LOOKING INSIDE OUT! AND THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN

     So today was a nice and relaxing day and nicely needed! Today I decided to venture off on my own and meet up with my life long friend David for a day just to chill in Jerusalem. and boy what a interesting and eventful day it was! so lets start out from the beginning shall we? So I arrived to Jerusalem and he told me to take #1 bus and take it to the kottel thinking ok easy and fair enough. So imagine this if you will; you're on a bus, you are the only secular jew on the bus surrounded by oh 25 or so dati/charedi  jews to say the least, going through ortho. charedi country ( maya sharim... and we all know what happened there before) yeeeaaahhh.. if that wasn't scary enough as it was I dont know what is...

   So I got to the kottel and met up with David and we wound up walking into the old city through the arab quarter and grabed a shwarma and a drink. then we went to the christian quarter where we went to the austrian hospic where we climbed to the top of the building to the roof where he showed me probably the most breath taking view of the the old city that not many people see. it was a view looking inside out! had a hellava view of the alaksa musque and evry other part of the old city. So as we were sitting on the roof we noticed there was some kind of track set up and some people looming around aparently they were some palestinian actors and they were going around the country and filming like a promosional film that will be sent to europe promote the better side of palestine. or at least thats what i understood.it was interesting to watch them film. very professional and aparently the male person in the shot was a well known palestinian actor cause David recognized him. so that was cool.

   After that thrilling site we pushed on through on to the jewish quarter and looked and went back through the kottel and asked when they were going to light the candles. we had time.. as we were there we heard 3 major booms near by. which kinda didnt sound anything like a gun fire, or a sonic boom. it sounded like something was being blown up! and it kinda made me concerned so we checked it out! low and behold just inside the enterance to the kottle was the bomb squad who had blown up aparently some binders, and a tot bag or something! it was kinda cool to see but basically put everything at a stand still while that was all being cleared up. great to know that i'm living in the safest city in israel hehe! from there we walked along the was on the wall of the old city and kinda looped around just to pass some time. We went into some shops and I found a nice gift for certian someone! (they will find out who they are when i get home! hehe suspence builds duh duh dum!) from there we walked into the kottel a third time for one to see that they were setting up for a ceremony for the last day of officer training of soldiers in the navy which was nice to see. it was a beautiful candle lighting ceremony! there was a big menorah on the ground on the mens side that they lit and then a huge one on the ledge on top of a thing over looking the wall that was a big oil torch menorah! that was awesome sight.

    from there we walked out and we tried to catch a cab to the HU campus.... yeah that was interesting! so well... We tried to catch a cab and they were trying to rip us off. anyway we got into this one it happened to be of a palestinian arab. this was to be a night to remember! at first the guy was giving us a hard time b/c he thought well knew i was a jewish american and he had a major issue with that. but david wound up talking to him in some pretty good arabic and kinda got him to open up QUITE A BIT! by lying to him saying he's a christian american. so with that aside the guy opened up pretty nicely and was definitely blunt and straight forward about his feelings about jews and the situation between the people in the country and his views of american jews! yeah he hid nothing! it was interesting to hear the other side of the coin! granted it's an extremist point of view it's actually the view of palestinian not all though but a lot of them hold back their true feelings and put on an act for all. that come through. 

We got out at HU and went to a pizza and sufganiyot (jelly doughnut) torah study the topic of chanukah. it was very interesting and thought provoking.. I was amazed that some how there's some kind of undertone message in the torah eluding to chanukah and what not. it was like a secret code in the torah it was pretty impreesive at what the rabbi was talking about. all in all it was a successful day. i got to see a side of jerusalem i've never seen, let alone not many people see on average..and got a taste of the reality of the conflict in israel. i love you all and i'm almost home.and also want to wish all the jewcrew!! HAPPY CHANUKAH DAY 2! TILL NEXT TIME PEACE FROM THE MIDDLE EAST!!!