March of the Living 1999 Diary

April 21, 12:35 AM

I don't care how much its been hyped, I didn't like the Yom Haatzmaut part on Ben Yehuda street at all.

First of all, there was a lot of people. Normally, I wouldn't mind at all. It's just coupled with the other things that made it bad. You see, in addition to the little plastic hammer I have, a very popular item was something called Sheleg which is a white foam that is kept in a pressure container. Everyone was shooting it at everyone else! That was bad enough, but often people went even further and shot it at people's faces or down their shirts (jacket, in my case). It's awful to walk down the street and have to duck every time you someone.

Also, at the beginning of the evening I think I got some of it stuck at the back of my throat and couldn't get it out. It dissolved quickly, so it was probably just my imagination, but that didn't help.

I danced a little, and that was fun, but boys and girls were separate, and the girl's circles were pretty sporadic.

Ari and I spent the last 45 minutes in a little park to the side, where it was nice and quiet.

I found out afterwards that a few people from our group were beaten up. Apparently even other Marchers, from Brazil, were vicious.

On the upside, the fireworks were really good!

You know, I've been thinking a lot today about the way people forget things so quickly and let life go on. It's very apparent in our group. Just last week we were saying how happy we were that we were simply alive. This week we complain about not having enough time to shop or even about smaller things. It frightens me, how quickly we all seem to forget the bad and cling to the good.

You know, I don't think we've had one horah since we came to Israel. That's too bad. I was really looking forward to the horahs.

That's about it for now.

G'night!
Julie