MONDAY:
Although we were planning on waking up early, that didn’t happen. We packed up for wherever we were heading for the Pesach seder and around 12ish we left to first walk around Ben Yehuda and then walk to the CBS. When we (Rach, Katie, and I) got there we bought flowers and scouted out the best thing to eat. The winner ended up being a chicken salad from mcdonalds. It was crazy how everything was kosher for Pesach. I didn’t remember it being like that when I came when I was 13. Not only were things kosher for pesach, but it seemed like it wasn’t until we saw religious people eating it. They make bagels and pizza all kosher for pesach! Even mcdonalds does and hotdog places. Rach and I needed to catch the bus so we ate our salads on the crowded bus. When I told the bus driver that I wanted a ticket to Haifa, he told me to go on the other bus. It was going to Haifa and Ranana (where Rach was going) so I just went on the bus. The driver thought I was going to the same place as Rachel so he gave me a ticket for 40 something rather than 70 something. The bus ride was long to Ranana and when I said bye to rach, I didn’t think it would be that long until I got to Haifa. That was a lie. I was on the bus that stopped EVERYWHERE. No wonder why the guy told me not to get on that bus. I was going to pay the right amount when I got off the bus, but since I did NOT want a 2 way ticket, I decided I would just give the extra money to tzedukah.

I thought that a place we stopped at was familiar, but I thought the bus would just go into a station when we got to Haifa. Luckily I called Shlomo who told me he was there waiting for me, so he picked me up from the next stop. We had a nice conversation about his visit back to the U.S. and how we love Costco and how it is smart that I’m not doing Marva. When we got to their house I got ready for the seder and then we left because he thought there was going to be bad traffic. To all of our surprise, the road was completely clear! We went to Drora’s sister’s house. I sat with the cousins before the seder started and when I would focus I would sometimes be able to understand a bit about what they were talking about. It just drains the energy out of me! The seder was nice- it went by really quickly. Everyone just went around reading a paragraph and then that was it! Dinner was delicious and after dinner, we sang songs and talked before cleaning up and then chilling out. A few of the cousins talked to me, which was nice. One of them and I talked for a long time about dogs and different things. It was such a nice conversation!!!! After some good cake, people started to take out presents?! Apparently, Pesach is one of the times where they exchange gifts. I wasn’t expecting anything but got 3 things (box, chocolate, cleansing stuff.) It was so nice!!! Around 11ish, we left and when we came back I just wanted to go to sleep, but waited until I could talk to everyone at the seder at home. I was hoping I could talk to them at 12:30, but I didn’t talk to them until 1. I fell asleep waiting. Moran woke up Shlomo so he could say hi. I didn’t know it was going to be everyone and it would be so noisy and that no one would be able to hear what I was saying. It was nice to see everyone, but annoying that I couldn’t talk to anyone and I waited up! After that I went to bed.