A little more whereness

I've finally been to the Old City! I went on Thursday night with some other students from my program, and we wandered through the Armenian, Christian, and Jewish quarters, and ended up at the Western Wall. We went on a tour of the tunnels, which was impressive. I took some pictures, but it was dark enough everywhere that when I looked back through them, I had no idea what they were ("Why do I have a picture of an elbow?!interrobang?!). Oh well, live and learn. Fortunately, I went back the next day with my friend Anika to get some more pictures. We went without a guide, and actually without really knowing what we were doing, but no major calamities befell us. We feel very smug about this.

We wandered around this bazaar for awhile and got only slightly lost. People kept yelling at me in English, like I'm a conspicuous tourist or something. It was so colorful! All the shopkeepers hang up pretty scarves in their doorways to lure you in, and it works.

Here is the Western Wall, around midnight and the next day around noon. I assume you can tell which is which. And now let me tell you what I learned about the Western Wall: When Herod built the Second Temple he built it on a gigantic platform which is called the Temple Mount. The temple was later destroyed and the Dome of the Rock mosque was built on the platform. So the Western Wall that you see Jews praying at today is a tiny section of the huge retaining wall of the platform. The reason it is so important to them is because it is the closest they can get to the site of the original Holy of Holies, not because it's part of the temple itself. People believe that if you write your prayer on a piece of paper and leave it in a crack in the wall, then it has a greater chance of coming true. Since I don't believe that's how the system works, I didn't give it a try.

This is a gigantic menorah up the hill from the Western Wall, built by the Temple Institute. They have been getting all the accessories ready for the third temple, using the specifications found in the Bible. I have a feeling that the Muslims are not ok with this plan and are probably staying alert so nobody starts sneaking golden menorahs onto their turf.

We also went into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is supposedly where they buried Jesus. My burning questions: How in the world do they know? And most importantly, why does it matter? The point is that he isn't there anymore!

Last night we had a birthday party for my dear buddy Madeleine. She is a sweet French lady who is in my ulpan and goes to church with me. She fed us crepes and watermelon! So good! It was an international fiesta--we had people from America, France, Holland, and Denmark, and we were joined by Madeleine's Israeli roommate and his friend, who was covered in glitter. I never got the full story there. Anyway, it was splendidly fun. We sat around and talked/argued about school, stereotypes, cheese, etc. and ate more crepes than we should have.

How did your 4th of July go? I celebrated by eating hotdogs, but I missed out on the fireworks.