I'll write you all a letter soon....
Today we got out of most of ulpan to go on an archaeology field trip. There is a site very close to campus sort of where the Mount of Olives and Mount Scopus connect where they are sifting through dirt from the Temple mount from previous excavations when the waqf made emergency exits from the temple mount. So they have these big piles of dirt with archaeological scraps in them from the second temple period to present and instead of verb torture we got to learn about the history of the temple mount and how it was built and sift through rocks for little pieces of bone or mosaic or pottery, people also found 2 coins and an arrowhead, I found a really pretty piece of glazed pottery which I think was from the ottoman period (like 1100-13something) There were some really pretty views too but it was sort of overcast today and started to rain as we were walking back to school. Someday I will have the energy to put up pictures. The problem with rain in Jerusalem is that it is harder than the rain in Seattle so you get drenched really fast; also it is usually accompanied by wind. When it rains it also gets muddy really quickly so not only were my pants all wet by the time I got home but now they need washing =( At least I got luck and the laundry facility is in my building so all I have to do is go downstairs.
I haven’t seen any of the protests going on in the Old City but the whole thing is frustrating because it is all so unnecessary. It all just seems like such puppetry to me, I swear the should publish a riot forecast next to the weather in the papers because it is all that predictable, like last Friday the morning news said that there would be trouble after noon time prayers and exactly what they said would happen did, so what would happen if the police just didn’t show up for a the conflict or the Imams decided to preach passive resistance for once? Grrr. This weekend I’m going on a trip to the north to Tel Hai, we are going hiking and taking a bike ride so hopefully the weather will be nice.
last...my ballot from last week showed up today. Oh well I'm still figuring out the whole mail timing thing, but they better get me my ballot for this stupid viaduct vote on time.
I haven’t seen any of the protests going on in the Old City but the whole thing is frustrating because it is all so unnecessary. It all just seems like such puppetry to me, I swear the should publish a riot forecast next to the weather in the papers because it is all that predictable, like last Friday the morning news said that there would be trouble after noon time prayers and exactly what they said would happen did, so what would happen if the police just didn’t show up for a the conflict or the Imams decided to preach passive resistance for once? Grrr. This weekend I’m going on a trip to the north to Tel Hai, we are going hiking and taking a bike ride so hopefully the weather will be nice.
last...my ballot from last week showed up today. Oh well I'm still figuring out the whole mail timing thing, but they better get me my ballot for this stupid viaduct vote on time.