It's Only Just Begun (That's a great Carpenter's song!)

It's really funny when you try to update your blog, but all the directions are in Hebrew so you don't know what button to push. These dilemmas can be quite funny sometimes.

The past few days have been great and full of fun things. Sabbath is Saturday here, which is different but fun to get used to. For now it just has my whole week schedule confused but by the time I get home I'll have to get used to Sunday again. It was actually fast Sabbath this week. I joined choir (weird for me, but figured I'd regret if I didn't) and all 3 meetings were great. After church a bunch of us decided to venture out into the city in our dehydrated state. Our first stop was the Tower of Ascension. There are 3 towers on the Mt. of Olives (where the JC is located): Hebrew University, Augusta Victoria, and Tower of Ascension. We walked to the last only to find out that is costs 5 shekels, so another day.

Next we tried to find our way to the Garden of Gethsemane. Ok, so honestly I was not prepared to see this place yet, but I decided to go along anyways. We ended up taking forever to get there b/c we weren't quite sure how to get there, went down this super super steep hill down into Kidron Valley, saw some cool churches along the way (the Garden is surrounded by 3 churches), and then we found it. 

It was beautiful there, different than what I thought. It's incredible to think about what happened at that spot. I was not able to stay for awhile and think though, there were a lot of people and we had to get back to the JC. I will be coming here many more times though.

I wish I had more time to sit there and contemplate what happened there.  I will get other chances, which is the great thing about the study program. And during this experience of being outside walking only for 1 1/2 hours in the afternoon sun, fasting, I have so much admiration for those Muslims who are doing Ramadan, the practice of fasting for a month everyday from sunup to sundown. They don't drink or eat anything all day but are still outside working! IT IS HOT HERE! We sweat so much in that time we were outside, and the people here (especially the women) are in many layers, usually dark, with their heads covered and such. I have so much respect for them and their diligence and faith in practicing their religion. I got a TINY taste of what they go through, and it was hard.

Yesterday we had our 1st free day to do whatever we wanted! One of the committees told everyone of a plan to go to a couple places in the city, of which I joined. So yesterday morning I first went to the city wall and got to walk along the ramparts!! HOW COOL IS THAT!! I tried to picture soldiers up there actually in a war. It was difficult, that would've been so hard. It was really cool up on the top of the wall to see different parts of the city. We had fun taking lots of pictures.

Some of us on the ramparts.

Me and my roommate Ann with the Dome of the Rock in the background!

Next we did some walking around in the markets of the Old City. There are SOO many people and this day was crazy. It was the 3rd to last day of Ramadan, which is when Mohammed received his first revelation for the Qur'an. This is a huge celebration to many in the city, so lots of shops were closed and there were tons of people walking around. There are so many colors around the markets!

They sell the weirdest things here. All very colorful though.

Then we made our way to Zedekiah's Tunnel. It is said that this might possibly be the way that King Zedekiah of Jerusalem escaped the city when it was under siege in around 600 BC or so. There is some other cool history with it, including it being the quarry that provided the stones to build many buildings in Jerusalem.

It's true!  It was pretty intense behind me with long drops.

After the caves I ate my 1st falafel!!! It was really good, except the end when all it was was packed cabbage in it haha.

Yummmm

Today (Monday) was our 1st field trip. We split the group up and go with our religion professors on the buses. Today we stayed in and around Jerusalem looking at the city from different vantage points. It's crazy how many hills and valleys there are. That's ALL there is...hills and valleys. We saw some incredible views and we learned a lot about the geography of Jerusalem and how the Bible fits in to every single hill pretty much. Every spot has significance here. I can't wait until I understand more and more. This is only the beginning!!!

Inside the Augusta Victoria, a church and a hospital. I LOVED the inside of this building. It was sooo beautiful and had a wonderful feeling inside.

We went to the top of the tower and got some wonderful views of the surrounding areas.

Megan, Kylie, and me (BYU 138th ward pals!). That is BETHLEHEM behind us!!

Fantastic view of the city. We learned where the original city of Jerusalem was (a lot smaller), the city of David, among lots and lots of other interesting things.

This is where the city of Gibeon in the Old Testament was. We read some chapters from the Bible, including 1 Kings 3 (I think) and Joshua 10 that had significant stories from this exact spot thousands of years ago.

My favorite thing about this field trip was being able to connect stories to places in real life. That is what I get to do for the next 3 months. I don't know much at all about the Old Testament so this is going to be the greatest learning experience for me. Next to what we read today in my scriptures I wrote that I read it at those spots, and whenever we sing a hymn at a site I record that in my hymnbook as well. This experience is turning out to be so much more than I hoped and I've only been here less than a week! 

PS - I took lots more pictures and saw lots more stuff today, but pictures take awhile to load here. The ones I post are just some of my favorites.