can't believe I'm writing this again............

TAKE II.
damn the internet.

Sorry I'm pretty late blogging, i've had some midterms I've had to work on. Whenever I got on a computer and was nt working on them I felt like I was wasting my time.

Thursday (1/28):
Got on a crowded bus to Yaffo in the morning. I was standing for a few minutes when to my surprise a girl from my volunteering who's been in once so far gets on a few stops in. Her roomate switched into our volunteering and they were going in today. Don't get used to this, she told me. Ha. So the ride was pretty long and eventually a seat right by me opened up. There was an older man standing next to me so I pointed to him to sit. He looked at the seat, looked at me, and pushed me into the seat. Maybe I looked tired, maybe his stop was soon, I don't know but it was really sweet. Sweetness on buses doesn't happen very often. Volunteering was good. Got a lot done. Only yelled at by Russian ladies a little bit. Went home to shower and pack for the weekend. Went to lunch and learn and ate a ton. Finished packing and then went to ulpan. The teacher brought in fruit and we made fruit salad. It was awesome. After we ate it we did crossword puzzles. Yea, college level courses haha...after class we all waited around for a bit for the bus and then got on it, headed for tzofim weekend at kibbutz tzora! Didn't take very long to get there. We all stayed in the highschool. That night we made a bunch of campy food that melted through our cheap plastic plates and then we hung around outside around a fire. I talked with a few people I haven't really spoken to and some that I have. fun.

Friday (1/29):
There were two groups for mountain biking. I heard shira's apartment was in the first group, the one that was supposed to wake up at 8. Wrong. They said shir, not shira. I was already up so I ate some cereal and hung out. When our group's biking got pushed off more I went to sleep for another hourish.It was a long walk to the biking place. We didn't bring water, not a good idea. But the truck that had bikes on it had some water which pretty much saved us (or maybe just me). Biking was really hard. It took me a while to figure out the gears. When it wasn't hard it was terrifying, but fun. When we went back we made lunch. Malawah, I think it's called? Orly cooked so I got to get food first with her. It was greasy and wonderful. After we ate Orly and I found a shower to use. I just planned on being dirty this weekend but was glad we got to shower. We got ready for shabbat. Most people in jeans, me in a skirt. S'ok. Went to some conservative-ish service. We hung out at the school after, our noise level got us banned from most other areas. Oops. Just chilled until eventually we ate again. Some very competitive ping pong was played. That's pretty much it.

Saturday (1/30):Woke up and ate some food. We went to the dairy farm on the kibbutz. Eew. I don't like cows. (or horses or elephants for pretty much the same reason). They're too big and they smell so bad and they seem to be expelling waste at all times. Cows are not cute.We did this strange peula involving throwing our shoes at eachother and building things out of tea biscuits and chocolate spread. It was ridiculous and fun. Then we had to cook and clean up. Got all our stuff together and then ate. Waited on the bus and then went back to Bat Yam. On the bus back they gave us tshirts. They are so pretty and purple.

Sunday (1/31):
Went to Zman madrich with my apartment. Gave Ami our buses passes to put money onto. Went home for a bit to eat. Had class. Went home and pretended to work on my text and tablet midterm. Katie was going running so I went with. We met Ale and Orly at the Super Douche and went food shopping. Took the groceries home and tried to work. Katie and Shira were going to Tomers apartment and peer pressured me into coming with (stam, stam). The notoriosily stingy apartment shared their food with me, so sweet. Watched some British tv. Weird, but sorta funny. We got a text to pick up our bus passes so Katie and I headed to get them. On the way, we got another text telling us not to come anymore. We were by Yotam's apartment and Shira was there so we went by and hung out until it got pretty late and we headed home.

Monday (2/1)
Went to plant trees with soldiers at a border patrol army base called mishmash or something that sounds like that... Listened to some speeches and ate some unripened fruit. Planted some trees. Then we watched live ammo training excersises. It was really cool. Found out about Orketz, the dog training unit. Wanted to join the army for five minutes. Got our faces painted like soldiers in camaflouge. Played with paintball guns. Ate a lot of food. Went straight from this to Ulpan, all dirty and gross. After Ulpan went home and showered. Ale and Stephanie made cookies. Pretty much everyone went out but I stayed home to work on mymidterm. Yoni came by and showed me some dumb American TV. But it was funny. Ale came back with a bunch of people and balloons, they were getting ready for someones birthday. Worked a bit more and went to bed.

Tuesday (2/2):
Shevet siyyur to see shuls around tel aviv. It was sorta eh, but I got interviewed talking about Shevet. Maybe I'll make next years DVD haha..Went home and quickly ate some food. (shnitzel shaped like a giraffe, sliced cucumbers and tomatoes with chummus- in case you wanted to know)Then siyyur to the Bialik house. I found it pretty boring, not much to see there. But afterthat we went to the Reuven Rubin house down the street. Way cool. There was an exposition about watermelons. It was awesome and super weird. There was this woman's video art, involving her naked plus the dead sea plus a ton of watermelons. Went home and ate some pasta and frozen empanadas with the roomies. The logistics people finally fixed my outlet, yay. After we ate we went to the scouts IDF night. Chumi, one of the scouts, was in a dress. It was really cool (not because of the dress). Ale pretty much decided she's joining the army and making Aaliyah. Woo.

Wednesday (2/3):
Volunteering with Ale. Joe the madrich came to check up on us and fell in love with an abused golden retriever. Went to five shek falafel afterwards. It was fantastic. Shower then class. Right after class a group of us were supposed to be going to something called Desert Queen in Tel Aviv. We waited around for a while until a bus finally came and got us. They put us in MASA shirts and didn't tell us why we were there. We met Tzippi Livni there and took a picture with her. Right as the picture was being taken, very hot tea spilled on my hand. Not to be too awful, but I'm pretty sure I look like a person with special needs in that photo. But it's pretty funny... So we watched a bunch of clips and heard a bunch of speeches about Malkat Hamidbar. Basically a large group of Israeli women go around the world in jeeps doing crazy stuff. We were there because they want to do little trips around Israel with MASA girls. We went back to Bat Yam and Michal and I did our hebrew homework, aka we made brownies. I'm serious, that was our homework.

Thursday (2/4):
Volunteering with Ale. Went to Lunch and Learn. Ale wanted me to pick up some cucumbers for her on the way home so I went to the corner store and was looking through the produce. The cucumbers looked eh so I was walking away when the guy dumps 'em all in a bag and says מתנה. That was cool. So I brought them home, picked up my brownies and went to class. In class we just ate a bunch, everyone had brought something in. After class I went with Michal to the Tel Aviv central bus station. Got to Jerusalem and then went to take the 32 to get to Yael's sem. The bus driver said it was the right bus to get to where I wanted to go and where Michal wanted to go. So we get on and after a while he tells Michal it's her stop. He asks me again where I'm going and says oh no you're on the wrong bus. So I have no idea where I am and I cross the street and wait for the next bus. I call Yael who tells me I was on the right bus before. Another 32 comes and the byus driver is wonderful and speaks perfect English and helps me get where I want to go. Yael comes and gets me wherever I was and we went to her sem. I was all frazzled and upset but it was nice to chill with Yaeli. I gave her a photo for Moushka and a shirt for my mom. We talked a bunch and went to sleep.

Friday (2/5):
Went to the shuk. Hit an old woman on the bus with my bag (accidently). Cried. It was freezing and raining, and I was hauling around a bunch of stuff. Got chummus with Yaeli at this cute hole in the wall place. Saw Boaz, who made fun of me for walking around with a suitcase. Took a bus to Har Choma. I was so happy to finally be there and out of the cold and wet. Spoke with my wonderful madre<3 Worked on my Jewish Philosophy midterm for a while. Ate lots of yummy food. Went to sleep relatively early.

Saturday (2/6):
Hung out with the fam :). Ate lots and studied. As tends to happen, shabbat ended and I had to make my way home. Befriended a Canadian Paratrooper. When I got to Tel Aviv I called Ale to ask where the right bus stop to Bat Yam was. She asked me where I was and I said the bus station. She said, oh me too, so we met up and took the bus home together. It was a very nice coincidence.

Sunday (2/7):
Went with Shevet to learn about alcohol and Judaism. What better place to do this than a bar? So we talked about drinking in the Torah and then we learned a little bit about wine itself. After, went home to watch a movie. My madre called<3. We made cookies, one of the healthiest dinners there is. Was a bum and didn't do any work. Internet was out, which was poop. Fun night though.

Monday (2/8):
Volunteering. Challah baking at Rachel's place. Ulpan. I had a weird food craving in class. Pasta with tomato sauce and tuna on the side. So when I got home I made dinner, by myself with a little help from Orly. Made the sauce from scratch and it was super yummy. I was very proud of myself for being all domestic and such.

Tuesday (2/9):
Soffim Siyyur. Went to this park/field place and tried to build fires, walk long distances on chairs, climb through ropes, etc. We ate falafel and fries cooked on the fires we made. I walked home with Katie and Shira. But Katie was on rollerblades. Katie does not know how to rollerblade. Fun. Shira bought me a cell phone charm on the way home. It's an elephant with winnie the pooh smooshed inside its body. They're all the rage on yearcourse. (And in paris.) So we got home in one piece, plus an elephant. Soffim night got changed to our place, which was great because I didn't have to go anywhere. About 30 people came, I think. No law enforcemnt came a'knocking so that's good. I was pretty strict about noise level. We watched Mivtzah Yonatan. It was pretty good. Afterwards a bunch of people went bowling (eew). I worked for a while until Orly and Ale got back and we goofed off until we too late.

Wednesday (2/10):
Slept through my alarm. I'm a lazy bum. Showered and worked on my paper. Katie came home all hopped up on coffee and we ate together. Went to class. In Philosophy we re-enacted creation. I played God, of course. "I'm such a good looking god, I should make a species in my image. *poof*" And that's where Man came from. In Text and Tablet we talked about Sex. It was so not sexy. Did you ever want to know how often a camel rider is "obligated" to his wife? Neither did I. After class Ale and Katie were both busy so Orly and I had iner together. She made really good chicken with randomnes from the kitchen (strawberry jelly?). She watched a movie with some people so I worked on my paper in my room, talked to Benjamin Ryan Shultz, and went to bed.

Thursday (2/11):
Stayed home to work on my paper. Shira isn't feeling well, she's having a bad reaction to a blood test. She came by for a little bit and we ate lunch together. Poor baby. I stayed home from Ulpan 'cause my tummy hurt. Orly and Ale stayed home too. Orly made amazing chicken with curry and spinach and rice. I pretty much finished my crappy paper and we decided we wanted to go to an all night breakfast place later on in the evening. Didn't end up happening, people bailed and then I just fell asleep.

Friday (2/12):
Woke up at 8 pretty confused. Didn't realize I was going to fall asleep when I did so I still had my contacts in and all that junk. Finished up my paper. Ben and Karina checked it for me. Got ready for the weekend and took the 42 to the Tel Aviv central bus station. Made it just in time to get on a bus to Jerusalem. Got to the Jerusalem central bus station and got on a 74 to Har Choma. And hear I am. Cleaned a bit but been blogging for a very long time. The internet just ate everything I wrote, which really makes no sense. So now i'm writing it again. Ugh. poo.
Shabbat Shalom<3