August 1, 2013

Today was an amazing day! We did not have Ulpan today and instead went to Jerusalem for the day as a whole-school OSP (over seas program) field trip. I woke up this morning at 7:15am and had to be ready and at the bus at 7:30am. It was an early morning because we had a lot to see and do in one day. Everybody was so tired on the bus ride and was just sleeping and relaxing. We stopped for breakfast at the Castle. It was an independence war and historic site. It was in the hills/ mountains of Jerusalem. "The Castle" was used as a lookout and watch point, to protect Jerusalem from the Jordanians and Arabs. It was on the "green line." I was able to get some great pictures of the outskirts of Jerusalem and the road into the city. Our next stop was the Israel museum in the city of Jerusalem. The museum had Israeli art, general art, an Italian temple, modern art, costumes, Jewish art, and a famous scribe from 2000 years ago. Although i don;t really like museums, this one was not too bad because there was such a mix of art and history. After the museum, we got dropped off at the shuk for an hour for lunch and to walk around. I loved this part of the day because it was really fun and nice to walk around the market and see the different types of products and foods and everything that they sell. All of the food is so good and fresh there because it is all local and made or cooked on the spot or brought in from a local farm. We stopped at a little falafel stand in the shuk and i think it was for sure the best falafel I have ever had! We also stopped at one of the dessert stands and bought a bunch of different Israeli desserts, like rugula and marzipan and cookies and other things. I tried a little bit of everything and realized that I did not really like rugula, even though everyone talks about how much they love it. Oh well! After the shuk, we went to the old city of Jerusalem and walked around it. There was another shuk and market there but it was very different than the one we went to for lunch. This shuk was all art and goods, no food and the most interesting part about it is that there was an Arab section, Jewish/ Israeli section, Christian section, and I think one or two other religion's sections. Then we went to the famous old city area and saw the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It was very very old and very beautiful! We could only stay there for a few minutes because our next stop on the trip was to talk through the water system tunnels. I get claustrophobic easily and don't like dark, enclosed, crowded areas. The tunnels were the wrong place for me, but I did have a lot of fun seeing them. We walked through the Jerusalem water system tunnels for 40 minutes. They were filled with water mostly to our ankles but at some points it was almost up to my hips. I was really scared in the tunnel because it was pitch black, nobody could see anything, really crowded, very tight and small, and we were walking through a lot of water. The history behind the tunnels was really cool though! Once we finally made it out of the tunnel, we got to dry off a little and had to change into our modest clothes for the wall. All of the girls put on maxi dresses and cardigans or sweaters, and the guys put pants on. Because of the holiness of the Western Wall, out of respect, women have to wear clothes that are modest enough to cover their knees and elbows and men are supposed to wear pants and something to cover their head, like a hat or yamica. Once everyone changed into their modest clothes, we walked over to the Western Wall and had a few minutes to look at it and experience the holiness and pray there. I was really intrigued and went over to the wall and it felt really powerful touching it and feeling it and seeing so many women praying to it and standing right in front of it, reading from a mini Torah, and getting really emotional and crying. Although I did not have this emotional feeling, standing at the wall, It was so cool to see how important it is to so many people! There were so many soldiers standing around the wall guarding the area and making sure nothing happened or happens in general. These men all have machine guns at their waste and just "hang out." It was so weird seeing this and realizing that it is such a normal and common thing in Israel. After the Western Wall, We went back on the bus and the whole OSP TAU students group met up at an Italian restaurant for dinner and then we headed back to the university of Tel Aviv. It was a really long day bit so interesting and fun!i am excited to go back to Jerusalem and walk around and tour more!