Palm fronds, Field trips, and Museums, Oh my

It's been an exciting past few days, I almost don't know where to begin. Maybe the beginning of the week will work. So, this past sunday was Palm Sunday. This means Jerusalem basically has an all day celebration. There are special church services everywhere and almost the entire city comes out into the streets for processions. Of course we wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, so all of the JC students headed out to the Mt. of Olives. It was such an awesome experience and we got to intermingle with so many different people! The best part was when Stefanie, Aleni, and I tagged along with a Polish Christian group who sang a variety of songs like Shine Jesus Shine. Smacking around palm fronds and cooking ourselves in the hot hot sun has never been more enjoyable.

Aleni, me, Stefanie, and our Polish friend Adam who taught us all the cool songs

The flooded streets atop the Mt. of Olives

The next day was our Christian field trip through all the churches of Jerusalem. We covered it all, from the church of the holy sepulchre to the terra sancta. It was great to visit so many different places of worship and feel the spirit and reverence in each one. My favorite was the church of st. mark where the older woman in charge of the church told us how the spirit translated language between her and a german man. I love listening to people tell stories, probably because I'm so bad at telling them myself. Haha.

Lauren, Miriam, me, and Eliza outside the church of the holy sepulchre

This is what was meant by the scripture about a camel fitting through the eye of a needle easier than a rich man being able to get into heaven. So me and the camel...pretty much the same size

Yesterday was a half free day and after debating over yet another sack lunch (I loathe the sack lunch) I was invited to visit the King David Museum. So our little group of five headed into the city and shopped on our way to the museum. It was a good review for our near eastern studies class and it was just nice to get out. Favorite quote of the trip was defintely Anne. I wish I had the picture to accompany it, but basically we looked at a display and Anne goes "Oooh! Photo-op! You be the headless one!" Awesome. We even made time to squeeze in a shave for the boys, who got a legit shaving job from a local.

A view of the Dome of the Rock and the Jerusalem Center from the top of King David's Tower

Anne and I with the Emperor Hadrian who apparently gets a little grabby