Day 2

I feel like I've been here for a week, but today's only our second full day. I basically feel like we're operating outside of time, like Jerusalem is on another planet. It's an insane feeling.
But! I'm loving it :) I love listening to people speaking Hebrew, I love pita bread and hummus (I'm not a hummus fan, but the hummus here is amazing!) I love Dr. van der Laan and Ms. Rina, I love our room and our shower and Luis, the really sweet owner of the house.

Today we went to the Tower of David museum. First of all, it was rainy all day, which is a blessing for Israel which is in a drought, but a nuisance for us. So between the rain and the big stone tower, it actually reminded me of London. London's the only other place I've ever been that's "old." But Jerusalem is thousands of years older than London. It blows my mind how OLD everything is. Literally ancient.

We ate lunch at a tiny little hole-in-the-wall cafe (literally, it was a hole in the wall...) and listened to the pastor of the messianic congregation speak. His son, Calev, is a lawyer who works for civil rights for messianic Jews who are denied as "real" Jews because they "converted." He was pretty inspiring. And attractive ;) and married...

Then I spent about an hour with Jess and Ryan trying to get to a pharmacy where I could buy some Robitussin, because I've been coughing like an old man. Let me tell you, I love nothing more than that Robitussin right now.

But my favorite part of the day was at the museum when I was SWARMED by a pack of twelve year old Israeli school boys who were all throwing us peace signs and saying, "Peace! Peace! Shalom!" and "Yes we can! Yes we can!" Here's my conversation with one kid:
kid: Where are you from?
me: America.
kid: oh! Britain or USA?
me: USA?
kid: oh okay! Virginia tech?
me: no, Florida.
kid: you know Shaquil O'Neal? Phoenix Suns?
me: yeah, sure... you know Disney World?
kid: yeah! Orlando! I went there last year...
me: yeah, I live there...
kid: My bar mitzvah's next week, you wanna come?

They were crazy. Anyway, here's a couple pictures :)

This is a glass sculpture hanging in the museum. I've seen this guy's work before, but I don't remember his name, has anyone ever seen one of these? It was so cool close up :)

This is our view of the city at night from our balcony. I wish it was a better picture :/ But if you look close you can see the dome.

This was a view from the tower. Right there, the hill to the right of the dome is the Mount of Olives, which is where Jesus was supposed to have ascended into Heaven. Holy crap.