Jerusalem

It took me a while to figure out how to post on Blogger because the links on the top of the page are all in Hebrew.

Well, the flight was awful, and the remainder of the day was pretty terrible, too. In spite of eye-burning, head-pounding jet lag, our professors wouldn't let us sleep until 10 pm Israel time. It was for the best, though. It was the only way to ensure our quick recovery.

It's so wild being here. The day I arrived, I looked out of the window at Jerusalem, and it felt like I was just looking at a giant photograph. The fact that I was in the Middle East only sank in when I heard the call to prayer echoing over the city.

It was so interesting for me to see the difference between the Palestinian and Israeli portions of the city. The BYU Jerusalem Center is situated in East Jerusalem, right across from a Palestinian neighborhood. In general, the area is shabby, sketchy, dirty, and crowded. This might not be the case everywhere in East Jerusalem, but it's my experience of the place.

West Jerusalem, on the other hand, is dominated by Israelis. It's new, it's clean, it's sleek, it's chic. The difference between West and East Jerusalem was like night and day. I knew there would be discrimination and animosity between the two groups, but the visual contrast caught me off guard.

Since I've gotten here, I've been to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Western Wall, toured along the ramparts of the city, played games with kids in the streets, gotten lost in the Old City for hours, attended a Jewish festival in West Jerusalem featuring a 40-50 foot tall bonfire, and studied at Hebrew University. I've also been stoned by Palestinian children and verbally sexually harrassed by preteen boys, and some of my new friends were spat on by an Orthodox Jew. And I'm sure other stuff has happened that I've momentarily forgotten.

It's been an eventful five days in Jerusalem.