a little vacation and a couple bday's...

Hi all! Guess what?! I'm 23! I can't believe it, I feel so old. :(

So anyways, I had an amazing time on our Israeli Adventure this past week. It was great to finally get out and truly explore the country we have been living in now for almost 3 months! (yea...time flies.) We started our tour d'Israel last Sunday morning with a full on soccer-mom mini van and we drove south to Ein Gedi, where the Dead Sea is located. We also toured the nature reserve/park where there was beautiful waterfalls and springs. It was incredible.

The girls. Talia, Emily, Jackie and myself in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve.

The Dead Sea. The mountains across the way are Jordin. This sea has its name because there is nothing living in it due to the fact that it is insanely salty. You can literally go in and lay on your back with a newspaper and float because of the salt. It's not fun when you have any open wounds though...

After exploring all that Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea had to offer we stayed the night in Bedouin tents. It was super cheap and kind of like a fun sleepover. We didn't arrive until after dark so we really were not aware of the beauty that surrounded us until after we woke up in the morning...

Emily and I with the most beautiful scenery right behind us. We totally got to sleep in the midst of this the night before. Incredible.

We continued our adventure in our rented mini van up to Jerusalem, the holiest city in the world. On our way we had to stop because we saw camels. Who wouldn't stop? So we all took turns riding them of course! I got the privelege of riding Charlie the camel. We became fast friends and got along swimmingly. This is us below...

hehe. I love Charlie.

We spent 3 nights in Jerusalem and it was amazing. We stayed at a hostel in the old city and thoroughly explored the area. During the time we were there we visited the Kotel (the Wailing Wall), Yad Vashem (the Israeli Holocaust Museum) and had our fair share of fun (including Emily's 24th bday!) It was seriously amazing and such a fun time. I had lots of fun people watching as well. I feel like I can walk away from Jerusalem and actually have a good sense of direction if I am to ever return.

Emily and me at the Kotel. This wall is the holiest place in the world for Jews. It's the last remaining wall of the second temple. There is a division line for males and females and so many people intensely praying. It is tradition to write a not to God and stick it in the wall as well.


This is the Dome of the Rock (The Golden Kippa) which is the holiest place for people of the Islamic faith. It is so interesting because as you can see, the Kotel is located right in front of it.

We headed to Tel Aviv on Thursday morning (my bday!) and had a fun day exploring the old city of Jaffa (where our hostel was) and heading closer to the heart of the city to meet up with other friends and go out for my bday!

This was on the wall at a pool bar we went to in Tel Aviv. I got way too excited and HAD to take a picture. As you may know, no one quite loves Ohio like I do...(even if the Franklin county is Columbus.)

Overall, I had a pretty cool bday in the great city of Tel Aviv. We went to a fun restaurant for dinner and then headed to a bar later on. There were 10 of us at dinner and it really did feel like birthday.

Me and the girls showing off our mustaches at the bar. Everyone even sang to me later on! hehe.

That will be all for now. Everything is still amazing and I cannot believe that this program is already half way over. I have to start thinking about what I'm going to do when I return home now...oy.