Have I ever really talked about the
stuff I’m studying out here? My blog probably makes it sound like I wander
around doing tourist stuff all day. But I only do that once or twice a week.
The rest of my time has been spent studying like the dickens. Or trying to
recover from all the studying and test-taking we do. Let’s see if I can paint a
picture of what our student life is like. Ahem.
Imagine you’re
drowning… and then someone hands you a baby.
No, sorry… That’s Jim Gaffigan’s
description of what it’s like to have 4 kids. As a side-tangent, I think
anything less than 4 kids in my family would be boring! So sign me up
for the drown club. I’ll learn to scuba dive! I’ve already been snorkeling.
More on that later J
Well, I’m sure I could throw in a
sarcastic remark about the designers of this program trying to kill us, but I
just can’t bring myself to do it. Our teachers here are incredible. We just
finished studying through the Old Testament class in one block. Now, we did
just cover over a thousand pages of scripture in about 8 weeks, but when going
that fast, we obviously didn’t read every page. That being said, I’ve still
spent easily a good 2 hours studying for each day of Old Testament alone. Now,
combine that with comparable reading and/or assignments and class time for
Field Trips class, Israel, Palestine, Ancient Near East, Hebrew and Arabic,
along with 3 meals a day and an absolutely vital daily nap, and maybe
you’re starting to see how much of a pressure-cooker school has been.
Good news, however! Next week is
finals week for half of those classes, since they are on block schedule. So
while they were all crammed in super-tight this first 8 weeks, that means that
we’ll be done with everything but Ancient Near East and Field Trips as of next
week. Then we’ll start New Testament, and start going on even more field trips!
Next week we go to Jordan for 4 days. Guess what’s in Jordan, folks? Petra. I’m
excited!
In addition to the adventures and
schoolwork, life has also been intensely spiritual. I will never be the
same. With 2 hours a day of scripture study, I’ve come much closer to the Lord
than I’ve been in a while. I receive promptings every day as a rule. My journal
is filled with impressions about myself and the world around me, and God has
been molding me into a better person in such a way I can look back and see how
fast he’s changed me! One of the most powerful spiritual experiences I had here
was last Sabbath in a home teaching visit. My companion, Jared Sybrowsky, and I
prepared specifically for the people we taught, and handled it like
missionaries would prepare a lesson, really. As a result, we had the most
powerful home teaching experience I’ve ever had in my life. Prayers were
offered, testimonies were shared, priesthood blessings were given, and the
spirit was present. I truly will never be the same again.
And with that, here are some of the
fun things we did this week!
Hezekiah’s Tunnel
A water tunnel cut through 1770 feet of solid limestone
rock. This brings the waters of a nearby spring inside the walls of Jerusalem
to the pools of Siloam. This would give Jerusalem a water supply while under
siege. (See 2 Kings 20:20, 2 Chronicles 32:4, 30)
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| Hezekiah's Tunnel, with Stephanie Leigh and Joey Nelson in the background |
Red Sea
The very southern tip of Israel touches the Red Sea. So we
drove down there in buses for 4 hours each way. On the trip, I finished Brandon
Sanderson’s latest book Steelheart. I recommend it for fantasy / sci-fi
lovers. Then we got there and went snorkeling in the Red Sea! Ah, good
times. I swam around, realized how tiring swimming without a lifejacket can be,
dropped my snorkel to the bottom, found a lionfish, and went to the aquarium.
What a great day!
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| This cat was the security guard for the ticket booth. But you can bribe him with attention and he'll turn a blind eye. |
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| Red Sea. That's Saudi Arabia behind us. We also saw the mountains of Egypt off to the south! (Left to right: Jessica Steele, Amanda Vogt and me) |
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| I became a temporary addition to the Red Sea Aquarium! |
Olive Harvest
It’s olive season, folks! Last week we wandered all over the
campus grounds to climb trees and pick olives. It made me miss rock climbing a
bit. Anyway, we used those (and some more we had to purchase) to process at our
on-site olive press to make authentic olive oil with our own hands! There’s
tons of symbolism involved with olives and the olive tree, but the one thing I
want to touch on is this: Olives, like sardines, are super gross.
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| IT BURNS! With Angela Cheney |
So you soak them in brine to get rid of the bitter flavor
and burning sensation. Then they are less gross. Then you pour them in
that giant stone bowl you have sitting in your backyard (everyone has one of
those, right?) and roll your favorite giant circular rock over the top of them
until it looks like mush.
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| Olives before getting crushed |
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| Me and Cam Cardon crushing the olives in an ancient-style... olive crusher. |
Once they are mush, scoop it all into a basket with a hole
in the bottom.
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| Sheri and Megan with some olive mush |
But where do you put this olive mush once you’ve scooped it
into a holy basket? On a rock, of course! Preferably the kind that has an olive
press nearby. It makes the job a lot easier
(Pretend you see me at the olive press... low bandwidth is )
Then, as you can guess, you squish all of the baskets! And
everything oozes out into a multi-level filter system. Each time the oil falls
into a new container, it’s a little purer than before. This stuff isn’t nearly
as bitter as eating an olive straight from the tree.
(picture with oil)
Olive oil is special because it separates itself from water
and impurities. So you leave it in that hole in the ground for a day and it
will separate out all of the impurities until it finally resembles that yummy
stuff you put on your salad! Or in my case, it resembles the stuff I can use to
give a priesthood blessing. What an adventure! And what an awful flavor I had
in my mouth that day…
Passover
Even though the Passover takes place in the Spring, we
celebrated it Thursday for the experience. Our wonderful Israel teacher, Ophir
Yarden, lead out the whole thing. Now if your seminary experience was like
mine, you may have celebrated a “best of” montage of the Passover in seminary
class, where you read a couple scriptures and eat a few funky things. That
night, however, we celebrated the whole Passover in all of its intricate,
detailed glory. Actually, that’s not true. It took us 3 ½ hours with dinner
included, and we still skimmed over some of the scripture reading that would
have been done. It was quite the experience! Oh, and they ordered wine instead
of grape juice.
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| Anyone feeling tipsy?? |
Luckily they caught that before too many of us took a
sip. In that silly sort of way I kind of wish we would have found out after the
fact! Wouldn’t it be hilarious for a bunch of Mormon students to accidentally
get tipsy while celebrating a Jewish holiday on the wrong day? Ah, the stories
we could have told…
Well, that brings us up to date! The people here are
incredible. The friendships I’m making are wonderful. The food is exquisite. My
feet stink… exquisitely. Something about the food and environment does that.
Well anyway! The bottom line is that life continues to be an absolute pleasure
out here. Every day I wake up in Jerusalem is another day in Paradise.
