Hey all!
I am back in Golden Valley, safe and sound... the trip back to MN was much easier and smoother than the trip to Jerusalem in December. Baruch HaShem, as they say in Israel. It means praise the Lord, kind of. Anyway, thank you all for following my adventures in Israel! I am very thankful for all the great experiences I had--I hope you enjoyed them as well!
11 May 2008
01 May 2008
On Pesach and the Bedouin Adventure
Hey all! It's been quite a while since I last blogged... partly because not much has been going on, and partly because so much has been going on. I have not been travelling nearly as often as last semester, so I haven't had a lot of exciting trips to talk about like I did then. Instead, I have been doing a whole lot of school work. I wrote a five-page paper and a 9-page take-home final this week; I have a 10-page paper to do over the weekend and three finals next week to study for. I leave for MN in 7 days. AHHH! So much to do before then...
Anyway, I will take this opportunity to quickly update y'all on the past few weeks. (This will be my last blog post in Israel, by the way.) So by the "past few weeks," what I really mean is "last week." Last week was a big week here in J-Town--it was Pesach, perhaps better known to many as "Passover." This is one of the big pilgrimage holidays in Judaism traditionally, and that holds true today. The place was literally stuffed to the gills with tourists. It was kind of fun to walk around Jerusalem and know exactly who the tourists were, especially when they were Israelis and had no idea what they were doing. It was also Orthodox Holy Week, so there were tons and tons of Orthodox tourists as well. So many tourists. It felt good to know that I live here.
So for Pesach, orthodox Jews clear out their houses of any leavened product for the entire week. That means that the cracker and cookie aisle, and several other areas of the Superdeal (the nearest supermarket) were literally tarped over, so you could not access any leavened product. I tried to buy brownie ice cream... no sirree. Even that was taken away. There was a big festival outside Jaffa Gate as well--there were movies playing on the city wall, and fireworks four nights in a row (by the way, I LOVE the fireworks in this city!), and so many people that it was ree-diculous.
But it was kind of cool to be here in Israel remembering what Pesach represents--the celebration of God leading his people out of Egypt. Read Exodus 12 for the story. This is what I was thinking about... As I was walking back from my visit to the kosher-for-Passover Superdeal, I happened upon a song called "Exodus" on my ipod. Here's the chorus:
Lead, Lord with unfailing love
Those that you have ransomed
And we will sing out as we go on
Our God is faithful
Check out Psalm 78 as well. It's such a beautiful picture of God's faithfulness, which is exactly what this week of remembrance is about. Being in Israel is a pretty amazing testimony to that faithfulness--and I don't mean that as any sort of political statement at all. The very existence of the Jewish people, regardless of the existence of a Jewish state or a state of the Jews or whatever you want to call it, is a miracle. (For those of you who don't know, today is Yom HaShoa--Holocaust Memorial Day. Read any Jewish history book and learn about how that happened, albeit on a smaller scale, basically anywhere the Jews went ever.) So that's what Pesach was about for me this year. If you want an even better picture of God's faithfulness, think about Christ, the ultimate Passover lamb (more on that later.)
My last JUC field study was this past weekend--we spend three days in Jordan hangin' with the Bedouin for my Cultural Background of the Bible class. Unfortunately, my camera went to the big Photoshop in the sky, so the following pictures were taken by a friend of mine:
We all piled into the backs of some Jeeps to get to the Bedouin camp. I'm in a reddish shirt, just to the right of the person standing up and waving.
Some desert landscape. This was taken from a big rock (a really, really big rock) right next to our camp, which is behind the camera.
This is looking down on our camp from that big rock.
Our hosts pulling aside the two sheep they were about to slaughter for our big feast that evening. If you are interested in some very graphic pictures of a sheep being killed, I can help you out. This was both incredibly gross and incredibly moving--it was so bloody and nasty and real, and that's the picture of sacrifice that the Bible talks about. Americans in general don't understand that, I think. Read Isaiah 53 and John 1:29 and Leviticus 4:27-35. Jesus was our Pesach lamb and the offering taking away the sins of the world. So many amazing pictures--hard pictures, but amazing and so so true.
This is a Bedouin village with a crusader castle above it. There's been a growing trend of nomadic Bedouin settling down into villages, often so their children can go to school.
We visited a Bedouin sheikh--a tribal chieftain, kind of. He was just chillin', roastin' him some coffee. Pretty sweet. The girls got to visit one of his wives (he has four, but none of them live in the same house or tent) in the women's side of the tent. She gave us milk to drink out of a goat skin laying on the ground in the tent--see Judges 5. It was sour, of course, so that it would keep. Very interesting--the kind of thing that doesn't happen every day in the US!
Amazing tents at an amazing campground where we stayed our second night. We got mattresses and everything--even showers! This was camping with style.
So that was the weekend with the Bedouin! It was pretty much fantastic--very relaxing and informative. So much of what goes on in that culture is a pretty clear echo of the biblical time period, if not exactly as it was then. I really enjoyed it.
In other news... next Tuesday I will be running to Bethlehem! My running buddy and I have been working up to that point for a few months now. We're not training rigorously or anything, just running together regularly. This morning we went for a solid 6 or 6 1/2 miles; Bethlehem is about 7 miles there and back. I'm looking forward to it! I will be very busy in the next few days trying to get packed and get one more paper written and three finals studied for and presents bought and goodbyes said... so, as I said before, this is my last blog in Israel for now! I will let y'all know when I get home and I'm looking forward to seeing many of you very soon!
Shalom!
Anyway, I will take this opportunity to quickly update y'all on the past few weeks. (This will be my last blog post in Israel, by the way.) So by the "past few weeks," what I really mean is "last week." Last week was a big week here in J-Town--it was Pesach, perhaps better known to many as "Passover." This is one of the big pilgrimage holidays in Judaism traditionally, and that holds true today. The place was literally stuffed to the gills with tourists. It was kind of fun to walk around Jerusalem and know exactly who the tourists were, especially when they were Israelis and had no idea what they were doing. It was also Orthodox Holy Week, so there were tons and tons of Orthodox tourists as well. So many tourists. It felt good to know that I live here.
So for Pesach, orthodox Jews clear out their houses of any leavened product for the entire week. That means that the cracker and cookie aisle, and several other areas of the Superdeal (the nearest supermarket) were literally tarped over, so you could not access any leavened product. I tried to buy brownie ice cream... no sirree. Even that was taken away. There was a big festival outside Jaffa Gate as well--there were movies playing on the city wall, and fireworks four nights in a row (by the way, I LOVE the fireworks in this city!), and so many people that it was ree-diculous.
But it was kind of cool to be here in Israel remembering what Pesach represents--the celebration of God leading his people out of Egypt. Read Exodus 12 for the story. This is what I was thinking about... As I was walking back from my visit to the kosher-for-Passover Superdeal, I happened upon a song called "Exodus" on my ipod. Here's the chorus:
Lead, Lord with unfailing love
Those that you have ransomed
And we will sing out as we go on
Our God is faithful
Check out Psalm 78 as well. It's such a beautiful picture of God's faithfulness, which is exactly what this week of remembrance is about. Being in Israel is a pretty amazing testimony to that faithfulness--and I don't mean that as any sort of political statement at all. The very existence of the Jewish people, regardless of the existence of a Jewish state or a state of the Jews or whatever you want to call it, is a miracle. (For those of you who don't know, today is Yom HaShoa--Holocaust Memorial Day. Read any Jewish history book and learn about how that happened, albeit on a smaller scale, basically anywhere the Jews went ever.) So that's what Pesach was about for me this year. If you want an even better picture of God's faithfulness, think about Christ, the ultimate Passover lamb (more on that later.)
My last JUC field study was this past weekend--we spend three days in Jordan hangin' with the Bedouin for my Cultural Background of the Bible class. Unfortunately, my camera went to the big Photoshop in the sky, so the following pictures were taken by a friend of mine:
We all piled into the backs of some Jeeps to get to the Bedouin camp. I'm in a reddish shirt, just to the right of the person standing up and waving.
Some desert landscape. This was taken from a big rock (a really, really big rock) right next to our camp, which is behind the camera.
This is looking down on our camp from that big rock.
Our hosts pulling aside the two sheep they were about to slaughter for our big feast that evening. If you are interested in some very graphic pictures of a sheep being killed, I can help you out. This was both incredibly gross and incredibly moving--it was so bloody and nasty and real, and that's the picture of sacrifice that the Bible talks about. Americans in general don't understand that, I think. Read Isaiah 53 and John 1:29 and Leviticus 4:27-35. Jesus was our Pesach lamb and the offering taking away the sins of the world. So many amazing pictures--hard pictures, but amazing and so so true.
This is a Bedouin village with a crusader castle above it. There's been a growing trend of nomadic Bedouin settling down into villages, often so their children can go to school.
We visited a Bedouin sheikh--a tribal chieftain, kind of. He was just chillin', roastin' him some coffee. Pretty sweet. The girls got to visit one of his wives (he has four, but none of them live in the same house or tent) in the women's side of the tent. She gave us milk to drink out of a goat skin laying on the ground in the tent--see Judges 5. It was sour, of course, so that it would keep. Very interesting--the kind of thing that doesn't happen every day in the US!
Amazing tents at an amazing campground where we stayed our second night. We got mattresses and everything--even showers! This was camping with style.
So that was the weekend with the Bedouin! It was pretty much fantastic--very relaxing and informative. So much of what goes on in that culture is a pretty clear echo of the biblical time period, if not exactly as it was then. I really enjoyed it.
In other news... next Tuesday I will be running to Bethlehem! My running buddy and I have been working up to that point for a few months now. We're not training rigorously or anything, just running together regularly. This morning we went for a solid 6 or 6 1/2 miles; Bethlehem is about 7 miles there and back. I'm looking forward to it! I will be very busy in the next few days trying to get packed and get one more paper written and three finals studied for and presents bought and goodbyes said... so, as I said before, this is my last blog in Israel for now! I will let y'all know when I get home and I'm looking forward to seeing many of you very soon!
Shalom!
04 April 2008
On the Shvil
I got back yesterday from probably the most fantastic camping trip ever... let me tell you a little bit about it. We were on spring break this past week, so a bunch of us decided to do something exciting, like hiking and camping and whatnot. Good plan, I say. Most of campus was gone on a physical settings field study, like I had all last semester, so five of us who were here last semester rented a car on Sunday morning and took off for the coast. We just drove around and saw Netanya, Haifa, Mount Carmel, the Bahai Gardens, the Rosh HaNiqra, and Akko in a day and a half.
This is us thinking about Netanya... it was cold and windy just then, but it grew on us!
We found a beautiful beach--this is Jana and I going for a stroll.
We had some fantastic adventures, like getting a parking ticket or being completely lost in Haifa and being turned away from the Bahai Gardens when we finally found them. Also, at an overlook on Mount Carmel the girls (Jana and Ruth) picked flowers while the boys (Steve, Ben, and Jordan) threw rocks at a stump. The rock-throwing thing became quite a habit. We camped on the beach just south of the Lebanese border--it was so beautiful! We had burnt noodles for dinner, and while we were sitting there in the dark, all of a sudden three police officers were standing around us asking if we had drugs. Luckily we didn't, so we were good to go. We had some good conversation around the fire, and Jordan (our resident astronomer--for real, like that's his major, along with Bible) gave us a tour of the night sky. It's a lot easier to see stars on the beach than in Jerusalem...
Big news! I got a very important phone call from my roommate Adria that night. She had gone along on the field study just for funsies, and when she got back and was unpacking, what did she find on the floor next to her bed? What, indeed?? It was Dog! He was all dead and flat and ugly-looking, and I think his tail was gone. But at least the mystery is solved! Well, kind of. We still have no idea how he got over there without leaving any trail--her bed is on the opposite side of the room from my desk where Dog's bowl was, and Dog was a very small fish. Also this fish was right next to her bed, and apparently was very good at camouflage or something. Anyway, at least we can have some closure now.
The second day we went to the Rosh HaNiqra, some amazing caves right at the border--I think this is also called the Ladder of Tyre. This was the view down the coast, looking south.
The water was this crazy intense color...
It was kind of damp that morning... I got to drive though! Lots of fun. I miss driving. We went to Akko and decided we didn't want to pay to go into any of the tourist spots, which were absolutely crawling with Israeli highschoolers. It seems like they never actually go to school--any time we go anywhere, there are always hordes of Israeli schoolkids out. This became much more apparent later in the trip, as we shall see. So we didn't pay for anything at Akko; instead, we just walked around the marina and had lunch looking out over the Mediterranean--so beautiful! After lunch, there was of course some throwing of rocks into the sea by the boys.
That afternoon, Jana and Jordan dropped off Steve and Ben and I at a bus stop near Merom where we were going to meet 5 others who had been on the field study. We had a bit of an adventure trying to find a supermarket in the rain--we asked several people by the side of the road, and finally one guy was like "Yes, I have a supermarket, I will show you"--and he bundled his kids into a car and took off down the hill! We followed him to a supermarket which had no produce, but it did have enough comestibles for us to stock up. We also got to use the toilet and fill up our water at the sink, which had lots of dishes all over it. Probably the first time I've ever used a public toilet that had a meat cleaver on the counter. Anyway, the three of us sat in the rain at the bus stop for a while.
After the torrential downpour stopped, Steve and Ben decided to throw rocks at each other across the road... I mean, what else would you do? Finally the other 5 arrived--Tim and Kristi Knipp, Shlomy, Craig, and Kyle. We hiked up a road just a little bit to a campground--it was going to be dark before too long, so we weren't going to go far--and ran into a group of people who were cooking massive amounts of food. We had no idea what was going on, but they waved us over and gave us hot soup. Of course we wouldn't say no to hot soup, so we stayed and chatted with them for a while, and found out that they were cooking for 700 Israeli highschoolers who were supposed to be camping there that night but had left because of the rain. Two things: First of all, I told you that Israeli kids never actually go to school! Second, thank God for the rain! We got to use their tents, which was really great; and the people gave us tons and tons of food--a bottle of oil, for instance. When would we use a bottle of oil on the trail?? We ended up giving most of it back, but we had their hamburgers and kebabs that night, and omelettes the next morning, and cornflakes and pita and veggies, all thanks to them. (And yes, I actually ate an omelette! It was only one egg, and mostly veggies, but still! I also ate peanut butter the day before, which I haven't eaten since Euroquest, which was 2004... I was a crazy woman!) We had a huge bonfire, even when it started raining again. It got super foggy, which was kind of fun. For a little while I thought our fire was just making a ton of smoke because the wood was all wet, and then I felt kind of stupid when I realized that it was fog. Oh well. I didn't sleep well that night, or the next night actually, because I didn't have a mat (stupid idea) so I was really, really cold. We were all very thankful for the tents though!
The next morning Kyle made us omelettes... we also got hot chocolate from the big group people. Unfortunately at that point all the 700 kids started showing up and heading off on their hike, which often meant tromping through our campsite or at the very least making a lot of noise. We didn't get going until almost 10:30 because the omelettes took quite a while, and we were all not in too much of a hurry. We kept hiking through groups of students, which was kind of a pain, but it was still a nice hike. We thought we were climbing Mount Merom, so we read Joshua 11 up at the top, about the waters of Merom, but then we realized that we had hiked Mount Meron, which is apparently different. Oops. Oh well...
Lunch break...
We tried to camp that night in the Wadi Ammud, which we were going to hike through down to the Kinneret (aka Sea of Galilee), but a park ranger man found us and said that we couldn't camp there because it was a nature preserve. We had to follow the millions of little children up to a campground. The man at first was trying to have us camp in this random patch of grass that was pretty much just a traffic island in front of the little store/toilet building, and then he showed us another spot that was not a campsite at all either, just a bunch of rocks; finally he took us to a nice big spot that was a parking lot but mostly grassed over, with some picnic tables and such, so we got a good deal by holding out. We shared a campfire with a couple of guys who had just gotten out of the IDF--one of them lives just across the valley from us! It's a small world. You meet a lot of cool people hiking the Shvil--that's the word for the Israel Trail, which goes from Dan in the north all the way down to Eilat in the south. It takes a month or two to hike, depending on how fast you go. I think that might be one of my goals--I'd really like to do some more hiking, and doing the entire Shvil is definitely on my list! Tim and Kristi have done some sweet hiking that really sparked my interest as well. For example, they got engaged on a hike in Nepal. Pretty rad. So if anyone wants to do some amazing hikes ever, I'm totally game.
The Wadi Ammud
Anyhow, we got going a little earlier the next morning, and didn't run into really any schoolchildren, even though the park man had told us there were supposed to be 22,000 kids out cleaning up the Shvil. Yikes yikes yikes! Anyway, that day of hiking was a little more intense--cutting across the wadi, climbing over boulders and stuff. I got a little banged up, and also broke a jar of spaghetti sauce inside my bag (which I was borrowing from a friend! Oops!) when I fell once. We made it to the road late that afternoon. Half of the group decided to hitch down to the lake, while the rest of us were going to walk it--another 5 or 6 kilometers. It was a beautiful beautiful hike, and we ran across a grain field! Where, of course, we got some pictures of a couple of the boys doing the Gladiator thing, and of me doing the Ruth-gleaning thing (read the book of Ruth--good stuff).
We finally made it down to the lake, and had a bad experience with a cranky campground man before we met up with the other half of the group, who had found a place to stay in this hayfield that was kind of these people's backyard.
It wasn't an official campground, but I think they have people stay there pretty often. They had some fantastic dogs, with adorable little puppies... makes me want a dog. Anyway, we had these low tables that we ate off of, while we all sat around on the ground--it felt like a crazy banquet, because we had these amazing noodles and the pot only makes enough for 2 at a time, so we just sat there eating for hours it felt like. Fun times. Tim gave me his mat for that night, and I slept in this shack thing with a bunch of the guys, and I had a Nalgene full of hot water for my feet and I was wearing every piece of clothing I brought, so I stayed nice and toasty warm all night! It was amazing. I slept so well. We got up to see the sunrise over the lake, which was beautiful, and then fell asleep again outside.
That morning we had decided not to hike, so we just lazed around for the morning--slept in, had some oatmeal and stuff for brekky, and then went for a swim (Kristi and I just put our feet in the water, but the guys went for a full dip) and walked down to the bus stop and caught a bus back to Jerusalem!
The three of us at the bus stop again... a fitting bookend to the trip, we thought.
It was a very uneventful day, but nice and relaxing. We got back to JUC in time for a lovely shower and then dinner... so nice! It was pretty much the best spring break ever, I think. There's a weekend coming up where the physical settings class will be gone on another field study, so we will have a 4-day weekend. I might try to do some more camping then, if I can convince other people to come with! We shall see. Anyway, it was fantastic, and now that I have finished this ridiculously long blog, I have to go do some work! I leave 5 weeks from today, and I have so much to do between now and then! But mark your calendars--I'll be back in the US soon, and I have a lot of catching up to do with a lot of people.
This is us thinking about Netanya... it was cold and windy just then, but it grew on us!
We found a beautiful beach--this is Jana and I going for a stroll.
We had some fantastic adventures, like getting a parking ticket or being completely lost in Haifa and being turned away from the Bahai Gardens when we finally found them. Also, at an overlook on Mount Carmel the girls (Jana and Ruth) picked flowers while the boys (Steve, Ben, and Jordan) threw rocks at a stump. The rock-throwing thing became quite a habit. We camped on the beach just south of the Lebanese border--it was so beautiful! We had burnt noodles for dinner, and while we were sitting there in the dark, all of a sudden three police officers were standing around us asking if we had drugs. Luckily we didn't, so we were good to go. We had some good conversation around the fire, and Jordan (our resident astronomer--for real, like that's his major, along with Bible) gave us a tour of the night sky. It's a lot easier to see stars on the beach than in Jerusalem...
Big news! I got a very important phone call from my roommate Adria that night. She had gone along on the field study just for funsies, and when she got back and was unpacking, what did she find on the floor next to her bed? What, indeed?? It was Dog! He was all dead and flat and ugly-looking, and I think his tail was gone. But at least the mystery is solved! Well, kind of. We still have no idea how he got over there without leaving any trail--her bed is on the opposite side of the room from my desk where Dog's bowl was, and Dog was a very small fish. Also this fish was right next to her bed, and apparently was very good at camouflage or something. Anyway, at least we can have some closure now.
The second day we went to the Rosh HaNiqra, some amazing caves right at the border--I think this is also called the Ladder of Tyre. This was the view down the coast, looking south.
The water was this crazy intense color...
It was kind of damp that morning... I got to drive though! Lots of fun. I miss driving. We went to Akko and decided we didn't want to pay to go into any of the tourist spots, which were absolutely crawling with Israeli highschoolers. It seems like they never actually go to school--any time we go anywhere, there are always hordes of Israeli schoolkids out. This became much more apparent later in the trip, as we shall see. So we didn't pay for anything at Akko; instead, we just walked around the marina and had lunch looking out over the Mediterranean--so beautiful! After lunch, there was of course some throwing of rocks into the sea by the boys.
That afternoon, Jana and Jordan dropped off Steve and Ben and I at a bus stop near Merom where we were going to meet 5 others who had been on the field study. We had a bit of an adventure trying to find a supermarket in the rain--we asked several people by the side of the road, and finally one guy was like "Yes, I have a supermarket, I will show you"--and he bundled his kids into a car and took off down the hill! We followed him to a supermarket which had no produce, but it did have enough comestibles for us to stock up. We also got to use the toilet and fill up our water at the sink, which had lots of dishes all over it. Probably the first time I've ever used a public toilet that had a meat cleaver on the counter. Anyway, the three of us sat in the rain at the bus stop for a while.
After the torrential downpour stopped, Steve and Ben decided to throw rocks at each other across the road... I mean, what else would you do? Finally the other 5 arrived--Tim and Kristi Knipp, Shlomy, Craig, and Kyle. We hiked up a road just a little bit to a campground--it was going to be dark before too long, so we weren't going to go far--and ran into a group of people who were cooking massive amounts of food. We had no idea what was going on, but they waved us over and gave us hot soup. Of course we wouldn't say no to hot soup, so we stayed and chatted with them for a while, and found out that they were cooking for 700 Israeli highschoolers who were supposed to be camping there that night but had left because of the rain. Two things: First of all, I told you that Israeli kids never actually go to school! Second, thank God for the rain! We got to use their tents, which was really great; and the people gave us tons and tons of food--a bottle of oil, for instance. When would we use a bottle of oil on the trail?? We ended up giving most of it back, but we had their hamburgers and kebabs that night, and omelettes the next morning, and cornflakes and pita and veggies, all thanks to them. (And yes, I actually ate an omelette! It was only one egg, and mostly veggies, but still! I also ate peanut butter the day before, which I haven't eaten since Euroquest, which was 2004... I was a crazy woman!) We had a huge bonfire, even when it started raining again. It got super foggy, which was kind of fun. For a little while I thought our fire was just making a ton of smoke because the wood was all wet, and then I felt kind of stupid when I realized that it was fog. Oh well. I didn't sleep well that night, or the next night actually, because I didn't have a mat (stupid idea) so I was really, really cold. We were all very thankful for the tents though!
The next morning Kyle made us omelettes... we also got hot chocolate from the big group people. Unfortunately at that point all the 700 kids started showing up and heading off on their hike, which often meant tromping through our campsite or at the very least making a lot of noise. We didn't get going until almost 10:30 because the omelettes took quite a while, and we were all not in too much of a hurry. We kept hiking through groups of students, which was kind of a pain, but it was still a nice hike. We thought we were climbing Mount Merom, so we read Joshua 11 up at the top, about the waters of Merom, but then we realized that we had hiked Mount Meron, which is apparently different. Oops. Oh well...
Lunch break...
We tried to camp that night in the Wadi Ammud, which we were going to hike through down to the Kinneret (aka Sea of Galilee), but a park ranger man found us and said that we couldn't camp there because it was a nature preserve. We had to follow the millions of little children up to a campground. The man at first was trying to have us camp in this random patch of grass that was pretty much just a traffic island in front of the little store/toilet building, and then he showed us another spot that was not a campsite at all either, just a bunch of rocks; finally he took us to a nice big spot that was a parking lot but mostly grassed over, with some picnic tables and such, so we got a good deal by holding out. We shared a campfire with a couple of guys who had just gotten out of the IDF--one of them lives just across the valley from us! It's a small world. You meet a lot of cool people hiking the Shvil--that's the word for the Israel Trail, which goes from Dan in the north all the way down to Eilat in the south. It takes a month or two to hike, depending on how fast you go. I think that might be one of my goals--I'd really like to do some more hiking, and doing the entire Shvil is definitely on my list! Tim and Kristi have done some sweet hiking that really sparked my interest as well. For example, they got engaged on a hike in Nepal. Pretty rad. So if anyone wants to do some amazing hikes ever, I'm totally game.
The Wadi Ammud
Anyhow, we got going a little earlier the next morning, and didn't run into really any schoolchildren, even though the park man had told us there were supposed to be 22,000 kids out cleaning up the Shvil. Yikes yikes yikes! Anyway, that day of hiking was a little more intense--cutting across the wadi, climbing over boulders and stuff. I got a little banged up, and also broke a jar of spaghetti sauce inside my bag (which I was borrowing from a friend! Oops!) when I fell once. We made it to the road late that afternoon. Half of the group decided to hitch down to the lake, while the rest of us were going to walk it--another 5 or 6 kilometers. It was a beautiful beautiful hike, and we ran across a grain field! Where, of course, we got some pictures of a couple of the boys doing the Gladiator thing, and of me doing the Ruth-gleaning thing (read the book of Ruth--good stuff).
We finally made it down to the lake, and had a bad experience with a cranky campground man before we met up with the other half of the group, who had found a place to stay in this hayfield that was kind of these people's backyard.
It wasn't an official campground, but I think they have people stay there pretty often. They had some fantastic dogs, with adorable little puppies... makes me want a dog. Anyway, we had these low tables that we ate off of, while we all sat around on the ground--it felt like a crazy banquet, because we had these amazing noodles and the pot only makes enough for 2 at a time, so we just sat there eating for hours it felt like. Fun times. Tim gave me his mat for that night, and I slept in this shack thing with a bunch of the guys, and I had a Nalgene full of hot water for my feet and I was wearing every piece of clothing I brought, so I stayed nice and toasty warm all night! It was amazing. I slept so well. We got up to see the sunrise over the lake, which was beautiful, and then fell asleep again outside.
That morning we had decided not to hike, so we just lazed around for the morning--slept in, had some oatmeal and stuff for brekky, and then went for a swim (Kristi and I just put our feet in the water, but the guys went for a full dip) and walked down to the bus stop and caught a bus back to Jerusalem!
The three of us at the bus stop again... a fitting bookend to the trip, we thought.
It was a very uneventful day, but nice and relaxing. We got back to JUC in time for a lovely shower and then dinner... so nice! It was pretty much the best spring break ever, I think. There's a weekend coming up where the physical settings class will be gone on another field study, so we will have a 4-day weekend. I might try to do some more camping then, if I can convince other people to come with! We shall see. Anyway, it was fantastic, and now that I have finished this ridiculously long blog, I have to go do some work! I leave 5 weeks from today, and I have so much to do between now and then! But mark your calendars--I'll be back in the US soon, and I have a lot of catching up to do with a lot of people.
24 March 2008
On Holidays and Mysteries and Miscellanies
It's been a while since I've blogged, yet again. This semester there's just not very much going on to blog about. I go to class, do homework, eat, sleep--nothing all that exciting! But the past few days have been eventful, so I'll let y'all know about that.
This past weekend was Purim, the festival based on the book of Esther. We're learning about the history of Purim in my Jewish Thought & Practice class. In fact, for that class, we had to go to a reading of the Megillah (scroll of Esther) in a synagogue. Purim is a huge festival here, it's pretty wild. People dress up in crazy costumes--we saw pirates and princesses and Elvis and all sorts of fun things. I dressed up as an orthodox Jew :)
The synagogue service was crazy, with everyone dressed up and a fun little program. There was some singing, popular songs rewritten with a Jewish message, but the main act was the reading of the book of Esther (in Hebrew, of course). The synagogue I was at, along with a bunch of other JUC students, was a synagogue that's a part of a school just across the valley, Hebrew Union College, so it was mostly lots and lots of college-age kids and young adults. The scroll was read (really, chanted, which basically means sung to a certain set of guidelines) by a bunch of students who were apparently learning to be rabbis or cantors or something, anyway learning how to do this kind of chanting. It was pretty neat--they were singing slow enough that I was able to follow along in Hebrew. The professional readers I've heard go way too fast for me to read! So that was neat. And whenever the name "Haman" is read, the entire room goes bonkers. Everyone yells and boos and has all these noisemakers--the sky's the limit. People come to synagogue with snare drums and trombones and all sorts of things, for the purpose of making noise to "blot out" the name of Haman. It's all part of the festival. There was also basically a carnival in the Old City yesterday--tons of people in costumes all over. People eat Haman's Ears cookies--triangle-shaped cookies that sometime have different stuff in them, they are really good. People give gifts to their friends, give gifts to the poor, having crazy drinking feasts, all sorts of stuff. And this is what they're supposed to do. Lots of Jews get really really drunk. When my Jewish Thought and Practice teacher was teaching us about this festival (he's a conservative Jewish rabbi), he actually quoted the New Testament to us--Ephesians 5:18, which says "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit." He wanted to warn us to not go to one of the drinking parties after we went to the synagogue service. Funny!
So that was Purim. We also had Easter this Sunday, of course. I went to a sunrise service on the Mount of Olives; I left campus at 4:30 in the morning! Lo tov, as they say--not good! It was a lovely sunrise, but also really hazy. We're having some hamsin winds again. Those are hot winds that come up from Arabia during the changing seasons, really hot and full of sand. So it was in the 90s yesterday. After the sunrise service, there was a breakfast served by the church. We had bacon! Yummmmm. I also met an Episcopal priest named Bingham. He is from Oregon and has been a priest for 3 months. Interesting guy. After that, we walked back to campus and I took a nap. In the middle of the afternoon I helped set up the tables for our big dinner. We had a massive turkey dinner--something like 90 people came. It was crazy. I made the gravy, which turned out amazingly. I decided I have good gravy genes--both of my grandmothers make fantastic gravy, and I think I have inherited that trait. I'm pretty happy about that. (Thanks Grandmas!)
This is some of us who went to the sunrise service on the Mount of Olives. Here we are all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. We ha bacon right after this picture! I will have a few more up late next week.
On a completely different note, Dog (my fish) is no more... like Enoch (Genesis 5:24)... and it is a mystery. When I went to feed the fish this morning, there was no fish. There are several possible explanations:
(1) Fishy suicide. But I looked all over my desk and the floor and found no fish carcass, so that probably wasn't it.
(2) Prank. I've been asking around, especially the people who might do something like that, and have found no leads.
(3) Cat ate Dog. (Fun, hey?) The Wrights (JUC's director and his wife) have a cat named Angel who sometimes runs around and sometimes is in our room. However, the fishy bowl was up high on a narrow shelf with lots of stuff around it, none of which was moved that I could tell.
(4) A warp in the space-time continuum. I can't remember if I blogged about the warp in the space-time continuum that once ate Sarah's and my train tickets this past summer in Spain. But it happened then, so it could happen again. This is my best guess.
...and of course,
(5) Dog walked with God, and he was not, for God took him (see Genesis 5:24).
I'm not too torn up about it; I guess it was just Dog's time. I'll have to find someone else to talk to now :)
Farewell Dog!
Also, I thought I would mention a "Where do I live??!?" moment I had a week or so ago. Our laundry room was incapacitated for a few days... because a cactus fell through the roof. I hope someone besides me thinks that's really funny.
One more thing, especially for all you Minnesotans. It was in the 90s here yesterday. Right now it's 88 and sunny, with very little humidity. Now there's good Easter weather.
This past weekend was Purim, the festival based on the book of Esther. We're learning about the history of Purim in my Jewish Thought & Practice class. In fact, for that class, we had to go to a reading of the Megillah (scroll of Esther) in a synagogue. Purim is a huge festival here, it's pretty wild. People dress up in crazy costumes--we saw pirates and princesses and Elvis and all sorts of fun things. I dressed up as an orthodox Jew :)
The synagogue service was crazy, with everyone dressed up and a fun little program. There was some singing, popular songs rewritten with a Jewish message, but the main act was the reading of the book of Esther (in Hebrew, of course). The synagogue I was at, along with a bunch of other JUC students, was a synagogue that's a part of a school just across the valley, Hebrew Union College, so it was mostly lots and lots of college-age kids and young adults. The scroll was read (really, chanted, which basically means sung to a certain set of guidelines) by a bunch of students who were apparently learning to be rabbis or cantors or something, anyway learning how to do this kind of chanting. It was pretty neat--they were singing slow enough that I was able to follow along in Hebrew. The professional readers I've heard go way too fast for me to read! So that was neat. And whenever the name "Haman" is read, the entire room goes bonkers. Everyone yells and boos and has all these noisemakers--the sky's the limit. People come to synagogue with snare drums and trombones and all sorts of things, for the purpose of making noise to "blot out" the name of Haman. It's all part of the festival. There was also basically a carnival in the Old City yesterday--tons of people in costumes all over. People eat Haman's Ears cookies--triangle-shaped cookies that sometime have different stuff in them, they are really good. People give gifts to their friends, give gifts to the poor, having crazy drinking feasts, all sorts of stuff. And this is what they're supposed to do. Lots of Jews get really really drunk. When my Jewish Thought and Practice teacher was teaching us about this festival (he's a conservative Jewish rabbi), he actually quoted the New Testament to us--Ephesians 5:18, which says "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit." He wanted to warn us to not go to one of the drinking parties after we went to the synagogue service. Funny!
So that was Purim. We also had Easter this Sunday, of course. I went to a sunrise service on the Mount of Olives; I left campus at 4:30 in the morning! Lo tov, as they say--not good! It was a lovely sunrise, but also really hazy. We're having some hamsin winds again. Those are hot winds that come up from Arabia during the changing seasons, really hot and full of sand. So it was in the 90s yesterday. After the sunrise service, there was a breakfast served by the church. We had bacon! Yummmmm. I also met an Episcopal priest named Bingham. He is from Oregon and has been a priest for 3 months. Interesting guy. After that, we walked back to campus and I took a nap. In the middle of the afternoon I helped set up the tables for our big dinner. We had a massive turkey dinner--something like 90 people came. It was crazy. I made the gravy, which turned out amazingly. I decided I have good gravy genes--both of my grandmothers make fantastic gravy, and I think I have inherited that trait. I'm pretty happy about that. (Thanks Grandmas!)
This is some of us who went to the sunrise service on the Mount of Olives. Here we are all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. We ha bacon right after this picture! I will have a few more up late next week.
On a completely different note, Dog (my fish) is no more... like Enoch (Genesis 5:24)... and it is a mystery. When I went to feed the fish this morning, there was no fish. There are several possible explanations:
(1) Fishy suicide. But I looked all over my desk and the floor and found no fish carcass, so that probably wasn't it.
(2) Prank. I've been asking around, especially the people who might do something like that, and have found no leads.
(3) Cat ate Dog. (Fun, hey?) The Wrights (JUC's director and his wife) have a cat named Angel who sometimes runs around and sometimes is in our room. However, the fishy bowl was up high on a narrow shelf with lots of stuff around it, none of which was moved that I could tell.
(4) A warp in the space-time continuum. I can't remember if I blogged about the warp in the space-time continuum that once ate Sarah's and my train tickets this past summer in Spain. But it happened then, so it could happen again. This is my best guess.
...and of course,
(5) Dog walked with God, and he was not, for God took him (see Genesis 5:24).
I'm not too torn up about it; I guess it was just Dog's time. I'll have to find someone else to talk to now :)
Farewell Dog!
Also, I thought I would mention a "Where do I live??!?" moment I had a week or so ago. Our laundry room was incapacitated for a few days... because a cactus fell through the roof. I hope someone besides me thinks that's really funny.
One more thing, especially for all you Minnesotans. It was in the 90s here yesterday. Right now it's 88 and sunny, with very little humidity. Now there's good Easter weather.
06 March 2008
On the News
Hey all!
If you haven't seen the news yet, you will soon or will hear about it, I'm sure, so I'll just let y'all know in one fell swoop. There was a terrorist attack this evening with several people killed and many more wounded, at a yeshiva (basically Jewish seminary) here in Jerusalem. For starters, I am fine and we all at my school are fine. This particular yeshiva is clear on the other side of town, at least an hour walk or so from JUC. If you're interested in checking the Israeli media, I generally go to www.haaretz.com or www.jpost.com.
Aside from that, I have nothing too exciting to report. I'm pretty busy with classes, lots of work to do, tons of reading and such, but it's coming... slowly slowly. My friend Alison is coming to visit Jerusalem!!! She was one of my roommates last semester; she's from Northwestern as well and is coming to visit over their spring break. I'm really excited to see her. Of course, that means I may not be getting as much done while she's here... we'll see.
On a completely different note, I have been running with a friend of mine, Stacie, about three mornings a week. Tomorrow we're hoping to run to Ramat Rachel, which is a community outside of Jerusalem. Essentially it's a suburb--we'll never be out of the city, really. It's probably a 5-mile run total. Towards the end of the semester we're going to run to Bethlehem, which is a 7-mile run there and back. Should be fun. It feels good to be out running again, and it's been so beautiful out. Today was sunny and 75; it's supposed to be like 80 or something ridiculous tomorrow. My birthday is coming up. For some reason, I always thought that I had a spring birthday; but living in Minnesota, March is not so much the spring. Here I finally get my spring birthday! I will be up in the Galilee, actually on a field study. Should be fun times.
Speaking of fun times, I think I'm going to be doing some hiking over our spring break with some friends from JUC. So far it's me and this married couple that I like a lot, and maybe one other guy, and we'll see who else joins up. That will also be fun--it will be beautiful hiking, I'm sure. We'll probably be up in the Golan. I have friends who are trying to go to Syria over break; they got second passports and everything. I think that sounds sweet, but I also think not sending my family into cardiac arrest sounds sweet, so there you go. A few days of hiking sounds good to me.
That's about all I have to report... I'm pretty tired, so I'm going to head to bed. Good night all!
If you haven't seen the news yet, you will soon or will hear about it, I'm sure, so I'll just let y'all know in one fell swoop. There was a terrorist attack this evening with several people killed and many more wounded, at a yeshiva (basically Jewish seminary) here in Jerusalem. For starters, I am fine and we all at my school are fine. This particular yeshiva is clear on the other side of town, at least an hour walk or so from JUC. If you're interested in checking the Israeli media, I generally go to www.haaretz.com or www.jpost.com.
Aside from that, I have nothing too exciting to report. I'm pretty busy with classes, lots of work to do, tons of reading and such, but it's coming... slowly slowly. My friend Alison is coming to visit Jerusalem!!! She was one of my roommates last semester; she's from Northwestern as well and is coming to visit over their spring break. I'm really excited to see her. Of course, that means I may not be getting as much done while she's here... we'll see.
On a completely different note, I have been running with a friend of mine, Stacie, about three mornings a week. Tomorrow we're hoping to run to Ramat Rachel, which is a community outside of Jerusalem. Essentially it's a suburb--we'll never be out of the city, really. It's probably a 5-mile run total. Towards the end of the semester we're going to run to Bethlehem, which is a 7-mile run there and back. Should be fun. It feels good to be out running again, and it's been so beautiful out. Today was sunny and 75; it's supposed to be like 80 or something ridiculous tomorrow. My birthday is coming up. For some reason, I always thought that I had a spring birthday; but living in Minnesota, March is not so much the spring. Here I finally get my spring birthday! I will be up in the Galilee, actually on a field study. Should be fun times.
Speaking of fun times, I think I'm going to be doing some hiking over our spring break with some friends from JUC. So far it's me and this married couple that I like a lot, and maybe one other guy, and we'll see who else joins up. That will also be fun--it will be beautiful hiking, I'm sure. We'll probably be up in the Golan. I have friends who are trying to go to Syria over break; they got second passports and everything. I think that sounds sweet, but I also think not sending my family into cardiac arrest sounds sweet, so there you go. A few days of hiking sounds good to me.
That's about all I have to report... I'm pretty tired, so I'm going to head to bed. Good night all!
21 February 2008
On Weather
On Tuesday it snowed.
Wednesday was 50 degrees and sunny.
Remind you of anything?
...Perhaps Minnesota?
I feel right at home.
Wednesday was 50 degrees and sunny.
Remind you of anything?
...Perhaps Minnesota?
I feel right at home.
14 February 2008
On Normalcy
Hey y'all!
Happy Valentines Day... I had perhaps the best Valentines date ever, with my roommate Adria and our friend Jodi. We went to Tmol Shilshom (Mom and Dad, the place I couldn't find where the candle dripped on my head), which is one of my favorite cafes in Jerusalem. It was pretty fantastic. And now I have lots of reading to do before 2 day-long field studies in a row tomorrow and Saturday. Should be interesting!
I went on a great hike last weekend with a bunch of students from JUC--it was student activity day. Nothing much to tell, but it was a fun hike and beautiful weather--sunny and like 70 or something. We were in the Negev, which is kind of desert-y, so it was very dry and sandy and incredible. Now in Jerusalem it's rainy and 39 degrees... we might get snow again early next week so watch out for another snow day post! Here are some pictures from the hike:
We basically pulled the bus over on the side of the road and started hiking... fun times!
We were hiking through the Maktesh Qatan--the small Maktesh. It's this big crater... I have pictures from an earlier trip to the Maktesh Ramon. There are three makteshes--qatan (small), gadol (large), and ramon (mondo).
The sand was all these amazing colors--red, yellow, purple, black... I drove through the Maktesh Gadol with my parents when they were here, and we saw some sweet colors like that too.
So that's all I have to say about that. I wanted to just comment briefly on normalcy... maybe this is more introspective than my blogs usually are, I don't know. But I have been thinking about what is "normal" here, and I think it's kind of interesting. In the grand scheme of things, I haven't been here that long, and yet the way life is here, has become normal. That's most of what I have been thinking, that things become "normal" so quickly. I don't know if this is true for everyone, or if I'm just extremely adaptable or something like that. Anyway, here are some of the things that have become normal for me. Some of them are really inconsequential, but still I think it's interesting to ponder at least a little!
~Soldiers. They are everywhere. Also lots of big guns, often carried by people who are not in uniform.
~Rice, always. Also lots of other food that I used to not like at all, like cauliflower and chick peas, I now like.
~Non-skim milk--1% sometimes, often 3%.
~Signs are in 2 or 3 languages. If there's just one language, it's not English.
~Laundry takes an inordinately long amount of time. I did 2 loads of laundry today... and by today I really do mean that it took all day.
~JUC (my school) has stairs like Minneapolis has the Mississippi. Everywhere you go, there are stairs. I go down 2 levels of windy stairs to get to the bathroom (also crossing a small open-air courtyard), and if I'm taking a shower, I go up another flight and a half after going down. Class is 4 levels down and across the driveway. Food is at the same level as the bathroom. Laundry is past the food, down another 2 flights of stairs, and at the other end of campus. It's like constant Stairmaster.
~I have to be aware of what time it is if I want to shower. The water is only hot from 5-10 am and 5-10 pm, so if I sleep in late, I can't go for a run because I won't get a shower after it.
~There are also hills everywhere. I go for a run most mornings, and I both start and end on a hill.
~We walk everywhere. I have no concept of how far away places are, because we just walk until we get there; there's no other option. I think the restaurant we went to tonight is like a 20-minute walk away. I just started volunteering at a place that's a 40-minute walk away. No problem. (Although I won't do that one if it's snowing, I can tell you that!)
~The internet is pretty consistently not working. This is frustrating, but has also become normal.
~People honk all the time. No reason necessary, doesn't really mean someone has done something rude or stupid... you just honk when you feel like it.
~I have a lot of friends who are significantly older than I am. My roommate is almost 27. One of my very good friends is 36. Most of the people I hang out with the most are upper 20s, early 30s. Also several married couples are included in that group. It's fantastic, but I sometimes just feel really young and ridiculous.
~So much here is "almost." What that means is that it's "almost" like something from the US--food that's almost like something I'm used to, people that operate almost like Americans, but not really... This is a very Western country, for the Middle East, so it's almost like living in America, but at the same time, it's very much not.
...Those are a few of my thoughts on normalcy. It's just interesting to me, seeing how much this stuff really is how I live my life right now. That's it! Love to you all!
.
Happy Valentines Day... I had perhaps the best Valentines date ever, with my roommate Adria and our friend Jodi. We went to Tmol Shilshom (Mom and Dad, the place I couldn't find where the candle dripped on my head), which is one of my favorite cafes in Jerusalem. It was pretty fantastic. And now I have lots of reading to do before 2 day-long field studies in a row tomorrow and Saturday. Should be interesting!
I went on a great hike last weekend with a bunch of students from JUC--it was student activity day. Nothing much to tell, but it was a fun hike and beautiful weather--sunny and like 70 or something. We were in the Negev, which is kind of desert-y, so it was very dry and sandy and incredible. Now in Jerusalem it's rainy and 39 degrees... we might get snow again early next week so watch out for another snow day post! Here are some pictures from the hike:
We basically pulled the bus over on the side of the road and started hiking... fun times!
We were hiking through the Maktesh Qatan--the small Maktesh. It's this big crater... I have pictures from an earlier trip to the Maktesh Ramon. There are three makteshes--qatan (small), gadol (large), and ramon (mondo).
The sand was all these amazing colors--red, yellow, purple, black... I drove through the Maktesh Gadol with my parents when they were here, and we saw some sweet colors like that too.
So that's all I have to say about that. I wanted to just comment briefly on normalcy... maybe this is more introspective than my blogs usually are, I don't know. But I have been thinking about what is "normal" here, and I think it's kind of interesting. In the grand scheme of things, I haven't been here that long, and yet the way life is here, has become normal. That's most of what I have been thinking, that things become "normal" so quickly. I don't know if this is true for everyone, or if I'm just extremely adaptable or something like that. Anyway, here are some of the things that have become normal for me. Some of them are really inconsequential, but still I think it's interesting to ponder at least a little!
~Soldiers. They are everywhere. Also lots of big guns, often carried by people who are not in uniform.
~Rice, always. Also lots of other food that I used to not like at all, like cauliflower and chick peas, I now like.
~Non-skim milk--1% sometimes, often 3%.
~Signs are in 2 or 3 languages. If there's just one language, it's not English.
~Laundry takes an inordinately long amount of time. I did 2 loads of laundry today... and by today I really do mean that it took all day.
~JUC (my school) has stairs like Minneapolis has the Mississippi. Everywhere you go, there are stairs. I go down 2 levels of windy stairs to get to the bathroom (also crossing a small open-air courtyard), and if I'm taking a shower, I go up another flight and a half after going down. Class is 4 levels down and across the driveway. Food is at the same level as the bathroom. Laundry is past the food, down another 2 flights of stairs, and at the other end of campus. It's like constant Stairmaster.
~I have to be aware of what time it is if I want to shower. The water is only hot from 5-10 am and 5-10 pm, so if I sleep in late, I can't go for a run because I won't get a shower after it.
~There are also hills everywhere. I go for a run most mornings, and I both start and end on a hill.
~We walk everywhere. I have no concept of how far away places are, because we just walk until we get there; there's no other option. I think the restaurant we went to tonight is like a 20-minute walk away. I just started volunteering at a place that's a 40-minute walk away. No problem. (Although I won't do that one if it's snowing, I can tell you that!)
~The internet is pretty consistently not working. This is frustrating, but has also become normal.
~People honk all the time. No reason necessary, doesn't really mean someone has done something rude or stupid... you just honk when you feel like it.
~I have a lot of friends who are significantly older than I am. My roommate is almost 27. One of my very good friends is 36. Most of the people I hang out with the most are upper 20s, early 30s. Also several married couples are included in that group. It's fantastic, but I sometimes just feel really young and ridiculous.
~So much here is "almost." What that means is that it's "almost" like something from the US--food that's almost like something I'm used to, people that operate almost like Americans, but not really... This is a very Western country, for the Middle East, so it's almost like living in America, but at the same time, it's very much not.
...Those are a few of my thoughts on normalcy. It's just interesting to me, seeing how much this stuff really is how I live my life right now. That's it! Love to you all!
.
03 February 2008
On Hell... Frozen Over.
Yes, that's right, folks. This past week, Hell froze over.
The valley below JUC is the Hinnom Valley, which is referred to in the New Testament as Gehenna, also used to describe hell (e.g. Matthew 5:30). So when several inches of snow fell just a few days ago, Hell was officially frozen over.
It only snows this much in Jerusalem about every 7 years or so--it was very exciting! Of course, with this much snow the entire city shut down for 2 days, which was kind of ridiculous to my Minnesotan mentality, but it was fun to get out and see the snow. It was mostly really, really sloppy. Also there were tons of kids running around and wanting to throw snow at us. Unfortunately, when I was out in the snow my friends and I were all trying to take pictures, so we had our cameras out, and so the guys I was with got really angry, one in particular who was carrying a camera worth well over a thousand dollars, and it didn't even belong to him. I got hit in the face with a nasty snowball once on our way down to the Western Wall. My glasses fell off and when I bent over to pick them up I saw a guy videotaping me. I think he was with the hooligans who were throwing snowballs from a nearby roof. I was very, very close to breaking either his camcorder or his face. The guys I was with were also very angry and tried to get the guys to go away, but there's no reasoning with Jerusalemites in the snow. Or pretty much any other time. Hmm... a little too cynical perhaps? Perhaps not.
Anyway, here are a few pictures from my snow time! The snow is now gone, except for piles where kids made snowmen. It was over 60 degrees yesterday, and sunny and 50s today, so the weather is quite nice. It's actually considerably warmer outside than in, because the stone buildings just retain cold like none other.
This is the Hinnom Valley! Hell frozen over.
The view out JUC's front gate. It was snowing!
My friend Karin and I with the Dome of the Rock and some snow.
I made a snowman!
It was a very small snowman.
No fun biking in this stuff!
Palm trees and snow. How often do you see that?
The Dome of the Rock with snow. Love it!
We could barely even see the Mount of Olives.
So that was the fun snow adventure! Of course it would be during the first week of classes... but thankfully we didn't miss any classes at all! It was pretty impressive, considering that nothing was open, and the buses weren't running, and basically everyone just holed up and waited for the snow to go away. Which it now has. My classes are going to be fun, I think. I've already dropped one, so I'm down to 4 classes and 1 audit. I think that's a good load for the semester. I'm taking Cultural Background of the Bible (amazing class! We get to go to Jordan and stay with Bedouin), Jewish Thought and Practice (taught by Rabbi Moshe, the former head rabbi of Japan... head of all 5 Jews there, I guess), Post-Biblical Hebrew (we're reading Mishna), and Historical and Social Settings of Modern Israel, which will also be really good. Then I'm auditing Historical Geography taught by Anson Rainey (if you do any work in historical geography, his name will come up... he wrote the book on it. Literally. It's called The Sacred Bridge... it takes me an hour to read a page, there's that much information). So it will be a good semester I think! I'll be plenty busy, for sure, but I think it will be a good time. I'm going to make an effort to actually do most, if not all, of the reading this semester. Last semester I did little to none of the reading for my classes... oops.
Happy Superbowl Sunday y'all! I will be watching the game at some friends' apartment... should be a fun time, considering that it starts at 1 AM in the morning, and also that I could care less about football. Go team go!
The valley below JUC is the Hinnom Valley, which is referred to in the New Testament as Gehenna, also used to describe hell (e.g. Matthew 5:30). So when several inches of snow fell just a few days ago, Hell was officially frozen over.
It only snows this much in Jerusalem about every 7 years or so--it was very exciting! Of course, with this much snow the entire city shut down for 2 days, which was kind of ridiculous to my Minnesotan mentality, but it was fun to get out and see the snow. It was mostly really, really sloppy. Also there were tons of kids running around and wanting to throw snow at us. Unfortunately, when I was out in the snow my friends and I were all trying to take pictures, so we had our cameras out, and so the guys I was with got really angry, one in particular who was carrying a camera worth well over a thousand dollars, and it didn't even belong to him. I got hit in the face with a nasty snowball once on our way down to the Western Wall. My glasses fell off and when I bent over to pick them up I saw a guy videotaping me. I think he was with the hooligans who were throwing snowballs from a nearby roof. I was very, very close to breaking either his camcorder or his face. The guys I was with were also very angry and tried to get the guys to go away, but there's no reasoning with Jerusalemites in the snow. Or pretty much any other time. Hmm... a little too cynical perhaps? Perhaps not.
Anyway, here are a few pictures from my snow time! The snow is now gone, except for piles where kids made snowmen. It was over 60 degrees yesterday, and sunny and 50s today, so the weather is quite nice. It's actually considerably warmer outside than in, because the stone buildings just retain cold like none other.
This is the Hinnom Valley! Hell frozen over.
The view out JUC's front gate. It was snowing!
My friend Karin and I with the Dome of the Rock and some snow.
I made a snowman!
It was a very small snowman.
No fun biking in this stuff!
Palm trees and snow. How often do you see that?
The Dome of the Rock with snow. Love it!
We could barely even see the Mount of Olives.
So that was the fun snow adventure! Of course it would be during the first week of classes... but thankfully we didn't miss any classes at all! It was pretty impressive, considering that nothing was open, and the buses weren't running, and basically everyone just holed up and waited for the snow to go away. Which it now has. My classes are going to be fun, I think. I've already dropped one, so I'm down to 4 classes and 1 audit. I think that's a good load for the semester. I'm taking Cultural Background of the Bible (amazing class! We get to go to Jordan and stay with Bedouin), Jewish Thought and Practice (taught by Rabbi Moshe, the former head rabbi of Japan... head of all 5 Jews there, I guess), Post-Biblical Hebrew (we're reading Mishna), and Historical and Social Settings of Modern Israel, which will also be really good. Then I'm auditing Historical Geography taught by Anson Rainey (if you do any work in historical geography, his name will come up... he wrote the book on it. Literally. It's called The Sacred Bridge... it takes me an hour to read a page, there's that much information). So it will be a good semester I think! I'll be plenty busy, for sure, but I think it will be a good time. I'm going to make an effort to actually do most, if not all, of the reading this semester. Last semester I did little to none of the reading for my classes... oops.
Happy Superbowl Sunday y'all! I will be watching the game at some friends' apartment... should be a fun time, considering that it starts at 1 AM in the morning, and also that I could care less about football. Go team go!
17 January 2008
On an Average Day...
This is a little taste of what it's like here at JUC over break--kind of a day-in-the-life sort of post. This was Tuesday, 15 January.
This is my bed--I got up early to have a hot shower. Some mornings (like today) I go for a run in the morning as well. Tuesday I was supposed to go with my friend Jordan and Steve to the Dome of the Rock at 8; I woke them up at 8:15 and found out that they had decided to wait until 12:30 to go. So I went back to bed for a while :)
But I was thankful that I had gotten my hot shower! If I had slept in like them, the hot water would have been done. It's heated from 4:30-8:30, both in the morning and in the afternoon/evening. So that's when "heat" is on in the building. I can tell that my heater is warm if I'm standing right next to it during those times, but I can't feel any difference in the room.
I got a letter from my grandparents! It was a highlight of my day, for sure. I love mail! And grandparents!
Once I got up again, I hung out in the computer lab until lunch. I spend most of my on-campus time here in the compy lab because it's pretty much the only warm spot on campus. Dog (my fish) is also living here until the rest of the building warms up again.
For lunch, I had a cucumber sandwich. No joke... it was an entire cucumber, cut up, in a pita. Probably the worst sandwich ever.
BUT... I had pita with strawberry jam for dessert! Yummy :)
After lunch, Steve (right), Jordan (left), and I went to the Dome of the Rock. This is us on our way through the Old City.
The Dome of the Rock is so beautiful! It's so incredibly ornate.
We peeked in the door (non-Muslims are not allowed in, although bribing the security guard has worked on occasion)
and saw this! Not much, but kind of cool.
Happy friends at the Dome!
There was ice! Jordan was amazed. Ruth was too, of course.
Off to the side and down some stairs, there are these huge piles of rubble and trash. It was very strange.
We climbed around for a while on the piles; we saw lots of trash and a cat that could easily have been demon-possessed. There was another holy cat that was checking out the Mary Magdalene Russian Orthodox church across the valley.
And then we walked along the wall for a while. It felt kind of illegal, but no one yelled at us or anything. There weren't really any people around at all... maybe that's why it felt sketchy.
At one point our walkway got kind of narrow!
We had to hold on to the top of the wall and inch along. A guard came over and was apparently momentarily concerned for my welfare as I crossed here... but he got over it. And then kicked us out.
There are several entrances onto the Temple Mount through little congested shopping streets... kind of cool. There was a very nice Israeli guard at this entrance. We couldn't go back in (tourists aren't allowed in at certain times, like during the Muslim call to prayer, which was about to happen), but he let us take the picture and was very nice.
I just hung out, did some work, the rest of the day. The short-term group that's here for 3 weeks came back that night from their field study up in the Galilee, so we got a free hot meal! It was pretty sweet. After dinner I had a hot chocolate date with my friend Cyndi, who is one of the only other females living on campus right now. We sat and talked for a really long time; it was great. The only problem is that my mug is so big (as you can see from the picture!) that I can't take a sip of hot chocolate while making eye contact with someone. The mug covers my entire face. It's just a kind of weird addition to conversation.
After the hot chocolate date, it was time for bed! It had been a good day.
This is my bed--I got up early to have a hot shower. Some mornings (like today) I go for a run in the morning as well. Tuesday I was supposed to go with my friend Jordan and Steve to the Dome of the Rock at 8; I woke them up at 8:15 and found out that they had decided to wait until 12:30 to go. So I went back to bed for a while :)
But I was thankful that I had gotten my hot shower! If I had slept in like them, the hot water would have been done. It's heated from 4:30-8:30, both in the morning and in the afternoon/evening. So that's when "heat" is on in the building. I can tell that my heater is warm if I'm standing right next to it during those times, but I can't feel any difference in the room.
I got a letter from my grandparents! It was a highlight of my day, for sure. I love mail! And grandparents!
Once I got up again, I hung out in the computer lab until lunch. I spend most of my on-campus time here in the compy lab because it's pretty much the only warm spot on campus. Dog (my fish) is also living here until the rest of the building warms up again.
For lunch, I had a cucumber sandwich. No joke... it was an entire cucumber, cut up, in a pita. Probably the worst sandwich ever.
BUT... I had pita with strawberry jam for dessert! Yummy :)
After lunch, Steve (right), Jordan (left), and I went to the Dome of the Rock. This is us on our way through the Old City.
The Dome of the Rock is so beautiful! It's so incredibly ornate.
We peeked in the door (non-Muslims are not allowed in, although bribing the security guard has worked on occasion)
and saw this! Not much, but kind of cool.
Happy friends at the Dome!
There was ice! Jordan was amazed. Ruth was too, of course.
Off to the side and down some stairs, there are these huge piles of rubble and trash. It was very strange.
We climbed around for a while on the piles; we saw lots of trash and a cat that could easily have been demon-possessed. There was another holy cat that was checking out the Mary Magdalene Russian Orthodox church across the valley.
And then we walked along the wall for a while. It felt kind of illegal, but no one yelled at us or anything. There weren't really any people around at all... maybe that's why it felt sketchy.
At one point our walkway got kind of narrow!
We had to hold on to the top of the wall and inch along. A guard came over and was apparently momentarily concerned for my welfare as I crossed here... but he got over it. And then kicked us out.
There are several entrances onto the Temple Mount through little congested shopping streets... kind of cool. There was a very nice Israeli guard at this entrance. We couldn't go back in (tourists aren't allowed in at certain times, like during the Muslim call to prayer, which was about to happen), but he let us take the picture and was very nice.
I just hung out, did some work, the rest of the day. The short-term group that's here for 3 weeks came back that night from their field study up in the Galilee, so we got a free hot meal! It was pretty sweet. After dinner I had a hot chocolate date with my friend Cyndi, who is one of the only other females living on campus right now. We sat and talked for a really long time; it was great. The only problem is that my mug is so big (as you can see from the picture!) that I can't take a sip of hot chocolate while making eye contact with someone. The mug covers my entire face. It's just a kind of weird addition to conversation.
After the hot chocolate date, it was time for bed! It had been a good day.
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