this is wednesday and thursday, im doing friday and saturday in another blog post.

WEDNESDAY:

I woke up and got ready to go to volunteering. (note to self: ".") When i got to the bus stop, Yuval was there and she didnt have her bus pass with her. When we got on the bus, i slickly passed mine back to her and it worked! woo hoo!! She then wanted one of our bus passes, because ashley and i could just do the same thing on the bus ride home. Neither of us really wanted to give it to her because it is so stressful to try and by sly! But Ashley gave Yuval hers. After sitting around for a couple of periods, we went with a new teacher to his class. This class was horrible and so out of control. Not only were the boys hitting on ashley and me, but the girls were SCREAMING and everyone was shouting at the teacher saying he cant teach, etc. When he would yell at them to sit down, they wouldnt listen. Ashley and i were shocked that the class was that bad and talked about how we/everyone in the class is scared shitless at home when the teacher yells. Here, when the teacher yells, you just yell louder.

Pamela was really stressed and let us go early. We had to wait awhile for the bus and we had this plan for sharing the bus pass. When we got on the bus Yuval was sitting in the front seat behind the driver. Ashley passes it back to me but then the driver notices and he tells me that the pass isnt mine and grabs it and tells me to get off the bus. great. I just act dumb and say that i dont understand. He then tells Ashley to come back and she does, while she does, Yuval hands her the bus pass she had (which was ashley's). Ashley shows him the bus pass, so the driver is pissed, but lets me through. After driving on the bus for a little, he stops the bus and is yelling at yuval and kicks her off the bus. He then walks back to us and is yelling at me, telling me to show im my bus pass. I show it to him and he kept on saying "zeh shelah? shelah?" i kept on responding "ken, zeh shelee, zeh shelee". He then left me alone for the rest of the bus ride. When i got home i cut up veggies (yes, i do that now!) and made a turkey sandwich.

After katie comes back from her run and she showers, we make oatmeal brown sugar chocolate chip cookies. They were SO GOOD. After making them and eating some, we went to a football meeting (american football). There was a meeting about a league that was for boys and girls. We found out it was really serious and cost money. umm i just wanted to throw the ball around! Britty, Katie, and i also wanted to go away this weekend, but the problem was we wanted to be able to be in Tel Aviv saturday night because there was going to be a yitzhak rabin ceremony. After discussing going to the negev or up in the golan heights, we decided it would be the easiest to go to haifa. We could go to the beach and run on the beach. sounded perfect!

I then had the shevet program. The girls and guys are separate and we watch a video on youtube called "Killing Me Softly." It was about advertisement portraying women as objects and things, not as people. The models have touchups and make women upset and try to look and become something that is nearly impossible to look like. One thing was boobs. haha. She then brought up how men do not have this same problem. We also briefly talked about modesty and men's urges. I really liked the teacher and she is coming back to teach us next week.

I then went on a run with katie. James led so we were jogging pretty quickly. When we got back, katie and i made dinner, which was schnitzel and crushed corn flakes as the breading. Yes, i did help make it...and yes, i did touch raw meat! After dinner, Katie and i decided we wanted to clean the apartment, so we cleaned the toilets, floors, and kitchen. People saw us doing it, so they noticed the difference and thanked us. It wasnt the thanks we wanted, just the fact that they noticed the difference. Hopefully they will try to keep it clean. I then showered and felt like going out, so leah, katie, and i went to emek refiem for some hot chocolate/tea.

While walking on emek refiem, we saw someone that looked familar and it ended up being the yeshiva boy that was in the clinic with me and katie. He thought he also had strep. After talking to him on emek for a little, i found out he didnt have strep. After talking for a little, we went to a cafe and i got a hot chocolate. It was so nice to talk and crack up. Katie wanted to make popsicles from the ice cube carton, but we needed toothpicks. We stole many toothpicks from the place and were dying of laughter. When we left, we went to an ATM, where i could only take out 300 sheks, again. Ill try to take out money when mom is here to see what is going on. After walking back, I went to bed around 1:30ish.

THURSDAY:

I had to wear white to school today, in memory of Yitzhak Rabin. Because Ashley and i didnt have any classes to go to, we went to both of the ceremonies the students put together. People spoke about who he was (in hebrew) and there were singers and dancers. I thought it was pretty good. We then went to namah's class, but since she only had 4 students (idk where the rest of them were), we played games with the class. After the class, it was time for us to go and it was raining! The rain only lasted for a little, but it was actually raining and it was cold out! When i got back i slept for a little and then woke up for a "lunch and learn." I made myself a really good sandwich (the bread was soft..score!), and we talked about abraham and how he was the 1st Jew, etc. We also talked about lech lecha. After the learning I had ulpan and we learned for a little and watched a movie called "Noodle." It was good...I then had my other class and we talked about many things...maybe ill talk about it another time, right now it is 1:20 in the morning and i still have to finish up thursday and talk about friday and saturday. oy. but i did get a grade for my paper and i got a 94% (that was the highest people got). I guess my paper wasnt too bad after all!

After eating dinner and packing, Britty, Katie, and I went to the central bus station and got on the bus to tel aviv. Katie and i sat next to each other and we cracked up the entire time (note to self: prairie dogs, groundhog day, labor day). When we got the Tel Aviv train station, our train had just left. Luckily there was another train coming in an hour, so we went to the bathroom and chilled for a little. I got an ice cream. I was annoyed because it cost 11 sheks, but i was really in the mood for it (hadn't had ice cream in 2 days), so it was worth it. We then decided we should go wait for the train, but when we got there our trains doors were shut and it left. great. We spent our time waiting for the train by reading stories in katies "chicken soup for the teen soul," the relationship one. We read "first kiss" and other funny stories. We finally got on the train and the train was nice. It was raining outside and then it got worse and started to POUR. Our train had to slow down and it squeaked so much. I forgot to mention that we were supposed to check into our hostel by 11pm, the lastest. um grool (great and cool together..from "mean girls"). It was lightening outside. I decided to call mom and she basically couldnt talk. thanks for that! and then i left my dad a message.

When we got to the haifa train station, there was a lightening storm and so much rain. Our hostel was a 4 minute walk, so we decided to walk. Before we left, the guards were kicking us out and they ended up locking up the train station and leaving with their friends before us! We then walked at like 1am to our hostel, hoping they would let us stay. We were stepping in huge puddles and the streets were a little flooded. We were over tired so found everything to be hilarious. When we got there, after the man scared us by talking to us from "above us" we got to check in. He was not happy, which is understandable. When we got to our room, there were 2 other people's stuff there. After some investigating we decided they were either guys, or weird israeli women with big feet. We went to bed around 2:30ish, but i either woke up or just hadn't fallen asleep when our roommates came back drunk. They ended up being guys. The funny thing was that our madrich (mike) told us to come to this hostel and one of the guys was one of mike's really good friends. hahahaha. The other one was a brit who had 2 dreds in the back of his head...they both were really nice and not creepy.

Yesterday I got there at 7:50 and we didnt leave until 8. We knew we had to get on the bullet proof bus, so we saw one and assumed it was ours. We were all settled and then we had to get off because we were on the OTHER bullet proof bus! The bus ride to chevron was about 45 minutes. I wasnt too tired and just looked out the window listening to my ipod. When we got off the bus, the first thing our tour guide (i forget his name but he is often on CNN) showed us was 2 walls that had steps in between them. These steps were the entrance to the city from ancient times and the walls are also ancient, but from different time periods (hundreds of years old). We then saw the leftovers from houses from thousands of years ago. This was the area abraham and sarah lived. There is proof that this place was the biblical hevron because on some of the stones it says in biblical hebrew "hevron." Also, archeologists believe that some of the stones that have black on them was from the fire (maybe the romans did?) that burnt down the city. On top of the leftovers of these homes, is apartments held by pillars. Archeologists actually like this idea because it helps reserve the stone by keeping it out of the sun. Archeologists plan to continue on digging and putting apartments above their findings.

We then went to a synogoge that got closed because the muslims said it was a mosque. the lock then got reopened after the war of 1968 (i think). Now i will mention how many soldiers there were. they were EVERYWHERE. Some walk around, while others are at checkpoints, but there are a multiple of checkpoints on each street. There are also many army trucks driving around with soldiers in them. Most of the soldiers where bullet proof vests. So many of them are attractive!! I am so infatuated with them that it is a problem. I melt in front of them!! ah! okay, now i will stop my teenage hormones and discuss why there are so many soldiers. it is weird because there are only 8 families or something living in hevron (i mean each family has like 14 people, but still), why risk all these soldiers? The answer is that many terrorists come from there or right around there. can catch terrorists before they complete their mission. Even with soldiers around there is still violence, but with more soldiers around, the less violence. For example, our tour guide said that his apartment has gotten shot 2 times and when his daughter was 14, the bullet missed her by inches.

We then went to beit hadassah, which was painted beautifully! I just uploaded pics, but i will upload those maybe tomorrow onto the 3rd album (ill also do captions). One of the first rooms we went into was the memorial room for all of those who were massacred in 1929. Here is what happened:

"Following WWI the zionist effort was faced with a new and vicious enemy Haj Amin El Husseeini, Mufti of Jerusalem. The Mufti subsequently became an admirer and ally of Adolf Hitler.

"Husseini began to stir up riots in 1921. In 1929 he incited the Arabs of Eretz Yisrael to large scale rampage throughout the country. The British Mandatory Government did practically nothing to prevent the violence.

"In Hebron the British Police were disarmed, with the strange caim that the sight of armed police could lead to an outbreak of violence. The Arabs of Hebron understood the massage and on Friday, the 17th of Av, 1929, (August 23), after calls for a pogrom at the weekly sermon at the mosque, rioting erupted. Shmuel Rosenholtz, one of the brightest yeshiva students was killed by a rock thrown at his head. That night the British, in an effort to calm the Jewish community, promised that whoever would stay in their house the next day would would be protected by the British Police. The next morning, however, (18 av) there was a wild rampage of murder. There was rape and robbery as the Arab mob destroyed Jewish homes. The British officers stood idly because they felt that they themselves were in danger. At this point, Captain kapirota shot two shorts in the air with his pistol and the entire mob dispersed. 67 Jews were killed and 66 wounded. One of the most ancient Jewish communities in Israel ceased to exist. The British forced the survivors of the massacre to abandon their homes and move them to Jerusalem."

In the memorial there are photographs of the people before the massacre and there is on the side a memorial for all 67 Jews that got murdered. It has their picture and name and some of the broken tombstones of theirs that was later destroyed.

In another room we went in, our tour guide told us a story behind the name of beit hadassah. What happened was Israel wanted the Jews of hevron to leave their homes and go to safer parts of Jerusalem. To get them to leave, Israel decided to surround them and not give them any food or water. The rule was was once you left, you could not return. People argued that when the Israeli army surrounded Egyptian soldiers, the enemy, they provided food and water. Because of that reason, israel provided these poeple food and water. A woman was pregnant and since the conditinos there were unsanetary, she would be risking her and her baby's life if she didnt leave and go to the hospital. She didnt want to leave because then she would be able to go come back into the city. People got nervous as her due date got close, so the government gave her a permit saying after she gave birth in a hosiptal (outside of the city), she was allowed to enter again. She refused the permit and made them redo it including that her child can also enter. So, she left Hevron and had a baby girl in a hospital. She named her daughter hadassah and that is how the place got its name.

We then went to a synagogue that has Torahs made our of deer skin that are hundreds of years old. They know that one of them is from bagdad. They are in perfect condition and they are sephardic. They were beautiful! The deer skin is way more expensive, but makes the ink on the Torah stay really dark and fresh looking. It is interesting how they spent more money then than we do now. It shows us our priorities are different than theirs. It is weird because you would think that as time went on, we would use better skin for parchment, but we dont!

Then we walked to where the graves of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah. While walking you can see so many dedications to people that were murdered. Tunnels, synagogue's, streets, memorials are all dedications and were all over. So many people have been killed. On the way we stopped and our guide told us about how for 2 and a half years, Arabs would shoot at the town from hills. Israel said they would go in with tanks if a shot was fired, but they did nothing for 2 and half years. Children who were playing on playgrounds got killed. He also said that there were so many miracles. When we got to the grave area, we heard the muslim's praying and there were so many soldiers there. I realized that they were taking turns praying!!!! They were sharing a kippah! Our guide told us stories that paralleled to each other about how we know where they are buried. It was really similar to the story in the Jewish quarter about finding where David was buried. We then had time to go to the area where they are underground. It was gated and so hard for me to grasp. I couldnt understand that i was at the spots where they were all buried. After James tricked me (he still hasnt told me that he was lying) that a soldier asked him if I was from his group and where i was from (because james knows im obsessed with soldiers), we sat on the grass and ate lunch. We then left and headed towards Rachel's grave.

Rachel isnt buried with the rest of them because she died while giving childbirth. We were right next to the security fence, well actually on the other side of the fence (i think). There was a lot of security there also. Rachel's grave was nicer because the men and women were separated and a lot of people were praying there. After a girl prayed while leaning up against te area where rachel's grave is, she hugged her mom and was crying. She was getting married this thursday! There was another kallah also, but she was getting married in a month. It was so nice. People also go there when they are pregnant. When we were ready to leave, soldiers told us to go back inside. I'm not sure why, but everything worked out. We then got back on the bus and it took at most 10 minutes to get back to our apartment. We live so close to the security fence and where rachel is buried! Some people say that Rachel is the mother of us and she weeps for us to all come back to haeretz. Not only Jews in other countries, but soldiers missing in action.

When we got back to the apartment, rachel packed up because she was going to haifa to be with her family (they are all here). I didnt have anything to do, so i grabbed an ice cream and took her to her to the central bus station! haha. I waited for 40 minutes with her until her bus came because i didnt have anything else to do and i wanted to listen to my ipod while riding a bus. Before her bus came we saw an ethiopean boy who was too young to talk, but could walk, play with a soldier. It was so cute! I then waved to the boy and he came running over to where rach and i were sitting. He hopped onto my lap and then sat down on the ground just how rachel and i were sitting. he then crawled onto rachel. ugh he was sooo cute!!!!!

After i got back to the apartment I had some dinner and tried to watch some of gossip girl. Around 6:30ish I went with britty to a seminary to learn (we have that option because we are on shevet). The class was really interesting and it was an australian teacher who became religious. We were at a seminary who is geared towards girls who arent necessarily religious. One thing she talked about was taking things slowly. If you become interested in becoming religious (which some of the girls at this sem are), it is important for them to take on the mitzvot slowly. You might think you are being hypocritical for not keeping shabbat when you know you should, but eventually you will just want to do it, and not feel the need to. I am too exhausted to explain it better and give more really interesting examples and explain why this is so important.

We only stayed for one lesson, instead of 2 (the 2nd one was the parasha of the week). Britty and I wanted to stay but we were exhausted and had to finish up a midterm for holocaust film class. We are going to go every tuesday, i think. Others will come too. I saw rachels friend (my bff) chelsea (she is studying there)!!! The sem is called N'vay (spelled wrong). When we got back to the apartment we all finished up our midterm but it took SO longgggg. I then showered and finished watching gossip girl. Some parts skipped, but it was overall pretty good. I was exhausted and couldnt finish my blog. I was pmsing and just tired so i got a little emotional! haha. I knew i could just finish it tomorrow. I was sleeping by 1ish.

Today I didnt have to wake up until 8:30! I took my medicine at 8:45, so i had to wait until 9:15 to eat. I wasnt 100% sure where the Begin Heritage Center was, so i called moran and she told me what bus to take and just to tell the bus driver to tell me when to get off. sounds easy enough...she told me to leave at 9:15, but i didnt leave until 9:25ish because i had to eat breakfast. I waited at the bus stop for awhile and realized that I was running late...i was supposed to get there at 9:50 and it was already 9:45. great. I called the masa person and she told me to take a cab...i was trying to find a cab but of course whenever you need one you cant find one. I kept on going back and forth across the street because i saw my bus finally come. I get on the bus and i ask the bus driver to tell me when to get off. He didnt know what the begin heritage center was apparently. yay. i get off at the next stop and after being awkward, i finally find a cab. I told the guy to put it on the meter...but it didnt seem like he did. I thought that i should argue if it is more than 20 sheks. He gets me there and it costs 20 sheks, and i had a receipt, so i guess he did put it on the meter!

When i get there, the detroit delegation isnt there yet, but other people who i guess are also going to speak (they were all post college)/people that work for masa were there. I saw rachel jacobson, but since she wasnt really sure who i was, i introduced myself to her. Of course i couldnt resist but tell her mazel tov on getting married...hopefully she wasnt creeped out?! The masa lady told me that we are going to divide up and we are just going to talk in a circle of a small group. i was happy, but a little nervous because she told me to talk about so many different things and secretly add stuff about masa. I am not good at being slick or sly!

The detroit delegation finally arrives! I dont see amy, and i dont recognize anyone. When masa people told us to go mingle, i see sherri ketai talking to someone. I was hoping she would see me, but because she doesnt, i go and interrupt her conversation. It was so nice to see someone i knew and someone i was comfortable with! We talked for a little and sat next to each other during the masa presentation. Before the presentation, all of the detroiters said who they were, etc. A good amount of people knew you (mom and dad). I found the presentation really interesting, especially because i didnt know much about masa. I thought I was going to be talking about me being in israel and how it is going...i didnt know i was trying to advocate for this group to give money to masa! After the presentation, I was with a new russian who just made alyiah. We made a circle with some detroiters with us. There were 3 other groups, i think.

Luckily, i wasnt TOO nervous and most of the questions were simple to answer. Also, they seemed more interested in the russian, thank hashem! haha. I mean she made alyiah!! When they asked me how I heard about masa, i basically just said through young judaea and i told them that i heard about young judaea from a friend. Something they also asked that i found difficult to answer/didnt give a good answer to was why i would suggest people to come to israel for the year. I just talked about how it strengthens your jewish identity and makes you see the real israel and have you fall in love with it. It was very vague. After the meeting or whatever you want to call it, we took a detroit picture and then i said bye to everyone.

I looked at what my mom gave me and it was a quick note, some pictures (which i loved!), and a magazine all about "new moon." I am so excited for it to come out!! After waiting at the wrong bus stop for a little, I walked through some of emek refiem and got on another bus. I saw some YJ people walking. The bus didnt go where i wanted it to go. It saved me like 2 minutes of walking, rather than 7.

When I got back to the apartment I read some of the magazine and had some tuna on chocolate crackers (we didnt have much food because we were going shopping later tonight). I also had an ice cream. oh, it rained for about 2 minutes! woo hoo! Instead of ulpan, we had a program about gilad shalit. I didnt know that Israel traded 30 Palestinian women for a video of gilad to prove he was still alive. We are going to go to his tent next week. I really need to stay updated. I changed my homepage from the New York Times to Israel News.

After this, Rach and I then edited both of our papers together. We also edited Julias. We then had class, where we handed in our papers. Today we talked about the Flood and Tower of Babel. I was exhausted and it was hard for me to focus. It was hard for a lot of us to focus...even our teacher! He ended class early. When we got back to the apartment, we had an apartment meeting. One girl in our apartment got sent home for different reasons. It is crazy how many people have gotten sent home. We also found out that someone on our program in arad was walking alone at 2 in the morning and got mugged...the guy threatened to stab him. After our short apartment meeting, some people went to go get food. I started to do some laundry and looked ALL over my room for my stupid iPod. I looked through my clothes and everything. it was so annoying that i couldnt find it. I also organized my pictures and uploaded a lot onto my computer. A little after the groceries came, i made myself a grilled cheese. I had prezels and chocolate for dessert. I opened up the prezels and since we all need to pack a lunch for tomorrow, we all took some prezels so now we are out of them! I worked on a midterm we have for the Holocaust film class with some people (we can do it in groups however big we want them to be).

While working on it, we decided to make our lunches. I took my lunch bag out from my bue bag and guess what was under it...MY IPOD! i just started running around saying what the f what the f what the f. haha i couldnt control myself i was so relieved and happy. When it was around 12, we stopped working on our midterm because it isnt due until 11:59pm tomorrow. Rach and I completely forgot about our laundry that was in the dryer (we had 2 loads), so we got our laundry, i took a shower, then we folded our laundry and put it away. Our room smells so nice from the fresh laundry. Well, I have to be ready for the coach bus at 7:45am. Since we are going to the graves, we have a special coach bus that is bullet proof...

oh i forgot to mention how i am for sure living in an apartment next year. im so excited!!!! and it is the same apartment uncle jack lived in (along with the mom and aunt of ellie). curazyyyy.

wow this was a longer post...i havent had one of these in awhile :)

mom- im going to sleep, but keeping my computer on so the pictures can finish uploading onto my web album. they should be up by the time you read this. it is the album labeled 3! ill do captions another time.

Yesterday I thought I should be down at 8:20, but we really didnt have to be down until 8:30. Oh well. I had the yogurt for breakfast, so i was in a good mood! haha. It also was kind of chilly out..yay! by chilly i mean i was comfortable in 3-quarters length light sweater and jeans. When we got to school we didnt do much for the first hour. Ashley and i then got split up and i went to namah's class. They were 11th graders. Israeli's behave so much more different (as i said in thursday's post). First of all, they would not shut up! I felt bad because they already seem to be difficult, but i was such a distraction for them. One boy really wanted to know how old i was, if i had a boyfriend, what my number was, where i lived, and if i had a facebook. He obviously also said how beautiful my eyes were and that he loved me. He also kept on wanting my help and would yell out for me to comes sit down next to him. um..no! Ashley and i joked about how after we say our name, say where we are from, we are 18, dont have boyfriends but not into younger men, so no we will not be giving out our number or name so they can add us as friends on facebook!

After that class, we had another free period and then went with Pamela to her class. Her classroom was being used because people were making up the test they took last week. The problem was there wasnt another classroom available! That is typical for an israeli school. Eventually we found a small room and Pamela wanted us to just ask them questions in english or have them ask us questions. She just wanted them to become more comfortable with speaking english. We talked about siblings, where we are from, school, etc. Then some boys who are good at english found the classroom and then we ended up talking about clubs and how old we are.

On our way back, a brit named flo (i think?) came on the same bus as us so we all talked. We ended up having an interesting conversation about the different school systems (england's, america's, and canada's). England's is so confusing! After the convo i had lunch and went to my optional classes. I took a nap in between them. In my kabbalah class we talked about freedom and how the western's definition is following inclination, but the jewish definition is the exact opposite--it is going in a path different than inclination. Also, the same word for engraved in the tablets has the same letters as freedom.

In my mitzvot class, i got the idea behind washing your hands with a cup clarified. By using a cup when washing your hands, it is showing the spiritualness of the water. Without the dust, one cannot see the light. Similarly, without the cup (vessel) one cannot see/feel the specialness of the water. We also talked about clothing and how originally our bodies were our clothing for our souls, so now we basically wear clothes on clothes. The problem of clothing today is that it tends to conceal or project something besides the wearer. We forget that clothing is meant for a cover up. The reason why Adam puts on clothes is to think he is independent. We are going to go more into this next class. We ran out of time. After class, i went to my holocaust film's class early because he had a surprise for us. We basically watched a music video and listened to jimi hendrix and tried to see the story line of the songs. We also watched a south park thing. We watched "The Odyessa File." It was in color and interesting but a little long.

After class i rushed to the apartment, showered, stuffed mac and cheese down my throat, grabbed an ice cream and i was out the door to go to the concert. I met up with jamder's (plus miki) before the concert and it was so nice to see them!!! unfortunately we didnt sit by each other. The concert was SO good! We all just danced like goofs and had such a blast. I have some pics. I then talked with jamders and miki for a little, got introduced to erez's friends, and luckily i found my friends even though my phone had died! haha..cool im smart. I then hung out with miki some more and we all just goofed off. I got home around 12ish. I then watched a 12 minute movie for my midterm in holocaust films. I'm going to analyze it with Katie and britty. i then worked on my paper and didnt get to bed until 2. yay!!!!

note to self: texting

Yesterday Moran and I woke up at 1:30ish! I couldnt believe i slept for so long! By the time we got out of bed and got dressed, when we went downstairs, they were about to have lunch. Living with Americans, i forget that most israelis have huge lunches and smaller dinners. For lunch we had soup, salmon, potatoes, and some other small things. Once again, it was so good! Maybe drora will teach me how to cook somethings. After lunch moran and i went upstairs for a little and then after digesting and not being stuffed, shlomo took me, moran, nadiv, and ido out for ice cream. I got a mix of chocolate banana and cookies. so good. how come america doesnt have this good of ice cream?! It was funny because moran ordered for me and after she got her ice cream, instead of saying "todah" she said "thank you"!!!! hahaha.

On the car ride back from ice cream, ido took out his ipod shuffle and let me listen with him. All of the songs were american hip hop/rap. I was familiar with the songs but he knew all of the words! When we got back moran and i went onto our computers and we were on for SO long. I talked to a lot of people, once again, and we just updated each other. This time it was mostly people in israel. Oh, i forgot to mention that i got a call from erez telling me that he was going to be going to the idan raichel and i was too!!! i was so excited because i havent seen erez yet! I talked to miki and her, nathan, and yoni were also going to go (along with many others from section 2)!!!

After moran and i coudnt stand being on the computers and needed a break, we went downstairs and watched "the bachelor." I do not recommend it...during the movie we had dinner. but as i said before, israeli dinners are light and casual. I had cheese with cucumbers in a pita and yogurt with chocolate things it comes with. It is similar to the yogurts that have the sprinkles that come with it. After the movie i got my stuff (including all of the laundry drora did for me) and left with shlomo. moran was supposed to come but she forgot that she had to be at school at 8 the next morning. she felt really bad, but i was completely fine! I gave moran some music, but we still have to finish going through my songs. I have so many from people from year course. anyways, drora also gave me some soup things (they are yellow squares, i forget what they are called) and another yogurt!

The drive home with shlomo was nice. We talked a bit about sports and how there is so much more than what you see if you arent paying attention. We also talked about how i am interested in phycology and how he was also interested in it, but then lost his interest. He explained to me why, and how he became really interested in sociology. He also taught me a way to know if it is the beginning or the end of the month by looking at the moon. When the moon looks like a zion, it is the end, and when it looks like a gimel, it is the beginning. There are hebrew words that correspond with the letters that makes sense. He also talked about how i will know if i am in an arab village. He remembers the horrible smell when he was in the army and if he smelled he knew he was by an arab village. The horrible smell is manure. arab villages are eco-friendly (not sure if it is intentional), but burn the manure for energy. He said that it is horrible in the winter when they use it to heat up their homes. gross! After saying bye to shlomo, i got back to the apartment and caught up with people in my apartment. I missed them and it was weird not spending shabbas with them!!

note to self: someone wanting me to go out/meet up, rachel and underwear, "hot ass"

Today I woke up at 10:45, and dragged myself out of bed. I then packed up (most of it being laundry because drora insisted on me bringing laundry). It took me some time because I was so tired, but i left around 12:15ish. I was looking for my ipod in my room for awhile, but couldnt find it! I know i put it on the desk on tuesday. I'm sure it will show up. When i got to the central bus station i had to wait a half hour for the bus to come. I really had to pee and when i went i had to pay a shequel. how annoying?! the lady also handed out the toilet paper. luckily i just had to go pee. but a girl i talked with did not just need to go pee...

When the bus came I doZed (im always going to write it like that from now on, mom) in and out. I wish i had my ipod. oh well. The haifa bus ticket also cost so much more than the one to tel aviv...that was also annoying! When i got there, after going pee, and waiting for 5 minutes, shlomo and moran picked me up. It was about a 45 minute drive back to their place. Moran loves macbooks and wants one really badly so i brought mine this time so she could use it. She took pictures with drora, nadiv, and ido and it was so funny!!!! Then while everyone except for moran and me went to shabbat services, we tried to figure out how to get an israeli radio station to play live on my computer...ha that was interesting and didnt work. ugh! We then ate pita that had good stuff on it and i had bamba. yum. i then saw that they had chocolate milk so i had that too. I know it sounds gross, but it's not like i drank the chocolate milk while i was eating! After setting the table for shabbat dinner, moran and i tasted the potatoes drora made (we didnt tell her!) and watched ANTM best moments or something like that.

After everyone got back from services, we had a really nice, yummy shabbat dinner. It was funny because they put on Jewish music in the background. haha. There was so much food and i was full after the really good chicken noodle soup! I still ate though. There was shnitzel and we got into a discussion how shlomo really wants to open his own shnitzel restaurant! hahahaha. We then went on about how moran would get teased and how she could be the actress in commercials, etc. so funny! After dinner i chatted with some people and after moran left to go i skyped with steph for a long time and talked to some friends. I also talked to mom and noah on the new web cam and saw the poocha! ah i miss him!!!!! Tomorrow i might go see a movie. moran and i have both seen the time traveler's wife...we might see that again, which is perfect because ive been dying to see it again after reading the book. I'm gonna continue being the shabbat spirit and watch some of a movie. shabbat shalom!

Today I had to wake up early because we had to get to school at 8. I brought my hebrew stuff to study. When we got there Pamela wasnt there, so I studied for a little and then ashley and i did an outline of how we want the poster to look like. We chose the song "all you need is love" by the beatles to put in the empty spaces. I think this poster will be a beauty. Especially because Ashley is so artistic and her handwriting is beautiful!!! We ended up finding Namah (a young teacher who we like and worked with before). She said that it would be fine for us to go into her classes. Both classes were in 10th grade and in the first one it was all boys. They were so noisy and would not stop hitting on me and ashley. One boy kept on saying he loves ashley and giving her kissy faces.

At the end of class when Namah let them ask us questions, they obviously asked where i was from. I told them that I was from america and when they said where i said michigan. Namah then started to ask me where in michigan...her husband grew up in the oak park southfield area and she was there for 12th grade and went to akiva. it gets crazier. she is cousins with the schostaks!!!! After the next class, where a lot of the students said english swear words and were just saying such inappropriate things, we left. When I got back to the apartment, moran (my madricha) called me and then she put me on the phone with someone who wanted to know if i would like to not go to volunteering on monday and speak to a delegation from detroit that will be in israel. I made sure i didnt have to write a speech and then agreed. Someone from masa is going to call me and let me know what type of questions i will have to answer. Im a little nervous because im sure you all know how bad and how i HATE speaking in front of a group of people, but i am excited to see who these people are!!

I then helped Katie and Naomi make instant chocolate balls. we messed up a little, but they still turned out to be so good, just not in a ball shape. They are in our fridge and they have different toppings--blue sprinkles, colored sprinkles, chocolate, and cracker crumbs. THEY ARE SO GOOD! Around 1ish i started to practice for my hebrew oral quiz. I thought we would just have the quiz and that would be it, but we ended up having class for an hour and a half. I brought my stuff, but not a pen. I shared with ari. I am learning so many new things, I must practice! I finally took my quiz and it was fine. She didnt even ask me all of the questions and it only took like 2 minutes. I then took a little nap and then went to my other class where we had time to finish up our papers. During that time I got ahold of shlomo and so tomorrow i am going to take a bus to haifa and he will pick me up there...im spending the weekend with them. im excited. i also feel so independent that im taking a bus there! Towards the end of class he said that we can just print our papers and hand them in on monday. All i really need to do is a conclusion and maybe ill do another supporting paragraph. I think my paper is okay, i just need to tie it all together plus i dont think he is going to grade it too harshly.

After class I had dinner, which wasnt too filling. I then chilled for a little and had gabi straighten my hair! She is so good at straightening hair! I then got ready and went to ben yehuda for a little. i ended up bumping into ari again! haha. When i got back it was pretty late, so i showered and now i am going to bed!

note to self: jhs

Yesterday I didnt have to be at volunteering until 8:45. When we got there we sat there for a couple of hours. Pamela then showed us where a bomb shelter was and how there was a classroom down there and she wanted Ashley and I to make something on a bright poster. We are going to have the seasons, months, horoscopes, and lyrics to a song. We then got put into different classrooms because all of the 12th graders were taking an exam and some people need the passages and questions to be read to them. I helped this one girl and it was easy. When I was done helping her I went to Pamela's class where Ashley was. Pamela was yelling at a lot of students for not being quiet while taking the test and cheating. We were outside of the classroom on a bench and when someone needed us to read them something, they would come out to us. While we were out there we saw a bird! A bird was in the school, just how birds in the JFK airport. After just being out there with no one coming we asked Pamela if we could go early. She said it was fine.

When I got back I ate a little and i told myself I would work on my essay. I first decided to watch gossip girl, which was unreal. at the end i kept on saying "omg. omg. omg. omg" everything is going crazy!!! i got tired and rach was taking a nap, so i decided to take a short one. I ended up taking a long one, but i needed it. I woke up and worked on my essay for a little longer and then had to go to a shevet thing. After mincha, we talked to a rabbi about the graves of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, along with Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah. Rachel is not buried with the others. We talked about the cave they are all buried in (supposedly) is because we are going there on tuesday as our siyur. I'm excited. It is interesting because it is divided up into 2...and Arab and an Israeli part. Only 10 days out of the year is it open for all Israelis.

After that, Katie and I went to the store to get some food necessities--we are doing a big shopping trip on monday. I ended up buying the ice cream i like in a pack of 6---it saves me 12 sheks, which is enough for a falafel...sababa! When we got back Katie put in the chicken she stuffed with tomotos (it look beautiful) and the homemade french fries. Dinner was really good. After dinner i started to study for my hebrew quiz. I then went to the classroom building. Instead of working in the library/conference room in there, I went into an empty classroom and just worked in there with the light off. Katie and i messed around for a bit and asked Sam many intrusive questions...haha.

When britty came in we took a break and did some interpretive dancing to this new, good song britty has. It was a nice break and Katie is so good at doing interpretive dancing and just getting really into it! I worked on my paper some more, and decided i should get to bed around 12:30ish. When I got back to the apartment rach was sleeping, so i took a quick shower and was in bed by 1ish. Rach was snoring pretty loud (louder than usual because she's congested) so it was a little difficult to fall asleep.

Today I woke up at 7:40, and again at 8:10. I woke up at 7:40 to find rachel's alarm (her iphone) on my bed. I had no clue where she was. She then came back to the room saying that she has been up since early in the morning throwing up! When we finally left, we took a bus to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On the bus, there was this cute baby who britty and i tried to make smile. difficult child! When we got there, we had to go through all of this security and i forgot to bring up that we couldnt bring cameras or bags. When we got there we sat around for a little in comfy chairs and an air conditioned room (it is so hot out today). There were cookies and bottled water. a few of us took advantage of that. (what?!) We had 2 speakers. The first speaker was this man who was interesting and talking about that the Gaza war and the lebanon war is wars with Iran. Iran is the main threat with israel, not hamas. We also talked about Turkey being a threat because they have a lot of power because they control water. At the beginning he said he was from the midwest and asked if any of us were and so im like "michigan!" and then he said he has been to west bloomfield a couple of times. for the rest of his presentation, he used west bloomfield and ann arbor for an example. i was so happy!

He spoke for a little longer than an hour and so did the woman. The woman talked about brands and how we need to change the way people think and view israel. First she brought up how different places have different brands. Brazil is fun, Los Vegas is sin, paris is romance, etc. We then talked about what israel's is and how right now people dont picture anything when they think about israel except for war and conflict. A lot of people in america dont know anything about israel (non-jewish) and they dont seem interested. One research thing that was done was they had people in a room and they played a game where they are in a neighborhood and each house is a different country and each house is having a party. For one country, Italy, everyone was talking about how friendly the people in there were, gave them food and wine, and no one wanted to leave. When they went to Israel's house, a lot of poeple didnt want to go in. The house was cold looking, stone, concrete, the man opened the door, no food was served, talked about politics. Some things that have been done is to bring people and different critics for different things, whether it be food, wine, sports, nature, clubs, dj's, etc. She also brought up how next year at university, we should talk about the interesting things about israel, that will get people the see israel in a different way, or in more than one way. The way she put it was really good. Of course, in the center, there will be conflict, be around it we can have all of the amazing, fun things about israel that no one really knows about. On the bus ride home I talked to some people with ari talking about all of the good food places in michigan. We could not stop talking about the cider mill. We miss it so much! Also, we tried explaining to james and other brits what cider was, they just didnt get it. They thought it was an alcoholic drink.

When we got back to the apartment, I called the doctors (because they called me letting me know in a message that my strep test results were back) and i found out that i actually do have strep! I feel better already, so im kind of relieved i have strep because they had me taking the medication before i found out. It is just a pain because i have to take a pill 3X a day and i have to take it 30 minutes before i eat. After i found out that, I took a pill and after 30 minutes had lunch. After that I saw all of the comments my mom left on my blogs and i read the emails they emailed me. i was so overwhelmed! I then hung out with some people in our room and attempted to watch gossip girl. im so annoyed that it wasnt working!

At 3:45 I had to be downstairs because hadassah and donors came here for the ceremony of revealing the Beit Ar-Al sign/ribbon cutting ceremony. We were put into a classroom and it was kind of like a "fake" class with some donors in there and i was sitting in front and they were taking pics and video taping. oh dear. The topic we learned about was really interesting. It is the recent conflict with Turkey and israel. A lot of us had no clue that all of this was happening. I really need to read online israeli newspapers...ah! After the "class" there was food for all of us and it was ACTUAL food, like people were at the tables serving things. It was so good. We were supposed to introduce ourselves with people, we did a couple of times, but we only had like 10 minutes to eat. At the end, we were all stuffing out mouths making it look like we never eat...oops! We were then in the beit midrash where different people spoke and after we went outside for the ribbon ceremony, rach and i got ready because we were planning on going to a seminary to learn. Rach wasnt feeling well so we ended up not going. We then decided to go to the mini library in beit ar-al to start to work on our papers. It went okay...i kind of have a decent outline? I am just so tired. I then went back around 8:30 and i showered and i ate some dessert. Now it is 10:30 and i am in bed. I will study for my hebrew quiz and work on my paper tomorrow...all i have is volunteering in the morning and some shevet stuff to do.

mom- here are the responses to your comments (im in bold):

jessica wendy, where do i begin. so many things on which to comment - i also laughed a lot why were you laughing?! i dont remember saying anything that funny!. dad just asked me why i'm laughing as he already read the blog and apparently emailed you. he told me the blog says you are sick. sometimes he skims a bit too much. okay, my plan is to comment on each day:
thurs: your bet word, my gosh jessica. did everyone hear you and know what you said? yes i will check your debit card - although you can too, and i will show you how...miss independent. then, if you are running low, you email me and i can reload it. hmm. also, yikers on the stitches and the blood leftovers. did she need a tetnus shot? no. now of course i have to comment on the PARTAY. so many jamders, or fja'ers. did you and ari take a picture for me?! ha. how fun. and, are you speaking to yoni b'ivrit? haha yucky driver sitch.
friday: sounds like you just love singing? who do you take after here? hmmm? are you going to sit with us at temple and sing/dance? how about shabbat and holidays with us? can we count on yael vered to lead us in song? woohoooo. yes we can. no, mom. i only like singing with brits.
saturday: so, is james in year course shevet? yes. and, rachel's bro seth - where does he live? he is at aish for a little, he wants to be here for a couple more weeks before he goes to colorado to bartend and be a ski bum. so happy you have your thermometer, you do, don't you? no, rach had one and she brought these plastic covers. i'm sorry to hear you are sick. okay, time to comment on your next blog. xoxo mom

you had your first experience dealing with socialized health care - were there a lot of people in the clinic you went to? no did you have a special card to show them? yes .was anyone with you besides the dr? no. for example, a nurse, receptionist? anyone nice? no. did you have to pay for the antibiotic? no. wait long? no. what is the name of the med you were prescribed? penicillin. did you have any conversation in hebrew or find out after how to describe your condition in hebrew?no. okay, enough of that. can you share with us the whole mitzvah of washing the hands? we want to learn toooooooooo. it is a little confusing and im not 100% sure i understand it...so bear with me. Whenever we are Tameh (doesnt mean not clean, but loss of potential), we sometimes only need to wash our hands. This is because hands are the staple for action. Therefore, when we wake up (in the morning) after we say modeh ani, we wash our hands because when we were sleeping we became Tameh through our hands. The reason why we use a cup when we wash is because water is Tahor and the vessel (cup) becomes the water/purpose of the water. For example, when you see a ray of light, you arent seeing the light, but the dust particles reflecting the light. We dont say that we see the dust particles, we say we see the light. Similarly, we call the cup water because in my example, the cup represents the dust and the water represents the light. it is also important to realize that netilat means to take, but by "to take" it means you take it, even though it is really taking you. I know that doesnt make sense at all. Next sunday we are going to discuss it more, so ill make sure to get a clearer answer. i'll share with bubbe "excuse the french" line. too funny. and, one last thing, will you keep your papers you write? they will be on my computer, but idk if i will want to show them to you and dad... i'd love to read them (on the beach next summer!!) really, dad and i like reading your work, especially when we(dad) don't have to help proof/edit! maybe steph can get some good topic ideas for school too. ha, are you reading this stephanie? okay, see ya. xo

do you ever see the fja teacher anymore? yes what does he teach there? i forget, but he is the head of a couple of high school grades. good for you that you found a teacher and hung out with her. so nice to have that opportunity. glad you told aliza what was going on, too bad for pamela- does she not get that you guys are not getting the volunteer experience you expected? yeah, but she is trying. maybe there are other placements more prepared for you, or if not, to be up front and figure things out. i am sure she has a lot going on, but she is your liaison to the program and that is her responsiblity. regarding ari m - i didn't know she was in your section? yes! what track is she? arts who does she live with? i forget, but she is in beit ar al so, do you know your fruits and veggies by now? no yet. good luck on the test. and, kol hakavod for cleaning up dishes, wow, look at you! we had a long night here last night (sun.) deets in an email. so, do you have strep? how are you feeling? i wish they didn't tell you to take the meds until they were sure you actually have a bacterial infection v viral. glad we didn't give you too many antibiotics when you were younger! and, one more ?, is anyone recommending you get a flu shot? nope please be careful and wash your hands. lol cannot help myself.
love you. xo mom

Today I woke up at 6:30, so i could take my medicine, and then woke up again at 7 to eat breakfast and get ready. Right before we got to the bus stop, our bus was there. We thought we would miss it, but luckily it had a red light! We thought wrong...we banged on the door and the bus driver just shooed us off with his hands and tried to ignore our banging an yelling. what a jerk! I dont understand why he wouldnt just let us on!! We then had to wait like 7 minutes for the next bus to come. Usually it takes 15. When we got there, Ashley knew what classroom we should go to (because she was there yesterday and Pamela told her where to go tomorrow--meaning today). Ashley took out a boy who was more advanced than the class he was in, and i took out a girl who was in a lower level than the rest of class. She could barely understand english, so i had to use my limited vocab, but we basically got no where. I told the teacher afterwards and she is a cool, young teacher and so it wasnt a problem..she actually apologized to me!

Ashley really wasnt feeling well, so i told her to go back and i found out later in the day that she has a sinus infection. I had a free period, so i snoozed, listened to music, and brainstormed on my idea for my paper. Before the next period, there is a 20 minute break, so I just sat around and i started talking to a new teacher who mainly works with special ed students. She was really nice and I went to go help her in her class, but since the schedule wasnt finalized, she all of the sudden didnt have class! Luckily I saw Pamela who told me nicely that if i have an issue, talk to her directly, rather than talking through aliza. whoopsies! I then went to the same teacher's class i went to for the first period and walked around helping students. As soon as she told the students im from America, they all started FREAKING out by speaking to me in english and for the rest of the hour i just kept on hearing "jessica" "jessica" in israeli accents. After that class I thought it was time for me to go, so i spoke to Pamela briefly, said i will see her on wednesday, and left. When I walked out I realized that i still had another period there...whateverr.

When I got back I took my medicine, did some homework and watched some of a movie. I then went to ulpan and we learned fruits and veggies. ari mendelson is in my class (we both went to jamd) and neither of us knew any of the vocab, but other students did. oy. we have an oral quiz on thursday, so i have to study those words! After ulpan i took a 20 minute nap, and then went to the genesis parables class, where we watched the movie "fateless." It was a really good movie, but there were only hebrew subtitles and i think the movie was in hungarian, so our teacher translated the entire movie. At first it was so annoying, but then i got used to it. It was funny because he would still talk through the parts that didnt have lines. he would explain to us what is happening...he also would translate things that were said in english! i giggled but forced myself to stop. After class, I talked to him about my idea. He approves of the idea, but i definitely need to work on it.

When i got back to the apartment, I went with rach to a store close by to buy olive oil. We had a good dinner and while we were having dinner this person from hadassah with her daughter spoke to us and asked us questions. After that we had an apartment meeting, which was a little long, but fine...always bad news. haha. Before this meeting, people were getting catty with each other. obviously i was in the center of it...(just kiddinggg). After the meeting i cleaned up the dishes from dinner. check me outtttt :) I then had a mixture of unhealthy food for dessert (partial lie..i cut up a kiwi!).

I then hung out with peeps for a little and time goes by so quickly so it is now a quarter to 1. yayyyyy. i find out my strep results tomorrow.

I was up for most of the night. My throat was killing me, and i thought i had a fever. I kept on drinking water, so i kept on having to get out of bed to go pee. We were supposed to be ready by 7am this morning because shevet was going to a synagogue for rosh chodesh. I love rosh chodesh, but decided to stay in bed. I kept on waking up because i had to pee or my throat hurt. I ended up gurgling salt water and drank tea, but that didnt help my throat. James was really cute and when he got back from rosh chodesh he came in to check on me, thought i had a fever and told me to go back to sleep. He got me water and offered me pain killers--because that will bring down my fever. I said i was fine without the pain killers.

Around 12ish, Katie woke me up wanting to know if i wanted to go to the doctors. I was hesitant, but decided to go. Katie needed to go to see if she could shower (because of her stitches). We walked to the clinic and after a little bit i got called in. When they asked for my address i was like "oh, 5033 Greensward Ct..." and they are like "no..your israel one" and started to laugh at me. oops! The doctor wasnt too friendly and although i didnt have a fever, he thought i had strep and when i was like "ugh i hate getting my throat swabbed," he was like "no one does" in a cold tone. I then leaned back and gagged, but he said "dont move back. and dont throw up on me." um okay... He also wasnt very nice to katie because when she asked "can i shower?" he was like "you could have showered yesterday" in a monotone. haha.

After talking to a yeshiva boy for a minute, who also said his throat hurt and it probably was strep, Katie and i walked to the place where i would get antibiotics. They give it to me before i find out if i have strep. I have to call on tuesday (2 days) to find out if the test comes back positive or negative.

When i got back, I had some cereal and missed my first optional class (the kabbalah one). I decided to go to the other one though (understanding the deeper meanings behind mitzvot). Today we discussed the washing of the hands. It was pretty interesting. Especially the reasons why we use a cup and why we wash our hands 3 times. After this class I took a little nap and ate soup. I then went to my Holocaust film class and we watched the movie "The Shop on Main Street." It was the best movie we had seen. The movie was 2 hours, but everything moved along pretty quickly. After the movie, I came back and took my medicine while watching my friends trying to find outfits to wear to a frum wedding. Im so mad that i couldnt go (because im sick)!!! I then showered and made myself an interesting dinner. I had 2 rice cakes (one with cheese and the other with peanut butter on it) and a pepper with hummus. It filled me up!

I then talked to some people on vid chat for a little (steph, rachel weinstein, liz). I then cleaned up the room and did some readings for homework. We have a paper due on thursday (at the end of class) and i just came up with a pretty good topic (i think). I'm not sure if I will have enough to write about...ill ask him tomorrow before class starts. It is now 12:40am and i think i am gonna get up for volunteering tomorrow. shiiiit (as bubbe and others say, "excuse my french")

THURSDAY:

On thursday I got to sleep in and didnt have to be ready to go until 8:20. When we got to the school, we didnt have anything to do, so we both did some homework. Then Pamela saw us and since the schedule isnt finalized, she didnt have a classroom to put us in so we had to put some tapes and cassettes together. We were so annoyed because she said that she would come back next period to put us in a classroom, but she never did! We left 15 minutes early and left her a note. Apparently the list will be finalized tomorrow, or they will be working on it tomorrow (sunday). We talked to a person in charge of volunteering in schools and said that she will talk to Pamela again. When I got back I ate some lunch and then took a nap.

At 1:30 I went to ulpan and there were so many new vocab words we learned. I must look them over! ah! During class we played a game where we are divided up into 2 teams and we have a limited amount of time to come up with words that start with a letter. For the letter bet, I came up with words and then i yelled out "ben zonah!" oops! After class, I printed out my paper/letter to my parents for my genesis parables class. I then saw Katie who had to get 4 stitches in her head because when she was taking down her sukkah, a top bar fell on her head! oy!!!! They had to shave a small part of her head, but it's not noticeable. But she isnt allowed to wash her hair for a couple of days, and there are some red streaks...ah! The genesis parables class was pretty interesting--as always. We have a 4 page paper that is due thursday. I dont know what im gonna do for it yet.

After class, rach, britty, katie, naomi, ale, and i decided to go to the sushi place on emek refiem where we went for rachels birthday. It is just so good and about 10 dollars! Ah! After we ordered, rach, katie, and i went to the ATM..i wanted to take out a 1000 sheks, but it wouldnt let me...i could only take out 300. Am i running out of money on my debit card?

Anyways, I split the veggie combo with Katie....it is so good!!! After Katie and I bought some candy at a grocery store to get change..hehe. When we got back to the apartment, we needed to hurry up because we needed to be at a club in tel aviv by 11pm for a year course party. It took us a pretty long time to get ready and we decided we would either crash on the beach, or go back to miki's. After getting to the central bus station, 10 minutes after we got on the 480 bus to take us to tel aviv, it was 11. We knew it would be fine though.

We took a taxi after we got off the bus. The place the club was at was so sketchy! Luckily, we saw some brits from our program who were a little lost, so we found the club together. A lot of people still werent in yet! When we got there i saw ari mendelson who told me that JAMD people just surrounded her singing happy birthday (because it was her birthday that day). I then saw nathan and he was with ilan ben-ami! It was so nice to see them! I also saw yoni (who comes up to me yelling my middle name...thanks a lot). I hung out with them outside of the club for awhile and then i was walking and all of the sudden ari kurzmann calls my name! ha mom-you are probably SO happy right now. chill out. we talked for a little and then all of us jamders talked.

I then went into the club with my friends and it was so crowded and crazy. I was so happy that the music was music that wasnt 100% techno. I had a pretty fun night! hahahaha :) We left the club pretty late and we only had like 2 and a half hours until the first bus back to jerusalem. We were going to wait for it but then decided to take a sheroot back to our apartment. The driver was a creeper and jerk, but we got back safely. Some of our apartment mates were passed out, so some of us cared to them and then I showered and went to sleep around 5ish. crazy!

FRIDAY:

On friday, I woke up around 10:30-11ish, sang happy birthday to britty, ate some sour gummies and had the brownies made for britty's birthday. Rachel, Katie, me, and britty then got dressed and bought a lot of food for the huge shabbat dinner we were hosting (22 people). Other people were cooking and we got all of the food for them too (at least we thought no one else was going to be shopping..haha britty "shorry!") When we got back, we unloaded and rachel and i took the shopping cart back, bought a couple of other things, and when we got back we started to cook (i cut up the potatoes!) and ate chicken soup for lunch. katie is so good at making it! I took a nap and around 4:30ish I showered and helped cut up some fruit for the fruit salad. We then lit shabbat candles, and a couple of us went to shul. It was such a nice shul! When we got back, after a little bit of waiting around, we started shabbat dinner. It was sooo good! We also sang A LOT because the brits just have a song for everything! hahaha. After dessert, we sang some more, and then we hung out with different people and i had a nice conversation with seth (rachel's brother) and went to bed. sorry that was really, really summarized...

SATURDAY:

Today Ale woke me up at 8:45ish wanting to know if i wanted to go to shul. I was exhausted but decided to get up and go. I went with benji and a couple of others and we got there around 9:30ish. It was so hot out today. Shul was pretty good, I sat with ale and we got lost a couple of times. After shul, I went back into bed for a little and then got up because seth made us french toast! Mom you would not be too happy with what i had on top of the french toast...chocolate spread and sprinkles. it was so good! hehehe. After breakfast, I hung out with some people, we made kiddish and then i went back to sleep. I slept until 5ish. wtf! I woke up with a sore throat..great. When I woke up I ate some cake and hung out with people. After shabbas we just hung out some more and ate more left overs. I wanted to have a little jamd reunion but that didnt work out. Around 8ish I went on a run with rachel and james. We are going to try and work out everyday...run every other day and on the days we dont run, do a deck of cards the other days. We decided at the beginning though that we just wanted to do a deck of cards instead..but we didnt have cards, so we just did some random things. James was funny because he was trying to act like a coach. We then went on this spinny thing and i did NOT feel well after that. On the way back we all thought I had a fever, but i took my temperature and i dont. I then showered and went straight to bed. Hopefully Ill feel better tomorrow morning.

comments to mom:

- i have no idea who she is....are you sure that was her name?! and how did she remember you! haha.

- emailed my academic advisor...and i just need to fill out request forms which is pretty easy. I need my umich ID number though, so the next time we talk will you give it to me?

Yesterday i woke up at 7:40 and was ready to go by 8:20. When we got to the school we waited around for about 20 minutes, and then we found Pamela. She wasnt too happy that we left the other day without leaving her a note. She then found places for us to go for the next 2 periods. First we went with the substitute to a 9th grade class. Pamela told us what to tell them to do in their workbooks. It was fun working with them! Some were obnoxious, but others were nice. After the class, we found out that the teacher we were supposed to go to for the 7th graders doesnt teach engish that hour. Pamela couldnt find anywhere else for us to go. We couldnt go to her class because they have an exam next wednesday and she needs to teach them the material. She then let us go home early. On the way back, I bought Rachel's favorite cereal for a belated birthday present (she knew about me getting this for her).

So when I got back to the apartment I ate an unripe peach and wrapped her cereal (Honey Bunches of Oats) in wrapping paper. A couple of days ago, rach came up with the idea of a couple of us going in together to get Britty a necklace she likes for her birthday--her birthday is on friday. Rach and I knew it was a perfect time to go, so we rushed to ben yehuda because we had to be back at 1:45 for something i will talk about in a minute. We had an hour and thought we would be fine with time. Of course the bus takes FOREVER to come, and so we are really rushed. When we get to the store, we see the more expensive one, but not the other one. The guy said that the other one will be coming tomorrow. The expensive one was 250 sheks and we got it down to 150! We didnt even bargain, we just said that we would come back tomorrow and he kept on lowering it! Im sure we still got ripped off..i wonder how much he actually paid for it. There are 5 or 6 of us splitting it so we each are paying 25 sheks for it. It is crazy because that is only about $7. We then thought we would be back after 1:45, so we called moran and told her that we are waiting for a bus to take us back to our apartment.

We were about 10 minutes late and we had a coach bus waiting for us. Luckily people were still getting on the bus. All the Americans and Canadians went to a ceremony to honor American/Canadian soldiers in the IDF that were killed. It was a long drive and the ceremony took place in a forest. Within the forest (it is outside of jerusalem), there is a wall with names of all of the North American soldiers that died. This ceremony revealed the new names written on the wall. The ceremony was pretty good and meaningful.

When we got back to the apartment, I wrote Lori's birthday card (which I will send in the mail soon--her birthday was on the 13th) and Rachel's birthday card. I bought the cards from Rachel from the place she volunteers at called Yad LaKashish. The elderly work there (because it is hard for them to find jobs) and make cards and other things. I also watched some of gossip girl, but it stopped working right at the end! ugh! I then showered and got ready to go to Katie's apartment to have dinner with some friends and her mom and sister (who is also named jessica!) On the way there, I called mom to do a brief catch up with her. When we got to Katie's we helped her take down the sukkah, and then we ate dinner, which was so good! It was shnitzel, rice, and salad. For dessert there was this delicious cake (which we took back to the apartment) and popsicles. Around 10ish we headed back to the apartment and we all hung out for a little and around 12ish, went to bed. I was too tired to type this up last night.

Today I woke up at 8:15 and i was pretty tired. I got out of bed and ate breakfast and quickly got ready. We got on a public bus, and at first there werent any seats, but then i got one. I didnt know it would be such a long ride, so i didnt bring my ipod! ugh! i still just closed my eyes and rested. I then saw this older woman standing, so i asked IN HEBREW if she wanted my seat. She did, and when she got up she asked me IN ENGLISH if i wanted my seat back. so annoying! When we got to yad vashem, we were in 2 groups and my group went into the Reflections of the Holocaust learning center. We were about to use the computers to see different questions with different answers, but then the internet stopped working. So, our tour guide took us outside and we saw the cattle car yad vashem has. We also talked about this issue if Israel would be here if it wasnt for the holocaust. We ran out of time, because we were going to hear a holocaust surviver tell her story. It was a really interesting story (like all of the stories) because she did a lot of hiding and living with gentiles. It was also really nice how she still is in touch with the daughter of that family. Britty and I were exhausted and both told each other how heavy our eyes were. We both slept a little on the bus back and it was such a pain to walk back to the apartment, but when we got there, Rach was already napping and i climbed up the ladder and past out for about 2 and half hours.

Rach and I got woken up because we had to go help out for this thing we are doing tonight for all of the section one. When we got back, I made a grilled cheese. I then got on my computer and talked to sarah for a little and read my comments from my other blog post. MOM-NOT FUNNY! I then showered and helped set up for a speed dating event for all of section 1. Luckily i kind of helped plan it, so i didnt have to speed date. ew. i hate speed dating! After about an hour of ridiculous questions, we got ice cream! After the ice cream, Rach, Britty, and i decided to cut up A LOT of veggies to munch on with hummus. it was really good. (note to self: "shit, we cut up a lot of veggies...shit, we ate almost an entire kilo of apricots...i have to go to the bathroom (X sideways 8)"). I then got ready for bed, made my bed (put on my pretty stripe sheets), and finished the time travelers wife. Such a good book..i cried a little. love crying! I then was in bed by 11:30 (SO EARLY!!!!) but i could not fall asleep. I got on my computer and ended up catching up with devries! yay! i also kind of talked to steph and i cant believe she drove. i just realized that she is going to have her permit when i get home (it will be the first day she has her permit, but still..crazy!!!)

oh one more thing before i go to bed, the weather here has been weird. It started to cool down (meaning i was comfortable in the shade in shorts and a t-shirt), but now it got hot again and last night when i went out wearing a skirt and a tank top, i wasnt cold, and it was at night! I think tomorrow or something it is supposed to reach the 90s. grool (quoting mean girls).

This is yesterdays post that i never posted:

Today I had to wake up at 7 for volunteering. I was tired, but excited because i knew that today i would finally be able to work with students! I thought of a cute outfit to wear, ate breakfast, got dressed, and was ready on time! When Ashley and i got there, we couldnt find pamela and decided just to wait in the english closet because she comes there in between periods. We waited an entire hour and went searching for her, but everyone said that they did not see her today. great. We called Aliza who is in charge of the people volunteering at schools, to let her know about our situation. She said that she will talk to Pamela and it is fine if we go home. While we were waiting for her, Ashley listened to her ipod and napped, while i read my book. ah! i am so happy i decided to bring it!

We left at around 9 and when we got back, I read, took a very short nap (couldnt sleep), and watched the movie "Save the Last Dance." We didnt have much food left in our fridge or pantry (we bought more food today), so i ate random things for lunch. I then went to ulpan and did good on my quiz. Class was a little slow, but i am learning a lot. I just cannot say enough how great it is to understand what the directions are saying...i can read and comprehend it! Some people in the class cant. HA! :) During our break, I was talking to katie and once again we were on the floor gasping for air. we are always just cracking up!

After class, we had a 30 minute break before our next class. The next class was the genesis parables class. It always is a little confusing, but really interesting. I like that we all participate and work together to find an answer. After that class, rach was in the mood to run, and so i ended up going with her and james tagged along. It was a nice, easy run. We ended up going to a park and we worked out a little (james and i ran suicides, we all did some push ups, rachel danced). We also talked and it was so nice! When we decided to jog back, we saw katie and britty coming back with groceries. We helped unload, and then rach and i took back the grocery cart. We had a nice talk and i came up with a new goal for myself. When we got back we showered and hung around until dinner was made. It was really nice because both groups ate together (not everyone was there from each group, so there were enough chairs). Dinner was really good. There was some secret tension that took place at the end dealing with cleaning, but i think we are all just gonna get our periods soon. After cleaning up dinner, rach and i did our job for the day--toilets. yummy.

After cleaning the toilets we got ready to go out. I know i told myself that i wouldnt go out monday nights, but since it was to celebrate simon and joel's birthday and im friends with them (they both know my name!) . It was at a club called constantine. Rach, britty and i got there and we thought we got there late, but no one was by the club, so we decided to get ice cream. i got real ice cream! not packaged! It was really good. When we got back to the club we just decided to inside. It just had opened up so no one was there--except for some israelis. So, we just sat on a bench and just sat there! haha. we are social!!! but they were playing good music so we were just singing along. Once everyone came, they started to play the bad techno. ugh! i still had a fun time, and since no one got there until 12:15ish, i decided that i would just walk back and not take the 12:30 bus. I got home and was sleeping a little after 3. I didnt have to be up until 8:15.

Today I woke up at 10ish. I had to pee, and thought it was really late and knew i had a lot to do. As soon as i woke up i began to work on my blog! After I finished up the blog that i posted earlier today, I did 2 loads of laundry (one whites and one darks..rach and i do laundry together). At 1:30 I had my first optional class. It is learning about kabbalah. It seems like an interesting class. I am taking some notes so i can remember the stuff we discuss. The class is only 45 minutes long. After the class I took a nap, and about 20 minutes later, I was in the other class he was teaching, which is the reasons behind mitzvot. Today we touched on shabbat. I like this class too. After this class, I had about 45 minutes, so i decide to run and get falafel with the 20 sheks i found on the ground. When I got there and started to order the guy only spoke to me in english. UGH! i still just spoke in hebrew. He even said "have a nice day" in english to me. and when i said "todah" he said "your welcome." I wanted to just sit down to eat it, but i didnt have enough time so i rushed home and ate the falafel really quickly. I was having trouble breathing because i ate it so quickly.

I then rushed to my next class of the day which was holocaust film class. We watched the movie "Kapo". It was a little long, but i liked this movie the best, so far. After the movie, I had an apartment meeting and our madricha moran told us more details about the stabbing that happened right near where we were hanging out thursday night. 2 israeli girls were drunk (they say they werent) and were in a club and started to fight with each other. This then startin a mass fighting thing and a guy pulled out a knife and stabbed his 20 year old friend. I think 4 people are in the hospital. It is crazy that things like this happen!

Right after the meeting, i pushed Katie into the kitchen so we could decide what we should all eat for dinner. We ended up having chicken, green beans, salad, and berakahs. While dinner was being made I talked to Sarah and steph. hahaha--enough said. inside joke with sarah: ocean. After dinner, a couple of us had pretzels dipped in chocolate spread for dessert. This was after Katie's mini bipolar incident in the kitchen about the sugar. hahahaha. I have been laughing so hard lately!

After talking with sarah and steph, i watched the gilly snl skit with some people, hung out with rachel's brother, did some homework, and talked to some people on aim. It is so hard to talk to people with the time difference! I then went with a couple of people to the roof of a different apartment to sing happy birthday to simon and joel (british twins). This was after james made fun of me for always rewriting my notes to make them look nicer. He just does not understand what school i went to and what we do to make our math notes look pretty! When we got back from hanging out, I showered and got ready for bed. I really wanted to go to bed early tonight, but it is already 1:30am. I have to wake up at 7am great. but i am kind of excited because now that the holidays are over, ashley and i are finally going to be working with students!!!! i have to think of a cute outfit to wear!

Oh mom--in case you read this before i talk to you tomorrow...i am going to call you tomorrow when i have time. hopefully you will be free because i really need to talk to you about me potentially living in an apartment with ellie and a couple of other people.

I got back from Tzfat last night...

FRIDAY:

We had to wake up at 7:45, and since we got back last night around 4am, we didnt get that much sleep. Because i wasnt sleeping for long, it wasnt too difficult for me to function after really forcing myself to get out of bed. I finished packing up my stuff (i did most of it when i got back from ben yehuda--oh, i forgot to mention that i found out that someone got stabbed in ben yehuda that night..scary). When we got on the bus, there were no seats next to each other, so i couldnt sit next to katie (i was pissed because i wanted to be able to sleep on her/laugh with her!) The bus ride was okay, i kind of slept. We first stopped at this place where we learned about tefillin, torah, mezuzahs, and scribes. It wasnt boring because we just watched 2 videos, but the videos were interactive. In the first video we learned about tefillin, torah, and mezuzah. Before we would learn about each one, there was a quiz we would take, and we would press a button on our seat and it would show up on the screen. It was fun! The winner would get a prize (there was 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place). We found out at the end that they have ran out of their prizes, but are going to send them to the winners. The second movie was about scribes and all of the seats were on something that would move around to different screens and sometimes we would use 3d glasses.

After that, we drove for a little until we got to ascent, where we were staying. 7 of us were in a room together. After we made our beds and got settled (i brought the dream sac, but everything felt clean) we went down to where the sukkah was because they said we would finally be getting lunch (it was 1pm by then and all i had that day was an apple). We end up only getting served many different types of cakes. They were good, but we all felt so gross because we wanted a real lunch! During this time i got to shake the lulav and etrog. finally! After this, everyone walked to a grocery store to buy food for lunch. Since it was closing, everyone had to hurry up and ironically, not many people bought healthy "lunch" food. I had a turkey sandwich i made a couple of days ago (i think it was still good...) so i ate that. When we got back one of the rabbis spoke to us about Simchat Torah. After this the boys went to an ancient mikvah, while the girls (and some boys) made challah. IT was so fun! I learned how to braid a challah with 6 pieces, it looked so good! I really want to remember how i did it so i can make my own challah. After the challah making, we got ready for shabbat and simchat torah.

When we came down we lit candles and went to the top of the building to pray. I sat next to this woman who started talking to me and asking me about YJ and such. She somehow mentions that she is trying to find wives for her 2 nephews who are there and wanted to know it if was interested! what?! i told her that i am too young to get married and not ready to. She said she understood, but her nephews are already 24 and so it is time for them to get married. She then just told me to let her know if i was interested. um thanks. After services, we began to dance and start simchat torah! A couple of people were drunk, but i barely got anything, so i was fine, but having a fun time dancing. After this we went outside and we were supposed to find the family that was hosting us for dinner. We found ours (they are a young couple) and the wife was the woman that taught us how to braid and make other designs with challah dough. We didnt recognize her because she wore a different sheitel. Along with the a group of 6 of us, they were also hosting the wife's brother and girlfriend, and 2 friends of theirs. The brother and the friend were really wasted. The friend was from detroit! yay! We didnt know any of the same people, but it was still nice. The wife (her name is chana) was from san diego and so her and rachel knew a lot of the same people! When we got to their house (around 10ish) we started dinner.

Dinner was so funny. The food was delicious, but all of us were exhausted and katie kept on dozing off. The friend from detroit was really drunk and ended up falling asleep (and snoring) on the couch. There was so much food and so i basically skipped the main dishes because i was so full from all of the salads and soup. Chana told some interesting stories and same with her husband (eg. Jews have sensitive souls, so we should eat proper things so our hear and our mind do not get clogged). They werent preaching, but just speaking for themselves. It was interesting because the husband was from a conservative family and her family was religious, but not chabad. It was interesting how open they are to others. For example, chana's brother is not religious, but she is fine with that. There were also a lot of conversations that ended up no where and when we realized this we found it so funny. We all laughed a lot and i explained 2 times the gilly skit from snl because everyone who didnt know of the skit was confused as to why we would all crack up after saying "sorry." the best part is no one has seen this skit besides me! (note to self: britty in bathroom and getting locked in).

We left after eating delicious brownies with powdered sugar. We got a little lost on the way home, but found our way. Soon after we got back, we were all in bed and after reading for a little, fell asleep.

note to self: tricking rachel and nikola into believing Katie and 2 and a half warnings and other things..

SATURDAY:

We set an alarm for 7:50, because it said we should be down and ready to go by 8:30, but we didnt get up until 9. We all forced ourselves out of bed and got dressed. When we got down there, only a few brit boys were there. Everyone else was still sleeping. I guess it wasnt really mandatory. We then left after eating some cake for breakfast to go shul hopping. It was really hot out, but kind of fun. In most of the shuls the women would just watch the men dance. Eventually we got to a shul that was doing kiddish, so we munched on stuff there. After this we walked back to ascent, where we took a 20 minute nap. We woke up at 1:15 and went down to where lunch was going to be. So many people where completely wasted, but it was kind of annoying because they just woke up! Lunch was okay, we all had wine, which made us even more tired. A couple of us left lunch early and then took a nap. We then went down thinking a class was going to take place (the people's house we ate at last night were going to be leading this Q and A class). Instead, there was mincha, and although i wasnt there at the beginning, i got to hear the end of the Torah and the beginning.

After smoozing and cracking up with katie about the gilly thing (and explaining it again) a couple of us went back to the room to nap. People just ended up talking and i read. The time travelers wife is so good! We then go downstairs into the sukkah for the Q and A. There were 2 other people with the husband and wife. Before it started, i asked rachel to grab me a fruit and all of the sudden nicola says "jessica. everyone duck." leaving no time she chucks the apple and it hits mike (a madrich) right in the side of his head! hahaha. "ehh, sorry!" (in gilly's voice!) The Q and A was interesting and something I learned was the reason the Torah starts with a bet and not an aleph is because a bet is kind of like "]" with one side open and the other side shut meaning that we dont know what happened before what the Torah says.

This Q and A session lasted awhile, so after this we all went up to the roof to do havdallah. We then packed, danced some more, had pizza for dinner, read, sang songs, and then walked to a synagogue where outside there was singing and dancing. It took some of us a long time to get there because we were on the ground not breathing because of so many things. (katie being afraid of oompa loompas, gilly, rachel's "daddy alert" with no daddy around...) After this, while walking back, i found 20 sheks! woo hoo! since i was in front, it wasnt anyones from YJ. my plan is to buy falafel and ice cream wth it. We then changed into sweats and when rach and i got on the bus the only seats left on the bus were in the back row (it is a 5 seater). I was in the middle of it. UGH. Luckily, when we stopped for a bathroom, i found out that our madrichim both had their own seats in the front, so rach and i sat with them. I was so happy when the entire bus and different people were yelling at the madrichs saying that me and rach werent on the bus. They know my name!!! hahahaha.

When we got back it was 12:45ish. Right before we got back to beit ar-el, everyone on the bus starting saying "mike" "mike" "mike" like it was in finding nemo with the "mine" "mine" "mine". ah! it was sooo funny and we were all cracking up. steph, you would have trouble breathing. Luckily i did not have volunteering this morning because the schools have the day off. I felt bad for the people that had to wake up and go to volunteering. Sorry i didnt write more about yesterday, i just dont have the energy to go into more details.