On Monday, after meeting my adviser to register for spring semester classes (I'm still in limbo about my schedule, but it looks like I will have a three--maybe a four!--day weekend every week), we went to an open house put on by the American Center in downtown Jerusalem. The American Center serves as a resource to Israelis interested in American culture, history, or politics, and also helps Israelis obtain visas for tourism or immigration to the U.S. For us poor college students, the real draw was the free food and live entertainment. Unfortunately, the "food" turned out to be microwave popcorn, and the "live entertainment" was a series of really awful slam poets and stand-up comedians. On the plus side, I received a prize lollipop for correctly identifying a picture of Harry Truman.
On Tuesday, I FINALLY made it to the one of my top three Israel destinations--the Israel Museum, home of (among other things) awesome archaeological exhibits, and the Shrine of the Book which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls. Below is a picture of me outside of the Shrine of the Book (the building's shape was inspired by the lids of the jars in which the Qumran manuscripts were discovered).
To my great dismay, however, the Dead Sea Scrolls turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. In order to preserve the integrity of the documents, only a few small pieces were on display (and in very poor lighting). In the center of the room was a raised platform on which is displayed the Great Isaiah Scroll--a nearly perfect manuscript containing the complete Book of Isaiah. In my Hebrew class last semester, we actually read from this scroll (which was awesome, considering my professor was one of the Scrolls' chief editors!). Upon closer inspection, the Great Isaiah Scroll turned out to be a Great Isaiah Photocopy. Israel Museum, you broke my heart!
The Museum DID have an awesome archaeological wing which traced the history of the land of Israel and the Near East from the dawn of man until modern day. I happily took pictures until a guard rudely informed me of the museum's no-photo policy. Here is one of the pictures that survived--me next to a 3,500+ year old human skeleton. Apparently it was proper protocol to be buried in the fetal position (isn't the circularity poetic?).
One famous feature of the Museum is the scaled mini-model of Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period. Unfortunately it was a bit dark by the time we saw this, but below is a picture of the Second Temple model (the original stood at the current location of the Dome of the Rock).
We also tried out the Israel Museum's modern art exhibit. On this adventure I learned something very important about myself--I have absolutely no appreciation for modern "art." I spent much of the time pointing and laughing at the unnecessary amount of nudity, among other things. One artist painted his entire canvas a single, solid shade of black, then called it a completed masterpiece. Another literally used masking tape to adhere his creation to the wall. Moral of the story: next time I go to the Israel Museum, I am sticking to archaeology.
On Wednesday, I went down to the Old City to meet up with Ambika, my mom's customer, for the second time. Before she arrived, I walked the whole Via Dolarosa from start to finish. The first two Stations of the Cross (Jesus is condemned to death, Jesus is scourged) are commemorated by separate chapels in a Franciscan monastery. Eucharistic adoration was going on in the second chapel. The Chapel of the Condemnation preserves a piece of the original street from the Second Temple era upon which Roman soldiers etched the outline of a game board (similar markings have been found all throughout the ruins of the Roman empire). I'm going to refrain from posting my Way of the Cross pictures until Holy Week, but below is a picture of the Roman etchings I mentioned.
Ambika and I wandered around the Arab and Jewish Quarters, and made some cool discoveries. In the Arab Quarter, we found an oil shop whose owner claimed that he and his family have been operating the store (in the same location!) for the past 600 years. I was expecting Ambika to burst at any moment--she was sampling so many perfume oils that she ran out of her own skin on which to test the oils, so she borrowed mine. I went home with my hands and arms slathered in perfume. A picture is posted below (Lorri: any requests?). The second picture is me overlooking the Temple Mount (I already posted a similar picture, but this one is better). The third picture I have also already mentioned--rugelach from the Jewish Quarter. Note that this a is a close-up; they're actually about the size of a Pillsbury crescent roll.
Stay tuned for part two!
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