So Cultured

I've been pretty cultured during the past week.

Last Wednesday was our Arab Culture Night. First, we had a special meeting in the forum with two of the men, a father and son, who perform the call to prayer at Al-Aqsa (the mosque up on the Temple Mount next to the Dome of the Rock)--which is a huge honor; it has been in their family for years.  They recited for us a section from the Qur'an about Mary, and then the call to prayer. It was really cool! We only ever hear it broadcast on the loudspeakers. They both had excellent voices. Also, they have the whole Qur'an memorized... which is quite impressive. After that, we had dinner in the "Arab" Oasis. This was delish! Finally, we went to the gym to learn some Arabic dancing from some local high schoolers. It was so fun!! That obviously eventually evolved into a dance party, JC style. In the words of Robert, "with AJ there are always six last songs".

My table- Robin, Sean, David

Aladdin. I mean Nathan.

Juan and I

Thursday, a big group of us went to the Russian Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary, aka the Aladdin Church. It was beautiful!

Anna Marie is the best

On Friday, a small student group plus the Ludlows went to a synagogue for a service to bring in Shabbat with our Israel/Judaism teacher, Ophir, and his daughter. She was so cute!! For the service, I sat with Dwight and Jaimie among some of the local congregation. We sang basically the whole time for all the prayers and scriptures! Oh, and everything was done in Hebrew. At this point in my Hebrew class, I can pick out which letter the symbol is and what sound it makes, but I have no idea what the words mean... Luckily, we had special prayer books that had the Hebrew on one side, with the transliteration and English translation on the other side. I was able to sing along most of the time. My favorite part of the service was the Prayer for Peace that we sang right before the end of the service. It was very touching. I hope that this land, full of so many amazing people of all religions, can find some peace... I love that it even has a line in Arabic. Here are the words: 

Prayer for Peace

Source of peace, Ruler of peace,

Grant peace to your people Israel

And let peace spread among all Your creatures,

So that there may be no hatred jealousy,

competition or victory among people.

Let there be only great love and peace among us all,

So that we may all gather together,

Each with their fellow,

Speaking to each other,

Learning the truth from each other.

(Arabic:) Allahumma anta as-salam wa-minka as-salam

O God – You are peace and peace is from You.

Adon ha-shalom, barkheinu va-shalom, amen.

Source of peace, bless us with peace, amen.

Based on a prayer by R. Nachman of Bratzlav, 18^th-19^th Century

In front of the synagogue with my prayer book

Saturday after church we went to the Garden of Gethsemane and Church of All Nations. I always love going there.

Sunday we hit all the major religions. It was the Jewish holiday Shavuot. A huge group of the students (all but a few), left the center at 4:30 AM so we could walk over to the Western Wall to be there for sunrise to see the service. Unfortunately, it wasn't overly exciting, because the readings they did were too quiet for us to hear. Honestly, the most exciting part was probably walking through East Jeru when it was still dark. It was also cool to see so many Jews all gathered together, and to be at the Wall for the sunrise.

Right after that, we got in line for the Dome of the Rock (which opens at 7:30), one of the well-known symbols of Islam. We were the first in line!! It was way nice to be on the Temple Mount without a bunch of people. The Dome of the Rock is so pretty--the colors are so vibrant! I never get over it.

 Does this shot look familiar, Sara??

Love these people!
Heather, Angela, Robert, AJ, Anna Marie

Next, we headed over to the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer (which is right by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City) for a Pentecostal service! It was actually really cool!! I enjoyed it.

Outside the church

Then we headed over to the Israel Museum for several hours. My legs were getting pretty dead by this point....

Outside the Shrine of the Book. I saw some of the Dead Sea Scrolls in there!

Post Museum, we went over to a nearby park for a nap. After we finished napping, we started walking back to the JC. Anna Marie was kind enough to brush a leave off my shoulder.... It wasn't a leaf...
IT WAS BIRD POOP.
Fluorescent green poop, no less. Between that and the fact that I just woke up, it was "Bex unplugged". It was a rough walk home... I was hot, tired, and I had a big ol' splotch of poop on my right shoulder. That night at dinner, I found ANOTHER little spot of poop in my hair by my ear. Just when I thought I couldn't get any lower.... Just kidding. But it was definitely a drama queen afternoon. By the time we got home to the JC right before dinner at 6, we had been going for 14 hours straight!! Woah. Long, but great day.
(although I could have done without the pooping...)

This picture doesn't even do it justice. There's a ton of it that you can't even see, and the coloring isn't great.

No Promises.

I decided to start this blog of my experiences in the Holy Land so I can have another record of my time here, to be able to look back and remember all the things I saw, felt, and learned. 

In an article I read before coming to Jerusalem, one of the old religion professors expressed, “something about the program is life-changing... Jerusalem is no longer a place; it is something in your heart”. Today is the one month anniversary of my arrival here in Jerusalem. In that short time, I have gained a great love for this place, for its history and people. It already has a hold on my heart. I can only imagine the feelings I will have when I leave in August.

I can't promise that I will be a regular blogger-- there are too many things to do in a day! But I will try to post pictures, stories, and thoughts as often as I can. 

I think this was my first official picture with the Dome of the Rock.

This was on our Jerusalem Overlook FT during our first week.

My fantastic roommates and I on Sabbath.