No Pics today, sorry, but here's an update!

Well to finish where I last left off, this past Sunday night was sooo fun! I didn't do anything too crazy, but it was fun to just have a night out doing "normal" things. A group of us went to dinner in West Jerusalem at this Italian restaurant in the mall. And oh my word was it good! I'm not the biggest fan of Italian food all of the time, but this was truly delicious. And then we shopped around the mall which was a lot of fun and just explored West Jerusalem and enjoyed the night life. It is so fun being out at night! Probably because we rarely do it. So it makes it that much more special. But let me just tell you- it is great! And West J is great.

On Monday we had a field trip to the Israeli national Holocaust Museum. Our Israel teacher, Ophir Yarden, came with us. And I am so grateful for that. He taught me so much about the Holocaust and the post Holocaust culture that I really didn't know prior to this, even though I thought I knew a lot about the Holocaust. Of course going to the museum just opened up a ton more questions than answers, as the topic of the holocaust usually does. I still don't quite understand how to wrap my mind around the holocaust, and I don't think I ever will be able too. I will say though that this museum was fantastic and offered a lot of hope, even though the subject material was extremely dark. And I appreciated that, especially since other holocaust museums that I have been to in the past did not offer this.

Right next to the museum is Mt. Herzl- which is where Herzl, the father of Israeli zionism, is buried. They are right next to each other to represent the lowest and highest points in Jewish history, which I thought was really cool. There was so much art and symbolism around the area which I absolutely loved. The Jews are so proud of their history and heritage and I just love how it is all represented in every aspect. All trees and plants have a symbolism. They truly use everything that is around them to its best extent.

Yesterday we took a tour of the separation wall, which I actually did take some pictures of, but I will post those later. The story behind this wall is so complex. It seems like the Berlin wall of our time. It's so hard to pick a side when you are hearing both sides of the story, so I won't. But it was an interesting experience and I definitely enjoyed learning more about it.

Today is a new day with new adventures ahead- I will have to tell you about them in another post. Plus we are going to Tel Aviv (weather permitting) this weekend!! Yay!