First Impressions

Sup, guys? It's my first post from Israel and I'm actually avoiding doing work right now so I figured I'd blog instead! I'm in the computer room with a bunch of other people desperate for civilization. Or, rather, desperate for a civilization OTHER than the one that is virtually teeming with people and automobiles right outside the Center.

Right now it's 9:05 on a Friday night. Tomorrow is the Sabbath (weird, right?) and then we have all of Sunday off to shop or do whatever we want! I'm going with some friends to Tel Aviv, a really modern city with great beaches.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Okay, first impression of Jerusalem: different than what I thought it would be. I knew it was a big city, but I was imagining a big city like Salt Lake or L.A., not like New York or pretty much all of New Jersey. It's huge, it's overwhelming, and it has almost zero vegetation. The drivers here are pretty much crazy, except they're really nice to pedestrians. It's weird, though, to live here after so long in Provo. The pollution is horrible, and it's actually been making me all stuffed up.

But on the bright side, it is an absolutely riveting city with incredible history and fascinating people. We went and visited the Old City today--in case you're wondering, that's the part of Jerusalem that's been around for, like, 2000 years. It's all walled in and there are eight gates to enter. This is the place that has the Dome of the Rock, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and dozens of other important archeological and religious sites. The Old City is divided up into quarters--there's the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Armenian quarters.

Muslims make up most of the Old City, but their section is generally really dirty and very, very crowded. Today is kind of like their Sabbath, and they had special prayers earlier. That made their quarter ridiculously crowded. Like, I stood in the exact same spot for twenty minutes and just tried to wait out the crush of humanity while clutching desperately to my wallet so I wouldn't get pickpocketed.

On a side note, I totally watched these kids pickpocket people. It was kinda funny, especially when they got caught.

Anyways. A lot of people there thought I was Muslim--or at least it seemed that way, because they all kept trying to talk to me in Arabic. All I could say back was "Shokran," which means "thank you," and "'Afwan!" which means "Sorry!"

After half an hour of trying to force our way through the crowd at Damascus Gate, our group decided it wasn't worth it and went in through New Gate instead. It let us into the Christian quarter, rather than the Muslim quarter, and that was super fast. We went shopping and generally tried to avoid the stupid teenagers that were catcalling us.

I bought a way awesome new skirt, and I'll post a picture of it (and a few others I've snapped from my balcony) as soon as I can. The skirt only cost me 20 shekalim--or about 5 dollars. It's very light and flowy and I predict that I will be wearing it all the time.

I'm getting over the jetlag now, thank goodness. I've been exercising and trying to get the right amount of sleep. Oh, and the food! Three square meals a day with meat, dairy, vegetables, and fruit every time is doing wonders for me you guys. It's amazing what a well-balanced diet will do for you!

That's about everything so far, since I can't put up pics yet. My group is about 80 people, and they are so much fun! (Although today in the city it was just me and 4 others.) As soon as I can, I'll start showing you instead of telling you what's going on.

Well, I'm gonna go do work and prepare for the Sabbath now (it's a Fast . . . uh . . . Saturday, so they won't feed us till dinner)!