I started learning Hebrew yesterday! Evidently, the letters in Hebrew are basically just consonants, but then the vowel sound that should accompany each consonant is indicated by dots or lines underneath the letter, like a subscript.

Then last night someone from the U.S. embassy in Israel came and spoke to us. His name was Stuart Tuttle—he's LDS and has worked in the foreign service in several countries, but has been here in Israel for the last four years. He reviewed the whole Israel-Palestine conflict for us, starting with World War I, and then explained what the issues are today in trying to make peace. It was amazing! I have never really understood what was going on over here, but now I finally think I do. Mr. Tuttle explained who owned this area in the first place (the Ottoman Empire), how the Jews started moving in, how they were able to create a country, and why both sides are unhappy with the current situation. It was so interesting and really helpful. 

Today we had a lot of free time, so I went shopping in old Jerusalem. There is one Palestinian merchant in the Christian quarter named Shaban who is very friendly with the BYU Jerusalem students. I think he's had kind of an informal association with the center for a few years, because he sells Jerusalem  scripture cases (that he made himself) and BYU Jerusalem T-shirts in his shop. :-) He's a really nice guy, too--whenever we go into his shop, he pours everyone juice. He says, "First drink, then shop!" and he tells us to just pour ourselves something to drink whenever he's not there. One of the faculty showed us his store on our first day here, so they're all on good terms and we can feel safe shopping there.

At the other stores, though, we have to haggle. They tell you a price, and then you say, "Oh, but I only brought this much," and then you say a much lower, but still reasonable, amount. Then they'll say that there's no way they can sell you something for so little, so then you start to walk away, and they'll give in. I haven't done it yet, but we today one of the girls shopping with me did a pretty good job with it. It was a good natured process, just kind of a game.