Jet Lag, First Impressions, & Snow

Almost had a panic attack when I got onto blogger and everything was in Hebrew! Fixed it, looks like I'll be able to blog! I've been in Jerusalem for about three days now I think, but it seems like it's been way longer! The flights here were LONG to put it simply. The worst part is that I could NOT sleep the entire way... so in addition to barely getting any sleep the two nights before I left, I was awake for the whole 24+ hours of travel time, and when we got in it was only 2 in the afternoon local time!

A good thing about not being able to sleep on the plane though is that me and my friend Chloe decided to wander the airplane when most people on the plane were asleep and made friends with an Israeli Jew and an Israeli flight attendant. We talked to each of them for about half an hour and were able to catch a pretty good glimpse of how amazing and devoutly religious the locals are here. Actually, they both lived in New York but had strong ties to the Holy Land and had both lived here. The first, a middle-aged man, was flying in for a wedding and was telling us about how he has 8 children, his views of how sacred the Holy Land is, and about how his favorite place in Jerusalem is the wailing wall because to him it is so deeply spiritual and in his beliefs, all the prayers from the entire world are gathered at the wailing wall and sent up to Heaven. He had the deepest respect of Mormons and was really excited for the experiences we were going to have going to the Holy Land. The flight attendant was a younger man born and raised in Jerusalem who had attended Hebrew University. He told us about how he met his wife- an american who was on a study abroad for a year in Jerusalem. He was convinced we were both going to fall in love with local Jewish boys while on our study abroad. He even gave us a private tour of the upstairs of the airplane which was cool. I also got to talk to the guy sitting next to me who was just a little older than me and he was telling me about how he had been out of the Israeli army for a year now and just getting back from touring the United States. He went to way more states in the US than I have ever been to- some of them completely random like New Mexico and even Utah. He said his favorite place he went was Boston. What was interesting about the conversation I had with him is that he didn't see why we were going to Jerusalem- he said he didn't really like Jerusalem because he thought it was too hostile. He said he was from the Tel Aviv area and told me I had to go visit it which I am definitely planning on doing. I guess it was just really interesting to me to see how different the views of Israelis are concerning the Holy Land- and I know this was only just a small glimpse of all the views I will be able to observe while I am here.

The Tel Aviv airport was a little intimidating because of customs but we all made it through onto our buses and met our religion professors. We then loaded everything onto the buses and took off from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem! The ride was so exciting for us because we were FINALLY in the country we've all been dreaming about for almost the past six months. And to make it a little more exciting, it was pouring rain! The towns here are really interesting because they are so densely packed with tall buildings but are surrounded just by open countryside, and all the buildings are the exact same stucco color. We passed through part of the West Bank, notoriously dangerous, and had to pass through checkpoints entering and leaving. At the checkpoint leaving the West Bank, an Israeli guard got on the bus with a huge gun. Luckily, they decided it wasn't worth their time to inspect the bus because that would have taken a long time with all our luggage.

Israeli checkpoint

Separation wall (and rain)

We then continued to drive towards Jerusalem (it's about an hour long drive from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem) and we saw parts of the wall of separation which was cool. As we got closer to Jerusalem, the rain started to turn into snow! Snow here is really rare so it's unusual that we got to see it on our first day. After getting our first glimpses of the city of Jerusalem and taking a thousand pictures that didn't really work out because of the rain and snow, we finally reached our new home, the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies! We were all SO excited to finally be here!

Our first, long awaited walk into our new home!

We then walked into the main auditorium and met our faculty and got welcomed into this great city with the most incredible view of all of Jerusalem. The rest of the night was kind of a blur due to lack of sleep. I remember a tour of the building, dinner in the Oasis, going to classes to meet our professors briefly, and unpacking. The Oasis (our cafeteria) is awesome- it's like the Cannon Center but with better food! Also we get to try lots of different local kinds of foods (some much better than others). I woke up the next morning at 3am due to jet lag and couldn't fall back asleep. Once it got light, I got to see something extremely rare off the balcony of my room- the city of Jerusalem covered in snow! I guess it hasn't snowed this much here in about 20 years so I definitely got to start this trip with a bang!

I'm not lying when I say that I took this from my balcony! This is the Dome of the Rock and Old Jerusalem  covered in snow.

The last two days were packed with orientations, meeting new friends, classes, studying (we already have a big test next Wednesday), and exploring the awesome Jerusalem center. However, we are not allowed to leave the building just yet so sometimes it doesn't really feel like we're actually here in Jerusalem. Yesterday in Old Testament class we were talking about the story of Nephi from the Book of Mormon killing Laban and our professor asked us where the story took place. We all mumbled "Jerusalem"- the answer we've known most of our lives and then all the sudden it hit all of us that right outside of our classroom window we have the most incredible view of the city where this story actually happened. It was a crazy and surreal realization for all of us. I hope this kind of amazement and awe that I am in the same place where all of these incredible stories from the scriptures takes place sticks with me this entire semester.

Kara, me, & Chloe on our snowy first morning

So right now it is acually 5:30 am local time... My jet lag is still really bad. I haven't slept in past 3:30 am yet! Last night I did something really bad and gave in to my afternoon tiredness. I fell asleep at about 4 in the afternoon and didn't wake up until 2 am... sleeping right through dinner haha. Now I'm wide awake and it's 5:30 in the morning (and I'm starving), but I got to skype with my parents about an hour ago so that's good! But if anyone knows me really well, 5:30 am is NOT my time of day EVER, so I'm kind of enjoying being a morning person for once in my life haha. Today is the Sabbath (on Saturday here) and after church we are going to the Garden Tomb where it is believed to be the location where Jesus was resurrected. I'm really excited to go see this special place and am excited that it is just a short walk from where I live so I get to go there often. Tomorrow we finally get to go see the city of Jerusalem! I realize this blog post is really long so good job for reading this far. It looks like I will be way too busy for them to be this long in the future. I'm really excited to be here in Jerusalem, and especially excited to go out into the city I'm looking out at right now from my new home!