My lasy post was definitely lacking. I wrote about yam l'yam in a few
paragraphs and my friends are all doing it in many many pages. Later
if I have time I might add to it, or just link to their blogs so you
guys can see what really went down from other perspectives. Right now
I'm getting ready for Sar El and I just got back from the emergency
room with Ale, so I'll just post whatever I get done before I gotta
go.

So last friday was Shevet weekend. Woke up early and got ready. Katie
made me oatmeal, she's so sweet. I walked to the mall where the bus
was picking us up with my bags and a raw chicken. The chicken was for
Tamar, she came and picked it up. It was just a minibus because there
are so few of us now. Ale came with and got a ride all the way to
Afula. We had no madrichim with which was interesting. We stopped and
I got ice cream with Jessica, there was a deal, two magnums for 16
shek, instead of 23. We picked up sammiches that Boaz ordered for us.
Wayy too much food. We got to Tsfat and went to the Hostel/Chabad
House Ascent. We stayed in the same room as last time. My room was
Katie, Rachel, Jessica, and Julia. We got changed into tzneeusness and
then walked to this cemetery with lots of important rabbis. There was
an earthquake a while back in Tsfat, so now no one really knows if
they are stepping over someone's grave or not because all the
headstones were displaced. There were lots of stairs, my legs were
still sore from Yam l'Yam so it was not fun. We went back to the
hostel and changed into shabbat clothes and went to some class. Ate a
lot of cake. Ascent always has cake and coffee out, it's great. I ate
a ridiculous amount of cake that shabbat.Kabbalat Shabbat. Met a woman
from the Philippines named Ilana, but I don't think she was Jewish.
Katie and I went to a host family together for dinner. We thought it
was the same as last time, and it seemed right because the address
looked really familiar, I remembered asking 20 people where it was
when we got lost. But we were wrong. There were two crazies walking
with us there. A woman from Tel Aviv, originally Toronto, and a guy
from Kfar Sabba. She was spacey and super weird and he was just
Israeli weird. We found the house and the people were pretty nice, but
slightly patronizing. I asked where the bathroom was and they told me
not to turn the light out. But anyways, there was a bunch of people,
Katie and I were at the end of the table next to two sem girls and
crazy Tel Avivian. One of the girls goes to Nishmat with Yael. We had
fun talking, they were pretty normal but didn't seem like they usually
encounter the likes of Katie and I. (Which would make sense, since
we're not quite normal.) The Nishmat girl said she never sleeps
Thursday nights, so I jokingly said, why, you party too hard? She said
no, I was playing frisbee at the park. But she thought it was the
funniest thing and kept brining it up, sooo scandalous. I ate a ton,
thank you shabbat stomach. After dinner Katie and I hung around for a
while and chatted while little children kept stealing my key to our
room in the hostel. Eventually we left, super late. We were worried
the other girls were waiting up on us, since we had the key. But when
we got there the they weren't in yet. I walked around the lobby area
to see if they were waiting there, and some guy asked who I was
looking for. He hadn't seen them, so he said sorry I don't know where
they are, but here take tea. People in Tsfat are so creepy and nice.
The girls came back later, they had been at some fabragin (spelling?
meaning?) Sleep.
I slept in on Shabbat. Rachel and I were the last ones up from our
room, we got ready and went downstairs. We had some cake (obviously)
and then went to a class. We prolly had lunch after this, but I don't
really remember. I sat with Emma, my volunteering madricha from first
semester. After lunch was a "mystical tour of tsfat". It started out
nice, but it was kind of crap. We were walking around and this woman
was telling us about tsfat's history and different nice things. But
then she told us a story about how a bunch of children were kidnapped
and killed because the mezuzahs at their school were flawed. I didn't
like that. Went back to Ascent and ate some foods. Tried to get some
rest in for the craziness of the lag b'omer. Had a "musical havdalah"
and then there was a malavah malka. We left for Har Meron after 11.
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochi is buried there and on Lag B'omer 500,00 people
go there to pray and dance and act crazy. I wrote a bunch of people's
names on a paper and fought to get to the grave to put the paper
there. It was insane. We were warned that a lot of people beg for
money there, but most people were just trying to give out stuff-
shoko, cake, other food, water, coffee...We left around 1:30 and went
back to Ascent.
On Sunday we had lunch together and then got on the bus to Arad. Julia
and I went food shopping and then we had an apartment meeting with
Alex. I basically told him I was going to skip some Arad programing to
see family and do last minute things before the end of Year Course,
and he was fine with it. I spoke to my mom a bunch. Orly called me and
told me I was volunteering at Ein Gedi now and what to bring tomorrow
morning. I woke up at 6 and got dressed. Waited around until 5 to 7
and walked with Orly to the bus stop. When we got there I was
introduced to everyone and they said if I needed anything ask. So I
asked for one of the super cool shirts they all have. They said
they'll have them for us next time. :) I'm trying to leave with less
stuff then I came here with but it's hard cuz we keep getting
t-shirts. I have 2 from Jerusalem, 3 from Bat Yam, and 2 from Arad.
Not to mention the 3 pairs of genie pants that I've gotten. I'll find
room. So anyhows the first thing we did at volunteering was help this
guy with a paper he wrote in English. We did that for a little while
and then they told us go play. So we hike a bit, I fell on my butt- I
mean, I was attacked by an ibex, and got a nice big bruise on my butt.
We went swimming and it was so nice. Witnessed a baptism, interesting.
Spoke to Israeli children. We walked to the the Dead Sea. There were
so many tourists from the South. A bunch of madrichim called me, turns
out I wasn't really switched to Ein Gedi. Oops, I'm staying anyway. We
helped the guy with his paper some more and then we put up fences
around trees so animals wouldn't eat them. That was pretty difficult
and it was veryyy hot. We got the bus home and had five minutes to go
to our apartments and change, then we had to meet Dikla at the mall,
she was taking us and the Masada kids to our lag b'omer activity. I
really don't know where we were. We were supposed to roast
marshmallows and cook potatoes but the potatoes never materialized. A
bunch of bedouins came and kinda crowded us. They weren't mean, just
annoying. We went home and I got to shower all the Ein Gediness and
bonfire stank off. Yay.
Tuesday was the Masa Mega Event in Jeru. I woke up really early to
blog and pack. Slept most of the bus ride. We had different seminars
when we got there. There was some interesting stuff about Israel's
place in the world and how its been seen and how it can be seen. They
had different food stands and they gave us each a ticket for food and
a ticket for a drink. I ended up with a few tickets, no surprise
there, and ate a bunch of foods. It was all pretty yuck, though. We
spoke about college and defending Israel on campus. Some of the
speakers were really good. After the seminars there was a Hadag
nachash concert. But before that Natan Sharansky and Binyamin
Netanyahu spoke to us. Cool stuff. The concert was eh, I don't think
they're so good live. Every Israeli will disagree with me but whatevs.
Rachel, Jessica, Katie, Haley and I walked to Katie's apartment after
and went to bed.