Playing hooky at holy sites

This morning, Mahri and I went to the Temple Mount with our friends Ryan and Elliot. It's only open at times that are inconvenient for us, so it seemed reasonable to sacrifice one morning of class and go see the mosque. We were expecting to have a little bit of trouble getting in, and our plan was apparently to have the blonde (that would be me) start crying if they wouldn't let us in. However, we had no trouble at all. The only glitch was that they wouldn't let Elliot bring in his Hebrew-English Bible, but that was resolved without anyone resorting to tears.

I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but the mosque is pretty and blue and covered with all kinds of calligraphy. I took a lot more pictures, but they all look pretty much the same. There is not a whole lot to do but wander around taking pictures and trying to guess what the smaller buildings are (Elliot thought one was a playpen). We also spent some time gazing off at the distant Hebrew University campus and pointing and laughing and saying, "Haha, that's where we are not!"

After this experience, Mahri and I decided that our presence was not THAT necessary at ulpan, and we decided to stay in the Old City. The boys ditched us to go be good students, and we went to the Church of the Dormition, which is supposed to be where Mary fell asleep and was taken up to heaven.

After this we found the room where the Last Supper (maybe) was, and continued on our adventure. Mahri's goal was to get lost, but unfortunately we only experienced moments of mild confusion. We got back up the Jaffa Gate without much trouble and wandered around the market for awhile and I almost got tricked by a treacherous shopkeeper. We popped into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for a few minutes and tried to get into the Lutheran Church, but it was closed.

It's been a good day; my conscience is clear. Here's a map of the Old City if that would be helpful for you. I have less than a week of class, then a week and a half of wandering around Israel with my friend Anika.
Homework time!