The weekend of April 15 - 20th (extra long for two Israeli holidays) was my favorite weekend of the semester, so far. My violin lessons on Thursday evenings always put me in a good mood; although it's only once a week, I love playing my violin for an hour. Svetlana, my teacher, is an excellent violinist and offers good advice along with the musical company that I missed my first month or so here. After the lesson, I met up with some friends and took the bus into Tel Aviv. Caleb knew of a restaurant hidden in an alley on Allenby, and it ended up being delicious. Afterwards we walked to Florentine and hung out at a bar there. On Friday, I went to a crafts fair on Nahalat Benyamin and sat at the beach with Lauren and Becca. For Shabbat, I went to a Ramah Poconos dinner in Ramat Aviv.
On Saturday, Lauren, Sara, Dan and I went to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. There was a special Degas sculpture exhibition, and in addition to that I enjoyed the paintings in the permanent collection by Miró, Picasso, and Monet. The four of us went on a long walk afterwards without forgetting to stop at Iceberg for the best ice cream in Tel Aviv. As we were walking down Rothschild, we spotted a poster for a roof party. It had just started, and was taking place in Florentine. It was a bit of a hike from where we were, but we decided to be spontaneous (can you decide to be spontaneous?) and make the trek. We soon found ourselves in the middle of Florentine on a roof with cool indie/techno music and a bunch of hipsters. Everyone there was smiling, as if they had no worries in the world. We let ourselves go and soaked up the beautiful view of the entire city (including the ocean in the distance) and danced the afternoon away. We made it to the beach for sunset, and went to Neve Tzedek for a delish sushi dinner.
The next morning, the four of us took a bus to Jerusalem in time for Yom Hazikaron. Dan and I first went to the Hava, the campus where we stayed on Ramah Seminar a few summers ago. Walking around there brought back so many memories and it felt like we were living there only a few months before (it's already been almost four years!) Matt Gordon was waiting for us at Hebrew U, so we put down our things and went to the Kotel with him and his friends for a Yom HaZikaron ceremony. We heard Shimon Peres speak, and the Hatikva was very powerful that night. Back at the dorms, it was fun to hang out with Matt's friends and enjoy a good old game of beer pong.
The next morning, the four of us went to Mount Hertzl for another ceremony. There, we heard Bebe Netanyahu speak. I found his Hebrew much easier to understand than the other speakers we heard previously, although listening to speeches in Hebrew always makes me want to study more and speak Hebrew better than I do now. It was crowded and very warm, and heart-wrenching to see the young ages on most of the graves. We took the bus back to Jerusalem, rode my bike back to my apartment, and took a nap in preparation for that evening's festivities.
A few hours later, I met my friends at Kikar Rabin for the inauguration of Yom Haatzmaut. Already the mood was drastically different, and we enjoyed watching Israeli dancing and singing accompanied by fireworks in the square. We then walked to Florentine where a huge street party was taking place. It felt like there were millions of people there--sweaty, hitting each other on the head with blow up hammers, spraying with fake snow, and dancing to drums and music blasting from windows. We joined in for many hours, and then went to refuel at Benedicts, the famous Israeli breakfast restaurant open 24/7, at 4am. After breakfast (or a mid-night snack?) half of our friends went home, but our foursome stuck it out and went to the beach to see the sunrise. We couldn't believe how many people were still around at 6 and 7 in the morning! The sea was as beautiful as ever, and it was a satisfying end to an amazing weekend.
On Saturday, Lauren, Sara, Dan and I went to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. There was a special Degas sculpture exhibition, and in addition to that I enjoyed the paintings in the permanent collection by Miró, Picasso, and Monet. The four of us went on a long walk afterwards without forgetting to stop at Iceberg for the best ice cream in Tel Aviv. As we were walking down Rothschild, we spotted a poster for a roof party. It had just started, and was taking place in Florentine. It was a bit of a hike from where we were, but we decided to be spontaneous (can you decide to be spontaneous?) and make the trek. We soon found ourselves in the middle of Florentine on a roof with cool indie/techno music and a bunch of hipsters. Everyone there was smiling, as if they had no worries in the world. We let ourselves go and soaked up the beautiful view of the entire city (including the ocean in the distance) and danced the afternoon away. We made it to the beach for sunset, and went to Neve Tzedek for a delish sushi dinner.
The next morning, the four of us took a bus to Jerusalem in time for Yom Hazikaron. Dan and I first went to the Hava, the campus where we stayed on Ramah Seminar a few summers ago. Walking around there brought back so many memories and it felt like we were living there only a few months before (it's already been almost four years!) Matt Gordon was waiting for us at Hebrew U, so we put down our things and went to the Kotel with him and his friends for a Yom HaZikaron ceremony. We heard Shimon Peres speak, and the Hatikva was very powerful that night. Back at the dorms, it was fun to hang out with Matt's friends and enjoy a good old game of beer pong.
The next morning, the four of us went to Mount Hertzl for another ceremony. There, we heard Bebe Netanyahu speak. I found his Hebrew much easier to understand than the other speakers we heard previously, although listening to speeches in Hebrew always makes me want to study more and speak Hebrew better than I do now. It was crowded and very warm, and heart-wrenching to see the young ages on most of the graves. We took the bus back to Jerusalem, rode my bike back to my apartment, and took a nap in preparation for that evening's festivities.
A few hours later, I met my friends at Kikar Rabin for the inauguration of Yom Haatzmaut. Already the mood was drastically different, and we enjoyed watching Israeli dancing and singing accompanied by fireworks in the square. We then walked to Florentine where a huge street party was taking place. It felt like there were millions of people there--sweaty, hitting each other on the head with blow up hammers, spraying with fake snow, and dancing to drums and music blasting from windows. We joined in for many hours, and then went to refuel at Benedicts, the famous Israeli breakfast restaurant open 24/7, at 4am. After breakfast (or a mid-night snack?) half of our friends went home, but our foursome stuck it out and went to the beach to see the sunrise. We couldn't believe how many people were still around at 6 and 7 in the morning! The sea was as beautiful as ever, and it was a satisfying end to an amazing weekend.
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