Pesach Break!

I just got back from 10 amazing days of Pesach break, so now I'll tell you all about it!

Two Wednesdays ago, the 8th of April, I took a bus with a bunch of other Nativers to Jerusalem. My friends Josh and Lilli's families came to Israel for Pesach and rented an apartment, so they invited a bunch of Nativers including to Seder at their apartment. It was weird to be without my family, and they did some things differently than I'm used to, but Seder really was a lot of fun. And they asked me "who knows 13" and I knew it in Hebrew (I told Josh I'd been practicing). Wednesday night I slept over at Lilli's with a bunch of other girls. Thursday I woke up, went to Kedem for shul, came back and ate lunch at Lilli's, and hung out with friends for the rest of the day. My friend Dani's parents took me out to dinner at a kosher for passover Italian restaurant where I was able to get pizza and pasta! So cool! Thursday night I slept at Josh's apartment. Friday I woke up and Josh's dad made us matzoh brie (yum). Then I went with my friend Becca to a friend of hers for Shabbat which was a lot of fun. They had a bunch of their extended family over which included a really cute little 2 month old baby girl. I am also now reading a Hebrew book that they lent me: James and the Giant Peach/ ג'מס והאפרסק הענקי. So far I have read 6 chapters and I understand it pretty well.

Saturday night I met up with 3 friends, Keren, Liora, and Sara in the bus station in Jerusalem and we took a midnight bus to Eilat! The bus was SO crowded. It was impossible to sleep because it was so, so loud. There were about 10 people laying on the floor of the bus for an almost 5 hour ride! We got to Eilat at 4:30 a.m. and we weren't able to check into our hotel yet- although we did drop our bags off in luggage storage- (Keren's dad got us a really nice hotel room) so we sat on the beach and played Taboo and just hung out. Around 9 we went to the hotel and even though our room wasn't ready, we were able to hang out by the hotel pool. Needless to say, we all fell right to sleep in the hot sun for hours (don't worry, I wore plenty of sunscreen the whole time). Around 3 we were finally able to check into our room, and then we got lunch (cold cuts on matzoh). Then we took a nap and went out to dinner at Burger's Bar! I got chicken on a kosher for passover roll. We were all still really tired, so we went to sleep kind of early. Monday we spent the day laying by the pool and a tiny bit at the beach (there is no sand or seashells, just rocks. But I collected some really pretty rocks). We ate dinner at Cafe Hillel (again, k for p sandwiches) and then went to see an amazing show called WOW! There were all kinds of really cool magic/contortionist/acrobatic/dance acts. It was sooooooooo cool! Then we went to a bar called Three Monkeys. I drank half a liter of apple juice (woo hoo party hard!!). But there was a live salsa band which was really, really fun. Tuesday we spent a few final hours by the pool (I forgot to mention that there was a realllllly fun water slide by the pool!), ate lunch, and then got on a bus back to Jerusalem. Even though the bus makes a rest stop half way, by the time we got to be about an hour outside of Jerusalem I had to go to the bathroom so badly that I contemplated trying to go in a bottle. It was horrible.

We finally got to Jerusalem and I went to the bathroom in an alley right next to where the bus dropped us off. Then we took a cab to Agron. Nativ got us free rooms and meals at Agron for chag. Wednesday I went to shul at Kedem again and then ate lunch at Agron and then just napped and hung out with friends for the rest of the day. Wednesday night after chag ended I broke Passover on an ice cream cone (with chocolate and cheesecake ice cream in it) and then went back to Yerucham just for the night. Thursday Jake and I went to Ashkelon to visit my friend Felix from camp. It was a lot of fun! He is a tugboat operator, so he took us down to the marina where he works and showed us the boats and everything, and also took us out for a really nice Italian dinner. Friday Jake and I baked white and dark chocolate chip cookies to bring with us to Arik and Yael's for Shabbat. Misha also came. It was a lot of fun! Today they took us on a 3 hour hike in their backyard (their backyard IS the desert- so cool!). Then Arik brought us back to Yerucham, and that's about it!

Everyone gets back from break tonight and we all go back to work tomorrow.

Shavua tov!

-Sarah