Snapshots--Tuesday

We climbed through the Kidron Valley up to the Mount of Olives, which gave us a great view of the city. Clearly, we're a very photogenic group (note: this was post-chocolate...Bob has been carrying around a bag of Hershey's and periodically bribing us to behave)

Mid-Climb--before we reached the top. We have tired feet. 

This morning, our guide (Ophir) took us up to the Temple Mount. The golden dome is the Dome of the Rock: an iconic view of Jerusalem. We didn't get to stay as long as we had planned because they were clearing it for mid-day prayer, but we will go back tomorrow. 

FOOD! (Delicious. Enough said.)

p.s. the picture at the top of the blog is no longer from Google Images--this is what we saw today!!!

(posted by Rachel and Madeline, 5:15 pm in Jerusalem)

View from our Roof

The Ecce Homo

Rarely does one's hotel or residence merit its own Wikipedia Article, but that appears to be the case with where we are staying. It's very hard to describe the convent; like many buildings in Jerusalem, it's not built usually because of the unusual circumstances of its site, most notably the Roman arch that falls from the street into the sactuary.

The Ecce Homo has two halves on either side of one of the Old City's famous alleyways, with much more on the Western half. There are two floors of classrooms and other spaces, topped by a large terrace (on the "second floor," since Jerusalem sensibly calls the floor on the ground the "ground floor" and the floor above the "first floor.") However, the second floor has its own set of rooms connected by an outdoor hallway that's next to the terrace; the roof above these rooms is also accessible, meaning that the third floor roof is alos available. To complicate things further, one can climb up or down a few set of steps from the 3rd floor roof to reach two additional terraces.

The roof is also broken up by the dome of the chapel, and by the gap where the alleyway is (there is a small bridge on the terrace that crosses it in one stop, and the first floor connects across as well in a different spot). Still following me? It's doubtful, but I guess the overall point is that the building is complicated, beautiful, and peaceful, with a wonderful breakfast to boot, which I will now return to. :)

Ways people have confused our races/ethnicities thus far....

• To Candace: "Are you related to Obama?"
• To Ivan: "Jackie Chan!" (Ivan is from Mexico)
• To Irtefa: "Namaste" (Indian greeting)

We took a brief waking tour of the city. The group is resting before a tour of the convent; I just know that I'll do some harm to my already confused circadian rhythm if I even come close to sleep.

We're Here!

Ecce Homo is now home! We're living for the next ten days in Jerusalem and hope to use the better than anticipated computer/internet facilities for some solid blogging.

Before we head off for a walking tour of the city, a few notes and observations for fleshing out later:

• Passports can, in fact, get lost within the gate area of Newark Airport.
• Israeli Passport Control can and will hold you for a solid 45 minutes without reason or explanation, regardless of where your passport is from.
• The Old City is absolutely TINY.
• Walking through the walls of Jerusalem gives a strong feeling of pilgrimage, even if its only from a bus at the bottom of the hill.

-Will

Welcome to our class blog!

Hello families and friends,

As our class prepares to leave early this Sunday morning for Jerusalem, we're learning both about the important themes of our studies and the amusing details of our journey. For example, fanny packs came included with our international rent-a-cell-phones...but we've also been discussing the ancient history of the city, the connections of the three major faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) to this incredible place, and the significance and power of memory in creating a sense of holiness.

We're so excited to get going! As of now, the plan is that one (or more!) of us will be posting each day during our trip. Rachel has volunteered to help upload photos, so hopefully those will be available too!

Thanks,
Madeline and the crew: Cantor Bob, Will, Ivan, Ben, Robert, Rachel, Candace, Zehra, Irtefa, and Jenni