This week has flown by so fast. Thanks to a 17 page paper “midterm” for my two-credit Islam/Arab/Palestine class I’ve had to devote more time than usual to schoolwork. Still I made it out quite a bit because the weather is beautiful and the city calls.
On Sunday I went with a group to play the carillon bells at the YMCA. Basically you play by pounding with your fists on a large keyboard consisting of wooden pegs that are attached to the bells up in a tower. Anyone who wanted to play got to pick a hymn (no “LDS” hymns, just Christian hymns), practice on a keyboard to the side, then jam out for all the people on the streets to hear. Susie recorded me playing and you can totally tell from the video when I went from being scared to death of messing up to just having a blast-it was so much fun!!! We also wandered through an artist colony where a bunch of silversmiths have their artwork on display.
Monday our field trip was to Ne’ot Kedumim. It is a 600 acre, Biblical landscape park. Every agricultural element from the Bible is included. I’d love to learn about all of them but we just focused on a couple epic ones.
Highlights from the day:
· flowers blossoming everywhere-sight and smell=heavenly.
· “Herding” sheep and goats-way funnier to watch than actually do.
· Grinding Hyssop-significant plant and the main ingredient in Zata’ar, my favorite spice.
· Cooking pitas and kali on an open fire.
· Valentine’s Day + beautiful flowers = inevitable “engagement” pictures.
· Eating an almond from a tree-I might as well have drunk almond extract-the flavor was so strong. Not a good idea, I think our guide was laughing.
· Sister Muhlestein’s birthday-Brother Muhlestein involved us all in lots of surprises
· Water wheel that you can run (or fall) in
Also we went to a threshing floor. I didn’t know what we were going to see, so as we pulled up I was thinking “great picture of stepped hills with olive trees and beautiful green grass.” A few minutes later I was thinking “wow, of course they would grow their wheat (aka beautiful green grass) on stepped hills because 1) no big, flat areas other than some valleys to the west, and 2) more efficient water use!” Hopefully that makes sense…anyways it was a great redefining-imagery moment.
In the evening we had a Valentine’s Day dance/party in the gym. First was basketball, then Laurel taught us a Greek dance, then I got desert and went back to writing my paper. Valentine’s Day has never been a big deal for me so I was surprised at how many people wrote sweet notes instead of their papers and shared treats and just made it a fantastic day.
Our forum speaker Wednesday night was a Palestinian Arab journalist with Israeli citizenship who works for Jerusalem Post. He was a good speaker and I enjoy hearing different perspectives on the Palestine/Israel conflict. However, I’m becoming increasingly frustrated with the issue because the more I learn, the more obvious it becomes that there is no easy answer. I get worked up over the immensity of the problems, then I remind myself that there is an answer. I am so grateful for the gospel perspective that brings peace despite the turmoil of the world.
Thursday night we had a formal talent show. Most of the songs were church-related. I love hearing people’s testimonies shared through music and dance. I was amazed again and again by the talent surrounding me.
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