lately

soo the other day i forgot to mention that we went to a crusder fortresss, i believe the last one still standing.
but this shabbat, we had home hospitality weekend. so we stayed one night with host families. i was paired up with Sammie and our Israeli was Adva. she's 17 and has an older brother and younger sister. as well as 2 dogs and 2 cats. they are sooo cute! can we get one mommy and daddy? :D we just hung out had some good meals and bonded over the fact that we all like a bunch of the same music! it's so sababe (cool in hebrew) that being in totally different countries, teens can still be interested in the same music.
Adva's family is very nice and out going. her mom is argintinian and her dad is brazilian. it was a very good experience and a lot less awkward than i thought it wiould be :)
today, july 12, we went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial/muesem. it was really touching and an experience i hope to never forget. i have heard many things about this terrible event. but seeing this place in person, even tho the holocaust didnt happen here, is just making it that much more real. today i heard the experiences and horrified lives of so many, made miserable just because of their beliefs.
i could not take pictures inside but i dont think i need them to remember all the great and terrible things that i witnessed today.
the childrens memorial was definately a major tear jerker. it was beautiful and really made me realize how many innocent lives were taken. we all know the number 6 million. 1.5 million were defenceless children, who's lives were taken simply because they were jews. they had not done anything wrong. most had no idea what it really even meant to be jewish yet.
the names of the 3 million known victims of the holocaust are written in binders desplayed all around the last room in the main exibit. i could not even grasp the number 6 million. and the names written were just over half. this was a terrible event that should never happen again. we have to make it never happen again.