best weekend in the bay area

last weekend i went to the bay area and saw some friends that i haven't seen since the vienna airport or outside of the jerusalem center where we were sobbing at two in the morning and we drove away in our buses into the abyss of the night.

and then we met up in the sunny sunny land of the bay area where street photography is fun again:

also, i knew i was obsessed with mary, but i didn't know she was in like every picture i took of our friends:



eating our weight in chocolate at victoria's dad's chocolate factory:



fascinating conversation at the beach in carmel:




mmm. great weekend. thanks friends!

ukuleles taking the world by storm...

elissa (the girl on the far right) and i have single-handedly convinced a bunch of people at the center that they should play uke! what?? some of the them are the type of people that are always like, "i always wanted to learn to play guitar," and now they're like, "well, maybe i'll just play uke..." and then other people see elissa, and of course that makes them want to play because they realize it's awesome...

also, i played my sis cami's song "black sheep" that she wrote last year before she went on her mission to finland in the formal talent show. it's one of my favorite songs on the album she made before she left, and i basically wanted to bring her ukulele here to jerusalem so that i could learn that song...mmm anyway, so, after a lot of wishing i hadn't signed up at all, and after sound checks where it was like one of those dreams where you open your mouth and try so hard to force something, anything to come out, and nothing does...it was bad. not to mention i'm pretty sure i looked like a freaking deer in headlights that were an inch in front of my face. but that was during the soundcheck. but then prayers were answered, i cracked a few jokes, and i enjoyed myself up there. anyway...pretty fun! i wish i could figure out how to put her song up here! does anyone know?? if you want the song, please email me and i will send it to you.

for now, i will tempt you with pleasant lyrics:

there are sheep in line,
one is darker than the rest
she hopes they won't confine
her from the herd.

she says i spend much time
thinking about what they say to me
i can't get it out of mind

over again, why can't you think of me as your own
think of me as your own
can't you think of me as your own
think of me as your own

when a man with stick walked over
told her she's not alone.
i choose who is in this fold
and you are in it too.

think of me as your own
think of me as your own
think of me as your own
.
.
.

western wall pics

before sunset:



a random day not on shabbat, looking through the fence:

my roommates, corina and lindsay

lindsay and i having to share a chair to watch the men because they were all dancing and singing, while the women were mostly praying. except for the american jewish girls there for birthright

my favorite picture of the semester thus far that i talked about before:

so lucky. i have no idea how everything else is blurry except for that child and his face. i'm in love with this picture. i took it at the western wall while we waited for the jews to welcome in shabbat.

also, it looks like a lot of the next posts will be weighted heavily on the photo-side... hopefully that's okay. if i have anything brilliant to say, i will let you know. haha

Shabbat at the Western Wall

I will have pictures soon. One of which I can't stop looking at, so yeah. you should all be excited.

So awesome to go, except the men's side looked more fun while they were dancing and so happy for shabbat. I said "shabbat shalom!" to a random woman, and she said it back. we found some american girls there for birthright who showed us some songs and we held hands and went around in a circle and pretended like we knew a tiny bit what we were doing as the sun set and the whole open area was so charged with emotion. Then Lindsay and I were seriously TICKED that we hadn't gotten any candy while we were out in the city. we SPRINTED and got some at the last second. so worth it. candy already gone.

black & white and antique: the way to make any picture in the old city look legit.

so. here's the deal...which half of you already know because you have been at the jerusalem center...

pictures take forever to upload at the center and lauren was really nice to help me last post, and this post i am at hebrew university, where my online picture thingy is NOT blocked. but, these trips won't be THAT frequent, so i'll have to post smaller pictures and you can click on them to look at them bigger!

but for now, indulgence is in order for some of these huge pics...(yep mommy, pics.)

at dome of the rock:

old city streets:

some cool graffiti and some dad getting his trash kicked by his children





roof of a building in the old city



prayers stuck into the western wall:



so, pointing my lense at children. my favorites:

hebrew girls learning to pray at the western wall:


at the western wall (it's behind me):



yep, i was following them around:



cutest palestinian kids that waved and sang to us and asked us our names and told us they loved us. cutest. children. ever.



palestinian kids dancing during a soccer break or something. we watched them conspicuously from the rampart walls for a while:



more palestinian children/teenagers:



pretty girls in the group:
i'm thinking of selling this to canon.

Old City Pictures

that's what this post is.

i went with two other people who had huger cameras than i and we meant to go together so we could take pics.

unfortunately, i think three hundred million people had the same idea before me. palestinian children know how to yell, "no picture!!!"

we had fun taking turns taking pictures of narrow alleys and getting out of each others way, and apologizing for stepping into shots, and sprinting to catch up or wait, and staying in too tight of a group because we were scared but we were also claustrophobic.

on the upside, a merchant told me he loved me.