All the apples in one basket.

Here it is folks, day one in Israel.
In the interest of webspace, I will briefly describe most of today. So in pseudo-bullet-point-style, here we go: Sleep, not that good, I slept like a dead rock from 9pm to 3 am but after that it was jet-lag central and I dozed off and on until 7, all the while dreaming so it meant that very little restful sleep occurred. Then breakfast, which is good and has been labeled most everyone's favorite meal (I think it is because it has less weird new stuff, but that is only my opinion of the perceptions of others :)
Post-breakfast we headed to the classroom for Orientation. This is going to be one great semester. We covered the basics of life at IBEX and took a walking tour of the Moshav (the type of little community in which we live, since our actual town/village name is Yad HaShmonah -- which means "Memorial of the Eight" or something like that and is pronounced roughly "Yawd Hawsh moan aw) It was cool to see everything and know what it's for and how to live here and all of that. The student lounge doubles as the bomb shelter (since the former purpose is definitely the more often occuring of the two). It's where we can hang out with everyone or relax or do homework or play guitar or watch movies sometimes or whatever. Only two places have good internet, the library and the computer room (library = less than 1,500 square feet I would guess and the computer room has three computers if I remember right) So this post comes from the library, yesterday's came from the really slow and pathetic wireless we sort of steal from the visitor rooms up the path from us.
Anyway, Orientation was short and sweet (not like that overdone orientation business elsewhere ;) and was led by one of the profs, Abner Chou, who is like 30 and about to get one, maybe two doctorates. I will have him for "History of Ancient Israel" and "Life of Christ." After lunch we had our first class. Land of the Bible is the name, lots of learning to be done is the game. It will be a challenge but will be raging cool as well (what was that Eli, an early 90s phrase or what?) We only had class time for about an hour, then we had a break long enough for me to lay in bed and never want to get up. Then we went on a walk. A long one.
My professor for that class and for Modern Hebrew, Bill Schlegel - Bill for short - took us to the neighboring villages of Kiriat Jearim (Orthodox Jew) and Abu Gosh (Arab Muslim). After a stop at the Catholic Monastery at the top of the hill, where the Ark of the Covenant stood for well over 20 years (see 2 Samuel 6) we went into Abu Gosh and stopped at a couple of shops/restaurants. Here is where today got really weird. I will tell this story in my favorite story-telling style, it will become common as the semester goes on:
Scene: Arab/Muslim produce store
(We are exploring the goods, mostly fruits/veggies, but some dry goods too.)
Bill: Ok IBEXers, here is something to see (holding up an apple). This is a pink lady apple and as you can see here on the sticker it says, "Product of Washington"
Eli: (Thinking to himself) I wonder if it is from Rainier Fruit Company (Where he worked over Christmas Break stacking apple boxes on pallets to be shipped all over the nation/world)
Bill: Let's find the box and see what we have (turns around, walks two steps, looks under a counter) Here we go, Rainier Fruit Company, Selah Washington.
Eli: (in his brain, "what!?! no way, I was joking" -- (and then out loud) Wow, I worked for them over break!
Person 1: No way! How weird, that is so cool.
Person 2: (saying intelligently) uuuhhhh... whoa.
The End
So there you have it, I could be eating apples in Israel that I stacked on pallets over in America. Who would have guessed it?
Onward we pressed, receiving our supplementary rations of fresh and warm pita bread (sooo good, you have no idea) Then we went to a Crusader-era cathedral/church. It was cool, but the coolest part was singing a psalm in Hebrew and then a worship song in English. The acoustics are absolutely amazing. I am going to go back there sometime and sing (which is saying a lot, since public singing and I have the kind of relationship that doesn't exist. From there we had 45 minutes to get back, so one other guy and I blazed a new trail through Abu Gosh at dusk, so that was exciting. We saw some kids playing soccer (duh, what else does the entire world play?) and some guys smoking by their homes and some Israeli military personnel talking on cell phones and working on a jeep. Then dinner, where I learned more about the life of a Master's College student than I knew before and then some emailing/Skype-ing and then this.
So once again I have become a novel-writer and I must stop. But let me tell you something. To see where something that you read about happening thousands of years ago is something that cannot even be expressed. David was here. The Ark was here. Roman Legions were here. Crusaders were here. People, the Bible is real. The land and the Word are so connected it is unbelievable. All of those "boring parts" that mention such-and-such a place are not just words that sound strange, it is for real. One jet-lagged day in a place that has relatively little Biblical significance is pretty astounding, pray that I might understand the priviledge and grasp the overwhelming truth of the Scriptures - that I might really understand all of the powerful things to come. I close with the words of Abner Chou, which are helpful no matter where you walk each day:
1. Be flexible.
2. You are the greatest danger or the greatest asset to wherever you are and whatever you do so make good use of it and make wise decisions.
3. Believe. Don't get jaded by what you hear, the Word is true. Whatever you are living out right now IS a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, use it and don't waste it.
4. Engage.
-- You will have to fight to take advantage of every opportunity (especially here, since it can all become routine, we may visit a site at the end of a long, long day and have a test to worry about, but fight for it anyway).
So my friends, let us do just that.