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)?