Yafo! Yofi!

Yesterday I went on my first planned field trip- to Tel Aviv and Yafo (Jaffa, for you non-hebrew speaking ones). It really turned into an all Yafo tour, but that was fine too. The picture to the right is of the Tel Aviv shoreline from the highest point in Yafo.



















This is a really pretty monastery in Yafo. It supposedly marks the place and time when Christianity officially separated from Judaism. The story goes that St. Peter had a vision while visiting Yafo in which God told him not to follow the laws of Kashrut (kosher laws) and this marks the separation of Christians from Jews, because before that Christians followed the same laws as Jews.


Both of these pictures are from the same sculpture on the highest point in Yafo. The sculpture depicts 3 big events in Jewish Biblical history (I only have 2 of them here). On the left is the conquering of Jerusalem, maybe? I don't remember the story but it has to do with Jews surrounding a city and blowing shofars and God helping them conquer the city. To the right is Abraham's attempted sacrifice of his son, Isaac.
















One of my favorite things about Yafo was the Wishing Bridge. You were supposed to find your astrological sign on the bridge, put your hands on it, close your eyes, face the sea, and make your wish, and it would definitely come true. Pretty exciting. I made the same wish as I usually make at 11:11- figuring this could be my ultimate wish that would definitely come true, or something.






(also, side note: military time makes me very sad because I can only catch 11:11 once a day and I'm always in class)

I think my very favorite part of the trip, however, was being able to capture
a beautiful sunset over the ocean.
Homesickness this week has been tough, but after some quality alone time and a good amount of sleep today, everything seems so much better.

I also have my first essay due tomorrow and my first test tomorrow as well. I find myself relieved that I'm not getting any Carleton credit for the Ulpan, because that means I can just try my best, take some risks, and not worry about acing every test and every paper. Hebrew Update: I'm starting to crave talking in Hebrew and get disappointed when people talk to me in English once they realize I'm American. Also, today we did an hour long campus tour entirely in Hebrew, and it didn't even phase me. This is so cool!

Tomorrow is our last day of class for the week, and we plan on being social tomorrow night and stopping by the bar on campus- exciting! Also, Kira's cousin is going to show us around the new part of Jerusalem to tell us what's hot and what's not, and we want to go into the old city on friday morning before shabbat starts.

As always, I miss you! I would love to hear about what's going on in your lives!