Family.

So, I am full of pasta bolognaise and gelato. Did I take a day trip to Italy? No!

Today my family from Israel, my second cousin, her husband and her children who are my third cousins, all came all the way to Jerusalem to see me. They drove up and picked me up and took me out to a restaurant on the outskirts of the city in a small artsy village type place. The kids all wanted to go to their absolute favorite restaurant in the area which was Italian. It was a very nice meal.

The oldest daughter is nineteen, then the next daughter is fifteen and the youngest boy is ten. They all can speak english but their parents had to keep reminding them to speak english for my sake- The oldest seemed overly tired, she had been out til the early hours of the morning. She rarely spoke in English despite the prompting and was a bit anti social, but it could have been the heat and her tiredness not helping. The middle girl, Noa, chattered away. Her english was very good and she had no problem staying in English. The young boy was shy and didnt speak a word of english the whole time.

Noa was very fun to talk to when she wasn't giving her parents absolute hell for not taking her to get her nose pierced. She can pass for like 17 in her style- though she's smaller than a 17 or 18 year old which gives away her age. But oh can she be a...well..a teenager. She was like, you promised me I could get it when I turned 15, you are liars! you lied! Then she wouldnt take a picture with them even for my sake hiding in the bathroom when they tried to get a group picture, nor would she smile in the picture she did agree to take with me (but with not them!). She kept threatening to sneak to Tel Aviv and get a cheap, shady 10 shekel piercing. Her parents took it in stride though, laughing at her. They said that's okay you are 15 you are supposed to be mad at your parents! At once point she goes "I am pretending not to be mad at you now, but I am still mad at you!" I know she sounds like a horrible brat but it was really funny! Like I was amused and she was friendly with me, since I was not an evil parent refusing a nose piercing. She was really the most stereotypical teenage girl, I felt like I was in some sitcom.

Those kids are lucky they have been all over, Noa's been to America and Italy and other places and she's only 15!

It was also amusing they took me to Mary's spring which I never did get the significance of since they couldn't really tell me, but the water there was holy water, and the youngest boy (I couldnt spell his name if my life depended on it- though I looked up what it sounded like and I think it was jotam/yotam -sounds like yotam-, I have no idea of the oldest girl's!) kept dipping his head in it, probably not realizing it looked like he was baptizing himself. His mother laughed "Jotam, you're making yourself a holy man!"

Then we walked to a church I couldnt go in again because of bare shoulders (who would have guessed my jewish family would take me to see a church??) but we talked with a monk from NJ, and I told Noa she had to come see the snow in massachusetts! She said she wanted to ski but she heard people could die doing it. I assured her no one dies beginning since you get stuck on a beginners slope! The oldest girl opted not to walk the five minutes there and sat in the car, I couldnt really figure out of she was that tired or just covered up that she wasnt really interested in any of this family stuff at all. The one thing she said in english was to noa who said she couldnt get her nose pierced because it would make her look like a bitch. That was the only thing I really heard her say in english, so I guess I didnt get a very good first impression of her. She magically rejoined us for the ice cream though, and when we left I saw she had driven the car the short distance to where we were. I wondered if it was for our convenience or hers.

They also invited me out to their house one of these weekends. The father said you could go out drinking with (oldest girls name here), but that turned me off, she didn't seem very social with me, or interested in speaking to me or in English at all. Nor do I want to go out drinking, or with people I dont know. Truth be told I think hanging out with Noa would be more fun, but hanging our with a bunch of 15 years olds would probably be weird. Their mother and father were very very very nice and I got along with them and noa the best. It was a nice day out but I dont know if I want to spend a whole weekend with them, they were incredible hospitable but I only really hit it off with noa and theres so much to do with people here- I'm still debating.

But it was a wonderful day out, they are wonderful people and I'm super glad I met them!

Also, Quote of the day:

Noa, as we look down into a well with lots of coins dropped in: "Yeah that's coz there's a lot of *struggles with word* to--tu-terrorists here.
Her mother: Noa, tourists! you mean tourists! You said terrorists!
Noa: Yeah, tourists. It's hard to say!
MOther: *Laughs* Oh my goodness.