End of Ramadan, Beginning of Rosh HaShanna & The Dungeon of the JC.

Friends, We came at THE best time to be here! There are so many major holidays within the next few months and we get to be here for them!

So with the end of Ramadan there will be a 3 day festival for the Muslims. They have been fasting from sunrise to sunset the past month and they'll have a massive feast if it is declared all over the world that there is a new moon tonight. There will be three cannon blasts and the feasts will start! Again, I'm in awe at the dedication of these people to their religion. I have gained a lot of respect for them. This means the Old City will be celebrating and we only have one class tomorrow so we get to go join them!

The Jewish new year starts tonight as the sun sets and it is declared a new moon. This new year is a bigger deal than Passover, which many people believe to be the biggest. The West Jerusalem will be shut down until sabbath (Friday evening through Saturday at sunset) so we don't get to have the incredible Falafel everyone has been raving about. They are made of Chick peas served in a pita with sauce and vegetables. It'll have to wait until next week! For the new year their traditional food is Apples dipped in honey and pomegranates. This would be similar to our holly, wreaths and pinecones etc. for our Christmas celebration. The people also have a tradition to blow a Shofar or a ram horn up to 100 times as the gospel ordinance states for the first and second days. (Leviticus 23:24-25) It will definitely be a noisy place around here! I'm so excited. (I also wouldn't mind the call to prayer being a little bit later in the morning. No more 4:40 mornings for me woohoo! Or at least I think....)

For this celebration, the Rosh HaShanna we learned today that in the Talmud it states, “Three books are opened on Rosh HaShanna; the book of life of the wicked, the book of life in the righteous, and the book of life of those in between.” (C. John 5: 29 & C. Rev. 20:12)
Another religion that teaches “The three degrees of glory” In a way (pretty cool huh?).

Life is pretty busy around here with school. I love my classes so so much. Some are extremely difficult such as my Modern Eastern Studies classes from the Israeli and Palestinian views. This is a whole new idea to me and my brain is sore after 2 hours, but it'll be so wonderful to learn about it! I love love love my Old Testament class. Our teacher is Dr. Mulestein and he is so incredibly knowledgeable and I can hardly type fast enough to record all the information I learn. Oh, and did I say all I feel like all we ever do around here is eat, and eat, and eat, and eat... and then eat some more? Oh, cause I do. The food is so wonderful here and we have a whole 3 hours every day to eat it, it feels like we eat a LOT! I figured it out though. I probably eat the exact same amount that I would eat normally, but we get an hour for every meal, when I usually wouldn't even take an hour to eat all three of my meals at school. So, we're not getting fat... yet... just taking a whole long time to eat. We found out today on a tour under the center that they remodeled the Oasis, our cafeteria, and it was a $900,000 project. That was done for us! It is so beautiful, and the way in which it runs is incredible. I'll take pictures sometime. The tour under the center was pretty cool though, they have set up everything underneath the center so they don't have to rip apart any ceilings, floors or messy work in the rooms. This place is incredible, have I ever said that before? Anyone that has a chance to come here, DO IT! I'll be your personal tour guide =)

Sad/Funny story from yesterday... My friend Megan lost her scriptures at one of the places we were on our field trip at and was so crushed. This is a big deal because we get to write so much in our scriptures because we're here(!), her hymn book was in there (we write in it where we sing the songs, so in a way its a journal) and her favorite aunt had given them to her right before she left. Dr. Chadwick spent over an hour looking for her scriptures in trashcans and talked to everyone imaginable to find them. They were no where to be found. So after the news she broke down in tears and said, "Why would anyone steal them??? It says right in it Thou shalt not steal!" Small example of why I love these people so much. I hope someone that needed those scriptures will put them to good use.

Just have to send a little shout out to the workers here, chefs, security guards, and cleaning crew. we LOVE them! They all have such a great sense of humor and make us laugh all the time. When we go on our morning runs they're always doing something crazy and have a new route for us. The security guards get lonely up on the eighth floor and they tell us to come visit everyday. Pretty much I love my life. I live in the library, miss my country music, love to laugh, and love quotes, and I'm oh so grateful for tender mercies of the Lord.

We also got to go on a tour of the underneath part of the Jerusalem Center! It was sooo great! We even got to sign our names on walls/pipes for future generations!