Jerusalem Revisited

In September of 2000, I ventured far from home and anything or anyone familiar and went to Jerusalem, Israel to live for 4 months to attend Jerusalem University College. It was one of my favorite times in my life. No words can capture just how amazing it was. During my stay there I wrote many emails home and even had an update newsletter I called "The Adventures". I just recently came across these emails in a very large notebook and thought I would start posting them on my site.
I loved my time there, I love reading over these and thought you guys would get some enjoyment out of them too.

I may add some notes to the emails to bring more clarity, I will put them in parentheses, ( )

9/3/00 - "The Beginning: Email # 1"

Dearest Friends,

I have been in this timeless land for three days now! And it is absolutely awesome. I have decided to write a weekly update to all my friends and let you read about my adventures. I will write more personal emails to you too, just as long as you send me emails! : )
I flew from Atlanta on Tuesday and had an hour layover in London and arrived in Tel Aviv about 14 hours after I left Atlanta. I had to get a sherut taxi to Jerusalem. (A mini-van that holds 6-8 people)
I was on board with 6 orthodox Jews all around my age and under. The guy next to me was from Atlanta and the rest seemed to be from Boston and Manhatten. They come over to Israel to study for the year. At one point in the drive I thought I was in a Seinfield episode due to the absurdity of the line I heard: the guy next to me was talking to the kid in the front in this jibberish I hardly believed was another language and then all of a sudden in perfect English he says to the other guy, "Your Yiddish is impeccable, where did you learn it?" The other kid answered, "Manhatten", and they promptly continued to the conversation in Yiddish. It just struck me as very funny. First that line, "Your Yiddish is impeccable", second that they would stop and speak impeccable English to make the comments and third; that I always joked about knowing Yiddish because to me it is some obscure sounding foreign language I thought I would never hear.

About an hour later, after being completely ignored for being the only gentile in the van, I got dropped off about a mile away from my campus because my driver didnt want to take me all the way over to the school due to traffic. So I lugged my gear along a street running parralell to the Old City wall. I finally figured out where I was and how to get to the school but as soon as I plopped myself down on a chair in the lounge all these students where taking off for the Old City and I was told that all the undergrad men and about half the undergrad women were living just inside the Old City walls at the New Imperial Hotel across from the Citadel of David. The school had rented out the hotel for the semester. So I am actually living within the Old City of Jerusalem in the Christian Quarter right next to Jaffa Gate. (Jaffa Gate is the Red Spot on the left)

But there are no Protestant Christians, they are all Orthodox Arab Christians or Muslims. I visited the Temple Mount and the Western Wailing Wall and the Dome of the Rock was in the background. Ultra-Orthodox Jews were crowded near the wall bobbing their heads up and down while they prayed.


The next day I went to Tel Aviv with four guys from the school. We took a bus that only cost 18 shekels, $4.50. We basically walked around all day, went to a four story mall and swam in the Mediterranean Sea. The Tel Aviv beaches are full of people and the water is like hot bath water, so it wasnt refreshing from the hot sun.
On Friday, registration started and because I live in the Old City I have to walk out of Jaffa Gate and walk down a hill and then up Mount Zion to JUC, (The College) its about a 10-15 minute walk. I have already done more walking than I had the whole rest of this year. Friday we went on the New City walking tour and walked down Ben Yehuda Street, it is the place to hang out on the weekends. That night, I walked deep into the Old City by myself. I felt like I entered back in time by a thousand years. The "streets" are more like covered sidewalks and the streets are narrow, crooked and maze like and laid with worn out stones. I made a couple right turns and ended up in fron is the Church of the Holy Selupchre. The Church that was built over the site where Jesus was crucified and buried. {Archeologists are 95% sure this is the site}

There are seven different churches that share the church and not one is protestant. The Armenian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Syrian Orthodox, Coptic and Ethiopian churches all lay claims on the church and all operate separate services and have their own chapels either in or on the church. Throughout history there has been disputes over certain issues concerning the church, such as who gets to restore the church, thus it is really dilapidated Another arguing point is who gets to open the church each morning. Thus they have allowed the same Muslim family unlock the doors for the last 300 years. I saw the Greeks perform and a service with liturgy, chants and swinging incense burners. I was there late at night so I avoided the crowds and was able to go into the tomb of Jesus all by myself and I knelt and prayed there for about 5 minutes. The tomb is a chapel built over the site inside the church. It was beyond description to be there, I will be going to this church a lot while I am here.


Well, I hate to say goodbye but I am in an internet cafe that closes in four minutes, more details are coming soon. My classes start tomorrow. They are as follows: Physical Settings of the Bible, (Where we learn about the Bible on Biblical sites!), History of Egypt and its relation to Canaan, Palestinian Politics and Culture, Archeology of Palestine, Rabbinical Thought and Literature, and Modern Middle East. I will definately write again soon.

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Those were the words from my first mass email to my friends and family. I think I will update my story once or twice a week.