Yerushalayim

Today was incredible.


Those two spaces are for intensity and to symbolize some sort of a cliff hanger, but just to leave you hanging a little longer, I will write of Jerusalem in the next paragraph. I've received numerous emails asking what I'm doing in Tel Aviv, which, I guess, merits a little bit of explanation besides "school." Tel Aviv University has around 200 overseas students this semester, 196 of whom are in a regular study abroad program like anywhere else. For the first year, Boston University (yay BU) is pioneering it's third engineering-specific study abroad program (the first two in Dresden, Germany and Guadalajara, Mexico) allowing engineers to go abroad while not losing ground on the rigorous engineering requirements. So, there are four students from BU in the program, which may prove to be a little awkward when there are four students to a professor, but I am looking forward to the new experience. None of us know hebrew, though some of the other overseas students have various skill levels. We spend the first month in Hebrew school (Ulpan) and then begin engineering in late February. I really hope that my time in "level 0" hebrew will push me to a usable ability by the time that I leave. So, that is why I am here :).

Now, on to Jerusalem.
Jerusalem invoked an interesting feeling. It's filled with walls. I first felt a great sense of excitement, but as the initial excitement wore off, I was looking at a world of division. Jerusalem is a place of sadness and hope. Being a center of so many religious beliefs, it seems like it should be a place of joy, but unfortunately, it is not. And i was thinking about how in religion, it is truly the pursuit of happiness through a god and a peace of mind that we all seek by having an answer for life's most unanswered questions. A place that is based upon faith is so dominated by fear rather than peace, hatred instead of love. I am reminded of a verse in the bible that says that these three: faith, hope, and love remain, but the greatest is love. What I saw was hope and faith. Jerusalem is a city of hope, but not of love. A city of faith, but not of peace. The most important element, not only to religion, but to our world is love and my goal is to infuse just a small portion of love into my world, so that somehow I can make a positive difference in the healing of hatred and anger through my love.
On a more, travel-junkie kind of note, for those that are interested in my less philosophical diatribes, what I loved about Jerusalem was white. The city is made with Jerusalem stone so every wall is made of a light sandy colored stone making the city look so beautiful and clean. We spent most of the day in the old city walking through all but the muslim quarter of the city which I plan to see later. The church of the holy sepulchre was quite the place to visit. It felt very spiritual yet, being in a group of students almost completely Jewish, it was difficult to take seriously. I was glad though, to be able to see these places of such important religious meaning. For me, I was awestruck to see those places, but it still is faith which makes me believe what I do, and so the places functioned as a sort of reminder and made me very thoughtful. I hope that when I return to Jerusalem I can see these places in a less tour oriented way and really grasp a more complete and meaningful picture of what it all means. We also went to the wailing wall, which, though a Jewish icon, was the most meaningful location to me. To see true passion really stirred my heart. The tears which have been shed on that wall are so visible in the faces and spirits of those who were there. Pretty amazing place. We also drove to a few lookout points to get good pictures and give a more complete view of how the city is set and historically how it has grown. We spent a while at one spot looking down from a jewish village, which, for years, was only a spot of shooting and death. A wall now protects the village from their arab neighbors. From the same point we saw the end of "the wall" separating Israel from Palestine. It is not yet finished and ends in the outskirts of Jerusalem and is followed by a fence. These walls which cover the city all represent some sort of division. It is a beautiful and divided city.
Jerusalem was last Wednesday. Today is Sunday. I've spent a few days at the beach on the beautiful mediterranean. I cannot complain :). I've also been exploring various parts of Tel Aviv and Jaffa and am growing to love Israel more and more each day. This is truly an amazing country. Today was my first day of Hebrew. It was hard, but I am also very excited about beginning to learn. Perhaps I'll have some fun things to say to you all when I return home.
For those of you who want to chat, I'll have internet sometime soon in my room, I hope :).
For the first night in over a month I can honestly say I need to go study.
This update was very difficult to write as the feelings I felt in Jerusalem were very hard to explain, but I trust that a portion of what this place means has been passed on from me to you.
I hope all is well with all of you. Thanks for reading!
-Aaron