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.