Hey family and friends!

On a Field Studies trip

I am sitting in a coffeeshop, Cafe Aroma, just outside Jaffa Gate. I'm here with Janell, one of my roommates, for the fast and free internet. One of the exciting things about Jerusalem is the fact that it's basically a wireless city--there's this Jerusalem Unwired network that covers just about the entire New City, so I could go up to Ben Yehuda (big street, lots of shopping) and sit on a bench and check my email. Or whatever. It's nice because the internet at JUC is kind of hit-or-miss, with a heavy emphasis on miss. So we're here to get some work done and have a little snack, it's a cute little place. There are some great coffee shops here with fantastic people-watching. Right now I'm doing some more people-listening than people-watching; the guy behind me is on his phone talking in Hebrew, with his wife adding her two cents every once in a while, and I'm picking up a few words here and there. I think they're planning something for next Tuesday. Fun stuff...Cafe Aroma is in a pretty ritzy mall area, lots of fairly expensive shops; we had to go through a metal detector and have our bags searched to get in.

I feel like I should have more to say, but really I just don't. I'm pretty tired right now, but doing well. The past few days have not been anything out of the ordinary, I don't think, except that this week is Sukkot so there's a lot going on in the city and a lot of our classes aren't meeting. There was a huge parade in the New City on Tuesday, but I wasn't able to go see it because I had class. It was a Christian parade, with Christians from all over the world who had come to Jerusalem for Sukkot marching as a country, I think in support of Israel. It was a big deal, lots of roads closed--I think there were like 10,000 people involved. We have our first overnight field study this weekend--we're going to the Negev and Dead Sea area, something else too I think but I can't remember. We'll be gone for 3 days; I think we'll all be pretty tired afterwards. Field studies are great, but they are pretty draining. Next semester I won't be in Physical Settings, which has the most field studies, so I'll have weekends that are actually free, and quite a few 3- and 4-day weekends as well. I'm hoping to get out and explore a bit more with some of my friends.

Speaking of next semester, I got my major curriculum changed, so I am officially allowed to stay here. In fact, I'm officially required to be here, because the courses that are in my major are here at JUC! Both of my advisors are really excited for me; they apparently had a conversation about me saying that neither of them would mind being in my position. One of them spent a semester at JUC during his undergrad, and the other one lived in Israel for seven years after he finished school. My new major curriculum is not only really exciting, but it's also a lot more focused than before, which is good. Now I'm just waiting for the financial aid information to come through. The only problem with this plan is that I have mostly gen eds when I get back, so my senior year I'll be taking classes like Comp II, chemistry, psychology, etc. I get to be the senior in all the freshman classes. It'll be a good time...

I'll put up more pictures after my field study--keep an eye out for them!

Shalom :)