Tunnels! Synagogues! Olives! General Conference! (Annie)

Hey all! Now that Neil is finished editing my highly biased posts, I will get back to business here and relate what we all have been up to these past few days!

This last Friday I got to go to a synagogue with a group of students and our Israel teacher! I love going to the services of other religions, so I was really excited about it. We went to a Reform Jewish service. For those of you who aren't experts on Jews (I certainly wasn't before I came here), Reform Jews are the Jews who are more flexible with their worship and willing to adjust Jewish life to modern times. As a result their services were a little different than traditional Judaism, but still very interesting. The majority of the service was spent singing the Torah, we stood and faced the Temple Mount at a few points, and we got to see a lot of the native Jews. It was very interesting, especially since as students we don't get to see that particular side of the Jews very often. We see them on the streets and we talk to them, but we don't get to see them at home during the Sabbath or during their worship. So this was a great experience. I'm considering going to West Jerusalem again sometime on my own just to see a different congregation (is that what you call it?) and everything.

On Sunday we went on a field trip to the City of David, which is the part of Jerusalem that was set up by David (as the title implies) when he became king. It's just below the Temple Mount on the hill. We watched a video that I enjoyed because it showed what the hills of this area probably looked like before Jerusalem covered it, which is a bit crazy to see when I've lived here for a while and gotten used to how it is now. We saw what is suspected to be the foundations of David's palace and a few other buildings in the area. The best part, of course, was Hezekiah's tunnel. Back in the days of David when Jerusalem was being threatened by exterior powers David decided that it would be great to have a water source for the city that the enemies couldn't get to and poison. So he commissioned this tunnel deep in the hill, which I'm sure worked great back then. Now I think they keep it running for tourist entertainment purposes, and no wonder because it is awesome! There is water running through it and you basically walk inside this cramped tunnel for a half hour or so. IT WAS SO FUN!!!! I am definitely going to go back and do it again. It was dark and cool, which is nice in the heat of the day, and the fact that you're sloshing through water makes it even better! One of the guys in our group, Quin, laid down in the water so he was wet from head to toe. Neil was practically bent over halfway for most of the time because apparently people were shorter back then and they built it for their height. A few times we turned off our lights and walked in the dark. It was a BLAST.

General Conference was crazy! When President Monson announced the change in missionary ages at least a dozen girls dissolved into tears on the spot. Everyone wants to go on a mission! This last weekend was definitely historic. It's all very bewildering, in a good way.

Tuesday was Ashley's birthday! We didn't do much other than go to the Old City and have pizza. But we did put a candle in the pizza and sang happy birthday! And she got a brownie. So having a birthday was worth it.

This week we were supposed to pick the olives off the trees on our porches, which we eventually press into olive oil and get to take home, but we need a big rainstorm first. The rain washes all the yucky stuff off of the olives, so right now I'm dying for rain! Not only would it wash off the olives, but I also love the rain! It makes me think of the rain in Utah, which is very rare as well. One thing I can say for Utah rain--it doesn't rain hard or for long, but when it does rain it smells amazing.

Just a note: the date today is 10-11-12. Pretty cool.

Oct. 8 - Shawn

... On Monday we went to the Shephelah. We went to where David slew Goliath and slung stones from slings. We saw some cool chalk quarries. We went to Lachish and saw the siege ramp the Assyrian built in order to destroy take it over which they did. The Assyrians weren't too nice to their enemies. Today I went out with my Siblings. We went to tomb in a guys backyard and then went to the small Mosque close to the Jerusalem center. The Imam, or guy in charge of the Mosque was super nice and helpful. We watched them do their prayers. He talked about Islam. Here in the Jerusalem center we live in a secluded American bubble, so it was nice to get out and see what people do across the street. 

Homework and Jerusalem Center life (Ashley)

Yesterday was a significant day in my life. For the First Time Ever,
I’m pretty sure, I awoke up early in the morning without an alarm!!!!!
That’s right! I have been awaking at 5:15 so I can get a workout out
in before classes and stuff. For some reason, yesterday morning my
alarm didn’t go off. But it didn’t matter! I woke up anyway! For
anyone who knows how difficult mornings are for me, you know that is
saying something

Yesterday we had the “informal talent show.” Wow, it was the greatest
talent show I have even been to. There was a ton of variety and a ton
of talent. You know when you go to talent shows how there are usually
one or two or three acts that usually steal the show? In this talent
show, each act would have stolen the show in any other show. It was
great. There was a lot of support for each person who performed. It
was really awesome. Many performers mentioned they had never felt
such support from the audience before. It was really fun to be a part
of.

Well, we made it through our papers and tests this week. I was really
excited to get out in the city after our 6 hours of classes today, but
after Friday prayers at the mosques there were some disturbances near
temple mount so they decided to keep us in. These disturbances stem
from frustrations and tensions created by the Jewish holiday Sukkot
(Feast of the Tabernacles) that has been going on this week. People
have gotten frustrated with the road closures, increased traffic, and
celebrations. Added to that, there is a radical group who has tried
for the last 20 years to place the corner stone for the 3rd Jewish
temple on Temple Mount- harem es-sharif. Police monitor for them and
they haven’t succeeded but it increases to people’s tensions. Those
monitoring the situation are quite hopeful that it’ll pass over and
we’ll be fine to get out tomorrow. I have realized through these 2
days they have kept us in, the day most likely for that to happen is
Friday. That is the day the Muslim world gathers in the mosques for
prayers and thus chances increase that emotions will ignite.

I got into the city yesterday or the day before, I’m loosing track of
time. We explore West Jerusalem, the Jewish dominated section of the
city, and visited an ultra-orthodox neighborhood. These guys are the
ones who wear black pants, dress shirt, kippah, and peyote curls at
all times. They also wear really large, furry hats. That’s the men.
The women wear long-sleaved shirts and skirts at least to the ankle
with thick tights. A bit like a very frumpy sister missionary. I
guess this branch of Judaism could be related to the Amish. As I was
wandering around, we stumbled upon a little shop with handmade crafts.
This shop provides meaningful work for elderly Jewish refugees. It
was a pretty neat place.

Two days ago, we squished a showing of the Presidential Debate between
classes. I don’t pretend to be any reputable critic but it seemed to
me that Governor Romney made a good showing. I was also pleased that
there didn’t seem to be much mudslinging. I think a watched a portion
of a presidential debate when I was 18 but couldn’t stand to listen
for very long because of the mudslinging.

Tomorrow morning I am going to wake up at 4:00 so I can watch the
BYU/USU football game. This will be the first one I will be able to
watch all of it. I’m excited and hoping for a great game.

Have a told you what my chore is at the JC? I work at the Shekel
Shack, which is the student snack bar. We use the proceeds to create
and purchase t-shirts for the group. I wasn’t super excited at the
first, especially because two of the guys in my group created this
whole business model which I thought was totally going over the top.
Now though, I’m impressed with their efforts. One of their ideas was
to create Gold Member accounts where people could put their purchases
on a tab and pay that off at the end of the week. Kids have found
that super convenient and in my opinion has increased the business of
the shack. It is good for business; I’m not sure its benefits for
those looking to save money or avoid the snacks My part of it is to
pick up supplies (sometimes) and man the shack for a couple of hours
in the evening, about once a week. I call it Shekel Shack Slavery bc
most of the other chores people have last about 15 minutes a week.
But it’s OK. I like it because it gives me opportunity to interact
with other people. And I try to remember that when I don’t want to do
it;)
Well, that’s about all. Tonight I am watching Kung Fu Panda I and II
with the 17 year old daughter of one of the faculty members. I hope I
don’t fall asleep because that is a definite possibility! Have a
great Friday!

Field Trip Mania!!! (Annie)

     This weekend we went to all sorts of places and excursions and they were all fun so I will tell you about all of them! Sorry about the late post, this week has been extremely busy and I've been writing this post in my extra bits of time for a few days now.

    Friday all eighty of us headed over to the Western Wall to go to the beginning of Jewish Sabbath. Sabbath for the Jews starts at sundown Friday night and goes all through Saturday until an hour after sunset. The Western Wall is basically a kind of synagogue, so a lot of Jews go there to worship on the Sabbath. It was really fun to see Sabbath at the Western Wall. The Western Wall is divided into two sides, one for men and one for women. The men's side is a lot bigger than the women's side, and I have no idea why that is (and most of the Jews I've asked don't know either). Anyway, all the boys headed off to their side and the rest of us went down to the women's side. It was pretty funny to see the differences between the two sides. On the left side the men dance and sing and look like they're having a blast. On the right side the women pray and talk. The reason the two sides are so different is because the men lead the worship and the women follow, which makes sense to me. Personally I was just jealous of the men since it seemed like they were having a pretty great time over there. It was interesting to see everyone worship. We were stopped by a Jewish lady who heard us asking questions and asked if we wanted her help. It was very nice of her, and she answered a lot of our questions about Jewish Sabbath. Then at the end she invited us to go the Sabbath dinner with her at a famous Jewish rapper's house! I was like YES SIGN ME UP but we weren't allowed to go because we can't be in East Jerusalem after dark. Dang! But it was still pretty cool to be invited to something like that. Also, Neil totally looked like a Jew! He was wearing the right colors and kind of has the right coloring and everything so a lot of people mistook him for a Jew (until he started talking). Finally! Neil fits in somewhere!

     On Saturday after church we went to the Garden Tomb, which is where some Christians believe Christ was buried for three days after the crucifixion. It is relatively quiet and peaceful and a lot of people sing hymns while they are there, so it's generally a pretty nice atmosphere. However, whether it is actually Christ's tomb is debatable, since the tomb doesn't date to the first century. To me, though, that is not that important as much as actually thinking of the Savior there. We got a tour of the Garden from a British guy (all of the guides there are British for some reason), sang a few hymns, and saw inside the tomb. Seeing the tomb took a while, since only six people can fit in there at one time and around two hundred people were trying to get into it. It was a really nice Sabbath day activity and I'll probably go again sometime. Afterwards we walked home in our massive group of eighty people. I find it extremely amusing to walk around here because since we are so easily identifiable with our foreign features and extremely modest clothing, and all the time we get people calling things at us like, "Hey Mormon!," "I love you Mormon!" and "Hello! Hello! Hello!" (which children repeat over and over until they get some kind of response). I think it's kind of hilarious.

     Sunday we partied it up in Tel Aviv, which is the official capitol of Israel. Tel Aviv is right on the beach so we decided to take a beach trip and see the city a little bit as well. The beach was beautiful, and the water was amazingly warm! Shawn got really excited when we got to the beach, because we saw surfers in the water and he wanted to go surfing. So we find a surf rental place and rented two boards and went surfing for three hours in the Mediterranean Sea! It was really fun, even if Neil and I didn't exactly know what we were doing. We've all learned before in Hawaii, so it was just a matter of getting the hang of it. Afterward we finished surfing and playing at the beach we headed into Tel Aviv to see the city. They had one section of the city was obviously designed for tourists and was also deserted; apparently tourists don't like tourist traps. Neither did we. So we went into the "authentic" part of the city, and there we saw the real Tel Aviv. Believe it or not Tel Aviv is a real city! And it's just like any other city! And it's also super dirty and has lots of bad smells! After a few hours going around Tel Aviv lets just say I'm glad I'm living in Jerusalem and not Tel Aviv, even though it's right next to the Mediterranean Sea.

      On Monday we headed south for another field trip. In the southern part of the Holy Land there is a desert called the Negev where there are many Bible cities to see. It was also, shockingly enough, hot! I melted like nutella on hot pita bread the whole day. We saw Beersheva, which is a Bible location where Abraham received revelation from the Lord, built a well, and where the Israelites stopped before going into Canaan. However, the location we went to isn't the ancient Beer-sheba. The real Beer-sheba is where present-day Beersheva is located, a few miles away. Where we went was an important trading village along the Patriarchs Way, a few miles away from the current Beersheva. We saw the village and a lot of it has been restored so that it actually resembled a living place. We had to wear hard hats, which was a problem for me because I was also wearing my huge floppy hat and balancing both of them on my head was a challenge (the person behind me learned to catch my hard hat as it fell because it happened so often). We saw the city and how it pertained to the Bible and then we went into this enormous cistern inside the city walls. It was super deep because the city is built on a tell, which basically is an area where people destroy the previous settlement and build their's on top of it over and over again, making the area appear to be a tall hill. Some tells can have a lot of layers. We went down into the cistern, hence the need for hard hats, and made our way through the creepy underground tunnels to the exit.

     Afterwards we went to Arad, which is an ancient Canaanite city from the Early Bronze Age. There is also an Israelite Temple located in the upper part of the city. The city dates to at least 2400 B.C., so it is at least 4,400 years old. Can you imagine anything that old? It is mind-blowing! It was almost surreal being there and seeing everything. That's another amazing thing about Israel: civilizations were born here, and the history is rich, complex and old. There's always something else to add to the history, something new to discover, something more to learn. It's like stepping into ancient times for just a moment.

     So I'm going to finally finish this post up! I'm going to Turkey on Sunday (SO excited) and next week I will not have internet access, but expect a nice long account of our Turkey trip on the way back! Before I leave I'll try to get some pictures up. Have a fantabulous day!

Hi I'm a blog post from Anniekins!

     Good evening! Just thought I'd check in here really fast before I study for my Near Eastern Studies test.  Yep, our professor decided to give us a test the first week here. Thanks, Prof. I don't think it should be too hard, but I will be studying for a few hours anyway.

     Weekends are a bit confusing for me, because everything is switched around. In the States Saturday is an off day and Sunday is the Sabbath. Here Saturday is the Sabbath and Sunday is an off day (except for Muslims, their holy day is Friday). I still can't get the hang of it! It'll take me a while to get used to. Anyways, on Sunday we headed out into the city for a day of adventure! Or in other words, we wandered around various bits of Jerusalem for four hours in a completely lost kind of way, but it was a lot of fun! If you don't have anything to do and have a lot of time on your hands, go get lost in the Old City! It's great! I liked it because we got to see a side of the Old City that isn't touristafied. One of the things I find beautiful about Jerusalem is that everything is made out of the same kind of stone, and is the same color and texture. To me it seems like Jerusalem is one seamless whole, ancient and rich. We got to see a lot more of that in the residential neighborhoods where everything isn't covered up with shops, signs and people. We also wandered more into the Jewish and Armenian quarters of Jerusalem and saw the differences there between the Muslim quarter. The old city is funny that way; one minute you're in the one culture, and you take a step in a different direction and suddenly you're in an entirely different one. It is so exciting.
     On Monday we had a field trip to a bunch of Jerusalem overlooks. We saw the city from at least five points of view. We went to the Augusta Victoria tower, Hebrew University, and a few other places. The goal of the field trip was to see Jerusalem and especially where Old Testament events happen. We pinpointed the Kidron Valley of Genesis and Mount Moriah where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac (Mount Moriah is actually where the Temple Mount is today). We also saw Bethlehem for the first time and had some time to spend there. The day as a whole was a lot of fun. Neil jumped into dust devils and danced around like a lunatic, we sang in churches, climbed hundreds of steps to the tops of towers and had a grand old time traipsing around Jerusalem. The scriptures really do come alive here.
     I'm FINALLY learning everyone's names in my group! I guess memorizing eighty people's names is hard or something, because it sure is taking me a long time to do. Not only that, but sometimes I meet people that I have never seen before! Like today I met a girl in my group who I had never met and we've been here for over a week. How on earth does that happen?! We are around each other practically 24 hours a day! It's pretty crazy.
     Funny story! I'm not sure Neil would really want me to be sharing this, but I'm sure he'll thank me later for preserving this wonderful memory for him so here goes. The other day Neil was talking to somebody and they made him laugh while drinking water. I don't know what that did but it hit him wrong, and he suddenly knew he was going to throw up, and soon. There was no trash can in sight and finally after a desperate search for one Neil gives in and pulls his shirt up and throws up right into his shirt. Then he carried it down to his room and dumped it, shirt and all, onto his porch. On his way down some girls were like hey Neil what's in your shirt and he was like you don't want to know and they were like um actually yes we do and he was like no really you don't and they were like YES WE DO and he was like FINE and then they got a peek and skiddaddled really fast. And then Neil took a shower. The end.
      So that's pretty much it for the past few days so between field trips and homework and barfing I would say we are having a pretty fulfilling experience. I might go to Tel Aviv on Sunday to go to the beach and swim in the Mediterranean Sea, so I'm pretty psyched for that! And by the way Neil is completely fine. He is not sick in the least so don't even worry about it Mom.
      Also, as you can see I translated my internet to English, so now everything will be formatted correctly! Yay! As is obvious in the last post, formatting makes a surprisingly big difference.
      Enjoy the rest of your day!

First Week!!! (Annie)

Hey everyone!!! It's so cool that I'm finally in Jerusalem writing to everyone back home! I never thought about actually being in Jerusalem so to be here looking back on the last few days is crazy to me! I hope  everything is going well for everyone in their lives.

                I think I'm still in stun mode from arriving here. It really hasn't sunk in yet that I'm in Jerusalem. Every morning I wake up at around 4:45 to morning prayer and get up around 5:15. Muslims pray five times a day and the mosques have  a call to prayer where somebody recites the Koran through massive speakers. There are three mosques near the Center, so we usually hear the prayers well. I actually really like hearing it, even if it is so early in the morning. I've been trying to adjust my sleeping schedule while I am in my semi-coherent, jet-lagged state to where I get up earlier. My body's whacked out so I'm trying to take advantage of it. But I might have ruined my training because this morning I woke up at five and then fell asleep and slept until EIGHT THIRTY!!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!! Tomorrow I will wake up at 5:00 so help me!!!

View of Jerusalem. Dome of the Rock is on the right

                From the center we have breathtaking views of Jerusalem and the Old City. It's easy to find the Old City; all you have to do is look for the Dome of the Rock, which stands out with its shiny golden roof.  We live in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian side of Jerusalem, and we are about a twenty minute walk to the Old City. On Thursday we took a tour around the Old City for the first time. Is it weird that it reminds me of Latin America? There are vendors lining the streets in little shops selling clothes and food and shoes and all of that good stuff. Guys catcall on the street and it smells like Latin America. Maybe a little different, but pretty darn close. It's like déjà vu.  

                The only problem is I CAN'T SPEAK THE LANGUAGE!!!!! ARHGWUJHGAE;IOHGVKJ!!!! In East Jerusalem they speak Arabic and in West Jerusalem they speak Hebrew. Fortunately pretty much everyone we need to talk to speaks English, but it is still frustrating to not be able to read the signs or understand people when they're talking to each other. Hopefully I'll get used to it. I guess I'm too used to Latin America, where I basically can understand and speak freely.

                Today is the Sabbath, which is a little weird. In the US the Sabbath is on Sunday, but here it's Saturday. After church we walked to the Garden of Gethsemane. It wasn't really anything like I expected. I guess in my mind I imagined it to be a natural garden with lots of olive trees, quiet and shady and peaceful. But in reality it is a gated off square of land with paths and mostly bare ground, except for about six olive trees. It wasn't bad, necessarily, just different than what I was expecting. It was really cool to be in the place I have read  about in the scriptures. There's a lot of meaning in Gethsemane for me, since my favorite gospel topic is the Atonement.

                In other news, I have a received a very important job here at the Jerusalem Center: I am on the Mail and Linen Committee. This basically means that I have the crucial responsibility of checking off people's names when they drop their linen off to get washed. It also means that I sort the mail. Obviously society would collapse without me. In my opinion it's pretty much the best job ever.

 PS: The reason all of my paragraphs are weird is because my internet is in Hebrew, and so the blog maker is trying to format it in Hebrew, which reads from right to left. I attempted to fix it. Obviously didn't do much. Have fun!

First email from Ashley

Hi Mom and Dad!

We made it!  Right now it is almost 10:00pm on our first night here. I just finished a 45 minute workout with Annie and Neil.  At least for now, they seem committed to working out with me.  I don't know what it is with people but you should have seen the weird stares we gathered from people as we passed them heading to the gym, they looked at us like "working out is weird." I think they are weird.  Maybe people are still just unsure what they can and can't do here, I dunno. I could hardly wait to move around after being on the airplane.  I hardly know what to write. I should be really tired but I think I slept quite well on the plane so I am not. However, tomorrow looks to be a big day and getting a good night's sleep would be a good idea.

My initial impression upon arriving in Tel Aviv was that it reminded me of California with lots of palm trees mixed with Bucarest because of the feel of the sidewalks. And then, as we rode out of the city, gaining 2500 feet in elevation in less than an hour, going up to Jerusalem, the scenery changed to hilly and rocky with some scrubby vegetation. Similar to some Utah terrain, but more rocky. And pretty much like in the Bible movies!  And then we were in Jerusalem itself! And, strangely enough, seemed fake. Like all the buildings were made of white cardboard. Kind of a sad way to think of possibly THE most historic city in the world. I think much of that perception comes from fatigue (I'm probably more tired than I think), adapting to a different environment, and still viewing it from afar. Tomorrow we are taking our first tour into the city and I think that will bring things into greater reality. 

Sicne we've arrived at the Center, it has pretty much been orientation this and that.  I learned that I am not in the same bus/travel group as Annie, Neil, and Shawn. I think I would like to be so I will go talk to the guy in charge of that and see if that would be possilble. They made sure siblings were in the same group, so I think I may have a chance. It is really beautiful here. There are nice professors, missionary couples, and civilians who work here. And there are about 15 children (of faculty members) so that will add a nice change to things. Well, I think I had better head to bed. I LOVE YOU!

Ashley