It's been a while since I posted. Namely because I'm lazy. I really haven't done much in the past few days, yet I still didn't find time. Fuck Me.

Well, last Sunday our program led us on an amazing day through Jerusalem. Of note was a trip up to the Temple Mount, which I will let Wikipedia graciously explain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Mount). You know that Gold Dome you see in every picture of Jerusalem? We got to go right next to that, which is something most Jewish groups do not do, because well, it's a rather contentious bit of land. Also under this Gold Dome is a rock that is believed to be the center of the world. There's also another mosque up there, known as the Al-Aqsa mosque, which you may recognize from the Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, a terrorist group over here.

Following the extremely peaceful half hour at the Temple Mount we were shooed off as prayers began and went through the Christian quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and walked down the road the Jesus carried the cross before getting crucified. This was not as cool is it may sound to some of you. We then went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where he was crucified amongst other things. It was a beautiful church, and the Polish tour groups had hordes of people sobbing and dipping trinkets in holy water.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the whole day was to see the crossover between Christianity, Islam and Judaism. The Old City of Jerusalem is small, yet it contains the holiest sites for both Judaism and Christianity, as well as Islam's third holiest site. Also of note was the amount of soldiers in the Old City. Technically, our program does not allow us to go to certain parts of the Old City so this was the first time I had been, and literally every 50 Meters or so there several soldiers on patrol. It is not like this in the Jewish quarter. Also, I noticed the Jerusalem is the only place in Israel I have been where the soldiers have their guns loaded. For those who do not know there a lot of guns here. Mainly you see them carried by soldiers going to and fro their bases. It is part of life here, but you get to the point where you don't even notice it/feel very comforted by the presence of an assault rifle on your bus. It was however weird/interesting to see that they were loaded. I will talk more about security, etc. in another post.

That night we stayed at the coolest/weirdest hostel in the Old City. We slept on the roof and it was at a high point in the city so we had an amazing view. This place was also filled with scary/weird/intriguing people. As I mentioned there are a lot of holy sites in Jerusalem. Accordingly there's a lot of crazy/lost/confused people who flock there looking for whatever it is they want/need/feel/etc. I will describe one such interaction with a nice Scot from the hostel as I sat on the computer downstairs late at night:

I have been downstairs for 5 minutes, with minimal interaction.
Scot: I wrote a book.
Me: Oh, ok.
S: God revealed a prophecy to me when I was on a Greek Island last year.
M: Far out.
S: It's on my website go to ....... (I forgot the name it was like revealedrevalation.org)

I go to website, and begin downloaded the PDF in silence for about 5 minutes.

S: God told me some things, and some have already come true. Russia is going to strike the U.S. next year.....Nuclear....war...blah blah blah.
M: Really, well I mean that's heavy...listen, do you know if the TV down here get's any American sports channels my team plays in about an hour.
S: The S.A.S. (British's F.B.I) has arrested me three times about this. This is stuff the government doesn't want you to know.

The next morning as I was leaving the guy looks at me and says take care and to make sure that I come back before the end of the year, saying you know why and pointing towards the computer.

There were many like him at this hostel, including the guy who was talking about Israel being in a state of constant conflict makes it the safest place to be in the world (this was not nearly the weirdest thing this man said), and the 38 year old American man skyping with his ex-wife arguing about divorce and the Bible while sitting next to me.

After that I left Jerusalem and went to Haifa because there was an International Film Festival. Haifa is beautiful, but I was sick and essentially came back down to Be'er Sheva where I have been vegetating since. I am going to Tel Aviv tomorrow or Wednesday and plan on spending the bulk of a day at the Dancing Camel, Israel's first microbrewery. I will be like a pig in shit there.

I hope that all is well with everyone. Look for pictures when I stop being lazy.