i feel like this picture could be a postcard..if i sent it to people i would do what bubbe adele does with the postcards she sends us from cruises...ill circle myself being by the bathroom. haha.

Today I had to wake up at 7:30. I didnt get out of bed until 8:15. I was so tired. I could not function. We didnt go to the informational meeting (which was at 8:15) about berkat ha kohanim. Britty gave us some information about it while i was still in bed. I wore rachel's jean tight jean skirt with my cute anthro striped blue top and my converse. I ate the other half of my plain bagel...not the best breakfast but we dont have any food yet. We didnt leave until 8:30 and we thought we were going to take a bus, but we walked all the way to the kotel. I was not social at all, i really just couldnt function! When we got to the kotel area it was packed (we werent even inside yet) and i saw some people from section 2. I saw some of the people i met, and i saw nathan!!!! I called miki and we ended up finding each other. After a couple of minutes me, rach, britty, katie, and julia decided to go inside the zoo (aka kotel). IT WAS PACKED. i didnt bring my camera because rachel did and her brother just showed us pictures he took from an eagle view...ill post them. it was unbelievable. I forgot to mention that it was so hot out today. Since i was also cranky i was so annoyed with how pushy people were!

I really had to go pee so rach waited outside while i tried to get to a toilet. I was sweating and people were cutting and pushing. I was about to pass out (and im not one who usually gets this way). A woman noticed that my stall was going to be open before hers (she had already cut me) and i saw her inching towards my stall. But i put my foot out so i was guarding it...i was starting to become aggressive! I finally got to go pee and it was difficult to leave. I kept on saying sleecha as i tried to get out of the bathroom.

When i got out, a woman on the ground all of the sudden grabs my hand! I thought she wanted tzedakah, but in hebrew she asked for my hand for me to help her up..i understood her! I then found rach and we decided we were going to go. The Kohanim havent blessed us and on a loudspeaker people were praying. Rach and i were starting to walk towards the exit (on the completely other side of the bathroom). All of the sudden everyone is shushing each other and everyone is quiet and everyone stops moving. The Kohanim began to bless us over the loud speaker. It was really nice how everyone just stopped and rach and i saw parents blessing their children and covered them with their tallits. rach and i wished that our parents were there to bless us! It was also funny how many tourists there were. I was so happy that i wasnt on a tour, i was experiencing israel. I'm finally not a tourist!!!!

After the prayer everyone started to be loud and move and push each other, again. Rach and i pushed our way out of the area and sat down on the cold stone with some other YJers in the shade. We were parched (as aunt ronda would say!) Next to us a group had a sign and they were playing music and wanted us to dance. We danced for 2 seconds (the guys continued to dance) and we found out we were allowed to leave whenever we were ready because we didnt have another program until 1 and it was back in beit ar-al (where our apartments are). A group of us walked back. We took some breaks because it was so hot and ate some cookies that katie stole from this morning's gathering. Britty also took a pic of me with the really hot model for gap. haha-steph it will be on facebook soon. it is the same model that is outside of the gap by coney off of telegraph. We got far enough away from the kotel area, so we could catch a bus. THANK HASHEMMM. We got seats and the bus wasnt too crowded. yay! We walked back and when we got back rach and i stripped and were resting. We had to get up to make a shopping list and we then went back to sleep. It was such a great nap. I didnt want to get up at 1ish, but we had to.

I got a message from yoni buckman saying "***** (middle name), come downstairs." I roll out of bed (actually, i climb down) and i go into the sukkah where there are about 20 people. We then were given alcohol/wine for l'chaims (so funny). Then we started singing and dancing because we were celebrating the arrival of the Torahs!!! At first some of us were confused (there were hired musicians!) and we then danced into the beit midrash and it was so much fun! There was a lot of simcha crazy dancing. I love simcha dancinggggg. After about a good hour we were all exhausted and some of us helped boaz get food and drinks into the sukkah. There was so much food! We all ate and shmoozed for awhile. Katie stole some cake for our apartment and we took left over hummus...hehe. We then played some cards, this weird british game where you just have to catch on to the rules...i lost. We then came back to our apartment and rachel's brother came over and we went food shopping.

Food shopping was kind of fun! I wasnt too helpful, but im improving. James tagged along with us and he was pretty entertaining. When we were helping the guy put our groceries into bags, i dropped my phone and it fell and COMPLETELY fell apart. James thought it fosh was broken, but the guy putting groceries into bags helped me and ended up fixing it. I think he thought it was his fault, i wanted to let him know that it wasnt, but i think he was arabic and didnt know hebrew. I also tried hugging him..haha that didnt really work out.

When we got back (after rach and i took back the shopping cart) i wanted dinner and no one started anything so i made people tell me what they want. We ended up having salad and noodles with tomato sauce. I cut up veggies! After dinner i wanted an apple with chocolate so i CUT up the apple into small slices so i could dip it into the chocolate! We bought a big thing of chocolate spread (not nutela) and people do not really like it. I dont love it but since we will need to eat it...(the YJ model) "Fcuk it!"(in a british accent). Ill sacrifice myself for the group and eat it... I then showered, read, and hung out for a little. People ended up going to a club tonight but we have to wake up early tomorrow because we are going to Cesaria. I also am exhausted and need to sleep. We are going to be snorkeling to get snails to make techeilet (the blue/turquoise strings on tzitzit)