A Nice View of Hell.

I know you are probably thinking a few things. One might be why hasn't claire written? And the other is why does claire have a nice view of Hell?

I will answer the second first.

It is six am. I really thought it might be earlier and am happy that I slept so long, considering I didn't think jet lag would hit me so hard and I worked hard not to nap when I was tired yesturday. So after a lot of walking all over today, I went to bed ready to sleep. All that happened was me dreaming about getting lost in the old city which was very unnerving. So this name is fitting because of that, and because off of the roof we have a wonderful veiw of the Hinnon Valley. Jesus compares this Valley to Hell, I am thinking because it was a dump or something that I will probably learn in the next few months. Any, thanks for letting me explain, and let me start from the begining and catch you up. We left off at the layover, and gosh it seems like two weeks ago.

The layover got longer at night. We walked around a lot after we freshened up in the less popular bathroom while we one of us watched eachothers stuff. Next time I go hiking up the side of a mountain I will bring more clothing. Gosh I need to google the countries I go to before I get there, more on that later. Lets see I spent my euro trying different coffee, mostly because I didnt know how to order and kept getting strange things. Nothing tasted like I thought it would and I never did get filtered coffee. Atleast I know for next time. Then we found something to eat. I tried my luck at sushi and Jennilee got pizza, I guess both were pretty good but looking back I shouldnt have tested my luck. We then tried napping on some chairs, well I layed accross the table part, for a few mins, and then went through customes and finally a darn security point. We hadn't been through one all day, and where wondering why. In the terminal, we met Josh, another JUC student, who kept walking past us trying to figure out if we were JUC! We finally talked to him and spent the rest of our journey together.

We took the red eye from Athena to Yeshrael at 2 am. The food was terrible on this flight and I have no idea why they bothered anyway. Who eats so late anyway? Alright I should keep moving. The flight seemed to go by quickly after a short nap, and we finally landed at our destination! Now the airport in Tel Aviv was huge, but the three of us somehow mananged to meet up with Ian and Billy, two more students, and then took a sherut (a group taxi) to JUC at 6 am. Alright... so we walked outside for the first time, all I thought was, it is so humid. It was like wearing a sweater of air! I think I am starting to get used to it. I tried to take pictures of this trip, but I was tired out of my mind, and also feeling sick, another feeling that hasn't quite left yet.

We arrived at JUC in one peice, which is a miracle consider there is barely a traffic pattern here. Everyone drives so aggresively! I would never be able to for sure. First thing that happened was room appointments. We told them our name and they said we had room 400B, and then laughed and said something about being all the way up there. I didn't know that this would mean about six to ten flights of winding stairs all the way to roof level! I am going to have the best legs of my life. Can I say that? Anyway I will. So we got settled and took a crazy cold shower. They only heat their water twice daily here in the morning and at night, supposedly during lunch as well sometimes. I will have to figure that out. But the cold water was welcome and felt good on my skin. We took a short nap before heading out to the Old city with Nada from Nigera and her friend whose name I can never remember. They have been here before so that was a blessing. The Old City is very close to us, only a less then ten min walk away along the way. We walk right through the Jaffa gate and into a World I wasn't expecting... more different then anything I had ever seen. Think a small network of alleys (well a large one) making the biggest flea market on the planet, sometimes covered and sometimes enclosed, all split off into different sections but definately not clearly marked...gosh its so different! Oh and then out of no were, we were at the Western wall. There it was, right in front of me! I didn't know how to react, I almost cried, but I am really on sensory overload here, so much has been thrown in front of my eyes in such a short time! It looks like arabian nights, but I guess I keep forgetting I am in the Middle east. So after changing some money we came back and took another shower, ate dinner, and tried with more fail to sleep through the night.

The breeze amazes me here. It comes at night and cools everything off, it is wonderful. You definately wait for it after being hot for so long. By the way, I feel so pale here, 10x of normal. I just want to tan and ruin my skin forever! Maybe I will work up to something! So this morning we had breakfast of hot hard boiled eggs and some other things... I WILL do a blog on the food later. Then had a day of orientation, ending in a picture scavenger hunt and a walking tour of the modern new city, which is only four hundred years old lol.

I will try to get pictures up soon, and go into more detail about my day later, my computer is about to die.

Maybe it hasnt hit me yet that I am in the Holy Land. But it is starting to. I thought it would feel different, but how do I say it feel just like another place. But it does feel different in that everything other then its a place is different. We had orientation today and were warned about all the dangers of living here, and I can feel that tension around, but I also feel so much peace here. It is so beautiful in the sence of its...age? I can't explain it, but I am praying that the Lord is going to use this time to grow me, and I know that he will.

ps. you can't flush the toilet paper here. It just feels wrong.