Shabbat

So this evening marks my first ever Shabbat. For those of you non-Jews, that is the Sabbath. It starts at sundown on Friday and ends at sundown on Saturday. Unlike Americans, their day of rest really is a day of rest. Not to the point of everything shutting down, but it is a time where people rest from their daily duties. It should be interesting. We have a group dinner on Friday nights followed by chapel, so I'll be leaving here pretty soon to get ready for that.

We also have assembly on Saturdays instead of Sundays. Once again, for you non-Israelis, assembly is what people in Israel call church. The reason its called "assembly" or "gathering" is because to most in Israel, the word "church" refers to the Catholic church. On a side note, Jewish Christians are called "believers" rather than "Christians." The reason is the same as the reason its called assembly, but also because to most Arabs and Muslims in Israel (and the whole Middle East), a "Christian" is an American or a white person.

Life has been pretty good on Moshav YadHashmonah thus far. Class has been good so far. They are proving to be great already. For those of you who don't know, I'm taking the Land and the Bible, the History of Ancient Israel, the History of the Modern State of Israel, and the Life of Christ. Also, there are field trips galore for them all, so that should be awesome also. We're taking another full day going back into the Old City again on Sunday for class, with an emphasis on Old Testament history. I'm not sure all the places we are going to go see, but I do know as a fact that we are going to walk/crawl/stumble all the way through Hezekiah's water tunnel he built during the Assyrian siege.

I've also gotten some good perspective on some life things here as well. For one, I feel I can really relate to and empathize with a refugee coming to a smaller town in the midwest. Its not that I feel I'm hated or not wanted at the Moshav, or even in much of the city. I just feel like I stick out like a sore thumb, particularly because I'm not exactly a tourist or short-term visitor. And to make things even more awkward, I have a hard time communicating with those who don't speak English (though many do). Like I said, its not a feeling of unwantedness; I just feel a bit out of place. Its a bit odd.

By the way, I've got a wallet full of shekels. Israeli paper money is awesome, way cooler looking than American paper money.

Big Trouble in Old Jerusalem

So today I took my first foray into the Old City of Jerusalem. If you couldn't tell by the name, that's where the old stuff in Jerusalem is. It was really cool. We spent nearly 8 hours walking around in systematic fashion. We were able to see a lot of it, but there were a bunch of places that we either couldn't spend a large amount of time at or even get to. Thats okay, it's only the first of multiple trips into the Old City that we'll be taking.

I took some pictures, which you are more than welcome to take a look at. I didn't take pictures at everything we went to, because I knew I'd get to some of those places again later.

This is the Citadel of David. It's pretty much a castle, and it's pretty much awesome.

This is me pretending to shoot arrows during the castle siege. I know, its kind of nerdy.

This is Dave and I standing atop the Citadel with the Mount of Olives behind us.

This is the view of the Mount of Olives from the top of the Citadel. I don't know if you can see them, but notice the Dome of the Rock in the center and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to the far left (the two gray domes with the crucifixes).

If you couldn't see them before, here they are...

Us men were having a coonskin moment in the citadel.

Looking down into the pool of Bethesda. If you don't know what that is, then read John 5.

The Dome of the Rock behind the Western Wall.

A Day That Didn't Last 24 Hours, But Felt Much Longer

So I'm here in Jerusalem, moslty unpacked and starting to settle in for the evening. Yeah, evening. Its been a long 24 hours, though it feels like 36. My internal clock is all messed up, and I expect it to be for a couple days.

I'm really thinking this will be a blast. Though I've only been here for a little bit, things are just clicking together. Plus, its good to see some friends again that I hadn't seen all summer.

I don't really have any pictures taken yet for me to post, mainly for two reasons:
1) I haven't been here long or really seen anything significant, and
2) I'm not a tourist. I don't wear bermuda shorts or socks with sandals.

Like I said, I haven't seen much but a little bit of city from the highway and the things up here at Moshav Yad HaShmonah (the living community where we are staying in Jerusalem), so I haven't taken any pictures yet. But there is the Elvis Cafe down the street from us here, so I'll make sure to tell you all about that later on. I know, the anticipation is killing you.