I am still getting use to having church on Saturday and then a free day on Sunday. Even though today was Sunday it felt like it was Saturday. To even further complicate my mind we went to a Lutheran Church this morning in addition to going to our services yesterday. One of the BYU students here is a Lutheran so I went with her and a group of students to attend a service in their Old City church. Their church is really close to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (where many believe that Christ was crucified and buried). The Lutheran church was really old so it was cool to have church there. I liked the service because there was a lot of singing and the songs were a little more upbeat then ours but still reverent.
After the church service, we went to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo. I was hoping that since unicorns and dragons and mentioned in the Bible that this zoo would have them. We did find some lizards that could be classified as small dragons. Despite the clarification in the Bible footnotes, I decided for myself that when it says unicorn in the bible is referring to a rhinoceros because they have one large horn. So if that is the definition I use then I also saw a unicorn (rhinoceros). It was actually a way good zoo. I have such a high standard because of the awesome Omaha zoo, but this zoo did really well. One thing I liked was the lack of barriers for some of the displays. The kangaroos were separated from us by only a rope, and the lemurs ran across the path and climbed in the trees right around us. We also went into an aviary and were able to feed the birds nectar. We spent most of the day there today.
So I figure that I should tell you guys a little bit about my classes that I am taking. My favorite class so far is Old Testament. Usually Old Testament is separated into two semesters, but we are doing the entire Old Testament in just two months so we can spend the last month and a half studying the New Testament. That makes for a lot of reading and a really fast pace. I am enjoying learning more about the Bible, and the best part is that on our field trips we visit places where these stories happened. Now when I read or talk about many Bible stories I have a visual memory in my mind of the time that we visited that place. My professor is Dr Eric Huntsman, and he does a great job of teaching what the text really says.
One class that connects well with Old Testament is Ancient Near East. A BYU professor named Dr Jared Ludlow teaches this class. It is basically a history class for this area of the world which covers from when records begin to now. That is a lot of material so sometimes we cover an entire millennium in a class period. To put that in perspective think about how old the United States is. The United States has been a country for less than 250 years. In our study of this area we throw 250 years around like it's no big deal.
My other three classes are taught by people that live here in Jerusalem. My Hebrew class is taught by Judy Goldman. She grew up in California in a Jewish family, married an Israeli, and then moved to Jerusalem. In Hebrew we are learning the basics of the basics since it is only a 1 credit pass/fail course. It is cool that we can already recognize letters and start to sound out words that we see on signs. We also are learning a lot of phrase for common conversations.
Our Judaism/Israel class is taught by Ophir Yarden, and the Islam/Palestine class is taught by Bashir Bashir (isn't that kind of cool that his first and last name are the same). Both are professors in the area. It is really enlightening to learn about these two different religions and nationalities from locals that are experts in their fields of study.
What I love about these classes is how cohesive they are. The topics are very interconnected. Sometimes I feel that we learn the same thing two or three times just because it applies to multiply subjects so directly. It really helps to cement the basics. It is a difficult class load. The 15 credits are legitimate credits. This isn't a vacation. What is difficult for me is the change of pace. This semester is entirely different that last semester. Technical classes like math, science and engineering are not very similar at all to religion, history and political classes. One major change is the amount of reading. I hardly read a book last semester. I solved a lot of problems, but books were more used as references if I needed additional help. This semester I am reading hundreds of pages a week. I am definitely improving my reading speed so far. It is good for me. It makes me stretch.
If you guys have any questions or want to know anything specific about my experience here, just leave a comment and I'll answer it in my next blog so everything can see my response.
Take Care
That sounds like a very difficult, but fascinating load of classes! I know the first time I was EVER even remotely interested in history was when my family took a trip to Washington D.C. in 8th grade. There's something about visiting the actual place that makes it so much more real. What an experience you must be having!
ReplyDelete