ah i am so behind on my blog! and i have been doing so much. ah!

TUESDAY:

I had to wake up kind of early in order to meet a madrich on a street corner. After waiting for people, we finally left and took a bus to tel aviv. We went to the tel aviv kabbalah center where we learned a bit about kabbalaism. I didnt really like what the woman said and it kind of felt superficial and fake--not kabbalaism, but the place and the people working there. It kind of reminds me of some yoga places where they preach stuff about not speaking badly about people and the people that go there are the biggest gossipers. They gave us water and candy though which made some of us pretty content and happy! haha. One thing i learned was that it wasnt a Jewish thing and it came before the Torah. Kabbalism is spiritual and started with Abraham.

After that interesting experience (it kind of felt cult like), some of us walked to the huge mall and after getting a little lost found somewhere to eat. Rach and I split a sandwich and a salad. It was pretty good-the sandwich was better. Then after walking around to find an exit we walk through the shuk and through the artists shuk. There were a lot of birthright groups there and some of them were from michigan!! Some of them had already graduated college and i could only talk to them for a couple of seconds. It was so weird when i was there because i remember being there on the teen mission, but not realizing that was where I was. I am trying to pay more attention to my surroundings. Then we walked around and after asking people a group of us found the area where we were supposed to meet up with everyone else. We sat right by Independence Hall (not aware of it at the time) and waited there for like an hour. After some more waiting we go into the Migdal Shalom building. This building is where the first school in tel aviv used to be. In honor of it, there is a mosaic that i think was created by an 11 year old. Or maybe it was a man who had moved there when he was 11 (during the time when tel aviv was being built). Like other areas in Israel, it was just desert, but unlike other places, this area was made to be a suburban, cosmopolitan, wealthy area. The building was then built there thinking it would be the center of the city. We know this because they built it in a a way to allow a train to pass through it. That never happened though because it isnt the center of the city. Also, until 2000 (i think) it was the tallest building in middle east.

After grabbing ice cream on the way out, we went to Independence Hall. The reason why Israel was declared a state in tel aviv and not jerusalem is because at the time jerusalem was under siege. After this I went with some people to go to fro-yo. I didnt get, just a sample, it was pretty good though. Then we went back to the apartment and I made a quick dinner, grilled cheese, and after showering i went to girls night. We played different games and it was a really fun night...we told funny stories, etc. After that me and some others hung out with the sofiem and then came back to the apartment and just hung out there.