The Rest of the School Week

This was a really, really good week in school.  Wednesday I had Art History, where we started talking about Jewish European artists of the 19th century, Hebrew, where we started learned the heefeel tense, and Talmud, where we learned this text that had to do with following in God's ways.  Wednesday night I went to holy bagel.

Yesterday was my last day of classes for the week.  It's so nice to end on a Thursday.  I got to wake up late because I didn't have Hebrew until 12:30, and then I had my first freshman writing class.  My teacher, Janet, is very nice.  All we really did was learn how to use the Internet catalog for the library but in the weeks to come we should be doing more actual writing stuff.  After writing I got home and had girls football practice.  I play offense so I had practice from 7-8, and defense has practice from 8-9.  I hung out for a while watching YouTube videos with friends and then we had a Halloween party on this big patio thing on the top floor.  I dressed up as Princess Fiona (from Shrek).  There were lots of funny costumes like ninjas, gangster people, homeless people, playboy bunnies (they were boys), lots of movie characters, and more.  It was a lot, a lot of fun.

I just woke up and now I'm going to go to the shuk and then head up to Tel Aviv to spend shabbat with Hackit again.  I'm going with Misha and Beinart.

Shabbat Shalom!!

-Sarah

Two Days of Classes

From now on I think I'm going to post every other day because every day is pretty similar: classes and going to the gym.  This is what my schedule looks like:

Sunday: Art History and Foreign Policy

Monday: Hebrew and Talmud

Tuesday: Hebrew and Foreign Policy

Wednesday: Art History, Hebrew, and Talmud

Thursday: Hebrew and Freshman Writing

Foreign Policy is by far my favorite class.  The teacher is amazing and I'm learning so much.  I've heard he's kind of a hard grader, but it's so worth it just to learn what he has to teach.

Tonight we had Erev Nativ (we have it every Tuesday night).  The theme was "Who's Line is it Anyway" combined with Zionism.  We played some improv games, wrote songs about different groups of people in Israel (Charadim, spiritual zionists, chovevi tzion, and labor zionists), and then ended by playing the agree or disagree game (where the staff reads a statement and you have to go to one side of the room- agree- or the other side- disagree).

That's all for now!

-Sarah

Shabbat and First Day Back to School

On Friday I did what I do pretty much every Friday; slept late, went to the shuk, went to kabbalat shabbat (at Yakar), ate dinner at Beit Nativ, hung out, and went to bed.  Saturday morning I went to services at Chovevi Tzion, ate lunch at Beit Nativ, took a nap, did mincha with Nativ, ate dinner (not really, dinner was horrible so I ate cucumbers and tomatoes), and then went to get frozen yogurt with some friends.  After frozen yogurt we decided we were actually hungry so we ordered in Shnitzi's.  After waiting an hour for our food, my friend called to see where it was and it turned out the delivery man had gotten into an accident.  Don't worry though, he was fine and our food eventually came.

Today was my first day back to classes after sukkot break!  I woke up around 9 and then went to breakfast with one of my pilgrimage staff, Naty,  and two friends who are also on Nativ and were also in my pilgrimage group.  We went to this cute little coffee shop on Emek Refaim Street.  I had eggs and hot chocolate.  Then Naty took us to this place called Valley of the Holy Cross where they supposedly got the wood for Jesus' cross.  It's this beautiful little path with lots of olive trees and there is a big monastery there.  After that I went to the gym and then had Art History and Foreign Policy.  They were both good, but I like Foreign Policy the best.  I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and brought some other snacks that I ate in between classes.  After class we had girls football practice.  It was kind of chaotic but fun I guess.  Now I'm going to bed, I have to be awake for services at 6:30!  We have a schedule where each of us have to go to services twice a week, and my days are Mondays and Tuesdays.

Lila tov!

-Sarah

Last Days of Sukkot Break

Yesterday and today were pretty relaxing days.  Yesterday I woke up late, went to Holy Bagel (again, I know, I go a lot), then watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall with a few friends.  Then my friend Keren and I made wacky mac for dinner, and then everyone just hung out until late and then went to bed.  Today I went to the gym, ate lunch at the gym cafe (so good), went to the shuk, went out for frozen yogurt (vanilla yogurt with chunks of strawberry, raspberry, and mikupelet [chocolate]).  Now I'm getting ready for a dress up party my friend Misha is having for her birthday at her uncle's house who lives in Jerusalem.

Sorry for this short and semi-boring post but it's just been a relaxing, chill few days with not too much going on.

-Sarah

Simchat Torah :)

Monday morning I woke up late, ate lunch, and then went to the shuk. At the shuk I taste tested lots of pomegranates, and I bought a mango (it was amazing. so juicy and delicious I can't even explain), 3 clementines, and a bag of golden raisins. After the shuk I hung out for a little and then went out for milkshakes/smoothies with a friend from camp and then got ready for shul.

For Simchat Torah night I went to Kedem. It was ridiculous. Simchat Torah is my favorite holiday. There were lots of Nativers there which was nice, but also a lot of other people. They sang a million songs, everyone was dancing like crazy, jumping around, making conga lines, dancing in circles, and pretty much just being wild and crazy. I also got to hold a Torah and dance with it for a while. We were all so sweaty by the end, but it was so much fun. After services we ate dinner at Beit Nativ and then played Blokus and hung out and then went to bed.

Today was just as fun as yesterday. I went to Kedem again (it's my favorite shul, I love it there), and the dancing was super fun again. I held a Torah, had an aliyah, danced like crazy (we danced outside a little which was nice). Services were about 6 hours long because of all the hakafot and then everyone having an aliyah, but they were so fun and everyone was so joyful that it wasn't even boring and didn't see that long. After services we had lunch at Beit Nativ and then I took a long nap. After my nap I had dinner and then we went to this thing called hakafot shniyot, which is this thing they do all over Israel where they have a big party with music and dance with the Torahs (since it's not yom tov anymore because there is only 1 day of yuntif). We went to the party in Gan Ha Pa'amon. There were a million people there but it was still fun. Lots of dancing and singing again. Then I went out to Holy Bagel.

Chag Sameach to you all (since you still have 1 day of yom tov left!).

-Sarah

Chol HaMoed Sukkot

Last night, after shabbat ended, I went with a bunch of friends to this restaurant called Dolce.  It's a waffle bar.  2 friends and I split 2 waffles: 1 apple cinnamon and one half white chocolate half milk chocolate.  They were both so amazing and delicious. We stayed out for a while longer and the eventually went to bed.

Today I woke up late, did some laundry, and then went out to Holy Bagel and then Aldo (ice cream) with some friends. We came back to Beit Nativ and chilled for a little and then went to see a movie.  We saw Burn After Reading.  It's an American movie so it was in English with Hebrew subtitles.  It was kind of a weird movie but very funny and enjoyable.  After that we came back, chilled again, ate dinner, and then had girls football practice.  We scrimmaged and I scored 2 touchdowns to help my team win 3-1.

-Sarah

3 Day Desert Experience and Shabbat

I have spent the past 2 nights and 3 days hiking in the negev.  The trip started out Wednesday morning when we all woke up at 4:30 am and left Beit Nativ not much later.  We were separated by track (Yerucham, Be'er Sheva, Kibbutz), so from now on when I say "we", I just mean the Yerucham group.  We stopped at the youth hostel in Ein Gedi for shacharit, which included shaking our lulavim, and breakfast.  We very briefly got to see people on Kivunim, who had just arrived in Israel, which was fun because I have a bunch of friends on it.  We then continued further down into the south.  We got off the bus and got loaded into jeeps which took us further into the desert where the bus could not go.  We each got to pack a backpack for hiking, which had to have at least 3 liters of water in it, and a separate overnight bag, so we loaded all of the overnight bags into a separate jeep which got taken straight to the campsite (kind of cheating in the whole mega-intense hiking/camping thing, I know).  We all had to carry something in our backpacks for lunch.  I carried nectarines and apples.  Then we began our hike.  Our guides name was Norit.  She has a really intense hiker and I liked her a lot.  We hiked for about 3-4 hours then stopped to have lunch on this plateau.  Lunch consisted of tuna, bread, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, bamba, wafers, apples, nectarines, and pickles.  I made a pretty good tuna sandwich, so I was happy.  Then we all had to take some trash in our bags, and we continued hiking again.  We did a lot of going to the bathroom by squatting this whole time (I didn't want to forget to mention that, so I'm just throwing it in there now).  

We hiked for a few more hours, playing lots of games such as geography, the movie game, etc., and listening to Norit's funny stories, and then we finally we arrived at our campsite (when I say campsite I mean lots of desert... no running water or anything like that).  The kibbutz group was staying at the same campsite, but we did completely separate activities, we just said hi to them really quickly.  Our camping staff had dinner all ready for us (we were kind of spoiled).  We had this delicious soup, shnitzel, and some other stuff.  At this time we got to watch the moon rise, which was amazing and beautiful.  It was a full moon and it was so bright.  Then we had a bonfire!  We had a big massage circle around the bonfire and then our staff Eyal made us play this game called tank where we all get in our sleeping bags in one big long line and then the person on the end has to roll across everyone else, and then the next person and then the next until everyone has gone.  That was silly.  Then we just all sat around the fire for a little while longer listening to one kid play guitar and singing, roasting marshmallows, and just relaxing.  We all went to bed at around 9:30 pm in sleeping bags on these little mats under the bright desert sky.  There were millions of little stars surrounding the moon.

We woke up with the sun the next morning, Thursday, at 5:00 am.  We did shacharit (we brought our lulavim and etrogim, so we did hoshanot and all that), ate breakfast (cereal, tuna, eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc.), made pack out lunches (deli meat with all the toppings), and set out on our hike.  We stopped after about 5 minutes to do some morning stretches, and the continued on.  We hiked for hours, stopped at some point to eat lunch, did trust falls and then a blindfold walk with a partner (this was nice because we paired up with people we don't talk to that much), hiked more, finally arriving at machtesh Ramon (the Ramon crater).  It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.  Norit, had us all lay down along the southern wall of the crater, close our eyes, and listen to the song "Kol Galgal".  We laid there for about 45 minutes in almost silence.  It was so amazing, especially after all that hiking!  We walked about another hour after that before arriving at our next campsite, just outside the crater.  We ate dinner (soup, hamburgers, chicken kabobs, french fries, Israeli salad, and more), and then made another camp fire and did another massage circle.  We played some new games this time, such as psychiatrist and this other game that I don't know what to call it.  We roasted marshmallows again, and just sat around before going to bed.  That night was even more beautiful that the previous, with brighter stars and an even bigger and brighter moon.

We woke up the next day, Friday, even earlier: 4:30 am.  Same routine of services and breakfast.  We walked about 5 minutes out of the campsite and then stopped to do some morning stretches, separate boy and girl trust activities, and then finally a big game of red rover.  Then we kept hiking.  The hike on Friday, I think, I was the most physically trying.  There was this one enormous, steep uphill that took a lot of focus and self control to climb.  I hiked in the front of the group pretty much the whole time, and this uphill was no exception.  When we reached the top and looked our over the Ramon crater for the second time, I was completely taken aback.  My friend Ashley and I hiked up a little bit more so we could sit quietly away from the group.  We listened to the song "Hallelujah" and looked out at the crater for about 20 minutes.  I don't even think I can begin to describe how I felt at that moment, but I will try.  Looking out over the crater, I could definitely feel God's presence.  I knew at that moment that God created this enormous, sprawling crater to show us how small we are, to humble us, and to show us the more important things in life besides petty fights we have with our friends, drama, and gossip.  After that we hiked for a few more minutes and then came to the top of a big downhill straightaway.  Ashley, Misha and I were the first ones to run down it and reach the bus, and we really ran.  It was so cool.  We all eventually made it onto the bus which took us to this park about an hour away to have lunch.  We all really had to go to the bathroom when we got to the park but the only place to go was a gas station next door, but you had to pay a shekel to go there.  Luckily someone had money.  After lunch we got back on the bus for the 3 hour bus ride to Jerusalem, just in time for shabbat.

Shabbat was pretty relaxing.  Right before it started I got two packages in the mail from my mom!  That was exciting.  I took a much needed shower (first one in three days :) ) and then went to kabbalat shabbat at Kol Rina.  It was nice, good singing, and I enjoyed it a lot.  I ate dinner at Beit Nativ, sang some zmirot, and went to bed shortly thereafter.  Today I went to services at Kedem, had lunch at Beit Nativ, took a long nap, played taboo, did mincha, ate dinner, did ma'ariv and havdallah, and that brings us to right now.  Shavua tov!!

Enjoy reading this super long post!!

-Sarah

Sukkot day 1

Monday morning we had a quick session about the holiday of sukkot, it's importance, laws about it, traditions we do on it, etc.  Then we all walked to a special shuk called shuk arbat ha minim to buy our very own lulav and etrog.  It was quite an experience.  There must have been about 50 different tables with lulavim, etrogim, hadas, and arava.  I walked around and looked at all of the choices, and finally picked out what I wanted to buy.  I ended up getting my lulav, etrog, and carrying case for 60 shekles total, which was a pretty good deal and a lot cheaper than in America.

After we got back from the shuk, we had to rush to the bus station to get to Tel Aviv in time for chag.  I went to visit Tamir Goodman, a famous basketball player who I know from camp because he runs a basketball program there.  He actually lives in a neighborhood about half an hour outside of Tel Aviv called Zichron Ya'akov.  A bunch of other people from Nativ were also visiting people in that neighborhood, so we all travelled together.  We had to rush to the bus in Jerusalem, and then when we got to Tel Aviv we had to run to the train because it was the last train before chag started!  Luckily we made it and everything worked out perfectly.

Tamir picked us up at the train station with his two kids in the car, they are 4 and 1 (so cute!!), and then we went back to his beautiful house where his wife was.  We went to shul for mincha and then came back and had a big, delicious dinner in the sukkah.  Everyone was tired so we went to bed early, and woke up in time for shacharit this morning.  He goes to chabad shul, so I had to sit behind a mechitza and I didn't really get to bench lulav, but I will tomorrow with Nativ.  After services, another family came back to the Goodmans for lunch in the sukkah (another big, amazing meal), and then we all took long naps that lasted until the chag ended.  We made the first train after chag because we wanted to be back early in order to go to bed early because we have to wake up at 4:30 am tomorrow for a 3 day desert survival hiking trip!  I'm very, very excited.  It should be a lot of fun.

I won't be able to update again until after I get back in 3 days, so in the meantime, chag sameach and have a wonderful sukkot!!

-Sarah

Nativ Girls Football

I know this is kind of my second post in one day but this morning's post was catching you up on my shabbat so now this one really counts for today.

After class, I went to the gym and then ate dinner in the delicious and amazing gym cafe.  The food is so healthy and wonderful; I am pretty sure it is my favorite place to eat in all of Israel.  I had a tuna salad with egg and pasta and cheese and veggies... it was great.  Then I went back to Beit Nativ for a little and then at 9 we had our first Nativ Girls Football practice!  There is a real girls flag football league in Israel, and we have a Nativ team, so it's pretty serious.  We practiced in a nearby park.  I enjoy running around, but I am pretty terrible at actually handling a football, so I faced some struggles when it came to the passing and catching drills, but I improved a tiny bit as practice progressed.  The coaches are 3 Nativ boys.  They are taking it pretty seriously but it's still fun.  After practice I watched a movie and that's pretty much it for tonight.  I have to wake up early tomorrow for shacharit and some sessions on Sukkot.

I wish you all a chag sameach and a good yuntif, and I'll write again Tuesday night (yuntif is only 1 day in Israel)!

-Sarah

Shabbat in Tel Aviv

My friend Ilana and I spent Shabbat at our friend Arie (Hackit)'s house from camp. On Friday, before we left Jerusalem, we went to the shuk to buy salad ingredients and challot to bring. We got back to Beit Nativ, packed up our stuff, and took a bus from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Before we met up with Hackit, we went to this amazing restaurant on the beach called Yotvata Ba Ir. We both got these delicious tuna sandwiches and chocolate ice cream. Yum. Then we took a taxi to Hackit's apartment where we helped him get food ready. Hackit has an American phone line in his apartment so we both called our parents and some friends which was nice. We then went to shul for kabbalat shabbat. Hackit's shul is very special. It's part of the Masorti movement, but they share some reconstructionist beliefs. It's a small congregation, I forget what it's called, and they use a guitar Friday nights. Instead of doing a full, traditional kabbalat shabbat, they select different verses and parts of the prayers to sing. They also do meditations frequently. I thought I wouldn't like how non-traditional it was, but I actually ended up enjoying it very much. Also at shul we ran into other friends of ours from Nativ! That was a surprise. It was very real and everyone was participating with full kavanah. After shul we had dinner and then played Bananagrams, a game that is kind of similar to scrabble. We went to bed on the early side, and woke up just in time for shul Saturday morning.

Shul Saturday morning was very nice. Hackit is the ba'al koreh there, so he read the whole parasha. They do this funny thing where they read a triennial, but they read the three parts three weeks in a row, so they are not in the same place as other shuls all over the world. Most people were reading Ha'azinu yesterday, but Hackit's shul was reading somewhere in Shemot. The Rabbi gave Ilana and me an aliyah together. He didn't give a sermon, he just talked about different issues from the parasha in between each aliyah. They also don't do musaf because they don't believe in the reconstruction of the temple, so they just gave a few minutes for prayer and/or silent meditation. I liked the Rabbi because you could tell how genuine his davening was. He led services sitting in the front row, often with his eyes closed, clearly focusing on his prayer. Overall, it was a great experience.

After shul we went to the beach with our friends that we ran into Friday night. It was a beautiful day and the ocean was very warm. Then, we went back to the place where our friends were staying for lunch. Their apartment was absolutely amazing. The dad is a big Jewish art collector. Many of his items are on display in museums all over the world, and we got to see his entire collection. He has tons of books, all different kinds of Judaica, and everything you can imagine. The coolest part is how old a lot of it is... I don't even know how old that's how old. He sometimes brings groups of students or other people into his apartment to see his collection.

After that we walked back to Hackit's to hang out for a little before taking the bus back to Jerusalem. A bunch of other Nativ people who were in Herziliya for the weekend were on our same bus, so that was a big surprise! When we got back to Beit Nativ, it was already kind of late so I just chilled there with friends who I hadn't seen for all of two days, and did some homework.

Today so far I had art history, which was fun, and Hebrew, which was also fun. Now I have a little break to eat lunch and relax before Talmud. After class I am going to the gym, and then tonight we have our first girls football practice. There is a Nativ team, and we play against teams from other year-long Israel programs. I'll let you know how that goes.

That's all for now!

-Sarah

Yom Kippur in Jerusalem

Wow... I'm going to try my best to remember and write about every single detail, because this truly was an amazing Yom Kippur.

It started yesterday. I spent the day carrying around a 2 liter water bottle to make sure I was very hydrated. I woke up late, went to lunch at 11:30, mincha at 12:30, dinner at 3:00, and then left for services at 4:15. For Kol Nidre I went to a small shul called Yakar. I had high expectations for Yom Kippur in Jerusalem because of the way our director Yossi described it: no cars in the streets, masses of people walking around all dressed in white, all stores closed, a real sense of community and unity, etc. I was skeptical on my walk to Yakar because there were still lots of cars around and I wasn't really feeling the sense of awe Yossi had described. Yakar was a great service and really got me into the mood of Yom Kippur. Although it was hard to follow at times because the chazzan was kind of quiet and raspy, there were a lot of great tunes and when the whole congregation was singing it sounded really amazing.

The walk back from Yakar was unbelievable. Yossi was right: there were no cars in the streets at all except a few police cars driving around very infrequently. There were hoards of people all dressed in white leaving different shuls. I was truly awestruck. It got even more incredible when I got back to Beit Nativ; all of the Nativers sat together in the middle of the street, in a big intersection outside of our building, and we all sang ruach songs (pretty much every one we know). Tons of people walking by crowded around us, some sang with us and some just watched, but it was so special and amazing, I can't even really explain. There was this one old man standing all alone crying, and it made me really sad and I wanted to talk to him and hear his life story, but he walked away before I got a chance. There was such a diverse crowd there, from the very religious to people in jeans and t-shirts. It was a truly moving and life-changing experience.

After singing, a few friends and I walked into the Old City to the Kotel. That was really special too. It wasn't very crowded so I got to stand at the wall for a while and just think.

I went to bed right after I got back from the Kotel. I woke up this morning at 7, and we left for Kedem at 7:15. Kedem was an amazing service. They used so many familiar tunes for the different prayers; from Broadway show tunes to Hebrew songs. It was fantastic. I felt so involved because it is a pretty small group (I went there for the second day of Rosh Hashana so you can read more details about Kedem in that post), which felt really good and made services bearable, and maybe even enjoyable.

Shacharit and musaf at Kedem went from 8-1:45, and then I walked back to Beit Nativ where I relaxed for 20 minutes and then left for mincha which started at 3:10 at a shul called Chovevei Tzion. I should mention that all day I walked right in the middle of the street, because I could. Chovevei was so great. Seats are assigned there, but my friend Misha and I got really lucky because this woman who had three seats reserved didn't bring her two kids, so she gave us her two extra seats. Mincha and Neilah at Chovevei were relatively quick. The moment at the end when they blew the shofar and everyone yelled "L'shana ha ba'ah b'Yirushaliyim" was amazing. Even though most of the people there were on the older side and were all strangers, I really felt like it was one close community where I belonged.

I walked back from Chovevei and broke the fast on cake and chocolate milk. Then I went out to dinner with a few friends to New Deli where I got chicken nuggets.

Hope you all had an easy fast!!

-Sarah

Great day!!

Today I had class, as usual. I got to sleep in (kind of... I woke up at 8:35). After a quick breakfast I took the bus to Hebrew U where my first class was Hebrew. In class we shared our collages that we made yesterday with the class and then talked about the origin of the very important and key Rosh Hashana/Yom Kippur prayer U'Netana Tokef. I had a 4 hour break in which I went to the gym and did some reading. Yesterday I finished my first book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (it was the best book I have ever read. you should all read it), and so today I started a new book called The Seasick Whale by Ephraim Kishon. Kishon is a famous Israeli author whose books have been translated into English. He wrote the book Sallah Shabbati, and then we watched the movie version of it in my Modern Jewish History class. Since we enjoyed the movie, my friend and I decided to read some of Kishons other works. There is a cute little used book store right down the street, so we bought two of Kishons books, and when we are both done with both of them we will be able to trade them in for other books. It's great. The Seasick Whale is about an Israeli travelling all over the world. It's a satire. So far I am really enjoying it.

Anyway, after my break I had Foreign Policy. It was amazing. The teacher is so relaxed and just talks like he's telling us a story, so it's easy to follow and take notes and understand what he is saying, so it's a good situation. I took the bus home after class, grabbed a quick dinner, and then hung out with two friends who are on a different Israel program.

At 7:30 we had a special program for Yom Kippur. Every Tuesday night is Erev Nativ, which means we always do some kind of activity together. Sometimes it's fun stuff, other times more serious. After Ma'ariv, Yossi, the director, spoke for a little bit about Yom Kippur in Israel and how it is the holiest day of the year. Then we had two 45 minute time slots where we could pick which sessions we wanted to go to. My first one that I chose was with Yossi and it was a introduction to the Yom Kippur Machzor, which was very helpful. Second I went to a class on making the vidui, confessions, personal. We read them in English and then had a chance to write our own, which was nice. We had similar sessions for Rosh Hashana which I think I forgot to write about.

I saw something so exciting today! It's a tradtion done during the 10 days of repentence called kaparot. It's where someone swings a live chicken above their head and then a shochet kills it and someone takes it home and eats it. I think the whole process has something to do with getting rid of your sins, but I'm not 100% sure so you can look on wikipedia or google if you are curious. When I first heard about kaparot a few days ago, I pictured someone swinging the chicken like a lasso. That, however, was not the case. The guy actually swung the chicken quite slowly. There was a tent set up right on the sidewalk where this was going on.

I'm not sure if i'm going to post again before Yom Kippur. Probably not, so, I wish you all a safe and easy fast.

-Sarah

Day 2 of classes

Today was the first day of two more classes: Hebrew and Talmud as a Cultural Adventure.  Hebrew was a lot of fun. I have a lot of friends in my class, and we spent the whole time making collages about ourselves by cutting stuff out of newspapers.  The teacher, named Gila, is very nice.  It is going to be a little bit difficult at the beginning because we are not allowed to speak any English in the classroom, but once I get used to it and improve my Hebrew, everything will be good.  Talmud was also pretty great.  The teacher is really nice and smart, and I am definitely going to learn a lot.  I haven't really studied any talmud since middle school, but it's okay because the class is for beginners.  In between classes I had 4 hours, so I went to the gym for a while, ate lunch, bought the books I need for my classes, and sat around and talked with friends.  Soon I will have plenty of homework to keep me occupied during those free blocks!!  I was exhausted from the gym, so after I got home from Hebrew U, I went out to dinner at Holy Bagel with my friend Keren, and went to the grocery store to buy some essentials: peanut butter, jelly, pomegranate juice, an orange for my lunch tomorrow, and this apple-lime flavored seltzer stuff that I like.  Today I also downloaded a widget for my desktop that tells me how many days until my mom and sister come to Israel: 79!

That's all for now!

-Sarah

First Day of College!!

I have a lot to report!!

First of all, I forgot to mention in my last post that on Friday my friend Ariella gave me a hair cut!  She cut off about an inch and she did a very good job.

So today was my first day of real college classes!  My first class wasn't until 2:30 in the afternoon so I slept in until noon.  I've been getting a lot of bug bites, so somehow I convinced myself that I had bedbugs.  I made one of my staff members, Eyal, come up to my room to check for them.  He said that he didn't see them, but to make me feel better he told me to spray air freshener on my mattress to suffocate any bedbugs who might be there, and then I changed my sheets and pillowcases, so we're all good.

At 1:15 I took the bus to Hebrew U.  My first class was Israeli Art History.  I loved it.  My teacher is really nice.  Today she gave us an overview of what we will be learning, such as how does Israeli art reflect what is going on historically and in modern times, and how does Israeli art fit into the international art scene.  She introduces a few famous Israeli artists and showed us some samples of their work in a slideshow.

My second and last class of the day was Foreign Policy in Israel, a class I was very excited for.  The teacher is really smart, and he was the foreign policy advisor for Golda Meir when she was prime minister!!  He gave us a very broad overview of everything we would be learning, the different tensions in the Middle East that play a role in Israeli foreign policy such as conflict between the US and Russia, the West vs. Islamic Fundamentalism, Arabs vs. Arabs, and of course Israelis vs. Palestinians and Israelis vs. Arabs.  It is definitely going to be an informative and enjoyable class.

After class,  I went to the Hebrew U gym with a bunch of friends.  It's a really nice gym, and I got a good workout.  They offer a lot of cool classes, so I will keep you updated on which ones I do.  I had a delicious dinner at the healthy cafeteria at the gym.  Now I'm going to go to bed because I have Hebrew first thing tomorrow morning!!

Goodnight!

-Sarah

Shavua tov!!

Helloooo

I spent this shabbat in Jerusalem.  On Friday I went to the shuk with a bunch of friends, and then we all chipped in and bought pita, shnitzel, drinks, humus, etc., and made ourselves a cute little lunch.  Friday night I went to Shira Chadasha for Kabbalat Shabbat.  At the end of services, they always make an announcement like, "if anyone needs a place to go for dinner, come up to the front and we'll find you a host".  So I did.  Two friends and I ended up having dinner at these random peoples house.  They were very nice and the food was delicious. The mom looked like a slightly older, Israeli Meryl Streep.  There were a few other guests there besides just us so it was very nice.

Saturday morning I slept in (shh...I was tired!).  For lunch I went to a friends friends house with a lot of other Nativers.  It was a lot of fun, and the food was really good there too!  We were there for a while, then when we came back I read until shabbat was over.  I'm watching a movie tonight with a friend and then going to bed, because I start classes tomorrow!!

Shavua tov to everyone :)

-Sarah

October 2

Hi!

So today was a pretty relaxing day.  Services were at 9, then we had a session about Conservative Judaism with Rabbi Joel Roth.  It was long and it made me think a lot.  Then we had a briefing with Yossi, the director, who told us about what would be going on in the upcoming semester, which officially begins on Sunday.  Then I had my interview with Magen David Adom, where I am hoping to volunteer while I am in Yerucham.  After that I went to the grocery store, then out to eat at Burgers Bar, then I watched Gossip Girl on the computer.  Tonight I think I am ordering pizza and watching a movie with some friends, but I'm not sure.

Here is my schedule for the semester:

Class #1: Israeli Art History

Class #2: Israeli Foreign Politics

Class #3: Talmud as a Cultural Adventure

Class #4: Hebrew

Class #5: Freshman writing

That's all for now!  Bye

-Sarah

Shana Tovah U'metukah!!

L'shana Tovah to everyone!!
Sorry I haven't updated in a few days, the internet was down on Monday and then I obviously couldn't go on during the holiday.

Rosh Hashana was so amazing in Israel!! Monday night we did services as a group and then before dinner we all walked across the street where the Shalits (the family of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who is being held captive in the Gaza strip) were having dinner on the sidewalk outside of the Prime Ministers house. This is Gilad's third and hopefully final Rosh Hashana in captivity. There is almost always a table set up outside the Prime Ministers house with a petition to sign asking the Prime Minister to work harder to get Gilad back. After we wished the Shalits a Shana Tovah, we had a Rosh Hashana seder with lots of different fruits and then a big festive dinner.

On Tuesday the Yerucham group walked 45 minutes to a suburb of Jerusalem called Talpiyot where we split up between a few different shuls. I went to one called Maayanot. It was a pretty quick service (relatively), but overall it lacked enthusiasm and kavannah, which was disappointing. After services we were assigned host homes for lunch. The lady that set it all up tried to put us with people we would have things in common with. So, the people whose house I went to (their names were Yonatan and Ruti, but I forget their last name) lived in Philadelphia for 4 years, from '96-'00, and celebrated the high holidays the years they were there at none other than Temple Beth Hillel Beth El- Wynnewood. We played lots of Jewish geography and they are really good friends with Laura and Mark Solomon, the Simon-Hazanis, the Monsons, and a bunch of others. This was exciting for me because I was a teeny bit homesick not being able to spend the holiday with my family, and the fact that they knew my kehila that I come from was comforting.

After lunch we all did mincha and then walked back to base. I sat on my balcony and ate a delicious pomegranete that I bought at the shuk on Monday. It was the ripest, most delicious pomegranete I have ever had. Then I went to dinner at Rabbi Paul Freedmans house. Rabbi Freedman is a past president of USY. 12 of us got to go there, and it was really nice. He taught us a little bit about the holiday, and I enjoyed it very much.

Today we were allowed to go wherever we wanted for services, so I went to a young minyan called Kedem. A lot of rabbinical students and other young people go there. It was really, really nice. Afterwards I walked back to base, ate lunch, played rummykub, and then took a 4 hour nap. Before my nap I ate my new fruit of the year, a passionfruit (which I also bought on Monday at the shuk), and said shehechiyanu. I woke up just in time for Maariv. We davened outside, and this silly old lady who lived next door and hates noise blasted opera music during our services. Then we ended the chag with havdallah! I made myself grilled cheese for dinner on my friends sandwich maker. Now we're all just sitting around, happy to be on the internet for the first time in a few days, even though it's kind of slow right now.

I hope you all had a wonderful Rosh Hashana!

-Sarah