Well, it's been some time, but I'm finally writing another post! It has been a pretty cool couple of weeks. This past week was the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which was really cool to be around. We got to be a part of some of their festivities, which were a blast. The first one we went to was on the last day of Sukkot, at the whacking of the willows. I don't know all about it, but Sukkot is about praying for rain to start the fall harvest season. So, on the last day, the tradition is they all get together and whack willow branches on the ground as a way of calling down rain. It may sound odd, but its worked for thousands of years!
The really fun part of Sukkot was the Sukkot Torah ceremony. Each year, all Jews read the entire Torah, and it ends this week. So, they celebrate starting it over again. It was a ton of fun, because it was basically just a dance. We went to this big hall, and they had a live band up front, and a ton of people there. They sang this really long song, who's lyrics consisted primarily of "lie, lie, lie lie lie" (or maybe it was "lye lye lye"). The really interesting part, which I don't think I've ever seen before, was they separated the men and women. For a dance! So the girls were out in a courtyard doing their thing, and all the men were inside with a huge group. We started in a circle holding hands and the circle moving around, but so many people got added to it so people would break off and go inside and make a smaller circle. After about 15 min of that, that song stopped and we did another one where instead of a big circle, we were in lines with our arms around each others shoulders, and would move back and forth, three steps forward and three back. All with really fun, upbeat music sung in Hebrew. I really wished I could have sung along! I really felt the spirit of unity that it brought to the room and with the people. I really think we need something like that in the LDS church. Next stake priesthood meeting will be a giant dance circle like that. Who's in?
Another fun exposure to Jewish culture was on Friday night, the beginning of the Sabbath, we went to a Jewish synagogue for their services. It was pretty cool, someone would get up and read from a prayer book in Hebrew, and started singing it, and everyone else had prayer books (in Hebrew of course) and would sing along with it. Unfortunately, there wasn't written music, so we just kind of had to listen and figure out how to sing along. It was fun!
Well, there's a lot of really cool people here, and it's a lot of fun. Plenty of opportunity to play music and have fun. Last weekend we went out to Tel Aviv, a city on the coast, and went to the beach! It was fun, but boy did I get sunburned. I don't think I've been this burned in years. So all week I've barely been able to put a backpack on.
The funnest part of this week was going to a concert! We went to matisyahu, and it was awesome! They had a really cool opener, called Shaback Samech, an israeli rap/hip-hop group. It was really cool, and even cooler because it was in Israel! I loved it.
Well, thats about it, if you have any questions let me know!
Pictures... yeah theyre not uploading for some reason. Everyone thinks its ok to skype at the same time, so our 5mbps internet for the whole center gets eaten up very quickly- but I'll try to do so soon. Love y'all!
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Week 2!
Wow, it's been an awesome week here at the Jerusalem Center! We've had so many wonderful classes and cool experiences, I don't even know where to start!
Well, lets start with the classes. We have four of them: Ancient near East history, Israel/Judaism, Palestine/Modern near East history, and Old Testament. All of them are awesome for different reasons:
Ancient near eastern history is just fascinating. We had to memorize 25 different dates of significant events in the east, ranging from 2000 BC-1453 AD (Birth of Abraham and the fall of Constantinople, respectively). We also read parts of Gilgamesh, and it was really cool. I don't know how accurate it is, but if we stick to that, there has been civilization on the earth for literally hundreds of thousands of years, until a flood came and wiped it all out. Anyways, its pretty cool, but the more believable oldest civilization is called Sumer, and learning about that was equally fascinating.
Israel/Judaism is also really really cool. He started the first day of class with two questions: What is Judaism? and, When did it start? We answered one at a time, and got numerous answers for both questions. Turns out the second question depends on the first one- if you consider Judaism as a people, as in the descendants of Judah, well, then obviously it is something like 1700 BC, when Judah was born. If you consider it as a religion that started when the Mosaic law was revealed, you are looking at more like 1200 BC. If you say it is a religion based on Rabbinical interpretation of scripture, than it is shortly after the time of Christ. If it wasn't a standardized religion until the publishing of the Talmud, then it started in 500 AD. Really interesting to see the answers and perspectives of one simple question.
Palestine is probably my not-as favorite class. I still think its really interesting, but, we've only had one class of it, and the one reading assignment was horrendous. Not that it wasn't interesting, just really really dense.
Old testament is really cool, our teacher, Brother Woods, knows the scriptures very well, and is great at making class not just a biblical history/information lecture, but a really spiritual experience. f
So, some cool stuff we've done this week was first, a field trip! It was called the "Jerusalem Overlook" field trip, we basically went to different sights around the city, all of which had nice overlooks of the city. The first one was called the Augusta Victoria church, it was really cool, and very much had a European cathedral feel to it. We also went to Navi-Samuel, the place where Samuel is traditionally buried, and where the crusaders apparently camped right before they captured Jerusalem.
Besides, we just had a pretty normal week, I went into the city again, but honestly, I'm going to try not to as much this week, the homework load is pretty significant, we have to read alot of stuff for all our classes.
Another really cool thing this week was Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday. We went to the Western Wall (sometimes inappropriately called the wailing wall) to pray before the Sabbath and see the festivities. It was a really cool experience. I'm sure we'll learn more about where the tradition comes from, but people write down prayers on pieces of paper and put them in the cracks of the wall. So, I of course did so. If you've never done that, it is really cool to write down a prayer! It really makes prayer feel more sincere and thoughtful when you write it down. It was definitely a spiritual experience. They made everyone wear a yamacha at the wall, and they provided free ones for everyone. Up by the wall, they had a side room with a library, and some seriously elaborate Torah scrolls. It was awesome.
So, as you know, Saturday here is the day we observe the Sabbath. I have seen on my mission and in other experiences, that to some people, which day we observe as the Sabbath is very important. More important, it seems, in some instances than actually observing it. But, doing it on Saturday here has made me think about that a little more, and realize that what is really important is how we observe the day we dedicate to the Lord. Another fun thing is, I got a calling! I am a Sabbath school teacher. Its great, I've wanted a teaching calling since I got back from my mission, because I've missed teaching so much. I gave the lesson today and got lots of compliments (although maybe that's not a good indicator, people seem to say nice job even if it was bad) but I feel like it went well.
Oh ummmmmm.... Pictures. Yeah that will happen soon.
Well, lets start with the classes. We have four of them: Ancient near East history, Israel/Judaism, Palestine/Modern near East history, and Old Testament. All of them are awesome for different reasons:
Ancient near eastern history is just fascinating. We had to memorize 25 different dates of significant events in the east, ranging from 2000 BC-1453 AD (Birth of Abraham and the fall of Constantinople, respectively). We also read parts of Gilgamesh, and it was really cool. I don't know how accurate it is, but if we stick to that, there has been civilization on the earth for literally hundreds of thousands of years, until a flood came and wiped it all out. Anyways, its pretty cool, but the more believable oldest civilization is called Sumer, and learning about that was equally fascinating.
Israel/Judaism is also really really cool. He started the first day of class with two questions: What is Judaism? and, When did it start? We answered one at a time, and got numerous answers for both questions. Turns out the second question depends on the first one- if you consider Judaism as a people, as in the descendants of Judah, well, then obviously it is something like 1700 BC, when Judah was born. If you consider it as a religion that started when the Mosaic law was revealed, you are looking at more like 1200 BC. If you say it is a religion based on Rabbinical interpretation of scripture, than it is shortly after the time of Christ. If it wasn't a standardized religion until the publishing of the Talmud, then it started in 500 AD. Really interesting to see the answers and perspectives of one simple question.
Palestine is probably my not-as favorite class. I still think its really interesting, but, we've only had one class of it, and the one reading assignment was horrendous. Not that it wasn't interesting, just really really dense.
Old testament is really cool, our teacher, Brother Woods, knows the scriptures very well, and is great at making class not just a biblical history/information lecture, but a really spiritual experience. f
So, some cool stuff we've done this week was first, a field trip! It was called the "Jerusalem Overlook" field trip, we basically went to different sights around the city, all of which had nice overlooks of the city. The first one was called the Augusta Victoria church, it was really cool, and very much had a European cathedral feel to it. We also went to Navi-Samuel, the place where Samuel is traditionally buried, and where the crusaders apparently camped right before they captured Jerusalem.
Besides, we just had a pretty normal week, I went into the city again, but honestly, I'm going to try not to as much this week, the homework load is pretty significant, we have to read alot of stuff for all our classes.
Another really cool thing this week was Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday. We went to the Western Wall (sometimes inappropriately called the wailing wall) to pray before the Sabbath and see the festivities. It was a really cool experience. I'm sure we'll learn more about where the tradition comes from, but people write down prayers on pieces of paper and put them in the cracks of the wall. So, I of course did so. If you've never done that, it is really cool to write down a prayer! It really makes prayer feel more sincere and thoughtful when you write it down. It was definitely a spiritual experience. They made everyone wear a yamacha at the wall, and they provided free ones for everyone. Up by the wall, they had a side room with a library, and some seriously elaborate Torah scrolls. It was awesome.
So, as you know, Saturday here is the day we observe the Sabbath. I have seen on my mission and in other experiences, that to some people, which day we observe as the Sabbath is very important. More important, it seems, in some instances than actually observing it. But, doing it on Saturday here has made me think about that a little more, and realize that what is really important is how we observe the day we dedicate to the Lord. Another fun thing is, I got a calling! I am a Sabbath school teacher. Its great, I've wanted a teaching calling since I got back from my mission, because I've missed teaching so much. I gave the lesson today and got lots of compliments (although maybe that's not a good indicator, people seem to say nice job even if it was bad) but I feel like it went well.
Oh ummmmmm.... Pictures. Yeah that will happen soon.
Saturday, September 7, 2013
First Sabbath day
Well, it's been a great past 2 days, and the cool part is, today, Saturday, was the Sabbath! We had our church meetings in the morning, went this afternoon to the garden tomb and other parts of old Jerusalem. Heres a picture! So, funny realization- I had my camera on the highest quality setting, and our internet is super slow, so this picture right here took about 20 min to upload. I have some more, but in the future I'll lower the quality a bit, and/or down-convert them on the computer.
On an unrelated note, we had a nice evening tonight. I think the jet-lag is about gone, I slept for about 10 hours last night, it was glorious. I think I'll do that every day :)
This evening we had try-outs for being in musical numbers throughout the semester. I did 2 things, a piano solo of "My heavenly father loves me" and singing "I feel my saviors love" Both went pretty well, I think she knows not everyone is going to be polished with it, but the musical directors (a senior missionary couple) wanted to hear everyone and get a feel for everyone's voices and talents. Also, I got to play music with several different people on different instruments, and boy is there some talent here! It is great. Apparently, we get to be the performers in a very prestigious concert in December! (details to follow)
So another awesome thing about being here is the classes! They totally rock. I've only had two so far, but they were absolutely great. Old testament and Ancient near eastern studies. If you have an LDS version of the scriptures, check out the footnote on Genesis 6:16 and get ready for this to happen (i.e. have your mind blown). Also, the ancient near east was really cool, I am excited to learn about all the awesome history that only know parts of, but want to learn more of. Our teacher, Professor Seeley, is awesome! He makes it so interesting, and is really funny about it.
Besides that, we went back to the old city, and found there is even more street vendors than we thought. It's pretty cool. There was a place that had shoes for like 10 shekels a pair! Super good deal. I imagine the area kind of like how my family described the crazy chinese markets, tons of vendors with shops selling very similar products, and I'm sure you could get some good haggling done. (Anyone got some good hagglin' tips?) One of my friends who went 2 semesters ago said that clothes were about the same cost as the us, maybe a little more, but maybe she didn't go where I went.. Cuz dang, they've got cheap stuff here. Wish I hadnt brought so many clothes.. coulda bought a bunch of Jerusalem clothes. Even though its all probably still made in china, it will be cool to say "This shirt is from Jerusalem. Therefore I am cooler than you." and it would totally be true. (right?)
Well, thats the most recent excitement, other than that, I'm making lots of cool friends and having a great time. It really is a great place here. Feel free to write me an email or ask any other questions!
-Cam
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Day 2!
Well, we've now spent 2 days here in Jerusalem, and it's been a cool day! It's been really hard to stay awake all afternoon- We had a cool morning out in the city, on a long walking tour through the old city, it was really cool! I'll elaborate in a second, but then after that long morning walk in the heat, we came back and had lunch, and then were expected to stay awake for 2-3 hours more of orientation stuff. Yeah. Right. Especially when you factor in the collective jet lag, I think there will be a lot of questions tomorrow and the answer will be "we covered that yesterday".
So anyways- old Jerusalem. It's pretty cool. It's the historical part of the town, that has the famous sites, one of the cool places was the church of the holy sepulchre. This is one of the places where it was believed that Christ was crucified and buried. I know that with some biblical history sites there was a bit of disagreement about where it actually all happened, but I thought that the crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ were agreed upon. So this seemed to be the less traditional one, but they had a place where there were 3 holes in the ground, which apparently was for the crosses. There was a marble slab which apparently was where they laid Christ to prepare his body for burial, and another place (I'm forgetting the name) where they hold that Christ resurrected. There was a ton of people in a huge line to check it out, so we didn't go then, but hopefully we'll go. We walked by the street that goes to the Garden tomb, but didn't go close enough to actually see it.
Another interesting thing that goes in is at certain hours of the day, they broadcast a prayer over the city through a loudspeaker, so everyone can be reminded to pray, or follow along with the prayer. It's of course in Hebrew, and is kind of sung/chanted, in a very middle-eastern style feel. It was kind of cool to hear during the day and during dinner when we're eating on the terrace, but a little less enjoyable when they do one at 4:30am.
Well, despite my best efforts, I forgot my camera charger- but luckily, someone else had one that was compatible with my camera. So, on my next post, I'll be sure to have taken and uploaded some pictures!
So anyways- old Jerusalem. It's pretty cool. It's the historical part of the town, that has the famous sites, one of the cool places was the church of the holy sepulchre. This is one of the places where it was believed that Christ was crucified and buried. I know that with some biblical history sites there was a bit of disagreement about where it actually all happened, but I thought that the crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ were agreed upon. So this seemed to be the less traditional one, but they had a place where there were 3 holes in the ground, which apparently was for the crosses. There was a marble slab which apparently was where they laid Christ to prepare his body for burial, and another place (I'm forgetting the name) where they hold that Christ resurrected. There was a ton of people in a huge line to check it out, so we didn't go then, but hopefully we'll go. We walked by the street that goes to the Garden tomb, but didn't go close enough to actually see it.
Another interesting thing that goes in is at certain hours of the day, they broadcast a prayer over the city through a loudspeaker, so everyone can be reminded to pray, or follow along with the prayer. It's of course in Hebrew, and is kind of sung/chanted, in a very middle-eastern style feel. It was kind of cool to hear during the day and during dinner when we're eating on the terrace, but a little less enjoyable when they do one at 4:30am.
Well, despite my best efforts, I forgot my camera charger- but luckily, someone else had one that was compatible with my camera. So, on my next post, I'll be sure to have taken and uploaded some pictures!
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
We made it!
Well, I've been here in Jerusalem for less than 8 hours, but its already great! We are at such a cool place! The trip over was pretty good. I always forget how long a 10 hour flight feels like it is. (Especially when you have a 5 hour one right before it!) But, some movies, some sleeping pills, and walking around made the time go by fast enough.
So we haven't had any time to do anything except take a quick tour of the Jerusalem Center and have some other orientation-type meetings, and dinner. But seriously, the best part so far is the food. I am not kidding, its the best food I've had in months. No offense to anyone who has made me food recently, but dang. I never knew steamed carrots could taste so good and be seasoned so perfectly that they would usher in the dawn of future addiction.
I know, I know... Everyone wants pictures. But, they scared us into the fact that if you tried to upload pictures through this network, it would crash it because its too slow. I just ran a speed test and we're getting 4-5 Mbps, which yes, is slow, but I'm pretty sure could handle a few pictures. So, once I get them uploaded to my computer I'll give them a shot!
So we haven't had any time to do anything except take a quick tour of the Jerusalem Center and have some other orientation-type meetings, and dinner. But seriously, the best part so far is the food. I am not kidding, its the best food I've had in months. No offense to anyone who has made me food recently, but dang. I never knew steamed carrots could taste so good and be seasoned so perfectly that they would usher in the dawn of future addiction.
I know, I know... Everyone wants pictures. But, they scared us into the fact that if you tried to upload pictures through this network, it would crash it because its too slow. I just ran a speed test and we're getting 4-5 Mbps, which yes, is slow, but I'm pretty sure could handle a few pictures. So, once I get them uploaded to my computer I'll give them a shot!
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