THE BIG BOOM!!!

After an insanely productive day in the library with the darling Hannah Karina Jackson, a nice big group of us hit the town. And oh my word, there are parts of West Jerusalem that will boggle your mind. (We call it West J. Love that.) After being in the Old City and walking out of Jaffa Gate, you seem to jump centuries. The modern half of the world is much more familiar and walking around at night is plain exciting. If you were with me tonight you would have walked down a few stairs and right into this outside mall that could be in some gorgeous Spain neighborhood with musicians and hilarious statues lining the streets. Keep going and you see City Hall with bullet marks from 1948. Turn left and you are back onto a street that is a mix of European and Middle East influence with an old man playing a harp. I just love the diversity of it all. Some of it is mystifying, but the majority of it is exquisite.

Tonight we ate an this darling small cafe that perfectly sat our entire group and not one person more. It was oh so quaint. Part of me wants to go back every night...but there are too many places to try.

 Please notice the 'Coffee, beer, & people' little cafe blurb. I love it.

Seriously, the days I have soda just are too great to handle.
 hahahahaha.

Possibly the best dressing I have ever had in my life. 

Every chair was taken...by only BYU students. The people there LOVED us. And we adored them.

My dinner date. I'm not exaggerating, this pasta was divine. LOVED it so freaking much.

Scared faces everyone? 

(Sorry-forgot a flash.)

Okay, story time. (Charlotte-stop reading now) As we were sitting inside in this perfect place, lights started flashing outside. As I was just making some joke about what if some crazy scene was going on outside and we were innocently talking and loving life...a huge BOOM just shattered our serene environment. We all just gasped and stared at each other. Turns out there was some kind of suspicious item in the building across the street. The Israeli equivalent of our United States SWAT team had covered it somehow and blew it up. After laughing in nervous hysterics....the cafe owners attempted to calm us all by explaining that things like this weren't that strange. Only in Israel, right?

Now I'm off to go ride a camel in Jordan. Be back in 5 days dearest internet world. Love you all.