Now that you are all full of suspense....

I left off that last post with the sketch guys in the shuk. When I found Amelia and he saw that I wasn't alone he disapeared. It was weird, during the whole incident I was annoying but not scared. I was prepared to yell at him in Hebrew and go to the security guard who I saw when I walking in if he didn't go away. But by the time I found Amelia and knew he was gone I started shaking- it was scary!

So, after shopping we had lunch and went back to campus, rested, then got picked up to go to shabbat services. Kira had family friends in Jerusalem who rented cars for their stay. They picked us up and took us to the Reform synagogue Amela knew about. Tere were two problems with this situation however: 1. The father of the family thought my name was Amy so he kept calling me that and 2. We couldn't find the synagogue and since I knew the most Hebrew in the car I had to ask for directions. First they made me ask a man jogging on the street, then I asked someone in a gas station. No one knew where we should go but we eventually made it.

The service was nice, but I was very aware of my conservative background. In this service the Rabbi actually instructed us to take cleansing breaths at various times. Conservative Rabbis couldn't care less how deeply we're breathing during services. The other very obvious difference in the services was the text of the prayers. For example: traditional prayers might say something like: "Bless us like you blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." The reform revamping says: "Bless us like you blessed our mothers and fathers, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Leah, Jacob, and Rachel." I don't have a problem with the changes per se, I just don't like things changing from what I know. For 8-some years I prayed every day during the school year- I know many prayers by heart- so it throws me off when I'm going through them.

At the end of the service I ran into one of my campers from the service camp this summer. Everyone always says you'll see people you know in Israel, but it's a really weird experience. I knew that I knew her, but it took me a good 2 minutes of thinking to place her. Very strange.

We got back to our apartment ready for dinner, but we didn't feel like cooking. We did know of a free shabbat dinner in the complex, though. We headed over around 9 and proceeded to be very very awkward. Tere were some people there and some people still setting up (even though we came half an hour late). After some amount of time of awkwardness we finally sat down and the Rabbi came out to lead the service. He was very much the typical Rabbi- with a beard, black hat, and black coat. We soon found out that the dinner was semi sponsored by Chabad. Chabad is a group that is part of the Hasidic movement (for those of you without a lot of Judaism knowledge- they are the really religious looking Jews although they are not considered the same as the 'ultra-orthodox').

So we pray and everything and start eating. Basically what's on the table to eat is Challah, hummus, and salads. We eat for a while and the Rabbi dissapears. He comes back in a few minutes with bottles of vodka, banana liquor, and chocolate liquor. He says: "I have good news and bad news: The bad news is that we don't have a second course tonight, there should be a meat course as well. The good news is that we have alchohol!" and he proceeds to pour a shot for everyone without taking no for an answer. The night continues like this and soon he is passing out song books and trying to get everyone to sing. We didn't really sing, but we were endlessly amused by the inclusion of the song "Puff the Kosher Dragon" in the song book. The Rabbi continues doing "L'Chaim's"- aka saying l'chaim! and taking shots- so he was pretty gone. At that point he decided to give his dvar torah (commentary on the torah portion of the week). It was hilarious- he started talking abotu Moses recieving the 10 Commandments and breaking them upon seeing the Jews worshiping the golden calf but his first problem was that he couldn't say Deuteronomy- he just couldn't get the words out. He also called worshiping the golden calf "boogying with the golden calf" and basically said boogie as much as possible.

So it might not have been my typical friday night at Carleton, but it was pretty entertaining and very strange.

I spent most of the day on saturday sleeping and rediscovering House and cleaning. I've grown to really love cleaning my room on saturdays- it's so reqarding and I love starting the week with a clean room.

In other news: me and my dad are trying to figure out a vacation to take in the beginning/middle of October during my Sukkot break. it will be interesting because we have a week of more off between Ulpan and the Semester and a week into the semester we have another 10 day break. I'm going to be doing a lot of travelling during the end of September/October. I'm excited, but I just hope we can get everything figured out. Kira and I are going to sit down and figure out our Big Europe Trip- so all you people studying in Europe: get excited, we might be coming your way!
As far as me and my dad are concerned, right now it's looking like Turkey and Greece are possible destinations.

Another weekend is here, but I will save stories from tonight for another post.

So I've failed a bit at updating this week- but once a week updates seem appropriate until my life gets exciting. Recap of last week:
-Headaches (I know this is why you all read my blog): for some reason every day this week I got bad headaches. We're not really sure what's causing it, but I do know that 3 advil and some coke seem to fix that up- so that's good. Oh, and I'm addicted to Advil now?

- Ulpan: I'm pretty sure that if the world ended, I would still be required to go to Ulpan. Though I curse getting up at 7 every day (7:02 to be exact), I value having something scheduled and constant here. My grades are consistently A's for writing and mid/high B's on tests, so I'm feeling comfortable in my class and level. I've had some nights of tons of homework- but I've realized that not everything has to be done and Ulpan is what I make it. The exciting thing is that my spoken hebrew is getting much better, especially in shops and the shuk. Most exciting thing: part of my dream the other night was in Hebrew!

- Academic Orientation: We finally got to sit down and talk abotu the upcoming semester. It got me very excited for classes to start. They have an honors program here which requires 2 upper level seminars and one middle level seminar. I know it's something I could definitely handle, but of the three upper level seminars offered, I'm only interested in one, and I don't have the prerequisite for it. Also, even if I took that one seminar it would interfere with the class that is required with the internship I want to do. One thing that is neat about this program is that ability to do one of 40-some internships around Jerusalem. There is a coordinator and we meet with her and tell her what we want to do. Then she sends out our C.V. to the place we want to work at, and then we hear back. We have to work 8 hours a week and take a course once every other week. The internship that I think I want the most is in the Hand-in-Hand school, which is a joint Jewish-Muslim school working on coexistence and understanding. It is totally right up my alley and although it might be a lot of office work, at least I can be in that environment. I hope I get it!

Weekend: This weekend was very good and NOT stressful, thank goodness. Thursday I wasn't feeling well, but Erica and Amelia dragged me out for dinner anyways, which ended up being a lot of fun. We got off the bus and went to the first restaurant we saw- chinese! It was strange to eat chinese in Israel, butit was actually really good and we ate so much. It took us forever to get out bill though, because in Israel people are really aggressive about getting checks, the restaurant won't just bring it out to you, you have to ask.
Friday we got up reasonably early and caught the bus to the shuk. We had a very successful trip to the shuk with one scary part: I got separated from Amelia and Kira at one point and was walking and kept being pushed by someone behind me. It wasn't like a one time accident push, it was like someone right behind me completely pushing forward. I tried to get out of the way and looked behind me and there was this semi old- maybe around 50 year old- man. He smiled and said slicha (sorry or excuse me) and lifted his arms which with both carrying large bags. I smiled and said (in hebrew) that it was fine, thinking it really was an accident and he was being pushed around with all his bags just like I was. He walked past me and I turned around to keep walking and a few seconds later I was being pushed again- I looked behind me again and there he was! We both said 'slicha' and I kept walking, faster this time. He kept up so I mustered up my best annoyed look, stopped, looked behind me, said 'slicha!' in a way that meant I wasn't actually sorry and that he better get away, and made a U-turn, weaving through people until I found Amelia. It was very very creepy and I can still see his sketchy grinning face in my mind. oy.

I will continue with the post about my weekend tomorrow, now I need to sleep. So stay in suspense! Things to think about: did the creepy shuk man go away? how did we celebrate shabbat? who is the special guest who will appear in the next post (hint, he wears a big black hat and carries around chocolate liquor and shot glasses)?

So I know that I need to post about my weekend, but I'm not really sure what to write. So I thought I would post some pictures I took this weekend and write about those to give a general idea of how my weekend was.

Have I mentioned that everyday on my walk to class/the bus stop I pass a cemetery? I think it's for foreign soldiers that died in wars in Israel before it was established, or something. It's kind of strange to walk by a cemetery every day, so I try not to think about it. But it is very pretty.


On Thursday night (or first weekend night) we met up with a friend of Kira's cousin on Ben Yehudah Street. We did some shopping and I bought myself a cheap guitar! I'm excited about being able to play and practice while I'm here.

We also went to a couple of bars and got a taste of the night life in downtown Jerusalem- now we know where to go next time we want to go out one weekend.

This is a picture of Ben Yehudah street at night. There are lots of people everywhere, most of the shops are open, and there are a lot of street performers. My roommates tried to convince me to get out the new guitar and play some songs for money, but I refused.





On friday morning (which was actually early afternoon) we went into the Old City of Jerusalem. We still haven't entirely figured out the bus system here... we're working on it.

Our first stop was the kotel (the western wall). It's really so amazing to think about the kotel and it's importance to Judaism. For those of you who don't know, the kotel is the last remaining wall of the Temple which was built and destroyed and rebuilt and destroyed centuries ago. Jews all over the world pray in the direction facing the kotel.

Another tradition for Jews is putting notes, prayers, hopes, etc in the wall when we pray in front of it. This picture is of some notes pushed into the cracks and holes in the wall. It's really an amazing sight, and also really powerful to think about how important these notes are for some people. Most Jews are lucky to visit the kotel once in their lives, so the note they leave is really a big deal. Also, I think it's really interesting that the kotel never seems to be "too full" to put any more notes in. You can always find a place for your note.



On our way out of the kotel prayer area we were approached by a woman asking for tzedaka (charity) and offering us a red string. The whole background of the string is based in Kaballah, though I don't really know the story.
OK- just did some research and the story goes that the Matriarch, Rachel was burried and her tomb was wrapped in red string. And since she is seen as a symbol of protection, the red string is too. The bracelet is supposed to protect the wearer against evil- and everything I've read said it has to be placed on one's left hand. Sad times that we all got ours put on our right hand... oh well, we did get a nice prayer said over us and she prayed for each of us to find good husbands, so that's always a bonus.


I am so enamored by the Dome of the Rock. I think part of it is that I associate the Jerusalem skyline solely with that image and because I never realized how beautiful it is beyond the gold roof. I really wish it were open to tourists/Jews. Interestingly, I just read a Wikipedia article that said that even when the Dome of the Rock was open to non-Muslims orthodox Rabbis forbid Jews to visit for some reason. Also I'm not competely convinced that tourists are not allowed in, so I'm going to do some research on that front.



Last but not least- I am completely in love with my new camera. I got this amazing picture of the moon last night. The camera has some weaknesses when it comes to taking certain pictures, and I did get called at from cars when I was trying to get good pictures last night... but it was all worth it for this picture. So cool. I'm a fan.

Real Mailing Address

Ok- this is my mailing address until January, unless you are sending me a package:

Abigail Malis
Scopus Student Village
2 Lahamei Hagetaot St.
Building 1, Floor 5, Apt. 1, Room 2
97880 Jerusalem, Israel

that's a mouthful

Yafo! Yofi!

Yesterday I went on my first planned field trip- to Tel Aviv and Yafo (Jaffa, for you non-hebrew speaking ones). It really turned into an all Yafo tour, but that was fine too. The picture to the right is of the Tel Aviv shoreline from the highest point in Yafo.



















This is a really pretty monastery in Yafo. It supposedly marks the place and time when Christianity officially separated from Judaism. The story goes that St. Peter had a vision while visiting Yafo in which God told him not to follow the laws of Kashrut (kosher laws) and this marks the separation of Christians from Jews, because before that Christians followed the same laws as Jews.


Both of these pictures are from the same sculpture on the highest point in Yafo. The sculpture depicts 3 big events in Jewish Biblical history (I only have 2 of them here). On the left is the conquering of Jerusalem, maybe? I don't remember the story but it has to do with Jews surrounding a city and blowing shofars and God helping them conquer the city. To the right is Abraham's attempted sacrifice of his son, Isaac.
















One of my favorite things about Yafo was the Wishing Bridge. You were supposed to find your astrological sign on the bridge, put your hands on it, close your eyes, face the sea, and make your wish, and it would definitely come true. Pretty exciting. I made the same wish as I usually make at 11:11- figuring this could be my ultimate wish that would definitely come true, or something.






(also, side note: military time makes me very sad because I can only catch 11:11 once a day and I'm always in class)

I think my very favorite part of the trip, however, was being able to capture
a beautiful sunset over the ocean.
Homesickness this week has been tough, but after some quality alone time and a good amount of sleep today, everything seems so much better.

I also have my first essay due tomorrow and my first test tomorrow as well. I find myself relieved that I'm not getting any Carleton credit for the Ulpan, because that means I can just try my best, take some risks, and not worry about acing every test and every paper. Hebrew Update: I'm starting to crave talking in Hebrew and get disappointed when people talk to me in English once they realize I'm American. Also, today we did an hour long campus tour entirely in Hebrew, and it didn't even phase me. This is so cool!

Tomorrow is our last day of class for the week, and we plan on being social tomorrow night and stopping by the bar on campus- exciting! Also, Kira's cousin is going to show us around the new part of Jerusalem to tell us what's hot and what's not, and we want to go into the old city on friday morning before shabbat starts.

As always, I miss you! I would love to hear about what's going on in your lives!

4 Aleph!

Yesterday was one of the most frustrating days since we've been here (which is surprising considering how frustrating move-in day was) but it was also one of the most rewarding.

I started the day feeling homesick and exhausted- not a great way to feel at 8am on my walk to Ulpan. But class was pretty good- there's something I'm starting to really like about being surrounded in Hebrew 5 hours a day, or at least I find comfort in it somehow. The one problem with class yesterday was that I managed to run into people from the ortho house (It's kind of a long story, but on friday night we were dragged to this Jewish student center house for kiddush and dinner and then guilted into going for dinner the next night. The people who run the center love to guilt trip and are quite religious so we fondly refer to the place as the ortho house) every time I left my classroom. They are nice but pushy, and I can't deal with pushy people.

Highlight of Ulpan: we talked about the fake debate over whether or not to make the word for computer male or female (in Hebrew all nounse have a gender). The female side of the argument wanted the word to be male and the first fake reason in the fake debate is roughly translated as: "the word for computer should be male because in order to get to its heart/ to get it to do what you want, you have to turn it on." Oh, Israelis....

After Ulpan I finally got to take care of some things- I sent postcards, set up my computer account on campus, bought my textbooks, and got some snacks. Samantha introduced me to this chocolate with pop rock type stuff inside- as if pop rocks weren't trippy enough by themselves, and it's pretty delicious too. Then I went to the dorms and finally got my internet set up- probably the most exciting part of my day- so find me online or on skype- I want to talk!

Since we were feeling so accomplished- we decided to make out way to Malkha Mall- the biggest mall in Israel (where we went last week) to get things we still needed. We knew what line we needed to take to get there and we thought we knew what side of the road to catch the bus on. We waited for about a half an hour for the bus to come and got very excited for our trip.(My apartment-mates waiting for the bus the first time- when we were still optimistic and liked each other)

About 5 minutes later we found ourselves in the main building of Hebrew U with the bus driver telling us we had to get off. We went around to the other side of the bus terminal at Hebrew U and waited another 30 minutes for the bus to come back going the other way. By that time it was rush hour in Jerusalem and we spent an hour and a half or so getting to the mall. It was an interesting ride at first because we rode through some really religious neighborhoods and I people watched, but it soon got long and frustrating. We finally got to the mall with less than 2 hours until closing and we were already exhausted. We did quick runs into office depot and a home depot-esq store and then had dinner and were back at the bus stop. We waited another half hour for our bus home and when it still didn't come, 3 of us decided to take a cab back. The ride was only 15 minutes! The two that took the bus back finally got home an hour after us.

Remind me never to experiment on public transportation again.

Tonight I'm going to Tel Aviv! Very exciting!

Pictures!

Me and my apartment-mates (left to right): Amelia, Me, Kira (who looks really happy), Erica, and Samantha.

View of the old city on our walk to Shabbat Services.

My room! It's a lot messier at this moment, but this is it at it's best. Highlights: my cool Israeli bedding, wall of pictures, and, of course, Chilo.

My desk area- with my homemade calendar and favorite pictures!

My first Shabbat in Israel was pretty uneventful. I slept until noon, but could have slept much later. I spent the rest of the day making my room beautiful. I put up pictures, cleaned, and made my very handy calendar. It was a good day, but in general I don’t really like sleeping in that late because it makes me feel like I have lost a whole day.

(pretend that there is a picture of me and my roommates here, I've tried to upload it 3 times, but I think I need a stronger internet connection to do that... oy)

I suppose now that pictures are here it is a good time to talk about my apartment-mates. First there’s Kira- she’s the slightly short one with long dirty blond hair. Kira was the first person I met on this trip, she stood in front of us while we were in line to check in. Pretty exciting. She’s quiet but very sarcastic, and she’s a junior studying international relations at the University of the Pacific in California. Next there’s Erika, the one with short blond hair, who I also met in the airport before we left for Israel. Erica is from Tokyo, and everyone here gives her this really weird look when she tell them that, like it never would have crossed their mind that though she’s obviously not ethnically Japanese, she or her parents have lived there for some amount of time, she goes to school there, and thus she is from Japan. I’m surprised she puts up with it so well. Erica is taking a gap year between high school and starting College at Oberlin next fall. My third apartment-mate is Samantha- she has long brown hair and bangs. Samantha is originally from California but lives in North Carolina now and is going to be a junior at Syracuse. Fun fact: me and Samantha have the same Hebrew name, Shimona! Lastly there’s Amelia- she joined our apartment late, but we’ve been getting along well. Amelia is from New Jersey, she spent last spring’s semester on another program in Israel, and she’ll start at Brandeis for second semester this year.

I like my apartment-mates a lot because their very chill and we have a lot of fun together. They are all very sweet, and also have their specific quirks, which keeps things interesting.

So I’m sitting alone in my room unsure of what to do with my Saturday night. To be honest, there’s not much to do tonight, because right as Shabbat ended, Te’sha be’av started. I’m not incredibly familiar with Te’sha be’av, but from what I’ve figured out it’s the day that marks the destruction of the second temple. A group of people were going down to the kotel (western wall) tonight to welcome Te’sha be’av in, but Samantha and I decided to skip that activity. I know it’s a holiday that religious Jews take very seriously, but it’s not one I grew up with and don’t really feel a connection to it.

Tonight we went to dinner at the Jewish Student Activity center place and one of the adults there gave a d’var Torah (commentary on the weekly Torah portion). He ended his talk with a comment about the day the messiah will come, which he hopes will be very soon. This interested me, because I feel like I practice a form of Judaism that rarely if ever mentions the coming of the messiah. I understand the concept, and know that as Jews we are still waiting for the coming of the Messiah (unlike Christians, for example), but it is not a thought that ever really enters my mind, nor do I remember talking much about it at Schechter. I don’t think I even fully understand the concept of the messiah. Will he/she come when the world is at it’s lowest, or when we’ve “proven” that we deserve his/her arrival? Why would anyone come to save humanity now, when we are so undeserving- or is that the point exactly?

Chiri biri biri biri bom

Shabbat Shalom!

I'm exceptionally excited that wireless is working by the playground now. Especiallly since the psycho internet man refuses to call me back or set up my internet... booooo.

Shabbat in Israel is such an interesting experience, and it's not even saturday yet. Today in Ulpan we had a Shabbat song sing-a-long. I felt like I was in camp again. I had forgotten how much I love singing Jewish songs, though I felt bad for the non-jewish students (and there are quite a few), there's no way they would have known all 11 songs we sang today. Through everything I learned in Schechter and in the Hebrew program at Carleton, I got the impression that most Israeli's, with the exception of the Hasidic Jews, were relatively secular. I even remember learning a word for secular in Hebrew, though of course, it evades me now. However, Israel takes Shabbat very seriously. The buses stop running 2 hours before the start of Shabbat and all stores close by then and do not re-open until saturday nights, maybe. It feels both incredibly restricting and relaxing at the same time. I know that right now me and my roommates are incredibly thankful for Shabbat and the chance to clean our apartment, sleep in, make pancakes, and watch the second half of Aladdin (we were too tired to finish it tonight).

Today, in preparation for Shabbat we took the bus into the main part of Jerusalem to go to the Shuk- the market. It was a really cool experience, and one I definitely want to repeat. The market was full of people getting food for Shabbat and there were vendors lining both sides of the path selling fruits, vegetables, candies, meats, olives, fish, breads, pastries, everything. I bought a strange combination of candy, figs, olives, and breads, and I got to practice my Hebrew (though the Israeli's can pretty much see through me before I can say 'shalom'.

Speaking of Hebrew, hearing it is becoming completely natural now. I don't have to watch my ulpan teacher anymore to understand everything she is saying, and I barely consciously translate anything she's saying unless it's new vocabulary. I'm also getting much more brave when it comes to asking anyone anything in Hebrew. I'm sure part of that is the Ulpan, and the other part is that I'm the designated one among my friends to talk in Hebrew since I supposedly know the most. It's worked out relatively well so far.

Back to Shabbat. We attempted to be really good Jews today and went to a Shabbat service we had heard about. The problem: it was an orthodox service, and women were sent to the back of the room. It was horrible. We couldn't hear anything and hardly any of the women participated in any of the prayers. We just sat there behind a screen watching and listening to the men pray and trying to catch something to tell us what prayer we were on. Women in incredibly restricting sects of most religions often claim that it feels safe, respectful, even holy- I just felt neglected.

After the service we got stuck in some awkward situations with these two orthodox women trying to get us to come to shabbat dinner, and finally made it home to our apartment where we sang shabbat songs really loudly and made dinner, said all of the appropriate blessings, and watched part of Aladdin.

I'm excited for the chance to perfect my room tomorrow, upload the pictures I've taken so far, and post pictures of the apartment here, hopefully!

I miss you! Shabbat Shalom!

Mail!

I've been asked about my mailing address and secretly want tons of mail- so here it is.

This will be my address until the end of september- I'll write to update you on my new one after that.

Abigail Malis
c/o Ulpan
Rothberg International School
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Boyar Building, Mount Scopus
91905 Jerusalem, ISRAEL


excitement.

Money Money Money Money, Money!

Until now, I never realized how little money I spend when I'm at Carleton. Honestly, we rarely go out to eat, I go to the grocery store to buy breakfast food and a few snacks once a week, and everything else I need is included in simply being there.

Here I kind of feel like if I'm not in class learning Hebrew for multiple hours or in my room doing hours of homework for hebrew, I'm spending money. At the gym, for a membership, at the store, for groceries and other necessities, for dinner and snacks and office supplies. oy. I take too much for granted.

Thus I have decided that we need an apartment meeting this weekend- I'm going to make a reminder on a post it and put it on our fridge. I already promised my roommates we could have a snack and color during our meeting- study break, anyone? I think we're going to talk about making meals and budgeting, and, of course, traveling.

I'm on some kind of high right now- it might be the endorphins or the fact that I am online, both of which I don't think I've experienced for a few days. Also, have I mentioned that I can see the old city on my walk to class every day?

Expect another post tomorrow- and pictures this weekend!

Finally! Internet!

The internet situation has not really settled itself out here yet, thus the delay in any sort of communication with anyone.

So this post will probably be much less detailed than I wanted it to be. But once we actually get the internet connected in our apartment I will try to write daily so there won't be, as trent says, "massive unreadable posts."

If you guys want to get in touch with me, I will probably love you forever. E-mail is the very best, Skype will also be good, once I get internet in my room. The phone also works- and it definitely won't charge you for the international call, just a local one. The number is 443-992-4835. For every communication, just remember that the time difference is 7 hours from the east coast, 8 from minnesota, you know the drill.

Anyways, Israel has been a whirlwind so far. We got in yesterday morning and experienced what felt like the longest day ever. Housing here is incredibly unorganized and we were all basically sat down in a courtyard and told to find people to room with or go in by ourselves. This also included waiting for 2 hours while group by group filled out forms and housing contracts. It was kind of ridiculous, but did allow me to find my roommates! I'm living with 4 other girls: Kira, Samantha, Erika, and Amelia. They are all really sweet- and we're excited to decorate our apartment and watch disney movies and chick flicks together! It's been a while since I had a core group of girl friends (ok...well maybe not, I guess that's what I have at home, but not really at school).

Crazy story starts now: So we're sitting in the big courtyard waiting for housing when I turn around to find a seat and who do I see? Dan Curme- from Carleton! He was in my Hebrew 101 class. We both kind of looked at each other like 'what are you doing here??' Very exciting. It was calming to see someone I recognized, someone I could talk to about carleton stuff, and basically someone I didn't have to repeat the same 4 questions with (name, hometown, school, year, etc).

Today our ulpan started and it will probably be the most intense academic experience I will every have. Basically 5-6 hours solely in Hebrew for 8 weeks. Today was mostly an overview and one of my teachers said we could have up to 4 hours of homework a night. Basically, I might forget how to speak English with all of this Hebrew every day. I'm so excited to get close to fluent, though, and I know it will be incredibly helpful for my job as a TA in the winter.

There is a ton more I would like to write, but I haven't had dinner or started my homework, so that will have to wait.

Topics to discuss in a future post: prayer on planes, Shabbat, my apartment.

Please comment or e-mail or whatever. I miss you all to death! (and hopefully our internet will be up before shabbat starts and I can do some major catching up then)

Packing

"Carries a lot of suitcases
but all of them are empty
because she's expecting
to completely fill them
with life by the end of this trip

& then she'll come home
& sort everything out
& do it all again"

- Veteran Traveller from Traveling Light by Brian Andreas

Alright, so this is not exactly the case for me. I'm not bringing anything close to an empty suitcase, and I'm definitely not traveling light, but I still liked this quote.

I hate packing- I'm a stuff person. Stuff people and Airline luggage restrictions do not go together well. But I'll be fine.

Jill just came over to say goodbye and told me about the questioning she went through when she went to Israel for birthright. Turns out I need to know my Rabbi's name, my bat mitzvah Torah portion, and what the most recent Jewish Holiday was... hm.

I'll use this blog in the beginning to give lots of information on how to get in touch with me, should you be so inclined. I'll also try to post some interesting stories from Israel once I get there.

Stay tuned!