BYU Jerusalem: Knesset, Shuk, and Dome of the Rock

This morning I had no idea what I was going to do with my free time, I wanted to go out to the city but I had no plans set. At breakfast a group said I should go with them to the Knesset and the shuk. I agreed to come, then they said, we're leaving in 5 minutes, I had just sat down with my breakfast. So I shoveled down my breakfast, ran downstairs and got my stuff, then ran up the stairs. We didn't all fit in the sherut van so Ashraf our sherut driver called his dad who was a taxi driver. He gave us a really cheap ride to the Knesset. Ashraf's dad was a really nice man. We got to the Knesset and had to rush to make our tour appointment. They asked for our passports and we went through security, they took one picture with each of our cameras to make sure they were legitimate. We then met the other students for the tour. It was interesting learning about the Israeli political arena. We watched a movie on the history of the Knesset, a lot of the things said by the political leaders since 1948 were pretty radical Zionistic ideas...which was chilling. After our tour we walked over to the Shuk, which is a huge outdoor market in West Jerusalem. We walked around, I got a dradle, and we then got some Hanukkah donuts. We then walked to the old city and walked through the city to the Western Wall, I bought a menorah on the way. The Western Wall was pretty cool today, they have a huge menorah right by the wall. We got in line to see the Dome of the Rock. Last time I went to the Dome it was pouring rain, it was nice and sunny this time. We waited for the girls to take their hundred pictures by the dome, jumping pictures and all. Then we went up on the rooftops in the Jewish quarter. We ran into a bunch of Israeli soldiers and the girls took pictures with them. After the girls got falafel and then we went to slack line up by the mayors office on the seam of the city. I didn't do it today, just watched. Rachel Barker and Sophie walked home with me, we stopped by Omar's wood shop . We did some serious speed walking after in order to get back before the sun set, we had time but the girls were paranoid. It was a beautiful sunset.