History on my finger

Today we had OT and ANE from 8 – 10. From 10 – 4 we had free time to roam the city! I went out with Heather, Karen, Analiese, and Anna Marie. We first went to Alladin’s and Heather got some money. Next we went to Zedekiah’s cave. It was super cool…. literally nice temp. It reminded me a lot of Timp Caves. Apparently that is where Solomon had a lot of the first temple rock quarried from as well as the other temples that followed. Next we got shawarmas for lunch and walked up to Shabban’s. A few of the girls got some souvenirs from him and then we continued shopping around. I got a ring from a near by shopkeeper. It is a Roman Glass ring: They make a lot of Roman Glass jewelry in Israel. The stone is literally glass from the Roman Empire 2000 years ago!!! So it could have been a piece of pottery or something else… I Googled it… but basically a piece of history on my finger! I thought this was a fitting souvenir since it is special to this area of the world. 

We then went into West Jerusalem and got some delish gelato (Ferrero Rocher and Kinder flavor) while we were in the gelato shop “We Are Young” by Fun. was playing and it reminded me a little of home and a lot of Emilee Crowder. After the gelato we walked home in time for our first Arabic class. My Arabic teachers name is Ayman and he is hilarious. Even if I don’t learn much in that class it will at least be entertaining. Tonight we had a forum. We had Matthew Kallman (I believe that’s his name…) come and talk to us. He is a British reporter who has been living in Jerusalem since 1998 working as a foreign correspondent. He talked to us about the behind the scenes of reporting here in Jerusalem and how very often they know nothing about what they are actually talking about. It was incredibly interesting and he really just reminded us that we have an amazing opportunity to be here and actually talk to the people who are living these things.