steppingoutinjerusalem

Helllo!

It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for!

ACACIA’S BLOG TIME! What?!?!

Yesterday, Wednesday, I spent all of my money at the Malcha mall! I got two adorable dresses, a shirt, and a pair of cute shorts:) America should take a lesson on pricing, the shorts and shirt were only 5 bucks each! (only in shekels). You should have seen Grandma at the mall, haha, she was getting so mad! There were so many people there and they kept bumping into her and elbowing her. People really don’t know how to say excuse me, nor do they know how to be patient. Why even invent the word “Sleeha” (Excuse me) if NO ONE uses it! And when I use it, it’s a lot more like “SLEE HA!” Grandma doesn’t want to be mean, its part of her cuteness. Me on the other hand, I’m taking advantage of the fact that they don’t speak my language. (Not that I would care if they did.)

We ate at the food court and had McDonald’s (kosher) but it tasted more like Burger King and the burgers were big!

Anyways! At H&M (Basically the only teenage store with the littlest bit of swag) we got so mad! I got this dress, and even though its great, YOU CAN’T WEAR UNDERWEAR WITH IT because it shows:/! AND THE CHICKS IN THIS FAMILY HAVE HIPS! (Excuse me boys).  So, we tried getting some kind of shaper for under it. The chick who worked there suggested we try one on, only we waited in the LONG line to find out that we couldn’t! Then we got in the most difficult fight with the manager of the store because we spoke two different languages! Grandma tried to explain our situation to her in hebrew but got frustrated and finished in english. We were trying to explain to her that we were told I could try it on. I guess the “health department” said we couldn’t try on shapers because they’re considered underwear. Stupid Department of Health is losing money for H&M!

Thursday~

Today was super crazy! Super amazing!
We left the house at 6:30 to catch our bus for the tour! Early start, I know! Our journey started with me falling asleep on the bus! After that, we arrived at Masada! Masada was super interesting because of the background history.

Over 2000 years ago, the Jews took refuge in King Harod’s palace. The Jews fought off the Romans for two years before the Romans broke through. The Jews decided they would rather commit suicide than sign their lives away to slavery. The men killed their children and wives before ending their own lives. The romans were stunned to walk in and see everyone dead besides a few mothers and children. (Guess someone didn’t do their job).

I have to give it to the Roman’s though, they sure knew how to build beautiful architecture. They had a lot of bath houses haha:) It was SO hot! It was so high though it made me realize, I was afraid of heights! Really, really afraid of heights! We took a cable car, and some scary steps! I’m still alive though!

After Masada came Ein Gedi. Ein Gedi was a place of oasis where it is said that when King David (before he was King) was fleeing from Saul who was trying to kill him. Ein Gedi was a tropical place with three main waterfalls with pool places to chill out in. At first I was really hesitant of it, because… I think that kind of stuff is gross, hahaha:)

So we went swimming and it turned out to be pretty fun! It was definitely worth the hike! While we were in the pool chllaxin, Grandma gave a bible study to the tour group about the background of King David coming there, as I’ve already told you. hahaa:) Ein Gedi was petty awesome!

After Ein Gedi was my favorite part, The Dead Sea! The Dead Sea was awesome because they took us to an area where they made it all tropical working! Palm tree’s, bars, stuff like that! When we got in the water, my legs started burning! Grandma forgot to inform me not to shave this morning! (Insert by Grandma . . . “my bad!”) So, the salt ended up making my legs STING! We floated, put mud all over our bodies, relaxed,and I made a couple of friends. It was all just a great time!

I slept all the way home!

Oh Myyy! Where do I even start!?

Well, before our road trip, Grandma and I went on this thing called the “Time Elevator” in Jerusalem. It was pretty awesome. It was six sections (each section for the language you spoke) of chairs in front of this big TV. The Time Elevator was just a recap on Israel’s past but the scenario was that it took place in a broken elevator. It was pretty cool because the seats were motioned, and it felt kinda like a rollercoaster, haha! There was a kid behind me crying, haha. Oh to be young. . . .

The day before our road trip Grandma got a rental car! Oh boy, have I ever really said how crazy Israelis drive?! Grandma did pretty great though! She didn’t even use her horn once throughout the whole trip! She did run two red lights at the end though…  ;) shhh! (Disclaimer by Grandma . . . it was only one red light. The other one didn’t turn red until my front wheels crossed the other side.)

Tuesday & Wednesday~

Anyways, our road trip started out later than we expected so we arrived in Jaffa/Tel Aviv at about 1500 (3:00 p.m.).  Man, oh man, was it HOT AND HUMID! No Bueno, Lo Tov (not good!) We stayed at a Messianic bed and breakfast, Beit Emmanuel, which was pretty nice:) During the day we went to the beach and just chilled on the sand drinking lemonade with mint called Lemonana which was sort of a slush.We went to a little shopping center and wandered around for a while. I took a video of it but my camera got dunked in the ocean so is destroyed now so…( haha I’ll get to that later!)

Wednesday~

After Jaffa, we headed up to Caesarea! Caesarea was probably my favorite place! It was just beautiful! We walked around in Caesar’s old amphitheater! Why people don’t build things the way they did 2000 years ago is beyond me! They got lazy

It was really fun though!  Grandma bought me two new killer rings (be jealous!) We walked along the beach, I dipped my camera in the sea trying to save some shells I had collected. YES I WAS VERY MAD! We dried it off and immediately took the battery and SIM card out but it didn’t help. To this day I cannot believe I don’t have that camera anymore:(  I loved it so much!:((( We saved the SIM card though so hopefully at least I might have my pictures if we can somehow download them. :/ All in all I really dug Caesarea!

After Caesarea we headed up to Tiberias! Tiberias was pretty sick too! We stayed at a bed and breakfast that had a killer view of the Galilee Sea:) We walked the port and enjoyed walking down a cool street fair! We had dinner on the edge of the sea, ate fish called Buri and St. Peter’s Fish and the waiter pointed out the cat-fish which were HUGE! The reason . . . they’re not kosher so no one eats them, therefore they are fat and happy. Dinner was great:)

Thursday~

The next day we took a boat ride on the Galilee (the place Jesus walked on water and where the disciples fished). They stuck us on this boat with another group of 11 people. Me and Grandma got there before everyone so we got a chance to talk to the Jewish people in charge of the boat and in conversation they found out we were Jewish! So they liked us a lot more than the 11 people who later got on which was a Christian group, haha! We later realized that they probably thought we were weird considering we knew every word to the worship! Welp, we thought they were weird for working on the “Jesus Boat” as it was called haha:) That was really great though, we danced an Israeli dance called the Hora.

After Tiberias, we headed up to Akko! We checked in at our Bed and Breakfast. Tina was the name of the woman who’s house we were staying at, she was awesome! Her husband’s name was Moshe! How weird! That was my Great-Grandpa’s name! Later that night we went to Guy’s and Tali’s house for dinner! Guy and Tali were the people Grandma was staying with those 3 1/2 weeks she was visiting Israel before she moved here! They are reallllly nice people! Their family is just so full of love and they have 4 beautiful kids!

Tina was concerned because she found two geckos in our room and could only get one out before we arrived. We found the other one the next night. She was relieved that we were not freaked out by it.

Friday~

The next day we went to the border of Lebanon (Rosh Hanikra) to some caverns where rain drops eventually made some sick caves! We took some awesome pictures though so I know you’ll be looking forward to that! The caves were pretty cool, you could see where they boxed over the area where bats had been! How mean! The whole time I was looking for guano, but instead, found some deceased birds. Pretty sad :/

After the caves, we ate some dragon fruit! Looks like a cactus on the outside, and a kiwi on the inside! Pretty delicious! Neon Pink! My guess is that that’s what the bat’s used to eat before getting kicked out of their habitat for a tourist attraction (PETA2!)
We went through Akko’s shuk and The Templer’s Tunnel which was also pretty awesome! I found out that I love caves and tunnels! We walked around the port where I got stared at by three creepy teenaged boys. LO TOV! (not good)

Later that night we went to Grandma’s old Messianic congregation, Guy is the Pastor, and Tina was the worship leader! So it was cool to already know some people. It was weird how service was on Friday, and not Saturday. But they figure that Shabbat is a time of rest and to be with your family so I guess having service on a Friday is a pretty good idea!:)

Saturday~

We went to the Underground City that the Crusader’s built! That was really, really awesome! Despite the fact that before that, Grandma petted a stray cat which freaked me out because I am still scared to death of scabies! I took a LOT of pictures from there because it was actually quite fascinating! You could just picture the Knights of that time walking around and chillen! We even saw their bathroom

The thing that makes me mad, is that they keep rebuilding it and not in the right way! Like yeah, I guess for safety purposes you have to rebuild SOME things, but not in a way where it doesn’t look anything like the rest of it! I mean fo real!

After the Crusader’s Underground City, we walked along the beach and found a great spot to do some swimming. It was where waves didn’t really reach, and you could just float! Pretty awesome! On the way there though we saw a washed up Mediterranean Sea Snake! It was Gnarly! Made me really not want to swim, haha. It was so peculiar looking, even though it resembled a snake, it had a beak like a bird! When we were in the water, I was being careful of Sea Snakes when Grandma and I realized there were fishes floating all around us! We swam with the fishes! Gross I think! >.<

When we got back to the B&B, I showed my Grandma the movie “Swing Kids” about WWII and the Nazis. It really is a great movie so if you have the chance, check it out!

The next day we set out on our journey back to Jerusalem! We got lost a couple of times as the signs around the city of Haifa were not very good, but eventually we got there! And that’s really it! The road trip in all, was a blast! I had a great time!

We thought that the people who were staying in Grandma’s house would be gone that day, but due to some miscommunication, we ended up sharing the house that night! It wasn’t that bad except for the fact that the cats were being crazy that night!

Now I’m all caught up! Sorry it took so long! Pics tomorrow! Stay tuned!
R.I.P. Camera. 12.25.10-7.25.12 </3

(By the way, my grandma wants to highly recommend a friends blog, since she is not currently blogging. It is http://www.standingbythegate.wordpress.com  His name is Cliff and he and his wife made Aliyah a day after my grandma did.

Hey guys! I hope you don’t think I deserted you! I didn’t! I’m on a road trip! Exciting huh:) there’s just SO much to type, and it’s too hard to type on this iPad so you’ll have to wait till I get home on a computer to fill you in! Which is tomorrow night.

Anticipation!

Till then, Shabbat Shalom everyone!

Wasssssup!
I know, I’m terrible at doing this everyday. Sorry !

Thursday 7.19.12

Grandma and I experienced the hottest day in Jerusalem so far this summer!

97 degrees!

The odd thing is, Israel doesn’t go by farenhiet here, but by celcius. Weird huh?

So anyway, Grandma woke me up at the buttcrack of the morning to go to the Temple Mount in the Old City (where the 2nd Jewish temple stood before it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.).  So when we got there, there was a line stretching pretty much a mile long, (sarcasm) and we had to stand in line in the blistering sun, dressed as modestly as possible. The really cool part of that (if there was any cool part to be seen) was that several processions of 13 year-old  boys were passing us on their way to their bartmitzfas! Boys sitting on their fathers shoulders, with their Dads looking as proud as ever! Men beating drums, playing the saxophone, and singing their cute little songs that I want to know! LOL.

They were going to the Western Wall for the celebration which was right next to the Temple Mount. When we finally got into the Temple Mount, for some weird reason my camera stopped working! You can imagine how mad I got at that! And the muslims kept coming up to me trying to sell me stuff! How pitiful! On the Holy of Holies (the temple mount is also where the Dome of the Rock stands). We took a lot of great pictures of The Dome, and the Eastern gate.

It was all great except we ran out of time and when we were walking out, I was wearing sandals, and I slipped on the wet cobble stones and hit my fore-arms pretty hard! (Thanks Mom! “Oh hunny why don’’t you bring these shoes to Israel?!!”) Unlike America, people here don’t go suing for the fun of it, so I didn’t get the chance is persuing my life long dream of “easy money.”
After the Temple Mount, we found our way to the Garden Tomb which is outside the Damascus Gate. Even though it was hot still, I very much enjoyed it! Biblical history here! For those of you unfamiliar, the garden tomb was where Jesus was laid after his death on the cross. But they couldn’t prepare the body because it was almost Sabbath. When Mary and the disciples went back after Shabbat was over, He wasn’t there. He had risen! Yeah, you’re all jealous!

I WENT THERE!

It was beautiful. Because it was so hot, no one went for the tour! We got to get a personal tour by Grandma’s friend Caesar who works there! He even showed us Golgatha, the place where Jesus was crucified (you may know it by the other name, Calvary). It was all very amazing:) “We got the hottest tour by Caesar” Inside joke. Sorry folks! Although, I’m pretty sure its self explanatory…haha:)

Friday 7.20.12

We were going to go on a tour of the “territories” but we missed it. Then we were going to go to the doctor’s office but it was closed…

So we went to the German Colony to get Grandma some ginger beer (non-alcoholic) and went home! I was way too sore from falling the day before to do much else:/

Around 6:30 p.m. we went over to Grandma’s friends house for a Shabbat meal. It was great! Her friends are great people and cooked an amazing traditional shabbat meal and dessert! Afterwords, we played the board game “Sequence” and it was that time that I realized I will rock at a casino! Everytime I play Poker, Blackjack,  or any other sort of card game I’m just awesome with it! Haha:)

Saturday 7.21.12

Shabbot Shalom!
Today we went to church! Then chilled! Listened to The Beatles, and Moulin Rouge soundtrack! Thats pretty much what you missed out on! Fun Stuff!
And Yes! I can still take pills! But watch when I go back home I won’t be able to hahaha.

Shalom out!

Acacia near Damascus Gate

Dome of the Rock

July 18

Today, Grandma and I went to Malcha Mall! It was 97 degrees here so we decided if we were going to get out of the house, we needed to be sheltered by some cool air! We got there and ended up getting something to eat at a cafe (Nachon) with the English translation “Correct.” HA! It took me awhile to find something that I knew I would like and I ended up going with the “safe” decision of a bagel with cream cheese, and a chocolate milkshake.

When I finally did get my order, it was a weird-looking bagel-shaped bread with melted cheese in it. I tried it, ate some of it because I didn’t want to waste, and then just couldn’t take another bite, haha. Grandma and I asked the waitress three times for some water. All I wanted was some MAYEEM!!! (water) Grandma finally got over it and we decided to just ask for the check and leave.

But before this, I was telling Grandma, ‘don’t give the waitress a tip, it was horrible service’ well, the waitress co-worker had been listening (and yes, I did that on purpose) and to our surprise we ended up getting a complementary dessert. Grandma ended up tipping the waitress (cause you know, she’s all sweet) and we left.

After roaming the mall for what felt like forever,we finally found a store with teenagers inside! None of which who knew how to say “Sleeha.” (excuse me) Anyways, I ended up finding a really cute dress and skirt. unfortunately, I still have too much “hip” to look good in a dress so I ended up getting the skirt which does look fantastic, if I must say so. Maybe when I lose the 15 pounds I’ll go back and buy the dress! LOL.

Thank you Grandma J for getting me the skirt! And thank you Grandma Niki for giving me some spending money! Love you guys! haha:)

We went to the bathroom in the Mall and I met the most determined, motivated janitor ever! Unlike America, the male janitor can enter and clean the females bathroom, while ladies are still packed in there “doing their thang.” I found that really funny, he just kept mopping up the constant footprint marks.

Then we got Grandma some balloon pants! They looked good:) She says they’re called Balero pants.

After our little mall trip, we got some ice cream at the first store I had ever been to upon arriving here, “Pistachios.” I got strawberry sorbet and cheesecake ice cream, and Grandma got strawberry sorbet. Good choice! The strawberry was awesome!

Then we went home, I took a nap (haha) and we ended up getting “Dominos” for dinner. I know what you’re thinking, THERE’S A DOMINOS IN ISRAEL?!! Yes, and apparently, there’s a lot of conflict with it because it is not kosher. (No problem at all for me!;)

Oh! and I took another fish oil pill!

And I had to put alcohol on me twice today! First time because I took the trash out and some glass in the bag ripped open my leg a little bit, and the second time to avoid “cat scrath fever.” Moshe jumped onto my lap and punctured me by mistake. ALCOHOL BURNS!!!

That was my day!
Later Gators!

Enjoy the pics that Grandma posted for me. Bottom left is the cattle car used to transport the Jews to the concentration camps for their extermination. Bottom right I’m seen kissing King David at Mamilla Mall.

7.17.12  2:21p.m.

Helllooooo Fans!
Sorry! For some reason, the computer has been rebelling on WordPress, and so I was unable to update! But its all good now, so I owe you guys two days, and later tonight I’ll update on today!

Sunday I was giving Grandma a hard time on waking up, you know how I like my sleep, so we ended up just doing errands. We walked over to the local mall so my Grandma could make a doctor’s appointment, and unlike America, she got an appointment and a referral the same day! Security here is pretty tight. Everytime we’re going into a bigger store, they check our purses, and make us walk through a metal detector. I think it’s because they’re afraid they are going to get bombed. Don’t worry! I’m not going to blow anything up! Haha

Anyways, after the mall, we went back to the “kick it spot” to pick up a couple of things. We stopped at Big Apple Pizza for lunch and to my surprise they were playing things like “Red Hot Chili Peppers,” and “The Beatles.” After sweet Grandma bought some nasty looking cookies from these suedo-Israeli-girl scouts, to help needy children we went to a fan store to check out some fans. We’ve been having a heat-wave. Grandma is a great bargainer! She got the fan man to continually drop the price! (Which still doesn’t really matter because later we walked by another store, and their fan was 10 shekels cheaper than ours even with the discounts.) Having been to this fan store, I really appreciate the value of having a car because I had to “shlug” the very big, heavy box all the way to the kettle store so Grandma could do her thing there, and then to the bus stop. When we got home, I took another nap and just relaxed while Grandma went to her doctor appointment and got referrals for x-rays. It was a pretty good day!

7.16.12 Monday-

WHAT A VERY BUSY DAY!
So, Grandma woke me up in the morning and we hustled and bustled to get ready to go to Yad Vashem! Yad Vashem is Jerusalem’s Holocaust museum. A couple of years back, Grandma took me to the Holocaust museum in L.A. The L.A. holocaust museum had nothing on Yad Vashem! It was way more informative, and seeing as how most of the people there were Jewish, it was a lot more personal. People all around me were getting emotional, including myslelf.

In many of the rooms, interviews were shown by the holocaust victims describing their pain. They talked about seeing their love ones die, the horribly disgusting things that happened to them, and how most of them, didn’t see the point in the war ever being over because they had no one to go home to. The sad truth of it all was disturbing.

We saw the real striped pajamas, and the real yelow stars they were forced to wear as an act of humiliation. There was a display of hundreds of shoes the Jewish people were forced to wear to their death. We saw pictures of Jewish men and woman being humiliated by having their hair shaved and left with bruises and bloody scalps. Jewish men lined up with shovels being forced to dig their own grave before being shot at the end, some dug their graves with their own hands.

Underground Freedom Fighters, who even though they knew they were outnumbered against the Germans, continued to fight just to show that they were not weak. There were hundreds of censored books that made it through Hitler’s commands to be burned. I read Hitler’s speech of hate, convincing the public that Jewish people took on the shape of the devil and saw one of the cattle cars, in which hundreds of Jewish people were crammed into limited space for thousands of miles with no food, little or no water, or air, fighting with one another to stay alive.

One man described a way of escaping underneath the cattle car through a small opening in the floor but dying was a huge risk. There was a memorial room for the children who were murdered, featuring thousands of candles and mirrors in a darkened room where each of their names, where they were from and their ages were spoken. And there was a memorial for the 1.5 million Jewish Allied soldiers who fought against Hitler in the resistance movements.

There was this wall and it had all the first and last names of the diceased, and we saw one of our relative’s names-Brand. It was all just sad, it really made me appreciate being Jewish. While we were getting lunch, a man walked up to me speaking hebrew, I understood what he was saying and he asked if I was an Israeli. When I answered no, he seemed very surprised and told me I look very much like an Israeli then asked if I was Jewish. He was not surprised to hear that I was. Then his friend started talking to Grandma and seemed surprised to hear that Grandma was a Great- Grandma, he was flirting hard-core with her, cause you know, Grandma’s bawlin’ (Awesome.)

After Yad Vashem, we ventured down to the doctor’s so Grandma could get her X-rays, (Grammy has a bad hip:( ) While I was waiting for her to get done, beside me there was a sudoku paper. On it were the levels “very easy,” “easy,” “medium,” and “hard.” I am not pleased to report that I could not even do one box on the “very easy” level. By the time Grandma came out I was all mad and had a headache from trying to figure it out.

We got to relax at home for about 30 minutes before venturing out again. We had plans to go to Jerusalem’s “Light Show!” The Light show was a scene on the Tower of David that was projected to paint a picture of Jerusalem’s history. It began with King David playing his harp on the roof of the palace, the Queen of Sheba visiting King Soloman’s Palace, the City of Jerusalem being destroyed in the Babylonian exile, the rebuilding of the temple, the destruction of the second temple, early Christianity, Muhammad’s night journey, the crusaders, the Ottoman period, ( you know how I dislike them Ottomans for what they did to the Armenians) and up to Modern Times.

In the beginning, I was so tired that I continuously nodded off and Grandma had to keep waking me up. I ended up rushing to the bathroom to splash water on my face to wake me up! The light show was beautiful and so was the Tower of David. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed in at that time, but I’ll go back because it was just beautiful.

After the light show, we tried doing a little photography in the Old City but I didn’t have the right lens for what I wanted to do so I got all cranky. So we went to “Rimones” in the Mamilla Mall to eat dinner. There were a lot of bimbos smoking cigarettes around us and Grandma didn’t want to eat smelling it. I didn’t want to see it, OR smell it. We asked our waitress if we could move to a more isolated area because of the smoke, and when I turned around, some chick with a cigarette in her hand tried to give me a wanna-be mad dog stare, as if we just “tattled” on her. At that point I was RIDICULOUSLY cranky, so I shot her such a look, her ugly face won’t ever be able to comprehend. I was about to teach her some new English words she would never forget until I decided to just sit down and enjoy dinner with my Grandma.

Dinner was delicious, three different groups broke glass and they were playing the same repititious song with the most awful techno beat ever. We ate, talked, laughed and before we knew it we were walking home at 1:00 o’clock A.M. The time buses don’t run anymore.

As we walked home, coming the other direction was a group of Muslim women in their early twenties. A few of them were meowing. ? One of the veered toward Grandma and she thought it might be intentional. I said we could take ‘em! Grandma said she didn’t think we’d have to. She pointed out to me that they were not accompanied by a male family member as required in other Muslim countries where that would be the only way they could be out . . . day or night. It just shows the freedom that all Arab-Israeli citizens enjoy. They are allowed to drive too. We got to bed at 2:30 A.M.

It was an amazingly perfect day.

7.17.12. Today-

Today I woke up at noon, I have never done that before. Because of this we kind of just had a “kick it” day. I woke up and wrote my blog. The crazy thing is, I wrote all of this this morning. The connection dropped and we have been trying all day to get it back until finally I had to write it again. PICTURE HAVING TO WRITE ALL OF THIS TWICE IN ONE DAY. And no, I didn’t memorize it. We also got into a facebook fight with this dude on religion. It was funny. Grandma wanted to write something like “This is Acacia’s Grandmother speaking….” I said no because if he were to say something against her, I would have to hurt him, and I can’t do that when I’m across the world. We ended up just walking to get some fruit and a burger and continuing home. Relaxing day.

I want to add a little special note: Thank you to all the people who read my blog, it means a lot that you are taking time out of your day to read all of this, especially this time since there was so much to read! I love when my fans tell me “Acacia, Y U NO WRITE BLOG YESTERDAY!” haha:)

I started this as a mental note to me so that when I left I could always remember where I have been, and what I have done. Now I HAVE to write as a responsibilty to my fans. Even though I don’t get paid in doing so. JUST KIDDING! hahaha!
Anyways, see you tomorrow!

I TOOK ANOTHER PILL (fish oil) TODAY!!!!! I’m no longer pill-challenged.

Hey Fans!
Bet you’re all mad at me for not writing my blog yesterday huh? well, I decided to keep your anticipation running for a bit. My humor purposes only.

So yesterday, July 13th, me and my grandma shopped the busy streets of the Shuk, Jerusalem’s famous outdoor market. It was packed! Everyone was preparing for Shabbat that night so it was definitely hectic! Everyone was brushing up on one another, knocking shoulders while passing, and the vendors were yelling in competition! The fruits here are a lot brighter and look a lot more appetizing here than back at home. The smells however, are something I can’t get used to. I guess I’m not a fan of the Israeli spices! I’m still trying to get used to Kosher food as well, day by day it gets better

After the Shuk, Grandma and I returned home and we became glued to TV’s “Pretty Little Liars” so many twists! Grandma prepared a fabulous Shabbat meal for dinner! Chicken, bread, and salad! Since drinking age here is 18, I got Cranberry juice while grandma had a glass of wine. We lit the candles and to our best, prayed our before-meal prayers in hebrew. It was a great experience.

July 14 4:30 PM
Finally! Grandma and I got a full night-time sleep! I’m hoping that means our jet-lag is over. I still want to take naps, but that isn’t out of the normal for me. Grandma’s napping right now. This morning I went to my first church service in Israel! It was great going back to church and seeing everyone express their love for Yeshua. Grandma introduced me to all her little church friends, they’re all very nice, wonderful people, and I’m glad my grandma is surrounding herself with people who love Yeshua, and are just flatout peaceful, loving people. At the service, a man got baptized. It takes my mind back to my baptism, and I am just so proud of that man, and I don’t even know him. Prayers that he continues on in his walk with the Lord. I look forward to going to church next Saturday as well. That’s basically what happened today!

I know, I know, it was worth the wait!
Shabbat Shalom Everyone !
xoxo- Acacia

(Apparently, when my grandmother first heard what my parent’s were naming me before I was born, she thought my name!)

I JUST TOOK A PILL!
If you don’t know me, I’ll have you know that that is a great achievement and personal goal of mine haha:) I have problems taking pills for some reason, but I’m trying to get my hair to grow and be less damaged so I put a fishoil pill in my mouth and took one little chug of water and i did it!
SUCCESSSSS!!!