"The Good ole Days Before the Peace Treaty"

So tonight we had a wonderful forum speaker, he is a journalist that works for Jerusalem Post, he is the Palestinian  CNBC correspondent, and used to be a writer for the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization). He is living in Israel but considers himself as a Palestinian Israeli, ironic right? But tonight's lecture was probably the most unbiased information that I have received thus far and so I am going to relay the things that he spoke about in a bullet point form:

• His main topic was about how the life and conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians have gotten worse and downhill since the Oslo Peace Treaty. He was saying that he wished life went back to before the peace treaty because life was less complicated and people were more tolerant of each other. Many Palestinians got frustrated with Yasser Arafat after the agreement because there was tons of money pushed at him but he was corrupt and spent all of the money and gave none of it to the people, this is why majority of the Palestinians went straight to Hamas and supported him. He said that he was going to have change and so people flocked to him. After the agreement the Jews and Palestinians felt more restricted than ever, they woke up one morning and then there were borders set-up. Many of them lost their job because they could not go into certain areas. This just created tension between two sides that wasn't there before
• The US wanted them to have a free election in the area and they pushed for Palestinians to have their own leader. The US never thought that Hamas would ever win in the election but everyone over here knew that Hamas would win. 
• The Fatah and Hamas agreement that was made a few weeks meant nothing, it was to show Israel that they are ready for agreement but they still hate each other. To him they hate each other more than they hate Israel. 
• More Jews and Arabs have died since the Peace treaty began than before
• Palestinians are demanding that they go back to the '67 borders but they know that it is impossible to go back to that agreement. It would mean that thousands of Jews and Arabs would lose their houses and that will not create peace but it will actually create more tension and hate.
• He believes that the only solution is a two-state solution. Both the Arabs and Jews do not want to live together both know this. It is like a divorced couple living together, they need to split apart.
• The Palestinian side is divided between Fatah and Hamas and until they can agree on what they want on then they cannot go to the Israelis and make an agreement

So these are not my opinions but his. I hope that this makes sense and that I am just babbling. He is a journalist and told us that majority of the news that we receive in the US is biased and not accurate. They send reporters that they drop in and they are not really knowing what is happening. So be careful. Well I love you all and I hope that you were able to find this site. 

Mom, I have Rabies

Ok, so I don't have rabies but after you see this picture you would think that I did have rabies. I want to preface this by telling everyone that since I have been here I have not touched one stray cat or dog. I am always really good about keeping my distance. But the other day I was walking outside of Jaffa gate and I saw this ridiculously cute puppy. It was clean, it had an owner and it was even trained. I thought to myself this is an ok puppy to pet. Right? The owner noticed me adoring over it so he came over and let me pet it. Of course I wanted a picture with it and so Lindsey set it up and went to snap the photo. I picked it up and immediately my friend Rob started yelling "Katie it is foaming, Oh my gosh it is foaming." I was confused and didn't know what was going on and so I was still smiling for the photo when all of a sudden this happened.....

I was still smiling because I was unaware that it was throwing up on me. Once I realized I gently dropped the dog. Luckily for me we were right next to our favorite pizza place and the guy knows us mormons so he let me clean up there.( we showed him the picture and he got a good laugh at it) I washed my arm for a good 10 minutes. Lindsey could not have snapped this photo at a better time because I am so happy that it is throwing up on me!
This picture has made me famous here at the JC! My professors have been showing it and I am even in a piece of the talent show because of this photo. If you look close at the puppies fangs you would think it was possessed by the devil. But no worries I am ok and I don't have rabies. But every time I see this I laugh so hard and I can't get over it so I hope none of you are eating while looking at this.

Tel Aviv!!

Today was a free day so that of course translates to getting out of the center/ city and getting some TLC at the beach. And that is exactly what me and 70 other students decided to do. Rewarding ourselves with relaxing on the beach and gorging on gelato :) A perfect way to celebrate this brutal life we live.  Tel Aviv is a metropolitan city located right on sandy beaches beach and interestingly enough it is also the site of Jaffa.

 This is the city of Jaffa and this was the view that I had from our place on the beach

 This monument was erected to commemorate the dream of Jacob, the sacrifice of Isaac, and the Fall of Jericho.

Jaffa reminded me of a small European Village,  so lovely and it smelt of fresh pasta...mmm but to bad that I packed a sack lunch and ate that instead.  There was also a big flea market that we went to to find some antiques. We made a bad move by going with two guys and they reminded me of Rob. These guys thought they were going to die and that all of this "trash" was full of diseases. It was just funny how much they reminded me of Rob and what he would do in that situation. Then we walked along the boardwalk and appreciated/ laughed how different foreign beaches. They were all decent but just not as reserved. The beaches were gorgeous though and we had such a good time playing in the water. We got games of volleyball and soccer going with some of the locals. We lost every time in soccer but we held our own in beach volleyball.  I am not a big beach person but I could have spent all day here.

 Enjoy the European speedo (and this was one of the more modest ones)

 Our "hub" for the day

 Linds and I soaking up the last moments before we had to leave

Our new guy friends (Rob and Matt) that we hang out with pretty much 24/7

Well I love you all and remember the name change coming soon! Hope your day is as sunny as mine was. (But hopefully you don't have to come home and write 2 paper and read)

NEW DOMAIN

Hey just an FYI to everyone the domain will be switched to www.buhlerinjerusalem.blogspot.com starting Wednesday. I will give it a few days so everyone can read this and know of the changes. Sorry for the inconvenience. But with the new name it will switch some of the settings and make in easier to post. Sorry Rob for dropping the name. But I hope you will still continue reading and remember the new name! Thanks for everyone's support and it means a lot to me that you guys keep in touch and remember me. I love you all!

Neob Kedumium

Today we had a field trip to a biblical wilderness reserve called Neob Kedmium. We learned how to herd some sheep, which I might add that I was a natural at....ok, maybe not a natural but my sheep whispering skills definitely came in handy.

After our shepherding experience we went into the "forest" area and it brought me back to girls camp or just camping in general. It looked exactly like the mountains in CO. There we made our own pita bread and ate our lunches. We also picked some hyssop plants and some other seasonings and made our own Zatar spice. I was in heaven. Zatar is this really unique spice that they dip all of their bread in.

We also got to meet a professional calligrapher that is trained to write the Torah. It is a tough and highly prestigious tradition to be a Torah writer. It takes about a year to write the Torah and if they make a mistake they have to cut out the area and stitch in new parchment with the correct words. To get a handwritten Torah costs around $30,000! But they are gorgeous. Some other random Torah facts:
If the Torah falls at the Synagogue the congregation has to fast for 40 days!
The Torah writer has to completely wash his body before writing so he is clean.
The Torah is never spoken normally but canted or sung. Every person sings it to a different tune depending on where he grew up.
When a Torah is old and is hard to read they have a full funeral precession for the Torah to "lay it down". 

The Past few days...

So midterms are out of the way....phew! I survived and did well which was a relief. On Thursday after the tests I went to the Church of the Ascension which they believe to be the place that they believed Christ ascended to heaven. It was a little sanctuary area with beautiful gardens and a really cool cemetery. All the graves were crumbling and it had skulls and crossbones all over them.
On friday after the classes we went out into the city to celebrate a few birthdays. We found this amazing gelato place that was really cheap so we went a little all out...

Afterwards we walked into the Old city and came across the coolest cathedrals and monasteries that I never knew existed.  The first was a Greek Orthodox Cathedral that was built in the 1800s. We got this tour and the lady allowed our group to go to the underground church that was built in the 3rd century. It was downstairs, there was no artwork but it was all stones. The reason that they built the church was because they claim that they found St. Johns skull.

The next stop was at a random Ethiopian monastery, the doors were closed but the locals told us to knock loudly and they would come and give us a tour. An Ethiopian man came and opened the door and gave us a tour. It was a very small monastery but he showed us this Bible that they have that was made in the 1700's. It was made on parchment and the language was called Geez, the biblical language of Ethiopians.  It had paintings on it, the four of us sat in awe for awhile admiring this Bible. I had never seen anything quite like this.

This morning I went to the Garden Tomb and it was  a great experience. I could not believe that I had been here fro a month and not been to the Garden Tomb. I am so glad that I went. This past week I went to the Kotel Tunnels, it is tunnels that go along the Western wall underneath the city. It is also the closest point that you van get to Solomon's original temple and the Holy of Holies. There were many people praying and worshiping alongside the tunnels. It also became a cistern for the citizens and now it is just a tourist location.

Well I hope you guys have a great weekend! Tomorrow I go and heard sheep so wish me luck.

Jerusalem Bells are Ringing

Hey Everyone! Sorry it has been a few days but it is pretty busy, we are all cramming for our midterms which are on Thursday. So I won't be able to post until after that point. But on Sunday we had a free day so a group of us spent all day in West Jerusalem exploring different areas. Our first area was the YMCA Tower. Our Branch President plays the tower bells there every Sunday so we had the opportunity to go and join him. I had the chance of playing the bells when it struck noon! So when you sing the song "Jerusalem Bells are Ringing" you can think of me and how I was able to do that! Cool huh?

Afterwards we all enjoyed a nice lunch at one of the parks near by. On our free days they provide us with sack lunches which is dorky to carry around but none of us really mind because it is better than buying food! Afterwards we went back to that open air market and spent our money on these delicious donuts that we recently found! We had no schedule so we roamed around different Jewish neighborhoods, the first one we went to was the second settlement and on the outside of every house there was a picture of the original owners of the house and their story which were all very interesting. It was right off of a main road but the way the houses were built it blocked off all of the noise so it turned into a quaint stroll. It was also an artistic neighborhood so there were murals and little parks everywhere. The next neighborhood was not quite as friendly. This was an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood and apparently the entrance gates just got torn down. It was like crossing into a different world, everyone was dressed the same the men had their black trench coats and tall hats on while women were wearing black and white dresses. We were all fascinated by this neighborhood and there were signs everywhere that asked visitors to be dressed modestly. Of course we were but the people there were not welcoming, we got the hint when the men started spitting on us. we left quickly afterwards. I wish I could take pictures but they did not allow it.

After we left we ran upon an Ethiopian Cathedral. This was possibly the most unique cathedral that I have ever been to, it was painted hot pink and had crazy designs. But it was beautiful and air conditioned so we hung out there for awhile.

On Monday we had a Service Day where we all did different service projects. I was able to go to an organization called Shekel, they teach disabled adults different skills, provide a place t live, and have professionals that work with them. All of them are different functioning levels and they all do different projects. They help over 80,000 adults! We helped them assemble kits for the Israeli soldiers and make candles that they sell. Afterwards the whole group made hygiene kits for people in the community. The Church provided all of the money and support for the project but we went out and bought from local stores all of the products and then we assembled them and shipped them. We made over 150,00 hygiene kits!
Today has been a long because I have been cooped up all day studying but tonight we had a late field trip to the Kotel tunnels! I will tell you more about them after I have gone through them but I am really excited. So I forgot to post pictures from the Negev desert field trip so here are a few pictures. These are the areas where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived. It is the ruins of Beer-sheba