Shalom,
It has been a long and exciting two days! Yesterday feels like a week ago because of our packed days. We left Tiberias early to get to Jerusalem and I think everyone was so excited to get here. We have heard so much about it and its about time we made it here.
"Jerusalem, if I forget you...." - excitement on the bus as we enter Jerusalem.
When we drove through the tunnel and saw the "aizenof" (beautiful view - shout out to Yonit for the word of the day) everyone whipped out their cameras to take a bunch of pictures. The day only got better after that. We went to an Observation point to look out over Jerusalem and the view was incredible.
At the lookout to the Temple Mount
Following this, we went to Ammunition hill, where we learned about the Battle that took place there. Part of the museum there included real army tanks and there were these trenches that everyone was so interested in and we were able to walk through them.
At the trenches at Ammunition Hill
From there we went to the Schuck, which gave us a great opportunity to wander by ourselves and check out the culture. It was swarmed with people buying all sorts of things. There we got our first official Falafel, some Challah and got to experience the busy marketplace right before Shabbat.
At the Shuk, enjoying our Falafel
While in the Schuck we were sent to pick out a gift for our "Shabbat-o-grams." Secret Santa for bus 96, basically. Mine got a few fresh pastries and I got a key chain.
After our hectic morning, we went back to the hotel and got ready for the Kotel.
When we got there it was such a powerful experience that I didn't expect to have. I really expected it just to look like a wall, and never thought I'd find myself dancing with strangers and screaming israeli songs in a circle. But that's exactly what we did, and everyone really enjoyed it...not what followed after, though. We walked two hours back to the hotel so we could really experience what Shabbat is. That, or our staff just really wanted us to lose feeling in our feet, thighs, and tuches'. We finally made it back and had Shabbat dinner.
We all woke up refreshed, and totally feeling Shabbat. We got a late start to the day, and had a tie in session to discuss the highs and lows of the trip so far. We then had a couple hours to ourselves where a majority of our bus was having a beach party on the balcony of one of the rooms, enjoying the sun and the view. Afterwards, we had a meeting about Jewish identity where we played games and discussed different subjects. Immediately following was a Stump the Rabbi session where we asked Rabbi Slonim about everything and anything. We then had dinner and Havdalah to celebrate the end of Shabbat and went off shopping! Ben Yehuda street was filled with all sorts of Chatchkas, and a lot of haggling. After spending a few - maybe more (Hi Mom) Sheckles, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for tomorrow!
All in all, its been a very eventful and exhilarating two days! And the best part is, we're only halfway done.
Lila Tov.