Yam V'Shemesh

"Yam V'Shemesh" translates to "Sea and Sun", which is exactly what my friends and I enjoyed last weekend during our trip to Tel Aviv.  It was such a nice change from the previous week which consisted of me laying in bed with strep/scarlet fever while it rained almost every single day.  When we arrived at the hostel in Tel Aviv, we ran into some friends from Australia that we had met a few weeks before at our friend's hostel in Jerusalem.  It still boggles my mind that we ended up staying at the same hostel as them in Tel Aviv and we spent the whole weekend together.  Our friendship with the Aussie's is proof of how hostels have the ability to bring people together from all around the world.  We also met a British musician who kindly shared his guitar with us, so naturally we spent the whole weekend making music together and meeting a lot of new people.  My friends and I walked all over Tel Aviv, from restaurants to an art fair, to a street party, to the beach, and back to the hostel.  In one afternoon we walked, what felt like, the ENTIRE perimeter of the city.. although that is a bit of an exaggeration.  It was really fun to walk and explore the city and then come back to the hostel and make music with our new friends. It was a wonderful, relaxing, and much needed weekend!

Beach in Tel Aviv-  There were some interesting people on the beach, but we seemed to attract a lot of attention while sitting on the beach and singing/playing guitar.  

 Yesterday, I went to the Old City to pick up my Hadaya necklace.  On the way to Hadaya, my friends and I passed the store that we had purchased scarves from a few weeks before, and Amen (the son of the store owner) remembered us and embraced us with hugs.  Of course we went into the store and made about an hour long pit stop on the way to Hadaya because there are so many beautiful scarves and pieces of jewelry.  It's a family owned store, so Amen's brother makes a lot of the jewelry.  My friends and I decided that this store is our favorite in the Old City and we plan to buy ALL of our gifts for our family and friends there.  After we finished shopping, a few of us went down to the Kotel to pray.  I've decided that I will visit the Kotel as many times as I want throughout the next 5 months, but I will only go up to it and pray when I really feel that I need to.  I don't want to forget how important and special it is to me, especially since I have the ability to go there whenever I want over the next 5 months.  As soon as I turned around from walking back from the Kotel, I heard/saw a group of soldiers standing in front of the Israel flag singing "Hatikvah".  As soon as "Hatikvah" ended, the call to prayer immediately began and it echoed all around me.  I got chills and had another "Wow, this is the coolest country ever!" moment.  All in all, things are going back to the way they were before I was sick and I am so thankful.  L'hitraot for now!