For those who don’t know, I’m spending 5 weeks in Jerusalem at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem studying 2nd-year Biblical Hebrew. We’ve had our second day of classes today, and I’ll have to admit that I’m still rather jet-lagged. It doesn’t help that our classes are during what would be (back in the States) the hours from 1:30 – 7:00 am.
It turns out that 2 of my 4 roommates are in the same class as I am, and so we end up doing a lot of stuff together. Earlier tonight (we are 7 hours ahead of Eastern Time), we made spaghetti and meat sauce and sat around and talked about languages and Tim Keller. It’s been an exciting experience here already, even though this is technically only my third day (2nd full day) here. The Rothberg International School (where I’m studying) is really rather international–I have roommates from Denmark, from Poland, and from Brazil (as well as one native Israeli–who is actually an Arab, not Jewish, as one would think. Apparently, a sizable portion of Israelis are actually Arab–and they don’t have anything against Israel as news reports may make you think. He’s actually served his mandatory time in the Defense Forces–although I actually think he went with the police duty option).
But anyhow, I’m amazed at the ability of my roommates to be learning a language in a language that is already not their first language (English). I also think their accents are somewhat wearing off on me. >.< But anyhow, all 4 of my Rothberg School roommates are all Christian (I suppose we are studying Biblical Hebrew), and two of them are actually studying theology–one to become a minister, and another to… well, he doesn’t know quite yet, but he doesn’t feel the call to ministry. The other is a Middle Eastern Studies major at Cambridge (the one from Poland). It was interesting when we sat down to eat tonight, as we had decided that we should probably bless the food. I found out that Orthodox Christians (or Polish ones at least), usually say the Lord’s Prayer before meals, while the Dane was used to singing a Psalm.
But anyhow. Jerusalem is an interesting city. I haven’t had too much time to explore as there have been a lot of registration/orientation/tours/classes already, and it is exhausting to walk around in the day as it’s so hot and dry you feel like all the energy just gets sucked out of you the minute you walk outside (I’m so glad there’s air conditioning in the dorms). Apparently, there’s supposed to be a heat wave hitting starting sometime around tomorrow. I find it hard to imagine how miserable it will be outside then. o.O
So, I’m really bad at taking pictures. But I figured I had to have a few. So… here are four of the view from my window. One during the day. One during sunset. One later during sunset (twilight?), and one at night. My apartment is in East Jerusalem, so it’s actually on the Jordanian side of the city (although on the Mt. Scopus campus, which is owned by Israel). The view here is to the North, I believe. The Old City (where the Temple Mount is) is Southwest of where I live.
One interesting thing about Jerusalem is the way the city is organized. Instead of being neatly arranged in rows, the houses seem to be clustered around in little neighborhoods or settlements. Also, all the houses are the same color (some sort of off-white, presumably to reflect sunlight), and seem to have similar architecture. There are also no skyscrapers or really tall buildings (like, over 20 floors) in general. I suppose that’s so everyone can get a good look at the Old City (where you can see the Dome of the Rock sticking out into the sky).
Shalom!
