Israeli and European Adventures

I'm so behind on updating, but it's been an awesome month! After I got back from Istanbul I had two great weeks in Tel Aviv. I saw the Vagina Monologues which I loved of course--the best part was the Orthodox women that performed, it was a very cool contrast and representative of Israel I think.

I also traveled to Jaffa, which is the oldest part of Tel Aviv. It's absolutely beautiful, it's right on the beach and you get a great view of Tel Aviv. There's so much history, both from thousands of years ago and from the beginning of the state of Israel... it's so interesting to see all the different layers, like how there are ruins from 2000 BC but that some of those ruins have been damaged from fighting between Jews and Palestinians in the 40s. Some of the history (like with all of Israel) is obviously pretty bleak, but it's so interesting to see. Hands down my favorite part of Jaffa is the artist's quarter, where you can wander into galleries of both famous and obscure Israeli artists. It's so cool.

I'm currently in the middle of my two week long spring break. I spent last week in the Netherlands and had so much fun. I stayed with my friend Bunny from school--it was so fun seeing her, but also a little weird. I had gotten used to being away from my friends from the US and meeting up with her in another country was bizarre. She's studying abroad in Leiden which is a city outside of Amsterdam. Everything is hundreds of years old and so beautiful... canals run through the city (as well as in Amsterdam) and it all felt so European. It was a huge change from Israel! We spent some time in Amsterdam,which is definitely a unique city. We went to the Anne Frank house and Van Gogh museum, they were both very interesting... the Van Gogh museum was just amazing. Bunny also showed me around Leiden and we went to see the tulip fields at Den Hagg. They were absolutely beautiful, unfortunately my camera died so I couldn't take any pictures. It was a great vacation.

When we got back to Tel Aviv the weather was PERFECT, so instead of doing educational traveling like I planned, I spent the last three days on the beach. I definitely can't complain, it's been so nice. I have a few things planned for the rest of the week, so there will be some more updates soon. And maybe one day I'll write about my classes... but probably not. :)

As always: pictures!