Blaine walked over to the Mt. of Olives Pharmacy which is east and south of the JC. Some of the homes in the area have horses so it is not uncommon to see someone galloping down the street.
Today the security was heavy at what we affectionately call Crash Corner. It is a busy intersection with no stop signs or light and lots of traffic.
To put this into perspective, the soldiers are as young as 18 and carry uzis.
The police cars are prepared for rock throwing.
Blaine doing a selfie with Crash Corner behind.
Later we met Yael Cohen, a friend from the concerts. She took classes at BYU in linguistics and has a lot of Mormon friends, including Chris Kirschbaum and Anne Madsen. She is pointing to her grandfather in a painting of the dedication of Hebrew University in the 1925.
The painting is down the hall from the book store on the third floor.
The back side of Hebrew University looks out over Issawiya, a Palestinian area that has grown a lot in recent years and is an area of unrest. It is off limits to Jerusalem Center faculty and volunteers.
Yael then took us to a Christmas Mass at a monastery in South Jerusalem near Talpiyot. She teaches the nuns Hebrew. The mass honored one of the nuns who was making her vows. They live at the Monastery for 3 years. If they pass this trial run, they make more vows including never to leave the monastery again. They are cloistered.
There was a partition separating the nuns from the Franciscan Monks during the mass.
After Mass, the nun that had taken vows greeted her friends in another room.
Yael visited the nuns she works with and introduced us to them.
They were delightful, happy, and very animated. It added to my love for them.
After mass we went to Kari and CJ Baltz for a Christmas party. The American food was delicious.
CJ Baltz works for the State Department. They live near the Teddy Kolleck Stadium.
The kids acted out the Nativity.
How we miss those dear families!! I'll bet the food made by Kari was over the top, as always. She is an amazing cook. We loved the update on crash corner and learning more about Hebrew U and the nuns. Good job learning and seeing so much. We feel like we must have been cloistered too much while we were there:)
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