Thursday, January 15, 2009

History and adventuring

Tonight Dr. Skinner gave a seminar about the Dead Sea Scrolls, which was so cool since he actually helped identify and translate scrolls from Cave 4. (Seriously, I feel like Dr. Skinner knows basically everything.) However, as interesting as the lecture was, I felt myself hitting that wall of exhaustion by the end. By the time I get to bed here, I am so ready to just fall asleep. I think that's a good thing though, because my days have been really full and active. So, I was on my way to my room to go to bed, when I decided to check my email. And there was one from Rich letting me know that an update was in order.....so you have Rich to thank for this....

With the conflict in Gaza still going on, we still have to be careful and pretty aware about going certain places in Jerusalem. We have gotten to do some exploring though. Earlier this week, some of us went over to Hebrew University to check out the campus, and lo and behold, there is internet over there that seems to be better for uploading pictures. I didn't have my computer with me then, but hopefully the next time we walk over there, I will be able to upload some pictures.

A couple of nights ago, we had a visiting speaker from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, Stewart Tuttle. He is the spokesman for the United States at the Embassy (he is actually also a member of the Church) and he talked to us about present situations here--mostly about Gaza. It really helped to see a broad picture of what is going on over there. I have already gotten so many unbelievable opportunities to learn here...it is amazing. The BYU faculty that is here is so wonderful! We also have a class from an Orthodox Jew teaching basically the Israeli/Jewish historical perspective and a Christian Palestinian who is teaching the Palestinian historical perspective (Rich, Brittany, Sister Huntington told me that Dr. Musallam has really lightened up--he must have been pretty hard when you were here...he's really cool though, even though I do like to keep a really low profile in that class). My Hebrew teacher is Judy Goldman (MaryAnne, is this who you had when you were here?....it sounds like she's been teaching here for a really long time...) She teaches us fun Hebrew songs and is so encouraging about all we can learn. I love all of my teachers so much!

Yesterday was our first field trip. They call it the geography field trip because we go to all different places around Jerusalem to get different views of the city and the landscape. We went to the Seven Arches Overlook, Augusta Victoria Tower (both of which are near the Jerusalem Center and also on the Mt. of Olives), Haas Promenade Overlook, Deir Mar Elyas/Elias Monastery, and Nabi Samwil. Standing at some of these places, we could see basically all of the important sites in the Old Testament. (I think I had always imagined these places to be farther apart.) We could see Bethlehem, Bethany, the Hinom and Kidron Valleys, where they intersect, the city walls, the steps leading up to the temple platform, the City of David, the Judean Wilderness, the Judean Highlands, the Benjamin Plateau, the Judean Shephelah and so many others. They were all so neat, but maybe my two favorite places were Haas Promenade Overlook and Deir Mar Elyas. As we sat on the Haas Promenade Overlook, Dr. Skinner recounted the story of Abraham bringing his son Isaac to be sacrificed. We sat in the spot that is thought to be where, in Genesis 22: 3 "Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off." As we looked out on Mt. Moriah (Temple Mount), it was so humbling to imagine Abraham's willingness to be obedient to the Lord. There were many moments as we looked out from the different places where we went, when I imagined the people that had come before and looked on this same land. The Deir Mar Elyas is along what is called the Patriarch's Way--an ancient highway. It was along this highway that Mary and Joseph stopped at the well on their way to Jerusalem and also the place where the Prophet Elijah rested. While we were there, Dr. Skinner also talked about how this was a place for shepherds and sheep. As if on cue, a flock of sheep came right atop the hill amidst our group. It was pretty cool. The shepherd boy wasn't too keen on us taking pictures for free though. :)

Today we had class as usual and then free time in the afternoon. It was a gorgeous day, so a group of us decided to go walk on the Old City walls. It was so fun! One of the neighborhood boys (Rich, did you know Peter?) started walking with us and came with us all the way to the top of the wall. He was really nice--he just likes the BYU students and has made friends with several before I think. There really are so many nice people here. We got pretty far along the wall, but before we got all the way through, the Center called us and said we needed to leave the Old City because of a demonstration at one of the gates. I don't want that to worry anyone though--they just like us to leave when anything like that is going, because you never know when one of them could escalate. We made our way out towards West Jerusalem and ended up getting some delicious pastries at a Jewish bakery. I wasn't going to get any other sweets, but then someone wanted to stop and try some gilato and....well...it was just way too good to pass up. By time we were done, it was getting kind of late, so we called a taxi that took forever to come and pick us up. While we were waiting, we met a Jewish boy and his sister. They were waiting to go somewhere too I think. The boy had a deck of cards, and showed us all sorts of really cool magic tricks. He was very friendly and asked us if we were students. One of the things that just gets me, is that he could sit there and talk to us in English, but he also knows Hebrew and Russian too (that was where his parents were from I think). I feel dumb that all I know is English.

Another random thing about Jerusalem, is that there are cats seriously everywhere. I don't get it. Cats. Everywhere.

On a totally different subject, I got a calling to serve in the nursery here in the branch. I am super excited! This week, however, I am teaching Relief Society--which I am also excited about. Since I couldn't call Mom or anyone to bounce ideas off of, I actually just started talking to Brother Huff (my religion teacher) about the lesson at dinner. Hopefully it goes ok.

Anyways, I just have to say that the days get better and better here. I'm not even going to apologize for how long this post is because, apparently, I am just going to be a chronic rambly long blogger.....oh well...

7 comments:

  1. Sweet Jayne! I am so glad that you got to talk to the Huntingtons. They were seriously some of my favorite people there. Brittany and I love reading about what you do and remembering all the good times we had in Jerusalem. You are doing a great job with your blog. Keep on rambling.

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  2. Jaynee, I love your "rambling" blogs. It sounds like you are having the experience of a lifetime. I'm so excited and am going to continue living through you and your blog posts!

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  3. I look forward to having any word from you. Your blogs are actually very informative. (I think the experiences will be more meaningful after you think about it.) I especially like your telling of meeting the people rather than being a "tour guide."

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  4. Jayne!! I love you!! You are so beautiful!!

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  5. It makes me so happy to read your posts. Everything sounds so beautiful and wonderful, and I love hearing how excited you are about it. I can just imagine so many of the things you say. I am so excited that I get to see you in April and hear more about it from you in person.

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  6. I love you Jaynee!! Hows that shirt treating you???

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  7. I don't know why I am so behind but I loved reading about your Jerusalem adventures. Images of the Old Testament pass through my min as you describe some of these places and I can feel that desire to know and appreciate more keenly what happened there--just like you are feeling--only yu are doing it. How great you would share.. Thanks--I think rambly is one of my favorite literary forms.

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