01 June 2011

I would like to begin by wishing everyone a happy Jerusalem Day. In June 1967, Jerusalem was reunified and Israeli control was established over the city. It has been declared as a minor religious holiday to “thank God for victory in the Six-Day War and for answering a 2,000 year prayer”. We did little in the way of celebrating this holiday. Dr. Chadwick and Dr. Yarden spoke briefly on the significance and meaning of this day, but that was it. We were able to see a march of Israeli men down our street…through an Arab neighborhood. I couldn’t understand what they were singing, since it was in Hebrew, but I am sure it was something to commemorate their freedom and control over Jerusalem. They were obviously brave souls to have done something like that in a Palestinian area. There were also fireworks tonight that I was able to watch from the fourth floor lounge through a giant window. This was the second set of fireworks I have seen since being in Jerusalem! These people know how I like to celebrate holidays.

As I have mentioned a million times, midterms are this week – tomorrow actually. So, another day was spent inside the Jerusalem Center studying for these midterms. I think my brain is about ready to explode into a million gooey pieces, but I am more than prepared. I feel confident and prepared. I wouldn’t mind taking these tests right now! But I doubt my professors would bend to my desires in such a way. I will just have to wait until tomorrow morning before I can prove myself. I studied most of the day with Alise, Megan, and Morgan, and we actually had a very productive day! I was able to finish each of my study guides and even study a lot of the Hebrew letters. Morgan, Megan, and I actually sneaked off to a room while Alise was in Arabic and wrote sentences to each other uses Hebrew script letters. Our sentences were crazy and we often had to bend the rules just a tad, but it was very helpful. I doubt I will forget the script letters on the test! The block letters are a whole different story, however. Luckily we have three hours before the exam tomorrow and one of those hours is actually a review session.

We had a forum tonight which I really enjoyed. It wasn’t someone speaking out to us about the Israeli-Palestine conflict. Rather, he talked about the influence of the media in painting a true picture of Jerusalem. As a journalist, himself, he wanted us to understand how the media twists its stories to create something that is believable but far from the truth. He gave quite a few examples, of which I can’t repeat, but it made me realize how skewed our view of the world can be if we rely on only one source for any type of information. The truth is not always told in full by the media. It is often presented in a way to make a headline. It reminds me of the Newsies when Jack ‘creates’ headlines to make his papers sell, and David calls him a liar. The headlines are true to an extent. Jack just spices them up to catch the attention of his cliental. The modern media does this as well. The attention of the world is caught by words like murder, war, terrorism, and gun. The world rarely wants to hear a story about an average individual. Halman was trying to teach us that Israel, the Middle East isn’t all about war and bloodshed. While there are things that occur here, there are things that occur everywhere. I have been living in Israel for over a month and not once have a seen a terrorist attack or heard of a bomb going off like the paper profess so often. It is important to be caught up on key events; don’t get me wrong. But it is important to know your sources and to know what is really occurring out in the world.

I had this plan to go to bed before ten o’clock tonight. Seeing as it is close to eleven, I don’t think that is going to happen. Hopefully I don’t fall asleep during my Old Testament exam. Now that would be tragic! I have studied far too much for that to occur. If you don’t hear from me tomorrow, then my midterms buried me alive….wish me luck!