New Life In An Old City : The Holy Land :)

Wow....yup that's basically all that I can say. This place is absolutely incredible. I feel like I should catch you up on what has been going on over here. Lets start from the very beginning..."a very good place to start". (Yup I know that's cheesy). I woke up at 6 in the morning the day I left and I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep the whole night before. I had to lug all my bags to the air port. Loading my carry on was an adventure. It was to heavy for me to lift so this old man lifted it for me into the overhead bin. Of course the flight attendant got angry at me because he said it was to big. The "pre-flight" was alright only 5 hours long, and then after a 5 hour layover in JFK we were ready for the big one. First of all in case you didn't know..international flights are HUGE!! There are two floors but first class has a whole floor to themselves because they can actually lay their seats all the way down and make them into beds. Sitting by Mikele was good because we leaned on each other the whole time. It was a 12 hour flight of cruel and unusual punishment. Trying to sleep was physically impossible and I couldn't get my eyes to stay shut. I watched four movies and sat trying to sleep. 45 minutes was the grand total when we landed and they wouldn't let us sleep for the rest of the day. But even if they had let us I'm not sure I would have been able to. This place is beyond all description. The pictures don't even begin to do it justice. First of all their is the center. There are eight floors with the fifth through the second as housing. I have been running the stairs the past couple days and it is quite a work out. It has everything that you could want and everywhere you go there is a huge window with a beautiful view of the city. We have an cafeteria where they feed us everyday. But this is food made by people that live here so it is nothing like what we have at home. It has been kind of hard to get used to but I am learning to love it. The people here are so nice. Its blows my mind that it has only been four days. Here it feels like its been a month. Everyone in the center already knows most peoples names and everyone is so friendly. I don't think I have heard a mean word come from anyone. It's true what everyone says, you come here and you instantly make 81 new best friends. The other night we played sardines in the center. There are so many secret hiding spots and nooks and crannies to be found. We could even get under the stage :). We started classes on Thursday and the classes are no walk in the park. I had no idea Old Testament could be so complicated. I swear that every other word is jibberish... I am excited to learn how to decipher though! Now for the best part, JERUSALEM. I really don't even know how to correctly describe it. It is basically a dream come true. Everywhere I go there are new things to see and experience. I have already taken a hundred pictures and its only been a couple days. There are amazing sites to see and already I have had spiritual and emotional experiences that I could never believe. I can't wait to grow in ways I can only imagine. Well its getting pretty late over here so I am going to head to bed. I promise I will add more pictures later. Love and miss you all.

Shalom!