Purim 2010

Today was another rainy day in Jerusalem. I went for a run this morning and after breakfast when people started making their plans we found out that we were on lock down and couldn't go into East Jerusalem or into the Old City due to some disturbances. But it wasn't a big deal and we stayed in and everything was fine. If you want to read up on what happened, here is the link: www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1152809.html. The kind of exciting thing about this "conflict" (if you can find anything exciting in it) is that I actually understand what's happening and what the problem is. So, I suppose it's kind of educational. But it is more unfortunate and I wish it weren't happening.

Our costumes for Purim-- The Mustache Militia

So I was in all day and I got super super antsy, so when I got a chance to go out to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim, I was all over that. The guy who taught our Israeli folk dancing class on Friday told us he was having a party so about 60 of us went dressed up (in Jewish Purim tradition) and loaded up the buses and were off!

On the bus on the way to the Purim party

When we first got there there was only about 12 people there. Which was really funny because when we walked in we pretty much dominated the whole place. We learned some more Israeli dancing and more and more local people started coming. Two times I had people come up to me and help me learn, it was really fun. My favorite part was when the DJ (our dance teacher) played the Macarena for all of us American kids and the Isrealis had no idea what to do. But they laughed and tried to follow us. It was a good night and it was so great to get out of the center!