A visit to the Old City

Today has been wonderful! After getting up, Nancy and I went for breakfast and Cup o' Joe's. It was delicious! I ordered tea with mint and a sandwich with avacado, egg, lettuce, and tomatoes on wheat bread. De-licious! We did a lot of talking. She's such a warm person. She will be a fantastic cantor I think. We both ordered in Hebrew which was tons of fun. It's hard with the menu in English to do everything in Hebrew, but we got by.

After breakfast we went over to the YMCA to explore their facilities and prices. It is not a place I am going to join. While the classes look good, the equipment was only so-so. I also think I'm going to be getting a good workout with all the walking I am doing. The David Citadel Hotel is apparently much cheaper, so I'll think about that although I've never been so good at keeping a workout schedule, so we'll see.

At 12:30 I met up with a bunch of people to go to the Old City. Lydia (one of the interns) led us through the Christian and Arab markerts. Everything is SO beautiful! There are huge tapestries with fantastic embroidery. I will definitely need one for my room. Because it was lunchtime we stopped at two hummus places (we broke into two different groups). The place I went was very good, but I generally though it tasted a little bland. Not quite enough spice for my taste. After we stopped to test the other hummus place quickly and that was amazing. We also stopped at a photography shop with photos from the 1940s of Jerusalem. They were gorgeous. I will also be back in the near future I hope.

From the photo shop we walked to the Jewish quarter. We went to the Kotel which was wonderful. It felt good to be back but it was also ridiculously hot. I will have to go back at a cooler time.

We walked back to school very hot and very tired, gather my stuff and then went home to shower. I met up with Nancy, Lauren, and Adam for dinner. We all got falafel and beer. It was the best falafel I've had so far this year it's at a place very near to home (and right next to the supermarker. How convenient!). It was a very relaxing and fun dinner in the park. After, Lauren and I went back to my appartment to wait for Amy and watch Sweeney Todd. We got through about 40 minutes before we just started chatting. It was so nice. We seem to have many similar tastes in music (Dvorak, Charles Ives...) and I introduced her to Jason Robert Brown :)

Around 10 pm Amy arrived! We all sat and talked for awhile which was really nice. It's great that she's here now. I had done a bunch of apartment organizing, but now that she's here we can finally make it home. She has actually been here before (her brother lived in this apartment when he was a rabbinical student). Now the year can truly begin.