But first this morning we paid a visit to Bethlehem University. Mike and I are finally on the same bus!!! It was fabulous. Although it almost felt a little weird not to split up every time we got on a bus or followed our tour guide. But it was great. :) Bethlehem U was pretty cool. We were joined in a lecture given by our Islam teacher by some of the Palestinian students from there, and after the lecture, four of them got up and answered our questions about living and going to school in Bethlehem. They were pretty cool. The two Muslim girls totally had head scarves that matched their outfits, it was so cute. And then there was a Christian girl and a Christian guy. One thing they said that was kind of interesting is that the Christian/Muslim conflict that we kind of have going on in the US is completely nonexistent for them. I guess it just isn't the biggest difference between people in this part of the world- they've got the Arab-Israeli conflict to worry about. But like, one person asked what they liked to do for fun, and the guy answered, "We're like you, we hang out, go to restaurants, movies..." and one of the Muslim girls interjected, "And facebook. We sit [good effort] on facebook a lot." And we all laughed. It was kinda crazy to imagine them sitting around in dorm rooms wasting time just as effectively as I do at home, but hey, that's what was cool- seeing that these kids really aren't so different. And then just before we got on the bus a bunch of our guys started a basketball game with the guys that were outside playing. Actually it was kind of sad, because the Bethlehem students kicked butt... But then they only played like, 2 shots. Lol.
So then we went to this awesome restaurant. It was called the Shepherd's Valley Tent Restaurant, and it was basically in a tent. My new favorite dish is pita and/or flatbread with various kinds of dipping materials- particularly hummus. Every time we go to a restaurant I stuff myself almost sick with it. And that's just the appetizer. So good. Oh, and we got to see a nun smoke the hookah. No joke. She was with a group and I guess they all ordered it as an after-dinner or something, but she was totally loving it. Yep.
And then we headed over to the Church of the Nativity. It is the oldest church in the world that is still intact. When the Persians came through and wrecked Palestine a while ago, they saw the paintings of the wise men, dressed in traditional Persian clothing and such, and decided they couldn't destroy something that depicted their heritage. Kind of a fun story. Also, across from the Church is a mosque, and while there are a lot of mosques in Palestine, this one actually commemorates the same thing as the Christian church across from it. Because Muslims believe in Jesus as well. They believe a somewhat different version, but they even believe in His Second Coming- interesting story, if that intrigues you at all, you should look it up. But they believe that Christ was born under a palm tree, so there are two palm trees growing outside this mosque.
You can really tell that this mosque is pretty old, it has the feel of kind of a different era than most of the other Catholic churches around. Like, there were a lot of Roman pillars, and the ceiling is wood. Pretty cool, though. And I definitely felt the presence of the Spirit in the sanctuary section, where the actual event is supposed to have taken place. It was funny, because I wasn't really looking for it, like I have in some of the other places- I guess I just wasn't paying that much attention, and it kind of surprised me a little. But it was nice. Certainly a holy place.
So next to the Church of the Nativity is a church dedicated to St. Jerome. Sis. Wilson- the wife of my New Testament teacher- told us that in one of the previous semesters they were able to attend the wedding of the daughter of Dr. Musallam- our Islam teacher (though he's actually Christian)- in that church. And it would be a beautiful church for a wedding. The whole interior is a pale pink/almost peach and white. It's really pretty. Then we went down into the room where St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin and sang a few Christmas songs. :D We sang "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "O Come All Ye Faithful" and a few others.
Then we had free time to shop in Manger Square. I ended up getting my mother of pearl nativity. All the ones I really wanted were waaaaaay out of my price range- when I asked the lady for the price of one of them she said, "Ohhhhh, very nice, you have nice taste" and when I saw the price I was like, "Ya, too nice of taste for my own good..."- but I got a nice small one, and I'm glad to have it, because I really love the mother of pearl, it's so gorgeous. Mike got a shofar- one of those horn things made out of a ram's horn.
So then we went out to Shepherd's Field. It's actually on the Jerusalem side of the wall, but Jerusalem and Bethlehem are pretty close- in fact, we learned this morning, that the creation of the wall is the first time in history that the two cities have been separated. Sad. But we went out to a hill overlooking Bethlehem, and there was totally a kid there that had a lamb and he was letting people hold it and take pictures! So fun. There we ate our sack-lunch dinners, and had a devotional with our New Testament classes. Mike and I participated in a musical number called "Mary's Lullaby." It's really a neat song. The chorus goes, "All mine in your loveliness, baby, all mine, All mine in your holiness, baby divine ... A new star has risen to hail thee divine, For you are a king, but tonight you are mine." It just made me picture Mary in kind of a different light. What an incredible blessing to be able to have that connection with the Savior- of mother and child. It was a sweet thought. I sang with 5 other girls, and Mike played the guitar. Lol, yesterday we were practicing for it, and after we were finished, Mike stayed and messed around on the guitar for like, an hour. I actually went to lunch and when I came back he was still going. It was cute to watch. He's really good. But neway, the devotional also consisted of several people giving like, character profiles of people from the nativity story, and then Bro. Wilson recited the Luke 2 account for us. Mike also played a guitar solo of "The First Noel." It was really nice. And like I said, it was great to just take the time to focus on the Savior without the extra Christmas hype.
Yesterday we had our language finals. The Arabic final was fabulous. It was quite possibly the best final I have ever had. I felt kind of silly afterwards for studying at all. I certainly would have passed just by virtue of showing up to class, and I'm pretty sure I aced it with the half hour of studying I did do (it's Pass/Fail). But ya, our teacher gave us the easiest test ever, and then some people had brought knaffe- a yummy Arab treat- so we went outside and ate that in front of the windows where the Hebrew class was still taking their final. And then we had a class picture. It was glorious. And then, as you know, I spent the rest of yesterday uploading all those pictures. Actually, I went to Hebrew U on Sunday for the express purpose of doing just that, since we're not supposed to here at the Center. But the internet there was working so slow! It was really frustrating. So yesterday I had planned to do some reading for my Judaism class (since I haven't done any since the midterms and the tests are pretty reading-intensive...) but I thought maybe I could try uploading some pictures and read while it was just taking forever. But I guess no one was around yesterday afternoon (a lot of people did go out) so the internet was working really super fast, and I didn't have time to even write captions for the previous pictures before the next ones finished uploading (I can only upload five at a time... ya) so I just spent the whole time doing that... I'm so responsible.
So ya, after this week we only have 2 (and a half, I suppose, with our Field Trips class) classes left. We go to Galilee and do nothing but New Testament for two weeks, then we have a few more classes of that and Ancient Near East and we finish with those about a week before the end of the semester, as well. I admit, I'm kind of liking this system. It gives us a chance to relax and enjoy the rest of our time here, which will be so good. But I have my two trickiest finals this week (Judaism and Islam) so... wish me luck! :)
I would love to hear the singing you all did it sounds wonderful. Love, Mom
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