Shopkeepers

The other day my room mate and I decided to go up to the Old City to browse the shops. It was so much fun! I'm continually amazed at how many of the shopkeepers know and love us. Dozens of times as we walk through the crowded streets we hear, "Hello Mormons! Special deal for BYU!" It's not like we walk around in byu gear either. In fact, most of us don't use our backpacks or wear our tshirts in the old city on purpose. And we hide our student ids too. Someone asked one of the shopkeepers the other day how they knew that we were from the Jerusalem Center, and he said, "Its in your face. In your eyes." So I guess that story is true. We just don't always notice that in ourselves, but it's pretty obvious to others.
My favorite shopkeepers so far are Imar and Shabban. Imar was so excited to see us. He said, "special deal for mormons! 5 sheckels for any pair of earrings in my store!" And that is a good deal.. its like $1.50. He says he's visiting Sandy Utah next month, and he really loves mormons. He even stepped outside to finish his cigarette because he knows we dont like it. Shabban must have chased us halfway down the street before someone stopped us to introduce him. He led us to his shop and gave us juice, because he knows we wont drink tea. He sells leather scripture cases with the jerusalem skyline on them, and liahonas made of olive wood, among other mormon-centered things. He's very nice, and he's been a friend to BYU students for decades.
Well, I better go do some homework. I just found out that our Islam class is cancelled because our teacher is from the West Bank and the border was just closed, so I'm gonna go draw a couple maps that are worth 25% of my grade.