Dispatches from the Holy Land

So I'm off at the Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies this semester, and it occurred to me: why exactly am I not blogging this? Therefore, I'm going to post the emails I send my family. Of course, members of my family are the only people who read my blog...

To whom it may concern:

So I got here last night sometime after six and wandered through several Orientation meetings in a dizzy jet-lagged state until falling into bed at 2:30 PM Utah time. I had no problem sleeping because I barely slept at all during the 9 hour flight to Vienna which turned into a 10 hour flight because of an epic snow storm. I spent most of the time listening to the guy beside me talk about the beautiful young Ukrainian girl he had met on the Internet and was flying out to visit. He also gave me lots of life advice and a 50 cent Ukrainian coin.

Austrians are apparently into color. The Austrian Airlines had yellow-green carpets and aquamarine seats, and the stewardesses were bright red suits with blue ascots.

The Center is a gorgeous building, with big windows looking out on the Old City. We can see the Dome of the Rock from here. It is shiny. We're in the middle of the Palestinian part of Jerusalem and within walking distance of the Garden Tomb and Gethsemane. We went on a tour this morning through lots of windy little streets full of shops. Practically all the women wore headscarves, since we're in a Muslim area. Some were otherwise fashionably dressed, but I also saw girls my age wearing ankle-length housecoats over their jeans.

We also quickly passed through the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is this huge church the Catholics say covers Golgotha and the site of the Resurrection. About twenty different sects all have priests in the buildings, including Armenian Orthodox and Roman Catholic. We saw the little Muslim man who has the keys to the building. According to our tour guide (the district president here) they gave Muslims the keys and let them decide when to close and open the building because none of the different sects would be able to agree on the time.

I thought I'd lose weight here because of having to eat in a cafeteria, but the cafeteria food is actually really delicious. They serve familiar food and some local stuff. Also the city is full of beautiful-smelling falafel stands and stalls selling this bread that comes in a loop. We had some; it's covered in seeds and you sprinkle this salty-herby green powder called zatar on it.

Except for three teachers and a handful of service couples, the staff at the center is not LDS. They are Jews and Muslims and Palestinian Christians. They are also very nice, and when we arrived they told us, "Welcome home."

It is all quite awesome.

Love, Stella