Sunday
Long day at the Yeshiva, as Sunday always is. The morning
started off differently then usual, with a guest speaker. Rabbi Daniel Lehmann,
president of Hebrew College in Boston, taught us all about the schools
philosophy of pluralism. I’m not sure I grasped everything he was saying, but
it was interesting nonetheless. The rest of the day was business as usual.
After school I had a heart to heart with my friend Julia.
Her and I went on pilgrimage together summer 2011, so we’ve been close for a
while. Recently, however, we haven’t been talking as much, because we’ve been
busy with different stuff. It was really nice to talk to her and get caught up
again.
Then I went out to dinner with Ayal, Ilana, and Tobi. I had
schnitzies for the first time and it was amazing! I will definitely be going
back there again soon. Overall even though it was a pretty boring day, it was
still a really good one.
Monday
My friend Michaela and I have decided that Monday will be
exploring day. Both of us get done with class at 12:45, so we decided every
week we’ll find a new, cool place to check out. This week we went to the Malka
Mall. It was HUGE, but not as exciting as I expected. I did get two new
sweaters, though, so overall it was successful.
When I got home from the mall, after a quick power nap, I
met my roommate Amanda at the shuk for dinner. We went to Pasta Basta, a
restaurant that lets you make your own pasta dish with fresh vegetables from
the shuk. It was really delicious and cheap, the perfect combination for a poor
college student.
After dinner, my friend Julia texted me that she wanted to
talk. I went to her room, and ended up spending a few hours there with her and
her roommates. It was really fun, because I’m not that close with her
roommates, so it was nice to spend time with them and get to know them better.
It’s crazy that after three months, there are still people that I barely know.
It feels good to start learning more about them, especially since I’ll be
spending four months with them in Yerucham.
Tuesday
Today has been an amazing day! Most of the day was just
average, but Erev Nativ was tons of fun. Tonight’s Erev Nativ was focused on
getting ready for Hanukkah. We started out playing games to learn about some of
the lesser known details of Hanukkah. The groups took the game way to seriously
for my taste, but I sat with my friend Lieba and we had fun joking around. Then
we learned the rules of what makes a menorah kosher (ok) to use for Hanukkah.
We then used this knowledge to make our own Menorahs. It was so much fun. I
love how mine turned out, and I plan on using it for quite awhile.
Wednesday
Wow. Today has been an intense day! It all started when I
came home from Yeshiva for lunch. Adiva, one of my good friends, came into my
room extremely upset because she’s Angela’s roommate, and has constantly been
dealing with helping Angela get better. While she is a great friend and doesn’t
mind helping out, she was getting to her breaking point. Also, she had
additional stress because her mom was supposed to get in this morning, but the
second leg of her flight got cancelled so she was dealing with that. We ended
up calling Yossi and getting everything worked out. It was reassuring to know
that when we really needed something from him he got it done quickly and
well. I spent the rest of the afternoon
with Adiva, making sure she didn’t have a full on mental brake down.
For those of you who know Angela, an update on her health:
She’s still extremely sick. At this point she can’t keep anything down, even water.
They moved her into her own small room right down the hall from her usual room,
both to quarantine her and make life easier for her roommates. They also took
her back to the doctor tonight and she ended up at the hospital for an IV and
some tests. That’s all I know, but I’ll keep you posted as I find out more.
For dinner, I went out with a group of girls to a make your
own pasta restaurant on Emek Refaim. It was delicious, and the girl making our
pasta was so sweet and funny. After dinner we headed back to Beit Nativ for our
last David Project. Since it’s been a few weeks since I went to David Project,
I’ll remind you that it’s a class that discusses the issues currently affecting
Israel. Tonight our teacher brought in his friend, a Palestinian with views
completely opposite to his own. I had mixed views about the speaker. On the one
hand it was so interesting to hear how someone from the other side of the
issues felt, especially in light of the recent conflict with Gaza. On the other hand, I felt like I should be
insulted and upset by what he was saying (as some people were), but I really
wasn’t. I think part of this was because I came into the situation knowing his
views would be drastically different than mine. I found him especially
interesting because he was a Palestinian that doesn’t consider himself Muslim,
so he was able to take out the religious aspects of the issues. All in all
while I didn’t agree with what he had to say, I really respect him as a person,
and enjoyed having the opportunity to hear what he had to say.
Thursday
Today was a pretty boring day. I had class and lunch, and
then hung out with Angela. She made it back from the hospital, and spent most
of the day sleeping. I spent my time skyping with Chava (my youth advisor from
last year) and trying to talk to Shannon. Overall it was a pretty boring day.
Friday and
Saturday (Shabbat)
This has been an exciting Shabbat. Friday morning I went out
to lunch with my friends Julia and Laura. We wanted to go to Schnitizies, but
we got there and realized it was closed. We then proceeded to go on an
adventure, and ended up finding the Coffee Shop, a cute delicious little
restaurant. After lunch, I went to the shuk with Julia and Laura. I realized
how little I’ve been going to the shuk, and how much cool stuff there is there.
On the way back, we went to the little craft street that Angela and I found a
few weeks ago, but it went even farther then Angela and I realized. I will
definitely be going back there, and taking my mom because I can see her being
in love with it. After dinner and tisch Friday night a group of girls and I
went to a park and had a girls bonding night. It was fun to just hang out and
blow off some steam with the girls I consider to be my closest friends. Saturday
I spent the whole day hanging out at Beit Nativ with Angela and the various
people that come in and out of her room. For dinner, a group of us are going
out with my friend Adiva and her mom. When I get back I’m going to light the
menorah I made, because tonight is the first night of Hanukkah!
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