MONDAY:

On Monday while walking to volunteering, on the side of the sidewalk there was a wet, DEAD cat. It was on it's back with its paws up. It looked like it was frozen. It was so sad. Volunteering was a little boring today because Basima had a meeting and then left with the rest of the school (except 9th graders) to go on the field trip to see the people who play drums perform. When she left, we followed someone else. In one class we just took girls out and talked with them. Then in the other class none of them wanted to go out of the class and talk with us! The teacher claimed that they weren't comfortable with their english. I saw girls in the back playing taki, so I sat down and then joined them. I won. Woo hoo!!!! After that the teacher said that there is no point for us to be there, so we got to go home early!!

After chilling for a bit, Rach and I decided to skip shevet optional classes (yet again) to go do our laundry. I feel bad that I dont go to the optional class anymore, but I always seem to have a valid reason. We stuffed everything into the laundry backpack and when we got off the bus, this man who was on the bus asked where we were from. When I told him MI he said that he had been there and has family in southfield and oakpark. When I told him I was from West Bloomfield he called me rich and told me about other people who live there...we then talk about what we (rach and I) are doing here in Israel. When we tell him we volunteer he said that he was off to go volunteer and wanted to know if we wanted to join him. I was carrying this huge black backpack with a towel sticking out from it. Then he wanted to know if we had numbers and he asked where we lived. I'm used to strange, Israeli men, so I handled the situation well by giving him my number, directions to my apartment, and my social security number. Rach and I then went to different stores to get 5 shek coins (because that is all the laundry place takes). 2 of our friends were there so we sat with them and talked for a bit. I did some hebrew homework. At one point this lady came in just so she could sit down in the chair! Right after we finished washing and just put things in the dryer, nicola and james came. We hung out with them, which was really nice because we are all busy and never have time just to sit and goof off. At one point, out of nowhere there was a huge puddle of water where we were sitting that got the backpack wet. It literally came from nowhere!

After having our clothes dried and folded (for so much cheaper then sending it off) we headed back home. When we got home we only had a little bit of time before ulpan. When we got to ulpan I thought we were going to take the test right away. Instead we reviewed and then she wanted us to start learning something new! We (all 10 of us) freaked out and then said we had more questions and wanted to review more. hahaha. I missed class the other day and apperatnly we had a quiz, so she wanted me to take it during the break, so I took it and it was really easy-just past tense. After the break, we took our test and that was so so so easy. It was fun it was so easy! I felt like I was doing it wrong it was so easy. (Don't worry, I talked to Cara after the test and she did the same things as me.) After class I came home and had some soup rach made that morning for dinner. It is pretty chilly here-but obviously nothing like Jerusalem or Michigan weather. Except, in Michigan I am never walking outside for more than 2 minutes.

Then people were going to go to Mike's Bar tonight and the tzofiem convinced me to go. I just dressed warmly. I bought my first drink that was more than 20 sheks. It was called Maduri Sour or something. It was really good. Julia and I ordered a chocolate thing, but it took at least 30 minutes for it to come. It was so ridiculous. We initially wanted to take the bus home, but that ended up not happening. A lot of other year courses came in later than us and after we paid for our drinks and stuff we sat inside to listen to the performers. Some were really good. Some Year Coursers convinced the guy to let them go up there and they sang Wonderwall. Then after this girl who was really good sang, everyone convinced Ashley to sing. I knew she had a good voice, but ah she was sooo good on stage. She sang the song Save Tonight and she would sing high and stuff. AH so good. People (including Rach) wanted to leave at like 1 something, but since there were 5 of us and only 4 seats, I decided to stay with the tzofiem (because there were 3 of them.) Only like 15 minutes after the girls left we left. It was so great because since they are Israelis, we told him we would pay 40 sheks. When we got back, on the meter it said 52 sheks. Woo hoo!!!! I was exhausted, but since I had going into my bed when I'm dirty-especially with freshly washed sheets-I showered before going to sleep. Then Rach was snoring really loud so I had to blast my iPod.