Tuesday is a beautiful day. I wake up, get on the bus to school, go to tefilah (prayers), and have two Judaics classes. The school day is over at noon. Yes, that's right-- 12:00 PM. Truthfully, I really do love school. Even the super long days. So it's not like it's that big of a deal that Tuesdays end at noon. But, regardless of my enjoyment of school it's always nice to have half a day off of classes.
I tried a new Judaics class today, since the other one just wasn't working out for me, and I really liked it. The Rabbi is, as perfectly described by Rabbi Bryks, a Tzadik (righteous man). His every word and breath leaks knowledge, care for others, and complete awareness of everything within and around him. It's pretty cool. We were assigned this project to spend three hours doing some kind of Chessed (kindness) project like visit people at a hospital, nursing home, old age home, soup kitchen, etc. After we spend the three hours we gotta give a ten-minute presentation about it in class. A.k.a. No biggy. I'm totally down with Chessed for the sake of school, so that's going to be good.
The second class is given by Rabbi Kahn, who is ridiculously knowledgeable and such, and I really like his class. Today it basically hurt my brain because I was a little bit confused and a lot bit processing the information. So before I go to bed tonight I think I'm going to take the liberty to actually review what we went over in class... Weird concept, I know. Haha.
At 12:15 we left on an optional trip to the IDF museum in Tel Aviv. I took a nice nap on the way there, and when we got there I stepped off the bus to a drop-dead gorgeous view of the Medit. Loved it. We had our classic sandwich lunches with a bag of chips, and just hung out as the very very hot sun blessed us all with unnecessary sweat. Despite the sweat, it was a really beautiful place to hang out and eat lunch. So there will be no complaints from me.
The museum was pretty cool. The whole tour aspect got a little discombobulated and all over the place, so I wouldn't say that it was perfect. One of the parts of the museum looked way too familiar to me, which made me think that we for sure went there on our eighth grade trip to Israel. I'm not 100% sure though, so no promises. Overall, it was a cool place and I kinda wish that the tour was a little more put-together/formal so that I could have learned more. It's not really anyone's fault, so whatever.
Afterwards we went to the Shuk Ha'Carmel, which is basically a really huge Pike Place Market with Arab vendors. Haha. I found foil pans at the price of twenty-four for ten shekel (about $2.50) and I basically freaked out. I bought SO many, because hello!!! I haven't seen anything anywhere near that price over here, and I love me some foil pans. I also bought some grapes.
When our Shuk excursion was over we went to the place where the bus was supposed to pick us up, and unfortunately only one bus was there. The majority of people piled into the first bus, while about ten of us stayed back to wait for the very spacious second bus. Annoyingly the second one didn't show up for like ten or fifteen minutes, but on the positive side we had more than enough room to stretch our legs. I napped a little on the bus, which was great. I love how I can pretty much sleep anywhere at any time... It's a great skill that I've acquired over the past couple of months.
Tonight I made another batch of quinoa salad but stupidly forgot that I was out of corn and beans, so it's a little more plain this time. Also, the corn and beans that I had kept for this batch of quinoa turned quite moldy in the fridge which was a very large disappointment.
I'm about to read an article for one of my classes tomorrow, and afterwards go directly to bed without passing go or collecting $200. Ha. That was lame. Anyways, I obviously have a couple of random things to share so here they are:
1) Shout out to Docta J who is helping me out in the best way possible by bringing back to Israel with him a bottle of mousse. Now I'm just trying to figure out what to do until he's back. But that's totally cool because I am so very thankful to him, and I can make it for a week or so. Also, I think it's funny that the mousse has turned into such a saga.
2) Let's talk about how last night I went to dinner at the Kiryat Ono mall, and another exciting bus adventure took place on the way back. I went with Nick and another friend, and as we were exiting the mall the topic of bus adventures was brought up. Of course that topic just had to be brought up. The way the street-crossing was going to work was that we had to cross three different parts of the road. In other words, there would be three different places where we'd have to wait for the little light sign thingy to "say" that we could cross. When we got to the second one and were waiting for cars to not almost hit us, I realized that our bus was rapidly approaching. Then I remembered that the stop is all the way up the street. Then I realized that Israeli bus drivers, unlike Seattle bus drivers, don't even think for half of a second about waiting for running pedestrians. In other words: it was time to run. Despite all those thoughts that happened in my head, I basically instantaneously just bolted. Let's remember that the shoes I was wearing were Adidas sliders which are in no way the best shoes to wear while running. Regardless, like Dori from Finding Nemo, I just kept on running. And we made it! What a relief. Really though, I got quite an adrenaline rush from it.
Okay, people. As it is already a time at which I'd like to be sleeping, I'm going to go ahead and bid you all a good night. Or a good day, for that matter.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Monday, October 29, 2012
My First Full Week of School and Shabbat
Wow, it has been SO long since I've written a post... Lame of me.
But I'm just going to go ahead and give a little wrap-up/summary on my
week.
These are the secular classes which I took this week: Marketing, Love and War in Ancient Greek Thought, Trends and Ideology in Jewish History, Biology, Jewish Identity- Leaders and Leadership Throughout the Ages, English Composition, Psychology, and Statistics. Here's my review:
Marketing-- Loved it. The class seems like it's going to be easy, but also that I'm going to learn. My favorite combo.
Love and War in Ancient Greek Though-- As I do believe I previously mentioned, I really did not like this class at all. I totally wasn't feeling the professor, and I'm not so sure about the subject either. So I'm dropping it :).
Trends and Ideology in Jewish History-- I really love the professor for this class. It seems like it's going to be a super awesome class. The only thing I didn't like about it was the very large class size, and my hope is that he scared people away after the first class. But we'll see how that goes. He's an awesome guy, and ridiculously intelligent. Let's talk about how he wrote a textbook... Ya.
Biology-- Seems like it would be the easiest class in the world. Also, I love biology. The problem with taking it is that I will likely not get any credits from it since most colleges- including Rutgers- don't accept Biology without a lab component. And a bio lab is available, but since it's during the same time-slot as Psychology I don't want to switch into that. I might switch for 2nd semester, though. We'll see.
Jewish Identity- Leaders and Leadership Throughout the Ages-- This class is taught by the same professor as the Trends class, and I think it would be at least as great as the other class. The very big bonus to this class is that there are many fewer students in it, and it is available to our program as well as the student on this American exchange Graduate Degree program. In other words, it's going to be taught at a super high level- which I like. The only thing I'm a little hesitant about with that class is the amount of reading... We'll see, though.
English Composition-- Love it so far. The teacher is the Rabbi Moskowitz teacher from one of my morning classes, and I really like him. We got our first essay back this week and I did really well! So obviously that made me happy. But I like the style of the class a lot because we basically spend our time reviewing a few grammar principles then reading students' essays and discussing them. Good stuff.
Psychology-- So far so good, minus the fact that I had to buy a fatso expensive textbook and that I have to read that every week. Haha. For real though, it seems like it's going to be a really good but hard class. Which I can deal with, because it doesn't seem like there are going to be that many of those.
Statistics-- Hard for me to talk about. It's actually the easiest class I've ever been in. I sit there and basically beg the man to teach at a faster pace, because he teaches at a baby turtle pace. Additionally, he's teaching material that I learned Sophomore year. So... Oy, is how I feel about that. By the way, there are still, somehow, students who don't understand what's going on. It truly boggles my brain. I guess it's nice to end my Thursday on an easy note. The only problem is that it's so easy it's actually quite frustrating.
Those are my secular classes. My Judaic classes were really all quite awesome. There's only one that I didn't like, so I'm switching to the other option for that one. Aside from that, though, all the classes have been a really great pace and subject matter for me. So I love them.
Each of my classes are ninety minutes long, which is crazy because at Yeshiva my classes were thirty-seven minutes long. Seriously, more than double the length. I really like the long classes though, because I like all of my classes. It's fun to just sit all day long and learn. Especially because so few of the teachers actually ever give HW... So I really get to spend my day learning and my night participating in the programs that are offered to us. Since I'm taking so many classes it has definitely been suggested to me by many people to drop a couple, but I really don't see a reason to do that. I have really been enjoying learning all day, and it's not like each class adds an enormous amount of HW. Obviously I have some reading to do, but even that is only for certain classes. The difficult part of taking all the classes seems to be when Finals roll around in January. Instead of taking one per day, I'm probably going to end up having to take two or possibly three. Honestly, though, I took two per day at Yeshiva- obviously it's not the same- and I was GOOD at them. I love preparing and studying for a bunch of tests and then knocking them all out... I really do rock at that. So I don't think it's going to be such an issue for me.
At large, school is going really well. I have gotten a lot more comfortable on the Bar Ilan campus, and I'm getting myself into a nice routine. Oh, let's talk about how nice it is to be able to go to a coffee shop after tefilah (prayers) in the morning and just order a hot cinnamon pastry of deliciousness... Welcome to Israel, my friends. It's beautiful. What else. Oh, lamely I have to wait until November 1st to sign up for the workout gym that's on my living campus. So I'm eagerly anticipating that, to say the least. It's been far too long since I've gotten a solid workout in, and it's yucky.
It was quite the Friday afternoon. I got in the shower and as I was showering I was looking out the window, and I noticed that the sky was getting darker and darker. Then some thunder and lightning action started to begin, which wasn't unusual because all last week that was happening. All of the sudden a fat thunder occurred, and it sounded like the entire sky cracked open. Basically it started full on Seattle-style pouring after that, and I loved it!!! It totally made me miss the rain. After my shower I went outside and just enjoyed the beautiful look of the ground, the sound, and the fresh smell. Since my living campus is super green, it really gave off such a similar smell to the one we get in Seattle after a good rain. Good stuff. Since I was spending Shabbat at the Jacobson's, and had to embark on the regular journey to get there, I put on my blue Northface rain jacket. It was nice to have it on again, as it has been a really long time since I've put that one on. I looked totally Seattle as I was wearing a Northface jacket, shorts, and a backpack.
Shabbat was obviously beautiful, fun, awesome, and perfect at the Jacobson's, but I have a story to tell. Before the story I'd like to mention that the rain, thunder, and lighting, on Friday night in Ra'anana was some of the most intense storm I've been in. Within like three minutes, the streets and sidewalks were flooded. The sky was lit up so ridiculously intensely, it was awesome. I really like the whole thunder and lightning thing, and definitely the rain aspect, so I enjoyed it. Though I can't say that all the people I was with felt the same way. Haha. Anyways, the story. So we were eating out for dinner at the lovely family's house who I had definitely never met before. As we're standing in their kitchen, who walks in the door? You'll never guess- I assure you. Answer: Betzalel Schwartz. Who is Betzalel Shwartz? The twelve year-old son of a family who moved to Israel from Seattle quite a few years ago. I basically freaked out, and unfortunately for him he had absolutely no clue who I was. But it was so awesome. I have been planning to call their family to make Shabbat plans, but I hadn't yet taken care of that. Also, I thought they lived in Yerushalaim. Apparently they live in Ra'anana, and yes- we ate dinner with their family! Craziness!!! It was awesome to see all the kids, and for sure Pam and Yoav. Nuts. I'm going to go to them for a free Shabbat, so more to come on them when that happens. But moral of the story is that it was totally insane to unexpectedly eat dinner with a Seattle family who we were friends with!
Oh. Sunday I had my first Ulpan, which was surprisingly great. I learned a lot, and it seems like a perfect level for me. Yay! I also had my Magen David Adom (E.M.T.) training for six hours, which was obviously lovely. I learned all about baby CPR, choking in all instances, and effectively using ambulance equipment for CPR. And last night I didn't do anything so exciting. School today, so far, is great. My two Judaics classes this morning were great, and in about half an hour I have my Marketing class. Then I'm done for the day!
A couple of things to note:
-The other day I was wondering if there's any kind of study comparing Lung Cancer rates in non-smoking Israeli citizens to non-smoking American citizens. Because quite frankly everyone in Israel smokes, so the amount of second-hand smoke that happens is a little ridiculous. Just a thought.
-This country makes me so much hungrier than I've ever been in my life... I don't know what it is, but it's a little much sometimes. Oy.
-This is a sad story. Once upon a time, in response to my cry for help, my mother so kindly offered to send me hair mousse in a box. She sent it. Then she got it back last night. Let's talk about how that makes me want to cry. Rudeness! Stupid aerosol laws... Now I need to find real mousse in this country, which is going to be a journey in and of itself.
I hope all you Seattlites went to the RunScared race yesterday! If not, I hope you all had a great weekend! Enjoy your week, everybody :).
These are the secular classes which I took this week: Marketing, Love and War in Ancient Greek Thought, Trends and Ideology in Jewish History, Biology, Jewish Identity- Leaders and Leadership Throughout the Ages, English Composition, Psychology, and Statistics. Here's my review:
Marketing-- Loved it. The class seems like it's going to be easy, but also that I'm going to learn. My favorite combo.
Love and War in Ancient Greek Though-- As I do believe I previously mentioned, I really did not like this class at all. I totally wasn't feeling the professor, and I'm not so sure about the subject either. So I'm dropping it :).
Trends and Ideology in Jewish History-- I really love the professor for this class. It seems like it's going to be a super awesome class. The only thing I didn't like about it was the very large class size, and my hope is that he scared people away after the first class. But we'll see how that goes. He's an awesome guy, and ridiculously intelligent. Let's talk about how he wrote a textbook... Ya.
Biology-- Seems like it would be the easiest class in the world. Also, I love biology. The problem with taking it is that I will likely not get any credits from it since most colleges- including Rutgers- don't accept Biology without a lab component. And a bio lab is available, but since it's during the same time-slot as Psychology I don't want to switch into that. I might switch for 2nd semester, though. We'll see.
Jewish Identity- Leaders and Leadership Throughout the Ages-- This class is taught by the same professor as the Trends class, and I think it would be at least as great as the other class. The very big bonus to this class is that there are many fewer students in it, and it is available to our program as well as the student on this American exchange Graduate Degree program. In other words, it's going to be taught at a super high level- which I like. The only thing I'm a little hesitant about with that class is the amount of reading... We'll see, though.
English Composition-- Love it so far. The teacher is the Rabbi Moskowitz teacher from one of my morning classes, and I really like him. We got our first essay back this week and I did really well! So obviously that made me happy. But I like the style of the class a lot because we basically spend our time reviewing a few grammar principles then reading students' essays and discussing them. Good stuff.
Psychology-- So far so good, minus the fact that I had to buy a fatso expensive textbook and that I have to read that every week. Haha. For real though, it seems like it's going to be a really good but hard class. Which I can deal with, because it doesn't seem like there are going to be that many of those.
Statistics-- Hard for me to talk about. It's actually the easiest class I've ever been in. I sit there and basically beg the man to teach at a faster pace, because he teaches at a baby turtle pace. Additionally, he's teaching material that I learned Sophomore year. So... Oy, is how I feel about that. By the way, there are still, somehow, students who don't understand what's going on. It truly boggles my brain. I guess it's nice to end my Thursday on an easy note. The only problem is that it's so easy it's actually quite frustrating.
Those are my secular classes. My Judaic classes were really all quite awesome. There's only one that I didn't like, so I'm switching to the other option for that one. Aside from that, though, all the classes have been a really great pace and subject matter for me. So I love them.
Each of my classes are ninety minutes long, which is crazy because at Yeshiva my classes were thirty-seven minutes long. Seriously, more than double the length. I really like the long classes though, because I like all of my classes. It's fun to just sit all day long and learn. Especially because so few of the teachers actually ever give HW... So I really get to spend my day learning and my night participating in the programs that are offered to us. Since I'm taking so many classes it has definitely been suggested to me by many people to drop a couple, but I really don't see a reason to do that. I have really been enjoying learning all day, and it's not like each class adds an enormous amount of HW. Obviously I have some reading to do, but even that is only for certain classes. The difficult part of taking all the classes seems to be when Finals roll around in January. Instead of taking one per day, I'm probably going to end up having to take two or possibly three. Honestly, though, I took two per day at Yeshiva- obviously it's not the same- and I was GOOD at them. I love preparing and studying for a bunch of tests and then knocking them all out... I really do rock at that. So I don't think it's going to be such an issue for me.
At large, school is going really well. I have gotten a lot more comfortable on the Bar Ilan campus, and I'm getting myself into a nice routine. Oh, let's talk about how nice it is to be able to go to a coffee shop after tefilah (prayers) in the morning and just order a hot cinnamon pastry of deliciousness... Welcome to Israel, my friends. It's beautiful. What else. Oh, lamely I have to wait until November 1st to sign up for the workout gym that's on my living campus. So I'm eagerly anticipating that, to say the least. It's been far too long since I've gotten a solid workout in, and it's yucky.
It was quite the Friday afternoon. I got in the shower and as I was showering I was looking out the window, and I noticed that the sky was getting darker and darker. Then some thunder and lightning action started to begin, which wasn't unusual because all last week that was happening. All of the sudden a fat thunder occurred, and it sounded like the entire sky cracked open. Basically it started full on Seattle-style pouring after that, and I loved it!!! It totally made me miss the rain. After my shower I went outside and just enjoyed the beautiful look of the ground, the sound, and the fresh smell. Since my living campus is super green, it really gave off such a similar smell to the one we get in Seattle after a good rain. Good stuff. Since I was spending Shabbat at the Jacobson's, and had to embark on the regular journey to get there, I put on my blue Northface rain jacket. It was nice to have it on again, as it has been a really long time since I've put that one on. I looked totally Seattle as I was wearing a Northface jacket, shorts, and a backpack.
Shabbat was obviously beautiful, fun, awesome, and perfect at the Jacobson's, but I have a story to tell. Before the story I'd like to mention that the rain, thunder, and lighting, on Friday night in Ra'anana was some of the most intense storm I've been in. Within like three minutes, the streets and sidewalks were flooded. The sky was lit up so ridiculously intensely, it was awesome. I really like the whole thunder and lightning thing, and definitely the rain aspect, so I enjoyed it. Though I can't say that all the people I was with felt the same way. Haha. Anyways, the story. So we were eating out for dinner at the lovely family's house who I had definitely never met before. As we're standing in their kitchen, who walks in the door? You'll never guess- I assure you. Answer: Betzalel Schwartz. Who is Betzalel Shwartz? The twelve year-old son of a family who moved to Israel from Seattle quite a few years ago. I basically freaked out, and unfortunately for him he had absolutely no clue who I was. But it was so awesome. I have been planning to call their family to make Shabbat plans, but I hadn't yet taken care of that. Also, I thought they lived in Yerushalaim. Apparently they live in Ra'anana, and yes- we ate dinner with their family! Craziness!!! It was awesome to see all the kids, and for sure Pam and Yoav. Nuts. I'm going to go to them for a free Shabbat, so more to come on them when that happens. But moral of the story is that it was totally insane to unexpectedly eat dinner with a Seattle family who we were friends with!
Oh. Sunday I had my first Ulpan, which was surprisingly great. I learned a lot, and it seems like a perfect level for me. Yay! I also had my Magen David Adom (E.M.T.) training for six hours, which was obviously lovely. I learned all about baby CPR, choking in all instances, and effectively using ambulance equipment for CPR. And last night I didn't do anything so exciting. School today, so far, is great. My two Judaics classes this morning were great, and in about half an hour I have my Marketing class. Then I'm done for the day!
A couple of things to note:
-The other day I was wondering if there's any kind of study comparing Lung Cancer rates in non-smoking Israeli citizens to non-smoking American citizens. Because quite frankly everyone in Israel smokes, so the amount of second-hand smoke that happens is a little ridiculous. Just a thought.
-This country makes me so much hungrier than I've ever been in my life... I don't know what it is, but it's a little much sometimes. Oy.
-This is a sad story. Once upon a time, in response to my cry for help, my mother so kindly offered to send me hair mousse in a box. She sent it. Then she got it back last night. Let's talk about how that makes me want to cry. Rudeness! Stupid aerosol laws... Now I need to find real mousse in this country, which is going to be a journey in and of itself.
I hope all you Seattlites went to the RunScared race yesterday! If not, I hope you all had a great weekend! Enjoy your week, everybody :).
Monday, October 22, 2012
Friday, Shabbat, Sunday, and Monday
Friday I woke up early, and we all left on a couple of buses at 8.
After about an hour and a half of bus, or so, we arrived at a place
called Nir David. It was basically this ridiculously beautiful bright
blue river with a totally unreal mountainous backdrop. There were two
activities: Kayak Basketball and a series of mattress games. We started
off with the guys kayak basketball'ing and the girls mattress'ing.
Basically each group of four girls had one foam mattress. The first
goal was to get all four girls seated on the mattress, which was a lot
more difficult than one might think. After we did that we played a
series of games, such as stacking two mattresses and fitting eight
people, constructing a runway by holding all of the mattresses in a row,
and trying to build a stage by stacking many mattresses on top of one
another. We played all of these games for a little longer than an hour,
I think, and we had such a great time together. Nothing like falling
into a beautiful river after someone steps the wrong way on a mattress.
During the runway portion we had a challenge to see who could run from
one side to another, and two of my friends and I all did it so Rabbi
Bryks is going to take us out for dinner one night. Free food!! The
guys came back from kayak basketball'ing and we switched. To sum up
that situation very simply, I'd say that there wasn't a single girl who
didn't choose to just lay out on her kayak, and soak up the sun, instead
of figuring out how to effectively play Kayak Basketball. So that's
what we did. After a while we all headed back to shore, and when the
boys finished on the mattresses we all had lunch. I didn't like the
food options, so I had an apple from my backpack and enjoyed hanging out
with everyone. After lunch we loaded up and headed out to Chispin-
where we'd be staying for Shabbat.
I wish that we had more time before Shabbat because I didn't have time to really take pictures of how ridiculously gorgeous it was. The buildings were beautiful, the land around us was vast and green, and the water we were on was the cherry on top. Sunset on Friday night was totally perfect... I just wish I could have taken pictures. To bring in Shabbat all the girls lit Shabbat candles in a room overlooking the sunset, which is an experience I'd be more than happy to replicate for the rest of my life. We had Mincha, Kabbalat Shabbat, and Arvit, then we had dinner. The food was great, my roommate made an awesome D'var Torah, and afterwords we all had a half an hour or so to hang out before we had an Oneg. After the Oneg I stayed up for a while just talking to people and reading a book, and I went to bed a little before midnight.
We had Shacharit at 8:30, where a great representation of Early Start appeared early. We had Torah reading and then Kiddush, after which Rabbi Kahn gave a D'var Torah. Then we had Musaf, and afterwards we had lunch. Lunch was set up buffet-style, which was super easy. The food was awesome! Tons of salatim spread over three or four tables, a few kinds of chicken, some chamin/chulent, a couple different meats, incredible sweet potatoes, other vegetables... It was delicioso! After lunch and dessert we had the afternoon off, so I attended a series of classes/learning opportunities with a variety of teachers. I learned about Na'ama (Noach's wife), Pirkei Avot, we had a discussion on questions from The Book of Questions, and a group of fifteen or so of us completed all of Tehillim. Afterwards we had Mincha and then Seudah Shelishit. Before Shabbat was over, we had the classic NCSY sing-in-a-circle and then Arvit. Havdalah was really fun, as Rav Ari rocked the one-man band thing and we all danced around and sang to his music. After Shabbat was over, we headed out back to where we live. When we got home I hung out for a while then went to bed.
Sunday morning I woke up and went to the Kiryat Ono mall to get school supplies. I totally am in love with how easy it is to get there, because I left at 10 and got back at 11. Impressive- I know. Haha. I got notebooks, folders, pens, and some paper clips and made my way back to campus. At 11 all of the girls had a meeting, and after I went to the store to get some food to eat. I found Quinoa, which was something of a miracle, and I was quite happy about it. At 12:30 I went to the orientation for the Israel Advocacy internship track, because although that is not the one I'll be doing I wanted to be able to listen to speakers and attend trips in the future. At 1:30 we started the orientation for the Magen David Adom (E.M.T. training) internship. That is the one that I'm really focusing 100% on, though I'm actually also doing the Learning option. Anyways, though, our orientation was crazy long because each class is six hours. We did CPR training, which was a good refresher because I've taken that course before. We didn't end until 7:30, which was super long and tiring but I definitely felt like I had learned something at the end of the day. My brain was pretty much on meltdown mode, though, since I hadn't eating more than a couple pretzels and a small salad all day long. No good.
I tried to figure out what to do about food, and ended up making Quinoa! But I really saved that for lunch since I had already eaten some vegetables with a salad. Here's a picture... Enjoy, because I'm super proud of my creation using my very limited resources.
After dinner I just hung out outside of our building. I skyped with Gindins!!! And I didn't do the homework that I needed to do, hurray! I went to bed at midnight so I could at least get half a decent sleep in prep for our first full week of school.
Today I woke up, headed to the bus, and to school I went. We had tefilah, then we started our Judaic classes. My first class was called Survey of Biblical Literature, and it seems like such a cool class. Basically we're going to go through one perek (chapter) of each of the twenty-four books of the TaNaCh during each class. The goal is obviously to be able to know something about each of the twenty-four books, and I think it'll be super cool if we can make that happen. I also really like the teacher. She's the same woman who taught Barren to Baron last week, and I'm excited that I have her twice in my schedule.
My second Judaic class for the day is called Jewish Literacy, which actually means Women in Halacha. Since Halacha (law) is my favorite subject on the general, I'm seriously looking forward to this class. Also I really really like the teacher. I haven't had her yet, but she seems awesome.
My first general studies class wasn't until the 2nd available time slot, so I had a nice break today. Unfortunately I spent the first hour of the break looking for this woman's office, which I never found by the way, and looking for this place to buy my Psychology book, which I also didn't find. I spent the second hour fakely working on a paper I should have been writing, and actually writing part of this blog post. Haha. And eating lunch. So I guess that free time was productive? I figured out where the woman and the Psych book weren't, I ate, and I blogged. Solid.
At 2 I had Marketing which was awesome. I really loved the professor, and it seems like it's going to be a really cool class. Basically two-thirds of the program is in that class, which is obnoxious because so many people talk and laugh throughout the class. Obnoxious. Maybe they'll drop it because they couldn't possibly have had a clue what was going on in the class? Or maybe they wont. Regardless that part was annoying, but the rest was great.
My last class for the day was called Love and War: Ancient Greek Thought. That was the first class that I think I've ever taken where I knew that I was going to hate it from second number ten. I was totally beyond regretful of my decision to be sitting in that classroom once he had uttered less than a sentence. I'm not really sure why that is, though, because he seems like a really cool guy. But maybe it's something about the topic? I don't know. All I do know is that that class needs to go away. So it will. Haha.
Tonight I'm just going to be hanging around campus. I need to figure out what I'm going to do for dinner, write an essay, and read for Psychology. Then I'm going to go to sleep. I know, people, it's a beautiful plan.
Here's a sign that I saw in the synagogue that's a couple blocks away from here. Whenever I've seen this sign I've really liked it, and I'm pretty sure I have a very similar picture from my trip here in 8th grade.
I wish that we had more time before Shabbat because I didn't have time to really take pictures of how ridiculously gorgeous it was. The buildings were beautiful, the land around us was vast and green, and the water we were on was the cherry on top. Sunset on Friday night was totally perfect... I just wish I could have taken pictures. To bring in Shabbat all the girls lit Shabbat candles in a room overlooking the sunset, which is an experience I'd be more than happy to replicate for the rest of my life. We had Mincha, Kabbalat Shabbat, and Arvit, then we had dinner. The food was great, my roommate made an awesome D'var Torah, and afterwords we all had a half an hour or so to hang out before we had an Oneg. After the Oneg I stayed up for a while just talking to people and reading a book, and I went to bed a little before midnight.
We had Shacharit at 8:30, where a great representation of Early Start appeared early. We had Torah reading and then Kiddush, after which Rabbi Kahn gave a D'var Torah. Then we had Musaf, and afterwards we had lunch. Lunch was set up buffet-style, which was super easy. The food was awesome! Tons of salatim spread over three or four tables, a few kinds of chicken, some chamin/chulent, a couple different meats, incredible sweet potatoes, other vegetables... It was delicioso! After lunch and dessert we had the afternoon off, so I attended a series of classes/learning opportunities with a variety of teachers. I learned about Na'ama (Noach's wife), Pirkei Avot, we had a discussion on questions from The Book of Questions, and a group of fifteen or so of us completed all of Tehillim. Afterwards we had Mincha and then Seudah Shelishit. Before Shabbat was over, we had the classic NCSY sing-in-a-circle and then Arvit. Havdalah was really fun, as Rav Ari rocked the one-man band thing and we all danced around and sang to his music. After Shabbat was over, we headed out back to where we live. When we got home I hung out for a while then went to bed.
Sunday morning I woke up and went to the Kiryat Ono mall to get school supplies. I totally am in love with how easy it is to get there, because I left at 10 and got back at 11. Impressive- I know. Haha. I got notebooks, folders, pens, and some paper clips and made my way back to campus. At 11 all of the girls had a meeting, and after I went to the store to get some food to eat. I found Quinoa, which was something of a miracle, and I was quite happy about it. At 12:30 I went to the orientation for the Israel Advocacy internship track, because although that is not the one I'll be doing I wanted to be able to listen to speakers and attend trips in the future. At 1:30 we started the orientation for the Magen David Adom (E.M.T. training) internship. That is the one that I'm really focusing 100% on, though I'm actually also doing the Learning option. Anyways, though, our orientation was crazy long because each class is six hours. We did CPR training, which was a good refresher because I've taken that course before. We didn't end until 7:30, which was super long and tiring but I definitely felt like I had learned something at the end of the day. My brain was pretty much on meltdown mode, though, since I hadn't eating more than a couple pretzels and a small salad all day long. No good.
I tried to figure out what to do about food, and ended up making Quinoa! But I really saved that for lunch since I had already eaten some vegetables with a salad. Here's a picture... Enjoy, because I'm super proud of my creation using my very limited resources.
After dinner I just hung out outside of our building. I skyped with Gindins!!! And I didn't do the homework that I needed to do, hurray! I went to bed at midnight so I could at least get half a decent sleep in prep for our first full week of school.
Today I woke up, headed to the bus, and to school I went. We had tefilah, then we started our Judaic classes. My first class was called Survey of Biblical Literature, and it seems like such a cool class. Basically we're going to go through one perek (chapter) of each of the twenty-four books of the TaNaCh during each class. The goal is obviously to be able to know something about each of the twenty-four books, and I think it'll be super cool if we can make that happen. I also really like the teacher. She's the same woman who taught Barren to Baron last week, and I'm excited that I have her twice in my schedule.
My second Judaic class for the day is called Jewish Literacy, which actually means Women in Halacha. Since Halacha (law) is my favorite subject on the general, I'm seriously looking forward to this class. Also I really really like the teacher. I haven't had her yet, but she seems awesome.
My first general studies class wasn't until the 2nd available time slot, so I had a nice break today. Unfortunately I spent the first hour of the break looking for this woman's office, which I never found by the way, and looking for this place to buy my Psychology book, which I also didn't find. I spent the second hour fakely working on a paper I should have been writing, and actually writing part of this blog post. Haha. And eating lunch. So I guess that free time was productive? I figured out where the woman and the Psych book weren't, I ate, and I blogged. Solid.
At 2 I had Marketing which was awesome. I really loved the professor, and it seems like it's going to be a really cool class. Basically two-thirds of the program is in that class, which is obnoxious because so many people talk and laugh throughout the class. Obnoxious. Maybe they'll drop it because they couldn't possibly have had a clue what was going on in the class? Or maybe they wont. Regardless that part was annoying, but the rest was great.
My last class for the day was called Love and War: Ancient Greek Thought. That was the first class that I think I've ever taken where I knew that I was going to hate it from second number ten. I was totally beyond regretful of my decision to be sitting in that classroom once he had uttered less than a sentence. I'm not really sure why that is, though, because he seems like a really cool guy. But maybe it's something about the topic? I don't know. All I do know is that that class needs to go away. So it will. Haha.
Tonight I'm just going to be hanging around campus. I need to figure out what I'm going to do for dinner, write an essay, and read for Psychology. Then I'm going to go to sleep. I know, people, it's a beautiful plan.
Here's a sign that I saw in the synagogue that's a couple blocks away from here. Whenever I've seen this sign I've really liked it, and I'm pretty sure I have a very similar picture from my trip here in 8th grade.
It basically means, "If you came to Synagogue to talk, where are you going to pray?"
I hope everyone had a great Shabbat, Shavua Tov to all!
ckdrop.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Bar Ilan Orientation Day and First Day of Classes
Yesterday we had orientation on the Bar Ilan Campus! Exciting, I know... To be back in a school environment for the first time in four months and one week. First we were talked to by Rabbi Kahn- the Head of Overseas Programming at BIU, and our Head of Education. Then we took a Hebrew Language placement exam, and I was placed in Level 2. We'll see how that goes. The only thing that really means is that I don't have class until later on Sunday mornings than the Level 1 students. That's not really the most important thing to me, so for now I'm just hoping that it's a good level for me... We'll see how it goes, though. Afterwards we all took walking tours of the campus in order to get a little more familiar with all the buildings and everything. If I may say so myself, one of my areas of expertise in life is getting to know big campuses very quickly. Which has proven to be an awesome talent that I am quite appreciative of. I guess it all just has to do with my sense of direction.
Anyways, after the walking tour they brought us to where all the restaurants are-- across the street from campus. I got a Schnitzel Lafa because it was a really good price. After I finished eating I felt totally disgusting because of the ridiculous amount of oil involved. I made a new life plan for myself so I'm going to share it with you all... Only one schnitzel/lafa, from a restaurant, per week. At the most. My eating habits since I've been here have been rather gross, so with this new start of school marks the time when I get back into my healthful eating groove. Thank G-d for consistency. Haha.
After lunch we headed back from BIU to where we live, and had the afternoon off. I took an absolutely beautiful nap for a couple of hours, and woke up in time to get to some more orientation in the big dining hall. We learned about our Insurance. What did I learn? I'd say that my few takeaways were that I need to drink a lot more water than I have been drinking, I shouldn't partake in "hazardous activities" such as Bungee Jumping because I'm not covered, and that I really should try to not need a root canal while I'm here. I learned other things, but most of them were just common sense.
We had a big dinner together, but it was dairy so I couldn't really eat so much. I had a nice little avocado and tomato sandwich, some salad, and a little bit of pasta. It was pretty good, I just kinda wished that there was more food I could have eaten. It's all good, though. After dinner we had the classic Shabbat and Kosher introduction/speech, then we were released to prepare for our shopping trip. Everyone who did Early Start already did this shopping trip to the big food store and Home Center so I really didn't need anything. I bought some apples, frozen schnitzel, and pretzels. I was rather impressed with the number of things and amount of money that some of the people spent at these places... No further comments on that issue, haha.
When we got back from the store I just hung around campus, talked on the phone, and talked to some of the people who were hanging out outside of my building. I went to bed at 12ish and got a solid seven hours of sleep in prep for day one of real school.
As I mentioned before, it's been about thirteen weeks since I've been in a real school environment so it was weird actually sitting through my first class. I guess I should first mention that there was a bus that is supposed to come at 7:40 every day, which gets us on campus by about 7:55. At that time we head to the synagogue, which is about a two minute walk from the gate, and we have Shacharit or a different tefilah option until 8:30. The other two options are to either sit and read a Jewish book, or to participate in a conversation about tefilah with one of the Rabbis. I chose tefilah, and it was nice. It is most definitely an abridged version for the sake of time, which I'm really not used to, so we'll see how that goes. After tefilah I went to my first class, which took place in the Midrash- building for women's Jewish learning. My first class was called Barren to Baron, which is about Jewish women in the Tanach. I really enjoyed the teaching-style that Mrs. Tannenbaum uses, and I liked the topic itself as well. I also love how there's no homework or tests until the final exam in January. But honestly that's only something I enjoy because it means that I can take one more secular class that does give homework. Haha.
My second class was called Fundamentals of Judaism- Ramchal, and it's given by a man named Rabbi Meyer. For those of you who have had Rabbi Moskowitz as a teacher or know anything about him, he and Rabbi Meyer are so beyond similar it's unbelievable. If I hadn't seen that the person giving the class wasn't Rabbi Moskowitz I could totally have thought that it was him. So far I really like him, his teaching style, and his ideas so we we're doing well.
Then my secular classes began. First, I again had Rabbi Meyer for English Composition because I decided to take it instead of English Lit. I like writing creatively about fifty-thousand times more than I like writing papers based on reading. And so far I like his style, so I thought it was totally a safe bet. He began the class with, "I'm willing to bet that almost all of you hate writing..." which made me feel like a person, like myself, who enjoys writing, will do well. We'll see, though.
Then came Psych with Rabbi Kahn's brother Dr. Kahn. It was a good class, but it seems like it will be better in the future. I'm really looking forward to it, though, because I love psychology stuff and he seems like he knows what he's talking about. The only thing I'm a little fearful about is the amount of reading... But for now I'm motivated and wanting to learn, so I'll make it happen.
Finally I had Statistics. This was actually the easiest class I've ever in my life sat in on... The teacher, Dr. Beck, repeated himself like fifteen billion times because people didn't understand what he was saying. Problem was that he was discussing the simplest of probability issues, so I was basically dying in my chair because I wanted so badly for him to just proceed. It's all good though. I like that I have a little bit of an easy class as my last period on my last day of school for the week... It's a nice and easy way to wind down. It might get harder, but for now it's my easiest.
Overall, I really had a great day of classes! I enjoyed getting to know the campus a little more, and meeting new teachers and classmates.
More to come later, but ta ta for now :).
Anyways, after the walking tour they brought us to where all the restaurants are-- across the street from campus. I got a Schnitzel Lafa because it was a really good price. After I finished eating I felt totally disgusting because of the ridiculous amount of oil involved. I made a new life plan for myself so I'm going to share it with you all... Only one schnitzel/lafa, from a restaurant, per week. At the most. My eating habits since I've been here have been rather gross, so with this new start of school marks the time when I get back into my healthful eating groove. Thank G-d for consistency. Haha.
After lunch we headed back from BIU to where we live, and had the afternoon off. I took an absolutely beautiful nap for a couple of hours, and woke up in time to get to some more orientation in the big dining hall. We learned about our Insurance. What did I learn? I'd say that my few takeaways were that I need to drink a lot more water than I have been drinking, I shouldn't partake in "hazardous activities" such as Bungee Jumping because I'm not covered, and that I really should try to not need a root canal while I'm here. I learned other things, but most of them were just common sense.
We had a big dinner together, but it was dairy so I couldn't really eat so much. I had a nice little avocado and tomato sandwich, some salad, and a little bit of pasta. It was pretty good, I just kinda wished that there was more food I could have eaten. It's all good, though. After dinner we had the classic Shabbat and Kosher introduction/speech, then we were released to prepare for our shopping trip. Everyone who did Early Start already did this shopping trip to the big food store and Home Center so I really didn't need anything. I bought some apples, frozen schnitzel, and pretzels. I was rather impressed with the number of things and amount of money that some of the people spent at these places... No further comments on that issue, haha.
When we got back from the store I just hung around campus, talked on the phone, and talked to some of the people who were hanging out outside of my building. I went to bed at 12ish and got a solid seven hours of sleep in prep for day one of real school.
As I mentioned before, it's been about thirteen weeks since I've been in a real school environment so it was weird actually sitting through my first class. I guess I should first mention that there was a bus that is supposed to come at 7:40 every day, which gets us on campus by about 7:55. At that time we head to the synagogue, which is about a two minute walk from the gate, and we have Shacharit or a different tefilah option until 8:30. The other two options are to either sit and read a Jewish book, or to participate in a conversation about tefilah with one of the Rabbis. I chose tefilah, and it was nice. It is most definitely an abridged version for the sake of time, which I'm really not used to, so we'll see how that goes. After tefilah I went to my first class, which took place in the Midrash- building for women's Jewish learning. My first class was called Barren to Baron, which is about Jewish women in the Tanach. I really enjoyed the teaching-style that Mrs. Tannenbaum uses, and I liked the topic itself as well. I also love how there's no homework or tests until the final exam in January. But honestly that's only something I enjoy because it means that I can take one more secular class that does give homework. Haha.
My second class was called Fundamentals of Judaism- Ramchal, and it's given by a man named Rabbi Meyer. For those of you who have had Rabbi Moskowitz as a teacher or know anything about him, he and Rabbi Meyer are so beyond similar it's unbelievable. If I hadn't seen that the person giving the class wasn't Rabbi Moskowitz I could totally have thought that it was him. So far I really like him, his teaching style, and his ideas so we we're doing well.
Then my secular classes began. First, I again had Rabbi Meyer for English Composition because I decided to take it instead of English Lit. I like writing creatively about fifty-thousand times more than I like writing papers based on reading. And so far I like his style, so I thought it was totally a safe bet. He began the class with, "I'm willing to bet that almost all of you hate writing..." which made me feel like a person, like myself, who enjoys writing, will do well. We'll see, though.
Then came Psych with Rabbi Kahn's brother Dr. Kahn. It was a good class, but it seems like it will be better in the future. I'm really looking forward to it, though, because I love psychology stuff and he seems like he knows what he's talking about. The only thing I'm a little fearful about is the amount of reading... But for now I'm motivated and wanting to learn, so I'll make it happen.
Finally I had Statistics. This was actually the easiest class I've ever in my life sat in on... The teacher, Dr. Beck, repeated himself like fifteen billion times because people didn't understand what he was saying. Problem was that he was discussing the simplest of probability issues, so I was basically dying in my chair because I wanted so badly for him to just proceed. It's all good though. I like that I have a little bit of an easy class as my last period on my last day of school for the week... It's a nice and easy way to wind down. It might get harder, but for now it's my easiest.
Overall, I really had a great day of classes! I enjoyed getting to know the campus a little more, and meeting new teachers and classmates.
More to come later, but ta ta for now :).
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
A Very Full Day In and Out of Yerushalaim
I want to start tonight's post by saying that I'm super exhausted right now so this post is going to be a little less detailed than usual. Honestly it's unfortunate because today was a jam-packed day, but I'll see what I can do.
At 9:15 we all met at the front gate to meet our two buses. It was totally weird to me that our group needed two huge tour buses as opposed to a small twenty-seat sheirut, because that's what I'm used to from the Early Start program. Anyways, we were on the bus for about twenty minutes before we arrived to our destination. A ropes course! They split us all up into a couple of groups so that we could all do all of the activities, and my group started on the low ropes challenge course. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's basically a series of outdoor team-building exercises via games and unique challenges. We had a great time with those for about an hour and a half, then our whole program met up to eat lunch. After lunch we all switched spots, and the ones who did the low ropes course were then invited to take a nice bike ride. The first biking group said that the course was impossible and that we were all going to die on it, so everyone had a little bit of nervousness within. Turns out that the course was simply awesome, and a wee bit challenging. I felt like I was really channeling my inner Gindin as I biked the mountainous paths of the Ben Shemen Forest.
Speaking of Ben Shemen Forest... Basically it's this place that's super close to where the whole Chanukah story, with the Maccabees, took place, and also about ten kilometers from where the story of David and Goliath notoriously occurred.
After our beautiful but dirtying bike ride, we headed out to Yerushaliam to give the new students a chance to see the Kotel and everything else. For me, it was nothing super new but I had a great time hanging out with Adina Polack for most of the evening. Though I will mention that while we were saying Mincha at the Kotel, the Princess of Thailand (if I remember correctly) came to see the Kotel... Indeed she brought security men with her- on the women's side of the mechitzah, nonetheless, which didn't go over very well amongst some of the praying women. I must say that I was a little surprised at the wheelchair she was sitting in and umbrella over her head. I guess I just thought that a princess would be a little more active. Haha.
I came back to Ramat Ef'al after Yerushalaim, and I've just been hanging out since. I will say that I felt more sticky and dirty this afternoon than I have since I've been here. I didn't really realize how dirty I was until I got home, so here's a picture of my leg:
Ew is, in fact, an appropriate response... I wont be offended. :)
Lila Tov, to all. I'm sorry my post today wasn't so enthusiastic and exciting-- hopefully tomorrow I'll be a little more awake!
At 9:15 we all met at the front gate to meet our two buses. It was totally weird to me that our group needed two huge tour buses as opposed to a small twenty-seat sheirut, because that's what I'm used to from the Early Start program. Anyways, we were on the bus for about twenty minutes before we arrived to our destination. A ropes course! They split us all up into a couple of groups so that we could all do all of the activities, and my group started on the low ropes challenge course. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's basically a series of outdoor team-building exercises via games and unique challenges. We had a great time with those for about an hour and a half, then our whole program met up to eat lunch. After lunch we all switched spots, and the ones who did the low ropes course were then invited to take a nice bike ride. The first biking group said that the course was impossible and that we were all going to die on it, so everyone had a little bit of nervousness within. Turns out that the course was simply awesome, and a wee bit challenging. I felt like I was really channeling my inner Gindin as I biked the mountainous paths of the Ben Shemen Forest.
Speaking of Ben Shemen Forest... Basically it's this place that's super close to where the whole Chanukah story, with the Maccabees, took place, and also about ten kilometers from where the story of David and Goliath notoriously occurred.
After our beautiful but dirtying bike ride, we headed out to Yerushaliam to give the new students a chance to see the Kotel and everything else. For me, it was nothing super new but I had a great time hanging out with Adina Polack for most of the evening. Though I will mention that while we were saying Mincha at the Kotel, the Princess of Thailand (if I remember correctly) came to see the Kotel... Indeed she brought security men with her- on the women's side of the mechitzah, nonetheless, which didn't go over very well amongst some of the praying women. I must say that I was a little surprised at the wheelchair she was sitting in and umbrella over her head. I guess I just thought that a princess would be a little more active. Haha.
I came back to Ramat Ef'al after Yerushalaim, and I've just been hanging out since. I will say that I felt more sticky and dirty this afternoon than I have since I've been here. I didn't really realize how dirty I was until I got home, so here's a picture of my leg:
Ew is, in fact, an appropriate response... I wont be offended. :)
Lila Tov, to all. I'm sorry my post today wasn't so enthusiastic and exciting-- hopefully tomorrow I'll be a little more awake!
Monday, October 15, 2012
Last Night and Today
Last night when I finished the post that I wrote, the Early Start group went out together for a last night together kind of a thing. First we went to this place called Kosher Cafe Cafe for dessert. Definitely the only thing on the menu that I could eat (due to dairy restrictions) was the apple pie, but luckily enough for me apple pie is undoubtedly one of my favorites. It worked out well. A lot of my friends got cheesecakes, milkshakes, waffles, smoothies, etc, and it all looked wonderful. Truthfully I was beyond happy with my scrumptious slice of heaven. I ate in great company at the end of the table, and the four of us had a number of good conversations in addition to the game that was played with the salt and pepper shakers. After dessert we made our way, by foot, up the block and to the left towards the pool hall. Already for a number of hours my friend Aimee and I had decided that we would be partners for pool. But on our walk from dessert to the place, I was approached by Noam because he wanted to know if I'd be his partner. After I shut him down because of my allegiance with Aimee, his true motives were revealed: he wanted an easy way to be mentioned on the blog. Oy.
For punishment, we agreed that Aimee and I would play him and his partner for our first game. We racked the balls, and Noam himself was set to break. I'm going to go ahead and take this moment to mention a crucial, but rarely relevant, rule of pool... If the cue ball is scratched on the break, the break-er loses. So back to the story. Noam sets up to hit a perfect break, and you'll never guess what happened! The cue ball hit off of the front ball and flew right back and into the corner pocket on Noam's right. Ha-- it was beautiful. Within less than five seconds of playing, Aimee and I had already won. Out of the goodness of our hearts (and Noam's embarrassment) we let him continue the game as was. We played for a while, and at some point he and my other friend Zachary (Noam's teammate) were beating us two balls left to six balls left... Not lookin' good, right? Wrong. Aimee and I got our game faces on, filled ourselves with energy and confidence, and did work. Basically we got it down to a point when we each only had one ball left. What. Will. Happen. Well, to put it quite simply the true powerhouses of the group- a.k.a. the women- took over and kicked serious butt. So, yes: Noam lost twice. Ha.
Overall, pool was super fun and I played a lot better than I did the last time we were at that place.. I got my groove back a little bit, and it felt good. So I'm definitely going to get back in there at some point so I can continue improving. When we were all finished we left, and it was a little past midnight. We got back and all crowded around Meir's laptop to watch his Early Start slideshow, which will hopefully be posted online at some point for all of those who are interested. Afterwards I went straight back to my apartment because I was super tired. Despite the tired I decided to talk on the phone for a little bit, and I was laying in my bed as I did so. I opened my eyes for a second and saw a nasty tan/yellow, long-legged, super-antenna'ed bug sitting about two inches away from my face. And it was ON my bed. Say 'ew' fifteen times over and maybe you'll get what I felt like. I literally jumped out of bed, through my phone on my desk, and started full-on girly jumping up and down screaming. My roommate Miriam was brushing her teeth in the bathroom and thought I was only screaming about something on the phone, until she realized that my screams weren't normal. She came out and, similarly, screamed like a girl.
Though were screaming ridiculously loudly we really managed to get the job done.. First the bug was JUMPING on my bed. EW. Then it started to walk up the wall, and I didn't really know what to do because it was to back to just smash it. So I asked Miriam if she had a cup, and indeed she did... I grabbed it quickly, trapped the nasty bug underneath it, then we didn't know what to do. Never fear, though, because Miriam's index cards came to the rescue and we I used them to transport the bug outside and into the huge garbage can. Even when we were outside we were screaming, and everyone in our building came outside to see what in the world was going on with us. We were a little to frazzled to explain, so we just came inside to come down. I resumed my phone call, but ended it quickly to go to sleep. Before bed, however, Miriam had a little bit of a massacre whereby she smashed an additional three bugs which were invading her space. Yucky.
This morning I tried to wake up for minyan at Rabbi Menaged's house, but most definitely didn't get there until the very last prayer... Rude/lame. I had a beautiful breakfast of a toasted sesame bagel with matbucha on top, and enjoyed the sun outside while I was eating it. All of the new students came today, which was nice, and it was good to hang out with them and get everyone set up and as comfortable as possible. I was super tired and had a bit of a headache, so I spent some time in my bed watching tv shows. But I also had the best meeting of my life. Rabbi Bryks called together the five girls from Early Start and invited us to be the first ones to use the new laundry room. I wish I could attach here a sound component which was the sound that is played when angels appear... It's like a high-pitched "haaaaaaaaaaaaa." Well, imagine that because that's what it felt like. Beauty at its finest. Amen.
What else... We had a great dinner after a long orientation, which I have most definitely been through already, and a bonfire after that. All good stuff.
I can't believe that yesterday I forgot to mention that I registered for classes! Basically we start school on Thursday, and for the first two weeks of classes we can switch in and out of whatever we want so that we can try whichever classes we want. But, I signed up for approximately double the number of secular courses that most people sign up for so many people the I am destined to drop a few. Here are my classes as of now:
Judaics- Survey of Biblical Literature, Jewish Literacy, Literary Approach to the Bible, Aggada, Talmud-Midrash-The Wold of the Sages, Topics in Rambam and Maharal, From Barren to Baron: Biblical Women, and Fundamentals of Judaism- Ramchal.
Secular- Ulpan, Marketing, Love and War in Ancient Greece, Trends and Ideology in Jewish History, Biology, Jewish Identity- Leaders and Leadership Throughout the ages, English Literature, Psychology, and Statistics.
I'll likely end up taking a lot less classes than that because, especially when I type it out like that, it's a crazy course load, but we'll see.. I definitely want to be busy, focused, and making things happen this year so ya never know.
I wish you all a beautiful week! Tomorrow to Yerushalaim :)
For punishment, we agreed that Aimee and I would play him and his partner for our first game. We racked the balls, and Noam himself was set to break. I'm going to go ahead and take this moment to mention a crucial, but rarely relevant, rule of pool... If the cue ball is scratched on the break, the break-er loses. So back to the story. Noam sets up to hit a perfect break, and you'll never guess what happened! The cue ball hit off of the front ball and flew right back and into the corner pocket on Noam's right. Ha-- it was beautiful. Within less than five seconds of playing, Aimee and I had already won. Out of the goodness of our hearts (and Noam's embarrassment) we let him continue the game as was. We played for a while, and at some point he and my other friend Zachary (Noam's teammate) were beating us two balls left to six balls left... Not lookin' good, right? Wrong. Aimee and I got our game faces on, filled ourselves with energy and confidence, and did work. Basically we got it down to a point when we each only had one ball left. What. Will. Happen. Well, to put it quite simply the true powerhouses of the group- a.k.a. the women- took over and kicked serious butt. So, yes: Noam lost twice. Ha.
Overall, pool was super fun and I played a lot better than I did the last time we were at that place.. I got my groove back a little bit, and it felt good. So I'm definitely going to get back in there at some point so I can continue improving. When we were all finished we left, and it was a little past midnight. We got back and all crowded around Meir's laptop to watch his Early Start slideshow, which will hopefully be posted online at some point for all of those who are interested. Afterwards I went straight back to my apartment because I was super tired. Despite the tired I decided to talk on the phone for a little bit, and I was laying in my bed as I did so. I opened my eyes for a second and saw a nasty tan/yellow, long-legged, super-antenna'ed bug sitting about two inches away from my face. And it was ON my bed. Say 'ew' fifteen times over and maybe you'll get what I felt like. I literally jumped out of bed, through my phone on my desk, and started full-on girly jumping up and down screaming. My roommate Miriam was brushing her teeth in the bathroom and thought I was only screaming about something on the phone, until she realized that my screams weren't normal. She came out and, similarly, screamed like a girl.
Though were screaming ridiculously loudly we really managed to get the job done.. First the bug was JUMPING on my bed. EW. Then it started to walk up the wall, and I didn't really know what to do because it was to back to just smash it. So I asked Miriam if she had a cup, and indeed she did... I grabbed it quickly, trapped the nasty bug underneath it, then we didn't know what to do. Never fear, though, because Miriam's index cards came to the rescue and we I used them to transport the bug outside and into the huge garbage can. Even when we were outside we were screaming, and everyone in our building came outside to see what in the world was going on with us. We were a little to frazzled to explain, so we just came inside to come down. I resumed my phone call, but ended it quickly to go to sleep. Before bed, however, Miriam had a little bit of a massacre whereby she smashed an additional three bugs which were invading her space. Yucky.
This morning I tried to wake up for minyan at Rabbi Menaged's house, but most definitely didn't get there until the very last prayer... Rude/lame. I had a beautiful breakfast of a toasted sesame bagel with matbucha on top, and enjoyed the sun outside while I was eating it. All of the new students came today, which was nice, and it was good to hang out with them and get everyone set up and as comfortable as possible. I was super tired and had a bit of a headache, so I spent some time in my bed watching tv shows. But I also had the best meeting of my life. Rabbi Bryks called together the five girls from Early Start and invited us to be the first ones to use the new laundry room. I wish I could attach here a sound component which was the sound that is played when angels appear... It's like a high-pitched "haaaaaaaaaaaaa." Well, imagine that because that's what it felt like. Beauty at its finest. Amen.
What else... We had a great dinner after a long orientation, which I have most definitely been through already, and a bonfire after that. All good stuff.
I can't believe that yesterday I forgot to mention that I registered for classes! Basically we start school on Thursday, and for the first two weeks of classes we can switch in and out of whatever we want so that we can try whichever classes we want. But, I signed up for approximately double the number of secular courses that most people sign up for so many people the I am destined to drop a few. Here are my classes as of now:
Judaics- Survey of Biblical Literature, Jewish Literacy, Literary Approach to the Bible, Aggada, Talmud-Midrash-The Wold of the Sages, Topics in Rambam and Maharal, From Barren to Baron: Biblical Women, and Fundamentals of Judaism- Ramchal.
Secular- Ulpan, Marketing, Love and War in Ancient Greece, Trends and Ideology in Jewish History, Biology, Jewish Identity- Leaders and Leadership Throughout the ages, English Literature, Psychology, and Statistics.
I'll likely end up taking a lot less classes than that because, especially when I type it out like that, it's a crazy course load, but we'll see.. I definitely want to be busy, focused, and making things happen this year so ya never know.
I wish you all a beautiful week! Tomorrow to Yerushalaim :)
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Shabbat
My goal for this Shabbat was definitely to enjoy the remaining calmness of this campus before everyone else gets here tomorrow... And thank goodness I accomplished my goal. Friday night I had dinner with two of my friends, Miriam and Aimee, and afterwards we went to our Av and Em Bayit's house for a little dessert and some Oneg... We didn't stay very late, though, and when we got back I just sat outside at our picnic table for a while and read. Then I of course started to fall asleep, because that's what happens when I try to read, so I hit the hay. I got a nice, long Shabbat sleep and woke up at 11:30ish. I put some food on my amazing Blech, and hung around for a while until it was warm. Neither Aimee or Miriam was up yet so I set up lunch for myself on the picnic table outside, and made that happen. Soon enough, though, they both surfaced and we all kinda ate separately together. Haha.
I really spent the majority of my afternoon sitting outside at the picnic table reading, but that activity of course led me to snoozing so I took a nice nap. Mincha, Seudah, and Arvit began at 4:30 so I made my way over there for that. Not everyone who was on campus came, but of the people who did come we had a nice little Tefilah and Seudah together. We made havdalah at our Av and Em Bayit's house, and when Shabbat was over I assumed my position at the picnic table. Haha.
There, I was kindly invited to hang out with the Jacobsons for the evening so I made my way to the bus stop to catch a 7:00 164 bus. Of course the bus didn't come until about 7:29, which meant that I had already missed the 567 bus which I was supposed to take at 7:11 but also that I had a chance for the 7:36 bus. When I got off of the 164 at Tzomet Geha and had to walk across the street to catch my 567, it of course was already at the stop. I started running, but the the distance was definitely too far to catch it so I stood where I was and waited for it to come to me-- hoping that the bus driver would have some sort of kind soul. Unfortunately, no such kind soul was found and I was left there, at Tzomet Geha, with no 567 bus in sight. I had to wait for about twenty-five minutes until the next bus came, so I whipped out my i-pod and found a not-so-comfortable seat on a railing. It came, and I arrived at my destination within fifteen minutes. Carol so kindly came to pick me up, and we made our way back to the Jacobson household.
I always love being in the presence of Jacobsons, so I obviously had a really fun night with them.. We watched The Dark Knight, which got seriously mixed reviews amongst our crowd, but it was fun to watch it with everyone and listen to all of the commentary haha. Carol and Shana very nicely drove me home after the movie, and when I got home I was sure to avoid my computer and I got right into bed.
This morning I went to Shacharit at 7 at the house of my one of my Rabbis, because as I previously mentioned he is sitting Shiva so we had a minyan there. Afterwards I hung around for a little while, had some breakfast, and talked with Rabbi Menaged. Then I went to the post office to recover a package that my mom sent me, which I've been trying to hunt down for like two weeks. With the tracking number in hand, my mission was semi-successful. The post office chick did some serious work for me, which I totally appreciated especially because it was super unexpected, and arranged it so that this dude would drop off my package this afternoon. Basically as I was writing that sentence I got a phone call from this guy, so I met him at the front gate of our campus.
Honestly I have been quite excited for this package for a some time now, so when I knew that it was finally going to come I was totally ready for it. Unfortunately Mr. Do'ar (Mail) wants to charge me almost 300 shekel (about $90) to accept this package. Despite my harsh words that I exchanged with him, I was forced to accept the fee in order to get the package... Worth it. Tooooootally worth it. Here's a pic of the contents:
I'm going to name a couple of the focal points of the package... Ridiculous number of ziploc bags = HEAVEN, non-dairy rice milk chocolate to last a loooong time = beauty and perfection, Seattle calendar and sick map = clutch, among many other much appreciated items. I was, and am, one happy camper despite the arm and a leg that I had to cough up for the box.
After my whole mail fiasco, I helped some of the madrichot and Meir clean out this big nasty storage room in preparation for the rest of the people to fly in tomorrow. Though the room was totally full of stuff, and pretty nasty, we made it happen and totally accomplished our goal in minimal time. Unfortunately, in attempt to complete the last round of driving the golf cart we learned what happens when a person maybe gets a little too confident in reverse....
Basically, an important water pipe may be run over and end up bursting. If I may say so myself it was quite the scene to watch. Water was spraying everywhere, people were trying to fix the pipe, and the whole outside of one of the dorm buildings was flooding! It was totally insane, but I felt bad for the golf cart driver because it was a total accident. After about five minutes of water shooting all over the place, the maintenance guy came and actually could not have responded to the situation more calmly. Cigarette in hand, he told us to "get our swimsuits." What a guy.
After the situation was handled, we had Mincha at Rabbi Menaged's house. Immediately after I headed back to shower, as the students who helped clean out the storage room were invited to a nice dinner with our program director Meir. At 6:30 the three of us met him at the gate and we got in the car and headed off to a beyond lovely Fish establishment. Let me tell you, my friends, it was good eating. First they brought out a plethora of salatim, bowl after bowl of warm and delicious bread, a free veggie salad on the House... Yummy!! Then, our main dishes came. So good. I ordered a Salmon Fillet, and-oh my goodness-was it great. Here's a picture:
The BBQ flavor was so rich and deeply seared into each tiny bit of salmon, that one fork-full of a bite created a burst of flavor that lasted much longer than the bite itself. It was totally awesome to be able to eat a filling and delicious meal that wasn't meat... Never happens.
Now I've been back at my apartment for about half an hour, and we are all about to head out together for the last Early Start night out! Everyone is coming tomorrow morning, so we're going together for dessert and some Billiards action... Should be fun!
I really spent the majority of my afternoon sitting outside at the picnic table reading, but that activity of course led me to snoozing so I took a nice nap. Mincha, Seudah, and Arvit began at 4:30 so I made my way over there for that. Not everyone who was on campus came, but of the people who did come we had a nice little Tefilah and Seudah together. We made havdalah at our Av and Em Bayit's house, and when Shabbat was over I assumed my position at the picnic table. Haha.
There, I was kindly invited to hang out with the Jacobsons for the evening so I made my way to the bus stop to catch a 7:00 164 bus. Of course the bus didn't come until about 7:29, which meant that I had already missed the 567 bus which I was supposed to take at 7:11 but also that I had a chance for the 7:36 bus. When I got off of the 164 at Tzomet Geha and had to walk across the street to catch my 567, it of course was already at the stop. I started running, but the the distance was definitely too far to catch it so I stood where I was and waited for it to come to me-- hoping that the bus driver would have some sort of kind soul. Unfortunately, no such kind soul was found and I was left there, at Tzomet Geha, with no 567 bus in sight. I had to wait for about twenty-five minutes until the next bus came, so I whipped out my i-pod and found a not-so-comfortable seat on a railing. It came, and I arrived at my destination within fifteen minutes. Carol so kindly came to pick me up, and we made our way back to the Jacobson household.
I always love being in the presence of Jacobsons, so I obviously had a really fun night with them.. We watched The Dark Knight, which got seriously mixed reviews amongst our crowd, but it was fun to watch it with everyone and listen to all of the commentary haha. Carol and Shana very nicely drove me home after the movie, and when I got home I was sure to avoid my computer and I got right into bed.
This morning I went to Shacharit at 7 at the house of my one of my Rabbis, because as I previously mentioned he is sitting Shiva so we had a minyan there. Afterwards I hung around for a little while, had some breakfast, and talked with Rabbi Menaged. Then I went to the post office to recover a package that my mom sent me, which I've been trying to hunt down for like two weeks. With the tracking number in hand, my mission was semi-successful. The post office chick did some serious work for me, which I totally appreciated especially because it was super unexpected, and arranged it so that this dude would drop off my package this afternoon. Basically as I was writing that sentence I got a phone call from this guy, so I met him at the front gate of our campus.
Honestly I have been quite excited for this package for a some time now, so when I knew that it was finally going to come I was totally ready for it. Unfortunately Mr. Do'ar (Mail) wants to charge me almost 300 shekel (about $90) to accept this package. Despite my harsh words that I exchanged with him, I was forced to accept the fee in order to get the package... Worth it. Tooooootally worth it. Here's a pic of the contents:
I'm going to name a couple of the focal points of the package... Ridiculous number of ziploc bags = HEAVEN, non-dairy rice milk chocolate to last a loooong time = beauty and perfection, Seattle calendar and sick map = clutch, among many other much appreciated items. I was, and am, one happy camper despite the arm and a leg that I had to cough up for the box.
After my whole mail fiasco, I helped some of the madrichot and Meir clean out this big nasty storage room in preparation for the rest of the people to fly in tomorrow. Though the room was totally full of stuff, and pretty nasty, we made it happen and totally accomplished our goal in minimal time. Unfortunately, in attempt to complete the last round of driving the golf cart we learned what happens when a person maybe gets a little too confident in reverse....
Basically, an important water pipe may be run over and end up bursting. If I may say so myself it was quite the scene to watch. Water was spraying everywhere, people were trying to fix the pipe, and the whole outside of one of the dorm buildings was flooding! It was totally insane, but I felt bad for the golf cart driver because it was a total accident. After about five minutes of water shooting all over the place, the maintenance guy came and actually could not have responded to the situation more calmly. Cigarette in hand, he told us to "get our swimsuits." What a guy.
After the situation was handled, we had Mincha at Rabbi Menaged's house. Immediately after I headed back to shower, as the students who helped clean out the storage room were invited to a nice dinner with our program director Meir. At 6:30 the three of us met him at the gate and we got in the car and headed off to a beyond lovely Fish establishment. Let me tell you, my friends, it was good eating. First they brought out a plethora of salatim, bowl after bowl of warm and delicious bread, a free veggie salad on the House... Yummy!! Then, our main dishes came. So good. I ordered a Salmon Fillet, and-oh my goodness-was it great. Here's a picture:
The BBQ flavor was so rich and deeply seared into each tiny bit of salmon, that one fork-full of a bite created a burst of flavor that lasted much longer than the bite itself. It was totally awesome to be able to eat a filling and delicious meal that wasn't meat... Never happens.
Now I've been back at my apartment for about half an hour, and we are all about to head out together for the last Early Start night out! Everyone is coming tomorrow morning, so we're going together for dessert and some Billiards action... Should be fun!
Friday, October 12, 2012
Thursday and Friday
Yesterday was quite the day. The mother of one of my Rabbis here passed away, so yesterday we had an optional trip to her funeral in Beit Shemesh. Before we went to the funeral, though, we went to a really nice mall in Modi'in. The mall reminded me of Bellevue Square because everyone there was wearing nice clothes and the stores were more upscale and expensive than ones in other malls that I've seen. We spent some time just walking around and stuff and after a while we all met up in the food court for lunch- sponsored by Israel XP. I had a lovely non-dairy pasta with an awesome green bean salad that I totally wish I knew how to make. After we all ate lunch together we boarded the bus and made our way to the cemetery. I'll spare you all from details of the funeral.
Afterwards we went back to our campus, where our program director, Meir, gave me directions to a synagogue in Ramat Gan. The reason I went there is because Lily Golan, whose sister passed away a couple of days ago, was sitting Shiva there and I wanted to see her. I got there, after a bit of a walk and not totally knowing where I was going, and stayed for a couple of hours. It was good to see her, and to meet her family, though I wish it could have been under different circumstances. The way home was a bit of an adventure, though I knew exactly how to get home. I walked for about fifteen minutes to the main street which is about half an hour away from where I live. But, I decided that because of my (excuse my openness for one second) extreme need to pee, I would just take the bus up the street so I could be home in about five minutes. And since the bus came literally as I was walking past the bus stop, I thought that there was no way I couldn't just get on the bus. I knew that the 43 went to where I lived so I hopped on.
The bus proceeded forward, as I knew it should, but all of the sudden turned right and got onto the freeway. Seeing as my apartment was about two blocks ahead of where it turned right, I was definitely not feelin the whole getting-on-the-freeway things because I knew that that was out of the way. The bus got off on the next stop, and I figured I would just get off of the bus and figure out how to get back to where I live since I knew the general direction, but then the bus driver told me that it was going to Tel Ha'Shomer Hospital which is a ten minute walk from where I live. Excited and totally confident, I stayed on the bus for a couple more stops until the bus driver said, "Tel Ha'Shomer." I got off, and didn't recognize anything around me but I figured I'd be okay because technically the hospital is right by my apartment. Let me take this moment to explain that Tel Ha'Shomer Hospital is absolutely humungous. It is basically a city of its own because of how much space it covers. So when the bus stopped at Tel Ha'Shomer, it really stopped all the way on the exact opposite side of Tel Ha'Shomer than I needed to be on. Hurray! Just kidding. I spent approximately twenty-five to thirty minutes walking around hospital parking lots, streets, and past many big buildings until I recognized where I was. I want to add that at one point I was so completely lost that I actually experienced that feeling of crying because I had no idea where I was. That, my friends, is something I and my sense of direction have never experienced before. Obviously I didn't start crying, because Lord knows that would have done nothing positive, but I definitely felt that for a couple of minutes.
Thank goodness my sense of direction pulled through and I made it back to my apartment after another solid fifteen minutes of walking. Don't worry, though, because when I walked by the bus stop by our campus it very distinctly stated that the very 43 bus which I had been on would have actually stopped right there had I just stayed on the bus...
For those of you who were worried about the fact that I hadn't yet found anywhere to pee, I made it safely back to my apartment and took care of that immediately. I spent the night talking on the phone, hanging out, and catching up on some television shows.
This morning I slept in until noon'ish then went to the Post Office to recover I package which my Mom sent, but of course they weren't really able to find it for me. And by that I mean that the woman didn't look around for even two seconds after I said that there should be a package for me... Rudeness! She told me to get a tracking number, so I'll be back on Sunday morning with that in hand. Oh. On the way there I managed to get this fatso scrape on the front of my toe and there were many deep layers of skin that were quite visible.. Unfortunately I had no band-aid in hand, so I had to wait until I got all the way back from the Post Office and the grocery store to clean it up and bandage it up.
I had my most classic meal in this country for lunch, which was a schnitzel patty thing (delicious) on a beautiful roll with tons and tons of matbucha on it. Here's a pic of my meal:
What else have I done... Made some food for Shabbat, watched some TV shows, and cleaned the kitchen. I'm about to get ready for Shabbat, because I'm staying on campus with two of my friends Aimee and Miriam.
Shabbat Shalom to all! Word on the street is that it's raining in Seattle, so enjoy good Seattlites!!
Afterwards we went back to our campus, where our program director, Meir, gave me directions to a synagogue in Ramat Gan. The reason I went there is because Lily Golan, whose sister passed away a couple of days ago, was sitting Shiva there and I wanted to see her. I got there, after a bit of a walk and not totally knowing where I was going, and stayed for a couple of hours. It was good to see her, and to meet her family, though I wish it could have been under different circumstances. The way home was a bit of an adventure, though I knew exactly how to get home. I walked for about fifteen minutes to the main street which is about half an hour away from where I live. But, I decided that because of my (excuse my openness for one second) extreme need to pee, I would just take the bus up the street so I could be home in about five minutes. And since the bus came literally as I was walking past the bus stop, I thought that there was no way I couldn't just get on the bus. I knew that the 43 went to where I lived so I hopped on.
The bus proceeded forward, as I knew it should, but all of the sudden turned right and got onto the freeway. Seeing as my apartment was about two blocks ahead of where it turned right, I was definitely not feelin the whole getting-on-the-freeway things because I knew that that was out of the way. The bus got off on the next stop, and I figured I would just get off of the bus and figure out how to get back to where I live since I knew the general direction, but then the bus driver told me that it was going to Tel Ha'Shomer Hospital which is a ten minute walk from where I live. Excited and totally confident, I stayed on the bus for a couple more stops until the bus driver said, "Tel Ha'Shomer." I got off, and didn't recognize anything around me but I figured I'd be okay because technically the hospital is right by my apartment. Let me take this moment to explain that Tel Ha'Shomer Hospital is absolutely humungous. It is basically a city of its own because of how much space it covers. So when the bus stopped at Tel Ha'Shomer, it really stopped all the way on the exact opposite side of Tel Ha'Shomer than I needed to be on. Hurray! Just kidding. I spent approximately twenty-five to thirty minutes walking around hospital parking lots, streets, and past many big buildings until I recognized where I was. I want to add that at one point I was so completely lost that I actually experienced that feeling of crying because I had no idea where I was. That, my friends, is something I and my sense of direction have never experienced before. Obviously I didn't start crying, because Lord knows that would have done nothing positive, but I definitely felt that for a couple of minutes.
Thank goodness my sense of direction pulled through and I made it back to my apartment after another solid fifteen minutes of walking. Don't worry, though, because when I walked by the bus stop by our campus it very distinctly stated that the very 43 bus which I had been on would have actually stopped right there had I just stayed on the bus...
For those of you who were worried about the fact that I hadn't yet found anywhere to pee, I made it safely back to my apartment and took care of that immediately. I spent the night talking on the phone, hanging out, and catching up on some television shows.
This morning I slept in until noon'ish then went to the Post Office to recover I package which my Mom sent, but of course they weren't really able to find it for me. And by that I mean that the woman didn't look around for even two seconds after I said that there should be a package for me... Rudeness! She told me to get a tracking number, so I'll be back on Sunday morning with that in hand. Oh. On the way there I managed to get this fatso scrape on the front of my toe and there were many deep layers of skin that were quite visible.. Unfortunately I had no band-aid in hand, so I had to wait until I got all the way back from the Post Office and the grocery store to clean it up and bandage it up.
I had my most classic meal in this country for lunch, which was a schnitzel patty thing (delicious) on a beautiful roll with tons and tons of matbucha on it. Here's a pic of my meal:
What else have I done... Made some food for Shabbat, watched some TV shows, and cleaned the kitchen. I'm about to get ready for Shabbat, because I'm staying on campus with two of my friends Aimee and Miriam.
Shabbat Shalom to all! Word on the street is that it's raining in Seattle, so enjoy good Seattlites!!
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
It has been way too long...
It's lame that it's been such a long time since I've had a chance to write a blog post, but I've just been ridiculously busy. It really feels like it's been forever because I'm so used to writing every day. But I guess it's good because I have a lot to talk about now. I feel that I should mention, by the way, that today is my one month of anniversary of being in Israel... Crazy how fast it has gone, and how much we have done.
Sunday- Erev Chag.
For some reason on Saturday night I really just did not feel like sleeping, and felt no tiredness at all whatsoever, so I stayed up until 5:30 AM listening to music, blogging, and talking to friends from home. Staying up that late, especially for no reason, is something I haven't done in quite a long time, so it was a little bit exciting for me haha. I went to bed, though, and woke up at 11ish-- I think?! Somewhere around there... I got my stuff together for Chag, had some lunch, and made my way out the side gate and to the main bus station called Aluf Sadeh (about a 10-12 minute walk from my apt). I caught the 400 bus to Yerushalaim, and got there within about forty minutes- as always. As I was nearing the end of my bus journey I started to call Sarah Varon and Garce, because I was heading to Garce's from the bus station and needed her to open the door for me once I got there, but they were of course not answering. I figured that they would get back to me pretty soon, though, so I was totally chill about it. When I got off the bus, and had walked to the train to take me down Yaffo Street, I started calling them more, because I was getting closer. But, of course they weren't answering. Side note: completely and totally randomly the woman who was sitting in front of me on the train happened to be a woman who made aliyah from Seattle 2 years ago... I knew her from SBH, totally recognized her voice, then when she looked up for a second I knew it was her and was totally taken back. We talked for a couple minutes, and she's doing well- but wow! Was that unexpected or what... Honestly I had forgotten that she moved to Israel. Back to the story, though. Garce and Sarah were doing anything but answering, and obviously I knew I would figure out a way to get up to her apartment, but I was so much more comfortable with having one of them open the door for me. Then I figured out that Adina was there, too, so I was non-stop rotating between calling all three of them until I got to the front of the building. I probably made like twenty calls, and they somehow managed to not here a single one of them... Weirdos. I walked into the building and talked the security guard for a while, who let me in because he kind of remembered me and I knew where I was going, but then I faced the problem of a locked door to the elevator. Luckily I knew how to get out of the parking garage that I was in, re-entered the building, and this time asked the security guard to come with me.
When I got up to Garce's, they were of courseee blasting musing and cooking so none of them were anywhere near their phones. But I definitely still announced that I had called them many many times. I got over myself, put my stuff down, and the four of us hung out in the kitchen for a while-- putting together a meal for lunch on Chag. With only a couple of hours left until Chag, everyone started showing up... Shana Jacobson, Carol Jacobson, and Ilana Greenberg. So nice that all seven of us Seattlites could be together for Chag!!
Once Chag started, we went to the great Sephardic synagogue that I prayed at for Rosh Hashanah, where we watched the men do Hakafot. Obviously we sang along with them, too, but it was a different experience than the many I've had in Seattle before. It was nowhere near as crazy, and there wasn't as much dancing. Word on the street is that it's because of the fact that Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are combined into one day... Let me explain why. Something that takes place on Shemini Atzeret is the prayer for rain. In Israel, the difference between rain and no rain is the difference between life and death. And thus, the tefilah for rain is obviously taken very seriously. Though dancing with the Torahs and singing and being super happy is a very important part of Chag in general, and Simchat Torah specifically, people don't go as crazy here because they know that the next day they will be waking up and praying literally for Israel's means to life for the year. Regardless, synagogue was fun. We went back to the Almo's afterwards for dinner, and on the way we ran into Josh Voss and Dena Phillips who were coming to say hi to us. We hung out for a little bit before we started dinner, then we got down to business. Haha. Dinner was awesome. We had tons of delicious food, and great company. They even made some barbecuing happen because it was Chag as opposed to Shabbat. Dessert was awesome too.. Really just a great meal all around.
So Garce has this ping-pong table. I hadn't really played ping-pong for quite a few years (I honestly can't remember the last time I played), but I figured I'd give it a go. Turns out that Garce and I are a really good match for each other, and we basically played somewhere around fifteen games over the course of two days... Also, it's so much fun!! Weird that I liked it so much-I know-but it was great. I also played Adina, and they played each other.. We basically had an ongoing ping-pong tournament, which was great. Carol, Adina, and Sarah went to bed rather shortly after dinner, which left Ilana, Shana, Garce, and myself still awake. So what did we do? We busted out Taboo, sat on the couch, and had a great time. Me and Garce vs. Shana and Ilana... SO fun. First we just played the normal way, but then we played this weirdo version where you can't skip any cards. It made is so challenging but ridiculously hilarious. The first card that Garce got was some three-word, who-knows-what-that-is word and took basically the entire two minutes for her to be able to get me to say each word individually... We stayed up playing until 3 AM, and I honestly don't remember the last time I was laughing that hard. We were basically peeing our pants because it was just so funny.
Monday- Day of Chag.
In the morning I was the only one who woke up for synagogue, so I went. When I came back Garce and Sarah were up, so the three of us got everything together for lunch. It was just the girls for lunch, because Garce's parents were eating out. At some point we woke everyone else up, and everything came together.
Pause for a little slice of awesome: Within an hour of praying for rain at synagogue, I look outside and saw nothing other than Seattle-style rain clouds forming in the skies... I knew what was going to happen and was so excited to see it. About five minutes later I looked outside again, and there was rain coming down from the sky. Not pouring, but not drizzling. Just, rain. I know that it happens every year in Israel, but there is something really awesome about praying for something and then seeing it less than an hour later. Just sayin'. Back to business... Lunch was amaaazing. Way too much food. We had a HUGE taco salad, this cucumber salad, schnitzel, asparagus, corn, among tons and tons of other things which I loved. In addition to dessert. Hello-- who knew that Shana Jacobson has inherited the Jacobson baking gene? She did... Incredible cookies. Josh Voss showed up for the end of the meal, and ate with us, but also stayed to hang for the afternoon. We really just all hung out. We sat on the marpeset because it was beautiful outside, there was definitely some ping-pong action, some people read, some people talked-- all good and fun.
When Chag was over for everyone we said Havdalah, but Chag wasn't totally over yet for me. Since I did the "half" day thing, I still had another 24 hours of not doing melacha but not keeping Chag. Again, weird. Even weirder than last time because everyone around me was using cell phones, computers, listening to music, etc. And it's not even like they were doing anything wrong. Everyone was trying to make plans for a really long time, and it wasn't until it was way too late at night that we came up with something concrete. But don't worry, we did it anyway. Haha. At 11 or so we headed out and went to Hakafot Shniyot at this park up the street from Garce's, then went to Waffle Bar. On the way there we ran into Natton Ben-Meir, which was great because I've been unsuccessful in my efforts to track him down. He's going to the army in less than 20 days, and he's super excited. He seems great, and I'm hopefully going to get together with him at some point next week. For anyone who doesn't know what Waffle Bar is, by the way, I'm going to go ahead and explain... Basically, exactly what it sounds like. A restaurant made for waffles. Let me just tell you... Not eating that was hard. I almost would have given up the non-dairy for a bite of the waffle, but I couldn't because I had eaten meat for dinner earlier that night. Honestly, so much better that I didn't take a bite because it would have killed my stomach. Just saying- it smelled amazing. They got ravioli, two elaborate cheesy salads, this other delicious-looking thing with pesto, and two waffles for dessert. The waiter handed me the chocolate waffle to hold while everyone was clearing the table, and OH MY LORD the smell was ridiculous. It was just wafting into my nose like a beautiful, good-smelling rainbow of chocolatey delight... Yum, is all I can say. After waffle bar, we headed back and cutely hung out and talked on the couches for a little while until we were all too tired to not sleep.
I suprisingly woke up at 11:30ish and totally expected everyone to be up and everything, but I was wrong. I mean, at least regarding the people who were still at Garce's. I guess I was right because Ilana, Adina, Carol, and Shana had already left, but I felt wrong because Garce was still sleeping and Sarah had just woken up. The three of us got up and dressed and everything then went to Mamilla Mall. Garce found some solid purchases, and afterwards we went to Aroma Cafe for lunch. It was weird eating at a restaurant when I was doing the whole not-Chag Chag thing, but it was totally okay because I didn't do any melachot since Garce paid for me. Afterwards we went to Sarah's apartment, where we hung out for a while and met Ilana and Adina, and then I left to hang out with Ilana for the afternoon in the Old City. We ended up just sitting and talking about the Kotel, where Dena later joined us. The three of us got some quality hangout time together, which was great, and after my not-Chag Chag was over I went back to Garce's. I got my stuff together, sadly said goodbye to the Almo family, and made my way to the Tachanat Ha'Merkazit- Central Bus Station. I got on my 400 Bus, and started feeling ridiculously nauseated so I set an alarm for half an hour later and fell asleep. I woke up just as the bus was taking the exit to my stop, so that was definitely great timing. Strangely enough, as I got up to get off of the bus I heard, "Julia!" and when I looked up and around for the voice calling my name it was none other than David Schwartz. It was lame that I couldn't talk to him for even three seconds because I was getting off of the bus, but it was crazy to see him and it makes me think that I'll see him again since I am a rather frequent passenger on that bus.
I got home and still wasn't feeling so great, so I put my stuff down and decided to eat a little something before bed. I did so, then hung out for a bit in our kitchen with some of my friends, then went to bed.
Tuesday- Akko and Rosh Ha'Nikra.
This morning I woke up early for an optional tiyul which everyone went on. First we drove to the ancient city of Akko, which was definitely a lengthy drive. I want to say somewhere around 90 minutes? But maybe longer.
We had a lovely tour by our tour guide Yeshiyah, and we started by walking around through the big Citadel which was constructed over one thousand years ago. Below are pictures of the big hall, for meals and meeting and such (on the left), and the dungeon (on the right). The dungeon was very dungeon-ey, if I may say so myself.
We spent about an hour walking around that area. It was definitely cool to see the impressive architecture and everything, but it was not the most lively or exciting of tours. Like I'm glad I did it, but it wasn't my #1. Afterwards, we got back on the bus and drove for a little bit to the Akko Jail which is totally famous. Basically it was this big time jail, used by the British to hold Jews and Arabs as prisoners for many years. In 1947 many of the Jews there were members of the Lechi, Haganah, or Etzel underground Israeli "army" units. On May 4, 1947 a large prison-break occurred, and 41 pro-Israel prisoners were able to escape. Now, the Israel Ministry of Defense is in charge of the jail. The tour that they have organized is most definitely a comprehensive and organized way to show the jail, and I definitely appreciated that. We were led room by room through the jail, and in each room we watched a video about what had occurred in that room. But the videos were interconnected in that the story of the jail was told through a re-make of the jail-break. We saw the perspectives of Lechi, Haganah, and Etzel members, which was a really interesting and seemingly all-encompassing way to do it. I guess I have never really been to a jail before, though, so thinking about and internalizing everything that had gone on in the same places that I was standing was a little bit unsettling to me. But I totally appreciated the tour, and I'm glad I had the chance to learn about and see the Akko jail.
When everyone finished enjoyed the beauty of the water we got back on the bus, and most of us spent a couple of hours sleeping. When I got back I showered, went to the store to buy some food, and I've just been hanging around since. I'm about to go to bed because it's way too late for me, but below are some other little things that I am deciding to share with you all... Enjoy!
I sent an email to my mom on Sunday morning, and I thought I would share it with you all. Despite my honest seriousness, I think it's a funny email. So here it is:
"I am currently about to express to you my first of hopefully very few "cries for help" throughout this year... I realized this morning that one of the biggest errors in judgment I have made in my entire life is that life would be all good and dandy if I just showed up to this country and found a random israeli product to substitute for my pantene pro-v curly hair mousse. Boy, was I wrong. Though I will say that I have, impressively, made my singular bottle last an entire month in attempt to prolong the time I have to find a new product, what I have found in this time is that nothing is going to be anywhere near the same. And unfortunately I like my hair with the mousse in it. So my cry to you, mother dearest, is a request for you to send me a couple of bottles of mousse in a package in the mail. I think I'll cry if you fulfill this wish, just fyi."
Thank goodness she responded by saying, "Well my darling daughter it is an honor and a privilege to say yes to you.
I will ship some on Wednesday."
I almost cried... It was so exciting.
By the way, a couple of things that I miss about home:
The non-chalky taste of green grapes, crunchy Washington apples, guaranteed Kashrut of fruit wherever you go, and Cappy's Boxing Gym... Just sayin.
Sunday- Erev Chag.
For some reason on Saturday night I really just did not feel like sleeping, and felt no tiredness at all whatsoever, so I stayed up until 5:30 AM listening to music, blogging, and talking to friends from home. Staying up that late, especially for no reason, is something I haven't done in quite a long time, so it was a little bit exciting for me haha. I went to bed, though, and woke up at 11ish-- I think?! Somewhere around there... I got my stuff together for Chag, had some lunch, and made my way out the side gate and to the main bus station called Aluf Sadeh (about a 10-12 minute walk from my apt). I caught the 400 bus to Yerushalaim, and got there within about forty minutes- as always. As I was nearing the end of my bus journey I started to call Sarah Varon and Garce, because I was heading to Garce's from the bus station and needed her to open the door for me once I got there, but they were of course not answering. I figured that they would get back to me pretty soon, though, so I was totally chill about it. When I got off the bus, and had walked to the train to take me down Yaffo Street, I started calling them more, because I was getting closer. But, of course they weren't answering. Side note: completely and totally randomly the woman who was sitting in front of me on the train happened to be a woman who made aliyah from Seattle 2 years ago... I knew her from SBH, totally recognized her voice, then when she looked up for a second I knew it was her and was totally taken back. We talked for a couple minutes, and she's doing well- but wow! Was that unexpected or what... Honestly I had forgotten that she moved to Israel. Back to the story, though. Garce and Sarah were doing anything but answering, and obviously I knew I would figure out a way to get up to her apartment, but I was so much more comfortable with having one of them open the door for me. Then I figured out that Adina was there, too, so I was non-stop rotating between calling all three of them until I got to the front of the building. I probably made like twenty calls, and they somehow managed to not here a single one of them... Weirdos. I walked into the building and talked the security guard for a while, who let me in because he kind of remembered me and I knew where I was going, but then I faced the problem of a locked door to the elevator. Luckily I knew how to get out of the parking garage that I was in, re-entered the building, and this time asked the security guard to come with me.
When I got up to Garce's, they were of courseee blasting musing and cooking so none of them were anywhere near their phones. But I definitely still announced that I had called them many many times. I got over myself, put my stuff down, and the four of us hung out in the kitchen for a while-- putting together a meal for lunch on Chag. With only a couple of hours left until Chag, everyone started showing up... Shana Jacobson, Carol Jacobson, and Ilana Greenberg. So nice that all seven of us Seattlites could be together for Chag!!
Once Chag started, we went to the great Sephardic synagogue that I prayed at for Rosh Hashanah, where we watched the men do Hakafot. Obviously we sang along with them, too, but it was a different experience than the many I've had in Seattle before. It was nowhere near as crazy, and there wasn't as much dancing. Word on the street is that it's because of the fact that Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are combined into one day... Let me explain why. Something that takes place on Shemini Atzeret is the prayer for rain. In Israel, the difference between rain and no rain is the difference between life and death. And thus, the tefilah for rain is obviously taken very seriously. Though dancing with the Torahs and singing and being super happy is a very important part of Chag in general, and Simchat Torah specifically, people don't go as crazy here because they know that the next day they will be waking up and praying literally for Israel's means to life for the year. Regardless, synagogue was fun. We went back to the Almo's afterwards for dinner, and on the way we ran into Josh Voss and Dena Phillips who were coming to say hi to us. We hung out for a little bit before we started dinner, then we got down to business. Haha. Dinner was awesome. We had tons of delicious food, and great company. They even made some barbecuing happen because it was Chag as opposed to Shabbat. Dessert was awesome too.. Really just a great meal all around.
So Garce has this ping-pong table. I hadn't really played ping-pong for quite a few years (I honestly can't remember the last time I played), but I figured I'd give it a go. Turns out that Garce and I are a really good match for each other, and we basically played somewhere around fifteen games over the course of two days... Also, it's so much fun!! Weird that I liked it so much-I know-but it was great. I also played Adina, and they played each other.. We basically had an ongoing ping-pong tournament, which was great. Carol, Adina, and Sarah went to bed rather shortly after dinner, which left Ilana, Shana, Garce, and myself still awake. So what did we do? We busted out Taboo, sat on the couch, and had a great time. Me and Garce vs. Shana and Ilana... SO fun. First we just played the normal way, but then we played this weirdo version where you can't skip any cards. It made is so challenging but ridiculously hilarious. The first card that Garce got was some three-word, who-knows-what-that-is word and took basically the entire two minutes for her to be able to get me to say each word individually... We stayed up playing until 3 AM, and I honestly don't remember the last time I was laughing that hard. We were basically peeing our pants because it was just so funny.
Monday- Day of Chag.
In the morning I was the only one who woke up for synagogue, so I went. When I came back Garce and Sarah were up, so the three of us got everything together for lunch. It was just the girls for lunch, because Garce's parents were eating out. At some point we woke everyone else up, and everything came together.
Pause for a little slice of awesome: Within an hour of praying for rain at synagogue, I look outside and saw nothing other than Seattle-style rain clouds forming in the skies... I knew what was going to happen and was so excited to see it. About five minutes later I looked outside again, and there was rain coming down from the sky. Not pouring, but not drizzling. Just, rain. I know that it happens every year in Israel, but there is something really awesome about praying for something and then seeing it less than an hour later. Just sayin'. Back to business... Lunch was amaaazing. Way too much food. We had a HUGE taco salad, this cucumber salad, schnitzel, asparagus, corn, among tons and tons of other things which I loved. In addition to dessert. Hello-- who knew that Shana Jacobson has inherited the Jacobson baking gene? She did... Incredible cookies. Josh Voss showed up for the end of the meal, and ate with us, but also stayed to hang for the afternoon. We really just all hung out. We sat on the marpeset because it was beautiful outside, there was definitely some ping-pong action, some people read, some people talked-- all good and fun.
When Chag was over for everyone we said Havdalah, but Chag wasn't totally over yet for me. Since I did the "half" day thing, I still had another 24 hours of not doing melacha but not keeping Chag. Again, weird. Even weirder than last time because everyone around me was using cell phones, computers, listening to music, etc. And it's not even like they were doing anything wrong. Everyone was trying to make plans for a really long time, and it wasn't until it was way too late at night that we came up with something concrete. But don't worry, we did it anyway. Haha. At 11 or so we headed out and went to Hakafot Shniyot at this park up the street from Garce's, then went to Waffle Bar. On the way there we ran into Natton Ben-Meir, which was great because I've been unsuccessful in my efforts to track him down. He's going to the army in less than 20 days, and he's super excited. He seems great, and I'm hopefully going to get together with him at some point next week. For anyone who doesn't know what Waffle Bar is, by the way, I'm going to go ahead and explain... Basically, exactly what it sounds like. A restaurant made for waffles. Let me just tell you... Not eating that was hard. I almost would have given up the non-dairy for a bite of the waffle, but I couldn't because I had eaten meat for dinner earlier that night. Honestly, so much better that I didn't take a bite because it would have killed my stomach. Just saying- it smelled amazing. They got ravioli, two elaborate cheesy salads, this other delicious-looking thing with pesto, and two waffles for dessert. The waiter handed me the chocolate waffle to hold while everyone was clearing the table, and OH MY LORD the smell was ridiculous. It was just wafting into my nose like a beautiful, good-smelling rainbow of chocolatey delight... Yum, is all I can say. After waffle bar, we headed back and cutely hung out and talked on the couches for a little while until we were all too tired to not sleep.
I suprisingly woke up at 11:30ish and totally expected everyone to be up and everything, but I was wrong. I mean, at least regarding the people who were still at Garce's. I guess I was right because Ilana, Adina, Carol, and Shana had already left, but I felt wrong because Garce was still sleeping and Sarah had just woken up. The three of us got up and dressed and everything then went to Mamilla Mall. Garce found some solid purchases, and afterwards we went to Aroma Cafe for lunch. It was weird eating at a restaurant when I was doing the whole not-Chag Chag thing, but it was totally okay because I didn't do any melachot since Garce paid for me. Afterwards we went to Sarah's apartment, where we hung out for a while and met Ilana and Adina, and then I left to hang out with Ilana for the afternoon in the Old City. We ended up just sitting and talking about the Kotel, where Dena later joined us. The three of us got some quality hangout time together, which was great, and after my not-Chag Chag was over I went back to Garce's. I got my stuff together, sadly said goodbye to the Almo family, and made my way to the Tachanat Ha'Merkazit- Central Bus Station. I got on my 400 Bus, and started feeling ridiculously nauseated so I set an alarm for half an hour later and fell asleep. I woke up just as the bus was taking the exit to my stop, so that was definitely great timing. Strangely enough, as I got up to get off of the bus I heard, "Julia!" and when I looked up and around for the voice calling my name it was none other than David Schwartz. It was lame that I couldn't talk to him for even three seconds because I was getting off of the bus, but it was crazy to see him and it makes me think that I'll see him again since I am a rather frequent passenger on that bus.
I got home and still wasn't feeling so great, so I put my stuff down and decided to eat a little something before bed. I did so, then hung out for a bit in our kitchen with some of my friends, then went to bed.
Tuesday- Akko and Rosh Ha'Nikra.
This morning I woke up early for an optional tiyul which everyone went on. First we drove to the ancient city of Akko, which was definitely a lengthy drive. I want to say somewhere around 90 minutes? But maybe longer.
We had a lovely tour by our tour guide Yeshiyah, and we started by walking around through the big Citadel which was constructed over one thousand years ago. Below are pictures of the big hall, for meals and meeting and such (on the left), and the dungeon (on the right). The dungeon was very dungeon-ey, if I may say so myself.
We spent about an hour walking around that area. It was definitely cool to see the impressive architecture and everything, but it was not the most lively or exciting of tours. Like I'm glad I did it, but it wasn't my #1. Afterwards, we got back on the bus and drove for a little bit to the Akko Jail which is totally famous. Basically it was this big time jail, used by the British to hold Jews and Arabs as prisoners for many years. In 1947 many of the Jews there were members of the Lechi, Haganah, or Etzel underground Israeli "army" units. On May 4, 1947 a large prison-break occurred, and 41 pro-Israel prisoners were able to escape. Now, the Israel Ministry of Defense is in charge of the jail. The tour that they have organized is most definitely a comprehensive and organized way to show the jail, and I definitely appreciated that. We were led room by room through the jail, and in each room we watched a video about what had occurred in that room. But the videos were interconnected in that the story of the jail was told through a re-make of the jail-break. We saw the perspectives of Lechi, Haganah, and Etzel members, which was a really interesting and seemingly all-encompassing way to do it. I guess I have never really been to a jail before, though, so thinking about and internalizing everything that had gone on in the same places that I was standing was a little bit unsettling to me. But I totally appreciated the tour, and I'm glad I had the chance to learn about and see the Akko jail.
The view from the first room that prisoners who were to be tried would enter. I thought that seeing that beautiful view, but behind bars, was symbolic of the whole jail scene in general.
This is a plaque with part of Ha'Tikvah on it, which sits on the wall behind the gallows. The reason that only half of Ha'Tikvah is there is because when men who were fighting for Israel were hung there, they would sing Ha'Tikvah and unfortunately be hanged before they could finish singing it.
If the jail did anything for me it seriously motivated me to continue down the wonderful path of legality which I have lived my whole life. There is definitely no reason for me to go to jail...
When we finished in Akko we drove for a little while to a place called Rosh Ha'Nikra-- the northwestern most point of Israel. Literally on the other side of these huge clay mountain things lies Lebanon. It was absolutely stunning. I'm serious when I say that the color of the water is 8,000,000% indescribable. As beautiful as the pictures below are, they don't do it justice- at all. I could have just stared into the ocean for hours and hours, but unfortunately we had to go back tonight. While we were there we went through these awesome water-made tunnels, and just walked around and enjoyed the view. I felt so bad for my friend Aimee, who hurt her ankle in Akko.. It was really lame. But we had some quality bonding time because I carried her around for a lot of the Rosh Ha'Nikra trip. Though she had done the tour before, so she did not come with us through the tunnels and we just sat together for a lot of the staring time.
Before taking a cable car down to the ocean this is the view.. I though it was cool with the Israeli flags there.
The totally incredible and unbelievable color of the water inside of the caves!!! It was super deep but we could see all the way to the bottom because of how clear it is... I would have paid so much money to be able to swim in that.
View from just outside of the tunnels... Also stunning.
When everyone finished enjoyed the beauty of the water we got back on the bus, and most of us spent a couple of hours sleeping. When I got back I showered, went to the store to buy some food, and I've just been hanging around since. I'm about to go to bed because it's way too late for me, but below are some other little things that I am deciding to share with you all... Enjoy!
I sent an email to my mom on Sunday morning, and I thought I would share it with you all. Despite my honest seriousness, I think it's a funny email. So here it is:
"I am currently about to express to you my first of hopefully very few "cries for help" throughout this year... I realized this morning that one of the biggest errors in judgment I have made in my entire life is that life would be all good and dandy if I just showed up to this country and found a random israeli product to substitute for my pantene pro-v curly hair mousse. Boy, was I wrong. Though I will say that I have, impressively, made my singular bottle last an entire month in attempt to prolong the time I have to find a new product, what I have found in this time is that nothing is going to be anywhere near the same. And unfortunately I like my hair with the mousse in it. So my cry to you, mother dearest, is a request for you to send me a couple of bottles of mousse in a package in the mail. I think I'll cry if you fulfill this wish, just fyi."
Thank goodness she responded by saying, "Well my darling daughter it is an honor and a privilege to say yes to you.
I will ship some on Wednesday."
I almost cried... It was so exciting.
By the way, a couple of things that I miss about home:
The non-chalky taste of green grapes, crunchy Washington apples, guaranteed Kashrut of fruit wherever you go, and Cappy's Boxing Gym... Just sayin.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Shavua Tov!
Getting ready for Shabbat, I had a really chill day on Friday. I slept in until noon'ish, and spent the afternoon hanging out, shopping at the store down the street, showering, and talking to a couple of people on the phone. The plan for our program for Shabbat was to have an on-campus Shabbaton, so I didn't need to do very much prep for Shabbat. We were all told to be ready and at the main gate by 4:40 in order to get a ride to the house where we would be eating dinner. We split up into our two separate groups and made our way. We prayed Kabbalat Shabbat and Arvit at this Yeshiva in Ramat Gan, and the minyan was most definitely Ashkenazik. I made the FAT mistake of not taking my siddur with me so I had to suffer not only through the Ashkenazik tefilah, but through the Ashkenazik siddur as well. Super lame. I survived, though, and after tefilah we made it back to Meir (our informal education director)'s house for dinner. Dinner was totally great, and I'm pretty sure we all just had a really fun time hanging out together in the Succah. A while after dinner was over the people from the other house showed up, and we stayed and oneg'ed in the Succah for a little while. But, they came super late so basically half an hour after they came we headed back to where we live. I went to bed basically as soon as we got back because midnight is way too late for me, haha.
This morning we all woke up and congregated in the Succah, which is right outside of the guys' dorms, along with all of the Av and Em Batim who were around. We had a super nice meal, and despite the beating hot sun really enjoyed the company, the food, and all the discussions and singing. It is definitely important that I mention that there was a serious attempt to rep the Sephardic portion of our group during the singing, which was much appreciated. We took our time with the meal, and finished at about 2. Some people napped, some played games, and some just hung out... I read outside in the company of some people who were playing games, which was nice. We had a Seudah Shlishit, which was another great meal, sung for a while, heard a D'var Torah, then said Arvit and Havdalah together.
After Shabbat seven of us went to Meir's house for some Hoshanah Rabah learning and food. We discussed parts of Perashat Bereshit, which was interesting. Afterwards, we dropped off two of the guys and the rest of us went to a river behind the Ayalon Mall to do Tashlich. Done did after about thirty seconds, and we headed to a pool hall for a couple of games of pool. I played in the second game, and none of us were doing well at all so it was just about the longest game of pool I've ever seen. I used to be good at pool, but I guess I could probably get that back if I were to pick up a pool cue more often than once every two years. Haha. We'll see if I make any advances with that, though I doubt I will.
I should mention the following couple of things:
1) There's this guy named Noam on my program who has made it his personal life challenge to be mentioned in at least one out of every five blog posts of mine.. So when you see his name pop up, know that he's only interacting with me for the publicity. Haha.
2) A common theme of Shabbat is the words we say for Havdalah.. They basically talk about how we make a separation between Shabbat and weekday, between light and darkness, and between Israel and the other nations. Now, okay. I'm going to be honest, for a minute, about one of the biggest differences that I experience between Shabbat and the rest of the week. Here it is: Shabbat is the day that I see tens of aunts crawling nastily on my bathroom wall and I can't kill them. So maybe we can add that to Havdalah.
3) Sitting at the table in our kitchen is always an experience. Now let me tell you why... There's this weird raining thing that happens, but when I say raining I don't mean raining water. What I do mean is that it rains dead bugs. It's the most disgusting unnatural weather I have ever experienced. This stupid light that sits about the table apparently kills so many bugs per day that it is completely regular to experience a bug storm over the course of sitting for less than twenty minutes. EW.
4) After Shabbat tonight, I flipped the switch to turn on the light in our bathroom and the light bulb did this weird explosion thing... It made this fat popping noise, then shut off completely. I later discovered that the outlet next to the bathroom light switch isn't working, so I'm pretty sure that means that there's something happening with that fuse. But then again, I'm not totally sure. So we're going to talk to our Em Bayit about it in the morning. For now we're stuck using the bathroom in the empty apartment across the hall.
5) I want to take a brief moment to publicly recognize that Matbucha is one of the best parts of this country, and no one can deny that. It is totally my new personal mission to get real Matbucha to Seattle... It's. The. BEST.
6) Tomorrow starts Chag in Yerushalaim with Garce, her family, and the many of my friends who are also staying there... It's going to be so fun!
Read this:
If you are going to be in Seattle on October 28th you absolutely need to go to: http://www.runscared5k.com/ and sign up for Team Samurai, in memory of my brother Sam Owen. The team discount code is Samurai12, and it will get you $5 off per person. Rain or shine, get yourself to Seward Park and help make Team Samurai this biggest and best team out there!! The Run Scared 5K is truly a great cause, benefiting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Plus, hello: you'll get an awesome t-shirt for signing up! Make it happen, people.
Shavua Tov, to all!
This morning we all woke up and congregated in the Succah, which is right outside of the guys' dorms, along with all of the Av and Em Batim who were around. We had a super nice meal, and despite the beating hot sun really enjoyed the company, the food, and all the discussions and singing. It is definitely important that I mention that there was a serious attempt to rep the Sephardic portion of our group during the singing, which was much appreciated. We took our time with the meal, and finished at about 2. Some people napped, some played games, and some just hung out... I read outside in the company of some people who were playing games, which was nice. We had a Seudah Shlishit, which was another great meal, sung for a while, heard a D'var Torah, then said Arvit and Havdalah together.
After Shabbat seven of us went to Meir's house for some Hoshanah Rabah learning and food. We discussed parts of Perashat Bereshit, which was interesting. Afterwards, we dropped off two of the guys and the rest of us went to a river behind the Ayalon Mall to do Tashlich. Done did after about thirty seconds, and we headed to a pool hall for a couple of games of pool. I played in the second game, and none of us were doing well at all so it was just about the longest game of pool I've ever seen. I used to be good at pool, but I guess I could probably get that back if I were to pick up a pool cue more often than once every two years. Haha. We'll see if I make any advances with that, though I doubt I will.
I should mention the following couple of things:
1) There's this guy named Noam on my program who has made it his personal life challenge to be mentioned in at least one out of every five blog posts of mine.. So when you see his name pop up, know that he's only interacting with me for the publicity. Haha.
2) A common theme of Shabbat is the words we say for Havdalah.. They basically talk about how we make a separation between Shabbat and weekday, between light and darkness, and between Israel and the other nations. Now, okay. I'm going to be honest, for a minute, about one of the biggest differences that I experience between Shabbat and the rest of the week. Here it is: Shabbat is the day that I see tens of aunts crawling nastily on my bathroom wall and I can't kill them. So maybe we can add that to Havdalah.
3) Sitting at the table in our kitchen is always an experience. Now let me tell you why... There's this weird raining thing that happens, but when I say raining I don't mean raining water. What I do mean is that it rains dead bugs. It's the most disgusting unnatural weather I have ever experienced. This stupid light that sits about the table apparently kills so many bugs per day that it is completely regular to experience a bug storm over the course of sitting for less than twenty minutes. EW.
4) After Shabbat tonight, I flipped the switch to turn on the light in our bathroom and the light bulb did this weird explosion thing... It made this fat popping noise, then shut off completely. I later discovered that the outlet next to the bathroom light switch isn't working, so I'm pretty sure that means that there's something happening with that fuse. But then again, I'm not totally sure. So we're going to talk to our Em Bayit about it in the morning. For now we're stuck using the bathroom in the empty apartment across the hall.
5) I want to take a brief moment to publicly recognize that Matbucha is one of the best parts of this country, and no one can deny that. It is totally my new personal mission to get real Matbucha to Seattle... It's. The. BEST.
6) Tomorrow starts Chag in Yerushalaim with Garce, her family, and the many of my friends who are also staying there... It's going to be so fun!
Read this:
If you are going to be in Seattle on October 28th you absolutely need to go to: http://www.runscared5k.com/ and sign up for Team Samurai, in memory of my brother Sam Owen. The team discount code is Samurai12, and it will get you $5 off per person. Rain or shine, get yourself to Seward Park and help make Team Samurai this biggest and best team out there!! The Run Scared 5K is truly a great cause, benefiting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Plus, hello: you'll get an awesome t-shirt for signing up! Make it happen, people.
Shavua Tov, to all!
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Two Days In One: From Yerushaliam to Tel Aviv
Yesterday was a very interesting day. My original goal for the day was to make it to Hertzeliya to hang out with Garce and her family. Unfortunately, after letting myself sleep in a little bit I realized that the next available bus was stupidly not until 7:30 PM. Ridiculous. But it was not until I was already out and about that I realized this, so I just changed my plans a little bit. I took my friend the 55 Bus to the Kiryat Ono mall, which is about ten to fifteen minutes away from where I live, and I figured that I'd just walk around and get to know the place. I ended up listening to my i-pod as I was walking around, and had a really fun time listening to music as I was shuffling in and out of all of the stores. I don't think I really accomplished very much, but it was fun. Oh, actually I bought a couple necessities from Office Depot, haha, and I found a cheap cutting board as well as some produce at the supermarket in the mall. Good stuff. I made my way back to my apartment, where I hung out for the afternoon. Then I decided that I was going to meet friends in Beit Shemesh, for this big Succot celebration called Shemeshfest, so I kicked it to the bus stop for the first of two legs in my journey. The bus came really quickly and it brought me three stops to the Coca Cola factory stop, where I walked via a bridge over the highway to cross the other side. After about fifteen minutes of the wrong bus passing me, the 497 rounded the corner and I was excited and ready to go. But, it passed me because there wasn't enough room on the bus. Awesome... Just kidding. So I waited another twenty minutes for the next bus to come and guess what happened, people: it passed me. I gave up on my Beit Shemesh dreams and got on the next bus to Yerushalaim, figuring that there would surely be people there to hang out with. I asked Dena if she would spend the night with me and she thankfully said yes, so I was ready to go. I decided to call my friend Jason, who is seemingly ALWAYS in Yerushaliam, to see if he happened to be there. He said, "I'm actually just about to get on a bus to Yerushalaim. Wait- do you know if the buses are still running there?" I kinda freaked out because I realized that I was on the very bus which he was waiting for one stop later, so I told him that a bus would be there in about thirty seconds and he was relieved and excited. We sat together and talked for the duration of the hour-long bus ride, which was nice, and found our way to the Central Bus Station because we accidentally missed our stop. We had a bit of a situation trying to pay for the train to take us to Rechov Yaffo, but we figured it out after a while and boarded the train. Two stops later we reached our destination and said our goodbyes.
I met up with Dena, we had a great dinner at this place called New Deli, and we hung out with random people who we saw and knew. We also happened upon Binny and Ilana, which was super nice, and I ran into a couple of my friends from Bar Ilan. Since the last bus back to where I live from Yerushalaim is at 11:40, and I got there not even two hours before, I decided to just stay the night with Dena. She so kindly offered me a bed at her apartment in the Rova, and we had a good night together just hanging around.
I woke up early this morning because I wanted to take a bus back home before 10. Since I was already in the Rova I figured there was no possible way that I could leave without taking the opportunity to say Shacharit at the Kotel, so I did. It was a beautiful morning at 7:20ish, and it was a perfectly cool temperature. After Shacharit I had breakfast at this place called Holy Bagel, then made my way out of the Old City. I really took my time walking out and looking around and in the open stores, so by the time I got to the Central Bus Station it was about 9:30. I caught the 9:40 bus back home, and sat behind a couple with a really cute baby who kept smiling and laughing at me.
On the way back my friend Benja, who lived in Seattle in Middle School and I've remained friends with since, called me because we had made plans to hang out today. We decided to meet at the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station at 12:30, so when I got home I quickly got my things together and made my way back to my friend the 55 Bus. Not going to lie... I suffered from some severe confusion regarding which side of the street to be on, and actually crossed the street three times before I was sure of where I was going, but I ended up figuring it out and got on my way. I met him when he got off his train, and it was totally great and crazy to see him! It's been somewhere around four years since we've seen each other, so it was truthfully quite surreal. We got on the 10 Bus, which took us to the beach. Check this out:
And that's not even a good picture... SO beautiful! All I have to say is that a person should not be able to live his or her life with as long of a gap between beach visits as there was for me until today. We spent a couple of hours just hanging out by the beach and enjoying the incredible Mediterranean waters. Then we headed back to the Central Bus Station via the 10 Bus. When we got there I led us to the station for the 55. Unfortunately and stupidly, I led us to the station for the 55 going in the wrong direction... And awkwardly I didn't realize that that was the case until literally the last possible stop. So we just stayed on the bus and made our way along the 80% of the 55 bus route. Fun! Haha.
Afterwards we hung out for a while until he had to go because he was meeting his other friend back in Tel Aviv. I showered off all of the beach and feel much cleaner now. No big plans for tomorrow, and we have an on-campus Shabbaton for this Shabbat. Good stuff.
I met up with Dena, we had a great dinner at this place called New Deli, and we hung out with random people who we saw and knew. We also happened upon Binny and Ilana, which was super nice, and I ran into a couple of my friends from Bar Ilan. Since the last bus back to where I live from Yerushalaim is at 11:40, and I got there not even two hours before, I decided to just stay the night with Dena. She so kindly offered me a bed at her apartment in the Rova, and we had a good night together just hanging around.
I woke up early this morning because I wanted to take a bus back home before 10. Since I was already in the Rova I figured there was no possible way that I could leave without taking the opportunity to say Shacharit at the Kotel, so I did. It was a beautiful morning at 7:20ish, and it was a perfectly cool temperature. After Shacharit I had breakfast at this place called Holy Bagel, then made my way out of the Old City. I really took my time walking out and looking around and in the open stores, so by the time I got to the Central Bus Station it was about 9:30. I caught the 9:40 bus back home, and sat behind a couple with a really cute baby who kept smiling and laughing at me.
On the way back my friend Benja, who lived in Seattle in Middle School and I've remained friends with since, called me because we had made plans to hang out today. We decided to meet at the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station at 12:30, so when I got home I quickly got my things together and made my way back to my friend the 55 Bus. Not going to lie... I suffered from some severe confusion regarding which side of the street to be on, and actually crossed the street three times before I was sure of where I was going, but I ended up figuring it out and got on my way. I met him when he got off his train, and it was totally great and crazy to see him! It's been somewhere around four years since we've seen each other, so it was truthfully quite surreal. We got on the 10 Bus, which took us to the beach. Check this out:
And that's not even a good picture... SO beautiful! All I have to say is that a person should not be able to live his or her life with as long of a gap between beach visits as there was for me until today. We spent a couple of hours just hanging out by the beach and enjoying the incredible Mediterranean waters. Then we headed back to the Central Bus Station via the 10 Bus. When we got there I led us to the station for the 55. Unfortunately and stupidly, I led us to the station for the 55 going in the wrong direction... And awkwardly I didn't realize that that was the case until literally the last possible stop. So we just stayed on the bus and made our way along the 80% of the 55 bus route. Fun! Haha.
Afterwards we hung out for a while until he had to go because he was meeting his other friend back in Tel Aviv. I showered off all of the beach and feel much cleaner now. No big plans for tomorrow, and we have an on-campus Shabbaton for this Shabbat. Good stuff.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Motzaei Chag
As I mentioned in my pre-Chag post, my whole program spent
Chag in Ramat Bet Shemesh and made Rabbi Bryks’ house our home-base. The first night I ate with my madricha and
one of my friends at this super awesome English family’s house. We had great food, and great company. After much conversation the woman told me
that she went to seminary at Michlalah, and we discovered that she was actually
there the same year as Mrs. Margolese—crazy!! I totally didn’t believe it, and
I’m super excited to call her and let her know.
After dinner we headed to Rabbi Bryks’ house, where we met everyone
else, and we all stayed up until 1ish or so playing board games and such. That was definitely way too late for me,
haha, but I had a really good time. My
friend and I walked back to the house where we were staying at, and fell asleep
within five minutes. I didn’t have an
alarm set for the next morning, so I kept waking up throughout the night to
check if I was late for synagogue. Thank
G-d I got to synagogue, and had plenty of time to catch up to where they were
and also shake the lulav and etrog.
Tefilah was Ashkenazik, though, so I didn’t totally get what was going
on, or have an overwhelmingly positive prayer experience. But, we made it work. I had lunch at the Bryks’, which was suuuuper
great. The food rocked, the company was
fun, and the atmosphere in general was comfortable. Also, I had a good time talking to Mrs. Bryks
and hanging with their kids. Everyone
else slowly made their way through the Bryks’ door, and we all spent the
afternoon together playing games again like the night before. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the puzzle
game Perplexus, but it’s basically a hamster ball thing with a maze made out of
plastic pieces inside. The object of the
game is to navigate this little ball through the maze without the ball falling
off. Anyways, I spent a large chunk of
the afternoon working on the game. I got
to level 96 out of 100, so I felt pretty accomplished. But I definitely need to finish that up the
next time I’m either at the Bryks’ or somewhere with that game.
We walked across the street to the synagogue for Mincha then
came back for some quality time in the Succah.
We sat around a table, and each took a turn sharing a highlight of the
Early Start program thus far. We also
did the classic NCSY sing-after-an-inspirational-story thing, but that was to
be expected. Haha. Afterwards we said
Arvit, then Rabbi Bryks made havdalah for everyone except the three people who
were keeping two days of Chag. Even I
needed to hear havdalah, because part of doing the 1.5 day thing is making
havdalah after the first day. Then
everyone but the three boys and myself went back to their respective host
families’ houses, and met back at Rabbi Bryks’ to go home. The four of us stayed at the Bryks’ because
that’s where we were going to have dinner, and we cleaned up, played games with
their kids, and just hung out. An hour
or two later we had dinner, which Rabbi Bryks so kindly joined us for, and it
was a super relaxed meal. Afterwards
they all walked me home, and I was in bed before 10 PM… Totally awesome.
I was again worried about missing synagogue, so I woke up
every couple of hours. I also got an
abnormally large number of hours of sleep, which my body was not used to, so
that didn’t contribute positively to the waking up thing. But I still managed to sneak in over eleven
hours of sleep, which was great. I woke
up and took my time getting ready, then headed to the synagogue across the
street from the Bryks’ to check on how far along the second day minyan
was. They were nearing the end of Musaf,
but I didn’t see the three boys in the mens’ section, so I walked to the
Bryks. Mrs. Bryks answered the door and
told me that two of them were still sleeping, so she knocked on the door to
wake them up and soon enough the one boy who went to synagogue came back. Around the same time, the two boys emerged
from their man cave. After a few quality
rounds of this GREAT game called Jungle Speed, the four of us headed to the
place where we’d be eating for lunch.
The reason we were eating there is because they were already having
people who were keeping two days of chag, so they could host us also. It was a super nice meal, and there were a
lot of people there so it kind of felt like that was one of the few houses to
be at for second day Chag. Regardless,
it was a totally great meal. It ended at
about 1:45, and the four of us went back to the Bryks’ to spend the afternoon
together. The Bryks had already left for
the day, but they left games and snacks out for us. So nice of them! Adiel, Yechiel, Noam, and I spent the
remaining 4.5 hours of Chag playing many intense games of Jungle Speed, a quick
(for Noam and I) game of Monopoly, and some Uno. It was definitely a great afternoon!
When Chag ended, I went back to where I stayed to get my
things together and headed back to the Bryks’ after ten minutes. The four of us got mounted up and walked in search
of the appropriate bus stop. We found
it, and our bus came within five minutes.
We were the only ones on the bus, so we all just sat in seats near each
other in the middle of the bus. Pause:
let me note that the bus we were on travels between Ramat Beit Shemesh and B’nei
Brak. Un-pause. About four stops into the bus ride, after the
bus had amazingly already become 80% full, this woman approached me in my
seat. She started speaking Hebrew at a
rate of something like 5000 words per minute, which obviously I couldn’t understand. So I said “Huh?!” Then I understood from her
that she was saying something about moving my suitcases and women. And, at the end she said “come sit by me.” So I looked up to find that this particular
bus that we were sitting on apparently non-coincidentally had all of the women
in the back and all of the men in the front… Awkwardly for quite some time I was
very much in the men’s section. Ha! I
would be. So I left my suitcase and lulav with Adiel, and headed to the back
with my backpack. I guess it’s all part
of the adventure…
A couple things I’d like to note:
1) This Chag I really came to appreciate a good number of
persons-number of bathrooms rate. Let me
tell you why… The house that I stayed at had a large number of people in
it. From what I understood, however,
there only exists within it one bathroom.
That twenty-five square-foot area with the door that doesn’t actually
lock was absolutely the most sought after space I’ve ever seen. Any and every time I needed to brush my
teeth, wash my hands, or use the bathroom over the past two days, the bathroom
was in use. After a while it became kind
of amazing to me as opposed to just annoying and unappreciated. But the serious annoyance that I found it to
be gave me a real appreciation for the number of bathrooms that have been
available to me throughout my whole life.
2) It’s crazy how I’ve been here for so little time and yet I’ve
already gotten used to so many things which are unique to this country. One such thing which I am referring to is the
fact that on Shabbat/Chag there is absolutely no transit movement in religious
neighborhoods. It’s so cool to not have
to look both ways before crossing the street (though I of course do it
anyways), and that all the kids can just play at will in the streets. But today when it wasn’t Chag for the
majority of the neighborhood everyone was hustling and bustling yet again, and
it was super weird to see all of these clearly religious people driving cars
and talking on their cell phones as I was (kind of) keeping Chag.
3) You know your bus driver is new to Israeli bus driving when
he (a) waits for you to sit down before he starts moving the bus, and (b) asks
you, the passenger, for directions. Not
so comforting. In other news: this guy
drove completely and totally over traffic circles, and he went waaaaaaay too
fast over the many many speed bumps which we came across. Let’s just say that I was legitimately
worried for the safety of my computer as this guy was exiting Beit
Shemesh.
4) I have one word, and one word only, to describe what I felt
when our taxi driver took about three to four minutes to open his trunk
(because he didn’t know how to open it) which contained all of our belongings
in it: unsettling. Thankfully, though,
he figured it out.
5) I don’t know what happened to Shonda Rhimes (writer of Grey’s
Anatomy and Private Practice) but she created the most oddly structured
episodes of season-opening television that I have ever seen… Though I of course
enjoyed watching, and I’m so happy to have both of those shows back, I’m for
sure looking forward to the second episodes.
For now I must say Lila Tov, because it is almost 2 AM in
this country. I have no scheduled plans
for the morrow, but I’d like to be up at a decent hour so that I can figure
something out.
Shavua Tov to ye who are in Seattle.
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