Day of Exploration!

Hello world!

So today was a long day! I got out of bed at 6:20 am, went to breakfast at 7, went to class at 8, and then left the center for a day out in Jerusalem at 9:40. Our first stop was the western wall for a Bar Mitzvah. That was really cool. We didn’t get to really get a great view of everything because it was on the only boy part of the wall but I put my camera over the fence and got a video or two. Something that was really cool to watch was all the family members outside of the wall who were waiting. I saw many young families taking pictures together and it reminded me of a baptism, how the mom and dad round up all the kids in attempt to take a family picture. It was really cute. After we saw that for a little bit we trecked through the old city and left through Jaffa gate so we could go to west Jerusalem. First we stopped at the shops in Mamilla; love it, then we headed toward this synagogue called the Great Syagogue. On the way to the synagogue we had pleasant converstaiton among ourselves, mainly about our engaged friends wedding. I loved hearing about all her plans. So excting. We stopped at a park to eat our sack lunches and then continued on to our destination. The synagogue was pretty, there were some amazing stained glass windows and the cutest house outside one of the windows. After that we headed to Ben Yehuda street, a great little shopping area in west Jerusalem. We got gelato here! Oh my goodness, delicious! Good thing it is far away or else I would be going there wayyy more than I should be. It was seriously the best thing; just sitting outside chatting in the warm sun eating a gelato in Jerusalem. Love it! After that we went strolling into some other shops and then went to the Jewish outdoor market. That was way cool! There were tons and tons of fruit stands and bakery stands and fish stands, etc. It was great! Such a fun feel to it, a lot of hustle and bustle. I was tempted to indulge in some of the dried kiwis, they looked divine, but I resisted because I just don’t know how I feel about eating stuff that people have fingered all over the place and that is just sitting outside for bugs to fly on. I am sure I will succumb to my cravings sooner or later. After the outdoor market we went and got hoodies for two of the girls in my group and after that we headed home. Ha not as easy as it sounds. We were pretty lost and so we went to a bus stop and hopped on a bus and asked if it went to where we needed to go (Hebrew University) and it didn’t. So then we asked a guy and he said none of the buses in that area went to Hebrew U. So we trekked down the street and called a taxi. The taxi driver taught us how to say 1-10 in Hebrew, no I n’t remember how to say them. I only remember two- stein, and three- shalosh. He told us he had lived in LA for 3 years fixing and selling cars or something like that. Also, he played us some music of his sons, who is a musician. It was an enjoyable car ride although it took like 20 minutes to go like 3 miles. It was soo long because the traffic was so crazy!! So I got back at 3:30. I relaxed till 3:50 and then headed to class. I think I will stay in the center tomorrow ha and the rest of forever. I had enough adventure for a few days!!!