Well hello there! It's been a pretty normal week... well I guess as normal as things can be. I'll fill you in on a few sweet things that have happened this week.
Monday we got to go on my favorite field trip thus far (yes, even more than Egypt) to the Yad Vashem, the Israeli memorial to the Holocaust. The Italian Prime Minister was supposed to come thru later that day, so it was PACKED. Consequently, we kinda got a bit rushed through. Still, it was an amazingly powerful experience. One thing that I really liked was that, as opposed to other memorials, this one was filled with far more hope. It acknowledged the atrocity, paid homage to it, but at the end I had a renewed faith in humanity. One thing that particularly touched me was the children's memorial. In the Holocaust, 1.5 of the 6 million Jews killed were children. The memorial was a winding path through a dark room with candles in front of walls of mirrors, giving the impression of an endless room lit by millions of candles. I will DEFINITELY be going back for a more extensive visit. That night a large group of us went to a concert of the Israeli philharmonic orchaestra. The highlight was the last number, lasting 45 minutes and featuring a young woman on the violin. It was AMAZING!!!
Otherwise, the rest of this week has been busy busy busy with school. I turned in a paper yesterday, took a midterm today, and I'm now preparing for another midterm next week. The weather has also gotten more shifty... today it can't decide if it wants to be sunny or hail. Still, it's beautiful Jerusalem and you can't complain.
Tonight we say goodbye to the Allen's, a service couple who've been here the past 18 months. I've only known them for a month, but they're already some of my favorite people ever!!! We'll miss them a ton. (They know Phil & Heidi... crazy, eh?)
Hmmm... well I guess that's it. Short & sweet for today. I posted lots and lots of pictures on Facebook, so check 'em out! Love ya!!!
I felt that way about the Yad Vashem too. I was worried that it would be too depressing but it really wasn't. The night we went, the Prime Minister Netinyahu was speaking. There was massive people there with security checks and they made us take a picture of ourselves with our cameras before they would let us in, but it was a cool experience even though we couldn't understand his speech.
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