I Have Arrived!

I can't believe that I am really posting my first blog entry from Jerusalem. It has been a crazy/incredible day (but actually two days, I left Tuesday morning and flew through the night and lost a lot of time with the time changes).

After anticipating this moment for five months, packing for days, and being on a plane for 18 hours, I am finally here. It's a weird feeling to be finally sitting in the Jerusalem Center. (It's especially weird when you still feel like you are moving on a plane).

My journey started Tuesday morning when I took off from the Salt Lake airport at 9 am to go to Denver. From Denver I flew to Washington DC, then to Vienna, then on to Tel Aviv. The

flight from DC to Vienna was the longest, being 8 and a half hours long. The girl next to me kept offering her leftover food to me, which I thought was funny but weird too. Do I look like a person who wants everyone's leftovers? Anyway, at Tel Aviv we were met by our two religion professors who took us on bus for about an hour up to the Jerusalem Center. I've got to say, it was a HUGE culture shock to see young men (security) with rifles hanging out outside of the airport. I even saw a few young women with rifles. When do I get mine?

While we were driving up to Jerusalem, it was dark and all you could see were trees and nothing too interesting. As we continued up the hill (the Jerusalem Center is on the highest hill in the Holy Land) we turned around a bend, and BOOM! There it was. The old city is so stunning, it took my breath away. From the freeway you can clearly see the city walls and the Dome of the Rock. We kept going up the hill and even more stunning then the old city was the Jerusalem Center. It sits high on a hill and lights up the whole city. When we pulled up to the back gates I was in aw. The back gates have a fountain and the courtyard and as we walked up all of the service couples greeted us and welcomed us to our "home". We went into the building and ate dinner. The chefs served us and the food was different, I'll have to get used to it. From there we

went and had an orientation in our meeting hall, which is a beautiful room. It has the arches and glass windows and overlooks the whole city. It's amazing. Also, this room has an incredible organ that takes up the whole back wall. When we sang our opening hymn it was beautiful; the organ and our voices echoed off of the limestone walls. What an incredible place to be. We then met with our religion professors and went over what is expected of us and then took a tour of the building. Good news: The Jerusalem Center has two bomb shelters, one with Foosball tables and bathrooms and another with ping pong, washers and driers, and bathrooms. Better safe than sorry. I was so tired on this tour, I couldn't even walk straight. They really got us started the first moment they could!

The only way I can explain being here and how in aw of this place I am is by comparing this initiation and introduction to the Jerusalem Center to the first years of Harry Potter being introduced to Hogwarts. Cheesy, I know, but as I was thinking it and said it out loud, a lot of people agreed with me.

Tomorrow morning I will wake up to the call to prayer at 4:30. That's going to be a cool and crazy experience. I bet it will scare me to death at first and I will be very disoriented as to where I am when I first hear the call ringing through the city. After we eat breakfast we are going on a tour of the old city which I'm excited about. I can't wait to get out there and see the people and places and discover where I will be living for the next four months.

That concludes my first day in the Holy Land. I will try to be faithful to this blog, not just for followers but also for my own personal records. I had originally planned to put pictures on my blog but unfortunately the internet is too slow in the center and will have everything backed up. I will try to go to the Hebrew University when I can get people to go with me and add any especially cool pictures I take.

Shalom!

**Explanation of pictures: The first picture is a picture of the Jerusalem center that I took from at the bottom of the hill in the city. The second picture is a view of a Jerusalem sunset from the center, as well as the interior stairwell/lobby of the center.