The Last Week

So this was the final week and boy am I happy. It was a good week. I got a little drunk Tuesday, finished classes on Thursday and finally got to go to the Kotel on a Friday night. Those days were the highlights of this week. Tuesday night I was at Arielle's finishing a project and when I got home my roommates were all drinking. They asked me to join and I said why not. I took a few shots and every time I took a shot they sung havanagila it was kind of funny. I got a bit drunk wondered a bit around campus and then went to sleep.

Now Thursday was a crazy night. There was no drinking, but the night was still crazy. So after classes Arielle and I headed to Tel Aviv, we first started on Rothschild and got to Tut binana L`chi smoothie that was suppose to be a Hebrew transliteration, most of that I think you got. For those who didn't get it, it was strawberry, banana, leeches smoothie. It was so delicious. Then we made our way over to the dread place and got hair wraps, mine is so cool its rainbow colors!! :) After that we met up with everyone at some burger place and had a nice dinner. I shared a platter of burgers with 3 other people. It was very tasty. Once we were done we went to Max Brenner's and got some chocolate desserts. I got fondue with some people. It was past 12 at this point and I was really tired, so Rose decided to go home with me. We walked a bit and ended up taking a taxi to the Bus Station to pick up a sherut (taxi-bus) and within 1 hour and 20 minutes we were in Jerusalem. We took a taxi back home and as soon as I got home I started doing laundry. I was quite awake since I slept a bit on the sherut. While my laundry was going I took a shower and got ready for bed. I went to my laundry once I was ready and I saw someone's clothes where still in the dryer, but they were dry so I folded the clothes and left a note saying that I really needed the dryer. Then I put my clothes and went to bed, it was 4:30 I think. I woke up at 7 got my clothes from the dryer went back to bed and woke up at 11 am. 12:30 Arielle and I went to the Art Shuk in Jerusalem and it is not nearly as cool as the one in Tel Aviv. Later on we went to the kotel. Going to the kotel was an amazing experience we got to hear soldiers singing. They were singing going to the kotel and they were singing when they got to the kotel. I remember hearing the men sing Am Yisroel Chai and the women were singing salaam. It was really cool. So many people were there, different kinds of people. It was very unique to me. That night we got set up with a family and had dinner at this nice family's house in the old city. By 12 we left and were on our way home. It was a great experience. Today, I finished cleaning and packing, and I'm ready for the plane ride. Lets get this show on the road. Well first lets have 2 days with all of year course and then I'll be home ;)

Weekend with my cousin and her family

So yesterday I met up with my cousin's husband Josh as the shuk early in the morning. He got his groceries, I got a shirt fixed and we were off to meet Liott and their baby Eliyah at their house. We stayed there a bit a left around 11:30 to go to the zoo. It was so much fun. There were so many different animals, I have pictures to post. Later on during dinner we watched 127 hours it was really intense and at times hard to watch. Today we didn't do much we chilled and Liott took me home, but before I came home she stopped at a gas station and filled the car with gas (duh) but she also got me and herself a shoko b`sakit [chocolate in a bag]. I love shoko b`sakit! I got home and now I'm just chillen in my room. Only 10 days till I'm home.TIMON!!PUMBA!!

Herzliya

This weekend was pretty adventurous. The weekend started on Thursday for me, my friend Amit came over and we chilled for a while. I showed him around campus a bit and then he went home. The next day I left early to go to the shuk and I got a new skirt! Its really cool looking. I also got a pita and pumpkin seeds to snack on for the bus ride. After the shuk I went to the bus station and got on the 947 bus to Haifa, but I took it to Ra`nana. Then I switched to the 29 bus and I arrived in Herzliya where Jack picked me up to go to the Retirement home. We got there and Priscilla had lunch prepared and we sat down talked for a bit and then we all took naps. After I took nap Jack and I went to shul and we came back in time for dinner. Dinner was so good. They had chicken noodle soup, my favorite!!

Saturday we went to Shul. There was a celebration for a couple that is going to get married this month. There was a lovely kiddush following the service. Afterwards we went back and we had lunch in dining room. The people we sat with had also had a guest from Yearcourse. It was such a coincident. We're on different sections but we knew each other from Kuma. After lunch we hung out and walked around Herzliya a few times we got lost but found our way back, no worries. It was so much fun, somehow we got to the mall in Herzliya. The mall there is so big!! When I got back I got my stuff and Jack and Priscilla took me to the Marina where we saw big boats. It was so cool, there was this one yacht that looked like a little house. It had a room with a lamp and a window with blinds it was so cute. We also got some ice cream that was really delicious. After that they took me to Ra`nana and I took the bus to go home. This week should be busy. We'll see.

Yom Ha`atzmaut

Erev Yom Ha`atzmaut I drank a bit with my friends and we left to go to downtown Jerusalem. We went to Ben Yehuda, which was so crazy, people were selling light up rings, blow up hammers with the Israeli flag on it and a bunch of things like that. Alissa and I didn't stay to long it was a bit much for us and we were both really tired. Also there were kids with shaving cream bottle spraying the shaving cream. On the bus that Alissa and I took there was a whole line of shaving cream on the windows. We got back and I chilled at her place for a while and then headed back to take a shower and go to sleep. The following day there was a bbq on Beit Ar-el, the campus. We ate, some played frisbee, me and my friends just chilled and listened to Rachel's radio and painted our nails. Following this bbq Laina and I went to her cousins and ate at another bbq. It was so good. They had way more food then they had on campus. It was a potluck bbq. They also had the best wings, which I got hungry for later. We left went home and did our own thing. Later on Orelia and I order New Deli and I get chicken wings again, I absolutely love chicken wings. Anyways, it takes them a while because they messed up the phone number but it was okay. They got here and the guard wasn't there to let anyone in, I got the food from outside the gate and waited for the guard to get back. At one point I tried climbing over the fence, but I ended up falling it was really funny actually. I'm a little scraped up, but I'll be fine. :) I loved Yom Ha`atzmaut, hopefully I can come back to Israel for this holiday again!

This Weekend + Yom Hazikaron

This past Friday Elana and I went down to the Kibbutz for a visit. When we arrived our friend Tova wasn't there yet to greet us, which was fine, because we dropped our stuff off in front of her room and hung out with the volunteers. Finally Tova came and I gave her a huge hug and helped her get her stuff to bring to her room. After that I changed into my swim suite and headed to the pool. It was so hot out that day and the pool was so nice I loved it. I stayed in the shallow though. That night Elana and I went to Erica's (our host mom from when we lived on the kibbutz) and had drinks and cookies with her and then we went to services. Following services was dinner and then sleepy time. The next day I woke up and 10 and went to Saturday morning services, followed by kiddush with chips and cookies and wine. Once that ended I got Elana and we went to lunch and brought back lunch for Tova because she still wasn't feeling well. Not to long later I went back to the pool and actually went into the deep water!!! I swam!!!! It was awesome, I think I might try to be a deep swimmer this summer at camp. That night we went to Pub which wasn't a whole lot of fun, but it was alright. Sunday we got up early and left at 7:30 a.m. to get back to Jerusalem. I sat next to a really cute Israeli Soldier, Yoav. He started to talk to me because he noticed that I came from Kibbutz Ketura and asked me if I was a volunteer and it just led us to a long and good conversation. He is from Kibbutz Yotvateh, which is not far from Ketura. We got home and Elana and I weren't feeling well. I didn't go to classes or the ceremony for Yom Hazikaron. But today I felt a lot better and I got to go to Mt. Herzl again where a lot of people were and a few of us went to small tekkes ( ceremony) there were these brothers that had crazy mustaches that spoke and did a few prayers. We came back to and had a peula about specific soldiers that have fallen and what their story was. All were really interesting. Tonight I'm going out and I will talk about it tomorrow. I almost forgot to mention I met up with Alaina from 2nd grade. I saw her once and we got each others numbers and met up again, its so crazy we haven't really seen each other since 2nd grade.

This past weekend and yom hashoah

Friday night I went to the great shul in Jerusalem with my friends Yasmin and Laina. It was a great service. They leaders sang so well. When we got back we made dinner and hung out for a bit. The next day Yasmin and I went to a different shul called Yedidya Synagogue. Both shuls were Orthodox. I enjoy orthodox services since I grew up in one. After shul we went to a host family for lunch and it was an interesting experience as Yasmin puts it. It was a family of 5 daughters. One was out of the army, two were in high school, and the other two are twins about to be 5 years old they were the cutest. One of the high schoolers had a few breakdowns and the other one entertained the twins the most. When we left the house I ran into my friend from camp who the scout this past summer. His name is Amit. I'm suppose to see him on Thursday, we'll see if that happens. I might be leaving for the kibbutz that day. Anyways later we had havdalah at Elana's apartment and we did a bit of Rikud (dancing), which was a lot of fun. That sums up my weekend.

Today was Yom Hashoah. And section 2 was lucky enough to attend the ceremony at Yad Vashem. The ceremony included Shimon Peres and Bibi Netanyahu. Who both spoke. Also there were six survivors that lit 6 torches in memory of the 6 million and there were video clips of each them telling a bit of their story. It was a really good ceremony as well as very interesting.

This week is the start of the new month and so many things will happen within this month and I plan on blogging about all of it.