Passover Seder in Jerusalem!

Since I have no family in Israel, myself and another guy from my program requested a host family to go to together for the Passover seder. In the Diaspora Jews observe two seders and 8 days of Passover, but in Israel they celebrate one seder and 7 days of Passover. Gabe and I were set up with an Israeli family. The father picked us up from our apartment and brought us to their house, and then dropped us back off afterwards. They live in a settlement right outside Jerusalem and in extremely close proximity to the West Bank. We had to go through a checkpoint leaving Jerusalem and reentering it. From their backyard you can see the security fence (a large stone wall with barbed wire on top that goes on as far as the eye can see) and Arab neighborhoods. They had a beautiful home--the nicest I have seen in Israel (although granted I have not seen many private homes here!) Much of their extended family was there--kids, grandparents, aunt, cousins--and then Gabe and I! But they were very warm and friendly to us. They all spoke English, some better than others, and while they spoke to us in English they spoke to each other in Hebrew and the service was conducted in Hebrew. So I was lost through most of it, but it was still fun! The Hagaddah was entirely in Hebrew, but it was written with vowels so I could follow along. Everyone went around the table reading paragraphs and I even read two paragraphs (extremely slowly!!) and everyone clapped when I finished. :)
The language barrier can result in some amusing stories for sure. For instance, when we met one of the aunts, we were informed that she worked at "checkpoints". So Gabe asked if it was randomly determined who had to work on the holidays and she said that no one was working. We said "No one?? Is it safe to have no one working at the checkpoint??" And they said "Oh, of course, it's fine." So Gabe and I were naturally quite worried about this (and quite shocked!), but they didn't seem worried so we moved on. When the mother came back into the room, she re-introduced us to the aunt, and mentioned how she worked at a telecommunications company called Checkpoints in Tel Aviv!!!! So Gabe and I cracked up and explained to them what we had been thinking and we all shared a laugh :)!!!
Yesterday Gabe and I explored the Old City. We went to the Kotel, but the rest of the Jewish Quarter was quite empty--no stores were open--because it was Yom Tov (the first day of Passover). So we wandered around the Christian Quarter. In a narrow passageway that weaves its way through many small shops, we were all of a sudden ordered by soldiers to stand to the side, and then witnessed as a huge contingent of Christian monks walked past us, with one man in front holding a giant cross. It was really amazing and kind of intimidating to see. I'm not sure if this is a regular occurrence, or a special event because it was the day before Good Friday. We then wandered through some of the Muslim Quarter. Israeli soldiers wouldn't let us walk through one particular part ("Muslims Only"), but we did explore other parts. There is no real delineations or barriers between the different quarters (except for the soldiers guarding that one passageway) and we were never quite sure when one Quarter ended and another began. The Muslim Quarter was distinguishable though because of all the Arabic and the women in hijabs, while the Christian Quarter was distinguishable because of all the crosses! And of course bread was being sold in these two Quarters!!
Another really cool thing to see was that throughout Jerusalem on Wednesday morning, there were small fires (right along the road) and people were burning all their hametz (bread products..not kosher for Passover).
It's hard to believe this is already my eighth Shabbat in Israel. On one hand I feel as though I have been in Israel forever, but on the other hand it has gone by quite fast.
I leave for Tiberias on Sunday!