Hello there my little internet pallies! Today we went to the Russian Orthodox Church, it was sooooo cool.
It is beautiful! It's probably my favorite church here in Jerusalem. It's right across the way from our school on the Mount of Olives so it wasn't that far to walk there. It was very peaceful inside and the whole thing is dedicated to Mary Magdalene so there are a lot of beautiful pictures about her life.
Something really cool happened on the way back though. We ran into this guy named Iman who lives in the neighborhood down from the BYU Jerusalem center. Turns out he was good friends with this guy I know in Hawaii! He came here in Fall 2009 and they were good friends then. Iman was even carrying a letter from Clark in his jacket pocket. So he invited us into his house (the hospitality here is so generous!!) and we sat and talked for awhile. He brought us pita bread, olive oil, and delicious Zatar! Zatar is this spice used a lot here. It's made out of hyssop (thyme in english), spices, and salt. It's really really tasty with bread but you can also eat it in salads and other things. His wife (I think? or maybe another relative) came in with her cute blue-eyed dark-haired baby girl and we got to hold her and play with her. (Unfortunately she started bawling when I tried to hold her but...alas, c'est la vie!) We talked a lot about his life here and his job. He carves out brooches from olive wood and then someone else paints them and then he sells them in the hotels and things here in Jerusalem. He showed us the brooches and they're gorgeous! I think I might get one. Then his niece came in with her little boy and she told us the recipe for how to make zatar bread. We had to race home up the east side of the Kidron Valley (which sucked!) because we were late for lunch but it was so worth it to talk to him and become friends. I hope we go back soon, and I hope his niece teaches me how to cook some Arabic food!
It is beautiful! It's probably my favorite church here in Jerusalem. It's right across the way from our school on the Mount of Olives so it wasn't that far to walk there. It was very peaceful inside and the whole thing is dedicated to Mary Magdalene so there are a lot of beautiful pictures about her life.
Playing with the feral cats outside the ROC.
Something really cool happened on the way back though. We ran into this guy named Iman who lives in the neighborhood down from the BYU Jerusalem center. Turns out he was good friends with this guy I know in Hawaii! He came here in Fall 2009 and they were good friends then. Iman was even carrying a letter from Clark in his jacket pocket. So he invited us into his house (the hospitality here is so generous!!) and we sat and talked for awhile. He brought us pita bread, olive oil, and delicious Zatar! Zatar is this spice used a lot here. It's made out of hyssop (thyme in english), spices, and salt. It's really really tasty with bread but you can also eat it in salads and other things. His wife (I think? or maybe another relative) came in with her cute blue-eyed dark-haired baby girl and we got to hold her and play with her. (Unfortunately she started bawling when I tried to hold her but...alas, c'est la vie!) We talked a lot about his life here and his job. He carves out brooches from olive wood and then someone else paints them and then he sells them in the hotels and things here in Jerusalem. He showed us the brooches and they're gorgeous! I think I might get one. Then his niece came in with her little boy and she told us the recipe for how to make zatar bread. We had to race home up the east side of the Kidron Valley (which sucked!) because we were late for lunch but it was so worth it to talk to him and become friends. I hope we go back soon, and I hope his niece teaches me how to cook some Arabic food!