Weekend Update: Palestine, Palm Sunday, and other things.

The longer I'm here, the shorter my weekends seem to feel. I find myself rushing to do everything I haven't done in the last seven months. You know, all those things that you tell yourself, “I have plenty of time to do that. I'll do it later.” Next thing you know, it's the end of your second semester and you haven't left your room in a month for fear of failing Hebrew.

My Friday was your very typical wake up, work on Hebrew, skype with some people, have shabbat dinner, and do more work. Or, it should have been. However, this Friday was daylight savings and all four of us in my dorm room slept in till 11. It was the first time I had slept-in in months. Of course, I then proceeded to do nothing productive for the rest of the day. It was nice to just relax for a day. I think there are two kinds of college students: those that work so much they have little time for much else and those that have mastered relaxing and socializing while still managing to pass classes. What's sad is that I'm in the first category, and my grades have little to show for it. I blame multiple choice tests. If everything were essays, my scholastic life would be a lot easier.

Moving on, I usually go to Beit Jala on Saturdays to work with the school still. Like I said in my last post, I've been staying all day to help grade papers and then go to church at night. Oddly enough, after all that sleep I had the day before, I was still exhausted. So were all the other teachers. We blamed daylight savings, though an hour change shouldn't have thrown us off that much. Some of the teachers were talking about taking the 9^th graders into Jerusalem to see Hunger Games. I already saw it opening weekend, but if I saw the movie then I could just go back to school after instead of hitching a ride back after church and getting to bed around 2 am. Perfect. Except that the boarders between Palestine and Jerusalem were closed for Palestinians. I guess, on Friday, there was some protest in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, so the Israeli government decided to close the boarders. Perhaps as some sort of punishment, or that's what I assume. The whole thing absolutely baffles me. First of all, Palestinians aren't even allowed into Jerusalem unless the have a special passport or are given “permission”. Most people don't get permission unless it's a holiday and the government grants them access, almost like a present. It seems very condescending to me. “Oh, you've been good recently, here, let me allow you the privilege of visiting our country.” I mean, why does Israel get to be so high and mighty? I understand that years ago, Palestinians suicide bombed parts of Israel. But does that give Israel the right to annex a part of their land to build a wall and control everything? Seems a little overkill to me. Anyways, point being, the 9^th graders got turned around at the border. All they wanted to do was see a movie. So, we ended up not seeing Hunger Games and I treated myself to buying stuff I've been wanting from the Old City.

Yesterday was Palm Sunday. I always seem to forget about Palm Sunday. Easter is pretty difficult to remember too, because it always falls on a different day. But Palm Sunday always alludes me until I go to church and am handed a palm. I don't know that I ever understood why we celebrate Palm Sunday. I usually spend that church service attacking my parents with the palm branch. Here in Jerusalem, however, Palm Sunday consists of thousands of people gathering on the top of the Mount of Olives and walking down into Jerusalem and walking through it's gates while waving palm branches and singing. I'm not one to be a part of a crowd, though. I have an aversion to people and loud noises. So I gathered with a group that did the ramparts walk down to the gate, and that sat above the streets, on a wall, to watch the parade go by. I've been meaning to do the ramparts walk, anyways. It's a walk around the old city wall. It's a pretty popular thing to do and I felt like it was one of those things that I should try and experience while here. So, we grabbed some coffee and moseyed our way along the wall until we reached a suitable spot to sit down and watch the Triumphal march. A good hour or two later, bands started walking by and playing music. Behind them, wall to wall thousands of people walking down the street and singing “Hosanna” in all different languages. It was beautiful and joyous and unlike anything else I had ever experienced. This is what Palm Sunday is about. Christ walking into Jerusalem and people celebrating this occasion by worshiping Him. I'll surely never experience anything else like it.