Yop kipur in Jerusalem was very interesting. We stayed at hebrew university which is located in an Arab neighborhood. Walking through the arab village was pretty sketchy. I saw a little adorable 4 year old girl crying and ran up to her mother and her mom YANKED her by the ponytail and threw her down so she started crying harder and then ran up to her dad and her dad just pushed her face and everyone around was watching but no one was saying/doing anything. I wanted to comfort the girl except it was a little dangerous that we were walking through there as it is and I didn't want to attract attention anymore then I was(being a white, jewish american and all..) Also a man tried to kidnap us! I was walking with my friend Emily and he was in a little shitty car and was like 'you want a taxi?? I taxi driver! come into car i taxi driver!" Seriously man, were not that retarded. Anyways, we finally got there. This morning we woke up at walked about a half hour to the old city. There were a ton of cars though because it was in a Arab town- but some of my friends who were in the jewish quarters camped out in the middle of a major highway because all the streets were shut down. So we went to the cotel and stayed there for about an hour and then walked through the old city and ran into some yearcoursers. They were staying at a hostel and we climbed up to the roof that looked over the whole city(where a lot of kids were sleeping in sleeping bags) and napped up there for a while. It was a beautiful place and only 50 sheckles for a night (which is 11 dollars) so I definitely want to stay there sometime. I met people from Spain and Britain there, too. We went back down to the cotel at 5.30 and it was packed. A lot of dancing/praying/singing as the sun went down.. then they blew the shofars and we broke the fast there. There were huge tables of free food and drinks for everyone and everyone shared:) We walked back and on the way we saw an Arab wedding! It was more like a parade through the old city.. loud chants and singing(only for the men though) it was really scary at first though because we thought they were yelling to make a commotion because of Yom Kipur.. and I assumed they were planning some kind of attack. Also, they make it very clear that they hate us because they know we are zionist, jewish tourists.We kept walking and saw a park where all the little orthodox kids were playing at.. they are so cute with their little peyas!! I'm back in bat yam and were cleaning our apartment now so Aviv, our Israeli, wont freak when she comes back:))
Sorry for the bad writing/grammar .. I am just rambling about whatever comes to mind.
Miss and love you all
So glad you are able to avoid shady kidnappers!! Wow, scary??! Jerusalem sounds amazing. What an experience. I think the rooftop with sleeping bags must be the best. Didn't Kali do that with Dylan?
ReplyDeleteMimi said she chatted to you on IM - you must have been up for all hours. I wish I had known. We were at breaking fast at Jim and Amy. We missed you and thought of you as there was tons of good vegetarian to eat. Glad you got through fast easily.
There was a girl named Leo Goldblatt we met this weekend at Judy's house (her mom was Mai's and Magic's doctor) She goes to Madison and is in third year. She told us her mom forced her to go and she didn't want to. She says now she loves loves it. She has very few Minnesotan friends and her 5 room-mates she shares a house with are from Maryland, Seattle and some other States far from here. She is going to do a study abroad in Israel and has been studying Hebrew and Middle Eastern Studies up until now. She can't wait to go to Israel for a couple of semesters.
On another note - saw Jody. She says Mai is sooo happy and is best friends with Mabel her dog. Mia and Mabel are inseparable. Mabel grooms Mia and they sleep together on Jody's bed every night.
It's late so I will write tomorrow.