Wow. This trip just keeps getting better and better. I can’t even imagine going home in almost a month!! Everything here just seems too good to be true!
I will try and give you the best update I can from the last week and a half or so:
Our group that traveled all the way to Tel Aviv on a rainy day just to see the Chagall windows. SO worth it!!
The Chagall Windows.
I thought I wasn't going to get a picture of the Chagall windows because they were strict on the no camera rule inside so I decided I may as well take a picture of the welcome sign. Haha. (I actually got a picture of the windows from one of my friends who was a rebel and decided to take pictures of them anyway).
A couple of weeks ago, there was a group of about 20 of us that decided to get together and take a trip over to Tel Aviv and see the Chagall Windows. I must also mention that it was probably the rainiest day we’ve had here. It was pouring!! I thought it was absolutely amazing to see those windows though. They were really beautiful. And for those of you who might not know, each of the windows represented Jacob’s sons’ blessings. We had a guided tour of them and learned what each thing on the windows symbolized. So interesting, and I learned a lot. I will say that it was a little disappointing that the windows were in the basement of a hospital (kind of complicated), and I personally don’t think they were presented as well as they could have been. Oh well. It was really cool.
Me rockin out at Pourim celebration.
Megan Greer and I pretending to be penguins.
Marie and I in the aviary.
Our little group that traveled around the Biblical Zoo together.
A couple of days later, there was a group of about 40 of us that decided to arrange a trip to the “Biblical Zoo.” Haha. It was a lot of fun, and I felt like a kid again. It really reminded me of when mom took us to Marine World and would make us learn about all the different crazy animals. And as soon as they put in all the roller coasters in that park, she made us learn about all that stuff before we could ride any of roller coasters. I had a lot of flashbacks while I was there at the zoo, and it made me really miss those experiences as a kid.
Later that day, about 10 of us decided to split off from the group and visit David’s Citadel. What an awesome place!! I totally did not expect to see that much there and to learn so much about the history. I knew it was going to be cool, but not that cool. There was SO much history there, and in order to have been able to take everything in there, we would have had to stay for at least a couple more hours. I’m thinking I will try and go back there before we leave (especially since all the museum tickets here are pre-paid, and all I have to do is run up to the 8th floor to the security office and ask). I took a lot of pictures at that place and put them up on facebook if anyone wants to see. I actually updated a LOT of pictures on facebook recently. I’m so sorry I haven’t been good about putting up pictures as I go along. It’s just that we do SO much every single day, I feel really guilty having to go up to Hebrew University (that’s the only place we can upload pictures) and do that. That’s like an hour or two of time that I could be spending in the Old City or in West Jerusalem. I don’t know. I will try and be better about that though. Ha.
Tent Restaurant lunch.
So, on Monday (sorry I’m so behind), we went on our Bethlehem field trip. WOW. It was really amazing. We did so many things one right after the other. I don’t know if you guys are annoyed with me saying this, but: Everything here is SO well planned out, and the faculty here really knows what they’re doing. They’ve got experience for sure.
Me, Chelsi Funk, Jill Baker. At the Applied Research Institute in Bethlehem.
So like I was saying, we went to Bethlehem, and got to visit the Applied Research Institute, which told us about the conflict with Israeli settlements and the laws that have to do with all that and how quickly they are growing. It was interesting.
Me, Becca Bradford, Corina Cox. Bethlehem University.
Immediately following that, we drove over to Bethlehem University, where I literally felt like an alien or something.
Right when we walked onto campus, everyone stared the entire time. We did get the opportunity to have a Q and A with three of the students which was organized by our faculty, and it was very interesting to see things from their perspective and how similar they are to us as American college students. They have so many of the same dreams and ambitions. I loved hearing from them.
The students that we had a questionnaire with. They were awesome.
After that, the teachers let us walk around the campus and talk to some students. I followed some people and went and talked to some students that were mostly Business majors. You can just tell that they were ambitious and so driven in life. It really made me think about myself and my own ambitions and how far I want to go with the things I’m thinking about.
Basketball time at Bethlehem University.
Right after that, some of our BYU students went over to the basketball courts where some of the Bethlehem University students were playing and just jumped in on their game. That was awesome to see two different groups of people getting together because of something as simple as a sport. Overall, that was a really great experience and I really enjoyed it.
One of the best lunches I've ever had. Lamb, chicken, and ENDLESS pita.
After that, we all piled into the buses and drove over to a “tent restaurant.” Can I just say it was awesome? The food was amazing (we had endless pita as usual, lots of different kinds of hummus, which I LOVE now, and a choice of chicken or lamb). So good! Oh, and for dessert, we had baklavah. Probably didn’t spell that right, but I tried. Everything was amazing.
Right after we got done eating, we all walked over to the Church of the Nativity. We waited a LONG time to get into the place where they think Christ was born. I’m not sure how long it was, but it seemed like forever. The church was decorated with SO many things, and maybe even a little over-done in my opinion. I don’t know, when they do things up like that so much, I think it kind of takes away from the Spirit a bit… I really wish I could describe to you what it was like, but I’m thinking pictures would probably do it better justice. The line to see the supposed spot where Christ was born was insane. There were hundreds of people there, and our tour guide told us that we had to take turns with the other students in our group to get out of line and take pictures of the church. It was crazy. But SO worth it. It was amazing to go touch the spot where Christ could have been born. I can’t believe that I had the privilege to do that. Right after that, we all met right outside the church and sang Christmas hymns. I filmed some of the songs we sang. That was SO amazing, and it was wonderful to be there where Christ may have been born.
Entering Church of the Nativity.
Eric Bushman, Greg Goddard and I in the Church of the Nativity.
Entering the place where Christ may have been born. VERY crowded and people were very pushy.
Touching the spot where Christ may have been born.
We then all got the opportunity to go out into Manger Square and go shopping. It was kind of weird that they specifically gave us time to go do something like that, but I can totally see why. I walked around for a bit and then went and bought two baby blessing blankets. I bought one for my children to be blessed in, and then I guess one of you can compete for the other one. Let’s see, who can be the nicest to me and show me how much they love me??? Just kidding. I then bought a really nice olive wood statue of Joseph leading a donkey with Mary and the baby Jesus. It’s so beautiful and I can’t wait to show you guys. I’m excited about it
After that, we all got picked up by our buses and crossed back through the separation wall. That was kind of scary. I don’t know exactly why, but our teachers told us that in the past, a group of students got held up there for over six hours. We were all praying that we would be able to get through quickly and that they wouldn’t stop us from going home. As we were going through, there was a little boy that walked through our bus with a HUGE gun (and he couldn’t have looked more than 12 years old). He just walked right on through, and was just inspecting our bus. I got kind of scared. But thankfully, we all made it through alive. Everything was okay, don’t worry mom.
Weird statue I saw as we were about to go through the separation wall.
Passing through the Separation Wall which separates Bethlehem from Jerusalem.
Anyway, a few days later, Marie and another girl and I decided to use our free day just walking around Jerusalem looking for interesting sites to see. It was such an awesome day. We saw a lot of cool things. First, we went to the Russian Orthodox Convent of St. Mary Magdalene, or as most of us call it here: the “onion church.” It was really beautiful inside. And it was so awesome to be able to go when it’s only open for a couple of hours each week, and we’ve always been in class when it’s open. It’s been pretty frustrating. It was wonderful to finally be able to go though. The gardens around it were so beautiful, and it was neat going in there and looking at the architecture. It’s interesting how we’ve been inside SO many churches and seen SO many ruins, but no matter what I’m always excited about it. It just makes the history even more real to me.
Walking up to the Russian Orthodox Church of the Ascension.
"Watch ye and pray lest ye enter into tempation." Mark 14:38
Russian Orthodox Church of the Ascension. Where they believe Christ ascended into heaven.
Dome of the Rock View from Church of Dominus Flevit. Where Jesus wept for Jerusalem.
Wandering through the streets of West Jerusalem.
Wandered into a cool park.
One of my favorite parts of West Jerusalem.
Dormition Abbey in the distance. The one with the blue triangular top.
Typical of the old city.
The next place we went to was West Jerusalem where we found a really beautiful street with tons of Israeli art galleries. It was amazing, and it made it even better that we just wandered into that part of town by curiousity. After that, we walked through a park and then some (BEAUTIFUL) gardens that were built (I’m pretty sure that’s what the sign said) during the intifada 1936-1939. I hope those dates are right. Sorry my memory is horrible.
"Hagannah defence position; 1936-1939 riots; one of three positions; built by the Hagannah around the Yemin-Moshe Quarter"
Anyway, after that we decided to walk over to the Church of St. Peter In Gallicantu. That was by far my most favorite church we’ve visited. It’s supposedly where Peter was buried. It was absolutely breath-taking to see all the stain-glass windows on the ceilings and on the walls. WOW. It was absolutely gorgeous. We then went down underneath where they had a prison that was supposedly where Jesus would have been scourged. It’s also where Pilate and Caiaphus and where the apostles Peter and John would have been held and scourged for preaching the name of Jesus in the temple area after the resurrection. It was really an interesting experience to be able to walk down there and see that.
One of my favorite churches. Church of St. Peter In Gallicantu.
Where Christ had one of His trials.
Church of St. Peter In Gallicantu.
The next day, a little group of us went out into the Old City and visited the Prison of Christ, where He was held. I couldn’t believe I was really walking where He had walked so long ago, and where He had been held prisoner. It was so incredibly tiny. While we were there, I could really feel the Spirit. We read scriptures down there and stayed for awhile and sat and pondered. I will never forget that.
I felt awkward smiling in this one....
"Prison of the thieves and Baraba"
Where Christ was held prisoner. I also felt very awkward smiling in this one.
VERY decorated.
Sam Carpenter and me in front of Pool of Bethesda.
Church of St. Anne's.
Pool of Bethesda ruins.
Church of St. Anne's.
Descended WAY below.
Gardens around Pool of Bethesda and Church of St. Anne's.
LOTS of cats in Jerusalem.
Right next to it, we visited the supposed birthplace of Mary. They had a HUGE church that Marie and I went underneath and sat and pondered for awhile. That was so amazing. We also went back into the church and there were a bunch of other tour groups singing songs and it was really neat to experience that, to see that so many other religions hold places and things like these so sacred just like we do.
Grand re-opening of the BYU JC Cafeteria. This is Mr. Hayett. Our director of the program.
We even dressed up for the occasion!
Cutting the ribbon...
The man on the left was the designer of the cafeteria. Pretty cool.
Our new serving area.
On a different note, a couple of days after that, we all witnessed the opening of our new cafeteria! I don’t think I told you guys this, but for the past two months (ever since we arrived here at the Jerusalem Center), we’ve been eating in a cafeteria that was in the middle of big renovations. It actually was not really any inconvenience at ALL, but the staff here was always apologizing for it. It was not a big deal. Anyway, we all got to see the cutting of the red ribbon to open the brand new cafeteria. The designer of the cafeteria actually came and spoke to us right before they opened it. He said that the BYU JC has the same wonderful spirit after 23 years. It was cool.
Muslims performing their prayers. The did it five times a day, facing toward Mecca.
Arab men who performed the call to prayer for us. They are actually the ones who recorded the one that we would hear five times a day in Jerusalem.
The guys in their Arab wardrobes.
Arab dancing!!
A couple of days after that, all of us students got to experience “Arab culture night!” What an awesome experience. We actually had the two men that do the call to prayer here in Jerusalem come and speak to us. They actually DID the call to prayer for us and I caught some of it on video. It was so interesting how they do that for a job, and they start as young as 20 years old. They read it from the Quran and they do it with so much passion. What a cool experience. Right after that, we went in to the cafeteria, and they had a really beautiful set-up with a bunch of Arab food. The food was absolutely delicious. Out of this world! One of the things we ate kind of reminded me of a Café Rio burrito, except not quite the same. I guess I loved it so much mainly because of that, and because of the amazing dessert we had, and all the other different types of food they served us. Wow. SOOO good. Right after that, they herded us all into the gym for authentic Arab dancing. It was SO much fun. There was a little girl (probably about 14 years old) that led our little group of about 15 people (they split all 82 of us up into smaller groups). She taught us a bunch of different dances and then she picked the best people out of our group to go dance in front of everyone. Can I just say I’m glad I wasn’t one of those people? Haha. It really was a lot of fun though!
Crushing herbs to make... oregano? Ha.
Eric Bushman struggling on the waterwheel.
Me, Mary White, and Aaron Seiter riding the tram over to learn about the Torah Scroll and to make pita.
The Biblical Lands Reserve.
Anyway, our field trip yesterday was also really interesting. We actually got to visit a Biblical Lands Reserve and see what life was like back in those days. We got to see how a cistern worked (different from a well), and we got to crush up herbs to make oregano. I kept a little bit of it to show to you guys. Ha. We then got to use a waterwheel and learn about how it was used. We learned about the difference between “living water” and cistern water. We also got to learn about a threshing floor and what it was used for. It was interesting.
Success!
GOAT.
After that, we got the opportunity to herd SHEEP! It was so awesome. Haha. I did the best I could, and it was actually a little easier than I thought. But maybe that’s because we had like 15 students trying to herd about 15 sheep. Haha. It was a great experience.
Eric Bushman, Greg Goddard, and Eric Cook getting punished by our guide.
A few of the guys in our group actually got in trouble because they were using food to lead the sheep and goats, so our tour guide spanked them for punishment. Um, that was quite interesting. Ha. I kind of felt like an idiot the whole time while I was trying to lead them, but it really made me think about leading sheep and how that applies to real life. It really did give me some perspective.
After that, our tour guide took us over to a part of the park where there were campfires set up. We all got the opportunity to go make pita and to eat something that tasted like cooked wheat. It kind of reminded me of popcorn and it was actually really good. I don’t know how else to better explain it, but everything was good. It was cool to actually be able to make my OWN pita instead of having piles and piles of it on a table that I just grab from in the cafeteria. Haha. There were a couple of guys in our group that were really awesome that stood over the fires (on the hottest day that we’ve had here so far) and flipped everyone’s pitas and cooked the wheat. It was cool to see them just jump in and volunteer to do something like that.
Learning about the Torah scroll from a Torah scribe.
A Torah scroll is made on VERY special material.
Jordan Mulford holding the Torah scroll.
The Torah scroll.
We were pooped.
After that, they took us to a part of the park where we learned a little more about the Hebrew alphabet and they had a guy come and show us how the Torah scroll is written and how meticulous it is to write. What a time-consuming thing to do! They consider it an honor. It was really cool to be able to see an actual Torah scroll though. Overall, the field trip yesterday was awesome, and I learned SO much.
Big news. We’ve switched teachers and finally started reading the New Testament. I love it! We also had our long-awaited Galilee orientation today. We leave bright and EARLY Monday morning. Breakfast is at 5:30 and we must be gone by 6:30. No excuses. They are very punctual about everything here. I really like it. We also have breakfast at 6:30 every morning in Galilee. We are doing SO many awesome things, and I guess I will wait to tell you guys about all of that when I get back. I just wanted to tell you that we ARE going river-rafting AND going on a hike to some waterfalls, and visiting Mt. of Beatitudes. I cannot wait!!! And that’s not even 1/8 of it. It’s going to be absolutely amazing. I literally got chills just listening to all the amazing things we’re going to do and see there when Brother Brown was explaining it to us.
I pray for you all every day, and hope you’re all doing well.
Love,
Jill
Got this quote in an e-mail from one of the girls here at the JC and loved it, and decided to share it with you all:
"When you have come to the edge of all light that you know, and are about to drop off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on, or you will be taught to fly." -Patrick Overton
loved this. sounds amazing. cant wait to hear more. i laughed really hard about the spanking.
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