Yesterday was a crazy day. It involved a lot of group taxis, very little air conditioning, and a freakin' hot sun! But it was great. First, I decided to go to Ramallah with an HLT volunteer, Meggie, who needed to check out an exhibit at a university there for research she's doing. We left Bethlehem around 10 am and took a few different buses/group taxis to get there. It was my first time in Ramallah, so too bad we couldn't stay too long! The exhibit was of traditional Palestinian/Arab clothing and its significance. It was very well done, and I was so impressed with the beautiful campus! Here's a picture of the exhibit:
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| Some traditional Arab dresses for women | |
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Meggie and I only had time for a nice lunch of falafel and hummus before we needed to head back to Bethlehem. We got back around 2:30 and then quickly headed off with some other friends to Jerusalem.... to see Harry Potter! Yes, read it and weep, America. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2 came out in Israel two days before it comes out in the U.S. :) So the seven of us took a bus through the checkpoint into Jerusalem, and then began a ridiculously-long adventure of trying to find a movie theater showing Harry Potter. First, we tried to get some help at the info desk in the Old City of Jerusalem. They found a movie theater online that SAID it was showing Harry Potter, so we took a 20-minute bus ride to get there. But when we got there, they said they didn't have it, and didn't want to help us find another movie theater. Then we went to ANOTHER movie theater, back near the Old City, and YES! They had it. But we could only get tickets for the 10:15 showing... so we got tickets! This was only around 6:30 pm or so, so we went and got some food and picnicked in a nice park close by. We had fun enjoying our first green grass in awhile (unfortunately, Israel takes a lot of water that Palestinians could be drinking to water this grass) and eating some food. Finally, it was time for the movie. We grabbed our 3D glasses (they didn't have any regular showings) and watched the greatest movie ever. Well, maybe not the greatest, but the best HP movie, in my opinion. It was AWESOME. Definitely worth all the money and hassle it took to see it. Afterwards, we went back through the various illegal Israeli checkpoints to get back into Palestine. My mind is still reeling from the finality of Harry Potter, but I will recover eventually.
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| Meggie and I enjoying some Arabic coffee in the Old City of Jerusalem |
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| Yes!! So excited!! |
We are so jealous of your early viewing of HP, but glad we don't have to go through all of that to see it. KTJ
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ReplyDeleteWASN'T IT AWESOME??????!!!!!! I'm so glad you got to go. Hey, if you saw it in America you would have seen the actual characters in whatever theater you decided to go to. HEY, I SAW FOUR LUNA LOVEGOOD'S!!! And two things I'm jealous of from this post: the traditional clothing exhibit and all the hummus you eat.
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