I Made It!!

Aaahhhh!!! I can't even believe it, but I'm here in Jerusalem right now!! It is amazing. The Jerusalem Center is so beautiful and the view is incredible. It took us 27 hours of travel to get here, with layovers in Denver, Chicago, Vienna, and finally Tel Aviv before we made it here. I was completely exhasted but so excited. I can't believe I'm in the Holy Land!

They kept us really busy last night with dinner, a welcome meeting, and a tour around the center. I finally got to bed around 11 after unpacking and then we had to be up by 6:30 for breakfast. Apperently, they sound an alarm all across the city at about 4 in the morning to call all the Muslims for prayer. I didn't hear a thing. Hopefully it will stay like that for a while until I can catch up on my sleep. One really cool thing is that they are celebrating the holy month of Ramadan (I don't think that's how you spell it). It lasts for 30 days and celebrates when Mohammad was taken up into Heaven. It's pretty much the Muslim version of Christmas. They even have Christmas lights hung up all across the streets. It started 3 days ago and last night there were fireworks and partys going on all night. It was really fun, but kind of scary at first because we didn't know what was happening, and fireworks sound a lot like gun shots.

This morning we took a tour of the city. It is so interesting here. The center is right next to the Mount of Olives. So we walked down the Kidron valley and into the old city though Damascus Gate. The old city is amazing. It kind of reminds me of Aladin with all the street markets all up and down the streets. People have all their merchandise out in the open with a tarp covering them up and try to sell you scarfs and stuff when you walk by. It was a quick tour just to get us oriented, but they pointed out all the spots where they think Jesus was. It turns out the Garden Tomb is only about a five minute walk from the center. Me and my roommate are going to try to go there on Saturday (the Sabboth day here). I can't wait until I can go back in and explore around a little bit more. There is so much to see!