Sunday, July 27

Thursday night was a lot of fun. We went to a beach and got to jump in the waves. Friday was interesting. We went to Tel Aviv to learn about Zionism and to realize that Tel Aviv today is not what the Zionists envisioned it to be. It was still a lot of fun though. We had really good pizza for lunch and I ate four slices. I've never felt so fat. After some free time shopping in the market area, I met up with the Yulevich family who I knew from camp. They picked me up in Tel Aviv and brought me to spend the night at their house in Kfar Yona, about 25 min north of Tel Aviv, near Netanya. That night, we went to a small Shabbat service at camp Kimama, an Israeli summer camp with kids from all around the world. Keren(the mother of the family) has a sister, Hila who works there as a counselor who I also knew from Eisner (my old camp). We picked up Hila and went back to Keren's house for dinner. At her house, we met her parents, brother, and nephew. Along with me and Keren and Uri's 3 kids, there were 11 people for dinner. It was very nice to sit down and eat dinner with an Israeli family. I am starting to understand more and more Hebrew. They all speak English although some more than others. We worked together and were able to communicate just fine with each other. The last time I saw the Yuleviches, they had 2 kids, Sagi and Yuval. Sagi is now 8, Yuval 6, and they had a new baby in February, Rotem. They made me feel like family when I stayed with them. On Saturday, I went with Keren, Uri and the kids to a beach in Netanya, where the waves were a lot of fun. I was able to go boogie boarding which was a lot of fun. We also built some sand castles. After the beach, we went to a pool on a kibbutz near their house. After the pool, we went back to their house and I had a sad goodbye with the children. They brought me back to Tzuba before continuing on to see family in Jerusalem. After I returned to Tzuba, we had Havdallah and then got ready for the Hadag Nachash concert. Hadag Nachash is one of the hottest if not the hottest music groups in Israel, definitely the best hip hop music. We went to a small club in Jerusalem and got to see them play. They are one of my favorite music groups even compared to American music. I listen to them all the time at home and being able to see them in concert was an experience I will never forget. We returned to Tzuba around 1:15 AM and immediately went to bed. This morning, we woke up and had classes as usual. After lunch, we went into Jerusalem to visit a jail used during the time of the British Mandate. It was interesting to see the way that Jews and Arabs had to live during the mandate. After this, we went to have dinner and free time at Emek Refaim, a shopping street downtown Jerusalem.
thats all for now

Ben