A New Chapter

So, in case you were wondering, I have arrived in Jerusalem. I somewhat expected this to be surreal and take some time sinking in but I find that I am rolling along with it pretty well. The flights weren't terribly long and provided many interesting people to talk to. The girl sitting next to me on the last flight has been a student in Tel Aviv for the past three years so she was able to give me several suggestions which I think helped me get a picture of what to expect when I got off the plane.

I was able to connect with nine other Jerusalem University College (JUC) students before I even left the airport so we all got a sherut (taxi-van) together and were able to get to the school very quickly. Usually the sherut driver will wait till every seat is filled before they will leave so it was very fortunate that we had exactly the right number of people!

The school is very old - maybe I'll put up the history of it in another post - and has several interesting finds around. For example, it was used as an outpost for the Israeli army during the 40's and 50's and has several bullet holes in the gate to prove it. Also, there is a first century tomb on campus which has been converted into someone's apartment. No, they do not sleep on the ledge where the body was laid out but it is there for any house guests to see. There is a Christian cemetary behind the school which we hold the keys to. One of the people buried there is a famous archaeologist, another is the author of the hymn, 'It is Well With My Soul'. The school is located on Mt. Zion (the new one, not the one of the original City of David which is much further East) next to the Zion Gate just outside the Old City walls. My room - I wish I could post a video of how to get to it, I got lost several times trying to find it - is at the top of a long flight of winding stairs (46 steps: I guess it's really not that bad) to the roof. We have a BEAUTIFUL view of Western Jerusalem and the sunset.

The first day I was here we took it pretty easy, unpacked, ate dinner (the food is unbelievably good), and got to know each other. The second day: we had orientation meetings, registration for classes, a tour of the New City (Western Jerusalem, outside the walls), and a scavenger hunt in the Old City. I really enjoyed the scavenger hunt because it made us get out of our comfort zone, go find stuff on our own, figure out how to overcome the language barrier and still have a good time. The school recommended we do all of our money exchange with Shaaban, a shop keeper in the Old City who is a long time friend of the school and who takes very good care of its students. While we waited to exchange money (which was at about the best rate we will probably find - four shekals to each dollar), he poured us glasses of juice and soda and gave us advice on how to buy things in the market and what to watch out for. His number one suggestion: don't buy anything right away. We should wait to see more of the city and get a feeling for the shops. Apparently many of the things sold in Jerusalem shops are made in India and China but because the tags are printed in Hebrew the shopkeepers will tell us they are made in Israel. Also, we will find a better deal if we are willing to shop around a little.

Today I went to church at an international Anglican church. I expected it to have some of the same traditions as the Catholic church but was surprised by the mostly contemporary worship music and fiery preaching (the minister is from Northern Ireland). After service and lunch we had our first class tour (all 50 of us!) into the Old City. We walked through the Armenian, Jewish and Christian quarters and saw the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock from afar and finished off by walking through the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Most of the big sites I will go back to later with friends. As Prof. Alexander pointed out, we live here so we can go back when there aren't as many tourists. Finished the tour by stopping at a little fruit stand and buying fresh squeezed pomegranate juice - for about $2.50 the boy sliced four or five pomegranates and popped them into the press - SO GOOD!

I've been here for two days now and already have a bucket list half a page long. I haven't taken a lot of photographs and the ones that I have aren't great but I will try to post them as I take them. Classes start tomorrow! I've got Arabic (which I will be taking with several other students at Bethlehem Bible College), Physical Settings (our touring class - we are learning to connect the land as it was and now is, archaeology, the holy sites, and the Biblical text), Introduction to the Modern Middle East, Palestinian Politics and Society, and Archaeology. The best part about our Archaeology class: we get to do a dig ON CAMPUS. Apparently a sewage line was put in over the summer and in the process they stumbled across what appears to be a first century door arch and what could be the room it connects to. We will begin two squares and be supervised by a professional archaeologist. Don't expect pictures though - we may take them, but may not put them online until the supervising archaeologist has published all of the findings. I cannot wait to get started!