free day

Since we observe the Sabbath (Shabbat), on Saturday's here....Sunday's are our free day! We woke up nice and early ( we always do) and went on the ramparts walk. It goes all the way around the old city so we had a really great view of everything! After that we went to the Western (or wailing) wall which is the most sacred place for the Jewish people. They're so faithful and not afraid to worship in front of everyone, I feel like I could learn a lot from their devotion! After the Western wall, we got shawarma from Sam and Eddy's! (too many tomatoes). After that we literally explored the entire city! We saw the Jewish quarter (so much cleaner than the rest of the city), Muslim, Christian, and Armenian quarters. They're all so unique. I love the different music and smells that come as we walk through the streets! Last night we had a mini dance party in the student lounge because it was the grand opening of the Shekel Shack... it was pretty great. I'm working on staying far away from Magnum bars. I even went to the library yesterday with my roommate Stephanie, we were impressed with ourselves. Speaking of Stephanie, she's pretty cool I guess. Sometimes we stay up too late laughing about the weirdest things and we're already compiling a list of the funniest things we accidentally say. My roommates are so funny. We're all super different but we have so much fun together and laugh so hard!

Today we went on our first field trip. We went to a few different sites that were all overlooking Jerusalem from every different angle you could ever imagine. Our first site, Nadi Samwill was overlooking the West Bank (who  knew that was like 5 minutes from where I live?). It is traditionally known as the burial place of the Prophet Samuel. Its also the place in the book of Joshua where God stopped the sun for awhile during the Israelite invasion. (didnt even know that story until today). The next place we went was the Augusta Victoria tower, which was a great view of the city! We also went to the 7 Arches Overlook, also a great view. We took a little hike in a field so that we could overlook the city of Bethlehem! We saw the shepherds fields and a shepherd herding his sheep! (we paid him 8 sheks for a pic). Dr. Huntsman said Christ was most likely born in the springtime...we decided it was probably april 30 around 2pm. so we were definitely overlooking bethlehem on his birthday. We also sang some Christmas carols. (we always do, huntsman loves it).  Tonight we have FHE (i just got called as a fhe mom..yay), and i'll consider doing some homework.. peace. Pics later!