Since Jared does not have the comments option on his personal blog, I'll post what I would have posted there here. Is it just me, or does anyone else find it interesting that Jared goes to Israel for 2 weeks - the HOLY LAND, where JESUS lived - and when he comes back, he posts no pictures on his personal blog, tells no stories, just makes a slight mention of it. And then talks about coughing and wheezing and having pneumonia. *sigh*
Jared, when you're recovered from the pneumonia, I hope you will post some stories about what you saw and did in Israel, including Tel Aviv but of course the Christian holy sites in and around Jerusalem. I saw your pictures on Facebook, but there was very little explanation.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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Well, there's a simple reason for not posting any long boring travelogues. Most people are bored by big long extensive travelogues. Shoot, I think I'd get bored writing it. I posted all the pictures I had on facebook, and the explanations I gave was all the explanation I had. If you want to know everything about the history of what I saw, you can google it as well as I can.
I talk about coughing and wheezing and having pneumonia, because that's something that has been going on for two months. I spent one day in Jerusalem. The vast, vast majority of my time is Israel was spent at work, learning how to do my job.
Well, sure, people are bored by BORING travelogues. INTERESTING travelogues are entirely different. I do have some specific questions if you would be so kind as to appease my curiosity, even briefly:
1. I don't know if you remember, or if you even knew this at the time, but I extensively studied the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during college. So I'm wondering if that was even on your radar while you were in Tel Aviv? Are there extensive security precautions everywhere you go? Or did the Israelis keep you pretty well-secluded from that type of thing?
2. When you went to Jerusalem, I assume you went through their checkpoints. What was the experience there? Was it just a stamp in your passport and "move along please" or was there a more extensive search? Did you see any Palestinians going through at the same time? How were they treated, compared to the Americans?
3. Are there any Palestinians in Tel Aviv AT ALL? From everything I've read, it seems to indicate a big No Way.
4. From your pictures, it looked like you went to the traditional birthplace of Christ and the Garden of Gethsemane. Did you feel the Spirit there, or was they just "eh" tourist places with tons of noisy people taking obnoxious pictures?
5. Did you go to BYU Jerusalem, or just take a picture of it? Were you with LDS people, or a mixed group, or what?
Thanks!
I have a couple of additional questions. I understand that the sabbath is observed on Saturday, even by the Christians. Was Sunday a regular work day? Did you get to attend church? I would like to see the answers to Trina's questions, too.
1. There were certainly extensive security precautions, but 99% of those were at the airport. I had to show a letter from the company specifically invitong me to come to the offices for training, tell them where I'd be staying, and so on.
2. I did not see any Palestinians at any point, and so I'm really not aware of any of that. The only checkpoint I saw in Jerusalem was at the Western Wall, and that was just a metal detector. (I also had to go through a metal detector at one office building near Nazareth.) I have a total of three stamps in my passport - entry into Israel at the TLV airport, exit from Israel at the TLV airport, and re-entry to the US at Philadelphia.
3. Like I said above, I never saw any. I really have no idea. Since I was among Israelis, I chose not to ask. I wasn't up to any political discussions.
4. I was with a local tour company, so it was a mixed group of religions and nationalities. The tour guides were multilingual locals. I could feel the Spirit when we were overlooking the city from the Mount of Olives (about half a mile above the Garden) but most of the spots within the city were more touristy than anything. The Catholic Church actually maps out the whole "Trail of the Cross" and has places designated as to where Jesus stumbled and everything from the Bible, but that was all arbitrarily decided by Contantine's mother after the Christians came into power around 300 AD. So I certainly didn't feel any "Jesus tripped RIGHT HERE" kind of feelings. I actually felt more reverent at David's Tomb than I did in the Upper Room or at the Sepulchre - because the Christian places (best-guessed) all had big ugly churches built on top of them by the Crusaders, the Russians, the Armenians, the Greeks, and any other groups that held power in Jerusalem at any point.
5. I had originally arranged with the tour company to be able to go and visit BYU, but they changed up the tour order in order to hit the places that would be closing early on Friday. So we weren't near BYU at the end of the tour like I'd planned, so all I could do was take a couple pics as we drove past. The tour guide did give it a nice explanation though. I was certainly not aware of any other LDS in my group.
6. Since Staurday is the Sabbath, and it starts on Friday at sunset, the weekend was Friday and Saturday. I had to go to work Sunday through Thursday. I tried to look up how to go to church, but all the church website had was a Utah phone number to call, which I couldn't do from Israel. So I wasn't able to go to church at all while I was there.
I hope you are feeling better now Jared, and that you had a good Thanksgiving. Thanks for your answers to the questions, though it is definitely understandable that you hadn't shared all of those things before. Glad you are home safe!
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