School has officially started here. I am taking Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Modern Near Eastern Studies from a Palestinian and the same class from a Judean perspective, Old Testament (New Testament will start in two months), and Hebrew. I feel like all I have been doing for the past three days has been reading, most of which is going right over my head. I am learning a ton; it is just frustrating because I know that I am not getting all the knowledge. Getting all the information, of course, is unrealistic.
My favorite class so far is Hebrew! It is a pretty easy language to comprehend. After one class I know the first two letters of the alphabet (Alef and Bet) and know how to write them in script and recognize them in print (two different symbols for the same letter). I also understand how to write words, I just don’t have the knowledge to actually write them. It sounds complicated, but it really isn’t as hard as I thought it would be.
My Old Testament class is amazing as well. I took Old Testament about two semesters ago, so I love that I am learning it all again and picking up on new things. Part of our religion class is going to sites around the Hold Land. On Monday we had the opportunity to go to all these different view points around Jerusalem and see all sorts of things from a distance. We saw the City of David, Bethlehem, Rachel’s tomb, the Temple Mt./Mt. Moriah, Bethel, Mt. Zion, and a lot of other things. It was really cool to get back to the classroom and actually talk about them in text with the scriptures. I was actually reading about Abraham and Isaac when he takes him up on Mt. Moriah to sacrifice him and I looked up and there was Mt. Moriah! It was the coolest feeling ever and I am sure I will have other experiences similar to that.
As for the rest of my classes, they are pretty interesting. Today I found myself staying after a 2 hour class to listen more about Jewish history for another 45 minutes. There is so much I did not know about their history, their current faith and their practices. So much to learn, so little time!
So I went into the Old City a couple of days ago and we got a little lost, and these 9 year old boys could tell. We wanted to see the Dome of the Rock, but it is really hard to get close to because you have to be Muslim to go in. We just wanted a place to get a good look. They took us up on the roof of all these buildings and it was really cool up there. We ended up hanging out with them for like an hour and a half. One of the boys spoke four languages; English, Arabic, French, and this other language I haven’t even heard of. They were trying to teach us some Arabic, but they mostly just laughed and pointed at us because I am sure we were mispronouncing everything. They ended up inviting us to go to their house to meet their parents. We were not sure at the time if it was a good idea to go, but we found out that we are allowed to make friends with the local families. We obviously just need to be careful and such. This made me so excited to get to know more people here and it was just a good experience overall.
3 comments:
I am just so excited for you. It is very special to read and know history and then to walk the ground and imagine. But I must say that in all my travels that better than seeing the historical sites was meeting the locals and getting the long-held perspective or even prejudices adjusted. I remember one special occasion in Haifa when I was able to attend Shabbat with an Israeli family on the same day in April know as the Night of Remembrance (honoring Holocasut victims). Everything in the country stopped - people paused and remembered. We ate by candlelight and while the customs were DIFFERENT to me, they were no longer STRANGE. I am so glad you are getting these experiences and having these opportunities to see and live. You are already changed and there will be more changes in the weeks ahead. Love, Dad
FUN! Okay, I’ll talk to you Saturday then. Call again if I don’t answer the first time and I’ll try to remember to take my phone off silent.
Alex! Hanging out with nine year old boys eh? HAHAHA. What fun adventures you're having. That's fun you're learning a new language too. Take lots of pictures in Egypt!
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