I'm in Jerusalem and it's amazing! We got here only a few hours ago and are getting to know the BYU Jerusalem Center and our professors. It is so beautiful I can't even tell you! Yesterday, I was the first group of the day at the airport at 4:30 am. I went from SLC to ATL to JFK and that was only the beginning. My group (only 10 people) met up with another group of 20 people (who, mind you, left slc at 11:00 on a direct flight to JFK) at JFK to board our flight to Tel Aviv. Mom, remember how i told you it wouldn't be real to me until i actually got to Tel Aviv? Well, that is False. It was at the gate at JFK. I felt like I was already in Israel with all of the Jewish families waiting to go through a special 2nd security checkpoint that is specifically for flights going to Israel. Seriously, the first thing i thought was "TRADITION!" with all of the prayer shawls, side curls, and kippas. It was pretty cool to see. Anyways, the 30 of us got through security and made it on the plane where we were pretty much the only Americans on the 2 story airplane. Here is a cultural thing i noticed in the security line and on the plane, Jewish women are feisty! Just like in Fiddler on the Roof, they can gossip for hours without even knowing each other which I witnessed with the women sitting in front of me. Also, the men can argue with anyone for a very long time. It was so loud, people were talking and walking around the whole time! I swear, the plane was out of control! It was actually really interesting to see everyone together though. When we started flying into the morning time zone, the men got out their special prayer shawls and started rocking back and forth singing prayers. It was so cool to see so much devotion. The flight was COMPLETELY FULL! I got a window seat, but unfortunately i sat next to a heavy Jewish woman with TERRIBLE b.o. and her baby on her lap. I would say we got pretty close, especially when her baby's head was on my arm while she openly nursed him every 2 hours. That made the 11 hours on the plane fly by! haha! I did get slightly lucky though because they played Jane Eyre as one of the in-flight movies and it was when everyone decided to be sleeping, so i could watch it in peace. Anyways, we got to Tel Aviv which is a beautiful airport and me an the rest of the "Mormon University" students huddled together going through customs (thankfully I didn't get heavily questioned like some people) and getting our bags. We then walked out and found our professors holding BYU signs! What a relief! Especially because we found out that more than half of the students are still in the Arizona airport waiting to find out where they can go and what they can do to get here because their flight was cancelled due to the hurricane. There is only 1 flight a day leaving JFK for TLV and they are almost completely full every time! There are only the 31 of us here now out of the 81 students. We are incredibly lucky. Apparently the other students are coming in small groups of like 6 people every day, but it will take forever for everyone to get here. Anyways, some things are changed around for us but not everything. It actually just means that we aren't starting classed until Monday and we are going on a tour of the Old City tomorrow and the Garden Tomb on Friday!!!!!!!!!
Seriously, its gorgeous in the Jerusalem Center! All of us feel extremely humbled to be here. Tonight we got here and took a tour of the building. It has two bomb shelters just so you know! But actually, every building in Israel is supposed to have a bomb shelter. The center is on the "shoulder" or in between Mount Scopus and the Mount of Olives. It's UNREAL! Its heavily guarded by gates but when you go in everything seems very open and natural. The stone is beautiful and there are gardens and fountains all around. The view is probably the most intense thing of all. There are tons of large windows overlooking the Old City and you can see the old city walls and the Dome of the Rock from just about every window. Even from my apartment's patio you see all of the city below. Today is the last day of Ramadan, so when we were eating dinner on the patio overlooking the city we could hear parties everywhere. I've also heared the Muslim prayer call twice already. Apparently, it will wake us up every morning. What I have noticed is that the people are just concerned about their families and their beliefs so you just have to respect them and they will respect you
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