Minimester is over!!

Shalom!!

So minimester (the mini semester of classes before the high holidays) just ended, so i figured now was a good time to start a blog about my trip. A bunch of my friends here have them (which is where I got the idea), so I decided to start one so anyone who wants to can keep up with my adventures! I obviously want to keep in touch with everyone personally, but everyone (including me) is busy and because of the time difference scheduling is hard, so at least you can check my blog to see what's going on!

So, I've been here for almost a month, which is so crazy and hard to believe! It was really crazy and overwhelming at the beginning, meeting so many new people, hearing all of the rules and everything that was going on, but then we started classes which gave us some sense of stability, and everything got a lot better. We went to Hebrew U every day for our classes, and ate lunch there. The classes I took over minimester were:

1. History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
2. Modern Jewish History: Continuity and Change
3. Jerusalem

Class #1 was really interesting! I actually had my fianl for it this morning. The teachers name was Dr. Jonathan Fine. He is very smart, so sometimes it was hard to follow what he was saying because he would say so much, but he was very nice about answering our questions. We started in the time of the French Revolution, covering the history of Arab and Jewish nationalism, the War of Independence, Six Day War, Cold War, Yom Kippur War, and terrorism vs. guerilla warfare. There were smaller things in between, but those were the overall topics. I knew basic facts about all of these topics, but I never really studied them in depth before, so that was really cool to learn. I have many pages of notes from this class.

Class #2 was kind of boring. There were some days where the topics were semi-interesing, and a few times we watched good movies, but the teacher, Dr. Sarah Schmidt, did not like to answer our questions so I was confused a lot, and it was kind of dull to sit and be lectured at for so long. I learned a lot, but mostly from the supplementary research I did for the papers we had to write, and not really from my messy, convoluted notes from class. We also started from the French Revolution in this class, and we studied basically the path of the Jewish people from that time until now, including the Holocaust, etc.

Class #3 was great! We only had this class twice a week, as opposed to the other two which I had every day. We got a one hour lecture on different topics relating to the history of Jerusalm, starting way back in the Bible, and then we would spend two hours touring all over Jerusalem, seeing all the sights we learned about. That was the coolest part, because in school we never get to actually go the places we're studying about WHILE we are studying about them. I was actually quoted saying almost that exact line in the Nativ promotional video, which I am in. Yay!

I barely had any homework over minimester, which was nice. When I was not sitting in class, here are some of the things I did:

1. Walked around Ben Yehuda Street
2. Walked into the Old City
3. Went to Supersol (the supermarket) or Mr. Zols (a different supermarket)
4. Went to the park
5. Met up with friends from other Israel trips
6. Watched Gossip Girl on the computer (or other TV shows or movies)
7. Hung out with friends outside or inside (I made lots of new ones!)
8. Played on my laptop
9. Went to the shuk
10. Went to a soccer game: Israel vs. Switzerland
11. Went to hear the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra

Here are some of my favorite things to eat in Israel:

1. Chocolate milk in a bag
2. Schnitzel
3. Bamba filled with chocolate nugget
4. Flavored water
5. Cinni-minis
6. Fruit (dried and fresh)

I have been here for three Shabbatot. Here is what I did for all of them (FYI closed shabbat means we have to stay on base, open shabbat means we can leave):

Shabbat #1: closed
Friday night: kabbalat shabbat by group (Yerucahm)
Saturday morning: walked to Kol Rina, a lovely shul in Jerusalem
-sang zmirot
-napped
-played taboo

Shabbat #2: open
Went to Tovik and Shimons. It was fun!
Friday night: ate dinner, hung out with Yonatan's friends at home, went to sleep, woke up at 1 p.m. on Saturday
Saturday: went to the beach!!

shabbat #3: closed
Friday night: kabbalat shabbat all together
Saturday morning: walked to Shirah Chadasha, another cute shul in Jerusalem. They do a lot of singing.
-sang zmirot
-napped
-played taboo and sheish beish

Also, this week there was a terrorist attack very close to where I live. A car full of Arabs hit a group of Israeli soldiers crossing the street. Thank goodness everyone on Nativ was okay, and the only person who died was the Arab driver. Many, however, were injured, but none fatally.

From now on, I am going to try and write on this every day, so that you can be as up to date at possible!!!

Miss you all so much. Keep reading!!

-Sarah