The Trip of a Lifetime

Today was my last Sunday in the United States for four months--pretty surreal. I feel sort of guilty for having such an irrepressible smile on my face while everyone around me is sad that I'm leaving. I mean, I'm sad too, but I'm mostly excited. People keep asking me if I'm scared about leaving, and honestly... I'm not. I'm just excited. And happy. And exhilarated. And any other positive emotion you can think of.

Some of you may be wondering why Israel was my trip of choice. I think it probably started with my mom--my mom went on a study abroad in Austria while she was at BYU, and she still says it's one of the best decisions she ever made. I knew then that I wanted to go--the only question was where. I decided that I wanted to go somewhere that I doubted I'd be able to travel to ever again--I wanted to go on the trip of a lifetime. When the Jerusalem Center opened again in 2005, I knew that was where I wanted to go. And so it's been in the plans since.

A little bit about the Jerusalem Center: it houses a total of 80 students (40 girls and 40 boys) each semester, even though it could easily hold twice that many. There are a few professors that stay there with their families, and there's also a full staff of both Arabs and Israelis... Pretty cool that they're able to work there together, am I right? I'll be taking Arabic, Old Testament, New Testament, Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Jewish Civilization, and Arabic and Islamic Civilization. Yes, none of these classes have anything to do with my major, but I still know that they'll be phenomenal. Oh, and I have a field trip class as well--all of the field trips correspond with what we're learning about in our Old and New Testament classes. So essentially it'll go a little something like this: "This week we'll be studying The Sermon on the Mount. Let's go there now..." I'm so excited. 

Here's a little link to a video with a somewhat boring narrator (sorry that he's not more exciting) giving a virtual tour of the Jerusalem Center:

http://ce.byu.edu/jc/hosting-video.cfm

I'll let you know how things are going next Sunday! Keep in touch.