Field Trips!

I've literally either been in Arabic class or doing Arabic homework since my last post and have had no free time whatsoever. But I have been on two cool field trips, one to David’s Citadel in the Old City, and one to Abu Ghosh, the Arab village we visited a couple of weeks ago (see previous post). In Abu Ghosh, which we visited again this past Tuesday, we had a cooking workshop, where we learned how to make everything from hummus and falafel to stuffed grape leaves and these meat-filled things that I forgot the name of. This consisted of just sort of hanging out in the kitchen of an Arab restaurant and speaking with the chef/owner in broken, infantile Arabic, and it was a blast.

In other news, the Jewish holiday of Purim is right around the corner, which means that we don’t have class on Thursday! Though I’m really enjoying my classes so far, it will be a welcome break to catch up on the homework that I’ve fallen behind on, as well as sleep for absurd lengths of time.

Before we move on to pictures of my field trips, I just want to give a special shout-out to my readers at the Grosse Pointe Public School System! I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog, and keep on reading!

A fountain in David's Citadel in the Old City.

Cool glass sculpture hanging from the citadel's ceiling.

Citadel's courtyard, with the minaret that has, ironically, become a symbol of Jewish Jerusalem.

View of Jerusalem from the citadel.

Close up on the Dome of the Rock.

After seeing the citadel, we toured parts of the Armenian Quarter in the Old City. One of our Arabic teachers had an Armenian friend, who you can see in the bottom of this picture, who was nice enough to be our guide for the day.

Departing Hebrew University for Abu Ghosh on a beautiful Tuesday morning. After the rainy, snowy, miserable weekend we had, it was nice to finally see some sun. 

The restaurant where we did our cooking. 

Customers waiting impatiently for service while the chef/owner talked to us in the kitchen. There were also seemingly random people walking in and out of the kitchen all day, which was never explained. 

Dead fish in the freezer. 

Cooking kebabs in the kitchen. 

Ahmad, one of the coordinators of our program, and Ashley, one of the students (also a recent MSU grad, go green!).

Making grape leaves. 

The finished product: a delicious lunch!

Here's a video of me helping to prepare falafel in the kitchen!

Stay tuned for more exciting posts!