Jerusalem is like an ice rink!

Greetings my American friends and family!

We had our first rainy day today, and let me tell you, Jerusalem is a crazy slippery city when the ground is wet! Walking on the Jerusalem stone (Mom, that's what people say it is called, idk) is like walking on ice. Perhaps even a little worse! Campus is particularly bad. We have to walk up a slope to get to our classrooms, and today I swear I started sliding backwards. As that was happening, I was thinking to myself, dear lord, I'm going to tumble down this hill and also, how am I going to get up this hill, all at once. I finally stepped into the plant area and sort of walked up that way. The old city was also slippery, and I felt like I was hugging the wall the entire time. Craziness. Clearly, liability for torts isn't a big deal here - people must just fall all the time.

Anyway, despite the slipperiness, I made it to class, and today I had a hard time staying awake. Not sure why really, but it was brutal. I got about 7 hours of sleep, so that wasn't terrible, but I literally had to pinch myself at times to stay awake. I've been told by several people that the city itself is a tiring place to be, so perhaps that's what is going on. Or, perhaps it's just the carryover effect from finals, the holidays, traveling, and fighting off a cold...regardless of the cause, I was tired this morning. I hope tomorrow is better - I plan to go to bed early tonight.

After class, we went on another guided tour in the Old City. We entered through the Lion's Gate, which was cool because I hadn't gone in that way before. This gate is the gate that the Israeli troops entered through in 1967 when they reclaimed the Old City for Jerusalem. Kind of neat. Also, in case you don't know, the Old City is walled in (I think I mentioned this before), and there are seven gates (I believe this is correct - one gate is actually closed, so there are only six actual entrances). Before today, I had been to the Damascus, Jaffa, and Dung (unfortunate name) gates. Anyway, Lions Gate led us into the Muslim quarter (I learned today that the Muslim quarter is actually half of the Old City, while the other three quarters take up the rest of the space). Once inside, we found ourselves at one of the Stations of the Cross, I believe it was the place where Jesus was sentenced to die. We didn't complete the entire tour of the Stations, but instead moved on through the quarter, eventually stopping near the Western Wall again - somewhere I had already been. I did learn more about the Wall though - it was definitely part of one of the old temples that were destroyed (I think the main temple, perhaps from King David's time). That fact alone doesn't make it the most holy place for Jews however (it's a huge reason of course). Instead, when Muslims controlled the city, they only allowed Jews to pray there once a year, on the date that marked the destruction of the temple. During war in 1967, Israeli troops seized the Old City, and the Western Wall has been available since then. It's called the Wailing Wall because the Jews often cried on their once a year visits, and the troops that seized the wall also cried when they arrived. Quite interesting.

Another interesting thing - the Dome of the Rock, which houses the stone on which Muhammad ascended to heaven, and the largest functioning mosque in the Old City, are built right on top of Temple Mount, the actual site of the destroyed temple. So, the Western Wall is basically right next to these Muslim holy places. Also, Jews can't pray at the Temple Mount, one of their holiest places, because it is not allowed by the Muslims (I think they control the area, but I don't fully understand all of it). Looking at this situation, it rapidly becomes obvious why there is tension here. I do wish the groups could step back for a minute and recognize that a lot of the behavior is ridiculous...all this trumping of each other is just nuts. Building a mosque next to a church, a church higher than the mosque, a temple higher than both, fighting over who cleans the steps, building over holy sites, on and on and on. Frustrating, and not something I totally understand to be honest.

Back to the tour - I also saw the site of the Last Supper and David's tomb. Both of those were small, more obscure sites, and if someone hadn't told me what they were, I wouldn't have known at all. Weird how that works! We also stood on the roof at the point where all the quarters meet - cool place to look at all the different parts of the city. I had been up there on the first day in the Old City, but I didn't know what I was standing on then. It turns out tours can be helpful - who knew? ;)

After the tour, we came back and I have been chilling since then - emailing, chatting online, and watching random American tv shows (I got to watch an episode of Gilmore Girls!). Now I'm getting ready to go out to dinner, so I need to end this post. Hope you are all well, and let's hope for sun tomorrow or I might come home in a cast! ;)

Lots of love!



Pictures:
1) Lion's Gate into the Old City
2) View after walking through the Lion's Gate into the Old City
3) Western Wall with the Israeli flag
4) Me on top of the roof at the cross section between all four quarters of the Old City - looking out into the far distance you can see Jordan
5) Me on top of the roof
6) An Old City cat inside the Last Supper room. This cat seemed to be in rough shape, which made me sad
7) I'm actually not sure what this is. I just like the picture. I took it inside the Old City, and it was in the Jewish Quarter. Perhaps it's a synagogue. :)
8) Western Wall with the Dome of the Rock to the left - see how close they are?
9) View from the top of the roof in the Old City.