04 August 2011

I would like to start off by apologizing for my inability to post on a regular basis lately. I don't have much time to sit down and type. Thank you for your patience! You should expect things to be up-to-date by tomorrow night!!!

My time in Jerusalem is getting shorter and shorter. The cooler the air gets, the quicker the days end, the more aware I am that I'll be on my way back to reality, back to the United States. A month ago if you had offered me a plane ticket home, I would have accepted it without a second thought. However, if I had been offered that same plane ticket home and one-thousand dollars this morning, I wouldn't have hesitated to decline the offer. I am excited to go home, to see my family and friends, to eat different foods, but I am devastated to leave this land, this people, this culture. I am tired of eating the same food every day at the Oasis; I am tired of not being able to go into the city in groups of two or just by myself. But, despite the restrictions and the lack of variety, I am happy. And I love this land. I hope to leave my studies in the Holy Land only to come back to visit Israel.

This morning was the final exam for Ancient Near Eastern Studies. Hands shaking, I headed into the forum to meet my doom. I wasn't prepared for what was coming; I had no idea what Chadwick would ask me, what he would expect me to know. I sat in my seat and waited for the worst. Dr. Chadwick eventually stood up, introduced the exam, and began the test. Question after question, I answered in amazement; the test couldn’t be this simple, could it? All 100 questions of the exam were visual - given by PowerPoint. Thus, I was forced to go the speed of every other student. We were given one minute per question, but it felt like a near eternity. By the time we got to the last question, I was ready to rip my test to shreds. A test that I could have finished in forty minutes had taken over two hours. Finally, the answer key was placed up on the screen and to my incredible delight, I only missed three. The thrills of excitement that passed through me are impossible to describe. With this grade, I had the ability to obtain an “A” grade in the class (an “A” being a 96% on his final grading scale). I happily skipped out of the room and into the Oasis to eat lunch, and what more appropriate than a falafel for lunch on a day as great as this?

After lunch, I left the Jerusalem Center and headed out to West Jerusalem with Andrew, Julie, Ashley, Ariel, and Jenny to go to the Shuk (open air market). Like any other day at the Shuk, it was crowded beyond belief! There are always people everywhere buying meat, produce, and other items for their daily/weekly needs! It is one of my favorite places to be in all of Jerusalem. It is always an adventure to do as the locals do, to go where the locals go. You can find anything at the Shuk; and it is always at a good prices. I chose to purchase a tub of lychees, a fruit I had grown to love in Australia. The smell of the fruit brought me to open the bag before we even left the Shuk, and the taste was just as amazing as I remembered it. I happily shared some with the five people I was with. Lychees are either something you love or you hate – kind of like butterscotch. And unlike butterscotch, lychees are something that I love. Leaving the Shuk, we made our way to the McDonald’s off of Ben Yehuda Street for an ice cream cone and then to a store at the bottom of the street. This store is called the Art of Creativity and is the coolest store (other than the Discovery Store) that I have ever been to. The store sells different puzzles…not picture puzzles, but puzzles that you could attempt to compare to a Rubik’s Cube. But trust me – a Rubik’s Cube pales in comparison! We spent quite some time trying to solve these puzzles. It was a lot of fun. Possibly even too much fun.

We made it back to the Jerusalem Center before four o’clock in the afternoon. (Ashley, Andrew, and I happily took a taxi while the others walked.) Once back at the J.C., I went over to the Chadwick’s to talk for a few minutes. A few minutes turned into over an hour as it always does. Chadwick and I discussed the final exam as well as what I am planning to do with my future. For those of you who are interested, we decided that I am going to go to graduate school and get a Ph.D. in Ancient Near Eastern Studies. I will then be a professor at BYU and eventually gain the opportunity to return to the Jerusalem Center to be a teacher. We will see how that plan goes... It was nice to think about coming back here to teach though! I headed into the computer lab to work on a paper or two after leaving the Chadwick’s but I did not get nearly as much done as I had planned. Before I knew it, it was six o’clock in the evening and time for dinner! Dinner time (well, any mealtime really) causes a lot of excitement among the students at the J.C. As growing young adults, we need our nutrition and we find that at the Oasis! As usual, I grabbed some rice and chicken and sat down to eat with everyone. Also, there were brownies tonight which caused a stir among the students. You just can’t go wrong with brownies. They always disappear within twenty or thirty minutes.

I moved into a study room after dinner to ‘study’ with Kymberly for our New Testament exam. As she studied, I went into the gym to play volleyball with a few people. There is always fun to be had on a volleyball court in a gym at the J.C. We haven’t played nearly enough volleyball since getting back from Jordan. It kind of fell away as a basketball tournament started, as classes got more intense, as Canton kicked everyone out so he could play soccer…hahaha, I am glad it is back and that we can play the night away. After all, there is nothing more satisfying than ending your night with a killer spike.