Tel Aviv, Mud, & Preparing for the World.

Last week I was in the beautiful city of TEL AVIV! We went on a complete whim, after I found out that I had the week off of classes. We left on Tuesday and arrived later that night. I was blown away by Tel Aviv from the beginning… the airport was amazing, which I didn’t really expect from Israel. and I thought JFK was nice…
The first night we were there Teresa and I went out to Mike’s place, an americanish bar (That was even playing the UCONN game….) and talked with the bar owner about Tel Aviv.
We spent the first couple of days exploring the beach and markets of Tel Aviv. The way I pictured Israel was not how it was at all; beautiful beaches in a modern city? who would have guessed.
On Saturday we spent the day in Jerusalem and the Dead Sea: completely surreal is how I would describe it. How does one even begin to describe walking Jesus’ last path, being in the vicinity of where he was crucified and buried, and touching the limestone used to wash his body post mortem? Especially for someone who is not extremely religious, the whole experience was, all at once, crazy, awesome, and scary. There were some people there who you could tell that this obviously meant the world to. What an experience
After Jerusalem we made our way over to the dead sea to FLOAT. (Wtf?) The dead sea has such a high concentration of salt that you just float in it. It was soooo cool, and not even that cold! We also caked ourselves in a heap of mud and exfoliated.
All in all, Israel was amazing. I would definitely go back some day. It’s unfortunate that it gets so much bad press because Tel Aviv is really a very safe and AMAZING city.
I’m currently updating my blog instead of studying for my three finals that I have within the next 20 hours (EEP!). Today will be a little insane. Taking a final, studying for two more, saying goodbye to Rach (it was SO nice to see her this week), packing, and maybe getting an hour or two of sleep?
Tomorrow I take two finals, then leave for Paris and Dublin! WHOA. I’ll be going with a few friends for about a week. My French will finally come into use woooot. The day after we get back we will be leaving for Italy, Greece, and Spain with my program. This next month will definitely be full of crazyness and amazingness all at the same time; can’t wait! Updates will probs be few and far between but I promise they’ll come. Wooooot for traveling the world!