Getting Oriented

After 17 hours of fly time, countless hours waiting at 4 different airports, and another hour and a half drive from Tel Aviv, we finally got to our new home for the next four months...The good ole' BYU Jerusalem Center. It is so beautiful. There are many gardens on every single floor filled with pomegranate trees (including right outside my bedroom door!) Plus it has everything. A library (church and entertainment), huge auditorium overlooking the city where they have prestigious weekly concerts open to the public (and where we have sacrament meeting), a cafeteria that serves legit Israeli food prepared by local chefs, a gym, workout room, computer lab, student lounge with a flat screen tv and snack bar (stocked with candy and icecream haha), a forum meeting area, classrooms, laundry facilities (which also happen to be the bomb shelters lol), and all the dormitories for the students, staff, faculty and their families. Its the def the coolest place I have ever lived. :)

The rooms are kinda small, but they are so cute! Each has its own patio that looks over the city (all facing the same direction). This is the view from my room. I get to have my personal scripture reading time in the morning as the sun starts to lighten up Jerusalem. (Sorry, the tree is blocking the Dome of the Rock). It is so beautiful and serene...I love it. Although we do have to be careful outside- there are plenty of wild cats around and I heard we have to watch out for venomous snakes on our grounds. Yikes!

Thursday, our first day in Jerusalem, we got to tour the whole city- East Jerusalem, the Old City, and West Jerusalem...but we weren't allowed to take pictures then. (I guess we don't want to come off as too tourist-y?) Friday was full of our Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies classes which are going to be amazing. Those are taught by BYU professors. (Hebrew/Arabic language and Modern Near Eastern Studies -the Jewish perspective and Palestinian perspective, are all taught by native professors so those should be so cool!) And then because it was the last Friday of Ramadan, the Old City had something like 32,000 people in it!!! Consequently, we weren't allowed out of the Center so no pictures there either.

Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath (or Shabat) so we observe our sabbath that day as well which I think is pretty cool. The Jerusalem Branch meets at the BYU Center, probably because about 3/4 of the branch is made up by the students ha. But there are some more 'permanent members' of the branch as well and they are all so sweet. Actually there are quite a few more members, but because of Israeli/Palesitian law, they unfortunately aren't allowed to attend. It is so sweet though, because all the leaders try their best to keep them as involved as possible, like still giving them callings, recognizing them for birthdays or special events, etc. Its really amazing. After church, a bunch of us students decided to walk down to the Garden of Gethsemane. Little did we know how far away it really was (we got lost haha) and how hot it was going to be! I totally forgot I had been fasting for over 24 hours (I accidentally slept through dinner the night before-- curse you, jetlag!) so I looked like a total wimp, about ready to faint. Luckily one of the guys brought his water so that sustained me until we could get back to the Center for dinner. I learned my lesson...don't hike up and down the rocky hills of Jerusalem at 2:00 pm without water, and don't forget to set an alarm for all meal times!

Almost every Sunday is a free day for us, so today we decided to get more familiar with the City. We walked through East Jerusalem, exchanged money with Aladdin (pronounced Alah-deen) who is the sweetest man ever. He is the 'money exchanger for the mormons' haha. He has been servicing the BYU students for 20 years now and trusts us so much that we just write him a check and he hands us cash. No ID or anything needed. (Us BYU students really stick out here lol) So then we walked along the Old City wall, from Jaffa to Damascus Gate through all the ramparts. It was really cool to be able to look on both sides of the city. Then we stopped by and visited Zedekiahs Cave (believed to be the quarry used for King Solomon's temple) which was so nice to cool off in the middle of the day, let me tell you. We got some really cool pictures, but the internet here is so slow!! (It takes me over 3 minutes to upload one picture) But don't worry, I'll put up a lot of the pictures on facebook when I get back.

The rest of the day we spent in the Old City, gauging prices and such. It is so funny because everywhere we go, we are asked, "BYU? You mormons?" Once we nod, they tell us they have the best deals and student discount prices haha. Everyone loves the mormons because we are probably their main source of income lol. It's still really flattering though. There is this one particular shop in the Christian Quarters right by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher called Ali Babba's. They really have the best prices and its a good place to calibrate good price ranges. Anyways, they have been the main store for the BYU students ever since it the Center opened up. They have CTR shield necklaces (in English and Hebrew), BYU Jerusalem shirts (in Arabic and Hebrew), Jerusalem leather scripture cases that are sized for our quads, and everything else you can imagine. It is basically the BYU Bookstore/Deseret Book based in Jerusalem and its awesome.

Sorry if this wasn't enough, but as I said, the internet is really bad here...I'm going to try and put up a post once a week just to assure you I am still alive and well :) ...So till next week!