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Last Shabbat, Saturday, we enjoyed a beautiful sabbath afternoon outside journaling and reading, etc. The weather was beautiful and the sun was out. Too bad it seems to be getting colder now though instead of warmer!

On Wednesday we went on a field trip to Mt. Herzl and Yad VaShem. Yad VaShem is the Jewish Holocaust museum and it's one of the most amazing ones. We had a really good tour guide and I love the museum, but it was so crowded that day. The design of the museum was really well thought out and everything seemed to be symbolic. Every time I study or visit a museum about the Holocaust I am always blown away. It's so hard to comprehend that one person can cause such terror in the world.
On Sunday we ended up having a free day, so I went out with Amy, Rachael, Tamarra, and Emma. We first went to a Lutheran church service at the Church of the Redeemer in the Christian quarter of the Old City. This was the courtyard of the church, which I thought was so beautiful and all the plants are crazy and over grown. 

It was great going to a different church service. I love going and learning about other religions because I think it's so interesting what they believe and how such main religions split into so many divisions.
When we stopped for lunch Tamarra and I decided to get a crepe on Ben Yahuda Street. It was HUGE, but so delicious. We got nutella, crumbled cookie, and crushed walnuts in it and together we couldn't even eat the whole thing!
We basically walked all around on Sunday from 8:15am to 4pm. We went to Mea Shearim during our walk, which is the ultra orthodox Jewish area of town. They have a huge sign about dressing modestly before you enter, which we already knew before we started down the main street. We had long skirts, long sleeves, and high neck lines. We made it down to the end of the main street and decided the fastest way to the next place we were going was to back track. We started heading back and all of the sudden this orthodox Jewish man starts yelling behind us and walks across the street. There was an old man with a cane he was walking toward and the old man was yelling back at him and almost hit him with the cane, so we thought that the Jewish man was yelling at him. Then he passed the old man and kept walking toward us yelling, waving his arm, but not making eye contact or even looking the way he was walking as he was coming toward us. Then he spit at us and it almost hit Tamarra's foot! He was shooing us back the other way and so we started back, but the old man across the street was yelling at him and waving his cane at us to just continue. We realized that the old man was defending us! But, since we had no idea what the Jewish man was yelling in Hebrew and he kept getting closer to us we waved to the old man to thank him and kept walking back the other way. 

Our next stop was the German village. Oh we found the coolest little bakeries and I tried the best pesto I've ever had in my life. If there is one thing to know about the Merkley family, we always have tortellini, pesto, and hot sauce in the fridge/freezer as an easy delicious meal. So that was fun.

Then we were on our way to a church and we took this path through this beautiful garden below. It was great and we were having fun taking pics and then Emma all of the sudden looks over and takes off. Tamarra had fallen off of this rock wall embankment that was probably 5 ft and was lying face down by a huge boulder. I think a loose rock slipped out from under her. Emma went into nurse mode right away and luckily Tamarra hadn't hit the boulder. We thought she was unconscious and expected to see blood turning her over. Turns out she had twisted her ankle, though not too severely, but she was still in a lot of pain. We got her up and called the JC security for a taxi, so as we reached the top entrance of the garden this taxi came around right at the perfect time since it had just picked up another group in the same area. 
Now I take you to yesterday, Thursday, afternoon. A whole group of us went out since after morning class we had the whole rest of the day free. You have to take advantage of those huge blocks of time when you can. This is the group of us that started out. We went to the Russian orthodox church, the Church of Mary Magdalene first. Since we didn't have a guy with us we didn't end up going the short way through the Orsen Hyde gardens. Instead we tried to find our own shortcut which was an adventurous idea. 
We scaled down this rock slide to get to another path below after we reached a dead end on our original path. This picture makes it look way more intense than it actually was though. I mean it was a little bit scary. 
Then we ended up going through this Christian cemetery. It was actually really beautiful. With little worn down paths winding through it. We came upon a pack of wild dogs too that scared Suzie. She started running away, but then they started running away from us. 

I had to take a picture of my favorite sign on the way up to the church. They portray hands really awkwardly here. I thought these flowers were beautiful outside of the gate. 

This is a picture of the church with those beautiful golden onion domes!
Me outside the door to the church. 
There was another beautiful cemetery at this church too. It was even more beautiful than the one we wandered through. 

After that we walked and saw what I think was Herod's daughter's tomb or something. I never really found out. It was kind of a random stop. 

Then we went to Dormition Abby. It was so beautiful inside! They had the most amazing mosaics and I couldn't stop staring at them and taking pictures. We got there 10 min before they were closing, which was really lucky! Look at all this detail in this mosaic!
Then we wandered through the Armenian quarter of the Old City and we stopped in this little grocery store and found tortilla chips for the first time since being here! Here are Aubry, Emma, and Alisha. Aubry was definitely the most excited about the chips. 
To get some energy during our outing we stopped at the best falafel place by the New Gate. The pitas were fresh, the falafel was fresh, and it was so delicious for only 7 shekels! Figured out in dollars it was $1.75 for the most delicious lunch I've ever had. I love falafel!
Finally, we went to the pools of Bethesda. That was amazing, but FYI there are no pools :) haha. We went in the church that is there and the sound was amazing inside! There was a group of about 7 of us and we sat there and sang some hymns. It was definitely my favorite part of the day. No one else was inside the church either. There were like 2 groups of tourists that that came in and out, but that's it. I wish I could put a video up that I got because it's so beautiful!

That's it for now! Tomorrow is Shabbat (aka Sunday in the US)