Well this past weekend I went and met up with my brother Zak and my cousin Ally in Jerusalem. I left Friday morning with my friend Ari on two buses and got to Jerusalem at about 3:45 ish. We checked into our hostel and then as soon as we got settled we headed down to the old city to try and meet up with them at the Cotel. It was only a 20 min walk to the old city so it wasn’t so bad. As it turns out trying to find two specific people on friday night at the Cotel is not easy and we couldn’t find them. But we knew the name of the place the were staying in the Jewish Quarter so we just tried to find it. We knew we were close because we found some Sephardic synagogue and they were staying in a Sephardic center of some sort. They was basically no one in the streets but we found like 3 dudes and they happened to be British and were more than willing to help us find the place and had actually ate there once. We went down stairs into a small plaza facing some windows with the people inside getting ready to eat shabbat dinner. Someone came out and asked what we wanted because I’m sure it looked awfully strange. We walked in and I looked around as everyone stared at us until Ally waved me down and then I ran over and hugged them both. I let them eat their dinner and then we went to their room. We talked took pictures and I got my sweet Hannukah presents! Then we left and planned to meet the next day for Ally’s Bat Mitzvah. We walked back and chilled in the lounge area. Lots of people were eating dinner because they signed up earlier so we asked if we could have some and they said yes because they had a lot of extra food they didn’t want to waste or have room in the fridge. So free dinner we did eat! We then hung out by the bar and pool table and met these American students who were studying in Amman, Jordan and came to visit Jerusalem between finals weeks. So it was a real chill evening. We then woke up ate complimentary breakfast then checked out and left our backpacks in the luggage storage then left to go to the hotel for the Bat Mitzvah stuff. Zak and other people took pictures so you will see them but about 12 or so people got Bar/Bat Mitvahed in a little synagogue in the basement of this hotel/education center. It was nice and even though it felt weird to be there and not be in the group it was cool. We then talked outside for a bit and said our goodbyes. It was great to see family in person and hear whats going on with them. We then proceeded to go back and chill at the hostel and watch tv until the buses started after shabbat, we then started our journey back home and I got back in less than 2 hours which is great time. Well now I have to try and some Hebrew studying with a practice test this week and real thing next week so thats it for now!
