Rain, rain, go away

This morning I was woken up by the quiet sound of the morning prayer call. It was actually very nice and I enjoyed it. (Right - Church of the Holy Sepulcher). But, I went back to sleep after shutting off my alarm. Luckily, I still managed to wake up in time to make it to breakfast. After waking up, I realized that it was raining outside. All I could think is that I hoped it would stop raining by the time we could leave the center, IF we could leave the center that is. (Yesterday we were not allowed to go into east Jerusalem because of some tension taking place there related to the events in Gaza). Luckily, after having our Old Testament class, we were informed that we could go into the city, but that we should probably change money for our Egypt trip today because they don't know what will happen the rest of this week. (Left - the place where many believe the Savior was crucified). Also, fortunately, it had stopped raining and the sun was actually out and shining.
After lunch, I went with a group into the city and to Aladdin's where I changed my large US bills into much smaller US bills (singles, as they call it) for my trip to Egypt. Many kids had huge wads of money because they got the full amount in singles (sometimes upwards of $100). (Right - an Ethiopian village). Then a few of us headed into the Old City and to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. That was very interesting because tradition (according to Helena, the mother of Constantine) that this church was built on Golgotha. There is a place with ornamentation, including an icon and a huge figurine of the crucified Savior, in the place where they believe Jesus was crucified. The church is magnificent inside, though rather plain from the outside. There is also a place that they believe to be the Savior's burial. Inside the church, there were many people and many little things that have no meaning to me right now. (Left - Inside of the tiny tunnel that led into the cistern). I wanted to ask someone, but the one nun-lady that I asked didn't speak English very well, so I couldn't get in depth with her. Oh well, I think we are going back as a class, so hopefully then we will get a little more information.
Next we went up into an Ethiopian village where there a couple more churches, including one with a tiny passageway into a cistern, a water well. It is believed that this well was used while building the Church of the Sepulcher. It has a great sound inside and we sang a couple of hymns. I really enjoyed the ringing of our hymn after we finished. (Right - Inside the cistern. In the back is Emily, then Rich, and me in the foreground). We decided that it would be great to have a choir concert in that little cavern.
After that, we decided to head back so we would be on time for our Palestinian Modern Studies class at 4. We looked at some places in the market, but mainly headed home. Unfortunately, it started raining again. I hadn't brought a jacket because I always get hot walking into the city and back and I hate carrying my coat. So, during the walk from the Old City to the center, I got very wet. On a happy note, my hair feels much softer from the rain water, so that is really nice. (Left - Standing in the rain after walking to the center).
Tomorrow we have our Egypt orientation meeting. I am very interested to learn what to expect. I can't believe that in less than one week, I will be in EGPYT!! The cool thing about this study abroad program is that within a month's time, I will have been on 4 different continents (North America - I live there, Europe - in the form of a stop in Vienna, Asia - ie where I am right now, and finally Africa - Egypt). How many other study abroad programs give you that?