A Green Christmas

Last... Tuesday, I believe, is when we went to Bethlehem. It also happened to be St. Patrick's Day, which is why my right ring fingernail is currently painted a lovely shade of green--my green shirt was dirty, and I had to celebrate somehow. I didn't think to bring nail polish remover, though, so that nail might still be green by the time I get back home :)

Bethlehem was probably one of my favorite field trips up to this point. We went to Bethlehem University in the morning and watched a documentary on some Palestinian settlements that the Israelis wiped out during one of the wars they fought, creating hundreds of refugees (really a drop in the bucket to all of the Palestinian refugees out there, but there were still some sad stories), and then we got to talk to a panel of students who go there about how their life as a university student differs from ours. Then, after lunch (which was pretty typical of Middle Eastern restaurants we've been to so far--pitas, hummus, babaganoush, grilled chicken--but was still really good), we went to the Church of the Nativity. The good news about this church is that even my teachers are pretty positive that it's located on the actual place. The bad news? They covered it up with marble and fabric and paintings, so you really can't even tell what it looked like :P I'll never understand why other churches feel the need to do those things--wouldn't it be preferable to leave the place relatively preserved, even if you're going to stick a big fat church on top of it? Luckily, there was more good news--the cave that you go down into that's the nativity cave has a wall that divides it in half, and a different church owns the other half, and it's relatively well preserved. So, even though "they" (whoever "they" is) think that Jesus was born on the other side of the cave, it's really still the same cave, and the Spirit can be felt more in the second half of the cave. The priests are nicer there, anyways--the priests in the highly-decorated half are kind of rude and pushy, but the priests on the simpler half are more gentle.

We sang a few hymns there, and then we went out and looked around Manger Square a bit, where they had some touristy olive wood shops. Afterwards, we drove back out of Bethlehem to eat dinner in the shepherds' fields, where we had a small program in our religion classes as the stars began to appear in the sky. It was a little chilly by the end, but so peaceful that I really didn't want to leave. We sang some Christmas songs and talked about the various people involved in the nativity, and imagined that the angels were in the skies above us, singing good tidings of great joy.

The next day we had a final to study for... so of course I went to Ein Karem instead. I was sitting in class debating whether to sign up, and the person sitting next to me asked if I'd been yet and I told her no, so she told me to go. So I did. I give in really easily to peer pressure, I think :P I was so glad that I decided to go, though! Ein Karem is the birthplace of John the Baptist, and it's just a quite, peaceful town that almost looks like a European town (or at least, that's what some other girls were saying--aside from the Vienna airport, I haven't been to Europe yet). We walked around to a couple of churches in the area (the Church of the Visitation, dedicated to Mary Magdalene, and the church that's dedicated to John the Baptist), and they were all very pretty. Afterwards, we just kind of walked around. We stopped in a small art gallery, bought some fruit and nuts for lunch, and I took about a million pictures of flowers--the weather was so perfect, and the town was just so beautiful! After lunch we hiked over to the hospital, where twelve stained-glass windows made by a famous Jewish artist (Chagall, I think) were on display. Each of them was made to represent one of the sons of Jacob, and it was really interesting--there was a cassette they played that described the symbolism behind the windows, and they each symbolized some part of the tribe's history, or the blessings that Jacob gave his sons before he died. Unfortunately, cameras weren't allowed, and by the time we got out the gift shop was closed so I couldn't buy the postcards. They were really cool, though.

In other news, I'm wearing a beautiful new dress today :) I'm not really a dress-wearing individual, but if I had enough of these flowy Old City dresses that sell for $6-$10 each, I'd probably wear a dress every day for the rest of my life. I also finished up Ophir and Musallam's classes this week! I know that I did okay on Ophir's final, and as for Musallam's... well, he told me that I drew a beautiful map of Israel, and he was being pretty critical of people's maps, so that's something, I guess. Honestly, I think most people didn't do very well on his exam, so all I can do is hope. At least I filled in all the questions with a general sort of idea of what I was talking about, and from conversations I've had with others, that's more than a lot of people could say :P On the plus side, it's done! We only have New Testament and Ancient Near East History for the rest of the semester (which is actually only 34 more days!!!), and those are my favorite classes, so I really don't mind. We're also about to leave for Galilee next week, and I can't tell you how excited I am for that--while the Old Testament was interesting and is a great set up to the New Testament, I really came here to learn about the life of Christ, and I imagine I'll never have this type of a unique opportunity to do so again. By the way, I'm sorry to say that you probably shouldn't expect another blog post for about two weeks since we'll be in Galilee for awhile, and it sounds like internet isn't readily available. I'll try to make my post more like Jordan's than Egypt's, though, in terms of punctuality. Once I'm back, I'll only have about three weeks left here! It's the weirdest feeling! I mean, I'll probably be less sad than some people to leave, but I'll still miss it here. Maybe I can make it back again someday...

Finals Week :P

I changed my mind. If I had to live anywhere in the Middle East that I've visited so far, it would be Tel Aviv. Jerusalem's cool, but let's face it--right now, it's a city of tension. There are things you can't do, places you can't go, and you just can't walk around on your own. Tel Aviv's different, though. At least in the time I was there, it seemed safer, more relaxed, and definitely more modernized. In a lot of ways it reminds me of an American city, only with Hebrew writing everywhere instead of English, and if I really were to move to the Middle East, I think I'd prefer that. Plus it's on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea--does it get better than that??

In Tel Aviv, we first went to a Jewish culture/history museum, which was pretty cool. I remember my favorite exhibit was this room with these huge models of Jewish synagogues from all around the world. The guide explained a few of them, and some of them had fascinating backstory behind them. There was one synagogue that was built in a ghetto, but obviously it couldn't look like a synagogue, so it looks just like an apartment building on the outside. They also made a reconstruction of the Warsaw synagogue that was destroyed in the Warsaw ghetto uprising, and that was actually a really impressive building. I guess anti-semitism must not have been too big in that area before the Nazis, either, because it even had Jewish symbols like menorahs on the outside, and a lot of synagogues tried to avoid doing that so they wouldn't obviously look like synagogues. Of course, I just had to look at those models and wonder who on earth put those together, because it must have taken forever! They were so big, but the detailing was so intricate and tiny. Ha ha, I thought they were cool :)

Afterwards we were inundated with propaganda in Independence Hall, and finally we got to walk around the city. Even though we didn't bring our swimsuits and couldn't really get down into the water, I spent most of my time at the beach collecting seashells and broken glass that the water and sand has turned smooth. I also found this lady selling the coolest hair clips I've ever seen! They used such random things, like pasta and colored pencils and dried bananas and candy, so I bought one that I think used Sprees. One of the girls got the lady's website, too, so I'll probably be getting more eventually. I guess you'd just have to see them--they're really cute!

We've finally moved into studying the New Testament, and on Monday (I think) we went on a field trip to sites in Herodian Jerusalem. Definitely the best part of that was going to the Jerusalem Archaeological Park, where they've uncovered some steps that were definitely around during the time of Christ, and that Christ would definitely have walked on. Not only that, but they're right by the Temple Mount, which means they're the steps he would have ascended on his way to the temple. Climbing up those steps was one of those feelings that you can't really describe, but I can now say that I have, in reality, walked where Jesus walked, which seems almost surreal, but definitely cool. We also went to this Jewish mansion in the Upper City that a family of priests would have lived in, and that was destroyed by the Romans when they destroyed the temple. It was really a huge house, with mosaics and baths everywhere--those Sadducees definitely had a lot of money.

Purim was last Tuesday night, too. It's a Jewish holiday celebrating the story of Esther, where Jewish kids dress up in costumes and get candy during the day, and Jewish adults dress up in costumes and get drunk during the night. I haven't quite figured out what that has to do with Esther, though there is a religious element to the celebrations--the night of Purim (before they get drunk), they go to synagogue all dressed up in their costumes and with noisemakers, and they listen to the Scroll of Esther being read. Whenever Haman, the villain of the story, is mentioned, they all use their noisemakers to drown out his name. Our own Purim celebrations were kind of anticlimatic--we dressed up and went into the city, only to realize that everybody was still in synagogue, and wouldn't be out for a few hours :P Because we had finals this week, most of us didn't have a few hours to spare, so after getting pastries, most of us taxied back. We did watch some guys juggle fire, though, and that was cool.

Because of finals, there's really not much more to report about this week. I think I did okay on them--I was at least in the A- range, and that's fine with me. We still have three finals left to take this week, so I might be a little slow on the posting again (though, again, there probably won't be much to say). After this week, it's off to Galilee for 10 days! That's really where most of the New Testament takes place, and I can't even say how much I've been looking forward to this part of the trip. Oh yeah, you know how our auditorium where we have church looks out over the city? Well, apparently the Tiberias chapel has huge windows looking out over the Sea of Galilee. I am not looking forward to going back to plain brick walls when I get home!

Some of you asked questions, so here are my efforts to answer:

Jackie--Yep, Pizza Hut in Jordan was a lot like a nice, sit-down restaurant, which seemed even weirder because it was right in the mall's food court. It was good :)

Suzanne--Americans in Jordan can't actively proselyte to Jordanians, though things aren't as strict there as they are in Israel--they can talk and explain about the church, but not really invite them to meetings or anything. Jordanians can proselyte to other Jordanians, though it's been a slow process. I know they said something about having 4 new converts in the past year, though, so it's going. I guess Jordan doesn't technically recognize us as a church--the chapel in Amman is labeled a "cultural center". I don't exactly know what that means, though the branch president there told us this random story about a Jordanian prince who liked falconry, but his birds were getting sick and nobody could make them better, so this bird expert from USU was invited to come and heal them, and he managed to make them better. I guess the prince offered to give him a gift for healing his birds, and the USU guy asked him to recognize his church, so that led to that prince's small section of Jordan recognizing the LDS church... I don't know. I really don't know how things work in Jordan, and it would be interesting to learn more. It sounds like things are moving forward, though, however slowly.

Future parents-in-law: There are actually two branches in Jordan, I think :) It's about 50/50 Americans from the Embassy and local Jordanians. Oh, remind me sometime to tell you about Iraq. I'm almost positive that there's not a branch there, but some of the Kurdish people know all about the Mormons from the Utah National Guard coming in, and they love us. It's really interesting how many places the Church has touched, in however small a way, that could lead to greater things in the future.

There and Back Again

Me, posting already? No way!

Ha ha, you guys don't have to comment on my blog (though thanks to those that did!). It just makes me feel less like somebody speaking at a pulpit to a sleeping audience when you do. ;) I know that you read, though, even if most of you don't regularly comment, and I would keep posting even if nobody read it--it makes me feel less guilty for being such a horrid journal-keeper. Although, I did buy the coolest journal EVER from Forever 21 in Jordan yesterday, so I might actually be motivated in that regard once more.

I really enjoyed Jordan a lot. In fact, if I ever had to move to anywhere that we've been so far (Israel, Egypt, and Jordan), I'd probably pick Jordan. I love Jerusalem, but there's so much tension there and so many factions, while Jordan's just so much calmer. As for Egypt... well, it's the kind of place where I'm glad I went there, but I'm not really in a hurry to get back. Jordan still has ancient ruins and call to prayer (which is beginning to lose its charm, actually) and Bedouins and such, but it also has a Western feel in some areas (especially Amman), so I wouldn't be missing out on that. For the most part, the people are very polite, too. There's even a branch in Amman--small, but existent, and ever so slowly growing.

On Monday, we mostly drove a lot, although we did hit a few sites. After crossing the border (which was actually quite easy, for a change), we went to Mt. Nebo, where Moses looked out and saw the Promised Land, which he was never able to enter. Tragically, we weren't allowed to go to the outlook where he would have stood because heavy rains earlier that day had increased the danger of rock slides and people slipping, so we didn't actually get to see the view. There were some cool mosaics in a museum there, though, and I spent awhile taking pictures of some pretty daisies.

We also hit the early Byzantine church of St. George at Madaba. We spent the first 15 minutes freezing outside the church while our tour guide showed us a picture of a giant mosaic map, and when we finally went into the church, lo and behold, we saw CANDLES!!! Have I mentioned that I love taking pictures of candles? Especially the long tapers that they always seem to have in churches around here. So, after a fair amount of time spent photographing candles, I realized that if I looked beyond the candles, I'd see that giant mosaic that we'd talked about before, making me wonder why we spent so long looking at a picture when the real thing was right inside the church. Anyway, I decided that, even though it wasn't quite as much fun as taking candle pictures, I should probably take look at the mosaic for awhile. So I did... until I was distracted by their cool lanterns!

That night we stayed in a pretty decent hotel, thought it's also where I saw my very first cockroach. That thing was huge! I'm told they're not usually that big, and I hope so, because I don't see how people could handle having those things around *shudder*. An older German couple had some fun teasing me and Chelsea when we screamed, though. At first the woman was a little frightened because she thought we'd seen a mouse, but when they found out it was a cockroach, the man laughed at us and asked if we had cockroaches in the states. I told him "Not in my state!" (and if I'm wrong, please don't correct me--I'm blissful in my ignorance), and he gave us the very helpful advice that "Little animals never eat big animals." Good advice. I'll remember that when I'm up against a piranha someday.

On Tuesday we went to Petra, and even though I've never seen that particular Indiana Jones movie, the theme song kept running in my head. We spent almost all day there, and it was very cool. I couldn't help but wish that I could fly my old science teacher Mrs. Nelson out to see it. We saw the Treasury, as well as this old monastery that looks kind of like the treasury, only cooler, and it's at the top of 852 stairs (I didn't count them--I'm taking Bro. Huff's word on this. I sure walked them, though, and I felt it the next day!). There was also just a bunch of random ruins and cool looking cliffs to see. Oh, and there were camels! Camels are so awkward, they're cool, and their faces are pretty much hilarious. :) There was also this cute little black dog who randomly got attacked by this big, mean white dog! Sad! So I made it feel better. Lol, what can I say? Maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to do, but I've become a lot more of a dog person since Porthos, and he was just whining so pitifully, and he looked so cute... anyway, I sanitized after, so all's well.

That night we discovered a pirated movie shop, where some people seriously spent almost a hundred dollars on 2 dollar movies! I restrained myself and only bought one: Bride Wars. I figure I didn't like that movie enough to pay full price in the states, but I did like it enough to get a poorer quality version for 2 dollars, so that's what I did. There were quite a few movies calling my name, though, and to escape I went to the toy store next door where I discovered MUSLIM BARBIE!!! Okay, that's not what she's called, but she was a Barbie with a Muslim woman head covering! Somebody else took a picture of me holding her, and I'll have to find that picture, because it was awesome! I almost bought her, but she was almost 20 dinars, which is way more than I would ever spend on any Barbie, even a Muslim one.

The next day we went to some old Roman ruins in Jerash, which pretty much everyone loved. There were arches and a huge theater, and a circle of columns that looked just like that scene out of Hercules, where he knocks them all down domino-effect. It was all very picturesque, green, and pretty, and there was this lovely cool breeze blowing... which might explain why I completely forgot the sunscreen. I fried hardcore that day, and it still kind of hurts a bit, though I'm hoping it'll start to fade soon--it's always a bit disconcerting to see people cringe whenever they look at you.

We had an absolutely amazing lunch that day (HUGE pieces of flat bread with hummus, babaganoush, salsa, french fries, and shish kabobs), followed by an interesting meeting with the Amman branch president. Although we were pretty tired by the time we got back to the hotel (or at least, I was), we basically turned right back around and called for taxis to take us out into the city. Some people went to some sort of auto show/museum, but I figured I probably wouldn't care any more about cars in Jordan than I do at home, so I opted to head straight to the Mecca Mall instead.

The Mecca Mall really felt like an American night out. Like I think I mentioned before, Amman has become westernized in many ways, and this mall is a prime example. I recognized several of the stores there, including Forever 21 where I bought my amazing journal, and we ate dinner at Pizza Hut. I also learned an Arabic swear word from some boys who came up to us, and apparently it stuck pretty well because when Moon couldn't remember it and asked what it was, I triumphantly shouted it for the whole world to hear. Unfortunately, "the whole world" in this area speaks Arabic, which didn't occur to me until after I'd shouted out the word (obviously). I think I've never blushed so hard in my life, though probably nobody could tell because I was so sunburnt, and a group of guys nearby got a pretty good laugh at my expense. They asked me to say some more, but I figured I'd embarrassed myself enough for one night (and I didn't know anymore anyway), so instead we caught a taxi and went back to the hotel.

This morning my roommate and I woke up late, so I breakfasted on cold leftover pizza as we drove to a mosque. We've been to a couple of mosques before, but this was the first one to actually make us cover our hair. Not only that, but they made us put on these black hooded robes before we could enter, too. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? DEATH EATERS!!! In fact, I randomly Avada Kedavra'd a couple of people for good measure--it was too great an opportunity to pass up. Finally, we ended up at my favorite place that we went to in Jordan: Bethabara. Or at least, where many people think Bethabara would have been--like so many holy sites, this one's kind of iffy. I really do think it was there, though--archaeological evidence all seems to support it. Anyway, Jesus was baptized somewhere, and it might have been there, so that's where we went. It was really peaceful there, to just look out at the Jordan River. I have to be honest, though--it's really more like a muddy stream. Anybody picturing a grand and majestic river is probably in for a shock if they ever visit. The Spirit was strong there, though, and it was very moving to be by the place where Christ was baptized, one of the ways in which he literally "descended below all things."

Afterwards, we got on the bus, went border crossing again (which took a bit longer this time--it's always harder to get into Israel than it is to leave it)... and now I'm here, typing in my blog at an obscene hour in the morning. I do have pictures from this trip--tons and tons of pictures--but I'll probably upload those tomorrow. I also plan on picture-ifying the last few posts I've made. Tomorrow's an all-day field trip to Tel Aviv, too, so I should have a brand new, action packed entry for you tomorrow (or the next day, depending on how tired I am). Until then, good night!

Oh, P.S. I just thought I should mention how proud I am of myself for not delaying this like I did with Egypt, and I'm sure you guys are cool with it, too :) In the words of the ever-so-eloquent Mario, "Wahoooooo!"

Aleph, bet, vet, gimmel, daled, hey...

Grandpa's my new favorite person. Thanks for commenting, Grandpa! At least somebody reads this thing!

We are leaving for Jordan tomorrow morning... and truth be told, I haven't even packed yet. I have a major aversion to packing, and will probably put it off until tomorrow morning :P Oh well, we'll only be gone until Thursday. It shouldn't be that hard to pack for, right?

So we had a Passover meal a couple days ago. Technically, Passover's not until April, but Ophir, our Jewish teacher, thought he'd be too busy preparing his own family's Passover meal if we had it too close to the real date, so he scheduled it for February, instead. I thought it was really interesting, mostly because it was very authentic--Ophir's led many Passover meals in his own family, and knows how to execute the order of events throughout the evening (and it is very ordered--it's sometimes called the Seder meal, and "seder" actually means "order").

It was really pretty fun, too, though I wasn't such a huge fan of the part where you sit there for an hour or so waiting for dinner as you read from the Haggadah (the Passover story). We sang a lot of songs throughout the course of the evening, and our professor told us about some of the things parents will do to keep their children entertained throughout the course of the evening, since Passover meals can sometimes last well past midnight. He even pulled one of them on us--while we were eating dinner, he hid half of a piece of matzah that was needed for the next step in the Seder, and had us running around the JC to go find it :P He talked about how sometimes families will have their kids act out the story of the Israelites' escape from Egypt, and it kind of reminded me of how Christians have their children act out the Nativity for Christmas. I really do love learning about Jewish culture--some of the things they do are just really fascinating to me.

It's been raining kind of a lot this weekend, but I did make it out for a bit today to help draw a mural that we're going to paint in the Princess Basma center. Oh yeah, and I got a cool t-shirt the other day with Andy Warhol Coca Cola bottles on it. Have I mentioned that t-shirt? It is one awesome t-shirt. It goes very well with my Coca Cola sweatshirt. Unfortunately, I can't wear either one to Jordan--they both have Hebrew writing on them :(

Well, shavua tov! La' hit ra' ote! Shalom! I just took a Hebrew test, so I'll probably be spouting random phrases like that for the next few days. Oh, and I have the Hebrew alphabet song running through my head non-stop :P Anyway.

Laila tov!