I've decided to introduce you to my very good friends from Jerusalem. What better person to start with than the first one I met?
GREGORY MARSH, also known as "Greg." Not knowing anyone and wondering if I would make any good friends, I walked into the Jerusalem Center Fall 2007 "Orientation" meeting: a much anticipated event at which I was to meet my fellows for the very first time. With eight minutes to go before the meeting started, I walked inside the packed auditorium of strangers, wondering where I could find a place to sit. I'm a front or second row sitter and (as usual,) there were spaces empty up front. I waltzed down the stairs to the front, and cut across the stage to the opposite aisle where my eye had caught another person sitting by themselves, sans the parents that most others had in tow. I sat next to the sandy-redhaired kid from Salt Lake City and instantly took a shine to him.
In the months to come I would often mention how funny it was that the first person I introduced myself to was Greg. Greg, who became one of my closest friends and who I spent oodles of time with. It might have been anyone from the center--any number of the sixty girls that I grew to love--but how odd that I instead first met Greg and second, Brandon, the two guys I seemed to always end up spending time with. I am often surprised at life's little quirks. Anyway, I digress. I'm talking about Greg today.
Greg is a Modern Near Eastern studies major. That means that he's obsessed with the Middle East, its peoples, and its future. Greg is something of a linguist, speaking fluent Armenian, and quickly growing to a fluent Arabic speaker. He is also an expert in German, and also speaks bits of Russian, Farsi, Hebrew. When we went to the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra they displayed flags that said "Welcome," in at least five languages, and Greg said, "That's funny. I can read all of those."
Greg is an expert listener. I think someone new was having a deep conversation with him on every bus trip. And we had a lot of those. People love to talk to him because he is genuinely interested in you--a great friend. Also, Greg is comfortable introducing himself to new people. No matter what language you speak. We never went anywhere without Greg sidling up to someone and IN ARABIC, carrying on a conversation. I snapped tons of pictures of this, including one outside of Jerash when he's in a group of men talking to them like old friends.
I included a picture of Greg outside a pottery shop in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem. He's reading the sign in Armenian--funny, but I think the characters remind me of the ancient runes on Lord of the Rings. (It's so pretty, but impossible to read.) Greg was so useful to have around. I'd be in a cathedral and pull him over, point to some weird text, and usually he'd be able to roughly translate. This worked out really well in Lutheran Chapels, he could read all the German. Rebecca would translate the latin for me, and she was often with Greg, so that worked out too. One of my favorite stories to tell was when we were in Church of the Holy Sepulcher, in the Greek Orthodox section, and after teasing Greg about how he can read anything (but knowing he couldn't translate this one,) I rolled my eyes and said, "Gee Greg, what does this say?" He smirked and dryly replied, "It's all Greek to me." Oooooh!! Insufferable! Punning when I least expected it, the genius.
Another awesome thing about Greg is his taste for fine things. I've forgiven him for liking Opera, and he's forgiven me for loathing classical literature. He loves classical music, musicals, and can play the piano and the organ. Lots of Shabbats I'd spend singing hymns loudly while Greg blasted the organ because I knew he couldn't hear me over the noise. Greg has this weird talent of knowing which hymn number goes with which song. It's fun to quiz him on it--you can say, "258" and he'll say "What Songs of the Heart," or you can say "208" and he'll say "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear." (Though he'd say those are easy ones, and his specialty is guessing hymns you'd never recognize.) He's fond of quoting, "let's spend more time in our green scriptures," meaning the hymn book.
Greg would fall asleep on the bus curled up like a cat on this counter-plinth-thing right by the back door and stairs. He could have tumbled down and broken his neck, but he did it anyway. Weirdo. He also is the culprit punster, coming up with things like "These tombs are Luxorious" when we were at Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt. He's a quote master, too. He can beat me at movies I've see a dozen times--especially at Danny Kaye's Court Jester--Greg has the whole thing memorized, I swear!
I learned a lot from Greg's example. Including something I've always needed practice with: Optimism. He is very positive. Hmm, what else can I say and brag about him? Hmm. He downloaded the Muslim Prayer Call from online because he missed the sound of it so much. (Not something that I miss, I'll admit.) He floated in the pool of Siloam. He uses really fun words like "alas," "madness," and "hence." We share a love for early church history and missionary work in the Near East and had long discussions about it--I got him hooked on that "Holy Lands" book I did a project on. He had to facebook me when he went to Camden and Sunset to say how cool it was (it's a Singing in the Rain thing.) Um... there's much too much about him to explain everything. You'll just have to meet him sometime.
In short, Greg is a friend to everyone, and devilishly fun to have around. He's brilliant, and an excellent addition to any excursion. Also quirky. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you:
GREGARIOUS MARSH.
P.S. The pictures are of Greg at Karnak, Greg and Me at the model of Second-Temple-Period-Jerusalem (time of Christ) at the Israeli museum in West Jerusee, Greg sleeping on the bus, Greg reading Armenian, and Greg talking with the men outside of Jerash, and with a man outside of Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. And I think that's it. He's awesome! Everybody should love Greg!
