When they arrived, it was a gorgeous day, and we walked along the beach to Yaffo and had lunch at a rooftop place that Mitch spotted. (Angel's pic)
Two blondes on the beach!
The next day we headed to Jerusalem, here we are with a mosaic-y thing I like near the city hall that shows the centrality of Jerusalem...
Walking through the Old City with Mitch is great, not only because he's one of my favorite people, but also because he can read Latin, so I learned a lot and now I know what a lot of signs are saying that I didn't before...
Snuggling near the Kotel
Angel and Mitch at the wall!
Later that night Deeds joined us, and we went through the Western Wall Tunnels. I'd never been on the tour before, and I learned a lot. It was also a bit emotional for me. My favorite part was when the guide talked about Jerusalem as a city that connects, specifically it connects Jews through the centuries. It's pretty amazing to think of my ancestors building this temple and traveling here to worship, and the way Jews were scattered again and again, and the way we've collected ourselves here again today, and here I am. It's a big circle.
Deeds took us up to Mount Scopus to see the view of the city at night, and Angel takes creative photos :)
The next day we headed to Haifa! They're so cute at the top of the Bahai Gardens.
Girls <3
All three of us!
And the next day, Rivka took us to the Beit Shearim, a Necropolis where tons and tons of Jews were entombed in this cave (and where they used to live, haha). It was really cool! Here we are headed into the caves. (Angel's pic)
The interior... rooms and rooms of tombs! I also learned that sarcophagus means "flesh eater" which is kind of amazing.
There was some pretty great detailing on some of the coffins.
We decided to climb into one <3. Maybe we're not very reverent, but we are adorable!
I loved the top inscription, and the bottom one made me laugh. Good luck in your resurrection!
Then we hiked Arbel mountain in the Galilee, and saw an amazing view!
There is an Ottoman fortress built into the side of the mountain.
It was really cool.
We had to climb a bit of the cliff face. Geva warned me about this but I thought he was joking until we got to a vertical part with hand grips. We made it!
Cute! (Mitch's pic)
Then we went to the church near the Sea of Galilee that enshrines the place where Jesus supposedly multiplied the fish and the bread. I enjoyed this sign... "Please, throw NO bread and NO coins into the fishpond!"
Rivka in the church
Then we went to the church that is on Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus supposedly gave the sermon on the mound. It was gorgeous! There was a lovely garden around and people were singing and the weather was perfect.
Jesus instructed us to be quiet inside.
Rivka, Me, and Geva outside the church <3
Then we had coffee in a kibbutz on the shore, it was so lovely
For New Year's Eve, my roomies and I threw a little party! There were many kisses!
So many kisses!
And general merriment
And more kisses
And general merriment
All of the people currently residing in "HaDira" ("The Apartment")
My favorite part of the party was probably when Sam put on this song
and everybody DANCED! And danced and danced, until we all counted down to 2015 and kissed. Happy New Year Israel, Happy New Year, World!
And today, Rivka and Geva took me along with them to Tal and Ayelet's wedding! I'd met them at a Shabbat dinner when I first arrived in August. It was my first Jewish wedding! It was so sweet of them to invite me along.
I peeked in and saw Tal signing the Ketuba (marriage contract). It talks about his obligations towards his wife and how much he has to pay her if he divorces her, haha.
It was a beautiful ceremony under the chuppa. They walked in to this cute song:
Tal placing the ring!
Showing off the ketubah
Tal drinking the wine
And giving some to Ayelet
I drank some of the wine after... supposedly it's good luck for single ladies :).
Then we danced!
And drank, and danced <3
Love, love love <3 <3
At one point, I was doing shots with the groom, and his was definitely poured larger than mine, and he tried to swap them.
Ariane: Hey! I'm smaller than you!
Tal: I'm.... the groom. So... I get to choose.
Ariane: Okay, fair.
Tal: And I'm... drunker than you.
Ariane: Fair again.
Tal: Ayelet... she's my WIFE! Hello WIFE!
Ayelet: Hello!
Tal: That's the first time I said that.
Ayelet: And you're my owner. Isn't that horrible, Ariane? That word?
Ariane: It's pretty funny.
Tal: Yeah... Sorry. I love you, but I own you.
But I don't really think it's so bad. It's like Matat's Dad quoted the Chazal... "when you find a partner, you find an owner. It doesn't matter if you're a boy or a girl, when you find a partner, you find an owner."
<3
Weddings make me feel a lot less cynical for a while. I especially like observing all the generations at weddings. You have the grandparents and the parents, and you have the people your age who've already married and maybe have little babies, and you have the people your age in relationships, maybe right on the cusp of this themselves, and you have the people your age who are single, and you have the younger people and you have the tiny people. It's like seeing a cross section of a human life, the different places we move through. We all lead unique lives, but on the other hand, we all move through basically the same seasons. And I like weddings because they express a kind of optimism about the future. Divorce rates, rockets falling, ISIS, cancer, the terrible decline in quality of American pop music, the changing demographics of the Israeli population... well, people are still vowing loyalty and faithfulness and love as they embark on lives together, and that's really nice. There's got to be some kind of future for these people to enter together. At least I feel that at weddings.
And their friends had us over for Shabbat dinner, which was delicious and lovely.
This is such a beautiful country and I feel like part of an enormous ongoing story here. I feel like waxing poetic, but it's almost 2 AM so I should probably go to bed. But someday soon I'll write more about this. I love you, Israel <3. Thank you to my Israeli friends for helping me make it home, and thank you Mitch and Angel for bringing my homes closer together <3
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