Home Sweet Home

From the Jerusalem Center to Jer and Ked's house in Provo was a 31 hour trip, then a 5 hour drive to Vegas the next day, but we made it! Mom, Dad, Steven and Paige flew in about an hour before me from Europe so they were there with Jeremy to get me and Mandy from the airport. Now that I'm home Jerusalem seems like a dream, but a very good dream. I realized that I never did a very good job of describing life at the Center so I'll do that, then take you to Galilee.

Besides the trips to Egypt, Jordan and Galillee, home was a beautiful 8 story building. My secret wish as a kid was to go to boarding school and that's pretty much what it was- my whole life was in one building. Here's the tour:
My room was on the 3rd floor with 4 beds and a table in a big room connected to a bathroom and balcony overlooking the city. Girls were down one hallway, boys down the other with a couch/phone area in between.
The 4th floor was exactly the same, but I didn't live there.
Laundry was on the 2nd floor in the bomb shelter with the ping pong table which saw some great games of around-the-world. So if anyone started bombing, at least we'd have ping pong!
The 1st floor was a great place to study because there was absolutely nothing there, except the entrance through the lower gate.
Our professors lived on the 5th floor with their wives and a few kids.
The 6th floor was the fun floor. The Oasis (cafeteria) was my favorite place. We had a few dance parties there and three delightful meals a day there, or at least they were delightful once the cooks figured out that we don't like dill. The gym saw some great games of volleyball, and Israeli and Palestinian folk dancing. There was always a party in the computer lab, except during finals week when it was the 'stressed out crazy people zone'. There were study rooms connected to the computer lab, which were used much more often for watching movies than studying. The classrooms were also on that floor and the forum where we had classes, forum addresses, movie nights and talent shows. We took Old Testament, Ancient Near Eastern History, Judaism, Islam, and Arabic or Hebrew (I took Hebrew) for the first half; second half we took New Testament and History. I'm real smart now. There's another bomb shelter on the 6th floor with a foosball table where we would play quick games during breaks in classes. We are not going to be bored if there's a war! I did most of my blogging from this floor too, usually sitting on the floor in the lounge late at night.
The 7th floor had the main office where we checked out museum cards and where I got in trouble for jumping in the Nile. The garage is also on this floor where we made over 10,000 humanitarian kits for refugees in the area.
The 8th floor is where we left out the upper gate (when we went on field trips or took cabs to West Jerusalem or went jogging to Hebrew University on occasion) and where we had Church. It was so cool to look out over the city of Jerusalem during sacrament meeting and concerts in the auditorium. The grounds outside the 8th floor were beautiful. We played frisbee on the grass between the trees sometimes and I loved to watch the sun set from the 'Biblical gardens'.
We had to swipe our 'proximity cards' to come in or leave the center and we had security there 24 hours a day. It was like living in a 5 star prison... so it was great! I loved living there. Being home is great, but I miss the Center. We spent a lot of time in the city and on field trips as well, but that's what all of my other posts have been about so hopefully this one gives you a feel for life at the Center.