ein karem and hezekiah's tunnel

this weekend, a few of us decided to take a break from studying for midterms and check out this town outside of jerusalem called ein karem. it's supposed to be really fun and full of cool churches and art studios. it definitely lived up to the reputation! however, it is officially summer in jerusalem, and i'm now bowing out of my usual jeans trend until september. i've gotten used to sweating at every hour of the day. it was HOT. oh well, just an excuse to buy ice cream, right? it was such a good day, and i think mostly because we met some really cool people in ein karem. we went to a church and talked to this priest for a while who was so nice to us. he suggested a few hymns for us to sing together, and it was so awesome to have this little bonding moment with this nice, happy, loving priest from ireland who wanted to sing with us! we also met this artist who let us into his studio to show us his work. he's from new york, but moved to jerusalem to paint pictures that portray israel in a positive light. i bought a little print from him that i'm way excited about. i loved meeting them! getting to know them was the highlight of the day. another thing we found was a secret garden...and when i say secret, i mean we probably weren't supposed to be there because the main gate was locked, but we found this tiny back one that was open. i probably should have stayed home to study, but it was so cool and i'm in israel, dang it! i can't sit in a building all day and study! 

the next day, our class took a field trip to hezekiah's tunnel under the old city! so dang refreshing after walking around on a jerusalem summer day. it's pitch black and full of water, so we had to bring headlamps. while we were going through, someone would randomly yell, "lights out!" and we would turn off our headlamps and feel our way through the cave. it was a good weekend. have i mentioned that i love jerusalem? 

these babes have taken me over a month to break in. argggh. but now i think they're pretty fun. and thanks, mom, for making me buy the black ones instead of bright green. you were right. if i had a nickel every time those words came out of my mouth...