I hit on a gay man

Perry! I was so happy to see you at the beach! (p.s. This is NOT the gay man I hit on. I named this one Gilligan. He has a captains hat)
My roommates Lauren and Angela. I love them!

The Western Wall

Before I tell you about my Tel Aviv trip, I will back track and cover the days before that. On Monday I was able to go to the Western/wailing wall for the first time. I was planning on staying in and reading, but when I heard a group was going I grabbed my stuff and took off with them. I figure the best education doesn't come from books. I was so excited to see it because it is a place I have always wanted to visit, and since our field trip got canceled the other day, I have not been able to see it. The western wall is the only thing left of the second Jewish temple. It is the holiest place on earth for Jews. The wall isn't actually a wall of the temple, but a retaining wall that held the temple. There is absolutely nothiong left of the temple, so it is this the wall that the Jews come to pray at and read scripture. There is a divider along the wall seperating the men's side from the women's. The women's side was packed. I wrote a little prayer on a piece of paper and walked to the wall to add it to all the prayers from around the world. I had to wait a while to get close enough to touch the wall. As I tryed to stuff my little piece of paper into a crack in the wall, I knocked down about 20 other prayers. The only picture I have of me at the wall is when I am turning around after making a mess of a sacred place...nothing new in the life of Mikael. After visiting the wall, I went with a few girls to go into the old city to try and find some skirts and sandals to wear. I only brought church skirts becuase, well, I thought that was the only time you wear a dress. Wrong. Skirt are SO much better to wear here because it is so dang hot and sweaty! Anyway, What I learned from that little outing into the old city was to never go with those girls again. I know Dad hates it when I say mean things about some of Heavenly Father's other children, but these girls were stupid! Sweet as sweet can be, but just plain stupid! I thought we were either going to- A. be shot because they were so rude to the shop keepers or B. get run over. I don't know how many times I pulled them out of the street because they kept wandering out into the middle of the road. Lesson learned.
That night we had a forum given by the leader of the American Jewish community here is Israel. He is pretty far up in the government. He talked about his view of the Israeli-Palistinian conflict as well and information just coming out about the whole Hezbolah incident last year. It was so interesting to hear his thoughts on the war in Iraq as well as see how different everyones views are on this conflict. I was just talking to one of the guys here about how each of our teachers talks to us about this, but they all have such differeing points of view. It is hard to get a clear picture of what really is going on and how to start moving towards peace.
Yesterday just about every student went to Tel Aviv for the day to hang out on the beach. We were all suprised with how beautiful the beach was and how warm and clear the water is. We were a funny group of tourists to behold. 80 students modestly dressed, having the time of their lives. Aparently Tel Aviv is the gay capital of Israel and the beach we were on confirmed it! You are probably wondering about the gay guy I hit on, aren't you. Well, this tall drink of water was strutting down the beach and I spotted him in the distance. Was he wearing a speedo? Yes. But he made it look good! All the other girls started giggling as he came down the beach, but I decided I was going to try and outdo them all by hitting on him. As he came close, most of them looked away (probably out of embarresment for him and his outfit). I got eye contact and smiled real big at him. Unintentionally, I started swinging my arms while still giving him googley eyes. Bad idea. I had been playing in the sand and had dirt clods in my hands. One flew out and pegged him in the leg. He turned around, gave me a funny look, and started strutting away. Oh well. Proably gay anyway.
We all stayed in Tel Aviv until the late evening before returning to Jerusalem. It was good to get out and see a different part of Israel. A few kids left their bags on the beach to go take a night dip in the Mediteranean. They got all of their stuff stolen. It was a good reminder to the rest of us that we really do need to be more careful. It was a fun day and I hope we get to go back to the beach before it starts cooling down too much. So far Brittani has been right about how much fun this place is!