Had to go to zman madrich early but when we got there, they gave us chocolate milk. best punishment ever. Had our apartment meeting later on in the day. Outlets in my room are still broken, sink still leaking. They say they'll fix it eventually. There was a beach party for a tzedakah project that night. It was pretty nice, and after I saw Heather. She was staying in a hotel 5 minutes from where we were on the beach. We hung out for a bit and I got some of the things she brought for me.
Monday: 12/21
First day of volunteering. Went in around 10, it was just Ale and I because apparently no one else knew about it. The shelter is in Tel Aviv, it takes us 30-40 minutes to get there. There's dogs, cats, birds, and some horses. There are 200 dogs and each is supposed to be walked for 15 minutes. It's very very hard work but I like it. I'm becoming a dog person now.
Tuesday: 12/22
Had a shabbat peula with Shevet. Talked about if shabbat is supposed to be done because of traditional textual reasons or spiritual abstract ones. Made havdalah candles. Ouch. But fun. We went to Neve Tzedik, this artist neighborhood (Orly's computer wants me to spell that with a 'u'), for our siyyur. It was raining really hard and we got lost on the way and stumbled into a random eyeglass store for a while. We saw someone getting married in one of the ugliest dresses I've ever seen. Back cleavage, eew. Our guide was...interesting. We walked around the area, it wasn't all that great really I'm not sure what we were supposed to see there. Afterwards I went with Shira to visit her friend from Section 2. Turns out I knew her from orientation also. We went back home and then went to the scout's murder mystery thing at the Ulpan. That was fun. We had to go into groups and complete different "missions" to be able to make guesses. Some of the things we had to do were hard and some were gross. Roll a dice a few times and the number corresponds to different foods. Blend all the foods together and eat whatever it is. Our group actually won.
Wednesday: 12/23wVolunteering. David, Orly, Ryan and Ira came. We had class. Jewish philosophy first. It's kinda boring but idk it might be allright. After that I have Text and Tablet, which is a historyish languageish class. There's only 4 people in the class which is really nice. I don't really like it so far but I think it's just cause I was so tired from volunteering. After class I went with Katie to buy shampoo and conditioner. In the store she dropped the conditioner and it broke and got everywhere. A woman who worked there was like wait don't move! and we thought we were going to pay for it. But no one asked us to. We went back to where we picked up the bottles and saw that all of them were cracked on the bottom, so it turns out Katie didn't actually break it. Got a text that said something like "yo be at da ulpan" so I ignored it because I didn't think it was from a madrich. Oops, it was. We missed a meeting about winter break.
Thursday: 12/24
Volunteering, only David and Phil came with me and Ale. Went to Jerusalem with Katie, Jessica, Rachel, Lori, and Ale. Walked from the central bus station with our bags to Rechavia. Not fun. Got some groceries. Hung out with Joe and Theo, got a sandwich at New Deli.
Friday: 12/25
Went to Mamilla with Ale to meet Joe and Theo for lunch. We'd been trying to find some where to eat shabbat meals. It was only a couple hours until shabbat and we still didn't know what we were going to do. I asked Joe if he knew anybody and he said the family he was staying with could take a couple girls. We had 6 people to find a place for though. We wanted him to call them and ask if they knew someone around who could take a few of us. But he knew once he called they would say just bring everyone. And they did. Ale called Jeff Seidel and he said he could find places for us for friday night. We met at the Kotel (and saw Heather!) and split up, Ale and I went to eat with an Australian family from South Africa who were on vacation in Jerusalem. It was so nice. At first I was sitting next to some yeshiva boys when one of the women said 'oh..let's move a bit' and had her husband sit between myself and the guy. Obviously we needed a mechitza at the table, right? But I didn't mind if it makes everyone more comfortable. Dinner was great, so much food. People were really nice. Only thing that bothered me was when one of the yeshiva boys said he didn't like some arab store owners so he went after hours and filled the lock with toothpicks so they wouldn't be able to open it. A few people laughed and I said actually that's not funny, it's just vandalism. Some people who heard me nodded but I didn't say it very loud. Dumb boys. So we ate a ton and the family was really sweet. Eventually we left to meet up with Rachel, Katie, Jess and Lori. We saw Mike! He's our madrich from Jerusalem semester.
Saturday: 12/26
Started walking to where Joe was staying. He said it was 40 minutes away but we left an hour ahead. It took us about an hour and a half. We finally got there though and they didn't seem to mind that we were late. It was a young british couple, Sam and Daniel. Six of us girls were there plus a handful of Joe's yeshiva buddies. Sam didn't know that we were coming until an hour before shabbat but there was still tons of food. We brought 3 bottles of wine but I don't know if it was any good since...what do we know about wine. But they seemed happy about it, though these people seem like they are always happy. We played Risk in Hebrew after. Didn't end up finishing cause people went to shul. I stayed and helped Sam clear up and chatted for a bit. She's so nice,she said she loves having people over and that it makes shabbat for her. When everyone came back we played articulate. I was on a team with Katie and Jessica, we won. Then, guess what, we ate more. After shabbat we walked back to Rechavia and I saw Naomi street. Cool eh. So we got home and changed and Ale and I walked to Emek Refaim to meet Joe and Theo and go to Joe's yeshiva football match. (Soccer for you Americans.) We stopped at Aroma and got hot chocolate with about 3x the normal amount of chocolate pieces. Then we went to the game and were the only girls around. Which was weird. The game was crazy, all the boys are really rough with each other and curse a lot. Even though there were rabbis and black hats all around. I guess it has to do with being british and playing soccer. We went to Ben Yehuda afterwards and I saw Heather. They got pizza and then we headed back to Katie's and played cards, but with mini cards.
Sunday: 12/27
Went to the old city and tried to pick up the rings I ordered from Hadaya. I left the receipt in Bat Yam and the woman working there said if I didn't have the receipt I had to come in when the guy who makes the rings is in. Spoke to Heather, even though she was already in Jerusalem, a block away from Katie's, she had to go back to the airport cause her bags were already on the bus and it would take too long to get them out. Went to the Kotel. Arranged for someone to bring my receipt from Bat Yam since they were coming to Jerusalem anyway. Went to Bar and Burger for dinner. It was really good. Spoke to my mom for a while. Joe wanted to buy something for Sam and Daniel so we were looking on Ben Yehuda for a nice gift. We were looking at a Havdalah train set. The guy said it was usually 700 something but today 390. Joe only wanted to spend 200 and told him so, the guy said fine 250. Ale was like come on, let's go. I didn't know what she was doing so I said wait we can prolly get it lower. She knew exactly what she was doing, when we started to walk out he said wait. And he didn't say anything for a few minutes and then said fine don't tell anyone you got it here for that little. So Joe got it for 200 and we were all very pleased with ourselves. So we went back to Katie's and waited for Heather to come, she took a train and a cab from the airport. She came and met everyone and we went to sleep.
Monday: 12/28
Rach and Jess wanted to do laundry at Beit Ar El so Heather and I and Katie walked with them. Heather and I stopped at Tal Bagels. Ale came by after and sat with us. I got an ice mekupelet and Heather got two plain bagels. They only had one plain bagel so the second one she picked off sesame seeds from. Laura, my cousin who works there, came by and asked what she was doing. We told her they said they had no more plain ones. Also, Ale ordered ice coffee and got ice mekupelet. Laura got Heather a free bagel and gave Ale her drink but let her keep the one she already had. Yay. Ended up giving the drink to Laura anyway but it was still cool. We went to Beit Ar El after and I showed Heather my old apartment and bedroom. Saw Moran and Or, got invited to Or's grandma's for dinner. Got my receipt from someone for the Hadaya stuff. Went to Rami Levi, the people there remembered us. Went to Or's grandparents house, that was fun. I didn't lock myself in the bathroom this time. But people still laughed about how I did it last time.
Tuesday: 12/29
Went to Hadaya with Katie in the morning and picked up the rings. The engraving didn't match on the insides but they fixed it for me. Went to the shuk and waited for Heather, Ale, and Rachel to come meet us. Katie bought me a rugalach from Marzipan. We got pitas and went to find a hike we heard about 30 minutes from the central bus station called liftah with a natural spring. We were looking for it when a woman started screaming at us. We finally found the trail though and started walking. It was super pretty. I saw a religious guy coming down the side of this mountain and didn't understand where he would be going. We keep walking until we see a bunch of religious guys walking around. We walk closer and then we see a guy start to take off his pants. Oops, it was a mikvah. We turned around and walked as fast as we could. We laughed about it a lot. We ate our sammiches and I took Heather aside and gave her the ring. Then we walked home and showered. Ale and I met Yael for dinner at the Village Green. It's this buffet style vegetarian place. After we went to Babbette's and got waffles. I saw Yael's parents. We met up with Heather, Rachel, and Katie at New Deli and then I went home with Heather and Ale. Spoke to Benjamin for a while and then went to sleep.
Wednesday: 12/30
Heather's ring was a bit small so I wanted to go to Hadaya when they opened at 5 to fix it. Waking up then didn't happen so we went around 9. We got there (Heather and I) and there was a sign that said on break till 10. So we waited and when they came back they fixed it in like 2 seconds. We went to the Arab shuk...I mean...year course doesn't allow that so of course we didn't go there...I was looking for a gift for Elisha and found it. Got conned by a one armed man because apparently I'm not capable of haggling with someone who has only one arm. Still got a good price though, just could have gotten lower. Walked to the regular shuk, can't believe I didn't get lost. Heather got a massive amount of candy for really cheap. We found a pasta place to have lunch. It was rainy and uckey and gross outside. We went back to Katie's while everyone else was about to go out. Packed up most of my stuff and just chilled to everyone came back. Jessica's friend drove our bags to the bus station so we wouldn't have to carry them. We got to the bus station right on time. Ale and Heather went to get pizza and stuff to make cookies and I cleaned my room and passed out talking to Ben. I remember being woken up with a cookie shoved in my mouth. They were pretty good.
Thursday: 12/31/09
Went to the shuk with Rachel, Katie, Ale and Heather. Everyone got glittery hairbands for new years. Heather got a bunch of stuff. She got the same genie pants as me, I joked that I thought if we were in different countries our wardrobes wouldn't still match but I was wrong. It's nice though, I won't be the only weirdo walking around in huge diaper pants at home. We went home and tried to figure out what we were doing for New Years. Got dressed, I was basically wearing everyone else's clothing. We were trying to find Florentine street because we heard there was some street festival thing going on but ended up getting separated from the group (Heather, Ale and I) and just went home after a bit. Happy New Year!!
Friday: 1/1/10
Lazy day. Haven't left the apartment once. Going to have shabbat dinner together. Spoke to my grandparents for a long time and to Ben. Shabbat Shalom :)
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