Let my right hand forget what its supposed to do.
I'm here. It's real. Everything. All the rumors. I couldn't be happier. At least I assume I could not be happier at this moment with the circumstances I'm limited to at this stage in my life. I could have a kitten to snuggle with tonight and ice cream in a cone. But those are temporal pleasures. Okay, the ice cream is a temporal pleasure.
I've decided I am going to get high grades in all my classes. I want to study. I want to be informed and do research. They give us an enormous amount of time for everything we need to do. Which is nice because all I want to do is play and explore. Just yesterday we found a door that leads underneath the center. It had bullet holes in it.
On Monday of this week I attended a long orientation meeting concerning the final preparations for Jerusalem. I found out that the clothes I had planned on bringing would not be sufficient so that night I went shopping and underspent on every item I thought I needed. I was pleased. I even for pants that fit well. I was greatly pleased. I went to sleep around midnight with the plan to finish packing at two or three am.
On Tuesday at two am I awoke to a great pain in my stomach. On the way the bathroom (because I assumed I was going to throw up) I discovered a sudden urge to go No. 2. Upon arriving at the bathroom I was surprised to find that I stressed myself into having diarrhea. Details will stop there. Not a pleasant way to awake as I did throw up afterwards. Finding myself still in pain I retired back to bed and slept for a couple more hours. I packed from four to seven and left. I met up with Dwight Bellingham, a friend from my mission, and we travelled to the airport together. The flights were great. We played trivia on one flight and I watched movies on the other. The first flight left at 11 am on Tuesday. I arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday at 2 pm, or 5 am in Provo.
We had orientations and tours for the next couple days. Delightful. I feel some of my faith in religious classes will be restored. There are 58 girls and 21 guys in the group this semester. We're athletic and beautiful and intelligent. People ask questions in class! Good, thoughtful, earnest questions. I am so happy.
I've been late to two meetings and confronted by security twice as well. I promise I am doing nothing wrong. I'm just adventuring. We were coming home last night and I came in through a door with a group. Well, the door had been propped open by a spoon. Right as I opened it a security came around the corner and asked me what was going on. Of course I was honest, but it was certainly very suspicious.
Today we had church. It was nice. Sacrament on the Sabbath (of the Jews) was interesting. I'll enjoy it really. I finally finished and copied down several poems I wrote many moons ago. I'll post one here tomorrow probably. It's a favorite. I thought of the concept almost a year ago and finally wrote it a month ago (I think). We went to the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden this evening. A big group. Our journey involved several wrong turns and asking directions from a stranger. He suggested we walk down a valley and then climb through a whole in the fence. Well, we never found a fence on the bottom of the valley. We later realized his directions were a shortcut that involved hiking up the side of the valley wall and the fence was up there. I spooked a dog while walking towards an abandoned house in the valley. Neat little structure. It used the natural overhang of the wall for three sides and the roof. We found the Garden of Gethsemane on the way but it had closed shortly before we arrived. In the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden we found a group of Mormon tourists, two young Palestinians smoking hasheesh from a hookah (a very pleasant blend. Sweet but not overpowering), and a Palestinian family having a barbeque. The last group invited us over but I think most everyone felt awkward because they spoke little English and almost no one speaks any Arabic. I was able to wish them a good night though. It felt good. It was obvious that my Egyptian Arabic is much different than Levantine (I'm assuming) Arabic. When we got home we found a group of young boys playing soccer. They asked if we would play with them and a couple guys said yes. I stuck around and we had some good fun. Our field was tiny, about as big as a bedroom. Once we won Ahmed (one of the kids) said "one more, one more." Then after that point he said "one more, one more." And the same after that point. And the same after that point. :) It was a lot of fun. Very fun kids. And honestly, some of the kids here must be some of the most beautiful children I've ever seen. Soft curly locks and gentle smiles adorn handsome faces and fit bodies. I'm really enjoying it here.
I'm here. It's real. Everything. All the rumors. I couldn't be happier. At least I assume I could not be happier at this moment with the circumstances I'm limited to at this stage in my life. I could have a kitten to snuggle with tonight and ice cream in a cone. But those are temporal pleasures. Okay, the ice cream is a temporal pleasure.
I've decided I am going to get high grades in all my classes. I want to study. I want to be informed and do research. They give us an enormous amount of time for everything we need to do. Which is nice because all I want to do is play and explore. Just yesterday we found a door that leads underneath the center. It had bullet holes in it.
On Monday of this week I attended a long orientation meeting concerning the final preparations for Jerusalem. I found out that the clothes I had planned on bringing would not be sufficient so that night I went shopping and underspent on every item I thought I needed. I was pleased. I even for pants that fit well. I was greatly pleased. I went to sleep around midnight with the plan to finish packing at two or three am.
On Tuesday at two am I awoke to a great pain in my stomach. On the way the bathroom (because I assumed I was going to throw up) I discovered a sudden urge to go No. 2. Upon arriving at the bathroom I was surprised to find that I stressed myself into having diarrhea. Details will stop there. Not a pleasant way to awake as I did throw up afterwards. Finding myself still in pain I retired back to bed and slept for a couple more hours. I packed from four to seven and left. I met up with Dwight Bellingham, a friend from my mission, and we travelled to the airport together. The flights were great. We played trivia on one flight and I watched movies on the other. The first flight left at 11 am on Tuesday. I arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday at 2 pm, or 5 am in Provo.
We had orientations and tours for the next couple days. Delightful. I feel some of my faith in religious classes will be restored. There are 58 girls and 21 guys in the group this semester. We're athletic and beautiful and intelligent. People ask questions in class! Good, thoughtful, earnest questions. I am so happy.
I've been late to two meetings and confronted by security twice as well. I promise I am doing nothing wrong. I'm just adventuring. We were coming home last night and I came in through a door with a group. Well, the door had been propped open by a spoon. Right as I opened it a security came around the corner and asked me what was going on. Of course I was honest, but it was certainly very suspicious.
Today we had church. It was nice. Sacrament on the Sabbath (of the Jews) was interesting. I'll enjoy it really. I finally finished and copied down several poems I wrote many moons ago. I'll post one here tomorrow probably. It's a favorite. I thought of the concept almost a year ago and finally wrote it a month ago (I think). We went to the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden this evening. A big group. Our journey involved several wrong turns and asking directions from a stranger. He suggested we walk down a valley and then climb through a whole in the fence. Well, we never found a fence on the bottom of the valley. We later realized his directions were a shortcut that involved hiking up the side of the valley wall and the fence was up there. I spooked a dog while walking towards an abandoned house in the valley. Neat little structure. It used the natural overhang of the wall for three sides and the roof. We found the Garden of Gethsemane on the way but it had closed shortly before we arrived. In the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden we found a group of Mormon tourists, two young Palestinians smoking hasheesh from a hookah (a very pleasant blend. Sweet but not overpowering), and a Palestinian family having a barbeque. The last group invited us over but I think most everyone felt awkward because they spoke little English and almost no one speaks any Arabic. I was able to wish them a good night though. It felt good. It was obvious that my Egyptian Arabic is much different than Levantine (I'm assuming) Arabic. When we got home we found a group of young boys playing soccer. They asked if we would play with them and a couple guys said yes. I stuck around and we had some good fun. Our field was tiny, about as big as a bedroom. Once we won Ahmed (one of the kids) said "one more, one more." Then after that point he said "one more, one more." And the same after that point. And the same after that point. :) It was a lot of fun. Very fun kids. And honestly, some of the kids here must be some of the most beautiful children I've ever seen. Soft curly locks and gentle smiles adorn handsome faces and fit bodies. I'm really enjoying it here.
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