Howard county & Baltimore federation visit OTZMA!

Sign outside the gate at Beit Canada 

Last Sunday was an awesome day for OTZMA, Ashkelon and hopefully Baltimore too!  We have been prepping for about a week for people from Baltimore and Howard county to come and hang out and tour the מרכז קליטה.  I woke up early, put on my OTZMA t-shirt and my jeans and headed to a quick meeting before Ulpan.


The first hour and a half or so of Ulpan went slow as we waited for the folks from Howard County to arrive.  We went over the activities that we would be doing with them and reviewed the map that we were supposed to have studied over the weekend (which OF COURSE we all did!!)  So when they arrived, the group from Howard County was separated into two groups and sent with us to the corresponding Moadon's.  First we introduced ourselves and talked about where we are from (Go Washington D.C. area!!). There were a lot of people who were from the same area that I am from and it felt nice to be able to talk about home and make those connections.  After brief intro's, we were given a map of Israel and tags and had to race to complete the map.  Being totally awesome, my group won and completed our map the fastest.  Booyah.  All me, in case you were questioning that.  Then we sang a song together and it was wonderful and horrendous all at the same time ;).  

The winning team with our completed map!  

After experiencing Ulpan together, we split the people from the mission into groups.  I started my tour off in the Ulpan classrooms themselves and was excited that the people on my tour were very curious about the nature of Ulpan and life in the absorption center.  I haven't written in much detail about the absorption center so I will fill in some of that info as I talk about the tour.  Basically, the Ulpan classrooms were part of a donation by the Grossman family from France that I will discuss shortly.  There are 8 classrooms and an office where Hebrew lessons are taught during the mornings.  There are several levels of Ulpan that one must go through as part of the absorption process.  Its an intense program and is difficult for us so I can't imagine how difficult it must be for people who don't speak the same language as their classmates or the teacher.  In the evenings, there are Judaic studies classes for new immigrants as well as space for older students to do their homework without interruption.  

The view from my room.  It's ok to hate me. 

The lovely bathroom in our room

All of our cooking equipment
 and the kitchen

The next stop that we went to was actually my apartment!  We showed them the way that we live here in the absorption center and I talked a little bit about what its like sharing such limited space with 4 people.  Luckily we knew we would be coming through our apartment so we cleaned like crazy and hopefully we were at least somewhat impressive.  



Inside each OTZMA apartment there is a big room and a little room.  The bigger room is a common room and has two beds, a dresser and a table for four.  The smaller room has two beds and another dresser.  The kitchen has a refrigerator, a toaster over and a stove-top type thing with two burners.  We have plenty of cabinet space and a nice big sink.  Off of the kitchen there is a smaller room with the water heater and a place outside to hang clothes... if only it was inhabited by a million birds that poop all over anything out there. 

2 of the beds in the main room which used to be
shared until one of our roomies moved with ITC

Recycled tires turned
 playground equipment

Part of the playground

After the apartment we walked down to the basketball court and playground.  This area was donated by a Bar-Mitzvah boy who gave $13,000 to the absorption center.  With that they built the basketball court which also has soccer goals.  These are used all the time so I think it was a very important investment from a wonderful child.  Next to the basketball courts there is a playground.  Last year some students from Australia came and helped to improve this area.  They did an ecologically friendly project and used recycled or reclaimed materials to give the children more areas to play, which I almost never see them using.  C'est La Vie.  

The basketball court donated by Bar-Mitzvah boy

The guard booth and one of the
guards with a little girl in the complex
holding a picture she made him!

The next stop was technically the beginning of the tour.  The guard station, main office and moadon.  We have a guard on duty 24/7 who keeps the crazies out.  This is also were the office of the director is located along with the offices of several other wonderful support personnel.  Next we moved onto the gan.  The gan is a building that was donated several years ago. In this building there is the gan-yeledim (preschoolish place), several offices, a music room and another moadon.  




During the day, the young Ethiopian immigrants go to a normal Israeli school.  When they get back, they have a few hours in the gan-yeledim.  In the classroom, young students are taught to integrate into Israeli society.  They are given activities that help them identify as an Israeli but also as an Ethiopian.  They are taught about the seasons and about life in Israel in a structured way but they also have a playground outback and they keep the kids active throughout the afternoon.  Currently there are only about 20 children in the after school program.  However, in the past they have had as many as 100 children at a time that they rotate in and out throughout the day.  Along with the donation of the building itself came the donation of a staff educator who worked at the absorption center for 2 years helping them to improve their after school education program.

"My Israel"

In the offices in this building there are several Ethiopian staff members, all of whom made Aliyah 20-25 years ago.  They are critical to the success of the program as they help to make the new immigrants feel more at home.  When they come here, they do not have the language skills and literally everything that they experience is new to them.  I have heard stories of new immigrants climbing up stairs on their hands and feet because they had never seen stairs before.  The staff members housed in this building help to make the transition a bit easier in any way that they can.  They take new immigrants to the bank and help them set up bank accounts.  They also take them to the doctor and help them to communicate and get a health check-up.  Its really wonderful what they do.

Building 3 - My building!

The laundry room and the
line of clothes waiting!

So, the next stop on our lovely tour in one of the 3 residential buildings.  Building 1 houses larger families and consists of 3.5 rooms per apartment.  This building (along with building 3) does not have air conditioning, but many of the apartments do have balconies.  Underneath each residential building there is a bomb shelter large enough to contain all of the residents of the building.  In fact, a year and a half ago when things were really bad here, the residents spent almost 1 1/2 months essentially living in the bomb shelter.  Staff members rotated who stayed in their with them and gave up time with their families to assist during this terrifying period.  Building 1 also has the laundry room and the office of the maintenance man, Oded.  The buildings are all about 30 years old and there is a constant flow of people coming and going which keeps Oded very very busy.




So, Building 1 has larger families and 3.5 rooms.  Building 2 is our building and houses student groups and people from different programs. All of the apartments in our building have 2.5 rooms.  Building 3 also has 2.5 rooms per apartment and houses smaller families and singles.  

The courtyard that was built as part of the
Grossman family donation

So, moving back to the Ulpan building.  In this building there is also a computer room and a lovely synagogue.  The Grossman family of France donated $1 million for the completion of this building and the main courtyard.  The computer room has over a dozen new computers with internet access and the synagogue is very beautiful.  There is a plaque recognizing the donation and it is pretty moving when you know the story.  They donated the money for this in memory of an entire part of their family that was killed during the Holocaust and in order to remind their children and grandchildren of the significance of this place and Israel.  I find it amazing that they chose to give the money to the absorption center and it really does show that people recognize how important places like these are to people who oftentimes have no other place to go. 

One of two plaques commemorating the family
members lost in the Holocaust - the names of the lost family members and ages are listed

I know I left out some details here and there, but its a lot to try and remember especially now that several weeks have gone by since Baltimore and Howard County visited.  If there is anything that anyone is curious about, please just comment or send me a message!  


So, after the tour we got on the buses and all went out to lunch together.  It was really nice getting to spend some more time with the people from the mission and we really enjoyed getting to eat at Yoko (the Sushi place) with them.  It was kind of fun showing off our Hebrew skills and encouraging them to have their children come to Israel with OTZMA or a program like OTZMA.  

Mosaic done by OTZMA 16 in 2001

All about אולפן (Ulpan)!

So I thought I would write a little bit about אולפן (Ulpan - aka Hebrew classes)!

We were divided into 2 classes in the first couple of weeks based on previous knowledge and skill level.  We were split about 50/50 and clearly, I was put in כיתה א. That is the first class and it is definitely where I belong.  At first, I was admittedly a little bit bored.  I knew the letters already (although not the script) and I knew the vowels so it felt like it was starting off kind of slow.  I think it is interesting that although block letters are used most commonly in signage and newspapers, no one writes in block letters - only script.  It is also interesting that there are never any vowels used in anything, you have to just know the words by the context.  

In class we learn many new words every day.  We are learning present tense right now but hopefully soon we will be starting to learn the past tense.  Hebrew is a very interesting language and I am loving it!  I am truly surprised by my ability to communicate in Hebrew.  Its hard for me to put sentences together, but I can understand a decent amount as long as I can convince Israelis to speak slower.  I think that is one of the things that I say most often. "speak slower please!" and "one more time, more slowly."  

At this point, we have learned about 25 verbs and more nouns and adjectives than I can count.  Its hard to let go of the fact that many things don't have an exact translation into English.  For example, instead of saying "I have" in Hebrew they say "there is to me".  I think a lot of people in the class struggle with that, but Hebrew has been around a lot longer than English so... I don't know what else to say about that. 

In Hebrew, just like in Spanish, nouns have a masculine and a feminine form.  Adjectives have both feminine and masculine and plurals of each.  I thought it was absolutely hilarious when I found out that milk is a masculine word.  It just BOGGLES MY MIND.  Clearly, milk should be masculine.  Duh.  Because milk comes from men, right?  Ok... moving on.  

So about once a week we get to watch a movie in Ulpan.  So far, we have watched 3 - 2 of which were pretty awesome.  However, the room we watch in is the childrens classroom so you have about 34 adult size people sitting on childrens chairs for several hours and its really not that comfortable.  Additionally, the speakers on the TV are broken so everyone sounds about 3 octaves higher - A LOT like chipmunks which makes it hard to take what they are saying seriously and it makes it a bit harder to understand. 

The first movie was Beaufort which is an award winning movie made here in Israel.  Here is a link to the trailer on youtube with English subtitles: Beaufort Trailer. Its about a young commander in the army and his troops in the months before the IDF's withdrawal from Lebanon.  It is an emotional story that I thoroughly enjoyed, even with the sound being awful.  There is a song in the movie that is quite beautiful.  Its called Shpitz's song. I would highly recommend checking this movie out if you have the interest.  

The 2nd movie that we watched had no subtitles and was about a former convict who turned religious and was broke and got lucky and got some money and bought an etrog to try and get his wife pregnant.  I wasn't really paying close attention that day and the movie really didn't do it for me.  

Yesterday we watched "Nina's tragedies".  It was a very bizarre movie but I enjoyed it thoroughly!!  Its about a messed up family and involved a lot of cursing, sex, perverts, peeping toms, a very creepy child and lots of death.  Oh, plus a birth.  Afterall, what good is a movie without a few deaths and a birth?  Oh, and nakedness and sex.  and curse words.  Hooray for Ulpan!

We also finally got our books earlier this week and I copied the audio CD's from the teacher today.  I am hoping that I can make progress because its REALLY important that I am able to speak Hebrew when I get to Ofakim.  They don't speak much English there and the better I can do, the more I will be able to help!  I have been trying REALLY hard to practice my Hebrew.  It helps that there are plenty of cute Israeli boys that are willing to talk to me and help me practice.  Of course, they also teach me bad words and I have made a few pretty bad mistakes as a result so far, including accidentally telling the director of Beit Canada that "I suck too much".  Clearly not what I meant to say!! Luckily, she knows that I am a student in ulpan and she corrected me and warned me to be more careful.  Oops. Several people have also made mistakes about the word "cup" which, pronounced incorrectly, means something else entirely.  Therefore, a couple of people have asked "do you have a pussy" instead of "do you have a cup".  Oy!  

The other thing that we love to do in Ulpan is SING!  I will see if I can post a lovely rendition of the song "Yachad" that I recorded today in class.  It was classic!  I'll see if i can post it later.  For now, I need to just go to bed.  Its 3:24 am and silly Erin took a 4 hour nap today.  Tomorrow should be fun.  Goodnight blogger.  

Haven't updated for a little while....

Sukkot Break 

"got my toes in the water, ass in the sand,
not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand,
 life is good today!" - Toes by Zac Brown Band

Madeleine and me!  We are adorable :) 

So, break was pretty interesting.  I feel badly, I wanted to go and do stuff but I had such a good time just hanging out in Ashkelon.  I worked on my Hebrew and although I wish I was doing a bit better, I do not feel like I am doing badly.  I spent decent amount of time hanging out at the beach and relaxing with my friends.  It was nice because the group was dispersed, so we went out in smaller groups with whoever was around and I really enjoyed it.  I felt like I got to know everyone on the trip better.

Last Thursday I got a call from Frenchie so went to Ashdod to visit him with Madeleine.  We had a good time Thursday night although I was pretty confused for the majority of the evening.  Most of Frenchies friends spoke French and Madeleine does too so I was a bit out of the loop.  We still had a great time though.  The bar that we went to is right on the beach in Ashdod and one of the girls we were with got a bagel and lox and only ate 1/2 of it.  At one point M looks around and goes "what would happen if that bagel just disappeared?"  Then we shared it and it was amazing.  Best bagel ever (and my first in Israel!)  Madeleine went home Friday afternoon and I stayed and hung out with Frenchie until the next night.  He was a very good host and made me some very fancy meals (schnitzel with hummus and cheese on pitas lol) but it was perfect.  I hope I get invited back at some point!  :)  

Sunset on the Beach in Ashkelon

It was nice to have a place to stay for a couple of days without roomies (as much as I love mine, sometimes you need a break)!  I didn't get to do much in terms of exploring Ashdod because it was Shabbat and Frenchie was sleeping most of the day Friday.  I didn't feel that comfortable exploring by myself and I didn't want to leave his place unlocked while I went out.  So, I caught up on True Blood and took advantage of having a comfortable mattress and complete control over the A.C. and just laid in bed.  Good way to spend the last few days of break.


Now we are back into the swing of things and I am really excited about the next couple of months.  I got my volunteer placement (although I haven't heard from them yet!) and it should be pretty cool.  I didn't think that I wanted to teach English but after spending a day with ITC - the teaching track - I realized it was pretty rewarding.  I got placed with Atidim (not sure I spelled it correctly) and will be working with underprivileged but gifted youth.  From what I understand they are likely to be in high school.  I'm pretty excited about it but it looks like I won't get to go until next week.  


So I totally forgot to write about the Potluck dinner that we had!  It was pretty awesome.  It started with about 5 of us that decided that an OTZMA shabbat potluck sounded like a good idea.  So, word about this event spread and there ended up being 14 or 15 people there!  It was pretty cool.  Everyone made yummy food, some more interesting than others, and pseudo-Rabbi Amir said the prayers.  Of course we forgot to discuss whether or not the meal would be Kosher so we failed a little on that front, but whatever.  It was a great time and throughout most of the meal we got to hear about Amir, Lauren and Eli's adventure on the first few days of break.  Sounded pretty crazy!!!  Here is Lauren's retelling of the story in her blog.


I need to go visit my host family soon.  I am missing them even though I only met them for a few short days.  I feel bad because I told Osi I would visit and then I didn't.  I wasn't feeling well for several days though, so hopefully she will understand and forgive me.  I may even go this weekend!

These are a few of my favorite things :)

So, yet another relaxing day in אשקלון.  Woke up late again this morning after an uneventful night last night (although I went for my first run EVER and did P90X!!!) and headed to the beach.  Spent a few hours at the beach instead of grocery shopping, forgetting how early the stores close on Shabbat... oops.  We are having a potluck dinner tonight with everyone who is here and I am pretty excited about that.  


On a side note, I wanted to write about a few things that have happened randomly throughout my stay here that have made me fall in love with Israel.  


1. Shawarma (שווארמה).  I can't believe that I am actually saying that, but a good שווארמה on pita with some hummus, tahina, eggplant and skhug (I think?)... YUM!  
2. הים.   The sea here may be polluted but it is so nice to be so close to the beach!  Even if you are "far" from the beach... its much closer than I am to the beach at home.  

3. גולדסתאר.  I was never a beer drinker before, but damn Goldstar has got me drinking beer.  This is not such a good thing.  
4.  Cheap clothes!
5.  TONS OF CHEESES AND SPICES!  Plus Israelis use mayo a lot, which makes me happy. Garlic mayo - the best idea EVER.  
6.  Iced coffee.  Amazing.  Especially from ארומא!!


Now some more serious things that I love about Israel:


7.  I love the contradiction of everything in Israel.  For example, when you are driving down the road near the Dead Sea, you see this stark empty landscape.  Then, all of the sudden, you see an oasis.  Back to empty landscape with nothing around and then all of the sudden tons of industry.  In the middle of nowhere.  I love the fact that everything here is such a contradiction.  


The people here are that way too.  You have this culture, that at first glance is cold and tough.  They actually are very tough, but thats besides the point.  One of the first words that I asked to learn was excuse me or I'm sorry.  The word is סליחא.  I have really never heard this word used by Israelis!  I say it all the time, but apparently American's are over polite anyways.  So, point being the people here act tough, but in reality, most people I have met here would bend over backwards to help someone.. even a stranger.  


I have had some of the most interesting conversations with people here.  I think I wrote about the woman who told me about my beautiful wedding on the beach in Ashkelon.  There is guy who was living at the absorption center with us and we had some of the best talks I have ever had with someone.  He is from France and made aliyah about 18 months ago.  We talked about how the people who have lived in Israel their whole life don't really understand why people would make aliyah.  People who have always lived in Israel don't realize how different it feels from other places.  There is an appreciation for the everyday here that there isn't at home.  Priorities are different and life is (at least sometimes) simpler.  Its also more complicated in many ways due to the political situation.  There is that contradiction that I love so much again.  In any event, we talked about why we both feel strongly about Israel and why he made aliyah.  One night he downloaded this video of the Hatikva with a translation and pictures.  At the end of it, we were both sitting there tearing up about the meaning.  Here is the Hebrew and translation.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatikvah)

כל עוד בלבב פנימה		As long as in the heart, within,
נפש יהודי הומיה,		A Jewish soul still yearns,
ולפאתי מזרח, קדימה,		And onward, towards the ends of the east,
עין לציון צופיה;		An eye still gazes toward Zion;
עוד לא אבדה תקותנו,		Our hope is not yet lost,
התקוה בת שנות אלפים,		The hope of two thousand years,
להיות עם חפשי בארצנו,		To be a free people in our land,
ארץ ציון וירושלים.	.	The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

I think the way he talked about how much it meant to him really moved me as well.  He told me about the way that the army sings it every day and how special it is to him.  All of these talks we have had are amazing... It's nice to talk to someone who feels Israel is different too.  

Its been a month...

It has been a month since we first arrived in Israel and began our journey with OTZMA.  I can't believe how quickly this month has gone by!  This week has not been too exciting, but its a nice change of pace.  It was a short week this week because our Sukkot break began yesterday and we will not be back until next Sunday.  I'm excited, although I am not sure for what.  I haven't really made any plans to do anything and I am thinking I will just take it day by day.  I would love to go to Tel-Aviv for a day or two and I am thinking that I will visit my family in Ofakim as well.  I really need to study my Hebrew more often so I think I should be spending my time focusing on that.

Shauna, Madeleine, Lauren and I :)

Yesterday and today were pretty relaxing.  We went out Tuesday night and partied (maybe a little too much...) and I slept in so late on Wednesday. I'll throw up a few pictures from Tuesday night because they are classic.  Don't judge.

Alex and Vanessa's GIGANTIC sushi boat

 I think I didn't wake up until after 12 on Wednesday.  Then we just hung out most of the day, played on the internet, relaxed and eventually Alex, Rachel, Vanessa and I went out to dinner.  We had a really nice meal at the Yoko sushi place nearby which we all thoroughly enjoyed.  I got Chicken Bangkok and it was really good!  Alex and Vanessa split the most gigantic thing of sushi I have ever seen.  I even tried some Sushi.  Not my favorite thing in the world... but not nearly as bad as the caviar I tried!!

My being fed caviar face

My Bangkok boat

Today was a good day too.  I spent the morning (or afternoon... whatever) cleaning the apartment that I share with Tracy, Rebecca and Arielle.  It was finally to my satisfaction around 4 and I headed down to the beach.  By the time I was ready to go to the beach, the group that had gone earlier in the day was on their way back.  I hung out with Jason and Austen for a while and when they left relaxed and watched the sunset while listening to some chill music.

I was in peace for a while when some random dude approached me and gave me a rock (not the good kind - just a plain old rock).  This led to some story in broken English that I didn't understand which led to him trying to date me.  He didn't seem to understand why I thought 43 is a bit too old for me... so he explained that his last girlfriend was a 23 year old Japanese girl, as if this was supposed to encourage me to take him up on his offer.  The conversation was interesting though and I made it very clear that he had no shot.  The sunset was beautiful and even though I didn't get to enjoy it the way I wanted, I still enjoyed it.

This week in Ashkelon...

Vlad and me painting the apt.

So I returned from Ofakim early Sunday morning for ulpan. Ulpan was fine and I was looking forward to going grocery shopping and doing some laundry. Instead we found out that we were expected to volunteer a few hours after ulpan. At first we were all a little annoyed, only because we had just returned and none of us did any shopping right before we left town for 4 days. The whole process was a bit disorganized and my group ended up hanging around waiting to be told what to do for over an hour. Eventually, we made it to the house we were working in and we filled in nail holes, painted the walls, ceilings and doorways. I worked my tush off and got covered in paint in the process (also ruined a few items of clothing). After painting for 4 hours in an apartment without a/c or much air flow in general, I had a bit of a headache and we were all really hungry. I went to go wash up and the woman who lives in the apartment (who does not speak much English) decided that I needed to be rubbed down with turpentine, which was truly a lovely experience. So, stinking of turpentine and covered in paint, I headed back to go shower and relax.

We had a couple of interesting seminars over the next few days so we went to ulpan in the morning and seminars in the afternoon. In the evenings we hung out, studied (some of us - wish I had studied more!!) and cooked together and for each other. Its amazing how it ends up working out... when one person doesnt feel like cooking, they offer cleaning services in exchange for a share of the food. I usually offer my food to be cooked but let everyone know that my cooking sometimes leaves much to be desired. I am loving how many different spices and foods there are in Israel that are becoming a staple of my diet. Yum yum.

On a side note... on Tuesday night I went on a walk by myself and sat down at the beach for a while. I got TOTALLY creeped on by some religious guy who sat behind a tree with his head sticking out staring at me for a solid 20 minutes. It made me really uncomfortable but I think he was just fascinated by the English-speaking girl on her cell drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette in shorts and a tank top. Breaking all the rules. Totally felt like an exhibit in the zoo and I can even hear the speech about my exhibit. "And here we have the fascinating Erinus Leibowiticus. This is a rare species in that it uses some tools that have been created by smarter members of the same sub-species, but engages in behaviors that will slowly kill it, believing that it is cool. I must say, this Erinus does look cool doing it though." Clearly.

So, we had volunteer days Wednesday and Thursday as well. We went back to the same apartments and continued the painting process. The 2nd day was way better in my opinion. First of all, we all knew what needed to be done the 2nd day. They also gave us more equipment and all around I feel like we got a whole lot more done than we did the first day. On the way back, we went and got shwarma because we were all way too tired (at least my group) to cook. Again, I was covered in paint and further ruined my clothing. Also got a LOT of strange looks walking around covered in paint.

Thursday morning I woke up early and my roommate was on the phone. She was upset and her eye was swollen completely shut. We spoke to our counselor who said that she did not need someone who spoke English to go with her. So, off we went to the emergency room. Within a few minutes of getting there it became very apparent that it would have been REALLY REALLY useful if one of us spoke English. It was an interesting 1/2 day (we were there about 7:30 - 1:30) and I was exhausted at the end of it. (this is probably due to me staying up 1/2 the night flirting with our security guard at the gate where we live). So we saw some really weird things at the hospital and we were pretty confident that they were pulling straws about who had to deal with the stupid Americans. After 6 hours they pretty much said she was allergic to something. So, the medical care system is similar to the US in that regard! Spend 6 hours in a hospital and they tell you something that you knew going in. Sounds about right.

I missed volunteering Thursday because I was supposed to get together with my friend from home who is from Israel and I was really really disappointed when he blew me off. I didn't want to miss the volunteer work to begin with and the fact that I missed it for nothing was really not cool (although I will be making the volunteer days up). While I am upset about the fact that I missed the volunteer work, I took a much needed nap.

Out for Shauna's Birthday!!

Thursday was also Shauna's birthday so we all went out to party and have one more night of sinning on last years tab before Yom Kippur started yesterday ;). We went to two different clubs and I think everyone had a pretty good time although we kinda split up into smaller groups as the night went on. I managed to hurt a good friend of mine which I feel very badly about even though I did it unintentionally. Not a good feeling and yet another thing to ask for forgiveness for.

So Friday morning we were supposed to be on the bus at 7:00 ready to go. We left at 7:08 (I thought that wasnt bad considering everyones condition the night before...) for Jerusalem and arrived at our Hotel, the Prima Royale, a little after 8. We had a series of seminars throughout the day which were very interesting. Each time period we had two seminars to choose from. The first one I went to was Torah Yoga. It was pretty cool and although I didn't necessarily get all of the connections between the Torah and yoga, I enjoyed the yoga session thoroughly! After the yoga session we had a pizza breakfast, which I thought was too early to eat pizza but I was totally wrong.

The next session I attended was about the 12 step program and how it relates to Yom Kippur. We analyzed the AA 12 step program and a program called SMART that has no religious affiliation. It was a very interesting discussion although I am not sure we ever made it to the speakers point because we all had so much to say on the matter. The final session was about secular jews in Israel and what it means to be religious versus secular in Israel. It was a really interesting discussion and I felt so bad because I kept falling asleep! I was just too tired and we had spent too much time sitting in one place and talking throughout the day.

After the seminars we had some free time, went to our rooms (I am sharing mine with Elissa and Madeleine - who are both awesome girls) We hung out and then went downstairs to a very early dinner (like 3:30) and then afterwards came back to the room to get ready for kol nidre. Elissa and I went to a service with Gilad Shelit family, which was held outside of the prime ministers house. We came back and I fell asleep... literally at 7:30 pm. Go me. Apparently I snored quite loudly and obnoxiously. I blame it on the fact that I am stuffed up and was too tired for words. I slept 14 hours and woke up around 9:30. Elissa and I spent the day in bed studying while Madeleine attended services. I felt bad about not going to services but we spent the whole day learning hebrew which was pretty productive. We are all fasting and as a result, we are very hungry.

Madaleine was just skyping with her Mom and randomly I hear "You were growing up before microwaves? You had a TV though, right?" Amazing. Disclaimer from Madeleine: She is NOT an idiot... she was just being silly with her Mom and is "hallicunating because I am so hungry" Back to me: Don't not give her a job because she sounded stupid. She is really really smart and I would hire her. Call me for a reference.