October 10, 2007

Jocelyn Schmidt
Journal for 10-10-07
There is nothing too exciting to write about today- besides the fact that the cafeteria finally restocked their supply of peanut butter. They ran out about a week ago when they had to make all the sack lunches for the Conquest field trip and people have been begging for it ever since. We have a big midterm for our Judaism class tomorrow, so almost everyone has just been hanging around the center studying and stressing over it. We had a study group for a couple hours this afternoon where we went through all of the information found in the reading. It was funny having all fifteen of us set up in the lounge area on the tables with our laptops out. Halfway through our study session we all got really hungry, so we had someone open the “shalom shack” and we were able to get some sugar in us to keep us going. In 2 hours we went over about 200 pages worth of information. It was somewhat of an overload, but it helped so much. Tonight a group of people went into West Jerusalem. At the bottom of Ben Yehuta Street there is a little crepe shop that makes the BEST crepes in the entire world. The crepe itself tastes like cake batter and then they put a chocolate hazelnut spread on it- it is sooo good. They did some shopping while they were there and found some cool souvenirs. Apparently, they also found some street performers and started dancing along as they were wandering the streets. Ben Yehuta street is the main street that cuts through West Jerusalem. At night the traffic dies down and it is a place where a lot of the native teenagers like to hang out. The street is really pleasant at night since it is all lit up with Christmas lights and lined with nice little shops. Walking up and down the street you can typically find large break-dancing circles and groups of kids just shopping around and hanging out. Ben Yehuta street is a fun/ safe spot to hang out at night, since we aren’t allowed in the Old City after sundown.