popes. arabs. camels.

this is the random of all random posts. i'm still playing catch up on this trip of mine, so excuse the total absent of anything chronological for these first few posts. 
(1) Popes  did i tell you that the pope came? oh and that he stayed in the building literally right next to where i live? so that's cool. we had his hundreds of security peeps living and taking over the JC for a few days while he was here. some friends and i went pope hunting to try and catch a peek of him at damascus gate...we are pretty sure we saw the car...that he was probably in. but it was a real good time. israeli guards were every 10 feet on every streets in Jerusalem. camera men, tourists, bands, locals were all over the streets celebrating the pope's visit.  when we were waiting, we saw a little riot/scuffle with the Israeli guards and some Palestinians. it was the first scuffle i've ever seen...and it freaked me out. but now i'm glad i got to see it. the air was charged with excitement and anticipation of seeing one of the most influential men in the world. it was tight. 
(2) Arabs  a few weeks ago we had an arab dinner night. we all dressed up. listened to some muslim's who do the call to prayer at the dome of the rock. ate an arabic FEAST. then did some arabic dancing which was amusing to say the least. 
(3) Camels  for our last free day, the group of us went exploring. we went to a lot of places...it was a long day. the highlights were the camel. having josh and jason use their russian to get us into the russian orthodox church which was gorgeous. and the tomb of the prophets. i don't have a ton of pictures, but here are a few. 
enjoy. 

the city all dressed up.

 news peeps.

 guards chillin.

 getting some grub at our fave pizza place in west J.

 right before the scuffle.

 he had a good view.

 pope-coptor.

 guards on all the walls.

 liza. from seeing the queen to seeing the pope. we have good adventures together.

 my little family. seriously what would i do without them?

 these little boys were play fighting. and i thought it was way amusing.

 ali the freaking arabic princess BABE.

 hi slater.

 hi daniel.

 ali.

 taylor and the camel.

 camel threatening to spit on ali.

 tomb of the "prophts"

 dan excited about getting into the russian church.

 our russian heroes.

 why this place is cool. turn the corner and see things like THIS.

 schindler's grave. Jews put rocks on graves instead of flowers. much more logical if you ask me.