Back at JUC

So I've been back in Jerusalem for a week now. My room is great. It's large, it's right by the boiler so it's always warm/hot while the rest of the school is freezing, it's right across from the dining room and bathroom – no more walking down four flights of stares for me! - everyone gets their own closet and desk. I really like it. And I made a fort out of my bed by sleeping on the bottom bunk and hanging blankets around it. Now I have a private place I can go to :) I have three roommates, which will be interesting as I've only been living with one person since I got to college, but I'm open to a new learning experience.

One of my roommates has been with me since day one. She goes to CIU with me back in the states and we go to the same church at home, we had the same flight here to Israel, she did the practicum with me in Bethlehem, and now we live together. She's a little messy and unorganized, which would usually make me really anxious, but we get along well... so I can't complain too much. The other two girls get along really well. They talk a lot and go out a lot and are slightly more concerned with personal appearance than I think we are, but that's okay. They're sweet and they prefer to hang out with guys than girls, which is how I am. And at least it wasn't the three of them getting along, with me on my own. It could be a lot worse.

Over all, I can tell it's going to be a better semester. There are nerds here! I'm not the only one! It's like a little blessing from God. So I've made friends with a few guys, I still get along with some of the grad students from last semester... I haven't connected with most of the girls, but they aren't as immature as some people from last semester. So there is hope. The only problem is that the girls don't feel like they connect with the guys so they just want to form a strong sisterhood and do girl's night. Which is not and has never been my thing. I don't even know what girl's do on nights like that. I want guy's night! I want video games and Indiana Jones! But I also don't want to push them away. So... we'll see. It's just frustrating to see them split off like that in the first week.

Picking out classes was an interesting adventure. I really wanted to leave Wednesdays open to work at the school in Bethlehem, but that wasn't possible. And I was originally going to take a class called Cultural Backgrounds that would have gone into Old Testament Ancient Near Eastern culture, but there was a five day trip at the end of the semester. Last summer, I really wanted to take that class because the field study at the end meant living with Bedouins and learning how to slaughter and cook a goat in the desert – which is totally my style. But, having been to Egypt last semester... I was so tired by the end of the semester that it was hard to fully appreciate the trip. And, I have a lot of things happening within the first month of me being home. It would just be a lot less stressful if I didn't go on the trip. Unfortunately, there's no way to take the class and not go on the trip. So I prayed about it, in case God wanted me to go even though I didn't – that happens a lot, and I visited all the classes that are offered that I was interested in to see if I felt lead in any direction. Praise God! I did not feel lead to take Cultural Backgrounds. So, my class list is Hebrew II, Jewish Thought and Practice, Parables, Second Temple Period History, Field Education, and I'm auditing History of the Church in the East.

When I walked into Parables and Jewish Thought and met the Rabbi that taught them, I knew that's where I should be. I'll be learning the Parables of Jesus from a Rabbi, and then looking at the Torah through the eyes of the Jews. It's fascinating. I'm having a very Jewish semester with these two and Hebrew. I'm starting to see connections between the language and Semitic though. For instance, the Hebrew language involves taking a root word and either adding a suffix or prefix to change tense, possession, person, etc. The Jewish way of looking at the Torah is the same way. They take a verse and see 70 interpretations. When we see a “problem” in the Biblical text, we assume that it's just not important or doesn't further God's redemptive purpose. But when Jews see a “problem” in the text, it's a big alert sign for them and they believe God wants them to search out the answer and interpret it. For Christians, the Bible is the inspired word of God for all generations. Jews see it as the inspired word of God and God knew that each verse would have to be interpreted differently for each generation and wrote it purposefully as such. Which feels unstable to me. So... I'm excited for my classes.