Armenian Quarter

After breakfast I went to Old Testament early to finish off my homework assignment. –Reading chapter headings of psalms, 12 terms in the bible dictionary (I’ve told everyone about Bro. Ludlow calling it the sealed portion of the bible), a psalm, and a hand out— then class started. Our class has committees in charge of devotionals, greeting and hospitality, first aid, music, and more—both in class and outside on field trips. I asked to be in the devotional group. Devotionals are in charge of thoughts, prayers, and bible scene reenactments on field trips. Hooray for assigning prayers and thoughts, but zippideedoodah for bible scene reenactments! Schweet! Anyway, every group has a “patriarch” or “matriarch” that will make sure we don’t lose anyone anywhere. Then when Bro. Ludlow calls for attendance on the buses he’ll call for each group’s hail in order. Every group has a name—we were told to pick the name of a bible character that inspires the tone and feeling of our group… like Caleb, Daniel, Sarah, Joshua… you get the idea? Well, I pulled out the name I immediately thought of and suddenly I had named the group. We are the “boanerges” group. That’s right. We’re the “son’s of thunder.” I’m a genius. I feel rather special… I wanted to be of some use anyway.

It is quite easy to feel swept away by the brilliance and quality of students here. Such talent, such vibrance, such intelligence and spirit. But we aren’t competing. Greg described it best. He said ‘it isn’t push and shove. We’re riding the collective momentum and riding together. Together we progress faster than we would alone.’ And we are! We are among the bestest of the best, united, and it is something we will never know again. Fascinating.

After OT we had Archaeology… and I was bored. Same old same old. Introducing people to Khirbets and Tels. Yadda yadda yadda. I felt like the kid on Princess Bride saying, “when does it get good?” But it will soon. Then our Palestinian Perspective teacher arrived from Bethlehem. (Yes, my teacher lives in Bethlehem. His email address is something @bethlehem.edu. Crazy!) Adnan Musallam. He’s an arab with dual citizenship with the US. I woke up. Fast. He demands respect, and he deserves it. Not something I can say of everyone. In brief, our discussion was about sterotypes of both American and the Near East. Why, where, and what they are, and how they became such. We discussed a lot of things, including the emigration of jews throughout the world, zionism, etc. and how it affected the arab nations. Three of the 80 students here had taken Dr. Shull’s class Winter semester on the “Israeli/Palestinian conflict” and I’ll just say knowing about zionism and the Pale of settlement and pograms makes understanding Adnan a lot easier. We have a total jump on things. Phew! I’m so glad I’m not lost in the academics. Yet. He’s assigned us a 2’ square map of the Arab nations. From Iran and Turkey to the Atlantic. Including the Mediterranean and Caspian seas. Geopolitical and topographical. A lot of work. Yes. Uh huh.

Then Emma, Tim, Greg, Brandon, and myself went on an excursion to the Armenian Quarter of the old city. I wanted to stay and do homework but I’m so glad that I didn’t. I heard that the students hadn’t seen the Armenian quarter until the last day of free time and than then they had wished they’d seen more of it. I understand why. It is very much unlike the rest of the city. It’s peaceful. Cleaner. More residential. And… QUIET. The churches are quiet. The streets remind me of alleyways in Italy. Bright stone, lots of green plants, and it was picturesque! SO picturesque. And when I say that I mean beautiful sconces and lamposts, dozens of overhead archways, window boxes, no litter, and Israeli flags hanging from windows. Gorgeous. Heather would have a hay day here with her camera. Like Fenway park… this place has photo ops around every turn. The prettiest part of the city for sure. Why is is that we Fall semester students came here on our fourth day in town and not on the last day of the term? Aha! Greg. That’s how. He served his mission in Armenia and is passionate about Armenian and the Armenian people, of course. So glad we’re friends with him! He’s invaluable. We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchure and he was translating the Armenian sections for us. The runes, I mean—not the language. I say runes because it looks like Elvish from LOTR. Awesome. Greg is amazing! After we got back to the center he and Brandon and I ended up going into a classroom and singing hymns. He’s memorized which number goes with each hymn. You say 278 and he’ll tell you what it is. Crazy. Anyway… he brought the music to “the holy city” with him. You know, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Lift up your voice and sing! Hosanna in the highest, Hosanna to our king…” that song? Yeah. He pounded out all the chords. And I got to sing it here! Just like I wanted to! I stood, singing about the holy city while I stared at it. Whew.

Greg asked what I wanted to sing next, and I kept asking for his favorite hymns. For All the Saints—you should have heard the chords he was using—and then of course, Hymn 41—the Mildenstein favorite…Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise. Then Praise to the Lord the Almighty. He even started to transpose off the top of his head… bumped the last verse up a step or two. Oh so much fun. Blissful. I love it. It is now a habit. We all love it. We’ve asked another girl, Lauran (who was in Women’s Chorus with me) to come and sing with us next time. She’s a second alto, so we’ll be a complete set. Brandon’s got a great bass voice. (and if anyone here knew I was writing about them I’d be so embarrassed… ah well. They’re all so amazing and we have so much in common! Lauran and Greg both have the Court Jester memorized. Hee hee!) I can’t wait to sing with them inside a cathedral.

More about Church of the Holy Sepulchure. It’s gy-nor-mous. Biggest church I’ve ever seen. Oldest church I’ve ever seen. Been around since the fourth century. OLD. Oh-ho-ho-hold. Way old. And huge. I don’t know how they did it. Enough for 10 cathedrals altogether. Read the wikipedia page on it. See the pictures—especially the one of the “immovable ladder.” I’m not allowed to post pictures while I’m here at the center because it will clog the internet connection. Anyway, the ladder is on the outside and has been since 1894. Over a century! And all because the different sects can’t agree on anything being changed and taken down. Everyone has to agree before any changes are made, and since they never do nothing gets done. Anywho. I have homework. Lots of it.

Ta Ta for now.