Now at Ecce Homo

Ecce Homo is a convent type thing (Sisters of Zion) in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem. I almost feel like I could throw a stone onto the Temple Mount from the balcony! It would be more like 2 really good stone throws away, but the Dome of the Rock is so close. To make this story a sad one, I have to say that there is a chance that we won't be able to get onto the Temple Mount at all this semester. With the recent violence it is very difficult to get there, but our leaders are working on it. Maybe I could just jump from rooftop to rooftop and then climb the wall! Maybe not.

Thanks for all the updates people gave me! Snow would have been lovely for some of the really warm days last week, but now it has cooled down a bit. It's a bit sad to know I couldn't be home for Spring break to see my family and friends (and friends that live at my house like family!), but I guess since I'm here and since Darrel couldn't either then I'm ok. I can't wait to hear your stories, bro! And yes, "11 Minutes" totally is not my style. I'm a bit surprised I read it all, but in the end I'm glad I did.

This week has been mainly for studying Judaism, but we've done other things as well, like play Rook and Mafia and Euchre and Cranium. Yeah, we have been given some free time. It's usually lectures and/or field studies from 8:30am to 4:30pm, then free time until the next morning. A lot of free time was spent swapping stories from free travel or playing games. 2 nights ago, we were able to celebrate our leader's birthday! That was so much fun! Last night, Brent and I made a return trip to Sarriots and this time we brought 5 others with us. Laughs and games and food and music and Fawlty Towers for 4 hours meant we had to wake the night guard at Ecce Homo to let us back in. Oops.

Brent and my final days at Sarriots went well to say the least! It was an amazing way to spend the last 2 days of that week. On Sunday we even go to have a church service in the garden of their church and have a potluck afterwards! I loved it all! There was a very happy reunion as all 30 of the EMUers finally came back together again.

My favorite part of Ecce Homo is the layout. It seems random as layers have been added on top of others. So a lot of the hallways are open-air rooftops with many great views and there are a lot of sets of stairs. All the guys stay in two large connected rooms with "cubicles." Each one has a bed, desk, closet, lamp, and sink. Sound and light all run together and make it possible to know what everyone is doing even though everyone has their own space. It works for me!

We've had a plethora of lectures on all sorts of subjects: Hebrew, Jerusalem, historical Judaism, the Holocaust Museum (Yad Vashem), the history of Isreal from Israeli eyes, David's Tower, the current Jewish state, and Jewish religious customs. The speakers have had very interesting personalities! It is difficult to not be engrossed in what they have to say. I've learned quite a lot as some missing puzzle pieces have finally been revealed. I can't say what we are doing tonight because it has one of our leaders quite nervous about the ramifications. I think it'll be even more fascinating than the rest of the week has been!

I think that's about it. There are new pictures on the EMU website to check out. I'm in 7 of them and one of the captions actually mentions me by name! There's my proof; I am actually here in the Middle East!