Jerusalem

Today is my 28th birthday. I feel old!

I know I'm not old and I know people that are actually older then me are laughing at me and thinking I'm insane, but 28 is a weird number for me. You know how some birthdays pass by no big deal, no extra thoughts or feelings...its just a birthday, but others feel weird or monumental or just kinda strange. The strange feeling was how I feel turing 28.

I've noticed that my "strange feeling" birthdays are never the ones that society has deemed a big deal. Like 16, 18, 20, 21, 25, etc. Those birthdays are the ones where people can put labels on them like, "when you can drive or drink or or mid-twenties or whatever." The birthdays that always feel weird to me are the ones in between or the "ordinary" years. 19 felt odd to me. 22 did too. If I remember correctly 26 and now 28. I'm not sure why but I think it has something to do with just the calmness of it. These years my birthday isn't a "big deal" that everyone around me reminds me off, its just a year that I get older. I year that I am expected to just settle into calmly and quietly like its nothing.

Maybe thats why it feels weird. The settling into it feels funny. The calmness and quietness that gives me time to really think about it rather than just be distracted through the process. I don't know. I know I'm not actually old, but 28 feels old to me. Its feels like I'm expected to know what I'm doing with my life completely and start thinking about settling down and such. Thats a funny feeling to me. Kinda overwhelming and kinda scary to me. Yuck. I'm over 28 already! :)

I spent the day today, traveling to Jerusalem, Israel with my friend Melissa. We left at about 7am this morning and despite the horror stories we have heard from many about customs, we made it through relatively unscathed. Waiting around was what took the most time of the travel and it was only about 4/5 hours of traveling total. We got really lucky.

We arrived in Jerusalem at about 1130am and checked into our hotel room an then decided to explore the Old City. We spent about 6 hour walking around the Old City and by the end we were beyond exhausted. Its a beautiful area and so many religious and historical sites to see like the Dome of the Rock, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and a dozen other holy churches and sites. We walked through all 4 quarters of the Old city: The Muslim Quarter, The Christian Quarter, The Jewish Quarter and The Armenian Quarter. It was really interesting to see the differences and similarities in the quarters and all of the people that are still living there.

Towards the end of the evening as we started to get really lost within the walls of the Old City we ended up by the Wailing Wall, located in the Jewish Temple's Courtyard. It was Friday night and the courtyard quickly started to fill up while people of the Jewish religion gathered to pray at the Wailing Wall. After a few minutes, the Muslim pray came blasting over the Mosque speakers lie it does everyday. It was actually a very nice moment when both religions were being practiced at the same time and everyone just kept going. No competition to be louder or anger about the disruption of the prayers. Complete coexistence. It was pretty cool, especially considering the strong history of the area.