McCall's Travels ב ירושלים (in Jerusalem)

Goodness it’s nearly impossible to find a spare second to write about this trip, so this is a little late. As we speak I’m writing this in religion class. Whoops sorry ‘bout it.

So last weekend was such a G O O D T I M E.

Starting last Thursday night, we continued our week long tradition of have a Thursday night dance party. You know that’s my jam. It was the grand opening of the “Shekel Shack,” our little snack stand in the Jeru Center. We started the night off with some outrageous karaoke numbers. Seriously, hilarious. And as expected, a dance party followed. Boy, do we go hard for a bunch of Mormons living in Jerusalem. Everyone here, they are my kind of people.

Friday took a bit of a different route and was an incredibly sacred feeling night. We had the wonderful opportunity to go down to the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) in the Old City at sunset to welcome in the sabbath. That was such a sight to see. There’s a division that separates the men and the women, so we went our separate ways into the massive crowd of people celebrating the oncoming sabbath. Both sides were full of people singing in Hebrew, dancing, clapping, praying, and weeping. It was so cool to witness. We met lots of girls from all over who were visiting the Holy Land birthright trips and it was fun to join their dance circles and visit with them. That whole experience is on top of my list of the best things I’ve done here.

Saturday after church was another very spiritual experience as we went to the Garden Tomb. We went on a tour, went inside the tomb, then spent the remaining and majority of the time singing hymns in the garden. The sweetest spirit was around us, and others felt it too as many stopped to listen and talk to us as well as film and take pictures of us (paparazzi, ugh daily struggle). It was the most beautiful of days.

Golgotha

Ok, best day ever followed (told ya it was a perfect weekend). 40 of us took buses to the glamorous, glorious city of Tel Aviv. It was heaven, primarily because we spent all day on the beach (predictable California girl thing to say I know, I know). Seriously though, beautiful beaches and right across the street was the cosmopolitan downtown. We frolicked in the Mediterranean Sea, built a sand sculpture of the Old City of Jerusalem, played volleyball, bronzed ourselves, rode bikes on the boardwalk, and had dinner on the beach watching the sunset. Seriously too good to be true, but guess what, it WAS true. Granted we all got fried by the sun and probably ran the Jeru Center out of aloe, it was beyond worth it.

Monday was field trip day again; the party just kept on going. We went out to the Negev Desert and hit quite a few Abrahamic sites. We started off going to the bedouin weaving place and admired the beautiful rugs, bags, pillow covers, and wallets that the women there weave themselves. We then visited a couple of sites, Beersheba and Tel Arad. Both were pretty cool, and to describe them let me just say there were lots of rocks. And there ya go you can picture it perfectly.