Break!

Break is blissful.  No assignments, few commitments, and a whole lot of sleep and friends.

Yesterday, we had an optional trip to a place called Zichron Ya'akov.  We started off the day with a visit to the First Aliyah Museum, which help me understood what it was like to settle in Israel in 1882.  Cool stuff.  So we spent a while there, and afterwards went to a park.

In case you don't recognize it, it's the same company and similar layout to the new side of Graham Hill.  It's weird how something so simple as the brand of playground can make me feel so at home! We played around for a couple minutes, which was fun.

Afterwards, we had about two hours of free time to walk around and eat lunch in the main town area.  Zichron Ya'akov is such a cute, very European little area.  It reminded me a little bit of Leavenworth.  There was a paper mill that we visited, and we just walked around and saw all the little shops and stuff.  About ten of the sixteen of us who went on the trip had lunch together, at this nice Italian place.  SO good.  I treated myself to a Norwegian Salmon with grilled potatoes...

SO great!  I love when I buy myself presents, especially when it's food.

After lunch, we went to the Carmel winery.  I absolutely loved the tour because I learned a lot about wine-making, but also got to try five different wines.  Our tour guide was really great at balancing giving over information with remaining engaging and interesting.  I learned about the differences between red and white wines and aged and non-aged wines.  At the end, we had this awesome dessert wine! I'm not even such a wine person, but I've tried to change that since coming here and it has actually kind of worked.  I have developed more of a pallet for wine, and I enjoy it depending on what kind it is.  I've always hated that chalkiness to dry red wines, and I learned a word for it yesterday!  Stringent.  Chalkiness = stringency.  But I usually love white wines, always love dessert wines, and sometimes I can go for a red wine.  Here's a picture of the red wines which I most definitely did not like.  It looks super legit though, so I had to take the picture.

After the tour, I took advantage of the available price and bought quite a few bottles of wine for Shabbatot in the future.  It was good stuff.

Oh, I spent Monday grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, and working out... What a great day it was.  Our room is so clean and perfect, and I have so much food available it's beautiful.  Also, I put my crock pot to good use and cooked up a great vegetable/tomato soup which I loved.

In other news, my roommate and I discovered a really yucky amount of mold on the ceiling in our bathroom. The maintenance guy came today to deal with it, which is good.  It's quite possible that it is the source of my repeatedly getting sick in this country, so hopefully all sickness will go away soon.  My roommate has also been getting really sick a lot, so if all goes well it'll be gone asap.  That's the goal.

I've been working out a lot lately, which was been da best.  I've also been playing basketball, and it's getting more and more natural again.  It's really different to play basketball now, after having put so much focus on boxing, because much of my basketball has changed a lot.  Something I worked on in boxing is alignment of the body, and holding myself well.  It was so awesome to see all of that work impact a totally different sport in such an awesome way.  My shot, dribbling, and defense is so much better now which rocks.

Tonight I think I'm going to get some meat Chinese food with Adina and Emma, which will be awesome.  My madricha, Shev, showed me this video, and it's cute enough for me to suggest it to you all. So props to her, and enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-gQLqv9f4o

Have a great rest of the week, people!

Post-Finals

I am so very happy to say that Finals are finally over.  In the past two weeks I took sixteen finals, and I can proudly say that I'm pretty sure I rocked them all.  I kind of forgot how freeing the feeling of walking out of the last final is, but I was warmly reminded today :).  I'm now on break until I have school next Wednesday February 6th.  On the agenda are a couple of hikes, a visit to a winery, definitely some Jerusalem time, a very necessary haircut, possibly the Israel Museum, and, if all goes according to plan, a whole lot of working out.

I've been working out and playing basketball lately, and it's been so great.  I'm infinitely upset at the fact that the gym isn't open on Sundays because - hello - Sunday is the best way to work out!!  I made it happen anyways, though, which was good.  I think I'm going to take the night off and just hang around, because I'm feelin the need for a break from activity haha.  

Okay, people.  So I have been thinking about how much I like challenging myself, and how I haven't had enough challenge in my life lately and I have come up with a new plan.  And I must mention that it is inspired by my mother's best friend Jane Claxton Drichta, who posted a status about her "Whole30."  Here it goes... For the duration of the month of February I am planning to avoid sugar, grains aside from a slice of Challah at each meal on Shabbat, and I will continue to not eat dairy.  In other words, I'm gonna stick to fruits, veggies, and meat.  Haha.  If anyone has any ideas for recipes or food, you can feel free to share... Thinking about this new challenge, I guess it's a little crazy.  Especially considering the fact that I eat granola for breakfast every morning and spaghetti for a meal most days.  But, it will help me think outside of the box in terms of my food here and I'm excited to get back to my ways of the summer. 

Other news... For those of you who don't yet know, I have decided that I will attend Stern College for Women starting next year.  Originally, I had been planning to go to Rutgers University.  I loved the school, and still do, but I have found different things which attract me to Stern.  To sum it all up:  NYC, superb academics, wonderful friends, and continuing my Jewish education.  I definitely value my education, and I really think that Stern is the best school for me.  As a side note, I will have the opportunity to play basketball which will for sure be a good time.  

By the way, the weather has been beautiful here lately.  Aside from a totally random drizzle last night on the way home for Yerushaliam, it's been sunny and warm for the past while.  It is absolutely crazy how Seattle has two months of summer, and Israel has two months of winter... What a different world!  I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about it when my life has been absent of rain for months on end, but for now I'm enjoying the sunshine.  

I wish you all a wonderful week, and I will definitely be checking in as this break progresses!

Mid-Finals

I would say that my Finals experience thus far has been quite the success.  I have taken eight of my sixteen tests so far, and I feel overwhelmingly confident about how I did on all of them.  People ask me why I do well on tests, and I really think that it's because I genuinely enjoy being tested.  Why?  Because, when I know the answers or I can properly formulate learned ideas into thought-out essays it really shows that I have learned the material.  And that is something that I appreciate.  I think I must also attribute some of my success to my ability to study in a way which best suits my learning ability.  And the reason that I am good at studying is because of the ridiculous number of tests and finals that I took during my time at Northwest Yeshiva High School.  At some point, I naturally figured out how to study for different kinds of tests because of the variety of tests at Yeshiva.  So, kudos to NYHS.  I feel so bad for my friends who struggle with effectively studying and test-taking, but it makes me thankful for my unique education.

Anyways, my Shabbat was incredible!  I went to the Dahan family's house in K'far Sabah.  It was so much to fun to hang out with the whole family. And, the food was great!  On Shabbat afternoon I walked to this huuuuuge park, and we hung out there.  The playground is the biggest playground I've ever seen.  I can't even adequately describe it.  Then, between Mincha and Arvit I went to my teacher's house.  Dr. Ferziger teaches me two different Jewish History classes, and I absolutely love them both.  I met his wife and two of his sons, and we just spent some time talking.  It was cool to see him out of the classroom, though he is very similar in both settings.

This morning I had my Ulpan final, and later today I have my Biology final.  I feel very on top of my studying, which is a great feeling.

In the beginning of the semester when I was signing up for classes, two of the program's head Rabbis told me that by the time finals came around I would indefinitely drop classes.  I have to say that it's cool to be in the very middle of finals and know that there's no way I'm planning to drop any classes because I love taking a lot of finals and I love challenging myself with learning and tests.  It's good stuff.  Thankfully we have nothing doing this Tuesday because it will be Election Day, so I can spend the whole day studying for my two difficult finals on Wednesday.  Aside from that, all should be relatively simple to study for and succeed in.

I am so excited to have a week-long break after I'm done with all of these finals.  I will be going on a couple of hikes, and seeing some other cool things around Israel.  It's going to be just like the Early Start days, so there should be many blog posts expected!

I have to go do some last-minute studying for my Biology final, so I will sign off for now.

Shavua Tov to all!

2 Down, 14 To Go

In preparation for today's two Judaic finals, I held two study sessions for the other girls in my classes.  We went over all the material, and it was a wonderful way for all of us to learn it all together.  First we had Dr. Tannenbaum's A Survey of Biblical Literature final.  In that class we learned one perek (chapter) of eleven different books of Navi, and we had to know them well enough to be able to answer essay questions and recognize which story related to a Pasuk that she gave us... It was good stuff.  Honestly, I like finals.  And I really liked hers.  I knew the material a bit too well, and my first essay was about triple the length that it should have been-- which kind of threw me off in terms of the time that I had available to me.  But I spent the remaining hour and a half writing as quickly as possible, and I managed to get it all down on paper and only be a couple minutes late to my second final.  I actually would have been on time had the classroom we were in not been in the middle of a bunch of trees-- a.k.a. un-findable.  That final was on Women in Halacha, which was a classic Halacha test.  Easy as can be-- so long as you know the material.  And that is just how I like it.  You either know it or you don't, and there's basically no other excuses for not knowing the answers to questions.  Good stuff.  That one took me about forty minutes which was nice, though I expected the test to be much harder.

Tonight, Adina and I went to Yerushaliam to meet the Jacobsons and present Genauers for dinner.  What a treat!!!  It was so nice to sit across the restaurant from the Jacobson and Genauer parents along with Carol, Rena, Shira, and Adina.  The food was great, and the company could not have been better.  I always love getting together with Seattle people, but there was something specifically lovely about being with this crew.  I think it's just because there's a whole lot of love, and it's all so tangible.  I really really enjoyed that.  Also, Rena brought me the world's best present! Not one, but TWO bottles of MY mousse! From America!  Beautiful.

I'm going to bed early tonight because I have one final tomorrow and a whole lot to do to prepare for other finals that I have later this week.  And.... I might even be playing basketball again.  Craziness.

Wishing everyone success in all that you do this week! Take care of business, people.

Back In Action

Public apologies for my un-announced leave of absence from the blogging world... It's been a crazy couple of weeks, and the coming three are sure to be even crazier.

School and home life has been surprisingly challenging over the past four or five days due to the unrelenting torrential downpours.  For those of you who don't know, it has been snowing in Yerushalaim since last night-- a rather exciting story.  But the precursor to the snow, is the very intense rain and wind.  In my neck of the woods it all started on Sunday night, and it has been basically on - with a little off - since then. 

Pause: In my youth, my Dad often read the book Fortunately by Remy Charlip to us and it basically tells the story by starting every other page with "Fortunately. . ." and every other page with "Unfortunately. . ." For example: Fortunately, I found a parachute to jump out of the plane with.
Unfortunately, the parachute was broken.
Fortunately, I landed in a hay stack!
Unfortunately, there was a pitchfork in the hay stack."

And so on, and so forth.  GREAT book- by the way.  Anyways though, for the following story which I am going to tell about this past Tuesday I am going to follow Remy Charlip's method. 

Tuesday:
Fortunately, I had a dinner to go to at a really nice restaurant, in Yerusaliam, on Tuesday night.
Unfortunately, it was a goodbye party.
Fortunately, school is over on Tuesdays at 12 so I could get to Yerushaliam on time.
Unfortunately, I had four hours of Magen David Adom class starting at 2.
Fortunately, I could theoretically get to the bus stop in time to make it to Yerushaliam and the restaurant in a timely fashion!
Unfortunately, there was a massive rain storm all day and the highway to Yerushaliam was closed (due to Israel's complete and total unpreparedness for rain-- similar to Seattle's response to snow).
Fortunately, the buses and highway were open for business again by the early afternoon
Unfortunately, I had to plow through the rain to get to the bus.
Fortunately, my mother sent me a poncho in the mail and I was actually able to put it to use.

Unfortunately, my friend Jason (who came to the dinner) and I had to wait at the bus stop - in the rain - for much longer than we normally do.
Fortunately, the bus came and we got to Yerushaliam with enough time to get to dinner.
Unfortunately, the streets of Ben-Yehuda/Yaffo looked like an apocalypse just hit because of all the broken umbrellas and garbage on the ground.
Fortunately, there wasn't actually an apocalypse and we made it to dinner in perfect time!
Also fortunately, about 16 friends were there and it was SO much fun!

I hope you all go and read Fortunately now, because it's a great book.


In other news, I did something crazy today... I picked up a basketball for the first time since basically last March, and I actually shot around for a while.  It felt good to get a ball back in my hands, and I think I'm going to start playing on Tuesday nights with a couple of other girls from my program.  Should be fun to get back in it a little bit.  After bball, I worked out for quite a while which is always great!  I worked on some boxing stuff, which made me miss my Cappy's even more than I already do.

Finally, I'd like to say that over the next 2.5 weeks Finals will be taking place.  I will surely use blogging as a stress-reliever if and when I have time to do so, but there approximately zero promises that such an opportunity will arise.  We can all thank my sixteen finals for that one.  Hurray! Ha.  No actually though, even though it's a little stressful to have so many big tests in such a condensed period of time I really do like finals.  I learned how to study for and take tests in High School, and I love putting that skill to good use.  So we'll see what we can do.  But again, no promises about maintaining the blog.  February 29th is the beginning of a much-needed, beautiful week-long break.  And I assure you all, I will be kicking that off with a blog post. 

All the best to everyone, Shabbat Shalom.