IN THE CITAAAYYYY

So I ended that last entry freezing to death and today I am a million degrees; we can't convince our room to stay cool. I hate to talk about the weather since I've been watching the weather in IF and Provo, but it's been about sixty degrees the entire week. Obviously the snow disappeared. Ok so here's where I left off...

WHAT A WEEK!!

I'll start with Saturday. Obviously the customs here are a lot different than in the United States and because of that we hold our Sabbath day services on Saturday. Which is easily the best thing in the world. Sacrament meeting is really distracting because right behind the speaker is a ginormous window that overlooks the city. I was also feeling fairly jittery because we were leaving the Center for the first time since we'd arrived. It's great when someone refers to Christ during church because it's always followed by a smug five second pause of acknowledgment that the events happened in the area we live in. We left the Center with all eighty of us in tow and we probably looked like a mob. We passed a lot of children that wanted to wave to us and ask us our names. I went with the mob mentality and didn't change out of my long skirt, but I did put on another skirt underneath my original one in order to stay warm. Ok I admit that it wasn't my best idea, but what's a girl to do? 

These are my roommates: Michelle, me, Sara, Lizzy. Wow I really like them. I think they like me too actually. 

I'm convinced the only building regulation here is that the building material has to be the white limestone. Houses are so strategically stacked and developed without any rhyme or reason. The street vendors knew we were breaking free today and all had their business cards ready to pass out as we walked by. On our way home one of the vendors yelled "you people are weird, but we love you."I'm starting to think that's a very common motif for the people here: everyone thinks everyone else is weird. Inside the gates of the Old City there are different quarters for different religions; there is a Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and an Armenian quarter. Also, I would just like to help everyone assimilate a new image of what the locals look like here. Hollywood makes them scary and unattractive whereas the opposite is quite true. So maybe the jokes about me marrying a local haven't been too far off base. Ok, I'm sure you're dying to actually find out where we went on this trip:

The Garden Tomb. Cool, huh?? I'm convinced my excitement for this place is never going to die off. So let me tell you a little about the site and what exactly is going on here. There are two sites in Jerusalem that different religions claim are the spots that the Savior was crucified and buried. The first site is the Garden Tomb, and it is quite a bit more esthetically pleasing than the second place. The Protestant church owns and cares for the property. You kind of just walk along outside the city wall of Jerusalem and suddenly you see the sign that leads you to the Garden Tomb. The director of the place wanted to speak with us and then hand us over to the priest tour guides. He had a really great British accent, and complemented the Mormon religion on their uncanny ability to break out in a "darling" four part harmony. I assure you there is nothing darling about my part of the four, and harmony is quite the hyperbole in accords to my singing. At any rate he asked us to sing in the garden before we left. Our tour guide took us to an overlook that faced a thirty foot high cliff that is rumored to be Golgotha, the place where the Savior hung on the cross. 

Golgatha in Hebrew means "skull," and it is thought that this cliff has a skull in the rock. The mouth was destroyed when a bus stop was put in, but you get the general idea. 

We then walked through some well-kept grounds to a spot very close to Golgatha that held the tomb. Let me explain some history here quickly. The second spot (the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, I'll talk more about this later) that is thought to be where the Savior was crucified/buried is tightly held onto by the Catholic, Armenian, and Orthodox clergy and the Protestants have had a difficult time worshipping there. In 1883 some British chap, Charles Gordon, thought he recognized the skull in the hillside and he found support from the Protestant church. The archaeology of the actual tomb dates back to to the Iron Age, 900-700 years before Christ. John 19:41 states that the tomb of Christ was a new tomb. I listen, cool huh? Anyway, take what you want from that history, but the thing that is actually important from this whole adventure was printed on the wooden door that is placed over the entrance to the tomb:

Powerful, right? THAT'S the thing that actually matters. The Savior lives and thus we will live again as well. The discrepancy between the locations doesn't really matter; I still felt the influence of the Holy Ghost as we walked through the Garden. Dedicated worship is pretty moving I've decided.

This is the entrance to the tomb. The area surrounding it is quite as picturesque as you would think it to be. I'll be visiting this spot often through out the semester, so you'll see it again.

There was a Nigerian tour visiting the tomb along with a large assortment of locals and tourists. We gathered in a little amphitheater and sang some hymns about the Savior's resurrection. The second we started singing the other people there started recording us, so our harmony must have been quite "darling" after all. 

Ok, ok, ok we made it in through the city walls on Sunday. Holy smokes IT WAS SO COOL!!! We walked down the road (it's paved, I know a lot of people imagined it to be dirt road. It's actually a fairly dangerous road because the locals drive like their leg is on fire. Everyone literally just sits on their horn the whole way down the road. I'm from IF, I would die if someone put me in the driver's seat of a car in Israel, road kill).We saw Alladine's, the recommended money exchanger, and then we walked in through one of the many gates. We walked through East Jerusalem, saw all the vendors, saw a lot of the random, hidden historical/biblical sites, exited the walls and crossed over into West Jerusalem. West Jerusalem actually looks like a first world country; the buildings are nice and orderly and I don't think you can barter in the stores. It has a definite European influence (ok I don't know that I actually know what that means, but it's what I would imagine Europe would look like). The tour guides left us there to wander around. We are allowed anywhere in the city during daylight hours as long as we have three people with us. After dark we have to have a boy with us: something to do with protection, but I'm ok because papa brown bear taught me how to take out someone's knees in one kick. We were all so excited to get into the city. 

Oh, one of the spots we stopped at on our tour was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This is the other spot people believe may have been where Christ was crucified and buried. We sort of just ran in and out, so I don't know near as much but I just wanted to show a comparison of the two places. 

The presentation of the two places is astronomically different as you can see. The ornamentation is slightly gaudy at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but a lot more people believe this is the actual site. Again, it doesn't really matter all that much.

We exchanged money at Alladine's and got going. American money has nothing on shekels, it's so cool looking! The exchanger had a bunch of wedding announcements from previous BYU students hanging on the walls of his shop.

While we were out exploring the city I sort of fell in love with the pottery they have, and I'm so set on bringing back plates in my carry-on in April. They're gorgeous and I'll share pictures when I actually buy them. I did end up purchasing one thing in the city: a scarf. I know, I know, everyone is shocked. It's almost a betrayal of culture and tourism not to purchase a scarf. I wore it on the field trip we went on on Monday so that's exciting. 

As we wandered through the city we heard a bunch of kids yelling in a park area, so we went to investigate and found them playing soccer. We joined in and basically got creamed. It was a classic example of the division of languages, but we had a lot of fun with it. The kids love when you ask to take pictures with them. I don't have the picture currently so just imagine it. 

We ran out of the city because it was getting close to night and some guy tossed me something called a filafel on our way out. I think it's mashed garbanzo beans with cilantro, dipped in batter and fried. My first encounter wasn't a good one, but I tried one later that week that I really loved. Filafel seems to be the American hamburger of Jerusalem. 

Tye Christensen saved my life while we were in the city. Ok, so I wouldn't even mention that because it wasn't a big deal, but people know Tye and as a result you get the story. It's going to take one-two sentences. I was walking, he was behind me, some fifteen year old boys tried to run into me, Tye said no. Mike, aren't you happy?? 

The next day we went on another field trip through out the city in order to view Jerusalem and the surrounding areas from different vantage points. We visited places like the Augusta Victoria church, the overlook of Bethlehem, an overlook of Jerusalem from the west, and a few other points.  

This picture was taken at one of the overlooks. You can see Jewish graves behind us and the Dome of the Rock. The Jewish graves are interesting because they don't actually bury the boxes, they leave them sitting out. I should definitely ask one of my professors why. Oh, this is Tye.

Kara and I found the Ark of the Covenant! We left it though because I imagine shipping would be astronomical. This was taken in the Augusta Victoria church that sits on the Mount of Olives. Speaking of which, the mountains here (mount of olives, Mount Hermon, Temple Mount) are definitely not mountains; they're more like little hiccups in the land. The Jerusalem Center actually sits on the Mount of Olives. Coooool.

This is Anne. We are the bus doctors and will solve all of your medical problems. However, I am only a first semester nursing student and, consequently, my scope of practice only enables me to take your pulse in eight different places. We take care of all the medical emergencies when they arise. We have a drug for everything in that bag.

I have one last big thing to add and them Imma wrap it up. We visited the Western Wall (the outside stone wall of where the temple was) on Friday afternoon as they were welcoming in the Sabbath. WOW. That was absolutely the coolest thing in the world. The Jewish people all gather and pray and touch the wall. They won’t go on Temple Mount (where the Dome of the Rock currently is) because they are wearisome of passing through where the Holies of Holy once was, so the Western Wall is the closest they'll go. I have obtained such a great respect for the Jewish people. The devotion is inspiring. It was incredible to see teenage girls with their moms sharing prayer books and worshipping on a Friday night. They split the girls and the boys onto different halves of the wall so that that the boys will actually focus and use the time to worship. Some of the people sing and dance and celebrate while other people pray and focus on things they are struggling with. People will write prayers down and stick them in cracks of the wall. From what I've heard, someone gathers all the prayers and saves them somewhere. I wrote a prayer on a piece of my temple recommend (that's all the paper I had with me haha, it was expiring soon anyway) and placed it in the wall. It was such an inspiring night. 

This is Hannah. We went into the city sometime last week and tried something called shawerma. Ok it is so good. I LOVE IT! Also my China made scarf was appalling to all the street vendors. You can bet your bottom dollar I will never wear it in the city again.

I know, it's artsy. Right? Ok, so this is a close up of shawerma. (Mom, you would potentially love this). What you're seeing is fresh pita bread, chicken, cucumbers, tomato, and some light lemony dressing with a bit of spice. I don't even miss Cafe Rio anymore. ABSOLUTELY DIVINE. 

In the street they have these tables of gummy candies everywhere. So I love it, but I can't help but wonder where they hide all of the chocolate. Ok, that's not true. I purchased 20 shekels worth of candy just yesterday. These people love their European chocolate. Ok, so do I.

These little girls really were excited to talk to us on our way home one day. They couldn't speak English, but they were very proficient in waving. They started jumping up and down when we showed them our cameras to take a picture. They hugged us for the next two hundred yards. Sometimes the kids aren't so friendly: Sara has a bruise the size of a small whale on the back of her heel from a thrown rock. 

HARRRRRYYYYY POTTTTTERRRRRRR!!!

Things that have changed since my last post: Technically everything but oh boy do I love the people here. I now have 82 new friends that I genuinely like: everyone is so weird!! I have a friend on every floor in every room. I also have figured out who one of my professors looks like, Professor Stratford, and I was really excited when I made the connection. Daniel Radcliff. I honestly just stare at him during lecture because it's so funny to me. In the third movie Harry has a crying scene that is off the charts horrible, ya? Well I spend a lot of class trying to imagine Professor Stratford crying on a rock and yelling about Sirius Black killing his parents. It's absolutely enthralling. I also have received a calling in my ward. I am the new... dun duh duh duh!!... Sunbeams teacher. You better believe I'm all about that. We have five little kids, and we just wrestle for two hours. Wearing maxi skirts that reach my toes suddenly have a HUGE advantage.

It feels like I've been here a month already. I imagine Nathan is going to be three inches taller when I return home in April. I have managed to find some really cool souvenirs for some really cool people. Have a safe, fun week. I'm in love with this city.

Oh, as a running count I have eaten 44 pieces of pita bread with Nutella on them. I guess that's what happens when you average two for lunch, two for dinner, and five one day when you're craving chocolate. Unfortunate stuff here, it's only been a week and a half. 

I'M CRAVING NUTELLA,

Lindee