So i just had a veryyy long weekend: a thursday-wednesday weekend! only in israel :) after weeks away from our sunny home of tel aviv, we took this weekend as a time to do one thing and one thing only: go to the beach and tan. sadly i must report most of us have developed what is called "tanorexia"- a disease in which one craves the need TO BE TAN. once you get a little color, the fading of tan lines and the changing of skin tone makes you depressed! its a problem. or is it? a weekend of napping on sad, splashing in the med. sea, and eating fro yo sounds pretty damn good to me! Other highlights of thursday-sunday included having a big girls dinner at our favorite 24/7 breakfast place benedicts and having a sushi dinner with arielle and ethan at my fav sushi place moooon (followed by fro yo)
sunday night at sundown marked the beginning of yom haZikaron- the day of rememberance for fallen IDF soldiers. unlike memorial or veterans day at home which are marked by long weekends and BBQs, yom hazikaron is one of the most somber days in israel. on sunday we went to a ceremony at noon on campus. the minister of defense spoke and a few stories and songs were shared. a list of names was read of graduates of tlv university who have died in war as well. at night, emma and i went with our friend Jonathan to his high school's ceremony in tel aviv. at 8pm the siren sounded all across israel (like on holocaust rememberance day) which began the ceremony. jonathans school is the high school in israel with the most alumni killed in war and they put on a beautiful ceremony including monologues and songs and a slideshow of all fallen soldiers from the school. after the ceremony, emma and i went down to jerusalem and stayed the night with arielle and ethan. in the morning we woke up early and went to har herzel - the military cemetery in jerusalem. har herzel is a beautiful ceremony (for lack of a better word)- there tons of trees and flowers and it is moving just to be there any day; however, on yom hazikaron it was especially moving to see all of the families of fallen soldiers out by the graves as well as tons of soldiers standing standing arond telling stories and remembering their friends.
after walking around har herzel a bit, we went into the ceremony at the top of the hill. for the most part i did not understand what was going on at the ceremony but of course it is the sentiment that is the most important. another siren sounded throughout the country at 11am which commenced the ceremony and prime minister nentanyahu gave a speech as well- he told a story from his own army service in which two of his friends died during war, one right in his own hands. after the ceremony, i met arielle in jerusalem for lunch and some hanging out before going back to tel aviv to begin the yom ha'atzmaut celebrations.
celebrations? yes a quick of mood between sunday and monday because monday night marked israeli independence day- 62 years ! the big thing to go to on yom haatzmaut is the street party in florentine (an area of tel aviv)- ive heard alot about this street party from a lot of different people ever since i arrived. first we went to jonathans apartment and hung out with his friends on his roof (drinking and eating). one magical thing that happened here was for the first time in three wholeeeee months we made ISRAELI GIRLFRIENDS - big news since all the other israeli girls ive encountered have been scary but jonathans friends were really ncie and inclusive. around 12:30ish we headed from jonathans roof to the florentine street partyy. it was absolutely insane!! soooo many people just running around ,dancing and drinking in the streets, and celebrating! we stayed out until 4ish whcih turned into 5ish because lack of cabs forced to walk for a longlong time before returning home. however it was a REALLLY fun night!!!
so thats a holiday weekend for ya! we didnt have classes on tuesday and now its finally back to school....for a 2 day week! this weekend my program is heading up to the north of israel for a trip of hiking and rafting which im really excited about - the north is such a gorgeous piece of israel and i am happy to be getting there again. AND one week from tomorrow i will be flying to EGYPT!!!
thats it for me! xoxoxo enjoy some pics from the weekend!
beach- sums up my weekend
florentine street party :)
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