The Old City

This week I have been staying with my cousins in Ramat Beit Shemesh (Sun House Heights) and it is about an hour by bus from Jerusalem.  At the moment I am sitting in Cafe Alexander, pictured above.  

Yesterday I went with my cousin Vivi to the Old City in Jerusalem.  It is an amazing place.  Not like any place I have ever seen before.  (There are a lot of places I haven't been so it remains to be seen how it compares ;)     We went to the Kotel (Western Wall)  which of course is controlled by the Ultra Orthodox Jews which means that it is separated by gender.  So for the time that we actually spent near the wall Vivi and I were not together.  The reason is for the lack of temptation when praying and to focus on your prayer and not the girls. 

We meet Vivi's friend Avi-Noam there.  He used to live in NYC so it was really nice to be able to speak to someone with out a struggle.  My Hebrew will get better after I goto Ulpan (language school)  but until then it is a pain in the butt.  

Avi-Noam took us all around the the old city.  He showed us houses that people have been living in for thousands of years.  It is such an incredible place to have a house, plus incredibly expensive.  One of the really cool places Avi-Noam took us to is ontop of the Arab Shook.  The Old City is divided into quarters and one of them is Arab.  Each section has their own shook (market) and we were literally standing on the rooftop of the Arab Quarter.  

One of the important elements to coming to Israel is to learn the bus system.  I am getting a lot better and learning the system in Jerusalem.  The bus system is great, buses come very frequently.  When I am on the bus I think to myself, "I used to have to drive every freak'n day, I LOVE THIS!"  :)  Once I get the handle of where go and in which direction I will be able to really navigate my way around Jerusalem.  I am not sure if I am going to go to language school in Jerusalem or somewhere else.  I really need to decide where to go and if I am going to a Kibbutz Ulpan or perhaps an Ulpan in the city...  The difference would be that I would either live/work/goto Ulpan on a kibbutz or goto Ulpan in the city and rent a room and find a job in the city as well.  The ulpan is going to be for 5 months, paid for by the government in Israel but not room and board.  If I went to a kibbutz ulpan I could make an arrangement with the Kibbutz to work there and that would pay for my room and board on the kibbutz and the government would pay for the ulpan part.... Decisions decisions decisions.... :)  I will let you know what I am doing when I do it.  :)