May 5-6

Cesar from Peru drove me to the airport. Prior to that, my aunt and I went for a nice walk somewhere in Westport. Flight was fine; ate, slept, played poker, and read. Once in Israel we stopped for a picnic on the way to the hotel. At the hotel they had food again, but I passed despite it looking tasty. Went to the Western Wall, as today is YomHazikaron (day of remembrance) where we remember the lost Israeli solders. The ceremony was quite cool. We saw it from atop a balcony of a multi million dollar apartment that overlooks the lone wall left from the 2nd temple. President Shimon Peres, among others, spoke. It was all in Hebrew and consequently I understood very little.
It was cool to see a bunch of snipers around the area, security in the general vicinity was very tight. After the ceremony we tore shirts that the organizer gave us, since we had not seen the Wall in the last month…It is a sign of mourning to tear one’s clothes and we mourn since we have not seen the wall lately. We then all went down to the wall itself, and I prayed for a few minutes. Then back to the hotel now its nearly 11 PM and I am exhausted due to lack of sleep on the airplane.