Delightfully Turkish

For me the country of Turkey will forever be branded as three things, Lentil soup, long bus rides and ancient Greek ruins.  Seven days and this is all I come away with?  Not quite. Squatter toilets also make the list. Loved those. But in all sincerity, it was a hilarious, entertaining, educating and sometimes bland tasting trip. I hope these pictures speak to you.

Same plane mate. What are the odds of that?

The Metro in Istanbul. What a rad city.

Assos. This was THE most gorgeous place ever.

The rain in Spain fell mainly on the plain, but the rain in Ephesus fell mainly on me. I felt what I imagine the Gryffindor quidditch team must have felt in book three when they play, I think Ravenclaw, in the pouring rain. We. were. soaked. There was no escape from the downpour. If my rather dry looking clothes deceive you into thinking I am exaggerating, just know it was too wet to take any pictures after this point.

Karaoke! At  a place called "The Golden Oldies." Excluding our group of 15 rowdy YSAs, everyone in the place were over 40 year old cruise ship people having a night in the city. Here we were singing "Lady Marmalade." (Not my choice, I promise). Later Natalie (girl on the right end) and I sang "Walk like an Egyptian." Badly on my part.  

Greek temple in Ephesus. 

I used the force to elevate this car above my head.

Shabbat Shalom

On Friday’s we aren’t allowed to go into the Old City until after 3pm for safety reasons so I spent the entire day sleeping, eating and watching movies in my bed. My roommate was sick so I told myself I was keeping her company, but really I was just sleeping and watching movies in my bed. After a day of being really lazy of course the only thing I wanted was more laziness, so the thought of going somewhere wasn’t as appealing as it should have been. I promise I would have been appealed if I had known what splendors were in store……….

The Jerusalem Western Wall is considered by Jewish people to be the most sacred site of worship on the Earth. Prior to this week, I didn’t know the Jews don’t have a temple. It was destroyed twice and unlike our temples, they can’t just rebuild in anywhere. It has to be in the same sacred location where it originally stood—here in Jerusalem where the Dome of the Rock is.  The Western Wall is the outer wall of the temple mount and the closest thing they have to a temple. Accordingly, this is where they go to worship and pray.  (Keep reading. I promise it gets interesting.)

It is also where they routinely welcome the Sabbath on Friday nights (as the Sabbath starts on Friday at sundown).  Last Friday we participated in this celebration and is was RAD.  The men and women are separated by a barrier and on both sides there were huge circles of people holding hands, singing, slapping the ground, raising their hands to the heavens and then dancing round and round. At first we were amidst the many who sat on the outskirts of the circle, wistfully watching the young and old celebrate the coming of the Sabbath. But one by one we were pulled in, usually by robust women grabbing our hands and saying something in Hebrew.  It was surreal dancing, yelling, laughing and pretending to know the words to the Hebrew songs everyone but us was singing. In essence, it was like being swathed with gladness for God and for humanity and for the freedom to worship how we will. The air was thick with religious zeal and I was overcome with the devotion I felt from these people. “Ya’ know, even though this is not exactly how I worship, I feel something special here. I think it is all the same. We are all human.”  That’s what a choked-up, spunky, spiky haired Jewish woman from NYC said to me as we stood next to each other overlooking the wall.

Before leaving I was surrounded by a group of gorgeous 16 year old girls, with dark hair, big brown eyes and flawless olive skin. Most of them spoke smooth English so we talked and laughed until we had to leave. "Do you think the boys of Israel are good looking?" "Do you listen to Beyoncé?" "Do you have a boyfriend?" "You are so beautiful."  This is what they said, proving that girls are universally the same. We all have girl talk. They were beautiful, warm hearted and hilarious. I want to be their friend forever.

When all 82 of us left, we couldn’t talk very well. It was like we wanted to cry but we weren’t sad, we weren’t crying-happy and laughing was cheap. We just looked at each other and made moan-noises and a few breathy wows. 

As cameras were strictly prohibited these Google images will have to do. Forgive me for attempting to describe the indescribable.

See all of that empty space between the wall and the first barrier? Well, it was all FULL. So many people.

Yeah, kinda like that.

Flute, Oboe, Horn, Bassoon, Piano, Clarinet

Danzi, Beethoven, Strauss. That's what I heard tonight sitting on the very back row of a full auditorium facing three enormous arch-shaped windows showing a billion city lights. The Sextet looked cool. The Bassoon player, cooler. He looked like Santa Claus, sporting a snipped beard and a blue turtleneck. But I didn't stare at these things much. I closed my eyes, listened and smelled. I smelled my grandma's hugs, breathing the wafts of elegant perfumes, finding particular nostalgia in something that smelled decidedly pink sitting in front of me. I let my body forget itself while I had beautiful thoughts all in time with Beethoven's Rondo.

The Jerusalem Center has concerts Sunday nights and tonight Sister Bentley, the senior sister missionary here, who told me when I first met her "Brother Bentley and I are here because we're nice," grabbed me at the last minute to usher. I shirked reading to go and I found out the concerts here are first class. All the musicians were members of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra and had long bios of their accomplishments. But the best part was staring at the concert goers. High heels showing off middle aged legs, black hair with a silver streak right down the center, kipahs and lots of revealed chest hair.

And I talked to a man named Gidi, Gidi, short for Gideon.

I Feel Frumpy

Because I wear baggy clothes, I don't blow dry my hair (well, I didn't do that before...but still) my makeup melts off and I am SO tired. I feel like all I do is sleep! At night in my bed, during the day in my bed, on the bus and in class. They say jet lag will wear off after a week....but I only have one more day before it is a week and I'm afraid I'll still be tired!  Okay, pictures. Here they are.

Can I just tell you that getting to this point, (flying out of the states on the rad German airline Lufthansa,) was one of the harder things I've done in my life. Not only did we experience the whole Phoenix fiasco but something went wrong almost every step of the way.
1. Boarding passes wouldn't print at the Phoenix airport
2. They wouldn't let me on our flight from Charlotte to DC because they had overbooked and I didn't have a spot. Luckily right before the plane took off they let a tear streaked, hopping mad me on the plane to find a seat next to what might be called a little more than pleasantly plump man who I was squished next to the entire flight. But I was just glad to be there.
3. In DC four out of our group, according to the airlines, didn't have any sort of booking or reservation or any other signification that they wanted to fly from DC to Frankfurt. Again, they were all able to board last filling the empty seats.
4. He** at Immigration
5. Lost baggage.

This is our huge plane parked in the overcast, muggyness of Frankfurt. (The only time I've ever set foot in Europe.)

Immigration was ridiculous. BYU told us not to tell them we're students because we need visas to be students in Israel and technically we're not.  So when I handed the lady my passport and said, "I'm part of a church sponsored program to see the sights of Israel, learning about the life of Christ" and the lady said "for how long?" and I said, "for three and a half months," I knew from the expression on her face I wasn't getting off that easy. "I don't believe you. What are you going to see for three months? How can there be that many things? It sounds like you are a student. I don't buy it."  It was terrible. The icing on the cake of the worst traveling experience I have ever had.  But eventually she let me through telling me, "you better be out in 3 months." 

This picture was in the baggage claim area.  Obviously I'm in a place that doesn't look too kindly on Americans.

Because 4 people's luggage had been lost we had to wait for an hour before we could leave the airport.

 After a 45 minute bus ride we finally arrived to the Jerusalem Center and I cried. (For the third time in three days.) I went to my room and fell on my bed and cried. I was so happy to finally be there. And even though I had seen pictures of the center and I knew it was beautiful, I was completely unprepared for how gorgeous it is. It is full of creamy golden light, smooth stone floors and huge round windows. The air outside is warm and just the right kind of windy.

Dome of the Rock

There are so many gummies in the old city!

Funny boys in the street.

The tomb of Mary. People lighting candles.

Most hilarious girl I've met here, Catie Legro.

Ha!

The French Canadian priest, Michelle LeFeaux, at the Church of Saint Anne.  He asked us to sing hymns in the church because he said it gave him chills. We did and the acoustics were incredible.

Today at the church of the Holy Seplechure, a possible site of Christ's crucifixion.

 This sign is outside of Hebrew University, where I am now writing this blog. It is a 10 minute walk from the center and the internet is way faster!