"You'll Peck Your Eye Out!"

Spot the monkey!

 This week has been totes cray.  It's like I just posted a blog and now it's already Saturday night!  I was just sitting on a fencepost chewing my bubblegum and, suddenly, out of nowhere (thanks for the "friendly" reminder, a certain family member who gave birth to me)  realized that my blog has been feeling so very lonely.  I know I've said it a million times, but this place is the best.  Yet, somehow it sucks up all the hours.  I don't really know if calling this place "The Twilight Zone" applies because it was before my time....Wait, what are "The Beatles?"  Omg, you used to have to turn dials on the T.V.?  Gag me with a spoon, you're like so totally ancient!" And, yes, I do get all of my insults from the movie Clueless.  Oh, you prefer a more sophisticated sense of humor?  I fart in your general direction love a good, dry wit.

On Sunday, we visited Yad Veshem.  Yad Veshem is a memorial to the Holocaust, and includes the Israeli Holocaust Museum, the Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations, and many monuments to the victims.  The Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations is a path lined with trees planted for non-Jews that helped Jews in the Holocaust.  A girl here at the JC had a relative who helped save Jews in the Holocaust, and she found her relative's tree planted in Yad Veshem.  Yad Veshem is a beautiful place.  Our teacher told us that the Israeli Holocaust Museum focuses on the "heroes" of the Holocaust.  It celebrates resistance fighters but downplays the struggles of an average concentration camp member.  I definitely noticed that in the museum.  This museum was different than ones I'd visited in the United States.  It was more informative and seemed less focused on making you cry.  Granted, it was still a tough experience.  But, it did not focus on the camps like American Holocaust Museums.  That night after Yad Veshem we watched Schindler's List so it was a very sobering day all around.

Trees planted for non-Jewish heroes

 Monday we got our free day (we normally have them on Sundays.).  Naturally, we went to a place found nowhere else in the U.S.- the zoo!  This zoo was so much better than any one I'd ever been to before.  The animals weren't in cages- lions cuddled with lambs and I got to ride a tiger and obviously there was a zoo train.  Also, I hypnotized a rooster.  I actually just did a crazy run and chased it around but it alluded me and then hypnotized ME instead (and almost pecked my eye out in the process).  Roosters are tricky little devils!  If I have learned anything new here, it's that if you play with a rooster, you will get burned pecked.  Natural order of things, man.  Also, the roosters here crow (cockadoodle? not sure of the verbage there) at 2 P.M. so clearly there's something in Jerusalem's water that makes them the most annoying animals ever.  The zoo was seriously the best thing ever.  If you think you're too old for a zoo, think again!  This Biblical Zoo has animals that appear in the Bible along with animals that are now extinct in the Holy Land.  We even saw a couple getting married there- or at least the bride had her dress on.  Maybe the couple had their first date there?  It would be more romantic if it wasn't mating season and I hadn't seen some monkeys getting a little too close for comfort.  Also, zoos smell like animals.  Shocker, right? I guess if you're into that sort of thing...eau de bird poop, anyone?   

Spirit animals

The rest of the week is a blur... blah, blah, class, blah, blah, Stick It (the movie), blah, blah, nap on the patio (shh don't tell, no mattresses allowed outside the room.  but oh it was a glorious 2 hours) blah blah blah 

Oh, we had our own Seder!  I didn't take many pics, but here's one.  Take it or leave it.

Flash forward to ICE CREAM FRIDAY!! The Oasis (our cafeteria. It has some wonderful dishes, but potatoes and rice every day starts to lose its tan, mushy luster) becomes a warzone.  Things get real on Friday nights.  It hits the fan, if you know that I mean.  For those kids who don't know, don't ask. (talk to your aunt Megan, little Gwyn.)  This past Friday they put Snickers and chocolate ice cream in the same bowl!  Ooh. heaven is a place on earth...I would love to have an ice cream eating contest here but you don't just go around taking 30 bowls of chocolate ice cream.  Actually, what do I care? "I did NOT come here to make friends!"     

Friday night was also Israeli dancing! This guy named Boaz (man in pharoah costume below) taught us some great dances.  We were a little better at them than the Arab dancing, but that's nothing to be proud of.  White + Mormon = all we know how to do is mosh to "Everytime We Touch."  Woah, no need to get defensive, people! I love that song, too.  It's just when I try to dance it's like, "Where do my hands go?" "How do I make my face look normal and not like I'm concentrating really hard?" Hint: don't stick your tongue out.  "Oh, they have refreshments?"  "Good, I was getting worried that I wouldn't be able to awkwardly hover around a plate of off-brand Oreos for 20 minutes." I realize this story sounds oddly realistic, but I can tell you that the food at our Purim party was top notch (more on that later).     

Way more trippy than it seems

I just got back from an aforementioned Purim dance party so you could say I'm pretty happy.  Line dances and lots of Israeli dances that we did not know how to do.  I kept turning the wrong way and bumping into the old ladies who shot me dirty looks.  At least I knew one dance the Macarena! The one dance I knew how to do and the old ladies can still do it.  What is happening to the world? 

We had limited resources for the whole "costume" part, okay??

BO-AZ

Earlier today I went to the Garden of Gethsemene (really more a representation of what it looked it than the actual thing) for the first time.  A little anticlimactic, but at least I got pictures to prove I went!  "Pics or it didn't happen" isn't normally a phrase I use, but maybe I'm turning over a new leaf! Blog posts 3 times a week?  Getting 9 hours of sleep?  Hey, it could happen!  But don't hold your breath or anything...I'm off to Tel Aviv tomorrow and then celebrating Purim some more because it's just like Halloween, people!  My chance to be my normal weird self and it's acceptable.  Pretending to lick my paw hand (I don't think I'm a cat, I swear. I KNOW I'm a cat.  And if you don't appreciate the fact that I'm a cat lover and mention them in every blog post, you can leave.  Just kidding!  I didn't really mean it! I need all the followers I can get!)