The Pools of Bethesda!

This week has been jam-packed with school, field trips, and exploring the city. Yesterday, we paid 5 shekels to visit the Pools of Bethesda. It was by far one of the coolest places I've been so far. We ran around the ruins and went underground to the giant Roman cistern that is preserved there. But my favorite part of the pools of Bethesda was singing in St. Anne's Church which is built on that property.

The church is built with absolutely fantastic acoustics. You whisper a sentence and the sound carries all through the chapel, blurring the words together. Our group sang hymns for a good amount of time in there, just so we could hear the sound of our own voices. It was GORGEOUS and I will for sure be back there.

As we were leaving, a priest there stopped us and asked about where we learned to sing. We talked for a while talking about the States (he was from the UK) and why we were all here in Israel. He thanked us for sharing our talents and we got a picture with him in front of the church before we left.

That day we also went to the legendary Omar's in East Jerusalem. The number of wood carvings and the variety he had there was really impressive. His explanations as to how to tell if a wood carving is quality or not may come in handy in the future. He is such a good salesman and it was hard to walk out of there without making a purchase! 

Misc:

Our group is leaving for Turkey on Sunday, and after our many hours of orientation today I am so pumped for it! 

We had a tour of the space underneath the Jerusalem Center for which we got to wear hard hats! Mostly it was lengthy explanations of the maintenance that takes place down there, but we got to sign our names with all the students who had stayed in the center! Don't mind that I spelled my own name wrong...

These are the leather sandals I bought last week. It took about the whole week and a few blisters to break them in, but now they are about the most comfortable shoes I own! Depending on how well these hold up, I may buy another pair before I leave for home. I LOVE THEM!