monday 3/22: My ulpan class went to the shuk, we had a paper with a bunch of things we were supposed to do and ask people, except I really just did my shopping for my apartment. There was lots of rainbow appliances, I took pictures. They were beautiful. We went back to class, don't think we really did much. Maybe some final review stuff. Had medical ethics and Tanach. Decided to do my ethics final paper on eugenics in jewish medical ethics. weirddd stuff. Tanach, not sure what I'm doing yet. Got my grades for last semester, can't remember if I posted them already. Ulpan- C, Jewish Philosophy- B-, Text and Tablet- C+.
stammmmm. A in Ulpan and one of the others ones, A- in the other one.
tuesday 3/23: Katie made shakshuka, a lot of it. We had like 3 minutes to eat since we were leaving for Tel Aviv. I managed haha. To my roomates looks of shock and horror. All 3 sections were meeting in Tel Aviv for sports day. As any of you reading this should know, I didn't participate in soccer or basketball or any of that nonsense. But I did try to climb the rock wall they had. Made it 3/4 up but couldn't climb anymore. Damn being out of shape and weak. Damn being too lazy to do anything about being out of shape and weak. Hung out with Shira-leh! (My scout from Bat Yam) So great to catch up. Nice to get out of Arad, even for the day.
wednesday 3/24: Lunch and Learn with real food! Chicken and other yumminess that I can't remember. Took two chickens home to use for the model seder we had that evening. Went home briefly and told roommates who didn't have class to please cook veggies for the seder like we were supposed to and heat up chickens before the seder. They didn't, idiots. Totally incompetent in all things domestic and otherwise. We sorted things out and had the seder at the school. Stayed up preparing for my hebrew final.
thursday 3/25: Ulpan final! Had to prepare a newspaper article, being able to speak about it and answer questions. It went really well. We were locked out of the building so we had our Tanach class at Ale's place. Went to give blood with Ale, Katie, Jessica, Rachel, and Joe Sacks. It was fun. Almost wasn't allowed because I thought the weight I gave them in kilos was what I should be in lbs but i was off. They had the blood donations in the middle of the mall next to the escalators, so people going up and down stared at us and asked if it hurt and told us we were great. Went home to cook stupid roommates dinner. Made burgers and potatoes and spinach. They still ate microwave shnitzel because they were going to be late for some party. Dinner was yum.
friday 3/26: Went to Ein Getti with Shevet. I went into the dead sea with Rachel and Jessica, it was so much fun. We became mud people and walked around terrifying children. But not really. We weren't actually mud people.....stamm yea it was gross and fun. Went to a hostel afterwards, on the bus I asked Yoni where his necklace with his ring from his girlfriend was and he realized he left it at the place we were just at. Bus driver took him back and he got it. Funny story, when I was last here with my mom I also lost a ring in a stop by Ein Getti and the bus driver took me back and I found it. :)
We got ready for Shabbat and napped. I found out Ale could come with me to seder, yay. Davening, Shabbat Dinner, Tish, sleep.
saturday 3/27: Slept in...Ate foods and went to an optional class about pesach. More food and packed up. Had some crazy time trying to figure out how to get to Jeru. Figured it out and Katie, Jessica, Cara, Rachel and I got to to Jeru. Hung out with Mendy and Joshey.
sunday 3/28: Went to the shuk in the morning and got food with Mendy. Pretended to work out at gan soccer. I walked to Beit Ar El and worked on my paper for a while, then walked back to Rechavia to get my stuff, then walked to the CBS and met up with Ale. We got sunflowers and got on a bus to Beit El. When we got there we hung out for a little bit but we were super tired so we went to bed soon after.
monday 3/29: Woke up and helped get ready for Pesach. We moved our stuff to the neighbor's, we were staying in one of their spare rooms. Pretty much waited around until the Seder and napped. The seder was nice, 99.9% in hebrew and I understood most of it. Stayed up until 2:30 cleaning up, but I wasn't tired really.
tuesday 3/30: Food (obviously hehe..) Hung out with some of the little ones at the park. Decided to stay overnight and leave in the morning.
wednesday 3/31: Mordechai drove us to the CBS and we walked from there to Katie's. We met up with Katie, Jessica, and Orly to go Boombamella shopping at the Shuk. Bought some veggies, fruits, and candy. Orly, Ale and I bought rainbow anklets and I got myself some pretty pants. Orly, Ale, Katie and I went to see the play Thirteen. It was so good. Afterwards I hung out with Rottner and Joshey and we reminisced about middle school and how much we all miss Ben hehe...We called him at 12a.m. Israel time to say happy 3 yr anniversary...
thursday: 4/1 anniversary! Called Ben at 12 his time. 3 years today :)<3. We got on a bus to Ashkolon, or so we thought...We ended up getting off somewhere called Kfar Silver and not having any idea how to get to Chof Nitzanim. Got another bus to somewhere and then walked 5-10 minutes to a place where people take cabs to get to the beach. All my friends got in cabs without me and there was no room. Nice right. But it's okay, I made friends and they ended up paying for the cab :) so there. Our friend Kochava from Section 3 had brought our tent, Katie Ale Orly and I were staying with her. So we found her, our tent was right by the beach and far enough from everything that it wasn't too loud. We walked around and went tanning and swimming. Lots of fun.
friday 4/2: Got up and went straight to the beach. Did a lot of hanging out. Called Dr. Abba for his bday. Went to Chabad for kabbalat shabbat and dinner. Met up with Shira and met her boyfriend and their friends.
saturday 4/3: More beaching. Played with mud. Saw that I had lobster legs and didn't know why, I was wearing sunscreen and the rest of me wasn't burned. Very weird. Later realized it was from my new shuk pants. Packed stuff up. Ate everyone's leftovers that they didn't want to carry out. I had been protein deprived after 3 days of matzah and cucumbers, sooo it was great. I carried garbage for a while because they told us on the way out we'd be compensated if we brought two bags of trash. Liars. Got a ride with some nice english speakers. I'm now pretty sure they were missionaries. Oops haha. But they gave me a ride to the Ashdod bus station and I got a bus to Jeru and met up with the girls and took a bus to Rechavia. They went out, I passed out. Woke up randomly to eat matzah with chocolate spread and speak to my dad and benjamin.
sunday 4/4: Went to Nokdim. On the way got some flowers, thinking it was prolly a better idea than food since I don't know what people like and whatevs....Well when I got there, there was about 6 boquets of flowrers around the house hehe. "Should've gotten chocolate." Hung out with Laura, made matzah pizza. Was gonna work on my paper but didn't really so much. Ate yummy diner. Hung out with Karine. Sleep.
monday 4/5:
Wanted to wake up around 9 but got up closer to 11. BBQ lunch with people Philippe works with. Yums. Tried to do some school work...More matzah pizza. Took a bus to Rechavia to Katie's and worked more on my paper.
tuesday 4/6: woke up at 4:30 to shower and pack. Ale and Orly took a cab to the bus station, Katie and I walked. We just made the bus, we were the last two people on. We had to sit in the aisle but it was fine and I studied for medical ethics. We got to Be'er Sheva and there was already a bus there for Arad. Got to Arad and slept for an hour, then went to a meeting with Alex. Basically did nothing. Found out again what volunteering I have- I'll be in a falafel store. ha. Went back home and made lunch and dinner. I made everybody eggs and made a sauce with Katie for dinner later. Fell asleep for a lil and then went to medical ethics. Had my oral final, it went very well. I showed the teacher my outline for my paper and he said it was good. The paper I should be working on right now, oops. After class went home for a while but couldn't sleep then went to Tanach and spoke about Naomi and Ruth. Went home and heated up dinner. Had mifgash dira. Possibly ingested glass. People piss me off. Katie and I went shopping. I was supposed to stay up late working on my paper but I fell asleep.
wednesday 4/7:
I really can't remember what transpired wednesday. Sorry, it prolly wasn't important anyway. If I remember later I'll put it up.
thursday 4/8:
All YC hike. Sort of. I got into a fight with two people within the span of 5 minutes 'cuz I'm dumb and their mean. But I got over it really fast and spent a lot of time with Orly. The hike wasn't too bad. There were different places where you had to either walk through yuckey green smelly water or climb across by putting your hands on one side and feet on the other. I managed to climb through both places, it was super hard and I almost fell on top of our guide...haha...well actually I did. After the hike we went to some Bedouin place for food and fun and eventually sleep.
friday 4/9:
Got on a bus to Jerusalem. Ale wasn't talking to me. Chatted with Or, one of the madrichim from Jeru, sucha cutie. We were talking about hitchhiking and he said it was so easy to get rides in uniform. I said wait isn't it illegal for a soldier to hitchhike? He said yea but everyone does it anyway. I said what happens if you get caught. "Ehhh, you go to jail." Me-"Isn't that bad?" "Noo,army jail is fun." Me- "Have you been?" "No. but my friends tell me. You sit in tent and play sheshbesh all day." ahaha.
So we get to Jeru and Ale and I get off by the CBS and wait for the bus to Ramat Beit Shemesh. On the wrong side of the street. For 30 minutes. We crossed the street and waited some more, Ale realized she didn't have any money and I didn't have enough to get both of us there and home to Arad so we had to stop being mad at each other and figure it out. We worked some ideas out so we wouldn't get stranded anywhere. I was going to find an ATM at the CBS on the way home. We got to Ramat Beit Shemesh and asked for directions from people who wouldn't look us in the face. Ha. So we got to Diana's and were super gross form 2 days hiking and tenting so we showered. Yay. Then we ate foods. Yay again. Then we went to ride a motorcycle...yay? It was fun. Basically Amos and Haguy were the only kids home, and they were going to go on the bike so Ale and I went with. Attempted to learn how to ride it by myself. This lasted all of 30 seconds before moving scared me too much and I gave up. We went back and passed out until dinner. Ate foods. lots of foods. Then hung out and met people who know people I know. Fun times.
saturday 4/10:
Much sleeping. Some eating. Got my butt kicked in Checkers by Haguy. Some freaking out as to how to return to Arad. Ended up staying overnight again because the bus to get us to Jeru so we could a bus to Be'er Sheva wouldn't get us there in time to make the bus to Arad. (Sort of) Ate Burgers Bar and hung out. Watched some woman movie, can't remember the title.
sunday 4/11:
Left at 5ish and took a cab to the train station. Took a train to Lod. Took another train to Be'er Sheva. Took a bus to Arad. Walked home to Ben Yair 7. Found out that someone tried to break into our apartment the night before. A drunk scary someone. Freaked me out but don't worry we keep our door locked at all times and don't walk around by ourselves. Had a peula at 10 for basically no reason. Can't remember what I did the rest of the day...But I know that eventually we went grocery shopping.
monday 4/12:
Woke up at 7 and finished my paper. Went to volunteering, first day. Ehh we'll see about this one. It's a falafel store in the merkaz. I pretty much stood there for an hour or so soaking up the falafel smell into my pores, hair, and clothing. Not as pleasant as one might imagine. Maybe tomorrow will be better.
tuesday 4/13: We went to Sderot and Yad Mordechai. Saw a bunch of the missiles that had been shot into Sderot and a missile safe park for kids. Had free time and hung out at the Shuk, Orly and I got strawberries. We went to a museum at Yad Mordechai that was about the Holocaust and the Independence War. They showed us 20 minutes of the movie Uprising. I think that's a silly thing for a museum to do but whatevs. Went back to Arad and made chicken soup. And brownies. But we didn't cook them all the way. Oops.
wednesday 4/14:
Worked on my paper from 4-6a.m. (thanks abba) and spoke to Benjamin. Slept a few hours and then got up for Lunch and Learn. It was just Lunch, no Learn. Fun stuff. Afterwards I went home and worked on this thing for a bit, then we had an activity for IDF stuff and watched some videos. Then I made banana strawberry smoothies with Orly. Yums. Then we were supposed to all go for hebrew review but only 10 people went to so we sorta had a class together but we were all different levels so it didn't work out too well. Went home and heated up yesterdays soup. Also made amazing hot chocolate. And ate yesterdays brownies. Orly came over for dinner, all her roomies were gone. I spoke a lot to Ben, didn't do anything productive, and went to sleep.
I should read through this and check that it makes sense and doesn't overlap, but I'm lazy and it's too long and I've got stuff to do. Hope that's all right and there aren't too many silly errors.
<3
P.S. next time I have to talk about the pigeon
and how volunteering is working out
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Blog Blog Blog
So I have a whole lot to catch up on. Instead of going through every little boring thing I've done I think I'm just gonna summarize and tell you guys the stuff you'll prolly find interesting.
I need to catch you all up on the last week and a half of Bat Yam and the first two weeks of Arad.
Sunday 2/21
Arts did their "Winter Event", a series of songs and skits and the visual people displayed what they made. (As I'm sure my mom would know I would remember) they had yummy little fancy crackers and such.
Tuesday 2/23
Shevet had a mask workshop with an Israeli actress. We learned about the different basic masks and she had us try to act in them. I was pushed into wearing one where you aren't allowed to speak and you have to use body language to convey emotion. I was unsuccessful.
Went to Dialogue in the Dark. We got there (by cab which YC treated) and walked through a series of rooms with no light led by a visually impaired woman. It was kinda scary at first but super cool.
Wednesday 2/24
Tried to frantically pack, but ended up napping.
Thursday 2/25
Shuk in the morning, then got amazing chummus in Yaffo with Katie. Had a "Cultural Evening" where we saw a group called Tararam preform some crazy drumming and dancing and then went to a Subliminal concert. The concert was eh, they're not so great live. But it was still fun and something to do.
Shabbat 2/26-27
Shevet Shabbat. The schedule I have doesn't say where we were and I can't remember the name. Ein something. We had some purim classes and did the usual shabbat stuff. Saturday night was a Purim/Birthday party.
Sunday 2/28
Went to Benedicts with Katie and got pancakes.
Seudat Purim and Megila reading for Shevet.
Monday 3/1
Adloyada parade in Holon. It was amazing. Started out crappy, I was tired and cold and hungry and annoyed. It wouldn't stop raining. But we did the parade anyway. I was on a bike with a huge man made of chicken wire and fabric on the back of it. It was supposed to be the Israeli version of Hansel and Gretel, Max and something. But in this version the kids are super dirty and they get eaten. Yea. So I rode the bike in the rain and it was glorious and people were so happy and I got all these compliments, even though I looked like wet poo.
Tuesday 3/2
Had our final peula with Ami. Kinda sad but we made it fun. I somehow wore the exact same outfit as someone else. A boy someone else. I was wearing the shirt we got from scouts weekend and Katie's black genie pants and flip flops. Yoni was wearing the same exact thing. What are the odds? It made me laugh all day.
Had a "Farewell evening from Bat Yam and Tzofim" I got an award for Best Volunteer. The award was a balloon. It was beautiful, but I decided to leave it in Bat Yam with Shira. Hung out with Shira and with Yoni. Wanted more people to hang out but everybody was packing.
Wednesday 3/3
Moved to Arad. Cried like a baby. Moved into my apartment. Ben Yair 7. Live next to Ale which is wonderful. My room: Me, Katie, Julia. It's nice and cozy, not too small. I got bottom bunk and I hung pictures from Heather and letters from people and photos. The other bedroom is Allison, Nikki, and Katie Frankel. Their room is pretty tiny but they go on Marva soon so I think it'll be allright. We have one bathroom and a living area and a kitchen. The layout is pretty weird but it works. I fell asleep when we got home and Katie brought all my stuff up the stairs, we're on the third floor. Super nice of her. We went to the school where we will have classes and met our madrich, Alex. He's also the Shevet Madrich. We ate mass amounts of crappy pizza and got to know each other. Somehow Emily and her acne came up. Yea, didn't take long for people here to realize I'm not so normal.
Thursday 3/4
Got up around 8 and got our pots together. Ate some crunch cereal. Got our stuff koshered. We had an orientation of sorts and learned about the rules we've already heard three times over. I went to the doctor with Ale and Julia. My eye was bothering me and I thought I prolly had a throat infection. Got eye drops and throat spray. More orientation I thnk.
Friday 3/5
Scavenger hunt. Ale and my apartment versus a couple other apartments. We had to go around Arad and find various things. We won :) and go to know the area. Went shopping for Shabbat and started to cook. Had a peula in the desert with Alex. Went home and finished cooking, had our first dinner together.
Saturday 3/6
The whole group went on a hike together to somewhere in the desert. Realized what we thought was a broken fridge was actually an unplugged fridge. I was pissed, but nothing spoiled.
Sunday 3/7
Went for a walk with Katie before class. Thought I could keep it up and do it every day. So far it hasn't happened. Had our first Ulpan. It's a really small class. Oh wait, so basically my schedule is
sunday-wednesday
ulpan 9:45- 1
lunch 1-2:30
jewish medical ethics 2:30-4:15
intro to tanach 5:30-7
thursdays: shevet
anyways. So my hebrew class is pretty small. The teacher's name is Michal. She's a student at Ben Gurion. She's very nice and a pretty good teacher. It's a long class but we only have this schedule for this month and then we switch to volunteering. I went to a place called Amigos in the mall with Ale for lunch and we got burritos. Not the best but pretty good. Had Jewish Medical Ethics next. Interesting teacher. He goes by Yeruham but his given name is Frank. Next I tried basic concepts of something or other with this Canadian teacher, but I've switched since then to the Tanach class with the Scottish teacher.
Monday 3/8
Went to the Arad shuk with Katie during our lunch break. It's cute, it's no Machane Yehuda or Shuk Hacarmel but it has tons of produce that's fresh and cheap. Some of the people aren't very nice, Katie and I got to hear the words prostitute in hebrew and russian, but it's fine. Some people just don't like it when you don't buy their stuff and keep walking. Switched into tanach. I like it a lot. I actually like all my classes in Arad a lot. They are crazy long but the teachers are all great and the material is interesting. A few of the scouts came to visit that night. Yay scouts. And Joe Cohen was here. Idk if I've mentioned him on here but he's my friend who lives in England that periodically visits Israel.
Tuesday 3/9
Class as usual. Afterwards we made cookies with Alex for our neighbors, which ended up just being for us, which I didn't get any of. Sad day. Went to Kadim with Joe and caught up some. Had an apartment crisis relating to people being stupid and irresponsible and alcohol. Narrowly avoiding getting in trouble for other people's stupidity.
Wednesday 3/10
First Lunch and Learn! It's not like it was in Jeru or Bat Yam since now it's this Rabbi instead of BG but it's still nice I suppose. The food is very eh but hopefully this will change. There was a big party I didn't go to, ended up talking to Ben for a few hours and that was pretty much my night.
Thursday 3/11
Kfar Chabad with Shevet. Saw the Matzah factory and the etrog field and learned a bit about the Rebbe and such. Got dropped off in Tel Aviv so we (Rachel, Katie, Jessica, and I) took a bus to Jeru and stayed in Katie's place in Rechavia for the night.
Friday 3/12
Friday morning we walked to Emek and met with Mike for brunch. He surprised us by bringing Ami. It was so nice! Took a bus after to Har Choma and got to Jenene's. It was so hot I thought I was going to pass out. Napped for a while and then we ate and eventually sleep again. Yay family :)
Saturday: 3/13
Tanned with Joanna for a while. Then had shabbat lunch. Amazing, as always. More tanning. The British kids from my section were all in Jerusalem that weekend for a Masa weekend and they had a coach leaving for Arad that night. I could go on the bus with them so long as i got to the bus before it left. They were at the Judean Youth hostel in Givat Masua. I was a good 40 minutes away from where they were when they told me they were leaving in 20 minutes. I bit off all my pretty fingernails :(. I got a ride to Pat and then took a cab to the youth hostel for 24 sheks. I made it! So that was great. We got to Arad and I went to dinner with a few of the Brits. They all got fish and chips. I got chocolate mousse. Yum. Went to Ale's after this with Orly and did my hebrew homework. Then went home and went to bed.
Sunday 3/14
Watched an Israeli TV show in Ulpan about a secular Russian family moving into Benai Brak. Went home for lunch and I was going to make Katie and I eggs and she was boiling potatoes. Somehow we ended up making egg drop soup. It was actually delicious. Medical ethics as usual. We had Tanach class outside. It was a nice change, but it did get dark halfway through. Spoke to my mom on the way home. Apartment meeting was after class. Found out about an iPad competition that year course is doing that I'm going to take part in. You post pictures on YC's facebook wall and the more you put the more chances you have of winning. You can do three a day until April 15th. Katie and I went grocery shopping. We went with Ale and Orly to Muza's, there was something going on for this girl Evie's birthday. We stayed for a while and then came home.
Monday: 3/15
Woke up at 8ish and did my hebrew homework. Had some cereal and went to class. Ulpan until 1 and then went to the shuk with Katie. We got a buncha nice produce and were hardly harassed. Went home to drop off the food we bought and we had lunch together. Ate a ridiculous amount of corn in a very short period of time. Went to medical ethics. I uploaded photos for the Year Course iPad competition on Catelyn's computer in between classes. I went outside to wait until Tanach started. I dosed off and no one noticed me on their way to class so I was a few minutes late. After Tanach came home and started to cook dinner. Made meat sauce with Katie but we realized we weren't very hungry so we will eat it later. She went to see Jessica and I was supposed to shower, blog, do my hebrew homework, and upload photos. Some of these things happened. Will hopefully be able to post this blog tomorrow, as of now I'm working backwards from now until the last week of Bat Yam.
Tuesday 3/16
Ulpan as usual. Had a delicious peach yogurt. Apparently it is the only kind of yogurt that I actually like. I went with Ale to the mall to meet up with our film teacher from Jerusalem for lunch. Katie and Jessica and Ami came as well. We ate too much pizza and chitchatted. He told me to rethink my college plans. I don't know if FSU is still in my future. Miami? Gainesville? ...Out of state? (Prolly not) So after lunch had Medical Ethics. We spoke about organ transplants. Then I went home and washed my hair so people could check and see if I have lice without having to pick through dirty hair. Went to Tanach and we discussed some Judaism. After class we had a movie and pizza night with the madrichim. Then did some hebrew homework with Ale and now attempting to catch up on blogging. Jessica, Rachel, Leah, Tamar, Charlie, a few other people, and Katie have lice. This is bad. I was checked by Charlie and Leah and they didn't see anything...
Wednesday 3/17
Had a lice scare. Tamar found three nits in my hair, about an inch and a half from my scalp. People were mean when I told them I thought I had lice and they made me cry. Rude. Did some lice research. The internet told me that if you have nits in your hair but they are more than a cm from your scalp that you don't need to treat. So I've been combing and checking and conditioning and I haven't found anything else. Probably will have to get treatment eventually but really don't want to deal with the time and expense and mess with my already pretty crappy hair. It's now Sunday and I still haven't found anything else in my hair so I'm prolly good.
At midnight Katie gave me a letter and put posters all over my bed and gave me this necklace that I really wanted.<3
Thursday 3/18
Birthday.
Katie made me eggs and pancakes and OJ.
Shevet siyyur to Kibbutz Ketura. There was only ten or so of us. It was pretty awesome. Played in sand dunes and made pitas and painted and had a bbq. Camera does not want to work. I think sand got in it. I don't know what to do :(. Got dropped in Be'er Sheva, took a bus to Jeru, walked to Katie's apartment, showered and checked for lice (none!). Went to take out my contacts before bed. I only had one. The one weekend I didn't bring my glasses with me. Crap.
Friday 3/19
Walked to Beit Ar El in the morning. Got on a bus for Desert Queen. Went to a forest somewhere near Mova Modim. Got a Desert Queen shirt (they had sweaters but not enough, sad.) Met some cool Australians. Did random games/activities. Got a goodie bag full of random stuff. They had keychains in them with the chagal windows from Hadassah hospital with the tribes names on them. I switched with Ale so I could have Benjamin :). It's so pretty. I got a ride from a woman who lives in Jerusalem to Har Choma so I didn't have to take a city bus. Yay. Got to Jenene's and did the usual eating and sleeping and eating and sleeping. I was so happy when I got there, it had been a sorta stressful couple of days.
Saturday 3/20
Hung out with the family and ate and napped. Left right after Shabbat so I could try and catch the 7:50 bus Katie Rachel and Jessica were going on. i missed it but Ale waited for me and we got the 8:10 to Be'er Sheva. Nikki and Katie Frankel (my apartment-mates) were also on the bus. Ate apple cake and cookies from Jenene's :). Took another bus to Arad. Came home and did more blogginggg. Almost caught up now, just need to find the schedule from the first week in Arad. Getting in and out of Arad is crazy expensive and annoying. poo.
Sunday 3/21
Normal day. Tried to fix camera. Might have resulted in further hurting camera. Will probably need to wait until I get home to see if it can be repaired. Sad day. But I can still take pictures on the iPhone. Finally caught up on my blog!!
A bird made it's nest on our kitchen windowsill. Cool. Alex says we are going to hate the noise when it hatches, but we refuse to throw it off.
I need to catch you all up on the last week and a half of Bat Yam and the first two weeks of Arad.
Sunday 2/21
Arts did their "Winter Event", a series of songs and skits and the visual people displayed what they made. (As I'm sure my mom would know I would remember) they had yummy little fancy crackers and such.
Tuesday 2/23
Shevet had a mask workshop with an Israeli actress. We learned about the different basic masks and she had us try to act in them. I was pushed into wearing one where you aren't allowed to speak and you have to use body language to convey emotion. I was unsuccessful.
Went to Dialogue in the Dark. We got there (by cab which YC treated) and walked through a series of rooms with no light led by a visually impaired woman. It was kinda scary at first but super cool.
Wednesday 2/24
Tried to frantically pack, but ended up napping.
Thursday 2/25
Shuk in the morning, then got amazing chummus in Yaffo with Katie. Had a "Cultural Evening" where we saw a group called Tararam preform some crazy drumming and dancing and then went to a Subliminal concert. The concert was eh, they're not so great live. But it was still fun and something to do.
Shabbat 2/26-27
Shevet Shabbat. The schedule I have doesn't say where we were and I can't remember the name. Ein something. We had some purim classes and did the usual shabbat stuff. Saturday night was a Purim/Birthday party.
Sunday 2/28
Went to Benedicts with Katie and got pancakes.
Seudat Purim and Megila reading for Shevet.
Monday 3/1
Adloyada parade in Holon. It was amazing. Started out crappy, I was tired and cold and hungry and annoyed. It wouldn't stop raining. But we did the parade anyway. I was on a bike with a huge man made of chicken wire and fabric on the back of it. It was supposed to be the Israeli version of Hansel and Gretel, Max and something. But in this version the kids are super dirty and they get eaten. Yea. So I rode the bike in the rain and it was glorious and people were so happy and I got all these compliments, even though I looked like wet poo.
Tuesday 3/2
Had our final peula with Ami. Kinda sad but we made it fun. I somehow wore the exact same outfit as someone else. A boy someone else. I was wearing the shirt we got from scouts weekend and Katie's black genie pants and flip flops. Yoni was wearing the same exact thing. What are the odds? It made me laugh all day.
Had a "Farewell evening from Bat Yam and Tzofim" I got an award for Best Volunteer. The award was a balloon. It was beautiful, but I decided to leave it in Bat Yam with Shira. Hung out with Shira and with Yoni. Wanted more people to hang out but everybody was packing.
Wednesday 3/3
Moved to Arad. Cried like a baby. Moved into my apartment. Ben Yair 7. Live next to Ale which is wonderful. My room: Me, Katie, Julia. It's nice and cozy, not too small. I got bottom bunk and I hung pictures from Heather and letters from people and photos. The other bedroom is Allison, Nikki, and Katie Frankel. Their room is pretty tiny but they go on Marva soon so I think it'll be allright. We have one bathroom and a living area and a kitchen. The layout is pretty weird but it works. I fell asleep when we got home and Katie brought all my stuff up the stairs, we're on the third floor. Super nice of her. We went to the school where we will have classes and met our madrich, Alex. He's also the Shevet Madrich. We ate mass amounts of crappy pizza and got to know each other. Somehow Emily and her acne came up. Yea, didn't take long for people here to realize I'm not so normal.
Thursday 3/4
Got up around 8 and got our pots together. Ate some crunch cereal. Got our stuff koshered. We had an orientation of sorts and learned about the rules we've already heard three times over. I went to the doctor with Ale and Julia. My eye was bothering me and I thought I prolly had a throat infection. Got eye drops and throat spray. More orientation I thnk.
Friday 3/5
Scavenger hunt. Ale and my apartment versus a couple other apartments. We had to go around Arad and find various things. We won :) and go to know the area. Went shopping for Shabbat and started to cook. Had a peula in the desert with Alex. Went home and finished cooking, had our first dinner together.
Saturday 3/6
The whole group went on a hike together to somewhere in the desert. Realized what we thought was a broken fridge was actually an unplugged fridge. I was pissed, but nothing spoiled.
Sunday 3/7
Went for a walk with Katie before class. Thought I could keep it up and do it every day. So far it hasn't happened. Had our first Ulpan. It's a really small class. Oh wait, so basically my schedule is
sunday-wednesday
ulpan 9:45- 1
lunch 1-2:30
jewish medical ethics 2:30-4:15
intro to tanach 5:30-7
thursdays: shevet
anyways. So my hebrew class is pretty small. The teacher's name is Michal. She's a student at Ben Gurion. She's very nice and a pretty good teacher. It's a long class but we only have this schedule for this month and then we switch to volunteering. I went to a place called Amigos in the mall with Ale for lunch and we got burritos. Not the best but pretty good. Had Jewish Medical Ethics next. Interesting teacher. He goes by Yeruham but his given name is Frank. Next I tried basic concepts of something or other with this Canadian teacher, but I've switched since then to the Tanach class with the Scottish teacher.
Monday 3/8
Went to the Arad shuk with Katie during our lunch break. It's cute, it's no Machane Yehuda or Shuk Hacarmel but it has tons of produce that's fresh and cheap. Some of the people aren't very nice, Katie and I got to hear the words prostitute in hebrew and russian, but it's fine. Some people just don't like it when you don't buy their stuff and keep walking. Switched into tanach. I like it a lot. I actually like all my classes in Arad a lot. They are crazy long but the teachers are all great and the material is interesting. A few of the scouts came to visit that night. Yay scouts. And Joe Cohen was here. Idk if I've mentioned him on here but he's my friend who lives in England that periodically visits Israel.
Tuesday 3/9
Class as usual. Afterwards we made cookies with Alex for our neighbors, which ended up just being for us, which I didn't get any of. Sad day. Went to Kadim with Joe and caught up some. Had an apartment crisis relating to people being stupid and irresponsible and alcohol. Narrowly avoiding getting in trouble for other people's stupidity.
Wednesday 3/10
First Lunch and Learn! It's not like it was in Jeru or Bat Yam since now it's this Rabbi instead of BG but it's still nice I suppose. The food is very eh but hopefully this will change. There was a big party I didn't go to, ended up talking to Ben for a few hours and that was pretty much my night.
Thursday 3/11
Kfar Chabad with Shevet. Saw the Matzah factory and the etrog field and learned a bit about the Rebbe and such. Got dropped off in Tel Aviv so we (Rachel, Katie, Jessica, and I) took a bus to Jeru and stayed in Katie's place in Rechavia for the night.
Friday 3/12
Friday morning we walked to Emek and met with Mike for brunch. He surprised us by bringing Ami. It was so nice! Took a bus after to Har Choma and got to Jenene's. It was so hot I thought I was going to pass out. Napped for a while and then we ate and eventually sleep again. Yay family :)
Saturday: 3/13
Tanned with Joanna for a while. Then had shabbat lunch. Amazing, as always. More tanning. The British kids from my section were all in Jerusalem that weekend for a Masa weekend and they had a coach leaving for Arad that night. I could go on the bus with them so long as i got to the bus before it left. They were at the Judean Youth hostel in Givat Masua. I was a good 40 minutes away from where they were when they told me they were leaving in 20 minutes. I bit off all my pretty fingernails :(. I got a ride to Pat and then took a cab to the youth hostel for 24 sheks. I made it! So that was great. We got to Arad and I went to dinner with a few of the Brits. They all got fish and chips. I got chocolate mousse. Yum. Went to Ale's after this with Orly and did my hebrew homework. Then went home and went to bed.
Sunday 3/14
Watched an Israeli TV show in Ulpan about a secular Russian family moving into Benai Brak. Went home for lunch and I was going to make Katie and I eggs and she was boiling potatoes. Somehow we ended up making egg drop soup. It was actually delicious. Medical ethics as usual. We had Tanach class outside. It was a nice change, but it did get dark halfway through. Spoke to my mom on the way home. Apartment meeting was after class. Found out about an iPad competition that year course is doing that I'm going to take part in. You post pictures on YC's facebook wall and the more you put the more chances you have of winning. You can do three a day until April 15th. Katie and I went grocery shopping. We went with Ale and Orly to Muza's, there was something going on for this girl Evie's birthday. We stayed for a while and then came home.
Monday: 3/15
Woke up at 8ish and did my hebrew homework. Had some cereal and went to class. Ulpan until 1 and then went to the shuk with Katie. We got a buncha nice produce and were hardly harassed. Went home to drop off the food we bought and we had lunch together. Ate a ridiculous amount of corn in a very short period of time. Went to medical ethics. I uploaded photos for the Year Course iPad competition on Catelyn's computer in between classes. I went outside to wait until Tanach started. I dosed off and no one noticed me on their way to class so I was a few minutes late. After Tanach came home and started to cook dinner. Made meat sauce with Katie but we realized we weren't very hungry so we will eat it later. She went to see Jessica and I was supposed to shower, blog, do my hebrew homework, and upload photos. Some of these things happened. Will hopefully be able to post this blog tomorrow, as of now I'm working backwards from now until the last week of Bat Yam.
Tuesday 3/16
Ulpan as usual. Had a delicious peach yogurt. Apparently it is the only kind of yogurt that I actually like. I went with Ale to the mall to meet up with our film teacher from Jerusalem for lunch. Katie and Jessica and Ami came as well. We ate too much pizza and chitchatted. He told me to rethink my college plans. I don't know if FSU is still in my future. Miami? Gainesville? ...Out of state? (Prolly not) So after lunch had Medical Ethics. We spoke about organ transplants. Then I went home and washed my hair so people could check and see if I have lice without having to pick through dirty hair. Went to Tanach and we discussed some Judaism. After class we had a movie and pizza night with the madrichim. Then did some hebrew homework with Ale and now attempting to catch up on blogging. Jessica, Rachel, Leah, Tamar, Charlie, a few other people, and Katie have lice. This is bad. I was checked by Charlie and Leah and they didn't see anything...
Wednesday 3/17
Had a lice scare. Tamar found three nits in my hair, about an inch and a half from my scalp. People were mean when I told them I thought I had lice and they made me cry. Rude. Did some lice research. The internet told me that if you have nits in your hair but they are more than a cm from your scalp that you don't need to treat. So I've been combing and checking and conditioning and I haven't found anything else. Probably will have to get treatment eventually but really don't want to deal with the time and expense and mess with my already pretty crappy hair. It's now Sunday and I still haven't found anything else in my hair so I'm prolly good.
At midnight Katie gave me a letter and put posters all over my bed and gave me this necklace that I really wanted.<3
Thursday 3/18
Birthday.
Katie made me eggs and pancakes and OJ.
Shevet siyyur to Kibbutz Ketura. There was only ten or so of us. It was pretty awesome. Played in sand dunes and made pitas and painted and had a bbq. Camera does not want to work. I think sand got in it. I don't know what to do :(. Got dropped in Be'er Sheva, took a bus to Jeru, walked to Katie's apartment, showered and checked for lice (none!). Went to take out my contacts before bed. I only had one. The one weekend I didn't bring my glasses with me. Crap.
Friday 3/19
Walked to Beit Ar El in the morning. Got on a bus for Desert Queen. Went to a forest somewhere near Mova Modim. Got a Desert Queen shirt (they had sweaters but not enough, sad.) Met some cool Australians. Did random games/activities. Got a goodie bag full of random stuff. They had keychains in them with the chagal windows from Hadassah hospital with the tribes names on them. I switched with Ale so I could have Benjamin :). It's so pretty. I got a ride from a woman who lives in Jerusalem to Har Choma so I didn't have to take a city bus. Yay. Got to Jenene's and did the usual eating and sleeping and eating and sleeping. I was so happy when I got there, it had been a sorta stressful couple of days.
Saturday 3/20
Hung out with the family and ate and napped. Left right after Shabbat so I could try and catch the 7:50 bus Katie Rachel and Jessica were going on. i missed it but Ale waited for me and we got the 8:10 to Be'er Sheva. Nikki and Katie Frankel (my apartment-mates) were also on the bus. Ate apple cake and cookies from Jenene's :). Took another bus to Arad. Came home and did more blogginggg. Almost caught up now, just need to find the schedule from the first week in Arad. Getting in and out of Arad is crazy expensive and annoying. poo.
Sunday 3/21
Normal day. Tried to fix camera. Might have resulted in further hurting camera. Will probably need to wait until I get home to see if it can be repaired. Sad day. But I can still take pictures on the iPhone. Finally caught up on my blog!!
A bird made it's nest on our kitchen windowsill. Cool. Alex says we are going to hate the noise when it hatches, but we refuse to throw it off.
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