Mea Shea'rim

Today was a long, but interesting day. We had a field trip that went to some of the holy sites in the Old City. We began at Terra Sancta which is a Franciscan chapel and hostel. We talked with a Franciscan monk and then we heard from Brother Draper about Orson Hyde. (Right - Hyde's name carved into a door at the Franciscan hostel). Orson Hyde stayed at the Franciscan hostel when he came to dedicate the Holy Land. We saw a door where he and other pilgrims who stayed at the hostel, carved their names.
Next we walked around the Old City. We saw an old entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and then went into the Russian mission. The Russian mission is basically the Russian's portion of the land of the Holy Sepulcher. (Left - this is part of the courtyard in a side area of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer). In there you can see a couple original pillars from the cardo as well as the eastern wall of the old basilica portion of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The basilica portion was destroyed and never rebuilt. We also saw the Russian chapel there. It was very different from the other Russian churches that I have been in. We also stopped at a place that is part of the Lutheran church. There is a beautiful courtyard.
Our final stop was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. We talked about the history and the significance of each of the locations inside the church. Then we stood in line to go inside the sepulcher. It was very interesting.
After that, our field trip was over. I went with Mindy and Shealee to go to West Jerusalem. We went to a community called Mea Shea'rim. (Right - sign at the entrance to Mea Shea'rim. You can notice two interesting things here: the modesty plea is directed only towards women and girls and where God would have been written they wrote G-d). It was the first Jewish community outside of the Old City. Because of that, it is a very orthodox community. We had to wear skirts and long sleeve shirts to even be there. It was definitely an interesting experience. We were stared at and avoided. We didn't stay a really long time, but I'm glad that I went.
From there we had to find our way to Ben Yehuda St. Then we went to the Shuk (Jewish open-air market). We basically went shopping. Now I have to actually buckle down and study for my final that is coming up on Thursday.