First Impressions

So, I don't know who will be reading this, but I figured I would just continue the blog that I began while I was in France. This time, I will not be living in a foreign country but traveling for about a month or so. The plan is to go from Israel to Jordan to Egypt to Palestine to South Africa. Only a short while in Jordan and Egypt. I will let you know who things go.

Today was spent going from Newark to Tel Aviv via airplane and then Tel Aviv to Jerusalem via bus.
It was a strange sensation for me as I sat down in my seat on my first flight to the Middle East. I sat down and looked at a screen that showed my route from Newark to Tel Aviv. As we came closer, the map of Israel got larger and larger. It was a map that I have been familiar with since I was required to learn the locations of the Sea of Galilee, Jordan, the Dead Sea and Jerusalem at the age of about 10. I was both excited and nervous to enter this land that I had studied for all of my life, but had never really wondered much what it would be like to go. I always wanted to live in Europe, in Paris like my buddy Dan. But, having done that adventure, I am glad that my time has come to explore this region.
I am entering the land where Abraham was told by God to go to with Sarah, this Promised Canaan land. I am entering the land that was taken by the descendants of these pilgrims and then taken again from them over and over again. Ruled at various times by Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans, Brits and now Jews once again. This land still bears the evidence of this continual struggle for control. On the bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Liz leaned over and pointed out to me “the Wall.” A large concrete wall that looks like something that lines highway 40 in St. Louis, except this one has barbed wire on top and in various places is patrolled by an Air Control Tower looking structure. We went through checkpoints with signs clearly marked in Hebrew, Arabic and English, “Israeli citizens and permit holders only.” I have yet to enter the old city, but I am anxiously awaiting that entrance.