Shawarma Beats Studying

From Monday's field trip, looking over the Judaean wilderness.
It's not where I'd like to wander for forty years, but this very well may be the start of my modeling career... 

Don't be fooled. 8 a.m. class is still early, even in Jerusalem.  Classes are in full swing and they don't hold back.  We have class Tuesday through Friday and they keep us busy, busy, busy. The craziest thing is when you realize that everything you are learning about happened about 1-17 miles away from your bedroom. It's pretty cool to read the scriptures and say "Oh yeah, I live on Mt. Scopus.  Neat".  I have the hardest time deciding which is my favorite class, because the faculty is amazing.  Old Testament has the best insights, ancient history with Dr. Seely is great because he knows just about everything, history of Palestine with Dr. Bashir Bashir is hysterical (he sounds exactly like lemur King Julian off of Madagascar) history of Israel with Dr. OphirYarden is so interesting and I can already read Hebrew with Professor Goldman.  It's tons of hard work and reading (okay skimming), but it's an amazing set of classes. It's pretty hard to put your head down and work when everyone is laughing and talking but it's fun that everyone is basically in the same classes.

Maybe I'll choose Dr. Seely as my favorite professor for today.  We went on a field trip last Monday to several viewpoints that allowed us to see Jerusalem from many different angles.  We got chatting, and he discovered that I was a Humanities major which opened up a whole discussion on the fascinating culture that I'll be able to study while I am here.  Today in lecture, he mentioned how proud he was of Humanities majors because we are able to think and analyze all the bits of information we are learning from each class and integrate them into a cohesive analysis.  Woot. Go Humanities majors.  I mostly follow all the professors around on our field trips because they are geniuses.  We stopped off at the Church of Ascension and analyzed all the iconography of the chapel.  It's so much cooler to do that in person.  My favorite part of the whole day was when we sang "Nearer My God To Thee" inside.  The acoustics were incredible and it was such a touching experience.

 Everyday is pretty overwhelming like that. I feel like such a well rounded person studying here (maybe it's the Humanities major...) but it is really amazing.  Everything is just so much fun, from Old Testament, writing papers and munching on pita.  Today we spent about 2 hours putting together school kits for a Hebrew school, and though it was long and hot, it was all smiles and laughs the whole time.  I love it.




Sketchy Costco trip...I think it's supposed to be "Extra", not Exit. 

 However fun classes are, it's sweet freedom when we can escape to the city.  Highlights have included a sketchy trip to the Arab Costco for some much needed chocolate bars, haggling the price down on some sick awesome genie pants and tasting each vendor's pistachio baklava to determine who has the best.  (It's a rough job, I know) The food at the center is quite overwhelming.  Lunch and dinner are these amazing sauces over couscous, hummus, dates, dried apricots, traditional side dishes and lots and lots of pita. (Hence the scale on the 5th floor...)My favorite addition is the hot chocolate machine. The nights get chilly out here and most everyone grabs a jacket and sips cocoa on the balcony while we watch the sunset and listen to the Muslim Call to Prayer. (This gorgeous chant plays 5 times a day-while beautiful always, the 4 p.m. call is much more pleasant to listen to than the 4 a.m. call in my opinion...I'm no morning person.) Last night's outing was hard to top.  We shopped in East Jerusalem (maybe for baklava, maybe not. You'll never know) then crossed to the west side. (East Jerusalem is banned after dark, for safety reasons).  West Jerusalem is really modern and the place to be at night.  The street performers are awesome as is the street food.  Shawarma with spicy hummus, pickles, chips (french fries) and cucumber was the entree which only got better when we found a gelato place right around the corner.  The food at the center is good, but it does lack gelato.  I'll just have to skip out to West Jerusalem more regularly.


This is West Jerusalem and it has these bikes that
when you pedal, they play music, beat a drum, light
up a lamp, etc.  We drew quite the crowd.

Each weekend is like a three day holiday because we have Sabbath on Saturday, Sunday is a free day, and Mondays are field trip days.  That, along with the baklava, is something I can definitely get used to.