Falafals!!!

Classes are great and I love them, but I'm sure that no one wants to hear about that. I think my favorite class is the Palestinian and Jewish Modern History that discusses the current conflict over the Holy Land. The teachers are local and I've gained a greater appreciation for the convoluted nature of the conflict. By the end of my experience I will try and blog on my opinion of the situation.

We have church on the traditional Jewish Shabbat on Saturday rather than Sunday. The chapel definitely has the best view of any in the world. Behind the podium there are huge arch windows that stretch from the floor to the ceiling. Through those windows you get the same vantage as the picture I posted on my last entry. I didn't pay attention to a thing anybody said in church. After our meetings, a group of us went and saw the Garden Tomb and The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was interesting to hear the reasons they felt that that specific tomb was the one that Christ was buried in. Here is a picture of me and Lisa in front of the hill they claim is Golgotha (the place of the skull) that looks like a skull if you squint and look at it out of the corner of your eye. They also argued that Christ was crucified on a tree rather than a cross and described the method the romans used to maximize the pain associated with crucifixion. It sounded awful and extremely painful.



The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the traditional site where the catholics and orthodox churches believe Christ was crucified and buried. It was hard to picture what the site looked like because there have been several churches built on top of it. It was interesting because several different religions lay claim to different parts of the church and they are very territorial. I almost died laughing because we saw two clergymen literally having a sword fight with brooms because one of them swept the other's territory. I wish I had gotten a picture cuz it was priceless.

I went to the Israeli Museum and saw an exhibit of the dead sea scrolls. It was fascinating to see the original parchment paper with the book of Isaiah the prophet on them. It was even more interesting to hear that the translation almost perfectly matched the current form of the book of Isaiah today. Jesus wasn't joking when he told us to read Isaiah. After the museum we hit up downtown West Jerusalem and ate some falafals. Falafals are pitas stuffed with humus, meat, and veggies topped with french fries. It was amazing. I was surprised at how European West Jerusalem looks and feels. Ben Yahoda street is lined with designer labels, little bakeries, falafal shops, novelty stores, money changers, ice cream parlors, and pubs. It has such an eclectic vibe and atmosphere.