So last weekend i went up to Haifa with a couple of friends from the kibbutz (Ron-holland, berti-turkey, gal-U.S., Jenny-UK, Annie-U.S) to spend fri afternoon through shabat there. It is crazy how fast you get to know people since with these people i felt like i had known them alot longer than less than a week. The trip was really good taking busses up north and finding a fairly cheap hostel with a room to fit the 6 of us. We ended up at one on the side of Mt carmel with a great view of the sea. We got practically no sleep but traveled everyside of haifa during our time through taxi services. Highligts of the trip were going to a festival we happend upon the first day, seeing the BaHai gardens the second day, riding a merri-go-round at the zoo (annie and i tried to buy tickets just for that, but ended up buying tickets for the whole zoo, so we spent some time wandering around the zoo while the others checked out the town some more). While trying to get back on shabbat most busses are shut down so we tried taxis and service shuttles, but ended up getting to the wrong side of town away from the station, and hung out at an empty mall for a while-looked like the perfect setting for a horror movie with 6 college aged kids in an empty mall. We ended up splitting up and a couple went back to the kibbutz via service taxi and the rest of us found our way to the beach for the rest of the afternoon untill shabbat ended and we could take a bus back to the kibbutz. During my time here i have actually had quite a few religion discussions and one of those again popped up on the beach with some of bertis friends who we ended up hanging out with that were going to the university in Haifa.

Also last week went on a day trip of Jerusalem-which is really nothng. On the way down the other cristian-annie showed me the passage in psalm 22 about the prophesies of the messiah, which was amazing to read through right before ascending up to Jerusalem. GOt to visit the old city and the walls around the old temple including the western wall. Could write a ton about this but it was really cool getting to see all of it, but in a way t seemed slighty empty just praying to and through the wall, but still being that close to the holy of holies was an experience of its own. Wish that i could have gone on my own pace through this part, but was rushed a little with the tourgroup going through and trying to see alot in that one day. Also i fullfilled one of my lifelong dreams-keep one of the free paper kippahs from the western wall.

After that tour we went to the holocause museum area, which included many different museums and memorials. During this time i spent 2.5 hours in the main museum which i only really saw in detail about a third of it and the rest in the last half hour. It is very large and helped show the actual size of the holocause through its size. Marc from UK this was his third time there and he spend the entire time also in the museum and still wanted to come back again since he hadnt seen all of it yet. The museum itself starts off on a dark end and gradually get light to see the end of the tunnel which is a majestic overlook. The last room is a rememberance room which has names of holocaust victims in a large circular room-with a reflective well in the center. THis room hit me hard after visiting the rest of the museum and realizing alot more the scope of the holocause.

We also got to hear about Yehudit-the ulpan organizers parents holocaust story from her along with other stories from survivors. The other memorial we went to was the childrens memorial which was a dark circualr room with alot of small lights in the darkness with a constant soundtrack of all of the names of the children on a constant loop.

If this day wasnt long enough already we got on the bus and went to the opening cerimonies of the Maccabiah games-basically the jewish olympics meant to bring the jewish comunity together. I was surprised about the security since it was not that much, just like normal checkpoints. During the ceremony the president- Simon Peres and Prime minister- Benjamin Netanyahu both spoke, which was really cool getting to see them both speak during my time here in israel.


The other day after work went to Ceasarea with annie and jonah-its great how small the country is where you can leave after work at 2 to visit a site for the rest of the day and annie always wants to go see biblical places also so we are basically travel companions all the time. During this trip the buses somehow worked out perfectly, less than 5 min wait for any of the connecting busses and didnt miss the last bus out of ceasarea. This trip we got to see alot in ceasarea-the port paul sailed from when he appealed to ceasar in acts. Saw the circus where there were chariot races and where gladiators and christians were killed, aqueaducts, and the roman theatre-which was being set up for a concert-it looked over the sea and that would be awesome to see a hard rock concert there. Had sushi on the outcropping of the harbor-so much better than kibbutz dinners.

We got back just in time for the pub night on the kibbutz where we got to know some other people our age better and i talked to the organiser of our ulpan social guy-ahron who i worked with in the morning for a while about his story- where he is from argentina and moved here with his parents when he was 6 and had to get marriage license in cypres since he did not have a orthodox wedding which is the only one reconized in israel-alot more really cool guy. still had to do my hw for hebrew after this but it did get done.

So much more has gone on and going on a trip to the south next week and then i think jerusalem since our trip to petra couldnt happen due to insurance on our long 2 day weekend.