Jerusalem today

Hello - you can imagine my delight in figuring out how to get the Hebrew instructions for blogging to translate! Since you didn't hear of any plane crashes in Tel Aviv, you have rightly assumed I arrived here yesterday. The highlight of the flight was that about 1/3 of the passengers were Orthodox Jews.... and the men all stood up at sunrise, donned prayer shawls, and prayed in the new day - 41,000 ft over Spain. Entry into Israel was uneventful for me - some of our group who came by way of Munich had a total luggagge search and one gentlemen didn't get his bag until today. I exchanged money at the airport - about 3.5 NIS (New Israeli Shekels) per dollar.
The total class group is 40 members - mostly Episcopalians, 27 from Cincinnati, some from New Zealand, Wales, and England: all cordial. St. George's College is an adult education program connected with St. George's Cathedral, the Episcopal centre of the Middle East. This place dates from 1910 - and when the British took Jerusalem in 1917, the truce with the Ottoman Empire was signed here - beginning the British mandate in Palestine that only ended in 1948 (with Israel's creation). Anyway, the facility is lovely and an oasis in East Jerusalem.
We had class this morning and then took off on a bus for lunch at a former Benedictine monastery - lots of fresh vegetables (especially pretty carrots), rice, and fruit and chicken. Then we climbed up to the roof for a striking panoramic view of Jerusalem - the church towers, minarets, valleys, walls, graveyards. The topography is impressive as is the construction in pale stone - ancient and on-going. Our bus passed the Church of All Nations at the Garden of Gethsemane on the way back.
A few of us set out in the afternoon through the Damascus Gate into the Old City. Observing other tourists is half the fun. We walked past markets (I bought some frankencense and postcards) and restaurants - and continued to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount (the part left standing after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. It was memorable to join the women's section and approach the Wall and offer my prayer for peace. There was a large contingent of Israeli soldiers standing in formation, but we never found out why.
We viewed a film made by the Franciscans about some of the sites we'll be visiting. Tomorrow we head to the Negev Desert and will spend the night in a Bedouin tent!