Streets of Jerusalem

Interesting past few days. It has been full of orientations and have had about a million Jerusalem Center rules explained to me. But its all ok. My body has finally adjusted to the change in time zones as of an uninterrupted sleep last night. The past few days have been mainly filled with first, a tour of the streets of Jerusalem (only the Muslim and Christian quarters) and then an afternoon walking the same streets again today. Today is Friday, the Muslim Sabbath, or day of the Mosque as they call it. Since many problems occur on this day in Jerusalem, we aren't allowed to leave until 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It is only a ten minute walk to Jerusalem from the bottom gate of the center through the muslim section of the city, also known as East Jerusalem. We aren't allowed to enter the Old City or East Jerusalem after nightfall, so basically we had only a few hours to walk around today. We visited the place where most of Christianity believes Christ was buried and crucified, all encompassed by the Church of the Holy Sepulcre. The place is owned by four different churches who all fight over who owns what part of the building. A few months ago, a monk in charge of sweeping a certain section of the building started sweeping the bottom stair of a staircase that is owned by another church. A monk from the other church found out about it and confronted the other monk. A fight ensued in which they began hitting each other with their broomsticks. It is interesting that Christians fight each other like that in the very place where they believe Christ was crucified and buried. Because we are required to stay in groups of three, I was with a few other people, including 3 girls. I was anxious to go through the parts of the city that we hadn't visit yet, but the girls wanted to go to different shops and look around. So I am kind of tied down. I need to ask around to see if I can find anyone who doesn't want to only shop... So far, parts of Jerusalem have been a bit disappointing for me. The path they say Christ walked is lined with shops of all kinds with all sorts of things from candy shops to clothes shops. I would love to walk the same way with no noise from Palestinian shopkeepers and the distraction of Israeli soldiers toting M-16s and Glocks. Definitely not what I expected Jerusalem to be like. But I love the history and the diversity of everything around me. I can't wait to visit some cathedrals, mosques, and synagogues. Just being here has really made me want to learn Arabic and Hebrew. I hate not knowing what signs say and what people are talking about around me. Also, many times I've had thoughts of my future occupation come to mind. I really have thought about what I could do so I could do two things in a job. One is to help others and interact with people of different faiths. The other is to have the opportunity to introduce the gospel to others. I still don't know exactly what I will do, but it is definately on my mind. I guess I have the rest of the summer to figure this out.