Day 81

We had a free day, which means breakfast from 7:30 to 9:00 am. We left right after that to go to mass at the Terra Sancta monastery. It was in Italian, and it was really cool. The different priests said the prayers and homilies and we just followed along with sitting and standing and kneeling with the rest of the small congregation. After the service Father Angelo did a question/answer session with us, and he told us a lot about his life previous to becoming a monk and what his daily life is like now that he is one. He was hilarious. He told us that being a monk means "no money, no honey, and nothing you can do about it." He also told us some of the jokes that he would play while people do confession. He is definitely a unique priest.

When we were ready to leave the monastery we went out to the door but it was locked. All of the other priests had left and we were locked in! Father Angelo got on his cell phone and tried to get ahold of the guy with the keys but we ended up having to go up onto the roof and down the fire escape down to the back parking lot to get out of the building. We ate our lunches in the Old City, and then ran a couple of "errands." We stopped at Shaban's for some people to exchange money, and then we stopped at the camera store so I could buy a new one. I ended up getting a pretty good camera at a pretty good price, so it was a successful shopping venture. We took the bus home because one of the girls who was with us sprained her ankle in Galilee and is still on crutches.

Back at the Center it was kind of a chill afternoon. I read a little bit, and did some of the study guide for our New Testament midterm on Tuesday. After dinner I let my roommate Katie cut bangs in my hair. She was really nervous about it but she did a really great job. There were at least 5 or 6 other people getting their hair cut tonight, it was definitely a party.