venice

im waiting for david in budapest, i hope he's not lost because it is completely freezing out there. while im waiting i will try and catch up a little bit on what's been happening.

venice...best know for: lovers, venetian art, san marcos cathedral, the grande canal, carnival masks, the bridge of sighs, crystal, pidgeons, pizza, gelato, gondolas...yeah you get it. here are my favorite things about venice: no cars, the reflections off the water, the lady at the journal store, the jewish ghetto and museum, and piazza san marcos...it really is breathtaking (especially looking down the front of it, past palazzo ducale, across san marco canal, toward the cathderal of san siorgio maggiore)

the hostel i stayed in was completely empty, seriously, empty...but it was nice to have a quiet room and a clean bathroom to use. i was lucky enough to meet two sisters from canada who have been studying in tel aviv, israel. i met them at the jewish ghetto museum. they are jewish, and i think, that they thought, i was jewish (probably because of the glorious kosher beard i've got going on right now). anyway, we tooled around the museum making small talk about studies and what not, then i bid them farewell and set out to see a little bit more of the city.

that night, at about sunset i went out to the docks on the south side of the island and saw what apeared to be the makings of a glorious sunset, so i turned to make my way down the island to get a better view away from the crowds of piazza san marcos. and as i started up the first bridge i almost ran into the sisters from the museum, leah and esther. they didn't have any particular plans, nor did i, so we walked along for a while and had a good conversation about christianity and judaism. they said it was like a lesson, they had a lot of questions about catholics, christians, protestants, and how it all came about. and i got to ask them about a few questions i had. they practice orthodox judaism. it was very informative, and the biggest thing i learned was that the typical evangelical understanding (mine included) of modern day judaism is awefully inadequate. i told them that the church i attend in portland makes an effort to pray for israel and its people. they said that it was really refreshing to hear that, so i encourage any of you who read this to pray for israel, and if you don't know what to pray for, then just pray that (at least it's honest) and ask that God would work in that nation and that people.

that is all for now, i will write about ljubljana later, and about rok volk, the king of all things saxophone.

ps. i also got to talk to jj and cara (cara just a little bit) on justin's birthday, and it was really great, but i miss them, and i could hear sahara in the background...oh i miss them.