Monday, September 10, 2007

McCall Barrick
Brother Ludlow
Journal Entry
Today we started Arabic classes, for those of us who are taking Arabic. Ayman Jebrar is our teacher and he is hilarious. My favorite part of the class today was when Ayman told us of a time he asked a girl to dance and she could tell that he had the accent of a farmer. She asked him if he was a farmer and then refused to dance with him when he told her that he was. He told us that when she denied him, many thoughts went through his head, specifically the thought that the girl was ugly. The way he described it to us was highly amusing. The class was really entertaining, in part because of our teacher, and also in part because none of us really know what we are doing. However, we did start to get a feel for the class in general, which was nice.
For those in our group who are not taking Arabic, there was some time after breakfast before our other classes started. This allowed some people time to do their homework, while others used the opportunity to get some more sleep. Naps are often necessary since we are all still suffering from varying degrees of jet lag. Classes started for everyone at 9:30 when we had our first Modern Near East class with Ophir Yarden. It was a really interesting class and it was good to see the course through his perspective in addition to that of Dr. Musallam. After Professor Yarden’s class we split in to two groups for our Old Testament classes. It is incredible to be in a place where we can learn about things from the Old Testament in an environment where we can see the places and things that we are learning about in class.
After classes were over most people stayed in the center to catch up on homework. However, some people ventured out into the Old City for a couple of hours. Of those that did go out, most people either wandered along the streets looking at shops or walked around the top of the city wall.
Since it is Monday night and we are still attending BYU, tonight we had Family Home Evening. Lauran Lloyd and Ashley Askelsen organized the activity for us. It was a scavenger hunt with different pieces of a puzzle hidden all over the center. People were running up and down all of the staircases in the center looking for the puzzle pieces. Everyone who participated had a lot of fun. It was definitely a success! Plus, there were cookies at the end, and who doesn’t like cookies? Overall, today was another incredible day in the Holy Land. There were a lot of first for all of us here. It was a pleasant mixture of study and socializing and I can think of no better place on earth to do eit