Wednesday, August 31
through Friday, September 2
What a great couple of
days already! Since we have been getting up so early and going to bed so late,
and cramming so much everyday already, everything has been mushing together. I
can't believe we've only been here for 2 full days. I'll catch you guys up
with all we have done.
So the first night we
landed around 5:30pm and actually got to the center by bus around 7:30pm and
had dinner, had a mini orientation, and then was revealed the AMAZING night
time view of the beautiful city while the organist played "How Firm a
Foundation". Holy cow. I can't believe I'm actually here. Then we
went to our rooms, unpacked everything, and barely slept that night
because of the time zone difference. The weirdest thing that I didn't realize
happened was that every morning around 4:30am and at night around 7 or 8pm
there is a prayer that is sung throughout the city. It is really cool and
interesting. I woke up at 4am and could not fall back
asleep. It was 7pm Colorado time, so my whole sleep schedule was just so messed
up.
The first day we got
up around 6am, had breakfast, and then took a "quick" 3 hour tour of
the city. We got split up into groups of 8 each with a teacher and were shown
all the big sights of the city very briefly. It was so incredible! Such a
different culture but not at the same time! The city
is very dirty and smells bad, but when you look beyond that the buildings are
very old and the culture is everywhere. It is such a different place. Hardly
any of the signs are in English. As we walk around the city in our groups, the
street sellers call out to us and tell us "there is a special price for
the Mormons" haha it is hilarious. The teachers told us that these shop
owners have special senses and an tell when the BYU students are here and
get excited for all of our souvenir shopping haha. I
cannot wait until I get to see the city in more detail. Then we just had a lot
more orientation meetings. Updating us on EVERYTHING! Lots of tours, lots of
security information meetings, and lots of awesome meals :)
Today we got to go to class for the first time.
It was only Old Testament and Near East studies class. I
can already tell our classes are going to be a TON of work and pretty
stressful. I am scared... but hopefully we will do okay. It will be hard
finding a balance between going out and exploring the Old City and studying for
our classes. And then our first free time that was well spent
by me and Kelsie by catching up on sleep and trying to get rid of our jet lag.
We don't regret it honestly haha. I slept from
12:30 until 4:45... but like Brooke said, we do not regret it. Hopefully we are
all caught up on sleep now and won't have any more jet lag. We
have all day on Sunday to go see the city more (since
our Sabbath here is on Saturday). Then we got to see the
Western Wall at night where the Jewish culture goes to place their prayers
written on pieces of rolled up paper in the wall. It was such a cool
experience! We all brought scarves to wear over our
hair while we were there and all the men wore yarmulkes because they had
to have their heads covered.
Well I won't bore you with all
the tiny details, but that's basically all that we did! If you wanna know more
just ask :) Seriously please ask us questions! We
would love to hear from everyone and let you know more.
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