Israel Museum and The SHUK!

Sunday are our free days here in the holy land. This past Sunday, we did some pretty exciting things:

For our Ancient Near East class, we have an assignment to visit the Israel Museum in West Jerusalem. At first, I was not that excited to go to this museum (partially because I'm not a huge "museum" kind of person). But, to my pleasant surprise, the Israel Museum was AMAZING! The history in this museum dates so far back that it blows my mind. A few of my favorite displays were the Isaiah's Scrolls, the beautiful mosaics, and things relating to the life of Christ. Something that I found interesting was the fact that the history of Israel is extremely congruent with the religious history of the bible and things that I have been taught about my entire life. It is so cool to be living in the place that much of my beliefs actually took place. I LOVE IT!

This weekend we also had the fun chance to visit the Shuk in West Jerusalem. The Shuk is an outdoor market that sells mainly all sorts of food: dried fruit, meat, veggies, fresh fruit, olive oil, breads, pastries, and all sorts of other yummy things. It was fun to spend a little bit of time in west Jeru as well as to be involved a little bit more in the culture. Something that I have found interesting is that the culture here is so much more laid back than it is in Provo. I often will find myself frustrated because I am stuck walking behind someone that wants to walk really slow. I just have to remind myself that we are in no hurry and to slow down and enjoy myself a little bit. Also, the people here are always out on the streets and spending time together. While visiting the Shuk, I realized that there were so many people just relaxing in the walkway and talking to one another. Sometimes I wish that our culture could pick up some of these awesome customs. 

And don't worry, while at the Shuk we picked up some delicious dried fruit (mango was the best) and some yummy pastries.