Sunday April 18--- Istanbul

Woke up this morning at around 8.... Felt better, my stomach still hurt a little but my body felt better, I wasnt tired and achy... Our flight back to Jerusalem was at 445 so the bus was coming to get us to bring us to the airport at 1230. Since Turkey, especially Istanbul, is considered half Europe and Half Asia, we spent most of our side on the European side and none in Asia. So this morning we jumped on a 20 minute ferry and went to Asia. I could not get over how cool it was that you could be in another continent in 20 minutes. Asia was basically the same as the European side, there was basically no difference. We went into some stores, found a really cheap clothes store and bought some things. Spent like an hour there. Then went back to the Europena side where we backed up, exhcnaged our money, and got on the bus to the airport. The airport was pretty empty because ALL of the european flights were cancelled due to the Volcanoe so there werent many people there. We had a lot of down time. Walked around the stores. Had lunch. The food court consisted of either more turkish food, which I said NOOOOOOOOOOOOOo right away to, or burger king. Gross choices but we were so hungry and had to eat before the flight. So Hailey and I got burger king. I could not believe how expensive it was---for a meal with a burger, fries, and a drink it was about $18 or up!!! COuld not believe it. Im pretty sure this had that special meat that only muslims could eat. Muslims have very special laws about their meat, kind of like kosher meat. I believe their meat is kosher enough for us but our meat is not kosher enough for them. So Im thinking this burger king had this special meat that made it superrrrrrrrrrr expensive, I could not believe it. The meat everywhere else was SOOO cheap, I think this must have been the special meat. We just hung out in the airport, the secuirty there was really weird. As soon as you enter the airport you go through a mini secuirty. Then when you walk to your gate theres another mini secuirty-- theres no main secuirty. It was very different then here. Our flight was fun we all sat together and we could notttttttttt wait to go back to israel. It was annoying not being able to talk about Israel or not being able to tell people where we came from. Theres a lot we couldnt say or talk about. Turkey was really reallly reallly pretty--- the city was great, we had fun. But I dont think I could of gone for any longer--- the food was gross, the men were gross and annoying, theres no women, the men have no teeth or the worst teeth ever and the turkish language just sounds sooo gross and you cant even learn it. We had a really fun weekend, lots of laughs. And Istabnul is beautiful but its good to go back to Israel

Tonight in Israel is the Start of Yom Hazakaron which is Israels Memorial Day for all the soldiers. Its a very special day in Israel because due to the fact that everyone must go to the army at age 18, the whole entire countyr is affected by this day so its very special. They holiday is tonight at sundown to tomorrow night. Then monday night starts Yom Hatzmaot, Israels Independence day which is the best day of the year here. So we jumped in a sheirut at aroun 700. Theres a special memorial ceremony at the Kotel at 8:00 that EVERYONE goes to, its the thing todo. So we wanted to go there sooooooooooooooo bad!!! We tried to call all these people to figure out where in the old city we could leave our suitcases so we didnt have to go bacj to the dorms. But we got stuck in SOOOO much traffic, we didnt get back till after 9. We were so upset to miss it. BUTTT--- at 8:00 a siren rings for an entire minute throughout all of Israel. Your supposed to stop what your doing and stand up for a moment of silence and the wholeeeeeeee entire countyr stops. So we were in a Shirut on the highway at this time, it was soooo coool, the whole entire highway stopped and everyone pulled over and got out of their cars for the entire moment of silence. It was realllllllllllllly coool to see. We wouldnt have seen a highway stop like that at the kotel. We were so happy we got to see that. I dont think anywhere else in the world we would have been able to see a highway stop and everyone get out for an entire minute like that. Finally got back at aorund 920--- so much traffic!! My stomach started to hurt again so I just went to sleeeeeeeeeeeep. There like isnt much to do tomorrow during the day for Yom Hazakaron. Its a very emotinal holiday for a lot of families--- theres a lot of cermonies at graveyards and things but you need tickets or to be family members so theres really not much to do. The school didnt arrange anything either. But theres a ton to do tomorrow night and tuesdayyyy for Yom Hatzmaot