Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone! I know it's close to the celebrating hour at home, so I hope everyone is having fun and enjoying good food, drink, and company.

December 31 was an excellent day here. We had class in the morning, and I found the topic to be quite fascinating. We talked about dispute resolution in Judaism, and we had an excellent speaker, Michael Tsur. He has negotiated many major deals, and he is also a hostage negotiator. Big time person here. Very cool.

After class, Michelle, Karina (two classmates), and I decided to head into the Old City for lunch and just general sightseeing. My understanding of the Old City is limited, but I believe it's basically what used to constitute historical Jerusalem. It is walled in (the walls might be temple walls, I can't believe I don't know at the moment), and one of the walls is the famous wailing wall (we are having some organized tours later, so I can tell you all much more about that then). The Old City is divided into four quarters: Christian, Muslim, Armenian, and Jewish. We wandered throughout the market, ate a fabulous lunch outside (delicious and cheap!), bought some baklava and bread, and just enjoyed the scenery. Old City is unlike any place I've ever been, and I'm not sure how to even describe it. There are tons and tons of little street shops, selling all sorts of things - food, fruit, juice, clothing, shoes, and even paint, as in like a mini Home Depot (very mini)! It is also filled with hugely important religious sites: the previously mentioned wailing wall, the Dome of the Rock (Mosque I think), and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Many if not all of the Stations of the Cross actually took place within the Old City, and you can trace the last steps of Jesus. Really, simply amazing. I can't wait to learn more about the entire place, and our upcoming tours should be amazingly helpful. I feel like an idiot for not knowing more, but I just didn't have enough personal time with the guidebook before we landed. Oh well, it was simply cool to just walk around and experience the place yesterday. Stay tuned for accurate information on Old City!

After we returned from the Old City, several of the American students and two of the Aussies met up and got ready to hit the town for New Year's Eve. As I mentioned in the last post, NYE is not a big deal here, so we weren't sure where we would wind up. In excellent news however, one of the Aussies studied at Hebrew University for a semester, and she became a fabulous tour guide. We had dinner at some burger joint, and it was honestly one of the best burgers I've ever had. Naomi, the Aussie, told us that a lot of the foreign Jews love that place, and it definitely had a younger, global crowd. After burgers, we hit up an American bar called Mike's Place, and that's where we spent the remainder of our evening. They played American classic rock music, and then the band played covers of American classic rock hits. We drank (well, diet coke for me), danced, laughed, and toasted in the New Year. A truly excellent night, but a late one, so many of us will be dragging through class today. Oh well, the evening was well worth it!

Today, I have class from 8:30 until 12:30, and then I think I will take a nap. I also hope to have my luggage, which will mean fresh clothes. I can honestly hardly wait. One of my classmates lent me a shirt (thanks, Michael - you're a rock star), so at least the t-shirt under the brown sweater is fresh. After napping, who knows what will happen - food will be on the agenda, and perhaps some more sightseeing as well.

This weekend, we are planning to get out of town (Jerusalem basically shuts down completely for Shabbat), and I think we are going to go to Mosada and the Dead Sea - I will provide more information on these places later.

The pictures: a tower on one of the walls surrounding the Old City, me in the market in Old City, the Dome of the Rock (Muslim), and a view from just inside (or outside? I was a bit confused) the Old City. If you click on the pictures, you should be able to see much larger versions. Also, soon you will see me in new clothes - how exciting! ;)

Okay, that's all for now - I have to head to class.

Lots of love and Happy 2008!