(Ashley) WARNING: Contents contain much detail and require long time to read!

Tuesday Aug 28
            After saying goodbye and continuing the progression of getting to the correct gate, the Reed’s and I met Steisha.  I quickly learned she is also a returned missionary and she served in Croatia.  She is very energetic and the type of person with whom I find it easy to exchange humor with.  She is also one of those super bubbly people (a bit like Sora McKnight) who is happy to meet everyone.  There were some fresh Elders behind us in line and she was so (and almost embarrassingly) excited to talk to them.  She was also the perfect person to have around when having hang-ups at security.  In SLC, I got the pat down treatment.  “What’s in your pocket?” “Um, nothing? Oh, feminine supplies.”  “Take them out and wave them in the air!”  Yikes.  And then in JFK, “Don’t put that in!  Don’t take that out!  Empty your pockets!  (I was ready for that one!) Quick, quick!  Take off the belt!”  AHHH, those people were intense!  But fun to laugh about once you got through OK and with all of your stuff.
            The plane ride to JFK had nothing really special to remember.  It just happened.  Oh, something I found strange though.  I remember not feeling too fondly about flying from our trip to Europe last summer.  Something about the way my stomach dropped during takeoff and landing during that trip just seemed so unfavorable.  Oddly, I experienced no such sensations during this trip.

Wednesday Aug 29
            Morning came after a few hours of sleep.  Actually, I tried to follow the pattern of the sun during the plane ride (so it wasn’t actually morning according to my body.)  While it was difficult to fall sleep, I tried to relax my muscles and slow my breathing and rest my eyes.  It wasn’t the most satisfying sleep I’ve experienced but I slept for some hours; definitely more than most.  We arrived in the Ben Gurion airport around 2:00 in the afternoon.  After collecting our baggage from the carousels we were met by some members of the faculty at the JC (I have no idea which ones, but I assume Brothers Judd and Schade.)  We loaded into buses and they took us up to Jerusalem.  I found it interesting to watch the change of vegetation as we increased in elevation, from the coastal plains to the hills of Judea.  Some of the vegetation seemed so familiar, but not quite.  Interestingly, Jerusalem is about 2,500 feet higher than the airport. 
            Immediately upon arriving at the JC, we were given some refreshments and greeted by the people living here.  Three of our teachers and their families.  Yep, families.  There are 13 children here ranging from 17 to about 3.  There are 2-3 mature couples serving here as well and we met them.  And Brother and Sister Jackson who are administers.  Then, we were shuttled into the large auditorium where the grand piano and beautiful organ are located.  As you enter the room, the seats face a glass wall overlooking Jerusalem.  Since the JC is on the outskirts of East Jerusalem, we get a beautiful view of some Arab neighborhoods in the near foreground and the old city in the farther foreground.  The Dome of the Rock is easily visible as well as parts of the wall.  It was in this setting that we were given our first debriefing on everything. 
            Once they decided we’d been supersaturated with information, we split into smaller groups to tour the Center.  Naturally I forgot where everything was, except for the gym of course;) Once that was accomplished, we carried our luggage down many flights of stairs (the JC is built on the side of Mount Scopus and so the building follows the lay of the land.  There are 8 floors and lots of stairs.  I’ll count them tomorrow if I remember, 111 between the 3^rd and 8^th floors   ) and began to unpack.  We didn’t get very far because dinner started 20 minutes later and after eating only a weird breakfast pocket thing in the plane, we were ready to eat!  (Course I wanted to chuck my plateful of delicious ethnic food at the ridiculous girls sitting at my table who refused to eat anything but salad because they had heard that people gain weight at the JC and they weren’t going to ruin their figure more that it was already ruined by the dress code they pretend to live by, but I refrained myself, that would waste my plateful of yumminess!  For the record, I have lost 2 pounds in the 2 days we’ve been here.  Can’t figure out what they’re worried about.) 
            After dinner, we met with our Old Testament teachers and our Near Eastern History teachers.  The eighty of us are split into 2 groups to make certain field trips easier.  I was in a group with. . . no one I knew.  I noticed that people who were here with their siblings had been kept in the same group and after my teacher mentioned that we spend lots of time with this group and tend to get particularly close, I felt a bit left out that I wasn’t with Neil, Annie, and Shawn.  Furthermore, I happened to notice that I was also with many of the previously mentioned girls who narrowly dodged a face-full of food and who I may not have such a high opinion of.  But that wasn’t the main reason, truly.  I talked to the director of administrations, Brother Jackson.  He was really nice and surprised me by knowing my name as I approached him and asked me about my Romanian.  Wow!  I’d never spoken to him before.  He said he understood how I’d want to be in the same group as my cousins and he would look into the possibility of making the change.  He also told me there is a member of the branch who is from Moldova and her native language is Romanian.  Truly!  I can’t wait for Sunday when I can talk to her!!!! Hope my Romanian is up to it!
            In our Near Eastern Studies class our teachers scared the pants off us all by informing us that we have our first test in a week AND that we have a massive reading assignment to be completed by Friday morning.  This was not the news you want to be hearing when fighting exhaustion/jetlag/new milieu.  As you can imagine, instead of heading to bed after class, several amongst us scurried off to the library to get started.  Me, I went to the gym.  And then dropped into bed.


Thursday Aug 30
            I awoke after the greatest night sleep, feeling wonderfully refreshed, stretched and looked at my watch, 1:30 AM.  Not a great night’s sleep.  I convinced myself to fall back asleep.  I awoke once again at 4:50 with the Muslim call to prayer serenading the still morning air.  The Islamic faith is based of the 5 Pillar of Faith.  One of these pillars is prayer.  Required individual prayers are said 5 times a day: at dawn, noon (when the sun is at the center of the sky), afternoon (when the sun is halfway to sunset), sunset, and night (after sunset but before sunrise.) So this was the night summons.  It is crazy to me that people actually get up at this hour to pray!  And they do it every day! That is deep devotion, if you ask me.  Anyway, this time there was no going back to sleep so at 5:15 I arose and went to the gym.  Annie came with me.  Unsurprisingly, we were the only ones there. 
            After breakfast we went on our Orientation Walk.  Cameras were NOT allowed on this field trip and I am glad.  We were able to take in the lay of the city, and the feel too.  We made quick stops at many places, like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (where some feel is the site of Christ’s crucifixion, burial, and resurrection), the Garden Tomb (another potential burial/resurrection spot), Jaffa and Herod’s Gate, Damascus Gate, Via Dolorosa (tradition state this is the path Christ took to Calvary, there are 14 stops where specific events happened.  We actually saw a group of Italians carrying a wooden cross, singing, and tracing the route on pilgrimage.)  Of course, we didn’t take the time to talk much about these sites, or go in.  Mostly just acclimated to location and where we are. 
            After lunch, we had another orientation.  Honestly, I can’t tell you what all about.  None of it felt new, I think I have heard all these things a bunch of times and my head was drooping.  However, that lasted until dinner.  Actually, I don’t think it did.  I must have used some of that time to study. 
            Later in the evening we had a get to know you activity.  We played a get to know you game that I have played numerous times and got a bit bored. Oops.  I made friends with the oldest daughter of one of my professors.  Her name is Megan.  She is 17 and this is her senior year.  Her family spent the year in Jerusalem 2 years ago.  I asked her how she felt spending her senior year in Jerusalem; she has mixed feelings but she wasn’t excited initially.  On the way out of the activity, I bumped into her younger sister.  In class, her father described her as being Merida’s (from Brave) twin.  She has long, curly red hair and a personality.  I had to tell her, I’m sorry but I can’t remember your name except that it could be Merida but it’s not.  She rolled her eyes and said, “You can’t believe how many times I’ve heard that.”  I informed her that her dad is to blame and told her what he had said in class and that she would be justified in taking her revenge.  We continued talking for quite a while after that and now I have a new friend, Carrie.  Carrie and Megan have 3 younger sisters who are absolutely adorable and have the personality to match and thus get lots of attention from the students.  Carrie and Megan, being teenagers, don’t so much.  I certainly enjoyed talking with them last night.

Friday Aug 31
            Once again I awoke early, enjoyed listening to the nightly call to prayers, and arose at 5:15 to work out.  There were more people at the gym and I couldn’t help but laugh (on the inside) as some of them are very obvious in their lack of knowledge of working out and consequently don’t stay around more than 20 minutes.  Now, just in case you feel that isn’t fair, I only laughed at guys who acted like they knew a lot but really didn’t know anything because they were putting on such a show.   
            After breakfast, the classes started for real.  O.T. started with a pop quiz that included the questions: who were Abraham’s brothers?  Who was Milcah and who did she marry?  And Who was Eliezer?  No joke.  If you know the answers, you are way more on top of this than I am, and you should take my place.  (Just so you know, Lot’s father doesn’t count for Ab.’s brother. And Milcah isn’t Saraiah’s maid.)  You should have seen the wide-eyed spooked look and felt the panic settle in the room as we attempted to make up answers to the questions.  Most fortunately (except for the kid who got all the questions correct) that quiz was deemed a practice quiz.  Class lasted for 2 hours and covered Biblical geography, the Abrahamic Covenant, and Circumcision, such a wide spread. 
            After that shellacking, we were lambasted in our Near Eastern Studies class with what is going to be on our test.  Practically the entire history of the world!!!!  Ok, not really that much, but lots of dates, lots of geography, and just lots.  We’re still getting over jetlag and it seems cruel but in reality I can tell that it is going to be for the best.  I will help us develop a lot of background knowledge that we probably don’t have that will help us get more from everything down the line.  It just seems like a lot (too much?) now. 
            Truthfully, I’m not as weighed down with it like so many others are, I can’t function like that.  My methods are tried and true. . .at least they work for me!
            I do believe that jetlag is catching up with me.  After going on a short walk to the walls this afternoon, I tried to do some reading for classes.  Although interesting, I kept nodding off.  Not even a mildly brisk wind could keep me awake.  That was at 8:00.  I have tried to stay away a bit longer so I won’t wake up way too early (tomorrow is the Sabbath and I won’t be working out at 5:15.)
            Tomorrow is the Sabbath!  And Fast Sabbath!  Church is going to be so interesting!  I am going to choir at 9:00.  Oh!  I learned today that there is going to be an opportunity to go to a Symphony.  There is a 23-year old girl who is playing a/the Chopin piano concerto.  And the conductor is some world-renowned guy (I haven’t heard of him).  It should be really good.  The concert isn’t for a while (9 Oct) but I said I was interested in tickets.  Hopefully some in the group will want to go otherwise I will be going with just the (very) mature couple.

Sabbath (Saturday) Sept 1
            In the grand hall that I mentioned earlier we have Sacrament Meeting.  There is a 9-foot shiny black Steinway in there.  I really want to play that piano.  I think it would be so fun to play the song The Holy City with all of its dramatic glory in front of those large, glass windows overlooking the Holy City.  We aren’t allowed to play on it except for special performances so I’m gonna have to find group of people to sing the song so I can accompany them or work something out.
            The hour before church we have choir practice.  We learned a new song and we sounded really quite good.  We sang it as a prelude song. 
            Just before the meeting started I met the Moldovan lady.  I got less than 2 minutes into the conversation when we were interrupted by two guys who speak Russian and who were also very excited to talk to her.  I’m sure there will be much more time to converse.
            After church we walked as a large group to the Garden of Gethsemane.  Although it really isn’t that far from us, just across the hill (or the hill next to ours) we had to walk down the hill, around, and then back up the other hill so we wouldn’t pass through a sketchy neighborhood.  In reality, not a long walk at all, except for the heat of the day and weakness from fasting, but we were practically drenched in sweat when we got there.  TypicalJ  We walked around and met the 8 olive trees that legend has it stood as witnesses to Christ’s Atonement.  Most in the group sat in the shade to read and wrote in their journals. 
            Annie and I left before most of the group and when we got back to our rooms, we collapsed on our beds, a puddle of sweat.  Annie started reading me a story from her Brothers Grimm book and I fell asleep.  All I remember is “and that’s how it is with the world, Amen.”  And that’s when I woke up.  Just in time for dinner.  And that takes us to now.