En direct de St. John's University, Jamaica, New York...

THE SMALRUS WEB SITE v. 7.0

ISRAEL 1999

Spiritual Enhancement

Trip Journal by Spencer Ross

7/18/99

It's been a long day and barely any time to write. As a matter of fact, I skipped writing today's entry for a while so I could worn on postcards so they'll be back hopefully before we get back. I'm starting this entry on the bus to dinner. Near Eastern cuisine. Danny is talking to us right now so I'm going to finish this up either later or tomorrow night. We wake up at 5:30 am tomorrow so we need a good night's sleep tonight.

Well it's a few hours later and I do have a few minutes to write about all the things we've done today.

Woke up with a 6am call and then a 6:30am call from mom and dad. Had a better, more "normal" breakfast and were picked up at 8:30 by the shuttle. Drove to our first stop: Shrine of the Book. This is the museum where the Dead Sea Scrolls are located. The museum is very small and simple but it's neat to see our links to Judaism predating Christianity. From there, we went to the JNF forest to plant trees. I planted one myself (actually thanks to Dad's brilliancy, everyone in the family planted. we were supposed to plant 1/family and pay for extra.) so I paid one on my own. I'm not sure who it's in honor of or in memory of, just to say that I feel I've contributed to the growth of Israel. After, we went to the Hadassah Hospital to view the Marc Chagall windows. They depicted the 12 tribes of Israel through stained glass windows that only Marc Chagall could create. Brilliant, especially when the lights shine through. We then went to the top of Mt. Scopulus and then the Mount of Olives where the dead used to be buried. We got off to take panoramics of the Old City. And I posed w/a camel when the guy came over and tried to charge us for it. Like Steve and Nancy were by them and the guy asked her to get on and she finally did and he wouldn't let her off til he paid. I tell ya, they sure hustle you.

We then headed back into the Old City towards the Jewish Quarter but first passing through the Armenian Quarter. Danny says that the Armenians feel very close to the Jews because of the tragedies they've incurred through their history. We then headed into the Jewish Quarter in the center of the quarter called the Cardo. Ate lunch again at the small little stands. More falafel. Our next mission was to Kotel to visit the recently discovered tunnels. On the way, Danny let us go back to the wall, so I had just enough time to lay tefillin, daven, and stick my note in the wall before we toured the tunnels. Gave tzedakah to two Chassids, one just to get a prayer book with English. The wall tunnels are neat because they encampus the closest part of Mt. Moriah that one can get to. The Holy of Holies. The place where Abraham was to sacrifice Issac. We entered some section where there was a model of the old temple. So there was a group already there w/a guide (Danny claims he's not a real one) so they were 1/2 hr late or something and we had to keep moving. So Danny started fighting with the guy to leave and the guy wants 2 min. "No, no 2 min." So they're shouting and a guy in their group is like, "Leave him alone." "No." "Sheckit." "No you sheckit." "You're acting like an Arab." "No, you're acting like an Arab." And then they asked the security guard to get that group to leave. You know Israelis- Always ready for a fight, yet always willing to make peace. So we're able to keep going. The tunnel is almost a mi. long (1.7 km). We finally make it out into the Arab Quarter and head back to the bus and back to the hotel. I did all my postcards, etc. and then we went to the restaurant. For supper, we had some pita things, kebabs, and baklava. I must say, it's not the best meal I've had so far.

Our television in the hotel doesn't have many channels. 3 Israeli TV, CNN, and Eurosport. The big thing on CNN now for the past 2 days has been the reports of JFK Jr.'s plane being missing. Yes, it's a tragedy, yes the Kennedy family has always been a key part of American history but watching 23 hrs of coverage a day is enough to make anyone sick. There is a point where tragedy can become over sensationalized and news coverage is definitely starting to do that.

On other channels...I've now seen Teletubbies in 3 languages, having seen it in English, French, and now Hebrew. Yes, that's right, it's shown over here, so I watched it and had no idea what they were saying but it's the principle that matters...