Party Party Party rocking everywhere

What a whirlwind! So Tuesday we had school like normal except classes were canceled in the evening because Tuesday began Yom HaZicharon (Remembrance day). That evening I went down to the Kotel (Western Wall) for the opening ceremony of Yom HaZicharon. The ceremony completely shut down the wall, you couldn't get into the sections in front of the wall. The ceremony was held completely in Hebrew, it began with the sounding of the siren, then the soldiers did there thing, and then Shimon Peres spoke. He made a very beautiful and sentimental speech and I understood almost all of it. Then there was the sad part of the ceremony with the saying of prayers and lastly, the Kaddish, so many people in the crowd were crying, you could really feel that everyone in this country knew how much it meant and how much costs to be living in Israel. The next morning, Wednesday, a few friends and I headed down to Kikar Zion (a main square downtown) to stand and watch all the people and cars stop when the siren was sounded. It was amazing to watch, like a scene out of a movie where someone pressed the pause button. All of the people were just frozen on Ben Yehuda street and the buses were frozen on Yafo, you couldn't believe this sight. There were camera men and photographers everywhere taking shots of the people's stoic faces and them standing at attention like there were in the army. After the siren, life went back to normal. I spent Wednesday just chilling in my room doing homework, we didn't have school due to the national holiday. Then it became night, Wednesday night marked the beginning of Yom Ha'Atzmaut (Independence day). We went down to Kikar Zion and it was PACKED full of people, the streets around it had been shit down and a stage was placed in the street and bands were playing and there were fireworks and a lazer light show. The crowd was so large and crazy that it was like a mosh pit, no one could move. So instead of that we went and got some waffles from our favorite waffle place Babette's. Of course, I ran into my parents outside Babette's after they had been trampled by the crazy crowd as well.Then we went over to Safra Square, where there was Israeli folk songs and Israeli dancing. That was so much fun, I spent almost 3 hours there dancing with friends and running into almost everyone I knew in Jerusalem. Then I came home to go to bed. The next morning,g Thursday, a bunch of us got together to go to the beach in Tel Aviv to have a picnic and see the Air and Water show. We felt like such Israelis going to the beach on Yom Ha'Atzmaut, it is what most people do on this holiday weekend. The air show was pretty cool with all the crazy planes doing crazy tricks and at the end of the show a bunch of paratroopers came down for a landing on the beach, unfortunately one paratrooper fell on and hurt some people in the crowd. After the show, we stayed on the beach and hung out, eventually right before we left, these crazy black guys from the US came over to and starting hitting on all the girls and speaking very very inappropriately, they would not leave us alone and then were disgusting so then we just left the beach. When I got back to Jerusalem, I went out for a final dinner with my parents in Israel. We had great food and I was so tired after dinner that I fell asleep in their apartment. The next morning, I did all the chores I needed to get done, I went to the grocery store, I did my laundry, I cleaned my room, and I even did more homework. I was preparing for Jason to come visit (he arrives Monday at 1:20 in the afternoon). Then Friday night , my friend Noam (an Israeli who worked at OSRUI a few summers with me) picked me up and we went to Herzeliya for another friends of our's 21st birthday. We started out by trying to have a party on the beach but that didn't work out so well so then we headed back to another one of our friend's houses (Ofir, was both a camper and counselor at OSRUI) in Hezeliya. He had a gorgeous house with a huge backyard, a pool, and a movie theater in the basement. The party was really fun and I crashed at Ofir's place. Saturday morning we slept in late, made a really nice lunch and just hung out at his house. Then a came back to J'lem in the afternoon to see my parents off before they retuned to Illinois. Last night, I had some girlfriends over to play Dutch Blitz, we had a good time. Now today was just a normal day at school, but tomorrow Jason is going to be here! I can't wait I am so exited to see him after 4 months of being apart.

So that my updates, I'll write back after Jason leaves.

XOXO