Ein Kerem

My first day back at the center, and what can you expect? I went out into the city. I wanted to get a little more homework done then I actually did, but I am paying for it now that I have to stay up late to get it done. (Left - The Rockefeller Museum). Oh well, it was a fun day.
This morning wasn't as much fun because it was spent trying to find something to do. I decided that I wanted to go to the Rockefeller Museum, but I had a hard time finding people to go with me. I finally found Megan who wanted to go, but we needed a third person. I went and asked everyone I could find. No one wanted to go. I was headed back to Megan's to tell her that I couldn't find a third person when I saw a couple of people standing in a doorway. I decided to ask, knowing that they wouldn't want to go. I'm glad I did, because one of them asked their roommates if they would want to go, and Elizabeth did! We had our third person! We left about 20 minutes later. We had to work out meeting arrangements because Megan wanted to go with a different group in the afternoon than Elizabeth and me. (Right - Damascus Gate. I always think that this gate looks like the entrance to a castle). I also had to get the museum cards so we could get in.
We walked into the city and went to the Rockefeller Museum. It was a lot larger than I was expecting. They also had some really interesting pieces. It was nice because I knew a lot about what they had on display. It was cool to read a plaque and have it say Jerash, Jericho, or other cities and be able to say, I went there! It was great. We were there for about 2 hours before we headed out. We went in Damascus Gate and to our favorite falafel place for lunch. (Left - the stain glass window for the tribe of Joseph). We each got a falafel and candy before going out to find a place to sit. We still had a couple of hours before we were to meet up with our groups, so we stopped at Aladdin's and then went to Omar's. At Omar's I broke down and bought an olive wood nativity set. It was beautiful, but expensive. Oh well, I think I would regret not getting it. As Brother Seely says, What you regret is what you DON'T buy. I don't think that is completely true because I sometimes regret buying things, but I don't think that will happen in this case. (Right - St. John the Baptist's Church).
We made it with enough time to go looking for a falafel maker. We each got one of those. I'm excited because now I can make my own falafel when I get home! (If I find a good recipe). We met our groups and Megan went on her way. We waited for our taxi to pick us up. We had to squeeze into the taxi because we had 15 people all together. Our taxi driver didn't speak English so we had quite a task of communicating where we wanted to go. We drove all the way across the city, over the western mountains to Ein Kerem. Ein Kerem is the birthplace of John the Baptist. There we went to the hospital where they have Chagal windows. Chagal is a famous artist who painted 12 stained-glass windows, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. (Left - Mary's Spring). We made it just in time for the English presentation. That was very interesting.
Next we drove to St. John the Baptist's Church, commemorating his birth. That was really interesting. We were able to sing a couple of hymns there and then we went outside and read the story of his birth/naming. We wanted to go to the Sisters of Zion Convent, so we headed down, buying ice cream on the way that was really good. When we arrived at the convent, we were too late. They were closed and wouldn't let us in even for 10 minutes. We were a little disappointed, but we went for a walk and ended up finding a place called Mary's Spring. That is traditionally the site where Elizabeth met Mary when she came to visit. (Right - Ein Kerem). We had just enough time to go to our meeting spot to drive back to the center.
When we arrived at the center, security was already letting people in for the night's concert. I guess it is a really big one. Anyway, when we came in, a man talked to me in Hebrew. I think he was asking to see my ticket. I told him, "We're students." We walked past, but I think it caused a lot of confusion for them. It was actually rather amusing.