Well, I made it!! And Jerusalem is more incredible than I ever imagined it could be! It was a bit of an adventure getting here, so let me give you the rundown:
I flew from Salt Lake to Washington DC on Wednesday morning. At the DC airport they made us check our carry-ons (if they were more than 17 pounds) so I had to check mine. Then we got on the plane and flew 9 hours to Vienna, Austria! I guess we sat on the plane for 2 hours before it actually took off, but I totally missed that-I was passed out from being so tired! On the plane, I sat next to an Albanian man and his mother and 1 year old son, from Kosovo. They were so nice! The woman didn't speak any English, but the man spoke pretty well. The poor little 1 year old was struggling to sit still for 9 hours. He was all over the place and screaming and crying. Being from a large (and fairly loud) family, I can pretty much sleep through anything, so that was definitely a blessing. So I slept for most of the plane ride, which was super nice. We finally landed in Vienna and we only had about 25 minutes until our next flight, to Tel-Aviv. It was at this point that I realized my passport was in my carry-on, that I had checked as baggage back in DC!!! AHH, I was freaking out...I told the Austrian airport workers, and they said they would try to find my bag in the bottom of the plane and get my passport, but if my passport wasn't in my bag, then I wouldn't be able to go to Tel-Aviv. Our plane was supposed to take off in about 5 minutes, and they still hadn't found my bag. But they said that my bag wouldn't fly without me, so the whole flight would be delayed because of me! I was feeling super dumb...and pretty embarrassed. BUT, they were super nice and they found my bag and I showed them my passport and they let me on the plane, without too much delay :) So anyway, it was kind of stressful, but I made it! After I got on the plane, I turned on my i-Pod and laughed to myself when Billy Joel's song "Vienna" came on. The lyrics hit home with me--they say "When will you realize Vienna waits for you?" Haha, Vienna really did wait for me :)
So, we flew from Vienna to Tel-Aviv (about a 3 hour flight) and it was so great to finally get to Israel!! It was rainy and overcast and alot greener than I imagined it to be! It's so beautiful here--I felt like I had stepped off the plane and into California! We got onto buses with our teachers and headed to Jerusalem. On the bus, our teacher pointed out a lot of really cool stuff. I was already learning so much! We passed Judea and many people think that Judea consists of plains (due to the song "Far Far Away on Judea's Plains") But, contrary to popular belief, Judea is actually covered in hills and trees-there are absolutely no plains in Judea! That was kind of interesting :)
We finally got to the Jerusalem Center and what an incredible building it is! It is so beautiful and I just love it! We have a perfect view, looking down onto the old city, it's pretty surreal. We had multiple orientations and meetings, where I was seriously struggling to stay awake (I was definitely doing the whole embarrassing head-nod thing). Everyone was so tired! But we got through it!
Friday morning (I am about 9 hours ahead of most of you reading this) we got up and went on a tour of the old city! I didn't realize how close we live--it takes about 5 minutes to get down to there from the center. This was so much fun! It was basically just a quick preview of what we would be seeing throughout the rest of the semester. But I was really excited, because I ran into my parent's friend Omar--he is a wood carver from Jerusalem. He was handing out business cards on the street and I introduced myself and it was really fun to make the connection! We went through the Palestinian/Arab part of the city on the east, which was so cool and there were so many little shops and vendors all along the streets. Then we went into the west part of the city, which is the Jewish part. It was so much fun to see so much culture and so many colors and sights and smells--my senses were definitely overwhelmed! (But it was a happy kind of overwhelmed, haha!)
Today is Saturday, which is the sabbath over here. So I went to church today! When I got off the plane in Tel-Aviv, my teacher pulled me aside and said "Kimberly, I'm going to ask you a question that you might not want to hear..." Umm, how do you respond to that? I was feeling a little worried. But, then he said "Would you be willing to speak in sacrament meeting on the sabbath?" Haha, I was a little relieved, but not entirely! Anyway, so I spoke in sacrament meeting today, and that was a really great experience. I also got called to be a primary teacher today! I'll be working with the 4 and 5 year olds. The primary is actually surprisingly big in the Jerusalem branch. I'm really excited to work with those cute kids :)
So anyway, life here is great! The food is super great---mmm, I love it! I'm starting P90X with my roommates tomorrow, so that I can have an excuse to eat all the delicious food here and not feel bad about it! :)
Well, sorry this was so long and drawn out...I'll try to make my later posts a little more interesting and succinct! Until then, adios amigos y amigas!!!
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