my first day in Jerusalem!

Here is what I have been waiting to tell you about. Take a guess at how my first full day (Jan. 8) in Jerusalem started. Well...we live in the Muslim part of town and if you know anything about Muslims (I didn't) they start their day with a call to prayer. Guess what time they have this call to prayer. Four freakin' forty-five in the morning!!! And guess how loud this call to prayer is. It is most definitely louder than my alarm clock. It is louder than I normally listen to music. It is louder than I usually have the tv. And guess how long it lasts. It felt like at least 20 minutes but my guess is that it is actually closer to 7 or 8. Now try waking up to that in a foreign place. It was one of the most bizarre things I have ever experienced. I cannot for the life of me figure out how Lance forgot to mention that to me in the hours that I spent interrogating him about Jerusalem. It has left an impression on me forever.

Prediction #1: I will never get used to the call to prayer.
Prediction #2: I will never manage to sleep through the call to prayer.

It is quite the experience every morning. Breakfast is served at 6:30 so if you get up with the call to prayer that gives you time to get up, do a morning workout, shower and get some reading done all before breakfast. What a blessing.... I am so grateful for city noise ordinances back at home. That is a real blessing in my life that I am looking forward to enjoying when I get back. I do have to admit that the call to prayer is mystically beautiful in some ways but I just wish it weren't quite so loud or quite so early. They have it several times a day and I am going to enjoy it while I am here. It is difficult so early in the morning but I'll do my best. It is just another part of this wonderful experience!

Ok. Enough about the call to prayer. After breakfast we had another orientation meeting that included a security briefing. It is kind of cool to have a whole security staff! After the meeting we got to go to the old city!!! Our professors and their wives took groups of 10 students on a quick walk through the city. I was with Sister Wilson and she is so nice! We saw so many cool things but we weren't allowed to take our cameras or our money since this was just an 'orientation' walk. I am so excited to go back and visit some of the places we saw. For right now I will just list some of them for you.

One of the first things we saw was the 'Arab Costco.' I can't wait to show you pictures of this gem. I'm not quite sure how it resembles Costco in any way but maybe once I go 'inside' I will be enlightened. As we walked through East Jerusalem on our way to the old city we passed several little shops with their owners outside eagerly awaiting us with their business cards. They all know who the Mormons are and when new groups get here. They just love to have us around. I'm sure we do a lot to keep them in business. They cater to us with things like BYU Jerusalem sweatshirts (I can't wait to find one for myself!) and Liahonas carved out of olive wood etc.

We entered the old city through Damascus gate. It was pretty cool to actually recognize the name of something! Walking through some of the little streets felt kind of like Mexico sometimes because they have a bunch of little shops. Some of them have really cool things and some of them have junk. I was looking all around with wide eyes and the security guard behind me said "no looking, just walking." It was pretty funny to me because it sounded just like something my dad would say except with a middle-eastern accent. When I told my dad about it he told me to never leave the center without that guy. Haha!!! Yeah right! Daddy, you don't want to know how much stuff I am going to bring back! There are just sooo many cool things!

There is way more than shopping though! I can't wait to explore all of the amazing places all over Jerusalem and bust out my camera. I am just about to break 10,000 pictures on my computer and I imagine this trip is going to add several thousand more. Yay! Some of the cool things we saw on our walk were the Austrian Hospice, the Via Dolorosa and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I will write more about them after I have made proper visits, know more about them and have pictures to share.

K. I think this ends my minute to minute chronicling of my adventures here. Even though I'm sure you find it fascinating I don't think you want to hear all of the details of every single day. I will still be very thorough about our field trips but things are kind of slowing down as we get into the normal routine of things.