Routine

I'm developing a routine here. Can you believe I just said that? I'm developing a routine in Jerusalem. I'm living in Jerusalem. It still is hard to believe. I've realized that I can't handle the fact that I'm actually living in Israel, and so my mind only registers that fact in small, sporadic bursts, during which I stop and marvel at the fact that I am so casually eating, sleeping, studying, and exploring in the Holy Land and becoming accustomed and oriented to its culture and landscape.

Every Monday we take a fieldtrip to a historically and usually biblically significant site. So far, we've visited Jericho - or Tel es-Sultan - and the Judean Wilderness, the Negev Desert (including Tel Arad, cite of a Judean temple, and the Nabatean city of Av Dat), Jordan (yes, the country. That took a whole week, actually), and the Shephelah. Today we visited the City of David, named for King David, which was the city he conquered from the Jebusites and made his capital. It sits outside the Old City walls of Jerusalem, down the hill from the Temple Mount, so named for the temple that his son built on the mount where currently is located the Dome of the Rock.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we have classes in the morning. I usually wake up late, rush to get ready, make it to breakfast for the last 5 minutes and make myself a breakfast pita or snag a bowl of chocolate pillows before racing to Brother Harper's class before the prayer. We have two hours of Old Testament or New Testament, then Ancient Near Eastern Studies, and then usually our Palestinian or Jewish class, and sometimes a language class. In there, we'll eat lunch and plan what adventures we'll have with the rest of our day. After classes end, you'll see a mass exodus from the lower gate as students head out to the Old City and adventures. We all return by sundown, at which time we go into dinner and then spend the rest of the evening doing homework or hanging out with each other in the student lounge, singing karaoke, playing card games, watching movies, having dance parties, playing steamroller, or what-have-you. You'll probably find me, at some point, in the gym playing basketball with people much more skilled and, sometimes, much taller than I. Or maybe doing a workout video with my roommates, interspersed with reviewing for Palestine tests.

Friday is a rather unique day. We'll have class as normal,but after class gets out, we get to twiddle our thumbs inside the Center's building and grounds until 3 pm when the security team gives us the yay or nay to walking through East Jerusalem. Friday can, in rare instances, be a day that Muslim leaders in certain groups take the opportunity to speak to their community and inspire violence or unrest. And so our overprotective security team takes a couple hours to monitor before we are allowed to walk to and through the Old City. And, of course, we are to be back by sundown as always, unless we are spending time in West Jerusalem, the modern, Jewish side. But, at sundown on Friday the Sabbath begins, and every business closes up shop in West Jerusalem. There is nothing at all for us to do in the city, so we all return to the center for a delicious dinner and a movie. And somehow, movies like Indian Jones and the Last Crusade mean so much more after visiting Petra, and Aladdin means a whole lot more once you've tasted falafel. When the movie ends, the dance parties begin, and we stay up all night until someone remembers we have church the next day at 10.

Saturday, the Sabbath, is an interesting day. Only in Israel (as far as I'm aware) do Mormons observe the Sabbath day on Saturdays. We begin with breakfast, then those of us who are more ambitious or musically inclined walk upstairs for choir practice in the beautiful auditorium with panoramic windows overlooking the city. We're joined by the congregation at 10 for Sacrament Services; yes, we do have church in our very own center. I don't even have to walk outside to get from my room to breakfast to church. I'm spoiled. After Sunday School and Relief Society, the students venture outside at 1 in order to visit the Garden of Gethsemane, the Garden of the Betrayal, the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden, or the Garden Tomb, where the English Protestants who keep the place recognize the BYU students and allow us to visit at any time, though other groups are required to have reservations. Typically we spend time in personal study in those places until we start to drift together and sing hymns. And it is amazing what Easter hymns come to mean when sung in the Garden Tomb. In fact, they say that's the reason they continue to let us visit whenever we like - because we sing for them.

We'll leave close to 4 o'clock in order to make it back for dinner. The cafeteria employees have the afternoons off on Saturday, which means no lunch for us, and everyone is famished by the time we have early dinner scheduled. The sun goes down shortly after dinner, so we end the day in the Center, watching movies, doing home and visiting teaching, calling home, writing emails and blogs, and just finishing up our day of rest, as well as planning the adventures of the next day.

Sunday is our Saturday. That's where anything goes, be it a trip to the Tomb of the Kings or the Yehuda marketplace for Jerusalem-flavor ice cream (dates, halva, honey), a beach trip to Tel Aviv, or playing the carillon tower in the YMCA. This is where we have the run of the city. We pack up our pitas and lunches, they turn us loose, and we return before sundown, or before midnight. And it is marvelous. And the next day? It starts all over again.

Every day is an adventure in Jerusalem. #YOLO