...we sang the national anthem...

The past month or so has flown by.  We had several big holidays here: Yom HaShoa, Yom HaZikaron, Yom HaAtzmaut, and Lag Ba'Omer.  I have also took on a second babysitting job for a couple of weeks and have been studying a lot for my final exam (tomorrow!!) with the Ministry of Education.  And because summer vacation has started in the States, I have been seeing a lot of friends who are visiting.  I have really been keeping busy and having a blast, but I am counting down the days until ulpan ends and my mom comes because I will be finished with babysitting, and I will finally have a bit of time to relax.

photo courtesy of Becca Gore

Holidays here are quite special.  Yom HaShoa is Holocaust Memorial Day.  We had a ceremony in ulpan and a national moment of silence.  The same was true for Yom HaZikaron, the memorial day for fallen soldiers, however I decided to spend the holiday away from ulpan.  The evening of Yom HaZikaron, I met some friends at the Kotel for a tekes, a ceremony, commemorating fallen soldiers.  It was a very last minute decision to go, so I ended up jogging most of the way.  When I got to the Old City, I was comforted to see extremely heightened security.  Every ten paces was another soldier or police man.  When I got to the security area before I could enter the Western Wall, the gate was just being closed to prevent people from entering.  It was so Israeli when the line (read mob) of people behind me kept growing and every person felt the need to yell at the security guards or explain why he should be allowed through even though nobody else could pass.  Apparently we had made it right before the torch lighting ceremony and thus had to wait "a couple of minutes." In truth we waited about 20 minutes until the Mayor of Jerusalem came squeezing through the mash of people trying to get in (he touched me!).  People began yelling at him, and it must have gotten through because when he passed through security, he spoke with the main guard, and the gate was opened, and we were able to enter.  Lucky for me, a couple of friends had staked out a spot in the front row and I was able to join them.  The ceremony, though in Hebrew, was quite moving, and at the end, we sang the nation anthem.  That was just one of the many times over the next couple days that I would feel such a close and strong bond to my country.

The next day, I went with a friend to Har Herzl, the military cemetery in Jerusalem.  There was another siren, and just like on Yom HaShoa, the whole country froze.  Everyone in the cemetery stopped talking and stood silently for 2 minutes, buses stopped; people got out of cars.  It was like pressing pause on life.  After the siren, there was another tekes.  The rest of the day was a relatively somber one, but that night began Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel's Independence Day.  There were street parties throughout the country.  I stayed in Jerusalem and just sort of walked around taking it all in.  It is amazing to see such sadness followed by such pride and celebration.  The day of Yom HaAtzmaut is a happy one filled with BBQ and frolicking in Israel's parks.  I went to a couple of BBQs in two different parks.  Everywhere you looked, there were people  of all sorts (Israeli, American, religious, secular, young, old, etc).  It was a great day with lots of eating and hanging out.

After that, things went back to normal.  Ulpan picked up--we are currently cramming two thirds of our text book into the last two weeks of class.  My friends and I are also starting to make post-ulpan plans.  This summer I will be volunteering in Kiryat Gat.  I will be helping out in a community garden and in an absorption center.  I hope to really brush up on my Hebrew while I'm there.  I'm also excited to spend another summer making connections and visiting with my host family.  I stayed with them this past weekend and also celebrated Lag Ba'Omer in Kiryat Gat.  Basically the holiday is celebrated by building ridiculously HUGE bonfires.  The whole city smelled of fire.  Before we left the house, we made sure to close all of the windows, but somehow the smell still permeated everything.

The next holiday here is Shavuot,  I will be done with ulpan by then, finishing up with babysitting, and starting to pack up my apartment.  These first five months have flown by, but I have loved every minute of them!  I can't wait to see what the summer brings.