Free day in Tel Aviv

Oh, what a great day of release! And what a strange schedule we have here. Weekends don't really exist for us out here. Instead, we have more of a... weekbegin. While all of you are having fun on Friday night, we are in church. But then by the time you get out of church in Sunday, like you are probably doing now, we're coming to the close of our free day. Today we went to the sea side city of Tel Aviv, which contains the ancient Port Jaffa (yes, think of the oranges).

According to Greek mythology, the king of Jaffa tired his daughter Andromeda to the rocks (left side of my picture) to sacrifice her to the sea god, Poseidon, in order to appease his wrath. Then along came some Greek hero whose name I forget..He skew the sea monster sent by Poseidon and married Andromeda! Story telling hasn't really changed in the last several thousand years, has it?

Like I said earlier, today was a free day, so we got to do whatever we wanted! I stuck with a group that went to a few small museums, toured the bazaar (which looks like a giant garage sale full of random, mostly useless trinkets), and finally ended on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea. It was REALLY salty, and actually quite warm. That was my first time swimming at my leisure in the open sea. I had snorkeled before, but that's a little different.. turns out it's really entertaining to just keep jumping into the endless waves that come to shore. Maybe I'll get the chance to try surfing another day if I end up going back.

On our way back, the bus driver turned in some techno music. The two girls sitting in the back started rocking out to it after a while, and so he turned the music up a little more. Then they danced harder, and I joined in. The driver giggled to himself and bumped up the Vikings another notch. After a few minutes, he turned the lights down low and we had an all-out dance party going on in our bus! My ears hurt by the end, but it was so much fun!!

What a relaxing day on the sea side. And now I'm back in Jerusalem, winding down and preparing for another crazy week. Classes begin tomorrow, starting with a field trip to the south to see Negev, which as brother Woods says, "it's so hot the lizards wear canteens for water!" Yay for being sweaty...

Would I rather be anywhere else in the entire world right now? Not a chance.