Erev Tov!

Shalom! Nights like tonight are when I enjoy blogging the most, it is the most productive way to put off homework. The last couple if days have been a lot of fun. Last Friday our professor for our Jewish class (who is a local, orthodox Jew) took a small group of us to an orthodox synagogue where we participated in their normal, daily service and we also welcomed the Shabbat (the Sabbath) because the next day in the Jewish culture always starts at sunset. Of course the whole thing was in Hebrew but we had little pamphlets that had some of the songs written out so we tried to sing a long a little. There was a nice lady sitting next to my friend and I and she saw us struggling so she'd keep pointing out where we were but unfortunately it didn't help much because most of the songs were in Hebrew script. I'm sure she thought we were idiots. But I must of been doing something right because one lady turned around, put her hand on my knee and said; "Welcome back!", like I belonged there, I guess she thought I was someone else!

Yesterday we went to Elat for our free day! Elat is a city 4 hours away on the coast of the Red Sea and you can see Jordanian flag on the other side. It's a big resort city and their famous for a big coral reef with great snorkeling. So we spent the day on the beach and went snorkeling which was a lot of fun! The Red Sea certainly isn't red. It's the bluest water I think I have ever seen! It's beautiful! I love the time I've been able to spend at the beach here! It makes my summer feel endless! And unlike my fall semester in Provo last year, I'm managing to keep from turning pasty white!

Today we went through the Holocaust museum. That was a really neat experience but so terribly disturbing. The pictures, documentaries and displays were so graphic and depressing. Everyone was kind of in a daze after spending over 4 hours there. It's just impossible to comprehend everything that happened during the Holocaust and it really does make you lose a lot of confidence in the human race. It's really sickening. The museum did such a good job at displaying everything. And Ophir (our Jewish professor) led us through it and he had a lot of interesting things to say about the Israeli perspective on the Holocaust. That was interesting because that is a side I've never been exposed to. Here in Jerusalem, almost everyone has a close relative that was a victim in the Holocaust. I learned so much.

I mustn't forget; I had a scary snake encounter on Saturday. We were on our way to the garden tomb and this kid on the street had a snake he was holding. And so I did my best to walk around him but before I knew it he stuck the snake in front of my face and it leaped toward me and almost grazed my face! It completely freaked me out! I didn't think that was a very pleasant way to introduce me to his pet snake. Needless to say, I walked home on the opposite side of the street.

As always, there are dozens of other things I could spend time reporting on but I suppose I have put off homework long enough...