Sunday mornings are our free days as Saturday is the Sabbath. So Sunday morning we set out to experience the city. First stop: the money changers. I only had cash, but it turns out cash gets a better exchange rate than checks anyway. When I asked if I could get a picture with the exchangers (I tried to remember their names, but alas, I am finding that foreign names are borderline impossible for me to grasp), they were more than happy to oblige, and even pulled out a thick stack of hundreds for a prop. Former BYU students have left notes for future students, and I found both Sarah Jane and Brielle's--my roommates from this past year. I loved that almost every note held advice regarding pita bread--usually something along the lines of warnings to stay away from it, or admonitions to get enjoy getting fat from it.
Sunday morning we walked the ramparts of the city (Saturday is the Sabbath here, so Sunday is our free day). Perhaps the strangest thing I've seen yet was two men tossing mattresses off the top of a rather tall building. What was below was hidden... but I hope no passersby were bombarded. We also looked over a school, and it was fun to see the kids playing; I caught one particular boy in the process of checking his belly button lint. Or at least that's what it looks like. We were all photo-happy, and literally hundreds of pictures were probably taken between all of us. I loved the walk and will definitely be doing it again!
After the Ramparts Walk, we visited the Shuk--an Israeli market in West Jerusalem. I loved walking through the vendors. I think people here must like gummies more than Americans, because every sweets store we pass has piles of gummy candy. My personal favorite were the sunny-side up gummies. I have yet to try them, but their resemblance to actual eggs was worth noting.
The Western Wall (Wailing Wall) was our next stop. I didn't get the chance to actually go up to the wall, but it was still pretty neat to see. One interesting observation: men and women visit the wall separately, and the men's portion of the wall is about 3 times bigger than the women's. I asked Brother Huntsman about it today and he explained that in Jewish culture, women's worship is no less significant than men's, but that as caretakers of children they have less time to devote to formal observance and so are not expected to worship as much. If you look on the righthand side of my picture of the Wall, you can see the separation of the genders.
A group of soldiers visiting the wall were excited to take pictures with "American girls"... and we were probably just as happy, if not more so, to take pictures with them.
I thought I show off where I get to study. The center behind us and the city in front of us.
This was just a typical, beautiful street in the old city--taken when we visited on Friday.
These pictures are solely for Sarah Jane Curtis, who loves Yogurtland, Puns, and Jerusalem.
Sunset over the city.
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