So last week, week of July 29th, I had planned on skipping the Aliya (jewish options for moving to israel) but was forced to go anyway even though the trip had no bearing on me whatsoever. But i went anyway and tried at first to have a good attitude but that started to fail by the end of the trip. During this day trip we went to two colleges, Hertelia and Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Mt. Scopus (which was really beautiful) and then went on to a lecture on Aliya down in Jerusalem. Afterward we had a little free time in Jerusalem to shop, so the time was at least partially enjoyable, and i ended up going to Nazareth this weekend anyway, which in the details we figured out worked much better than our original plans would have worked.

The next day there was a seminar on Jewish Identity. It was a lady who was super orthodox-you would have to ask me about the experience, hard to describe, but very zealous about jewdaism, which even though she was extreme her base values were actually close, but still she was pretty far out there. After that shocking conversation with her, it turned out she was an actor and also showed how the life style and thinking of a jewish woman that lived in a settlement in the West bank, a liberal kibbutz member, abnd an arab christian. After our initial shock wore off it was very interesting to learn about these different peoples identities in jedaism expressed in israel.

That shabbat Annie and i endedup traveling out to netanya in the morning since we had heard about a messianic congregation there and would be interesting to visit. It took a bit of time with the cab to get there, but we were eventually dropped off right by a group from holland that was visiting the same church also, so that was a blessing having found it fairly easily. It was interesting the music being in hebrew and trying to read along in hebrew, but they also had the wordsspelled out in eglish as to follow along easier, and the repition in the songs helped with trying to read the hebrew. The teaching for the day was on what the temple meant to us, since the 9th of Av had just been observed by the jews (fasting in memory of the destruction of the temples and other events taht happened on that day. Afterward we were trying to figure out how to get back since we were stuck in S. Netanya away from everywhere, when an older gentlman endedup coming and talking to us and volunteering to drive us up to the main beach. NOt only did he and his wife do that but they took us out to lunch, and got to hear how they had ended up in israel since neither of them were jewish and both from the states. After that we spent pretty much the day on the beach, and when the busses started running we headed back. That night i started to knit a hat, which i actually finished the next night, i was pretty excited about that.

Durign this last week the ulpan went on a day trip to tel-aviv to visit the old and new city. We started off in joffa and heard about the culture from turkish ruling times to more modern israel before tel-aviv was built. There was always a feud between the christian and muslims on who dominated the skyline so the minaret had been built higher many times as well as the belltower on the church. Also dont trust a jewish tourguide on christian facts, they always get things messedup, but did look up what peter did did in the city and the church is there in memory of him having his vision about eating unclean food. Even though we werent alowed in the churhc we snuck in anyways. After Joffa, we traveled towards the city and went the the jewish settlement in the middle and then eventually worked our way to independence hall to hear about the starting of the state of israel.

The free time was very interesting, Instead of going and shopping with everyone else, Annie and i went to meet up with an old lady that she had met on the beach in tel aviv the first day she was here. It was an experience getting to the ladies house, but people are very hospitable in israel, and the man that ended up giving us direction also invited us in his shop and got us something to drink. After we arrived at the ladies house (80yr old holocaust survivor) we had only 45min to talk to her, but it was amazing hearing about the holocaust and seeing pictures of her family before and after and the things she brought back from the camp. Really interestign story, almost got shipped to Auswitz a couple times but barely was turned back. She was amazing to listen to and was still full of energy. She has written a book, that is being translated, and hopefully she will send us a digital copy so that we can learn more about her story.