The Old City, Yad Vashem, and Jewel

I walked to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre today that is in the Old City. I weaves through some alleys and eventually made it back to the Kotel. I heard so many different languages today - Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Greek, English, Hebrew, Arabic, and French. So many people come to Jerusalem since it means so much to each of them. It is really quite amazing.

After the Old Coty, I decided to venture out to a museum. I wanted air conditioning and I wanted something inexpensive. So I found the light rail, which was actually being built the last time I was here, and went to Yad Vashem. I went there before with my Birthright trip, but I got to look around for as long as I wanted this time. There is only so much Holocaust thinking time one can handle. I ate at the cafe there and toon advantage of the free wireless. I considered going to another museum, but I only had two hours and that included travel time. I didn't want to try to figure out the bus system yet, so I went back to the hostel, got my bags, and caught a taxi to my first program.

There are young women from all over on this program - New York, California, Toronto, Ukraine, Minnesota, South Africa, and Israel. Not everyone is Orthodox but some are. I think the mixture may make for interesting discussions. Some women are just out of college, some are still in college, and some are over 30. Tomorrow we will have orientation and get a better sense of what our schedule will be like. We will also go to the Kotel, have a class, and do some sightseeing/orienting to the area and to Jerusalem.