Folk Dancing and Organ Concert !

Hello all! This is super-blog week, can you tell?

We had two awesome nights this week where we had folk dancing! The first one was in our Arab Culture night, which I have already blogged about, but the second one was on Friday, and I didn't take any pictures. It was Israeli folk dancing, though, and was really, really fun.

Our teacher was this little Israeli guy in tight pants and a tight shirt with one of those microphones that clips on his hear and comes down in front of his face. He reminded me of Richard Simmons a little bit.... but it was very fun!

The other thing I just wanted to mention, even though I forgot my camera to this one too, is an organ concert that we went to by Walter Whipple, our center organist. He is an amazing organist, really. And he's pretty famous. A Church here, in the Old City, Called St. Savior's Church, or San Salvador, had just installed and built a new organ. It is now the second best in the region, under ours here at the center :). Anyway, they invited him to play a concert for the community, and of course 50 or 60 of us students just had to show up for it. It was amazing. He played all six Mendelssohn Sonatas in a row, as Mendelssohn intended them to be heard. It was very relaxing, and amazing. The cool part of the church, too, was that the organ was behind the apse, so we could see him while he played. It was great! A lot of churches have the organ in the back, so it's not very fun to watch, but this one was fun.

And, bonus! We got to go into the Old City at night, which is strictly forbidden, at all times. It was a special permission situation though, and because the church was right inside New Gate we could take a cab there, and just pop in, turn on the first street, and walk through the monastery to get into the chapel. It was a great night! And I studied for a test during the concert....which was relaxing. Nothing like some classical music to clear your mind :)