Life on a Yacht

I can without a question say that this weekend was the best weekend I have had in Israel. I only had 2 days of school this week because of Purim Break. My friend from WashU, Morton, came to visit from Paris (she is studying abroad.) It was so nice to see her and have another WashU connection. It made me feel more at home and it was so great to catch up with her. We explored downtown Jerusalem and she slept over and met all my friends. She also got a chance to visit with some of her camp friends and explore the Old City and other fun spots in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Start of the AMAZING weekend: The weather was perfect..upper 70-80s all weekend.

Thursday my roommates, my friend Max, and I all went to the zoo, its really called the Biblical Zoo. It is on the other side of Jerusalem (from Hebrew University,) and we had to wait an hour for the bus to come, and then it was about an hour bus ride--BUT it was totally worth it. It was such a cool zoo. They had your classic zoo animals and then some more exotic/different animals such as the Red Panda, a 3-legged cheetah, a herd of elephants, and much much more. All the animals were outside and the area is beautiful..its on a mountain. It was unreal to be in a zoo in the middle of ISRAEL..ha very weird..not free like the St. Louis zoo (yay) but we got a student discount. All the signs about the animals are in Hebrew and English. It was a cultural experience in itself...and I don't mean just the animals. The people watching was great! Its a different experience to see clusters of little orthodox children with their payas screaming and playing in hebrew and the mothers in the skirts, and the dads in black suits with big top hats--very Jerusalem. Overall--great day, I will definitly be going back!

Friday we left early in the morning via a Sherut (group taxi) to Herzliya--a port town near Tel Aviv. A man, Sergio, that I met in my Ulpan class invited my and 8 of my friends to stay on his boat for the weekend. Sergio is one of the most interesting/kindest/friendliest person I have ever met. He sailed to Israel on his boat with his 3 adorable kids and wife from Brazil. He speaks 4 languages, studied engineering at Cornell and business at Harvard, and lives life to the fullest. He was my partner during Ulpan and is in my Hebrew class for this semester. He invited me and two other boys, Jeff and Matt, from our Ulpan to come visit Herzliya anytime and stay on his boat. We took him up on his offer and brought my roommates (Becka/Leah/Emily/Ilana) and Jeff's friend from camp Nimrad. We arrived in Herzliya and met up with Sergio, his wife, and his youngest son Natan (2 years old) at the boat. They gave us the tour of the boat..its gorgeous/unreal..4 bedrooms, bathrooms, showers, kitchen, breakfast room, tv, THE WORKS. After the tour they went back to Jerusalem for the night and planned to meet back up with us on Saturday. All of us immediately changed into our bathing suits and headed out to the beach. It was gorgeous, 80 degrees and sunny. We laid out on the beach all afternoon! After the beach we went back to the boat and relaxed some more then went back to the port for dinner. We had a delicous meal outside overlooking the marina and celebrated being abroad together in Israel, good friends, good people, and good times in general. After dinner we went back to the boat and played music, played some cards and ended the evening with a classic film: SPACE JAM! Sergio's right hand man..his good friend and boat hand..lives on the boat and had some friends there as well. There were many language barriers--portuguese, spanish, hebrew, and english--ha its so cool to have that many cultures on ONE BOAT. Becka, Ilana and I took the kids room on the boat and all cuddled together in our borrowed sleeping bags from everyone on our program. Saturday morning we slept in a little and then laid out on the boat for a bit. After that we headed to the port for brunch...probably one of the best meals I have eaten in Israel. Becka and I shared the couples breakfast---it had everything you can imagine in it...eggs/cheese/tuna salad/tomato and cucumber salad/bread/marinated tomatos/white cheese/espresso/grapefruit juice AND more! It was delicious! We headed back to the boat after and met up with Sergio and his family. We played puzzles/cars with his kids..ages 2,4,and 6. Then had one final hour in the sun and took a Sherut back to Jerusalem. Overall AMAZING. Pictures to follow...

Going to go take a nap and gear up for the school week. I have a hebrew test and a test in my Holocaust class.

Love you all..hope everything is good back in the states.
Kayla