What an exciting weekend! Something new to experience every day, and I'm loving every second of it! Where to begin... Thursday night started out our weekend, and a few of the girls and I decided to have a nice relaxing Girls' Night! So 7 of us went for a stroll down King George to a fave restaurant of some who have been here since January. It had such a cool ambiance, and the food was delish! I had "asian" noodles with yerakot (veggies) and oaf (chicken) and polished it off completely. Then afterward we went to chill on the beach and smoked some hookah....sorry mom and dad, but it's 100% legal I swear! We took it easy because we had to meet at 8am to go on a group trip to the Judean Hills and Ramla with all of the groups that are currently in Israel with Oranim.
Talk about a flashback to Birthright, we took a nostalgic bus ride to the Judean slopes (about halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem) for a Nature Walk. It was pretty funny to hear some of the other groups laughing at us Californians as we giggled through the entire hike. Hey! We hike in California...C'mon! I mean...some people do, I'm sure. After the hike, we got to tour Ramla, one of the cities where the Community Involvement participants live. All I can really say is...I'm SO happy I live in Tel Aviv!!! It's probably a wonderful place to live, but I think the big city life/beach is much more fitting for my personality and lifestyle. Still, it was nice to check it out, and I got some good pics as a result.
For Shabbat, we decided to do a potluck dinner. Best part about the dinner is how ironic it is that the boys were the ones who actually cooked entrees and the girls just brought salad, challah, wine, and dessert! I always tell my mom how weird I think it is that she cooked dinner for me every night, yet I absorbed zero culinary instincts from my childhood. Anyway, the food was awesome, and it was cool to all be together and do the prayers over the candles, wine, and bread. 100 Jew Points for us!
Saturday was a HUGE event in Tel Aviv! After spending my first day on the gorgeous beach, we went to Rabin Square for the opening ceremony of Tel Aviv's 100th Anniversary. It seemed like every single proud Tel Aviv resident came out to watch, because we were packed in like crazy. The security was pretty extreme, as to be expected, but it was well worth the minor annoyances of people pushing, shoving, and cursing in Hebrew. The Mayor of Tel Aviv made a speech, which Leetal helped translate for me...and my favorite part was him asking whether he should thank the people who've made Tel Aviv what it is today or if we should thank Tel Aviv for giving us what it has. The philharmonic performed, as well as many other Israeli singers who I'm not familiar with, and they put on a great performance with kids, dancers, rollerblading, etc in tribute to the Tel Aviv life from 1909 to the present! The fireworks were AMAZING...maybe even better than Disneyland, although these did not match the music perfectly like at the happiest place on earth. What a wonderful moment in history to be a part of!!!
All my love to everyone in the states!
Hebrew phrases for today's post:
Mamash: Really
Hayom: Today
Machar: Tomorrow
Et-mol: Yesterday
Atah Chamood: You're cute! (to a boy) ;)
Ani shoelet et Leetal, "Yesh yayin po?": I ask Leetal, "Is there wine here?"
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