The time has come for us to leave our host families behind. It was sad to think that I may never see the Bannoura family again, but at the same time, I think most of us were ready to move on to our next destination just a few miles down the road -- Jerusalem. I will miss having warm Hobez (bread) in the morning with different jams, hummus, cheeses, zeit and zatar (olive oil and spices) and hard boiled eggs. I will miss Mirvates laugh. I will miss Anwar's passion for peace and Natalie's giggles at our Arabic or her parent's English. I will miss the delicious food combination that is rice and noodles. But, our time in Palestine is up, and it is time to say goodbye. So we said bye to all of our friends at ATG through a long hike and a barbeque in a tent in the middle of a desert, our families, the shop keepers we have come to know and love, the olive and lemon trees, and hello to well kept roads, pricey shops, green grass, and expensive looking houses. Our time in Palestine was intense in so many ways. First, three hours of Arabic was a little more that most of us were expecting. It's cool to see how far we have all come in our Arabic skills. It would be cool to continue, but I'm not sure how useful Bethlehem Arabic would be back in the states! I definitely enjoyed the hikes that we went on too. It makes me excited to come back to the beautiful Shenandoah Valley and do a very different kind of hiking! The terrain here is all rocky with little patches of green occasionally, and random wildflowers popping up between the crevices. There is never much covering or shade from the scorching sun either. The terrain is just so very different and beautiful in it's own way. I've also found that some pretty great conversations happen while people hike!
We just arrived to JUC (Jerusalem University College) where we almost doubled their student body. I was talking to four girls, and one said that her college roommate had a lot of friends at EMU since she was from Virginia, and I asked who it was, and it turns out that I went to high school and played volleyball with her! It's such a small world! JUC is located in "Old Jerusalem" so all the buildings are obviously... old. And with that comes a lot of beauty. It was so refreshing to drop off my bags in our 6 person dorm room (I'm with Rachel Bell, Laura Bowman, Bridgett Brunea, Taylor Harrison, Anna Hershey, Ariel Keiser, and Emily Hodges) and lay in the grass. I had almost forgotten how good dirt and grass smelled! It is absolutely lovely here! I am excited to see what I will come to love about Jerusalem, and hopefully become friends with local shop keepers like I did in Beit Sahour. We have the day off tomorrow, but then our schedule is GO-GO-GO for the next two weeks. Our days start off at 7. We will be tackling our Biblical Archaeology and History class. It will definitely be tiring, but good! We're fitting everything in 2 weeks that most people take a semester of field trips to do. Hopefully I'll be able to retain most of the information that will be thrown at us! But I'm really glad that we have time to settle into the area and learn about the past some before really learning about the present situation. I think that we will do more of that after free travel, which is in two weeks! I'm looking forward to that a lot, even though I'm not really sure what my plans are. Tentatively, I'm looking at going to Eilat, Israel, just to hang out on the beach and have a lot of alone time with God! We'll see if that all works out!
Anyway, I just wanted to give a little quick update and let everyone know that we are all alive and well here in Israel!
Love you guys!
We just arrived to JUC (Jerusalem University College) where we almost doubled their student body. I was talking to four girls, and one said that her college roommate had a lot of friends at EMU since she was from Virginia, and I asked who it was, and it turns out that I went to high school and played volleyball with her! It's such a small world! JUC is located in "Old Jerusalem" so all the buildings are obviously... old. And with that comes a lot of beauty. It was so refreshing to drop off my bags in our 6 person dorm room (I'm with Rachel Bell, Laura Bowman, Bridgett Brunea, Taylor Harrison, Anna Hershey, Ariel Keiser, and Emily Hodges) and lay in the grass. I had almost forgotten how good dirt and grass smelled! It is absolutely lovely here! I am excited to see what I will come to love about Jerusalem, and hopefully become friends with local shop keepers like I did in Beit Sahour. We have the day off tomorrow, but then our schedule is GO-GO-GO for the next two weeks. Our days start off at 7. We will be tackling our Biblical Archaeology and History class. It will definitely be tiring, but good! We're fitting everything in 2 weeks that most people take a semester of field trips to do. Hopefully I'll be able to retain most of the information that will be thrown at us! But I'm really glad that we have time to settle into the area and learn about the past some before really learning about the present situation. I think that we will do more of that after free travel, which is in two weeks! I'm looking forward to that a lot, even though I'm not really sure what my plans are. Tentatively, I'm looking at going to Eilat, Israel, just to hang out on the beach and have a lot of alone time with God! We'll see if that all works out!
Anyway, I just wanted to give a little quick update and let everyone know that we are all alive and well here in Israel!
Love you guys!
Once again, sorry for the weird punctuation... still haven't quite figured that one out yet
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