May 10th Letter

Hello hamishpakhah sheli!

That’s how we say “my family” here in Jerusalem! It’s been an awesome week-and-half since we got here. Some days I feel like I’ve lived here forever. The people at the center and in the city are generally very nice. I’ve learned that you can’t start talking to a shopkeeper unless you plan on buying something from them, because they get really offended if you waste their time. I’ve learned that if I don’t want something, I just need to walk away, because if you start talking- even to say no thanks- they automatically assume that you’re starting to barter and they’ll start bringing the price down. I didn’t mean to buy a scarf yesterday but the man wouldn’t let me leave until I did. I got him down to half the price he originally had it at, though, so I’ve learned indifference and saying no are the keys to good bartering.

We’ve had all our classes at this point and they seem mostly manageable. I’ve heard that it’s impossible to do all the readings, so you have to pick and choose and learn to skim. My Hebrew classes are going better than I thought they would. Shlomit teaches our conversation class and she talks really fast, but she explains the words we don’t know without ever speaking a word of English- and actually makes us understand. Our Israeli history class is by Ophir. This is the class I was most worried about because it employs a vocabulary I’m unfamiliar with, but he does a very good job of bringing it down to our level. I don’t understand every word that either teacher says but I know a lot more than I thought. I think all my classes should be very interesting. Probably the only class I was excited for that now I’m uncertain about now is the Palestine History class. We’ve only had two classes and all he’s done is rant about how Americans are narrow-minded and put all of Islam in a box and how we (specifically) hate Muslims. I thought it was a little ironic that he spent 4 hours stereotyping us. I hope he moves on and actually talks about Islam soon or it’s going to be a long summer in his classroom.

So far I’ve been to see the Tower of David Museum (a huge tower along the wall that is in ruins you can walk around), a few different churches, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Nabi Samwil (some ruins on a hill where Prophet Samuel was supposed to have wandered), the Western Wall, and I’ve seen Bethlehem, the Dead Sea, Gibeon (where Joshua commanded the sun and moon to stop), and the Jordan River in the distance. We just got back from the Western Wall tonight, where we got to watch and participate with the Jews as they ushered in Shabbat. I went and touched the wall, watched the men dance and pray on their side, and was pulled into a couple dancing and singing circles on the women’s side. It was a really neat experience to see the Jews and their devotion.

We go to Turkey in a week and I’m really looking forward to seeing that. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! Look forward to talking with you on Saturday!

Love, Kelby