JRu 7: Why you Trippin'?

Monday, September 5th

We had our first fieldtrip today. We went to different spots around Jerusalem that we could orient ourselves and have a better understanding of where all these Biblical events took place. Sadly, my sister and I are not in the same old testament class, so we won't be on field trips together. This will probably be a good thing because that means we will make new friends and get to experience things on our own.

One of the cool places we stopped was by the Mar Elyas Monestary. We hiked up a little behind the monestary and we were on the hills of Judea between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, looking out over the city of Belthlehem. Bethlehem is part of the West Bank, which is part of the Palistinian teritory. Because of the current political situation, there is a wall separating Belthlehem from Jerusalem. It is kind of sad that there is this separation and it was a very visual reminder of the conflict going on.

The amazing thing about my Old Testament Teacher is that he has been a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for the past few years (eight, I think) and he loves to sing. After talking to us a little about the geography of the land and what we were seeing, we sand a few hymns. It is so powerful to be in these historic places and to sing about them. It brings the spirit of God so quickly.

After our field trip, we returned to the center, had lunch and then started our classes. We had an hour of Old Testament and an hour and a half of Ancient Near Eastern Studies. Since I have not been in school for over two years, I am super excited to start school again. I was really excited about these classes and for the many things I will learn this semseter.

Tuesday, September 6th

More classes!!! Today we had the rest of our classes The classes I am taking this semester are:

Old Testament (for the first part of the semester) - Brother Huntsman (He is a professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU. He sings in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He and his wife have one daughter and one son who will live here in the center for a year.)

New Testament (second part of the semester) - Brother Harper (He is a professor of Church History and Doctrine at BYU. He has two daughters, three sons and his wife. They live with us at the center and will be here for a year.)

Ancient Near Eastern Studies – Brother Ludlow (He is a professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU. He was my New Testament Teacher when I was at BYU. He and his wife have three sons and two daughters here with them for a year. One of their sons is participating in the program with us and should be leaving on a mission soon after the semester ends.) Ancient near eastern studies is a history class about this region of the world.

Modern Near Eastern Studies: Judaism, Israel and Zionism - Ophir Yarden (He is Israeli and a practicing Jew. He is married with kids. We think he teaches at Hebrew University)

Modern Near Eastern Studies: Islam and Palestine - Bashir Bashir (He is a Palestinian living here in Jerusalem. We suspect he was raised Muslim but he simply told us he was not religious.)

Basic Hebrew - Judy Goldman (She was raised in Sacramento, California but married an Israeli who was living there. She is Jewish, has four kids and has been teaching here for a long time.)

Field Trips - nuff said.

These first few days were mostly orientation, but we got all our text books and it is going to be a LOT of reading. That is a big adjustment for me since I don't really have reading assignments as a physics major. Plus, I haven't been in school for over two years.