooled off this heat! 

On Monday I went to the Pools of Bethesda, an ancient system of cisterns. We can see it from the top and the roofs have all fallen in so it is sort of picturesque in a way. We also visited the Flagellation church (one of the stops on the Via Dolorosa, which many pilgrims come to Jerusalem to walk on). We then went the Temple Institute, which is a Jewish group whose main goal is to build the Third Jewish Temple in this generation. They have all sorts of things made for the new temple, including a Menorah that is plated with 45 kilograms of 24-karat  gold, weighs a half ton, and is worth three million dollars. It's on display a little way up from the Western Wall, and I never realized before that it was an actual ornament to be used in the new Temple. 

For FHE we did awkward family pictures, where we basically made family pictures as awkward as we could--it was FANTASTIC. We were copying another group who had already done that, but I'm sure they don't mind! They were so fun to do! Hopefully my FHE momma sends me the pictures soon so I can share them with you!

Tuesday we went on a fieldtrip to the Jewish Quarter where we saw the Burnt house and the Kohl museum, which are basically excavated houses with buildings built over them. The burnt house had the most amazing dubbed video ever--the acting made me want to laugh at the ridiculousness and cry with pain at the acting at the same time. However, the content of the movie was serious stuff--the destruction of Herod's temple, and the slaughtering of the Roman people. It is sad to learn about what happened then, and how the Jews starved, fought among themselves, and were slaughtered by the Romans during the Jewish Rebellion.  

After the Burnt House we made our way to the Davidson Archaeological Museum, a large excavation right next to the Temple Mount. My favorite part of this site was a rock right on the wall of the Temple Mount which was is almost certainly  a place where Jesus walked. Now, traipsing around the Holy Land is amazing, and seeing sites where something most likely happened is always meaningful, but that feeling of absolutely standing where the Savior stood was unreal. I couldn't quite grasp it. It was something I'll be thinking about and pondering for a long time.

The rock where Jesus walked.

Stepping into a sealed archway into the Temple Mount

Wednesday we had our Jewish Quarter Fieldtrip, Basically this involved a lot of churches, including the Church of the Redeemer, Syriac Orthodox Church (one of the traditional sites of the Upper Room where Jesus instituted the sacrament), Church of the Holy Sepulchre (a site for many churches), The Russian Orthodox Church of Saint Alexander Nevsky, the Terra Sanctae, and the Greek Orthodox church of Saint John the Baptist. After we got back we pressed olives! We've been delaying olive picking and pressing for WEEKS because of lack of rain so it was so great to finally be able to do it! And by the way--it's hard! For a city slicker like me it was a lot of work! Our group broke one of the ropes in an olive press, so we tried to sit on it to press the olives...didn't work. It was still great though.

Thursday: Went through Hezekiah's tunnel in the DARK! It was scary! I would highly recommend it! Last time we went through with lights and now that I've gone through in darkness I can tell you that it is a COMPLETELY different experience in the dark! You have no idea what's going to happen next! Then we went up another tunnel from the bottom up into Davidson Archaeological Park. That tunnel wasn't as cool as Hezekiah's--it was not carved, it was built, and there was no water. Then we climbed up the tower of the Church of  the Redeemer and saw an amazing view of Jerusalem. The view of Jerusalem always changes for me, because every day I see something new in the city. Then when I look over the valley at the end of the day I recognize new things and make new connections in my mind, and then it all takes on new meaning. It's really a bit crazy. 

Then I gave blood! Anyone who knows me knows I absolutely positively HATE giving blood BUT it is for a good cause so I do it anyway! I figure it's a personal fear of needles that I need to get over in order to live a happier life. It was not fun as usual but I think it was a little better than last time....so there's an improvement! And now I can check "donating blood in Israel" off of my real-time bucketlist!

Liesl (my roommate), Rachel, and I in all of our blood-donating glory.

Friday, as you might have heard, was interesting. After class I went with a group of students to En Karem, a small neighborhood in West Jerusalem with a bunch of churches, most especially the church of John the Baptist. It was a gorgeous neighborhood, with all sorts of beautiful trees and plants. The churches were amazing, too. 

Then, at approximately 4:30 the sirens went off. We didn't know what we were, and nobody would tell us and nobody seemed to be worried, so we weren't all too worried about it either. There were no shelters nearby, so we went inside a restaurant til the sirens stopped and life continued on as normal. Once we got the ok from security at the Center we drove home. It wasn't until we got back that we learned that there had been missiles aimed for Jerusalem. It was surprising for me--life in the city returned to normal within the hour. It was a little bit of a surprise but nothing too frightening. The students at the Center got to go to the bomb shelters. Too bad I missed that--it sounds pretty cool. 

So that brings us up to speed with this week at the Jerusalem Center! This next week I am psyched to head up to Galilee! We leave Monday and will be there for 10 days. I've heard so many good things about it and I can't WAIT to go there and have an amazing experience with my friends here. It's gonna be SWEET!

~Annie

Daily Life in the Center

Here is a bit to tell you how things roll in the Center. No week is the same, but there are some similarities.Watch out! Reader Advisory warning--NO PICTURES!!! BORING!!!
IT'S GONNA BE LONG. SO NOW IS A GREAT TIME FOR YOU TO TEST WHETHER YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO KNOW. Here is the test. Please say the following out loud to the nearest cat six times.

Dimethyl mercury-induced sesquipedalian agoraphobic insomnia.
Does the cat next to you:
A) Stare blankly into your eyes. Wow, that cat has great eyes. They are like every color of the rainbow, at least if the rainbow was only two colors--black and green.
B) Try to convince you this is a real medical condition.
C) Sign you up for the Chase Rewards Sapphire card with tuna as the main customer loyalty reward.
D) Cough up a hairball. But it's not the cat's hair--it's YOURS. No wonder the hair on your right arm was looking sparse. It's been grazing on you while you sleep!

If your answer was B) you should stop now.  The only thing dimethyl mercury really induces is death. Your cat is lying to you and is actually trying to get your inheritance. That's the only reason it's been staying at your house this long anyways, and it doesn't like the neighbor kid's bagpipes any more than you. You have more pressing matters than reading this blog, and I encourage you to deal with them immediately. Legal counsel is advised.

ANYWAYS...
MONDAY
Field trip day.  Ideally (which means almost never) I will have woken up at 5 AM to study for an hour. At 6 AM I exercise and by 6:45 make it back to the room to shower before breakfast starts at 7 AM.

7 AM: breakfast. Breakfast is relatively similar each day. As we don't have kitchens, we eat nearly all of our meals in the in-Center cafeteria, the Oasis. Let me describe it to you: You walk in and to your right are a bunch of inside tables, while to your left is the entrance to the serving area. Inside the serving area you will find VELOCIRAPTORS AND PENGUINS I mean delicious food. There are a bunch of round table things that are gray with an orangish glow emanating from the slots on the sides where you grab the plates. The round table things have the magical ability to heat or cool food on top, depending on which table you are at.
One of them, that can have desserts on it, turns really cold, and I used to have an irrational fear of it because it seemed like it was a portal into the freezing, cold lifeless void of space, but I eventually figured out soup helped me conquer this fear.
BACK TO BREAKFAST. You go and grab whatever you could possibly want to eat for breakfast in the center, anything at all, as long as anything you'd ever want to eat is one of the following things
(get ready for parenthetical statements):
Jelly, hot chocolate, five kinds of cereal including these chocolate-filled pillow cereal things, milk (1% and 3%), pink yogurt (ostensibly strawberry-flavored, though I've never seen such a thing in Israel), crunchy cinnamon pastry rolls, deep-fried french toast, pancakes, scrambled eggs, pitas with peanut butter and Nutella(though don't be fooled, no true Nutella is this. It is technically "cocoa solids spread," but contains many of the same things--palm oil, cocoa solids, sugar, powdered fairies--but I'd say there isn't a high enough proportion of fairy dust or sugar(is there a difference?) because it is closer to the consistency of chocolate frosting. And there's some other food. I'll go into other food specifics more some other time, as food is near and dear to my GI tract.

The rest is going to be a lot shorter.
8 AM: We head out on a field trip.
4PM : Arrive back from the field trip. I will usually fall asleep at this point at the exhaustion from trying to stay awake all day.
6PM Dinner.
7PM Home Evening. I am a group leader again, paired up with a girl named Alta who Christian and Lauren know. Alta jokingly refers to me as "hubby" and "dear." I jokingly refer to her as "Alta."
8PM  Work on homework.
10 PM Go to sleep.

TUESDAY
Breakfast is virtually identical every day.
8AM Old Testament. Except now Old Testament is over.
8AM New Testament. We have a great time studying it as I can often glance out the window and look at the areas where things very well could have happened.
10 AM Near East in its Ancient Context: We study the same periods of time as we covered in OT or NT at the same time, but looking at ancient civilizations in the area and the archaeological record instead. Most recently we have been studying Herod the Great.
12 PM Lunch. I am usually first.
1 or 2 PM Hebrew class. Besides learning how to read and write Hebrew, we also learned a number of phrases, learned about specific cultural things (challah bread, Sabbath candles, the Torah), songs, and dances.
3PM We have Jewish Culture and Civilization, which is about, well, Jewish culture and civilization as it pertains to the Holy Land. This is taught to us by an Israeli American-born Jew, Ophir Yarden. He is very personable and appears to want to portray all parties discussed fairly. He doesn't have hair, but this just adds to his epic-ness as anyone should be able to appropriately understand. We all wondered how his kippa stayed on his head, owing to the fact they are usually clipped to the hair. A guess from a student proved to be correct: "fashion strips," or less eloquently put, double-sided sticky tape. 3M, you've done it again!
6 PM Dinner. It invariably consists of food, though some students appear unconvinced. If they've never seen it before, how could it possibly be edible? Go back to the good ol' baby days, people. You know, when you found unfamiliar objects and simply STUCK THEM IN YOUR MOUTH.

WEDNESDAY
One of the possible alterations on Wednesday would be to switch Islamic and Arab Civilization with the Jewish Civ class.. This offers an alternate perspective on things in the Holy Land going back as far as the emergence of Islam. The class is seen as a companion class to the Jewish one. They used to have one teacher teach one class, but due to the controversial nature of some of the subjects went for two instead. This class, as many just called "Palestine" for short, was taught by a Palestinian, Bashir Bashir.  I particularly enjoyed this class as we discussed the emergence of Islam, many of its characteristics, and the formation of Palestinian identity, i.e. when Palestinians began to think of themselves as such. Sadly, because of Bashir's impassioned lectures and ideas that challenged commonly-held Western notions such as Kleenex(joking) and imperial favoritism(less so) many of the students didn't like the class as much. If' they've never heard of a concept before, how could it possibly be logical? Go back to the good ol' baby days, people. You know, when you heard unfamiliar terms and concepts and simply STUCK THEM IN YOUR BRAIN.

7:30 PM   Forum address. Someone famous/ and or cool comes and talks to the students. My favorite was when two prayer reciters came from the Al-Aqsa Mosque (the third holiest in all of Islam), explaining and demonstrating the call to prayer for us. I have subsequently been able to pick out various phrases as I hear the prayer during the different times of the day, stuff like the phrase Allahu akbar (God is Great).

THURSDAY
Thursday is generally pretty similar to the other days. We often get out early after just an hour of NearEastAncientContext and OT/NT or two hours of one. At this point in time, mostly everyone makes a break for the city and don't come home until dinner. I have found this time great for studying as distractions (read: people) are fewer in number.
I am fond of recharging with an afternoon nap somewhere in the center. I once preferred dark rooms like the bomb shelter but have been discouraged by romantic interludes by my fellow students, whom I am tempted to lock in there. I instead have picked a sunny spot on one of the upper levels. Naps after 3 are almost a death wish--the faculty members' children arrive home, and apparently the message  this sends is along the lines of "attack the slumbering bear and drag its shoes into the women's restroom."
I have become sensitive even when asleep to the high-pitched shrieks of my foes echoing down the hallways and have had many a quick getaway in some room or closet, but generally escape is futile.

7:30 PM (maybe)  We have special events on some Thursday nights. These have included our Passover/Seder Dinner, our Arab dinner (see Shawn's "I've been doing more than just homework" post), Palestinian and Israeli dancing (the latter was technically a Wed.) and formal and informal talent shows.

FRIDAY
Classes in the mornings. Large Friday prayers are held on Fridays at Al-Aqsa Mosque, and generally if there is to be a riot or disturbance of any sort it has been conveniently decided it is to take place on a Friday. This was the case after the random posting of some anti-Islam offensive Youtube video a while back.
Therefore, the students cannot leave the Center to go to the Old City or East Jerusalem until 3 PM, but West Jerusalem (the Jewish portion of the city) is open game.
1 PM: Humanitarian activity, where we assemble humanitarian or school kits.
ANTHROPOLOGY TIME!
People at the center are fond of playing volli-bawl during this time, an interesting ritual I have recently been observing. In this bizarre social custom, a large net is placed in a room with few doors (to frustrate the departure of those participating). Next, a number of players line up, and in which the object appears to leap into the air and slam a stiff, spherical playing ball into the waiting faces of their opponents who undoubtedly enjoy this sensation. Proffering the fragile skin of the underarms and wrists is an acceptable substitute. That this is the goal of the activity is unquestioned, as does the sacred nature of the ball and the importance of keeping it off the ritually unclean ground. The unspoken assumption exists is that opposing participants will sacrifice themselves by diving onto the ground to keep the ball off of it, again hopefully engaging it with their face or arms in the process.
Perhaps it is some form of masochistic group-bonding? Further studies are merited.

3PM people go into the city. Or stay inside and  stare soulfully into each others' eyes  study.
7PM A weekly movie is presented. This may be something related to the local culture or something we will be seeing. Before we went to Petra, we naturally watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. SPOILER ALERT I found the HOLY GRAIL IN PETRA! INSIDE A CLIFFSIDE TOMB! Only it looks different than I thought it would. It doesn't really look like a cup. Instead, it's made of some weird soft glassy stuff that can be bent and battered but not broken. It is adorned with the following mysterious inscription:  DA SA NI . Maybe it's Latin? I've been saving it and the water I found in it under my bed for a time when I need to suddenly heal some German bullet wounds to my abdomen, but owing to my steely, chiseled abs this is a near-statistical impossibility.
9PM Something else. Like our recently held Poetry night, or a Blues Night concert performed by some of the students.  Movies and late night "study sessions" are also a common occurrence.
It is also party night in the city outside. There's often a wedding or party going on nearby, sometimes with live music. Also, fireworks. Lots and lots of fireworks. Loud ones. Like giant exploding chip bags in the sky.

SATURDAY--THE SABBATH
8 AM is breakfast. An entire hour late! So if we feel like sleeping in, we could be really lazy and sleep until, like, 7:45.
9 AM is choir. This can be rewarding or distinctly frustrating. Our choir director is great, but sometimes feels a little stressed since we're not where we need to be for our upcoming Christmas choir concert.
10 AM Sacrament meeting. As we have had the dubious honor of being the semester with lots of  construction on the center, for a long time we have been having sacrament in the Forum, which is occasionally reminiscent of a dungeon since it has stone walls, no windows, and I spend a majority of my class time in there. We've recently been able to go back to the Auditorium on the top level, used for church and performances of different sorts. It has very large windows and an incredible view. We look out over the Old City, Temple Mount and the Garden Gethsemane during the whole shebang, so occasionally I become distracted.
11 AM Sunday School. I am a primary teacher and teach the 8 and 9 year old boys. Although I easily weigh more than each of my students combined, I would fear being overpowered and destroyed each Sabbath if it weren't for my trusty co-teacher, Michael. Using an elaborate system of glares, compliments, push-up sessions, origami instruction, the Standard Works of the scriptures and yes--bribes of chocolate--we have obtained an uneasy peace. Did I mention there's only three of them?
12 PM Primary. Uneasy peace? Never mind. We tried, Father. We tried. Curse the six-fingered man.
1PM Home teaching, naps, scripture study, journals, and going to things like the Garden of Gethsemane or the Garden Tomb.  I will go into the city but sometimes find it more useful to stay in the Center and consider the mysteries of life, such as why it is taking so long to become--
4 PM, Dinnertime. If you were to ask any student the obvious significance of dinner becomes clear, for 'tis on the Sabbath we have house-made ice cream. Like, they make it in the kitchen or teleport it in from the Dimension of Delicious. Today was coconut ice cream. It was almost as good as the stuff Uncle Doyle makes--but not quite. Alas.
7 PM-infinity Choir Practice Deja Vu--the time stretches on interminably as years come and go but we do not change. Perhaps Christmas songs could be used as an interesting way to induce stasis on long interstellar space voyages in the future. I'll have to get on that.
8 PM-- Once we have escaped the strange time-inconsistency loop presented by choir,  (P.S. we're going to be nothing short of awesome for the upcoming Christmas concert), the men of the center convene on a weekly basis. Our meeting goes by many names: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the Jedi Council, Fight Club, the Gymnasium, the Council of Elrond, The Moonlighters, the Dead Poets Society---no one's ever come up with the perfect name, but we men gather and commiserate on such thorny topics as dating (gasp!) and whether it's acceptable to eat your roommate's pizza whilst he reposes in the bathroom. He abandoned it, right?

SUNDAY  
Because the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday, we celebrate it on Saturday because doing it on Sunday just doesn't work here, and that's what was decided some time ago. Interesting side note, Friday is the Sabbath day in Jordan, keeping with the Muslim majority of things. I'll explain more about it sometime. Maybe.
Sunday is therefore the Saturday where we have all day to do cool things like homework. And also go into the city.
8 PM Concerts in the Auditorium--Renowned Israeli and international performance artists come and perform at the center. This has been a huge part of the Jerusalem center ever since it closed in 2004 with the advent of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising. From the years of 2004-2007, it was maybe the one thing that kept the Center open for operation in the absence of students. I haven't been to each of them, but they are consistently good and very interesting.

So that's a week in the center. We are done with our Hebrew, Jewish Civ and Palestine classes now, leaving just a couple to allow us to focus on those classes and also on this amazing place. You can now tell your cat that it owes you a Bavarian cream donut. I had a bet with it. It said you'd never make it this far, but I thought otherwise and we made ourselves a little bet. Your persistence is to be rewarded. Don't take no for an answer! Good thing you didn't lose--I have no idea where you'd find that much catnip. Oregon, maybe. Now go look into some ways to regrow that luscious arm hair.

The Onion Church (Annie)

This week has been a blast, because there isn't much homework or class so we have a lot of free time. I've been going out to the city a lot and also hanging out with my peeps here at the center. Yesterday we went to the Russian Orthodox Church or as we call it the Onion Church, for it's golden onion-shaped roofs. They're unmistakable from all around Jerusalem. I've been trying to go there for a while and the grounds were beautiful! We had to wear skirts and a scarf for respect. I also went to the Shuk, which is an open-air Jewish market in West Jerusalem. It has all sorts of food there, such as dried fruit and bread and pomegranates and gummies. We went on Thursday night, which is a bit different because it's the last day before Sabbath so they have challah bread there, which is a special bread that that Jews eat on the Sabbath, as well as all sorts of special yummy pastries. I got some challah bread and some dried strawberries (dried strawberries are SO GOOD. They're like candy.). I have the recipe for challah bread, so I'll make some when we get back. 

On Monday we went on a Kotel Tunnel Field trip, which are tunnels underneath the Muslim quarter of the Old City that border the western wall. It runs along the entire length of the western wall. Part of the wall is made of a HUGE stone, called the Western Stone, which one of the biggest building blocks in the world. It weights 570 tons and is 45 feet long, 9 feet high, and about 11 feet thick. The thing is HUGE, and they don't know how the original workers moved it, it's so massive. One of life's mysteries, I guess.

The weather has been getting colder here. Instead of 80's and 90's we are getting 60's and 70's, and we even have been getting a little rain! We also picked olives on Tuesday and Friday, so that we can press it and make olive oil! I'm pretty sure we're going to do that next week. It's going to be so fun. I've learned all about the process of making oil, so it will be really cool to actually make some. SO PSYCHED.

One week til Galilee! I can hardly believe it. Everyone says Galilee is one of the most amazing parts of the program so I am really looking forward to it! 

Passover! (Annie)

This post has been in the works for weeks, and I've decided it's definitely time that it sees the light of day.

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to have an authentic Passover (Seder) dinner here at the JC! It's kind of funny because Passover isn't for another half of a year, but they have one here every semester anyway so that the students can experience it. Other than the date, though, it was all pretty legitimate.

Our Israel teacher, Ophir, set up and delegated the entire dinner and lead it tonight. He came with his little daughter and explained to us the significance of everything and read the words in Hebrew and, for some parts, Aramaic. We started off with a specially designed Seder plate that held romaine lettuce, an egg, parsley, etc. We ate these throughout the dinner and they all represent different things in the story of the Exodus. For example, bitter herbs represented the bitterness of the bondage of the Israelites under the Egyptians, the parsley represents springtime, and I never really figured out what the egg represented. We also read through a book provided for us that the Jews read through (in Hebrew) during the Seder meal each year. There is a certain order to and way to do everything, which is very typical of Jews, and it was pretty exciting to experience that. It took a long time to go through the entire dinner, but it was worth it!

Oh yeah, we also drank grape juice during the meal and afterwards Neil and Nicole and I got a little bit crazy and started picking up grape juice bottles from random tables and drinking them and pretending we were drunk...it was a BLAST!

Bethlehem Field Trip

Yesterday we went into West Bank to see Bethlehem. We won't get to go to Bethlehem again so we had to make the most of it. We saw the Church of the Nativity, a church that houses three different religions that have three different services and three different Christmases. It is traditionally held that this church is the is built over the cave where Christ was born. We waited in line for at least an hour and were finally able to get down below where you can stick your hand in through a hole where the cave is underneath while somebody takes a picture of you. Afterwards we went down into tunnels underneath the church and had a devotional and sang a few hymns. We were singing Christmas songs all day! It's the beginning of November and I love it! I'm definitely not one of those people who will only sing Christmas songs after Thanksgiving--I sing them all year long, because I love Christmas so much! So I don't mind that we're starting Christmas season early here, it just gives us more time to enjoy the holiday.

Waiting to get into the Church of the Nativity

Afterwards we went to the shepherd's fields by Bethlehem. There we sang more hymns and then had quiet time by ourselves, where I tried to imagine what it might've been like for the shepherds in the fields in the story of Christ's birth. We were sitting there, in the fields where shepherds are still watching their flocks to this day, between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, reading about the birth of our Savior. It was a surreal experience.

At the shepherd's fields

 We also went to the Herodion, which is a fortress that Herod built a few miles away from Jerusalem because he was intensely paranoid. At the bottom of the hill is a luxurious royal leisure complex and at the top is a fortress. Interestingly  Herod also had a mausoleum built here because he feared no one would take care of his funeral arrangements, so he took care of them himself. Someone later came and completely destroyed the mausoleum--Herod's subjects hated him. The palace and fortress are both enormous and a web of caves and cisterns dug into the hill. It was a lot of fun to explore.

Neil in front of the main tower in the Herodion

We also got to see a little bit of Bethlehem at the end of the day. We didn't have much time because it took so much time in the Church of the Nativity, but during the last ten minutes we practically sprinted around Bethlehem trying to absorb as much as we could at once. Bethlehem looks a lot like the Old City in Jerusalem which I found very interesting. It was a great run-through and hopefully some day I'll get to come back and see it again.

Funny picture of the day: Neil's food baby!

Jordan (Shawn)

So about Jordan. The first day we went to Mt. Nebo. I saw there how small of an area we are in because we could see where Jerusalem and Jericho were, while in Jordan. We went to a church in Madaba with an old mosaic and paintings. We then drove down to Petra. In Petra I climbed up like three mountains which was fun. It is a very dry mountainous sandstone desert. There are MANY tombs carved into these mountains and canyons. Very picturesque. I also rode a camel which was very exciting. I dared my friend, Machenzie, to kiss it which she did. (She also put a tarantula in Neil's bed. She sure is a good friend). I then tried to kiss the camel but was rejected. It growled at me. It apparently only had room for Machenzie in its life. 

   The next day we were in Amman, there and later Jerash. Jersash is very restored which made it pretty fun. That night in Amman I went out with Neil, Annie, and a friend, Hailey, to go talk to people. I used my missionary skills to get us into a Filipino house (there were a lot of them in Jordan) where we talked and they gave us food. We then got into a Jordanian house which was a little more difficult because they did not speak English. They served us coffee, and we spent the next half hour or so teaching them English words while we taught them Arabic words. The sixty year old man held my hand for a while. Apparently that is a Jordanian thing.

Our second night in Jordan I then took out a couple more girls and Annie to get into a house. We got into another Filipino house and talked with them about why they were in Jordan. We had a good time talking with them. They didn't like Jordanians too much. Later that night Neil's friend, David who is studying Arabic in Amman with BYU picked us up and took us to one of the market places. A very nice guy. The next day we packed up and went to the river Jordan and had a devotional there. We then spent many hours at the border waiting to go through. After that we returned to the Jerusalem center where I did homework.

     Interesting things about Jordan. A pretty varied group of people. You have some people who dress Western style. You also have a lot of conservative people who dress Arab style. I saw quite a few ladies in black who had their faces completely covered. The guys where what looks like a dress with a handkerchief for a hat. What  I thought was super cool were the Bedouin. There are a lot of them out in the countryside, or better said, desert. They live in tents made out of goat and camel hair. It's crazy. They are just out in the desert with sand and goats living in tents. It was pretty fun. Thanks mom,

   -Shawn

Jordan (Annie)

Jordan in brief: a small, oddly-shaped country dominated by desert landscapes and awesome rocks. And it looks a lot like Nevada and southern Utah. I'll admit that to the world (coughcoughEthancough). But really, it was amazing how similar it sometimes is here to the landscapes back home. It always surprises me.

We started out our lovely trip with a trip to Mount Nebo, which is near where Moses and Elijah were translated. Unfortunately we could not see much, as it was very smoggy, but if we had been able to see we would've seen the Dead Sea, Jericho, and the mountains across the valley in the Holy Land. Then we went to Madaba and saw a mosaic map that is the earliest known depiction of the Holy Land. It was REALLY cool, because looking at the map you were able to see a little bit how the map-makers viewed the Holy Land in regards to what they thought was important, what cities they chose to include and the pictures they depicted. Unfortunately a lot of the map was damaged, so there are big chunks of it missing, but we can see a lot of ancient Israel in the rest. It was really intriguing.

That was it for Day One of our Jordan trip. Day Two was the most FANTASTIC DAY EVER! In other words, Petra! Petra in short is a city built by the Nabateans, a trading tribe in ancient times. Petra is located in red-rock slot canyons in the middle of the Jordanian desert. It looks a lot like St. George. Alison and Ethan would LOVE Petra. It was beautiful. The treasury is the first things you see when you walk out of the canyon. It is amazing, but it doesn't even compare to the massive monastery carved into the stone an hour's hike away. The monastery was amazing! The thing was huge. Definitely worth the hike up there. Next Neil, Shawn, Nicole and I hiked up to the high place, which is where the Nabateans sacrificed people on an altar up there. The altar itself wasn't that special, but the hike up was GORGEOUS! The steps were carved into the mountainside, and every time you turned a corner there was another spectacular view. It felt so good to hike--it's been a while since I have done that! At various points during the day all of us rode camels. Camels are smelly and dirty and covered in flies but it is fun to ride them because you are very high in the air and just lurch around up there while people laugh at you down below. After a solid eight hours of walking and hiking around Petra we headed out of Petra, but I definitely want to come again someday. It was a ton of fun.

In front of the Treasury

First glimpse of the Treasury through the slot canyon.

After Petra we drove up to Amman, the capitol of Jordan. After we got to the hotel Shawn was itching to get out, so he, Neil, our friend Hailey and I all headed out into the city to see if we could meet anybody, and we did! We met a pair of women from the Philippines who are working in Jordan, and they invited us into our home, fed us, and were happy to talk to us! After we visited with them we left and headed down the road, where a Jordanian family was chilling on their porch. Although we don't speak Arabic and they didn't speak English, we started talking with each other and then they invited us into their home as well, where Shawn showed off his surprising charisma and charmed his way into their hearts. Shawn is really funny! We learned a bit of Arabic and Shawn played thumb wars with the grandpa of the family, Ali. By the end of the night the family had decided to adopt Shawn and informed us that we could leave him there and go.


Day Three, Halloween! We celebrated Halloween a few days before (more on that to come) but that was fine. What we got was much better than candy. We went first to the citadel, which was a city of ruins in the middle of Amman. There was a little museum attached to it that had a lot of really amazing artifacts in it, including a human figurine dating back to 6500 B.C. It is the first known figurine of a human--at least I think that's what Stratford said. Then somebody said, "But Professor Stratford, that's before Adam and Eve!" And Stratford replied, "This was when God was practicing making humans." Then my lovely friend Alyssa said, "Good thing it was practice." SO GOOD! I love everybody here.

Next we went to the Jabbok River, and then Jerash, which is a large ancient Greco-Roman city. It included two theaters, a temple to Artemis, a temple to Zeus, and a lot of columns. It was just like Hercules! Not that I base my real-life experiences off of Disney movies or anything...

Next up was the Royal Automobile Museum, where we saw cars. They were very shiny. I'm not a car person, so I couldn't tell you much more than that. This museum was wasted on me.

This is a Ferrari

That night we went out and met another Philippine woman, and we talked with her and her roommates for a little while and now we are Facebook friends! Who would have ever thought?

Day Four: Last day! So sad. First we saw a Roman theater and Odeon, which basically were a large theater and a small one. Theaters are always fun because of all the exciting acoustic things you can do in them. Next we went to Bethany beyond Jordan, where Jesus Christ was baptized. We went to a platform on the side of the Jordan River and dipped our feet in. It was incredible to see it, and fortunately we'll see the River Jordan again in a few weeks when we go to Jordan. We had a devotional here and said our last farewell to the beautiful country of Jordan.

We then headed to the border, which ultimately took four hours to get through. This was because we had to sit for hours while they searched every one of our bags. And then they lost one and it took another hour to find it. Finally, at long last, we got home.

 "It was like a mix of every wonderful thing I've ever seen in my life." -Hannah Perry, a student here.

Mackenzie found this spider and put it on Neil's bed. Neil was delighted.

Catching Up

The Reeds in reeds! 

I've missed quite a few things as time has progressed because I've been so busy, so I'm going to do my best to catch up. Today will be a little bit chaotic as I try to go over everything! But it will be fun, not to worry.

Last Friday we did Arab night! This is the context of the picture of Shawn that Alison put up a few days ago. We did Passover (more to come on that) one night and then we did Arab night about a month later! We got to dress up in all of our Arab attire, which mostly consisted of scarves and genie pants for the women and kafiyas for men. Some of the students actually rented clothes for the night and genuinely looked like Arabs. My friend Rachel Pullan wore a dress and headscarf and everything and when she walked in I was shocked! She could've been one of the women we see on the streets of Jerusalem! It was really cool. We ate traditional Arab dishes, took pictures and learned an Arab dance. But the BEST part was before, where we got to hear the call to prayer by men who recite it from the mosques in Jerusalem! They came to to the center and recited a passage for us, and we had a copy of the passage they were reciting, a transliteration, and a translation so that we actually knew what they were saying (for once). One of the men who came had memorized the Koran by the time he was nine! It's amazing! They also showed us how they pray and answered questions that we had about the call to prayer and Islam in general. That's one of the things I love about Jerusalem--five times a day you hear the call to prayer ring out from at least three different mosques across the city and it is stunning. I'll miss it when I leave the Holy Land.

On Monday we went on a field trip to Neot Kedumin, which is a Biblical landscape reserve where you can see, hear, smell, touch, and taste the Bible (as our tour guide informed us)! Our tour guide was insisted that the Bible cannot be learned in a classroom, but rather outside in the landscape it is set in. While I don't that a Biblical reserve is the only place one can learn about the Bible, it certainly was extremely enlightening about a lot of the cultural and social backgrounds of the Bible. We saw what the landscape most likely looked like throughout the park--hilly, lots of trees, brown grass. Apparently the Holy Land was covered with thick forest originally but was cut down for construction and the like. We were able to "touch" and certainly "smell" the Bible when we herded sheep. We divided into groups and herded them, and my group was a bit pathetic. We couldn't for the life of us get them to move anywhere, and I'm sure everyone watching was laughing their heads off. I was laughing my head off, too, because it was so ridiculous how bad we were at sheep-herding. I suppose we "heard" the Bible with the birds and animals and everything. There were a couple of horses that were wandering around this field, and the guide informed us that the horses had wandered into the reserve within the last month and they didn't know who the horses belonged too. It was amusing because as the horses walked around there was this lone sheep that followed them around and grazed with them. It was their little sheep friend! Then for lunch we made pita bread and lentil soup and herbal tea! I have to admit this was my favorite part. We built a fire and made the dough for the pitas, then cooked them over the fire. I was red-faced within minutes, because it was so hot! As if it's not hot enough already here in the Holy Land (though the weather has cooled off significantly since we've been here). Our pitas didn't look anything like the ones you get at the pita factory but I think they were tastier, which might have had something to do with the fact that we put date honey in ours. Date honey, for the record, is super tasty!  Love that.

We also saw an olive press and the boys showed off their manliness for us:

We also got to see a Torah scroll up close for the first time. Our guides took us to see a scribe who was working on a copy of the Torah and we got to see the process of making one. Writing a Torah takes years so the actual scrolls are really expensive, and they're big! I'm so glad we got to see one!

Now I'm going to go back in time a little bit (a month or so) to the road to from Jerusalem to Jericho. Now, most of us know this road from the Good Samaritan story that Jesus tells in the New Testament. I've heard the story a thousand times, watched the cartoons the Church made about it, and studied it often. But the story came alive when I saw the valley. The landscape was a desert--desolate, rocky, with no plants or trees or anything. And it was hot and when I looked down on the road I could see places where thieves could hide. The road is abandoned now, obviously, as other roads have been built. But I think it would be really cool to do a trek-like trip on it, where we walk from Jerusalem to Jericho just to see what it is like. It's too bad they don't do treks here!

Slowly and steadily I will get caught up! And maybe I'll even get Shawn and Neil to post something on the blog--we can always do with another post on fruit and badgers. Or when Shawn just tells it like it is. One of the things I love about Shawn is his bluntness--well, most of the time anyway.

I hear it snowed back at home in Salt Lake! I love it here, but one of the things I am so excited for is the snow! It doesn't snow in Jerusalem and if it does it lasts a few hours before it's gone. It snowed last year here. What I'm waiting for is rain! We need to harvest the olives! We need a good rainstorm soon!

Neil: Rabies Day 2012

          Each day has the potential to be awesome. So does each dog. I have discovered, however, in my interactions with both dogs and days (including the dog days of summer) that they both have the potential to become infused with infectious enthusiasm--or just an infectious disease.

           Such was today. I first discovered World Rabies Day when a friend of a friend who had a dog bite incident in Honduras—the friend of mine, not her friend who wasn't in Honduras, mind you, and she didn't bite the dog first, it was an old fashioned Western Saloon standoff—this is getting confusing.

          Scratch that. Take Two. A dear friend of mine was bitten by a dog in Honduras last summer, and she knew I had a thing for rabies, if not the actual virus (The jury is still out on this one.) She told me of a wondrous day where all things Rabies were celebrated. World Rabies Day...the words simply slide off the teeth like infected saliva...If you're still reading, I salute you. Your attention span suggests you don't have it, either. WRD is actually an awareness holiday to let people know about the importance of continuing to vaccinate animals worldwide, as 55,000 fatalities occur every year because of rabies.

        Last year on September 28, I celebrated WRD at BYU in grand fashion, strapping a coonskin cap to my head and taping a sign to my chest that stated “ 'Tis World Rabies Day!” I then proceeded to run around campus all day with the goal to share the joy, sharing actual statistics with people who took me seriously and advising all others to “catch the spirit of the season, not the disease.” Hundreds were educated that day, and I like to think that someone eyed the bushes in their front yard suspiciously that night, convinced a rabid foe lay hungrily wait.

        I thought not any Rabies Day could top that first momentous celebration of life and the prevention of its loss by infected furry friends. I thought wrong.

         5:30 AM I awoke as happy as most people are on Christmas, or as happy as Scrooge is on December 26^th. I stepped outside to exclaim with joy as I saw the Great Rabid Bat in the Sky (brings rabies-themed gifts to all the uninfected good girls and boys, but it's got a low budget and can't usually bring more than dead bugs to people, so next time you find a dead dragonfly on the porch, feel honored) had deigned to visit my doorstep. It was adorned with crepe paper, snarling mammals and a sign that said “Happy World Rabies Day!” I knew it was to be a truly awesome day. A similar sign had been taped up to the banister in the main stairway to share the message with all. Breakfast was good. I was just exclaiming my joy on this lovely holiday to some people at my table when they casually mentioned that maybe Lizzie of our group was rabid, too. I laughed at this seemingly irrelevant comment when suddenly I felt a sharp pressure on my right shoulder and turned to find Lizzie's teeth in retreat from my freshly wounded arm.

          “Bah!” I exclaimed. I then teared up. What a beautiful holiday greeting! I thanked her and Lizzie smiled back. She has beautiful teeth and a great smile. More so when they aren't sunken into my deltoid. I reached out to give her a hug. As she came in, her shoulder came within easy reach of my canines. I instantly seized my chance and bit the unsuspecting Lizzie in one fluid motion. Rabies had struck again.

I set this as the background on the Center computers as a friendly reminder.

         The day continued in glory. Trying to share the love, I changed the background of each of the computers in the lab with the attached picture, once again advising them to “catch the spirit of the season, not the disease.” Shawn took this sublime message to heart and mouth. A shocked gasp and then laughter met Shawn as he walked into Old Testament, jowls covered in rabid foam—er, shaving cream. During the class, our teacher would take a comment or question from Shawn and momentarily lose concentration before returning to the subject at hand.

          When it came time for our next class, Studies of the Ancient Near East, I felt inspired. Shawn, Nicole Hawkes, and I all smeared our jaws with shaving cream to get in the festive mood. When our professor saw we were already entering the advanced stages of the disease, he could only shake his head in disbelief and tell us of the cause of the Egyptian New Kingdom's fall. No, it wasn't rabies.

         In the evening, we had dinner. I watched people flagrantly defy the spirit of the day by feeding stray cats, but my rage was placated by the awesome fried bananas at the salad bar. Later on, we had a “Pin the Eye on the 'Coon” contest (I had an Evil Eye magnet from Turkey) and a tropical fruit party. This, because if I knew I had rabies and only had a little while to eat and live, I'd be eating tropical fruit. We chose persimmons and passionfruit.

          Yet the best part was still to come. Through the wonderful mechanism of social action known as Peer Pressure, four rabid fans of the Day-- Mackenzie, Nicole, Shawn, and I slathered some shaving cream 'round the jaws and set off to visit Lizzie again. We found her cuddling and watching a movie in the theater-like forum, but even PDA couldn't save her now. I set the bite to the arm, and for a moment the day's festivities seemed to be over. BUT THEN--

          Andrew, who is charismatic, hilarious, and tall, sees the deed take place. Without hesitation, he leaps to his feet and sprinted out of the room. At that moment, our predator instincts kick in as our eyes hungrily follow our departing prey. We give chase, howling and snarling as we rushed through the narrow halls leading out of the forum. We were fast, but Andrew was faster. He ran so fast that the girl sitting on the couch outside conveniently “couldn't remember” which way he went. There was no sign of him. How could this happen? Howling with mock rage, we sought him out across the different levels and hiding places of the center, seeking our prey. During the chase, we took a consolation prize—virtually every human being in the center that unluckily stumbled across our path. Surprised and disbelieving, few withstood our pack of frothy jaws for long. It was lucky so many people were in their rooms by this point (Annie included) for we showed little mercy. The entire laundry room fell, as did the stairwells. Nicole and Shawn went for my roommate Jacob, who was having his hair cut at the time. Bad idea—the man's arms were covered with loose hair which went straight into their mouths. Few joined us after they'd been bit. I figured as much, the infection usually took about 9 days to set in.

          We kept searching, but we never did find Andrew. All this time, he had hidden in a room we'd simply overlooked in our frenzy. He had recruited people loyal his cause to hide him. They never did tell us his location, and he was saved from certain infection. Over fifteen minutes he waited in the dark for the chance to escape to his room, which finally presented itself when we overran the laundry room.

        By the time our biting rampage was over, maybe more than fifteen people had “perished,” and we considered that the Ghosts of Rabies Past, Present and Future had been appeased, if such things existed. And so we called it a night, and anxiously began anew the countdown to the next World Rabies Day, just a mere 364 days away.