The Chamber of Secrets and You Wouldn't Understand

We went on a really unique field trip this week. The year round people lovingly refer to it as the 'Chamber of Secrets' field trip. Every semester, one of the faculty takes all of a students for a tour under the center. The center is suspended on a system of pylons, so that there is a technical space under all of the floors for easy access to all systems (heat/ac/water etc.). It looks like this:

and I was geeking out the whole time...Engineering!!! Everyone was looking at me funny because I was taking pictures of the walls and the posts, but they just didn't understand. If you are not an engineer (or an engineer in training) this looks just like a normal, boring concrete post. To me it looks like statics and dynamics and forces and concrete mixes and hours of hard work and tension and moments and pretty much pure awesome! 

We were walking in the bowels of the Jerusalem Center going further and further down.I was shrieking girlishly on the inside about all the really neat engineering, the goup walked around the corner and I saw one of the coolest things ever. This:

 There are literally thousands of names on the walls of students from the past. I saw some 20 year old names from 1993, written very faintly in chalk!

The best part was that we got to write our names in too! I was sneaky and wrote my name in 3 different places...So, if anyone ever ends up at the Jerusalem Center, find me!!

Recap of the day: I got to wear an awesome brand new orange hard hat, went down into the 'Chamber of Secrets', saw some 20 year old chalk graffiti, and got to add my name to the thousands of names that have been on the walls since the Center was built. It was a different kind of day, but it was really fun!!

Dome of the Rock and The Garden

We were really lucky on Sunday and got to go up to the Dome of the Rock in the morning. It was really beautiful, and wonderful and supercool to be able to go up and even touch it!

I was also able to visit the Garden of Gethsemane on Saturday after church. It was really peaceful and beautiful. Inside the church on the site, everyone had to be in complete silence. I was nice to be somewhere where there was no noise. I had the music from "The Garden" stuck in my head the whole time I was there. It was an amazing feeling to be somewhere we KNOW Jesus was, where the most important thing in all of creation occurred.

And Then I Saw...

Once upon a time, I was putting books away in the library. I was sorting the books, and came across THIS:

Joe Versus the Volcano. JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO!!!!!!

This one's for you, Dad!

Exploring...

This is the water bottle I use. It holds 2 liters...it's a MONSTER BOTTLE!!!

Some cool ruins at Nabi Samuel

One of the fields where it is said that the shepherds saw the angels announcing Christs birth.

Bethlehem

St. Anne's church, inside the basilica.

Pools of Bethesda

Ruins in the city, by St. Anne's church and Pools of Bethesda

Best. Shwarma. EVER!! (I forgot to take a picture before it was gone. Know, however that it was way good!)

So, lots of people have been asking me what my room looks like. Here it is!! The top picture is facing from the door, the bottom picture is looking at 2 of the four beds (mine is the one on the left...See? It's CLEAN!!)

The hallways leading to the rooms.

These are the courtyards that lead to the rooms. Each courtyard has two rooms attached to it.

Ta Da! Dome of the Rock.

Photos: The First Days

This is where I live!! You can see it from forever away. It really is a gorgeous building!

West Jerusalem on the Snow Day!

Yes, that is the Dome of the Rock.

These mosaics belong to the Israeli government, and are on loan from them indefinitely.

The walls of the old city.

Serenity

This is the the view I see everyday (the snow was special, just for us!)

The Old City

Today is Sunday, but there was no church!! We have church on Saturday, so to day was a total tourist day. We left for the city around 9am to have an orientation tour. One of the faculty showed us around until 11:30 or so. We saw the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a hostel with some REALLY nice bathrooms, and my favorite: Saint Johns church. I guess that Saint Johns usually is only open Tuesdays and Thursdays in the morning when we have class. We were really lucky, when we walked by it was open! It was BEAUTIFUL inside, the walls were covered in paintings and mosaics. It is a greek orthodox church and it was very ornate. There was such a feeling of reverence and awe there, I loved it. Everyone was silent when we went in and they hadn't turned on the lights, so it was all in natural light and it was serene and peaceful. All of my favorite places so far have been churches. I don't know why, probably because they are very beautiful and peaceful. You can tell that the people there think that they are on holy ground, and they are so happy and in awe to be there. For example, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, right inside the doors there is a raised stone slab on the floor that they say is the stone slab where Jesus' body lay in the tomb. We passed by it reverently but kept on walking into the church. When we were walking out, I noticed three people who had just walked in. When they saw the stone, they fell to their knees and were crying as they touched and kissed the stone. I started to tear up a little too. To many Christians the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the holiest site in all Christendom. To see the emotion and faith that those pilgrims had meant a lot to me. 

After the tour with our faculty member, we were able to stay in the city for a couple of hours. You have to stay in groups of at least three when you go outside the center, and there were six of us that were walking around. The Old City is amazing. The part that we were exploring was awesome! It's these really narrow alleyways with little shops on both sides, with people taking and trying to sell you stuff from every direction. You can buy everything there: candy, clothes, food, olive wood carvings, jewelry...it was amazing to see. I'll try to send some pictures because words aren't really doing it justice. Just know it was awesome, and I am really excited to explore some more. One of the coolest shops that we saw was a shop that was selling spices. We got to try some and they were so good! There were special spices to put on bread, in rice, on meat along with the regular cumin, cinnamon, cloves ect. If I can, I definately want to bring back a big bag of the rice one because it was SO GOOD!!! Hopefully I'll be able to find that shop again because the shop keeper was really nice, and was going to give us amazing prices!

Snow!

It snowed a lot overnight, 3 or 4 inches and the city is BEAUTIFUL!! The sun came out a little bit this morning and shone off the dome of the rock and all of the snow. The city looks pristine and white. I guess everywhere is shut down today because it never snows here. I got alot of good pictures, I wish that you could see them! I'm still super jetlagged, but hopefully it will get better!

Photos of the Jerusalem Center

Skyhawk can't send pictures because of a narrow band-width internet connection in Israel.  Click here for a  link to the Jerusalem Center website.  There is a link at the top for a photo tour, which shows a map, and an introductory video.  You can even choose the language you see it in.  This a link to the Wikipedia page that has a couple of shots from the outside.  Enjoy!

We FINALLY Got Here

Hi Mom,

Just writing to tell you that we got to Tel Aviv safely, and we are now at the center!!!! It's absolutely beautiful, if a bit cold. It has been snowing here for the past couple of hours (well, kindof snowing. It's weird snow, kinda like frozen mini hailstones half melted.) I guess all of the locals are freaking out because it hasn't snowed here since the early 2000's. The snow makes the center really cold, everything is white limestone and once it cools off, it stays cold. I'm really glad that I wore the extra sweater.

The flights here were good. The 10 hour one wasn't as horrible as it could have been because each seat had a touch screen in front of it, and you could pick a movie from a wide variety. They had alot of new ones, which was really cool. We also got fed, twice. I'm living the high life.

We had a mini orientation today, just a tour of the center and an introductory lesson in Old Testament and the Ancient Near Eastern Studies class. We finished just in time for dinner, and it was really good. One of the service couples told me that the person who cooks our food is also the cook for the King of Jordan, so I'm looking forwards to a lot of VERY delicious meals in my future. Good thing there are so many stairs, otherwise I would be packing in the pounds!

The room setup is weird. It's this corridor with open air courtyards every couple of yards with two bedrooms leading off the courtyard. I think there are 4 courtyards down my corridor. Just my luck, my room is the furthest one down the corridor. With the snow and rain, it's VERY cold in that part of the building, and there is some snow accumulation in them. I think that once it warms up it will be more fun to have outside courtyards and balconies, but for now it's just very cold.

Well, I'm going to sign off. I have been awake for close to 30 hours and I REALLY need to go to sleep.

Love you,
Skyhawk

Hello from JFK!

Hi mom and dad and family and everyone else!

We have a little bit before getting on the plane at JFK, so I thought
I would say "Hi!" It's been a long day. The flight here was good, and
I slept for a good two hours of it. I'm meeting a lot of people, and
so far it's been a blast. I'm not really looking forward to the flight
across the pond, but when it's done we'll be in Tel Aviv! Then, it's
50 miles to the center...and hopefully there will be NO SNOW! Well, I
can wish.
They are going to call my flight in about 10 minutes, so I'll say bye!
I love you all!!

Love,
Skyhawk

PS- Brother J came up with the code name.  It may change over time as "Skyhawk" sees this and approves.

Tomorrow!