Every Single Thing

This is a week off because I didn't get done las week, but here they are because this week had a lot of them:

Sunday!
Our first field trip of the week was to Neot Kedumim (heb "pleasant pastures") it's a biblical nature reserve that focuses on teaching those who visit about plants and animals that are in the bible! We looked at lots of plants and ground hyssop and herded goats and sheep! We also made pottage like what Esau sold his birthright over (and tbh if it had been as good as what I ate,,,,, I don't blame him). We finished off our day by learning about the production of Torah scrolls and similar items in the Judaism (mezzuzot etc)

the daily grind

the man on the left is a scribe and a cantor, it was so cool to see him work, and to listen to him recite from the Torah in the three different styles (Ashkenazi, Sepharic and Yemenite)

check out ya girl in that great white hat with that blue blue fanny pack.

Monday!
Tel Aviv & Jaffa
WHAT A DAY. It was so much fun the beach was so beautiful. If I were to describe Tel Aviv in one sentence I would say it's the San Francisco of Israel for any and all of the reasons you may be thinking of. Also everyone there is just like.. really committed to being fit and exercising. So many exercise parks and people going so hard at the beach playing volleyball or going on runs. This was on a MONDAY I remind y'all. That's how you know it's true commitment.

As for me and my house self I spent the first half of the day at the beach where somehow I only got burned on the insides of my calves (??????? I know). The beach was perfect, super soft sand, beautiful turquoise ocean and just the right temperature, except for one important thing.

ticks.

haha no I'm totally kidding. The water however, was infested with either teeny tiny baby jellies or else just plain old bits of jellies floating around which stung quite a fair bit. I never saw or felt anything touch me but BOY HOWDY did I feel the stings. It really was a bummer. Apparently the jellies are nomad jelly fish which are considered an invasive species. They used to migrate from the indian ocean up the red sea, until the Suez Canal and now they are just all over the beach in Tel Aviv making your life just plain miserable!!!!

look at this beautiful jelly filled water

hahahahaha my arms look so awkward. I'm going to blame Jelly Fish

just chilling with David Ben Gurion here

After that good good beach time I went with a few people into the city. I have no real specific memories of this time other than eating a giant bagel and some amazing baclawa. After that we had a complete sushi scandal. Even though there is literally a sushi place on every corner in Tel Aviv (you think I'm exaggerating????? think again), somehow we ended up at the one that was vegan (and also I was somehow the only person to notice until the guy came to take our order and was like "we are a vegan place"). I was fine with that, but certain members of our party were really whiny about it the entire time and I still want to die just thinking about it. It was delicious sushi ok. honestly. After our dinner misadventures we went to Jaffa which is within walking distance just south. I think in the Bible it's called Joppa. Anyway, nice place, cool old city!

Tuesday!
Symphony!! We had some gr9 performances by everyone there! There was a violin concerto, a cello concerto and finished off with Beethoven's 7th.

Here's a fun and weird fact about Israeli symphony goers. Between movements (when you aren't supposed to applaud), listeners will cough to show that they enjoyed the piece. The first time when the entire audience seemed to be dying of whopping cough no one could handle it at all. but it is actually kind of a cool tradition!

Wednesday!
Hezekiah's tunnel

it was dark and small, like my heart

I think that yellow thing is supposed to be David's harp but instead it is the gatekeeper of my nightmares

The Silwan Neighborhood

We also later that night had a forum about Sufism (which is basically mysticism in Islam). It was super fascinating and there were a lot of ideas that I really connected with since a large part of Sufism is coming to God and seeking His presence.

Thursday!
We do skits PRETTY regularly in my Ancient Near East class and on this day we had an awards ceremony and because I am the biggest hambone I won this award:

my career is about to take off

Later that night we went to a light show at the Tower of David. It was aight but probably not worth 70 shekels.

figured out how to use my wi-fi hotspot on my center phone to get some nice Jerusalem sbapchap filters

GREAT COLOR COMBO NICE FASHION

Friday!
We did service putting together school kits. I ran around like a wild goat and got about a thousand paper cuts. worth it. Nice to feel like I'm having some vague positive impact in the world.

Satuday!
today!
NOOOOPE because guess who's a week late posting sorry fam.