"No one's the killer and no one's the martyr, the world that has made us can no longer contain us"
--Regina Spektor, Consequence of Sounds


We have had an amazing past two weeks! Everyone scattered for free travel, and we're all back now living inside the Old City of Jerusalem at a convent called Ecce Homo. It overlooks, among other things, the Dome of the Rock, the Mount of Olives, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and Al-Aqsa Mosque!

On free travel, I went with a group of 6 others to see as much of Israel as we could. We rented cars from Jerusalem, booked a cabin on the Sea of Galilee for the first few days, a hotel in Eilat for the last couple, and just went. It was an amazing experience. We were up in the very North of Israel (actually made it to the boarder of Lebanon and Syria) and hiked around in Yehudia National Park. We even got in for free because we got a group ticket last week with everyone else that let us in to all the National Parks in the country! The best hike we did was a (supposedly) 6 hour one to Hexagon's Pools. They are so named because the sides of the biggest pool have formed giant, perfectly structured columns all the way around. It went up and over waterfalls, 2 mountains following a mountain stream that we swam in; we had to climb on staples stuck into the side of a cliff at one point, hike through bamboo tunnels at another, and then we got to climb trees as we ate our picnic lunch of tuna salad and hummus on pita in a cow field. We could hear bombing and shooting from the firing zones (practice area) of Syria and Israel's respective armies (who were very friendly to us when we met them on our drives) to the north and west.

Our cabin was amazing and we got to really relax! We returned our cars to Jerusalem on Wednesday and took a bus 4 hours down past the Dead Sea to the extreme South of Israel. Our hotel had (ok, get jealous) a private beach that went straight out into the clearest blue green sea with tropical fish (barracuda, eels, rainbow fish, lion fish! flying fish!) coral, and if you got bored of that you could always get in the pool or hot tub or spa that we had access to at our hotel! We even got breakfast included :) We got to do a lot of souvenir shopping, reading, and tanning, then met up with another guy from our big group who had been in Egypt. Unfortunately, all of this vacationing had to come to an end, and we took the bus back to Jerusalem early Sunday morning. And by early I mean 10:00.

Once back in the "city between" (heaven and earth, past and future, east and west, minority and majority) we started classes Monday learning about Jewish history. Also we began Hebrew lessons, learning script and songs. Suddenly, a lot of things are coming together. It's a wonderful feeling. This week is a lot slower pace than what we had become accustomed to at JUC, and the speakers are so incredibly enlightening. We visited the Holocaust Museum (Yad Vashem), and have been learning a lot about traditions, the background of a lot of things that had until now seemed crazy, and we're all developing deep appreciation for the people that we are among. The need for the Jews to have a homeland is apparent for so many reasons, and it's great to be able to understand that yet challenge everyone we meet with the Palestinian perspective, to which their response is like ours as Americans; we don't agree with it but our government doesn't listen to us. It's so much truer here though, where seemingly every individual has their own political party (there were 22 major parties represented in the last Knesset (like the House of Representatives) election in January 2008! They never like the people elected either, and call for new elections every year (I'm guessing the terms are supposed to last longer than that) but the problem is the only people that ever run are the people that failed before!

One thing that stood out to me in lecture today that I hadn't noticed before, (relating to being between minority and majority) is that not only do people here live in differing ethnic and religious communities, but also literally different centuries. Reality is very loosely based here, and in a span of 100 meters walking on the street, you can go from the 5th century all the way up to the present day. However, very few people choose to live in the present day mentality, therefore relating the different groups can be a huge challenge. It's not that they choose not to see some things, it's just that it simply does not exist to them! You can see how this is a problem for Jews who are living in quite literally 17th century Poland and believe that there are only 2% Jews here when in reality there is an 80% majority and they do not have to act as though the entire world were against them. What a wild ride.

We're also doing a lot of Hebrew Biblical study at Ecce Homo, and learning that really none of the Bible makes sense without the Hebrew background. You have to understand Jews to understand Jesus, because he WAS a Jew, participated in Jewish customs, made references to only things that they knew about or practiced, and it doesn't make sense outside of that.

I wish I could write more, because I have so much more to say, but I am running out of time at the internet cafe I'm at right now (in the Muslim quarter, right next to the Dome!) Thanks for all that you've shared with me over the past couple weeks, I love hearing the little things from home!!!!

Love you all,
Monica