Mom really, chicken and dumplings PLEASE

     You've missed out on my bedouin experience (Camel Day!!!), Massada, floating in the Dead Sea and our arrival in Jerusalem. We have seen more churches than I can count, including the enourmous Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Today we saw the Western Wall of the temple. My female friends and I had to cover our shoulders and were only allowed on the smaller women's side.
     I could go into great detail about the places we have been. Mr. Thompson's pedometer says we did 10 miles yesterday and at 3:30 this afternoon we are at 7 miles so far. Definitely feeling it. But, I'd like to take this opportunity instead to describe the food here. I will start by telling you that I am out of pop-tarts and getting quite worried. Between planes, bus rides, and dirty street smells, I haven't really felt very adventurous. Still, I've tried to get the full experience.
     I did try falafel, a dish I explained in am earlier blog. It comes in pita like a sandwich. I..well if you don't have anything nice to say...
     Meals in Israel are, if nothing else, predictable. At every meal, including breakfast, the table is set with what they call salad. It is usually about four or five small plates with fairly standard items from which everyone shares. One of these plates always has hummus. Another usually has a mix of tomatoes and cucumbers, sometimes with onions as well. Another plate has cole slaw and another something pickled. No really, every single meal. Some of you may not be surprised to learn that I am surviving largely on tomatoes. Breakfast always has boiled eggs. Every meal has bread, not a roll like Texas but a big loaf for each person. The bread often has sesame seeds. The "salad" sometimes has other dips or cheeses to put on the bread.
     After a little while of pulling the inside out of our bread, someone usually asks which meat we would like.Sometimes beef, sometimes chicken, sometimes fish. This is a shot-in-the-dark process, as the dish you receive rarely looks like the animal you expected. It may taste delicious, or it may be an utter disaster. Luckily, it is a very family style dining experience and sharing with the lucky people at your table is alright. It's my blog, I can use the world alright if i want.
     After 8 days of unidentifiable food and labels that I can't read, I've pretty much gone vegetarian. Today, on our lunchtime quest for fruit in the open market inside the old walled city of Jerusalem, we made an epic discovery: hotdogs. I was content with my two oranges, but my fearless commrades went for it. We were shooed away from the tables where everyone else was sittin gby an angry Hebrew-speaking shop owner. So there we sat, blissfully eating oranges and hotdogs on a step in the street. Dr. Ratcliffe christened us the Exiled Virgins of Wayland. A hat vendor proposed to Ashley and we had ice cream for dessert. Success.