August 21, 2013

I had another great week here in Tel Aviv! Other than my usual, everyday Ulpan from 8:30am to 1pm, and the beach or pools and meals and going out, I did a little touring and sightseeing. Last Monday, my friends and I went to the Ramat Gan zoo. Although I not really a zoo and animals person, I did have a really fun time at the zoo/ safari. We saw lions, tigers, and bears Oh My! haha :) We also saw tons of wild cats, elephants, monkeys, camels, tropical birds, goats and lamas, and even penguins! It was really funny seeing the penguins because they are meant to live in the arctic in extremely cold temperatures, not in the Middle East, where is it extremely hot. The penguins were huddled in front of three full-blast fans to cool them off! It was a really funny thing to see! It was a lot of fun to walk around the zoo and see tons of animals and their natural habitats and be able to get really close to them (not like in the USA). As we were walking past the petting zoo, we saw a bungee jump and all decided to do it. I am terrified of heights, but wow, it was awesome! It wasn't a really intense bungee jump, I was just strapped into a harness that was connected to a bungee and I jumped on a trampoline. It was cool to be able to jump so high and see the whole park from a birds eye view!

The next day, on Tuesday, after Ulpan, we went on a field trip to Caesarea. It was a beautiful city and apparently one of the wealthiest and nicest towns/ cities in Israel now. We toured the old city which had Roman ruins and a Roman amphitheater. This city was considered to be one of the starting locations of the Roman Empire, outside of Rome. We saw the amphitheater, remains of King Herod's palace, the water, and the old city. We had some time to walk around the city by ourselves, after our mini tour. My friends and I went to a really good sushi restaurant overlooking the sunset and the sea. It was some of the best sushi I have had since I have been here and for the nicest atmosphere! It was a perfect night in Caesarea because there was a concert going on there soo, so all the locals came out and sat out on the lawn, listening to the music. There were also tons of street vendors selling jewelry and their artwork, and a bunch of food trucks. Overall, I thought that Caesarea was absolutely breathtaking and historically very interesting!