The Pope's Visit

This whole week has been a little hecktic. First of all, we have our first midterms coming up and everyone is stressed out about it. Second, Pope Benedict has come to visit Israel is staying right next door to us. Seriously, we are sharing a fence with the Papal estate and the Pope is staying there for the week. The whole area is crawling with security, Israeli soldiers carrying Uzis are pratroling the Center stairs that run up the south side and when we go out on the patio to eat our lunch, there are usually a couple of them only a few feet away, alternating between looking over the fence toward the Papal estate and watching us eat. Everytime the Pope's motorcade of 4 stretch limos, 6 vans, and about 20 motorcycles passes by, they close down the whole road up to the center. We even have about 10 of the security crew of the Pope staying in the dorms with us and they have set up their main control center in a room on the top floor here. It is all pretty crazy.
We were priveleged to recieve a visit from the Governor of Utah, John Huntsman and his entourage including Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. They both spoke to us at an awesome forum this past tuesday. I was really inspired by some thoughts they shared with us. Mr. Shurtleff came to do the Israel study abroad 30 years ago and met his wife here in the program, so he loved being back. It has just been VIP week here at the Jerusalem Center.
Lastly, we went on a field trip into the West Bank on monday and visited Jericho, the Mount of Temptation, and some other sites. It was awesome! On sunday we leave for Egypt and will be staying for 7 days. I can't wait for it!