Hi all,
After a grueling 24 hours of flying, we made it here in once piece! First impression: not that scary. Tell my mom that. But don't tell her that our city tour today was accompanied by an assault-rifle carrying guard. Or that almost every single store has a metal detector and/or an armed guard. Or that heavily armed military personnel line every street. Basically, there are lots of guns here. Our dormitory (very generous use of the word) is located right in the heart of the old city neighborhood of Jerusalem. I'm pretty much sleeping in the heart of all major world religions. Amazing.
Time out. The Hassidic Jew at the computer next to me (you know the type, sideburns, hat, suit, etc.) just started bumping Lil' Jon on his computer. Hilarious. Are we really all that different?
Computers here are expensive and crappy (Mid-East, remember), so I'll keep it short, but I think a quick overview of the country is in order to bring everybody up to speed. There are several quarters of the city, aside of the obvious Jewish one. There's the Muslim one, the Christian one, and the Armenian one, in addition to a few smaller ones. All of them are separated by mediaeval-age walls, and stumbling through the wrong one is akin to wearing a Lynyrd Skynyrd shirt in Compton; you just don't do it. Technically speaking, however, Israel in not a religious state, but that's like saying technically, RuPaul is a man. The politics are run by Jews and the businesses are run by Jews. Thankfully, I can play for a few teams, so I just bring out whatever side is necessary.
The entire city is cordoned off by a giant metal security fence that separates it from the West Bank (the Palestinian quasi-state). Needless to say, just looking at the place could get me blown up.
I had a funny story about checking into the dorm, but I'm already racking up the Shekels here, so I'll save it for the next one. Talk to you all soon.
Myles
