A Night on the Town

Wow, I am so tired. Today has been great. We had classes this morning and then our Egypt Orientation. There was a lot of good information. (Left - Inside of the Citadel). We had cleaning checks this morning and I thought for sure we weren't going to pass, but we did! That means that we got one fresh homemade cookie for each of us. It was peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip and was delicious. That about took us up to lunch, so I ate, and then hung around waiting to see if anyone was planning on going into the city. By the way, I forgot to mention this in my reply to a comment, but most of the activities I write about on my blog take place during our free time. The only exception is field trips (once to tour the city, once to the Western Wall, and then our Geography field trip). It may seem like we are really busy, but when I go out, some people study.
Anyway, there was a group going to the Rockefeller museum, but that was all they were planning to do. (Right - Joe, Russ, me, and Jared at the citadel). I wanted to do a little more. I heard that another group was going to the citadel, so I went to find them and see what else they were planning. They didn't know what else they were going to do, but I was pressured into going with them. I'm glad I did because I ended up having a lot of fun.
First we went to Aladdin's so people could change money for Egypt. Then we headed to the citadel (aka The Tower of David). Some of us had tickets, but others had to pay. Luckily, the lady gave them a discount since we are BYU students. (Left - me from the top of the Tower of David looking out over the Dome of the Rock. It was really windy). We went upstairs and took pictures before going to see a movie that they play. It lasts 14 minutes and was really odd, mainly because of the animation. But there was a lot of reinforcement of information that we are learning in classes. We then walked around looking, reading plaques, and taking pictures. We were there for a couple of hours and it was really interesting and pretty cool. We then decided to leave. We didn't know what we wanted to do, so we discussed it. (Right - looking through a hole in the wall of the citadel). Finally we decided to go into West Jerusalem (we had a little time before it got dark and so we couldn't stay in the Old City or East Jerusalem). First we went into the Old City for a little shopping. We saw some really interesting things, but I already decided not to buy anything until after Egypt.
We made it out of the Old City before dark and wen to find something to eat. We ate at Burgers Bar. They actually had a good hamburger and really yummy honey mustard dressing. I was impressed. It cost 29 NIS (which is probably about $8, but it was a huge burger and nothing is cheaper here). Then we went to find a neighborhood that one of our professors suggested we visit. We didn't really know where it was and while searching we got onto a side street. I guess there were some guys following us in a car, so the guys (we had 4 guys and 4 girls in my group) made us turn around and keep walking. (Left - me and Lindsay in a small passageway of the citadel). We went back to Ben Yehuda St. (one of the main roads). We got ice cream and looked at shopping. It was fun. Then we decided to come back to the center. We had to get a taxi, but we made it. In fact, we made it just in time for me to go to choir practice.
Tomorrow is a completely free day. I'm not sure what I am going to do. I guess it depends on if anyone has something planned that can entice me to go with them. But, even though I am tired, I am still glad that I went out today. Who knows, especially with the situation in Gaza, whether we will be able to go out tomorrow.