Western Wall and Ben Yehuda Street

Stacy, Rebecca, Alexa and Natalie

Alexa and Emily

Alexa and Josia

Alexa and Leah

This morning we had a very nice Shabbat service before relaxing for the day and taking a tour of Kibbutz Tzuba, where I will be living for the next four months.

After this, we went into Jerusalem and took a nice walk to the Western Wall. The Western Wall (or the Kotel) is the wall protecting one of the outside walls of the 2nd Temple. When we got there, we split men from women and boys from girls. At first we were not allowed to take pictures because it was still Shabbat. About 15 minutes later, all the women stood on chairs to watch the Havdalah service on the mens side. After the service was over, we were allowed to take photographs.

We soon left the Kotel and drove to Hebrew Union College for the Debbie Friedman Memorial Service. The service consisted of an abundance of Debbie's songs along with readings from some of her friends.


We next walked to Ben Yehuda street! We each got 25 shekels for dinner. That is about $7. I got half a schwarma pita sandwich and a Fanta. Israel is where I had my first Fanta when I was 11. Then a big group of us went and got ice cream from Max Brenners and just walked around the street. It's a really cool street. It was a lot of fun and I met a lot of new people in our group and bonded with them. We then returned to Kibbutz Tzuba to celebrate Havdalah. It was a nice service.

Schwarma!

Then we went to bed to get ready for school. Today was full day of school. It went pretty well. Hebrew class went really well. I learned 9 letters, 3 questions, and 4 sentences. All my classes are great except math is very difficult. But luckily Noa (one of the madrachim) took me to her room and helped me with my homework and told me to call her anytime. Now I'm down in the Belmont just hanging out! Another full day of school tomorrow...

Alexa and Emily with Schwarma and Fanta!