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!

(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.

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

Neil's first email

I have only been here at the JC for a couple of hours and already I feel overwhelmed with gratitude for being here. The feeling is so amazing. We haven't even been out into the city, but it is so beautiful to look out over the Dome of the Rock. Today, we stood on the balcony as the red sun sunk over the horizon and the call to prayer floated across the valley from the nearby mosque. The feeling was ethereal. We go on our first tour of the Old City tomorrow. I need to get to sleep because jet lag's got me bad.

Speaking of jets, today Annie and I somehow got invited to sit in the pilot's seat of a 747 jumbo jet! It was awesome, and we took pictures. Afterwards I was laughing giddily like a little kid. I never had even dreamed that could happen. I was thrilled just to get on the plane. Anyway, thanks again for your love and support, and I will keep you posted on how things are going.

Neil

Annie's first email

Mom,

      Hello from Jerusalem! I have been flying since 9 am yesterday so needless to say I am very tired. I think I've gotten about 7 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours but I decided to delay my beautiful time of sleep a little bit to write you a lovely letter!!! Our flight from JFK to Jerusalem was packed with a lot of people, and we flew in a 747, and it's ginormous! It's like hauling a thousand-ton bag of sheep into the sky!!!! We saw a lot of Jews, from the super orthodox to the secular ones. It was very interesting to talk to everyone from Jerusalem to see their view on Israel and us. Israel is amazing and we are kind of weird, basically. And loud. At the end of it Neil, Ashley and I were the last ones on the plane and we wanted to see the second story (which is business class) so we asked if we could go up and they said yes. On the second story the pilots were just chillin and talking to each other and then before I knew it they had pretty much ushered us into the cockpit for pictures! So now we have awesome pictures of us in the cockpit of a ginormojet and it was really fun!!!!

     After we got to Tel Aviv we took a bus to Jerusalem. Isreal looks just like it does in the pictures!!! It is very dry and desert-like, and all the buildings are made from more adobe-like material (although they are still very westernized). It was so exhilarating to turn the corner and see our first glimpse of the Old City and the Dome! It was like the scriptures coming to life! Then we pulled into the Jerusalem Center and all the staff and professors wth their children were there to greet us and show us around. We had an orientation meeting in the chapel, which is beautiful by the way. It has walls that are all almost completely glass so you can see out into the city while the speakers talk. After that we had tours of the center (very brief, but the center isn't very big so I don't think I really need a tour anyway) and then we took our stuff down to our rooms. Afterwards we ate dinner and had our first two classes (where I could barely keep my eyes open. I kept on falling asleep by accident and I didn't realize I was asleep until my head started nodding off and jerked me back awake). Then Ashley decided she REALLY needed to go work out, after being in airports and airplanes for two days, so we went to work out which was nice even if I am exhausted.

    I'm going to go to bed now so I'll finish up whatever else I wanted to say later, probably Saturday. Good luck and thanks for the emails!

-Annie

First email from Shawn

Mom,

  We got into Jerusalem today very tired. I have slept for five hours in the last two days. I am going to bed soon. It is nice here in Jerusalem. The Center is very pretty and well cared for. It looks like there is a lot of homework and I am already doing it. I hope to stay on top of things. There are lots of girls here... We are happy and are doing fine.

-Shawn