Adjusting!

Day 2, or at least I think so. It's funny how after the flight and not having set classes really messes up your internal calendar. I have no sense of time or date and probably couldn't tell you what day it is. Other than that everything is so amazing! We were woken up this morning by the Muslim call to prayer at 5 am. The mosque is a mile or so away from us, so we get the opportunity to hear that every single morning! We split up into groups today went into the city for a walking tour. We walked about five miles or so and went through the Old City, East City, and West City. The difference is really amazing. Since the Old and East city have Palestinian people living there, the Israeli government doesn't want to spend the time or money cleaning it up. The buildings aren't fixed up, everything is really dirty, and there is trash everywhere. In one case there was an open lot next to a few apartments and it looked like the people dumped everything they didn't want next door. It isn't food so much as old clothes, shoes, tv's, old cars, and other junk like things. Walking through the Old City, we tried to look at everything as fast as possible, but there is just no way. Street vendors are everywhere and most of them know that we are Mormon and try to sell us weird religious things like carvings of Joseph Smith in olive wood. (If anyone wants one, let me know!) The vendors were so crazy! Each booth was different and every single one had its own smells. The buildings are incredible. We were all laughing about how it looks like a set out of Universal Studios. We saw the Church of the Sepulchre, where seven religious all worship. It is so strange to think that of all the places in the world, almost every religion thinks it is absolutly necessary to have claim to an area about 2 sq. miles. Walking through the West City was like night and day. The roads were perfectly clean and unlike the East City where everything is crowded, loud, and dirty, the West City was really spread out, no street vendors, and very modern. It looked like it could be any European city and thanks to modernization, there were a lot of western resturants on almost every street. It's pretty cold here which really suprises me. There is a ton of fog in the morning and it was sprinkling until about lunch time. It is a lot of like San Fransico. Well I think I'm off to yet another orientation meeting! I hope everyone is doing well, please email!!