Wednesday May 5th I hung out with Orly all day. Woke up late and went with her to Shuk. Got some fun things like earrings and cool pretty pants. Why do I feel like I wrote this already? We spent a lot of time at the shuk and then we went back to Katie's. We changed into nicer stuff and went to the Kotel for Boaz's (Jessica's boyfriend) army ceremony. Orly and I wandered off and met her friend Jessica who is fun and crazy like us, only English. We went to get sushi on the way home and took it back to Katie's. Ate and pretty much passed out.
Thursday. Actually did nothing. All day. I woke up early to go skype Ben but he couldn't really talk so I came back to Katie's. She was awake and said we were going to Beit Ar El that day. I was going to go with. She told me to go back to bed since it was pretty early so I was like okay and then I woke up to the sound of them leaving. Ouch. So I just stayed there with Orly. We watched a movie about dramatic ballet dancers, I can't remember the name. Then she went to meet her friend for a while. This girl Haley came over who I've never really spoken to but we talked for a long time and it was nice. Then there was another ceremony at the kotel for someone I didn't really know so I stayed home and watched The Pursuit of Happyness. Then went out and hung out with Joshey.
Friday I got up before everyone and got ready to go to my aunt's for Shabbat. I just missed the bus so I had to wait a bit for the next one. It took a long time to get a ride into Nokdim, but I got there and it was good. I was trying to sort out going to Petra and how I was going to get back to Arad, because the bus times just did not work out. I decided I would get a ride to the CBS with Stefan and Ella when they left the next day and just wait around until the buses started running. Had a really nice time being there, it had been a few weeks. I'm really going to miss going for Shabbat...
Saturday Stefan and Ella came over with the kids to celebrate their birthdays. Lot of fun and family and foods :). Joanna wanted to go with them to Cfar Saba when they left so I stayed and Jenene drove me to the bus station. Waited at the bus station until Katie, Haley, and Rachel came. We figured out more of what we are doing for Petra. Took a bus to Be'er Sheva and then a bus to Arad. Ale wasn't feeling well so she wanted me to come over. I decided to just sleep over, Orly wasn't home so I took her bed.
Sunday started early for me. Ale woke me up at 4. I called Alex and Har El and spoke to lots of people before we took a cab to the emergency room. Waited for a long time, they didn't want to see us unless we gave them 100 dollars and we didn't even have that much on us. They didn't seem to understand we had insurance but they finally figured it out. She was seen by a doctor and given an IV. Around 6 we left. I went home and packed for Sar El and blogged some. Got on a bus. Stopped at the same place I ran into Heather when she was on birthright. Got crunch ice cream. Stopped for lunch at the base Bat Sheva where half of us stayed. The rest of us went on to the Misgav base in the north. We met our madricha, her name is Liron. She looked super young, we found out later she's the same age as us. We got uniforms. After switching a few times we got uniforms that didn't fall off. We met with the commander of the base. He told us about the base, said it was mostly people working logistics. So, no combat soldiers. The base is pretty close to Lebanon so if anything ever happens they could organize supplies. We had dinner, there was lots of shoko. Yums. We talked to lots of soldiers around. They seem to like having us around. The rooms they had us in were really nice. Sheets on the beds and everything. I was with Orly so I was happy. The showers and bathrooms were clean. We were kinda expecting the place to be crap. I spoke to my grandparents and went to sleep.
Monday, first real day of Sar El. I woke up not feeling too well. We ate breakfast. Our room cleaned the bathrooms and went to the base's flag raising. We all took a bus to a different part of the base for volunteering. I helped a bit stacking mattresses but then I started feeling really sick and icky. So I kinda just sat inside a warehouse for a few hours. Eventually got up and went outside, and saw what breakfast looked like again. Fun. I was kinda worried, what with Ale having been really sick and being with her that morning. I didn't want to eat the rest of the day but Liron said I really should. I volunteered in the kitchen with Annie instead of going outside again so if I felt sick I could just go back to our room. We started working for a while but I got sick again. Made good friends with the medic and doctor on base. Got lots of pills and went to sleep until everyone got back. Felt pretty poopish. Went to the evening activity, which was learning about what the colors of the berets and patches and stuff mean in the army. Then forced myself to eat some dinner and went to sleep.
Tuesday I got up with everyone else but decided to stay in until lunch. Went with Orly and Monica to shrink wrap stuff with someone named Katya. We had fun. Shrinkwrapped bamba, a water bottle, and random other things. Went to dinner and then to the evening activity. We played Israeli Jeopardy and yelled at each other. Showered and went to sleep.
Wednesday got up at 7. There was pancakes, they were pretty yums. Went to work with Tamar, Orly, and Evie. Mada was there doing a blood drive. I couldn't donate because I already did a couple months ago. We went and played hide and seek in a tank warehouse. But then we had to pretend to tighten air valves and things because someone was coming to check up on us. Went to lunch. Went back to work after lunch but there really was no work so we sat in an office, then had to hide in a room when the commander came or else the soldiers in charge of us would get in trouble. Orly and I went with one of the soldiers to accompany him to give blood. Evening activity was getting Sar El shirts and hats and speaking about our experience.
Thursday was our last day there. We had to clean up the room pretty well and then we had breakfast and went to the flag raising. They sent us all to work at the same place, but there was really no work. So we hung out with soldiers and then went and packed up to go. We had lunch in our civilian garb and then we left. Drove to other base and picked everyone up, drove to Arad, drove to Be'er Sheva. Got off there and took a bus to Eilat. Got to Eilat and went to our hostel. it was really nice. We made friends with other english speakers staying there and hung out.
Friday we got up at 6 and were picked up by a bus at 6:50. We got to the border and waited around for a very long time. Eventually we started going through. It was pretty simple, they checked and stamped our passports and they checked our stuff. We were hanging out outside of some store waiting to get started. Some guys in the store talked to us and wanted us to try their scarves on and take pictures. Our group was a bunch of Americans and Europeans. We got on a bus and started driving to Petra. It was about a 2 hour drive and our guide was explaining Jordan's history and whatnot. Honestly, I really couldn't understand most of what he said. We got to Petra and walked through with the guide. Again, I couldn't understand most of what he said, so I made up some stuff that I imagined he might be saying...about dinosaurs. No but it was really cool. There were ancient burial chambers built into the mountains and lots of cool carvings and whatnot. There were camels and horses everywhere. The Jordanians try to get us silly Americans to pay for rides on them. They kept calling out to us "Horse, lady, horse!!" and I said, "I am not a horse lady". They did not understand. Some parts of it were really incredible. I think the most famous part is what they call "the treasure". It's this whole temple built into the side of a mountain, with lots of intricate carvings all over. We walked around by ourselves and saw more pretty cool stuff. Took lots of photos, so I'm sure they'll end up on facebook. If not I'll have them emailed to me and I can send them to whoever wants 'em. We had interesting conversations with the people trying to sell us crap. They pick up all of their english on the street, is pretty funny. We went to a place called Petra, A Magical Restaurant for lunch. This was already at 4 or 5 so we were super hungry. Ate lots. It was included in the tour. Drove back to the border and started going through customs. Israeli side is way more thorough. One of our bags set something off so we all had to evacuate and then get angry customs people yelling at us. It was Elana's backpack that has had issues in the past. We smoothed things over and got out of there. Later, she found extremely strong magnets in her bag. Yea. So we got back to our hostel and showered. A few of us went to an Infected Mushroom show but I stayed in and hung out with people at the hostel.
On Saturday (the 15th) we woke up late and got all our stuff together. This whole process took quite a while. We walked to the beach and stayed there a couple hours. It was really really hot outside but the beach was wonderful. We wanted to leave to make our bus to Be'er Sheva, but something always came up that made us wait until we might not have been able to make it to the bus on foot. So we had to take cabs. I was pretty unhappy about that, but it was hardly any money I was just annoyed at people. This weekend will be my last outing with more than just my core group of friends. I have a strong distate for people. We got on the bus to Be'er Sheva and I was sitting next to a randomer. We had a 15 minute break and I got a Magnum Desire ice cream bar. it was incredible. When we got back on the bus i started speaking with the person next to me. He asked if I wanted to watch a movie, so that made the rest of the bus ride a lot better. We started watching My Sister's Keeper. Didn't see the end though. We got to Be'er Sheva and split up with Katie, she went to her sister's. Then we took a bus to Arad. Yoni was supposed to come visit but he got on the wrong bus and that didn't work out. So I got home and remembered the water hadn't been working while I was on Sar El and freaked out, but it was better now. Orly came over and we were going to have a crazy sleepover that ended in her passing out on the couch and me talking to Ben until wayyy late. It was still a really nice night.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Yam l'yam- yea, I'm tough.
Thursday 4/15:
Went to the falafel place for volunteering. Two crazy ladies work there. Got ready for Jeru, Katie, Jessica and I went to Be'er Sheva together. We went on a bathroom hunt at the bus station which was pretty exciting and then Jessica and I went to Jeru.
Saw a bunch of friends, fun.
Friday 4/16:
Went to Jenene's. Laura was sick :(. I worked some on school stuff, ate, napped, ate, and worked some more. Read some of the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it's so good.
Saturday 4:17
Did some laundry and some hanging out. Ate lunch with the fam and then worked on my paper more. Went to Malcha with Jenene and Laura. Worked more, spoke to Ben, sleep.
Sunday 4/18:
Woke up early. Jenene dropped me off by the CBS and I walked to Katie's. It was a really pretty walk since it was nice out and it was early for most people to be out. I found some wireless and talked to Ben for a while. Slept for a while then walked to Beit Ar El to work on my paper. We went to a ceremony for Yom Hazikaron on Emek Refaim. I hardly understood any of it. Went back to Katie's, book, sleep.
Monday 4/19:
Mad dash to get to Har Hertzl. There was a bus coming from Arad that we wanted to get on but we had to run to the bus station and almost missed it. When we got there our group handed out water, candles, and flowers. There was a short ceremony and then people could stay for an optional tour. Saw a bunch of marchers. Took a bus to Katie's afterwards. We walked to Beit Ar El. Shevet and Shalem had davening together and then Shevet went out to dinner together. We got a ton of food. Walked to Katie's afterwards and then to town. Saw some more marchers. Hung out with a bunch of people, saw old high school friends out and about.
Tuesday 4/20:
Went to Beit Ar El for a Yom Haatzmaut Barbeque. Walked with some of my friends and Mike to Mamilla. They had these crazy performers there reenacting every generation of zionist history. It was packed. Went to the kotel. Saw more marchers. Went back to Katie's, wanted to go out and see Joshey and other people but just went to sleep.
Wednesday 4/21:
Walked from Katie's to the CBS super early. Somehow made it there in half an hour even though I thought I got lost. Took a bus to Be'er Sheva. Took a bus to Arad. Went to lunch and learn. Cleaned out the freezer with Julia, washed the floors, bleached the tub. Had a peula and an Ulpan review class.
Thursday 4/22:
Siyyur to army bases in the South. Met with lone soldiers and did a shooting simulation that was very similar to duck hunt. We were trying to figure out Yam l'yam but did not know how we were going to manage it. We heard there was rain and that if we stayed outside we would die and other wonderful things. We were dropped in Be'er Sheva so we went to the train station to get a train to Neharia. It wasn't open, so we had some general freaking out (random: there are pigeons fighting on my window right now) until a random guy came up to us and said look here's a free shuttle to another train station. So we get on that bus and then end up about an hour away, and our train is about to leave. People there tell us to buy our tickets on the train so we say okay and get on. No one comes to make us buy a ticket so we think they'll check us when we have to stop in Haifa. Nope. I know this is bad but we really weren't trying to get out of paying, we just didn't know how. So long story short we get to Neharia for free to Achzeev Beach for 6 shek each. We were trying to find the actual beach, the cab we took didn't take us up to it and it was dark. This car came by and these two guys, Avi and Gil I think, showed us this really great spot on the beach and helped us carry our stuff there. So we get settled and go to bed on the beach.
Friday 4/23:
We wake up early and get our stuff together and start. We had to walk a bit before we got on the dry river bed that you're supposed to follow on the trail. We got to a regular road that we just had to follow for a while. Stopped to eat and discussed where we had to make it by the end of the day. Kept walking until lunch, when we realized it was unlikely that we get as far as we wanted. The path got harder and people started to whine. Finally we got to somewhere we could stay for the night, a placed called Avrim. We tried to find water for a while but the settlement didn't make much sense. We ended up filling our bottles in a restaurant outside of it, and they told us we could sleep behind their place. And, they were making something with chocolate batter and they let us lick the dough :). Spoke to my mom. Monica, Katie, and I tried to find a Mekolet to get some stuff and met up with some people doing Yam l'yam the other direction. They said there was no way we could finish in 3 days unless we cut part of the trip and rearranged things. So we decided to do that. Bed by 8:30.
Saturday 4/24:
Tried to get everyone up at 4:30, failed. We walked up this road for a while and it was actually really hard. Eventually got to a place where we could either walk through or around this town. We thought it was an Arab town and decided to walk through it since it looked fine and we were a big group. Interestingly enough we see a bunch of religious Jews walking around and realize it is not an Arab town after all. We get back on the actual trail and start getting lost. At different points there were tons of pretty flowers, though this is true of most of the hike. Might get days confused sometimes. At one point the trail was between a wild cow and her babies, so we had to wait around until they moved. Frustrating and funny. We got near the campsite that we wanted for the night and some girls from a religious town nearby helped us get water. Walked a little bit to the campsite. There was a big group there on their way out, they gave us bread, pita, challah, techina, cheese, and rice. It was amazing.
We meet some guys doing Shveil Yisroel and they say that couldn't get to the Kinneret tomorrow so we definitely wouldn't be able to. They say take an extra day. The guy who told us this was named Yaniv.
Sunday 4/25:
Wanted to get out 5:30, of course did not. The trail was pretty hard and kind of scary at times. We spent a lot of the morning walking through fields of thorns. Not too fun in short shorts. We were making pretty good time in the morning when we stopped for lunch. Some people who had slept in the same area as us told us we could make the Kineret by the end of the day, so I wanted to try for it but the girls wanted to sleep at the Kibbutsz. Lunch took forever. We started walking again but someone felt sick so we had to stop. Yaniv and his friends passed us. We finally got moving again but we were going really slowly and started to get scared we were going to get stuck out there past dark. People going the other way started bringing messages from Yaniv to call him, he was prolly worried it was taking us so long. One of the girls said she had to stop and I said we can't we have no time so everyone started yelling and I started screaming and crying and telling them what a bunch of weak miserable brats they were all being. Afterwards people calmed down and said sorry, but I didn't, because I meant what I said. We got to the Kibbutz and used a real bathroom. Saw ourselves for the first time in a while, yucks. A woman asked us if we wanted to camp in front of her house and use her bathroom. Most of us were all for it, except apparently Yaniv and his buddies went to the Kineret. We were only 3 km away. But it was already also most too dark outside to walk and getting a ride felt like cheating. So we stayed. The woman offered us her shower but we knew we'd be home the next day so we didn't use it. Funny, she prolly just thought we were really dirty. I called Ben and Julia to tell them we weren't dead and I went to sleep. Ooh,also called Gavriel to wish him a happy birfday but his phone was off.
Monday 4/26:
Woke everyone up at 5, still didn't end up getting out until after 6. A dog followed us out of the Kibbutz. We thought he would turn back eventually but he just kept walking with us. We got off the road and onto the trail and walked past some fields. People wanted to stop at 10 to 8 so we stopped for a bit. I just wanted to get to the Kineret already. We got onto another road and got to the point where we thought we'd be at the beach. There was a private beach area that looked like you had to pay to get in. We walked in and convinced them we just wanted to finish our hike and we'd be out in five minutes. We got to the water when a few people in our group decided they didn't like this beach enough so we had to find another one. Ugh. So we got to the promenade in Tevaria and went to that beach and it was fun and great to be finally semi clean. We ceremoniously poured out our waterbottles from one Sea to the next. We went to the bus station and took a bus to Jeru, then a bus to Be'er Sheva, then to Arad. I got a call from Eli, my volunteering madrich,wanting to know why I hadn't come in today. I explained and he said okay to work it out with the people at the store. So, as soon as I got off the bus I walked to the store but it was already closed. SO I went to the last five minutes of Ulpan and it was really fun 'cuz I just talked about the hike. Went home and showered and found something to eat, then sleep, in a bed!
Tuesday 4/27;
Volunteering. Was a little worried about having to explain my absence but when I got there they really didn't care. Work wasn't too bad. I had a shwarma at around 11, and they tried to make me eat more all day but I just wasn't hungry again. I stayed until 3:30 and I took a double fried shnitzel home. I went to Orly's so we could catch up. We napped some and then went to the ATM together. We had an adventure where we met a cat with no nose and found a cool health food store and an interesting clothing shop. Also we stopped at the bakery. Orly was coming to my place for dinner so she brought dessert. We had stuffed peppers, Katie did all the cooking so I got to be lazy. Dinner was yums. Set out to watch Tru Blood with Orly but it didn't want to work. Spoke with my mom which was nice and soon after fell asleep.
Wedneseday 4/28:
Woke up 20 minutes before Lunch and Learn, as opposed to the few hours before that I had hoped to get some work and tanning in. Was not pleased. Went to Lunch and Learn with Orly. My body pulled a rude trick on me involving woman things and I was unequipped to deal with the issue there so I pretty much walked out of the class and went home. On my way this woman stopped me and said there was an unclaimed bag on the corner and could I call the cops notify them? (Most everyone reading this probably knowns, but this a commonly done thing in this country.) So I say sure and she calls them since I didn't trust my hebrew for that and she thanks me, saying I'm the only one who stopped and cared. I went home and started working on my paper, Orly lent me her computer. Orly came by after and kept me company. I was really in a state from annoying body stuff. I made "period stew", AKA, I stacked brownies and peanut butter together and put the whole mess in the microwave for a while. Packed my stuff for a Section 1 overnight night hike/camping thing. We met at the mall and took a bus to Sde Boker. The marva kids are on field week and we knew they were right there. Orly wanted to find her boyfriend Adam but we weren't really allowed. We ate foods and made a fire and stayed up too late laughing too loud. Fun.
Thursday 4/29:
Woke up pretty early. Orly went to see Adam at 5 something since I guess that'swhen they get up but then she came back. We started to pack up our stuff and had lots of giggles. I love that girl. We saw the Marva kids, which is cool, I just don't really like most of them. Eventually we got foooods. I didn't know I like cariot until today. We were supposed to make food for lunch later on. And when I say make, I mean put sandwhiches together from a bunch of stuff they put out for us. Yea, we had catered camping. Ha. There was a goat head in one of the trees by where we were camping. Not normal. The yam l'yam girls ate the avacado that Monica had hidden in my bag the first day of our hike. We went to the beach, chof nitzanim where I was at for Boombamella. It was soo nice. The waves were crazy but me and Orly went in anyway and got our butts kickced by the ocean. Ouch. I was laying on the sand for a bit, I even made a sand pillow, when my friends half buried me without my consent. Not that I fought them off really. I tried halva to see if I started liking it. I do. I went up to Ale and we made up, quick and painless like. We made our way back to Arad. I've been working on my Tanach final on the book of Job. It's finished basically but I want someone to check it before I send it in. Orly's friend is in Arad visiting. I'm supposed to hang out with them later. We'll see. Shevet weekend starts tomorrow morning and ends Sunday.
I'll tell you about Shevet weekend later :)
Went to the falafel place for volunteering. Two crazy ladies work there. Got ready for Jeru, Katie, Jessica and I went to Be'er Sheva together. We went on a bathroom hunt at the bus station which was pretty exciting and then Jessica and I went to Jeru.
Saw a bunch of friends, fun.
Friday 4/16:
Went to Jenene's. Laura was sick :(. I worked some on school stuff, ate, napped, ate, and worked some more. Read some of the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it's so good.
Saturday 4:17
Did some laundry and some hanging out. Ate lunch with the fam and then worked on my paper more. Went to Malcha with Jenene and Laura. Worked more, spoke to Ben, sleep.
Sunday 4/18:
Woke up early. Jenene dropped me off by the CBS and I walked to Katie's. It was a really pretty walk since it was nice out and it was early for most people to be out. I found some wireless and talked to Ben for a while. Slept for a while then walked to Beit Ar El to work on my paper. We went to a ceremony for Yom Hazikaron on Emek Refaim. I hardly understood any of it. Went back to Katie's, book, sleep.
Monday 4/19:
Mad dash to get to Har Hertzl. There was a bus coming from Arad that we wanted to get on but we had to run to the bus station and almost missed it. When we got there our group handed out water, candles, and flowers. There was a short ceremony and then people could stay for an optional tour. Saw a bunch of marchers. Took a bus to Katie's afterwards. We walked to Beit Ar El. Shevet and Shalem had davening together and then Shevet went out to dinner together. We got a ton of food. Walked to Katie's afterwards and then to town. Saw some more marchers. Hung out with a bunch of people, saw old high school friends out and about.
Tuesday 4/20:
Went to Beit Ar El for a Yom Haatzmaut Barbeque. Walked with some of my friends and Mike to Mamilla. They had these crazy performers there reenacting every generation of zionist history. It was packed. Went to the kotel. Saw more marchers. Went back to Katie's, wanted to go out and see Joshey and other people but just went to sleep.
Wednesday 4/21:
Walked from Katie's to the CBS super early. Somehow made it there in half an hour even though I thought I got lost. Took a bus to Be'er Sheva. Took a bus to Arad. Went to lunch and learn. Cleaned out the freezer with Julia, washed the floors, bleached the tub. Had a peula and an Ulpan review class.
Thursday 4/22:
Siyyur to army bases in the South. Met with lone soldiers and did a shooting simulation that was very similar to duck hunt. We were trying to figure out Yam l'yam but did not know how we were going to manage it. We heard there was rain and that if we stayed outside we would die and other wonderful things. We were dropped in Be'er Sheva so we went to the train station to get a train to Neharia. It wasn't open, so we had some general freaking out (random: there are pigeons fighting on my window right now) until a random guy came up to us and said look here's a free shuttle to another train station. So we get on that bus and then end up about an hour away, and our train is about to leave. People there tell us to buy our tickets on the train so we say okay and get on. No one comes to make us buy a ticket so we think they'll check us when we have to stop in Haifa. Nope. I know this is bad but we really weren't trying to get out of paying, we just didn't know how. So long story short we get to Neharia for free to Achzeev Beach for 6 shek each. We were trying to find the actual beach, the cab we took didn't take us up to it and it was dark. This car came by and these two guys, Avi and Gil I think, showed us this really great spot on the beach and helped us carry our stuff there. So we get settled and go to bed on the beach.
Friday 4/23:
We wake up early and get our stuff together and start. We had to walk a bit before we got on the dry river bed that you're supposed to follow on the trail. We got to a regular road that we just had to follow for a while. Stopped to eat and discussed where we had to make it by the end of the day. Kept walking until lunch, when we realized it was unlikely that we get as far as we wanted. The path got harder and people started to whine. Finally we got to somewhere we could stay for the night, a placed called Avrim. We tried to find water for a while but the settlement didn't make much sense. We ended up filling our bottles in a restaurant outside of it, and they told us we could sleep behind their place. And, they were making something with chocolate batter and they let us lick the dough :). Spoke to my mom. Monica, Katie, and I tried to find a Mekolet to get some stuff and met up with some people doing Yam l'yam the other direction. They said there was no way we could finish in 3 days unless we cut part of the trip and rearranged things. So we decided to do that. Bed by 8:30.
Saturday 4/24:
Tried to get everyone up at 4:30, failed. We walked up this road for a while and it was actually really hard. Eventually got to a place where we could either walk through or around this town. We thought it was an Arab town and decided to walk through it since it looked fine and we were a big group. Interestingly enough we see a bunch of religious Jews walking around and realize it is not an Arab town after all. We get back on the actual trail and start getting lost. At different points there were tons of pretty flowers, though this is true of most of the hike. Might get days confused sometimes. At one point the trail was between a wild cow and her babies, so we had to wait around until they moved. Frustrating and funny. We got near the campsite that we wanted for the night and some girls from a religious town nearby helped us get water. Walked a little bit to the campsite. There was a big group there on their way out, they gave us bread, pita, challah, techina, cheese, and rice. It was amazing.
We meet some guys doing Shveil Yisroel and they say that couldn't get to the Kinneret tomorrow so we definitely wouldn't be able to. They say take an extra day. The guy who told us this was named Yaniv.
Sunday 4/25:
Wanted to get out 5:30, of course did not. The trail was pretty hard and kind of scary at times. We spent a lot of the morning walking through fields of thorns. Not too fun in short shorts. We were making pretty good time in the morning when we stopped for lunch. Some people who had slept in the same area as us told us we could make the Kineret by the end of the day, so I wanted to try for it but the girls wanted to sleep at the Kibbutsz. Lunch took forever. We started walking again but someone felt sick so we had to stop. Yaniv and his friends passed us. We finally got moving again but we were going really slowly and started to get scared we were going to get stuck out there past dark. People going the other way started bringing messages from Yaniv to call him, he was prolly worried it was taking us so long. One of the girls said she had to stop and I said we can't we have no time so everyone started yelling and I started screaming and crying and telling them what a bunch of weak miserable brats they were all being. Afterwards people calmed down and said sorry, but I didn't, because I meant what I said. We got to the Kibbutz and used a real bathroom. Saw ourselves for the first time in a while, yucks. A woman asked us if we wanted to camp in front of her house and use her bathroom. Most of us were all for it, except apparently Yaniv and his buddies went to the Kineret. We were only 3 km away. But it was already also most too dark outside to walk and getting a ride felt like cheating. So we stayed. The woman offered us her shower but we knew we'd be home the next day so we didn't use it. Funny, she prolly just thought we were really dirty. I called Ben and Julia to tell them we weren't dead and I went to sleep. Ooh,also called Gavriel to wish him a happy birfday but his phone was off.
Monday 4/26:
Woke everyone up at 5, still didn't end up getting out until after 6. A dog followed us out of the Kibbutz. We thought he would turn back eventually but he just kept walking with us. We got off the road and onto the trail and walked past some fields. People wanted to stop at 10 to 8 so we stopped for a bit. I just wanted to get to the Kineret already. We got onto another road and got to the point where we thought we'd be at the beach. There was a private beach area that looked like you had to pay to get in. We walked in and convinced them we just wanted to finish our hike and we'd be out in five minutes. We got to the water when a few people in our group decided they didn't like this beach enough so we had to find another one. Ugh. So we got to the promenade in Tevaria and went to that beach and it was fun and great to be finally semi clean. We ceremoniously poured out our waterbottles from one Sea to the next. We went to the bus station and took a bus to Jeru, then a bus to Be'er Sheva, then to Arad. I got a call from Eli, my volunteering madrich,wanting to know why I hadn't come in today. I explained and he said okay to work it out with the people at the store. So, as soon as I got off the bus I walked to the store but it was already closed. SO I went to the last five minutes of Ulpan and it was really fun 'cuz I just talked about the hike. Went home and showered and found something to eat, then sleep, in a bed!
Tuesday 4/27;
Volunteering. Was a little worried about having to explain my absence but when I got there they really didn't care. Work wasn't too bad. I had a shwarma at around 11, and they tried to make me eat more all day but I just wasn't hungry again. I stayed until 3:30 and I took a double fried shnitzel home. I went to Orly's so we could catch up. We napped some and then went to the ATM together. We had an adventure where we met a cat with no nose and found a cool health food store and an interesting clothing shop. Also we stopped at the bakery. Orly was coming to my place for dinner so she brought dessert. We had stuffed peppers, Katie did all the cooking so I got to be lazy. Dinner was yums. Set out to watch Tru Blood with Orly but it didn't want to work. Spoke with my mom which was nice and soon after fell asleep.
Wedneseday 4/28:
Woke up 20 minutes before Lunch and Learn, as opposed to the few hours before that I had hoped to get some work and tanning in. Was not pleased. Went to Lunch and Learn with Orly. My body pulled a rude trick on me involving woman things and I was unequipped to deal with the issue there so I pretty much walked out of the class and went home. On my way this woman stopped me and said there was an unclaimed bag on the corner and could I call the cops notify them? (Most everyone reading this probably knowns, but this a commonly done thing in this country.) So I say sure and she calls them since I didn't trust my hebrew for that and she thanks me, saying I'm the only one who stopped and cared. I went home and started working on my paper, Orly lent me her computer. Orly came by after and kept me company. I was really in a state from annoying body stuff. I made "period stew", AKA, I stacked brownies and peanut butter together and put the whole mess in the microwave for a while. Packed my stuff for a Section 1 overnight night hike/camping thing. We met at the mall and took a bus to Sde Boker. The marva kids are on field week and we knew they were right there. Orly wanted to find her boyfriend Adam but we weren't really allowed. We ate foods and made a fire and stayed up too late laughing too loud. Fun.
Thursday 4/29:
Woke up pretty early. Orly went to see Adam at 5 something since I guess that'swhen they get up but then she came back. We started to pack up our stuff and had lots of giggles. I love that girl. We saw the Marva kids, which is cool, I just don't really like most of them. Eventually we got foooods. I didn't know I like cariot until today. We were supposed to make food for lunch later on. And when I say make, I mean put sandwhiches together from a bunch of stuff they put out for us. Yea, we had catered camping. Ha. There was a goat head in one of the trees by where we were camping. Not normal. The yam l'yam girls ate the avacado that Monica had hidden in my bag the first day of our hike. We went to the beach, chof nitzanim where I was at for Boombamella. It was soo nice. The waves were crazy but me and Orly went in anyway and got our butts kickced by the ocean. Ouch. I was laying on the sand for a bit, I even made a sand pillow, when my friends half buried me without my consent. Not that I fought them off really. I tried halva to see if I started liking it. I do. I went up to Ale and we made up, quick and painless like. We made our way back to Arad. I've been working on my Tanach final on the book of Job. It's finished basically but I want someone to check it before I send it in. Orly's friend is in Arad visiting. I'm supposed to hang out with them later. We'll see. Shevet weekend starts tomorrow morning and ends Sunday.
I'll tell you about Shevet weekend later :)
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Finals, Spring Breakin', Falafel Time.
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
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
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.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Homewrecker, but not the kind you would normally think..
Friday evening:
I flooded the house. Before shabbat dinner I went to shower. I was in the bathroom, showering (duh) when Phillipe knocked on the door and asked if everything was allright. I hadn't noticed the water had been spraying outside the shower curtain onto the floor. It had soaked the bathroom and made it's way under the door, into the hall, almost to the kitchen. I was so embarrassed. I cleaned up in the bathroom while everyone else cleaned up the rest of the house. Ah I felt so bad. I wanted to cry but I didn't, yet. We all sat down for dinner and during Kiddush I started crying. 'Cause, you know, I'm crazy and stuff. Everyone said it was fine and don't cry and after a while we just ended up laughing about it. So we just kept making jokes about me flooding the house the rest of the weekend. I didn't mind at all, it made me feel less embarrassed and awful.
Saturday:
Visited with Phillipe's daughter and her husband and baby in Gilo. We hung out for a while and I ate some elephant ear cookies. Stephan and Ella came with their kids and Laura. We went home and ate and hung out. Jenene and Laura were going shopping in Talpyiot so she gave me a ride to Har Choma and I got the 74 to the bus station. I got on a bus pretty quickly to Tel Aviv, it should have taken about an hour to get there. It took just under 2 hours. And it was crowded. At least I got a seat. When I got to Tel Aviv it was already pretty late, past 10, and I knew it was going to take about another hour to get to Bat Yam. I didn't want to walk home alone so I called Ale and asked her and Katie to meet met at the bus stop. But, then I saw Cara on the 46 so we just walked together. We were pretty lazy so we took the 46 to the Ulpan and then took the 18 to get us closer to our apartments. When I got home Ale, Orly, and Katie were about to go to the beach for ice cream. I went with. We picked up Robyn on the way and managed to lose Katie. We never actually made it to the beach, just got ice cream and then wanted to go home. Robyn didn't want to walk so she offered to pay for a cab. Yay for laziness :). Katie was home when we got back so we hung out for a while and then went to bed.
Sunday:
There was Shevet Siyyur to the refugee neighborhoods by the bus station. We learned about the African regugees in Israel, how they live and what's been done to help them. After we rushed home so we could have time to eat and then get to Zman madrich and class. We were late and Ami was disappointed :(. Class was uneventful. Spoke with my mom. Valentine's Day dinner with Katie and Shira. I made sweet potato fries :). We made banana bread and tried to watch movies but didn't really have the attention spans for it.
Monday:
Volunteering with Ale. It was so ridiculously hot outside. Went to aroma afterwards for ice coffee, yum. Went to the beach with Orly. We had a meeting there after anyways so it seemed like a pretty good idea. Hung out and talked. Then Zman Madrich on the beach with Ami and a bunch of kids from his apartments. They threw each other into the water. I stayed away 'cause I'm not such a good sport with those things. I.e., I would cry if they threw me in. Ami brought some cookies and cake and stuff. Everybody wanted to go get ready for something happening in Jerusalem last night so we went home so we wouldn't be alone at the beach. We as in Ale and I. Anyways. Didn't do much that night, watched some Glee and went to bed.
Tuesday:
Hike! The night before was a big party in Jerusalem so only half the kids showed up. We had two buses but really only needed one. We went somewhere near Beit Shemesh and went repelling. But it was more like...being attached to a rope and going down a cave but not touching the walls. The first two seconds were really scary but then it was fine and almost boring. It was really pretty though. They gave us shoko besakit and bread and chocolate spread. Afterwards we went on the actual hike part. It was very hot but not too hard. We got to these underground passage things and went in them. We went through one tunnel with 0 light and almost no room at all, pretty scary. I didn't have a flashlight, of course I missed that part of the message. But people in front of me and behind me did. We went home after. Ended up watching Glee I think.
Wednesday:
Took a mental health day and went to the beach with Katie and Ale. Ami called me and I told him I didn't go to volunteering. I think he understood and didn't really mind. Went home, showered, went to class. Got home early and instead of doing something productive, watched Glee for hours. I really like that show. Robyn came over. Got up to the 12th episode but I couldn't stay awake anymore and went to bed.
Thursday:
Went to volunteering with Ale. Had our last Lunch and Learn. It was just me, Katie, Julia, and Joe. I went with Ami to buy the food. We had an "emergency meeting" afterwards with the whole section where they yelled at us for not showing up to hike and told us what's up or Purim and the rest of the time we are in Bat Yam. Had Ulpan afterwards. Our final is next week. Went home and started to get ready for Haifa and the weekend. Shira made dinner for us, it was really good. Orly brought some of her friends from home over. Ale and I finished getting ready and went to meet the coach going to Haifa. Spoke to my mom for a bit. We went to a place called UltraSound. I find the name hilarious. It was really nice and we had a good time. Went home pretty late and went to sleep.
Friday:
Got up at 8:50 and got all my stuff together for the weekend. Went to take the 405 to Jerusalem from Bat Yam. Kai was also going on that bus. Got to Jerusalem and took the 74 to Har Choma. Got a ride from a bus with special needs kids. Bad idea. I got my hair pulled and wanted to cry but didn't want to be rude. Got to Jenene's house, yay. Attempted to help clean for shabbat but ended up falling asleep. Had amazing dinner- couscous. Honestly ate more than I thought was physically possible. I say this a lot but I really truly mean it. Went to sleep before 11.
Saturday:
Even though I went to bed earlyish I still didn't wake up until just about noon. Laziness. Hung out with the fam, ate a bunch more. Didn't flood the house this time! Decided to stay Saturday night since we had nothing going on Sunday until 1:30. Wonderful weekend<3
Friday, February 12, 2010
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
