After the trip:
We lost wireless internet access in Tel Aviv and unfortunately that ended this journal.  Some might say, "Alissa, why didn't you just write your journal in a word document and then update it at the airport?" to those dissenters I wholeheartedly admit my defeat- maybe I'll be smarter once I get my college degree. 
Tel Aviv was fantastic.  It's a great city, and I can only hope that I'll be back very soon.  We saw a lot of interesting things, my favorite being The Gay Center (I'll elaborate more below).  We also saw a park of African refugees, took a walking tour, met with Lehigh alums, went to the Rabin Center, the market...there's too much to write!  I especially liked that Tel Aviv is so modern.  It was a great contrast to Jerusalem seeing Israel in the 21st century. 

To evaluate the trip overall, I'll go over my favorite and least favorite aspects of the trip, and some general impressions.

Favorite Site: The Gay Center- The Gay Center in Tel Aviv was my favorite site that we visited.  Like any trip to Israel, we spent a good chunk of time focusing on the conflict over the land.  This conflict certainly permeates every aspect of society, and it was interesting to see how Israeli culture deals with societal issues outside of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.  The people that we met at the Gay Center were really great- very honest and upfront.  The group discussion was good and I learned a lot about Israeli culture.

Favorite Experience: Wandering around Jerusalem and Tel Aviv- Being able to wander alone through a foreign city is my favorite part of any trip.  I like experiencing the culture not as a loud flock of tourists, but as a firsthand observer.  It's like being uncover.  There are a few instances of this that I look back on especially fondly.  First, visiting the market in Jerusalem.  On our second trip to the market in Jerusalem I'd had more than enough of being a tourist, so I decided to split from the group.  I had just about one glorious hour of not having to be a tour group.  I first got lunch by myself at a little cafe on a side street a few blocks off the market.  After lunch, I wandered around inside of the market, and then decided to explore the surrounding area for a while.  I got lost, but obviously since I'm here now after the trip and not in a back alley of the market, I found my way out eventually.  The second time was in the market in Tel Aviv.  In Tel Aviv I got to wander around alone- just me and my sack of chocolate milk.  Although not the focus of the trip, I especially enjoyed the opportunity to just be part of a regular day in another country.

Least Favorite Site: Walking tour through Jaffa- We took a walking tour around Jaffa.  The two tour guides talked in circles and it was mostly old information. At one of our stops however, there was a tour guide talking to an American family so I listened to her instead- she was great.

Least Favorite Experience: Lack of group discussions- We barely debriefed on anything that we saw.  I was really disappointed by this.  First, there was a whole lot to process, and we didn't have any formal setting to do that.  Second, there were certainly some biased information being passed around because of the skewed nature of the trip ("do they censor television here?" "yes, much like Israel's sister country of North Korea, only the chairman's news channel is broadcast here!").  I definitely wish we had structured discussions of what we saw, and a talking stick.

To continue the last update, here is the end of Sunday night.

Yesterday, after following Jesus's footsteps through the Christian quarter of the old city, we went back to the hotel and met with a group of people from ICCI, which is an interfaith dialogue group based in Israel.  The talk with the people in the group were interesting, and had interesting stories about how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict affected their dialogue with the other group.  After a panel discussion, we had dinner with the group.  Unfortunately, I'm about done with the hotel buffet for the rest of my life, so instead of eating I just talked to the panelists.  After dinner, I was starving, as were a number of other people who were also sick of hotel food.  Jess, Carolina, Rachel, Gina and I ordered Dominos, which was an adventure and disaster in itself.  We tried to order cheesey bread and two thin crust pizzas, and with the help of our Israeli security guard we got two pizzas and two garlic parmesan breads.  Regardless of the correctness of the order, it was delicious.

Today we began the day with an early trip to Bethlehem.  Bethlehem was interesting, our Israeli tour guide and guard weren't allowed in, so we went with the bus driver and picked up a new tour guide on the way.  In Bethlehem we went to visit with the mayor and some of the people who worked in his office.  When we walked into the government building, the first thing that we saw was a giant picture of Yasser Arafat on the wall.  This set the tone for an interesting visit, and it was nice to get a perspective that most American Jews aren't able to hear.  After the visit with the mayor, we went to the Church of the Nativity and got to see where Jesus was born.  After the church we went to a small shop for souvenirs.  That's all the update for today!