one HUGE update

[PREFACE] OK. So this post is really really REALLY ridiculously long, because I haven’t updated you in a long time. I apologize for that. I promise (to the best of my ability) to not let it happen again!


Hello Everyone!

So, I have some free time, so I figured that I would catch you all up on the happenings over here in Israel! Since I last updated you, A LOT has happened here at Beit Nativ. Thursday night was our first free night in Israel, almost everyone in the program went out to have fun! I went out to eat with some friends and hang out on Ben Yehuda Street (a place full of stores and restaurants. VERY popular, especially late at night!). We hung out until late at night, chilling, and eating schwarma (it was awesome). We decided that we should head back to base around 2:30 in the morning.

On Friday, we woke up (probably earlier than any of us wanted to wake up), and had breakfast. Almost immediately after breakfast, we headed on to a bus to head out on a hike. The nice leisurely hike took over 4 hours, and was almost 5 miles long. After spending the rest of the day relaxing, trying to recover and we got ready for Shabbat. That night, we took a 15-minute walk to a nice park, which overlooked the old city, and prayed, while watching the sunset over the city. It was absolutely beautiful. That night, we went back to beit nativ and had a dinner (which was actually pretty decent) and had a rauch session. It was a great way to spend my first Shabbat in Israel.

Saturday Morning, we woke up, and had a light snack before services. Then Josh, Tyler, Meir, and Aaron Leven all went on an adventure to find a little synagogue called “Kol Rina”. This synagogue is located in the bottom of a building, in a bomb shelter. With that description, you can imagine how hard it was to find the place. We spent almost an hour walking around Jerusalem, looking for the place. We passed it about 2 to 3 times before realizing that we found it. The service itself was one of the most magical experiences that I’ve ever had. The Cantor spoke incredible English and the melody of everything was beautiful. I can’t wait until I have the opportunity to go back there! After services, we walked back to Beit Nativ, this time, only taking us about 10-15 minutes (soo short) and hung out with a lot of people on Nativ, relaxing, enjoying Shabbat. After Shabbat ended, we were quickly escorted onto a bus, and taken about 45 minutes away, to a city called ‘Ramat Gan’. In Ramat Gan, we went to see the Israeli national soccer (football) team play the Latvia national team, in a world cup qualifying game. Even though Israel lost, the game was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had. All of the Israelis were soo crazy, and bursting with national pride. It was totally awesome. The cheers were really easy to learn, and participate in.

The next morning, we had to get up bright and early for our Hebrew University orientation! We took a tour of the building, got our class schedules, and ate lunch.

For the next three weeks, I will be having the same exact schedule for Sundays-Thursdays. It starts off by waking up at 7:00 or 7:15 in the morning, (depending on if we were reading torah), and go to services. I then go back to my room at about 7:50 (after services) and shower and get ready for the day. After I take a shower, I grab a small bite to eat (cereal [trix] and milk [1%] [[both of which Adam and I purchased because we didn’t like the food provided]]). I then go downstairs and take a coach bus at 8:25 with everyone else to Hebrew University, which (depending on the day) takes anywhere form 15 minutes to 45 minutes. It is now currently Ramadan, which means that a lot of people are out and about in the morning.

Once we get to H.U., I go into a Hebrew Ulpan class from 9 am to 1:15 pm. This Ulpan class is an intense Hebrew learning course, where we speak barely any English, and learn SOOOO much. In the 5 days that I have been I class, I feel like I have learned more Hebrew than ever before in my life. Our teacher can now walk in, speaking only Hebrew, and we can all understand her! It’s the coolest feeling ever!

After the class ends at 1:15, we have a 45-minute lunch break. The cafeteria at H.U. is actually really amazing, and has an incredible assortment of lunch foods available. To this day, I have had: Chinese Chicken, Teriyaki Chicken, Roast Beef, and Schnitzel. Every day I have a new option, and they are all great! With the meal comes your choice of sides (I get fries and rice), an Israeli salad, a diet coke and a dessert. It is a good way to break up our day

At 2 PM, I meet up with 25 other kids from Nativ for our Jerusalem Class. In this class, we sit in a lecture about the city of Jerusalem (which is actually really boring, but factual) and then we go out and explore the area that we were just talking about (which is actually really cool – except for the fact that I’ve already done most of the things we are doing). It just really puts an amazing perspective on how everything really relates to modern day Israel. It’s totally amazing!

That class gets done around at 5 PM, and from then until the next morning, we have free time to do whatever we want. Some of the nights, there are mandatory programs, run by Nativ, that are really interesting.

Here’s How I’ve Spent the past couple of nights, since the days have all been (basically) the same!

Monday: 3 friends (David, Seffi and Judah) joined up with us after missing a week of the trip. It was so good to see them and have them be with us. I really missed hanging with them, and it was good to have more friends here. That night, Helfand (aka Helf aka David), Seffi (aka Seffi), Tyler (aka T-Pain), Josh (aka J-Mills) and I all went and got new siddurim (the koren [produced by the orthodox union]) and kippot on Ben Yehuda. We then went to break them in by walking to the western wall and praying. It was absolutely amazing to see the wall lit up at night and to be able to break in my new siddur there.

Tuesday: Every Tuesday night, there is a mandatory Nativ program. At this program, we learned some more rules and guidelines then did an icebreaker program with some crazy guy who was kinda neurotic. It was… interesting…

Wednesday: It was one of our friend’s, Ilana Rosenzweig’s, birthday, so we decided to go out for a nice dinner. Since we are old, and sophiscticated, we tried some different types of wines. It was a great way to celebrate and relax! After the dinner, we walked back to base, and ran into a jazz music festival, which was totally amazing. So we stayed there for about an hourish and enjoyed the music

Thursday: We had a September 11th program, which was really astonishing. We heard Yossi tell us his story, which was incredibly personal and we watch United 93. I’ve never seen it before, and thought it was a very powerful movie. I know how 9/11 affected my life, but to hear other people’s personal stories, and see how they are affected, really put an interesting perspective on things…

Friday – Saturday Night: I packed up my bags and went up north to Tiberias with 14 [yes, that’s not a typo.. 14] other Nativers for Shabbat. It was a 2.5 hour bus ride and was actually really easy to get to. We stayed at hoTEL AVIV (the pun is intended), which was located right across the street from the kinneret (the only fresh water lake in Israel) We did Friday night services, and then spent the rest of the night hanging out at the beach and enjoying each others company! The next morning we slept late (finally!!) and spent the day just relaxing around the hotel/town/beach. It was a great way to spend Shabbat and I had a great time!

Ok. So im hitting my limit, and its 1:20 in the morning. So I’m going to call it a wrap now!

I’ll update more frequently, so my posts wont be nearly as long.

To leave you, I’ll give you some links to enjoy!

My Second Photo Album
My First Photo Album
Tyler’s Blog
My Friend Jordana’s Blog (totally awesome, she’s a great writer, you should for sure check it out)
Helf’s Blog
Judah’s Blog


Alright….

Peace out girl scout!