4th of July...well kinda

Last night the festivities of Israeli Independence Day.  Here are some pictures to sum up the party:

The streets were all blocked off and there were thousands of people that roamed the streets. They definitely have  some interesting traditions that are tied to Independence Day like buying plastic hammers and then going around "bopping" people on the head. Or spraying whoever you want with silly string. Luckily for me I never got stringed but plenty of bops.

There were multiple concert areas that we went to, this being the first. Luckily we had practiced our dancing skills last week so we could show the Israeli nation how to do it. We had tons of people join in and even  more people that stood around us and watch. We had no idea the words or what they were singing but we joined in. At the end of the night the real party animals emerged, the women between the age of 60-80. These women loved us (especially the guys in our group) and would grab our hands and taught us Israeli dances.

Mid dance we were greeted by the Mayor of Jerusalem! He came down and started dancing with our group. He shook all of our hands and then we were the lucky ones that got a picture with us. He was a very nice man. We ended the night with a firework show, so this was our fourth of July! So to all of you back home, Happy Israeli independence day!