Crazy Week!!

This was, to say the least, a CRAZY week.  Not only was there an eight-day war, but I also had the flu. Yuck.  It was obviously nuts-o to be in this country for rockets flying over-head, sirens, and a war with our neighbors, but it was also an experience to be with ninety other Americans throughout it all.  The beginning was definitely... New.  New is a good word because it's really how I felt most of the time.  I wasn't necessarily scared, but more just getting used to the unknown of it all.  I wasn't scared because at all times, throughout every day, I was no more than a six second sprint from a bomb shelter, which is the safest place to be.  It got a little crazier when a siren went off in the middle of Hebrew class and as I ran to the bomb shelter I saw the two rockets right above me... But I still wasn't scared, so I will again use the word 'New.'  With the recent ceasefire, though, the war has ended, and we can all get back to focusing on school and whatnot. 

Now I'm going to talk about the sickness part of my crazy week... It was super not fun.  On Thursday night before last Shabbat, I kept waking up throughout the night with a fever.  And so it began.  Between then and this past Thursday I had an off-and-on fever, and basically continuous stomach pain.  Lucky for me, I spent the week eating apple juice and bagels, with some soup here and there (thanks to two awesome Eim Bayits), and that's just how it went.  I slept a ton, which was wonderful- of course, and that was my week.  Thank goodness, I am finally on the full up-swing from it... My fever has definitely gone away, and my stomach is getting used to foods other than bagels and apple juice.  Hurray!

This Shabbat was super nice! I spent it with all of the girls on my program in a place called Nof Ayalon.  It's a beautiful community between where I live and Yerushaliam.  One of my Judaic teachers, Dr. Tannenbaum, lives there, so we all stayed at different families' houses throughout the neighborhood and met up for parts of Shabbat.  We had a lot of quality bonding time, good speakers, and good food, and today I took a nice walk with a couple of the other girls and we really saw how beautiful the community it is.  Surrounding it is stunning scenery- mountains, valleys, and greenery- and the community itself seems super well-established and comfortable.  Since no cars are allowed to drive in the streets on Shabbat and all of the families and kids know each other, all the kids play in the streets and roam freely throughout Shabbat.  That is definitely a cool and unique-to-Israel aspect of the community.


A couple of random things to share:

1) A while ago I posted about how well I travel with a backpack and a little roller carry-on suitcase... I wanted to update you all, and say that I have recently made an advancement in that I can now travel with only a backpack and I totally rock it. It's good stuff.

2) I have been missing boxing SO much lately.  I wish Cappy's would open up a branch in Israel, because I would be allllll over that.  Additionally, this week I had a little bit of a realization about how long it's actually going to be until I get to get back in my gym and it was such a sad thought!

3) This is VERY exciting news:  On Thursday I had the most wonderful opportunity to buy my very own, brand new crockpot!!!!!! That is definitely the best purchase of Israel so far, and I cannot wait to use it! Because I barely ate this week I had plenty of extra cash, so I used it for the crockpot and even had some left.  Here's a picture of the beauty herself:

For those of you who have experience cooking in a crockpot, I would be than appreciative of crockpot recipes for anything and everything! Soups, stews, chulents... anything! You name it, and I'm interested because it is for sure my new best friend.  Feel free to email me the recipes to juliarowen@gmail.com.  Thanks!

In other news, this coming Shabbat is actually my birthday Shabbat (which I totally forgot about until super recently) and I'm excited because a bunch of my friends are going to stay with me and we're all going to have a cute birthday Shabbat together! Other than that, this seems like a pretty normally busy week.  I have Magen David Adom (E.M.T. training) and Hebrew Language class tomorrow, and all of my classes during the days as well as tons of programs for the nights.  I'm excited for the week to start since I'm finally feeling better and there war is over, so things can just get back to normal.

Wishing you all a Shavua Tov (good week)!