6 days a week we wait for shabbos...

Shalom Lekulam!

So, it's been a long time since I blogged last, or at least it feels like it! This has been a crazy jam-packed week, and it feels like I've done so much since I got back from Tel Aviv last Saturday night. Monday I had my first Ulpan quiz, which went well. We had two others this week to make up for what we missed from the snow last week, and while I've had to do some studying for them, it hasn't been too bad. Monday evening I went to the opening for Hillel's Beit Midrash program (where people get paired up with a volunteer to study a text of their choosing). I'm studying my Papa's bar mitzvah portion in his memory, and am hoping to study it in depth with commentary and stuff, with a nice flashback to my Jewish Academy Mr. Grossman days.

Tuesday after class, I went with some of my friends on a walk around campus. We went to the Hebrew University amphitheatre, which is famous for its view. One of my friends told me that the balcony from the synagogue had a better view, so we went there, and they were definately right. You can see the entire city, including the Old City. It was really cool how we could see the wall all the way around the city, and even kind of figure out which quarter was which based on the landmarks.

View from the balcony of the Hecht Synagogue of Jerusalem

It was such a gorgeous day, and it was great to walk around and enjoy the sunshine and the slight breeze. Later that evening, a bunch of us girls went to the Jeff Seidel Student Center (yes, Kate, I know you warned me, and you were right but I mean, free food, come on!). It was Rosh Chodesh (the beginning of each month of the Hebrew Calendar), and the student center has a special women's dinner every Rosh Chodesh. Basically, Rosh Chodesh is supposed to be a women's holiday, partially because of women's connection to the month (think: monthly cycle) and also as a reward for refusing to give the men their gold during the building of the Golden Calf. So, they had a yummy Italian dinner followed by chocolate fondue with lots of different fruits and other goodies to dip.

Later that night, we went to the Kfar Bar (The Village Bar - where we live is called the Kfar Hastudentim, or the Student Village, so the Kfar Bar is the Bar in the lobby of one of the dorms...yup, in Israel they have bars in dorms). There was supposed to be Karaoke night that night, so all 5 of us roomies (including the boys), one of the guys' friends, and one of the girls next door went to the Kfar Bar for Karaoke night. Well, the Karaoke was all bad Israeli music, the bar was packed and smokey, and the Israelis in our group kept telling us that the bar in Reznik (a dorm on main campus) is much better, so two of our friends that we found at the Kfar Bar joined us, and we headed down to campus. As usual, they were right, and we had a really fun time hanging out and talking until they closed. In retrospect, staying out until 2am is not the best idea on a Tuesday night, but ce la vie. When we got home, the Super Tuesday results were starting to roll in, so I stayed up for a little while getting the returns on a few states before I went to sleep for way too few hours.

Wednesday after class we went to the Old City. We walked through the Armenian Shuk, and I got my much needed Hebrew U sweatshirt! I also got a really pretty scarf, and ordered a necklace from the Hadaya Jewerely store (the place in the Old City that makes the banged jewelery with the quotes engraved in them). We went to the Western Wall, and I had a bit of an emotional moment, as for some reason when I go to the Kotel is the only time I let myself really deal with my Papa's death. It was tough, but definately necessary. We were going to try to make it to the market at Machaneh Yehuda after, but we took so much time going through the Armenian Shuk that we really didn't have time after, so we came home instead.

Jessica, Sarah, Me, and Jordana overlooking the Western Wall and Dome of the Rock

After class on Thursday I went on my first non-mall related excursion with the Office of Student Activities. Included in our tuition we get a "package" of 12 points, which also includes some trips that we don't have to use points for, like the trip to Mitzpeh Ramon that we are going on this weekend (free weekend - I'm definately there!). Basically, they have all these trips that are usually 1-2 points each, with each point valuing about $15-$20. You can use points to select which trips you want to go on, and then if you run out of points, you can always pay.

On Thursday we went to Caesaria, an ancient town on the Mediteranean, north of Tel Aviv, that has seen many different empires and has a lot of history. I had been there before when I came to Israel with my dad, but I figured going on a tour would probably teach me about the site things that my dad didn't necessarily know (as my dad told me, he can't show me everything!). It was really cool learning about the ruins, and all the different empires that ruled over the area and effected its history: Roman, Byzantine, Muslims, Crusaders, and modern time.

Jessica and I at the Caesaria Amphitheatre, which is still used for famous performances

After an interesting tour and some multimedia presentations, we got free time to hang out around the ruins and the water, and to grab some dinner. A bunch of us sat by the breakwater and watched the sunset. The water and the sun was beautiful, and though it was a little bit hazy out, we still got to see a pretty sunset into the Mediteranean.

Michael, Jessica, Rosie, Zack, Me, Mike, and Courtney waiting to watch the sunset


Sunset at Caesaria

Now, normally in Israel, weekends are Friday and Saturday. That way, Muslims and Jews can both celebrate their Sabbath, and the Jews have time to get ready for shabbos. EVERYTHING is closed on Fridays, and what is open closed early. Well, clearly us Americans were going to demand our money back if we missed two days of Ulpan, so they made us make one of them up on Friday. So basically, we had 6 days last week of 5 hours of Hebrew a day. Now, that doesn't just mean that we have to sit through class 6 days this week, but also means waking up at 6:45 6 days in a row...and for those of you who know me enough that, well, you should be reading this blog in the first place, you should also know I am not a morning person. So basically, I couldn't wait for Shabbos (there's the entry title for those of you who it hasn't clicked for yet). The other problem was that I was supposed to go on a trip to Tzfat this weekend with study abroad students from all over Israel, but it was leaving very early Friday morning. But, since I had Ulpan, including a test, on Friday, I had to cancel. I was very upset, especially since I'm not going to get a cheaper trip to Tzfat (all expenses included for $56), but I was able to make other plans for shabbos, so it wasn't a total loss.

After another way too early morning of Ulpan was over, 9 of us packed into a sheirut that was cutting it way close for shabbos, and headed over to the Moshav Mevo Modiin, otherwise known as the Carlebach Moshav (Moshav = settlement for all you non-Hebrew speakers). Basically it was a little settlement with really hippy Chasidic Carlebach loving people, most of whom, from what I could tell, were Americans who had moved to Israel. It was a great shabbos to say the least! There were a bunch of staying at one house, the house of Rabbi Trugman, who does some work at Hebrew U (he told us at the Beit Midrash orientation about their home stay program). There were 8 of us that came together from Hebrew U, another guy from Hebrew U that we hadn't met yet, 2 girls who are at Hebrew U for the full year (since they have been here they don't need to do Ulpan now, so they are on break), a guy who is doing Ulpan at Hebrew U and then at yeshiva part time, another guy who is at yeshiva right now, a man who did the Hebrew U study abroad program 10 years ago with his wife and two adorable children, and 2 girls who are here on a gap year program...including none other than Molly Mardit from JAMD! I told her she won the award for my first random JAMD run-in: I walked up, following the rest of my group, to the house we were staying at, and all of the sudden heard someone say my name. I look up, and there was Molly, jumping up to hug me. We ended up staying in the same room for shabbos, and it was really nice to see a familiar JAMD face. We talked about the changes taking place back home with sadness, and remembered what JAMD used to be like in the good old days.

Before Shabbos, we all sat on the porch of the house while the Rabbi played from this instrument, that I honestly can't describe any better than a string keyboard. It sat on his lap, and was definately a string instrument, but he played it kind of like it had buttons, but it didn't. Whatever it was, it was really interesting, and played beautiful music. After that, we had time to go put our sutff away before going up to the roof for a GORGEOUS view with some pre-shabbos snacks.

The view from the roof of the Trugman's house

Me and Molly Mardit...JAMD love

Anyway, after candlelighting, we walked over to the center of the Moshav to the synagogue, which was really pretty despite its lack of a total structure. The men's section was basically a building with the back cut out, and then attached to it was a very strong tent-type structure for the women's side. Nevertheless, there were beautiful wall paintings and tapestries, and the Carlebach melodies were even more beautiful. It was a great Kaballat Shabbat, despite my exaustion and nearly falling asleep during the sermon because of my long week. After services, we went back to the Rabbi's house for a 4 1/2 hour long dinner, filled with delicious home cooked food, lots of singing and story telling. We finally went to bed a little after 11 (keep in mind, Shabbos started around 5), while some went for walks around the Moshav. I pretty much passed out, and while I had fully intended on going to shul the next morning for part of it at least, as had my entire room, we all ended up staying asleep until the shul-goers came to wake us up for lunch (I know, shocking right?).

Lunch had more singing and story telling, and then we had a few hours free before minchah. A bunch of us went for a walk in the nearby woods, which were beautiful (sadly, I couldn't take pictures due to shabbos), and even found a great overlook out onto the nearby city of Modiin. After our walk, we found quite places around the Trugman's backyard to read and just enjoy the GORGEOUS weather. After mincha, we had a song-filled seudat shlishit at the house, and the singing once again made it phenomenal. The boys went back to shul for Maariv while the girls started cleaning up and packing our stuff together. When they came home, we went to a community musical Havdallah, complete with hippy Chasidic men playing guitar, tambourine, bongos, and, yes, the recorder. After about 5 different versions of Eliyahuh Hanavi, all of which were in tunes I didn't know, we broke into a rounding rendition of "Mishenichnas Adar" (there is the idea in Judaism that once for the entire Hebrew month of Adar, the month that the holiday of Purim is during, you are supposed to be happy, so the song is "From the entrance of Adar, we are filled with happiness). Adar and Purim are super special this year, firstly because it is the Hebrew leap year, which instead of just an extra day gives us an extra month of Adar (ie twice as long to be happy), and, because we are in Jerusalem, we celebrate Shushan Purim (an extra day of Purim for cities that are gated, as Jerusalem is). But, because Purim is a Thursday night/Friday day this year, and Shushan Purim can't be on a Shabbat, Shushan Purim moves to Saturday night/Sunday day, which makes it a three day Purim in Jerusalem. For those of you who don't know, it is actually Jewish law that you are supposed to be so drunk on Purim that you can't tell the difference between the hero and the villian of the Purim story. So, basically, it's going to be a crazy Purim Meshulash (triangular Purim - the term for a three day Purim, as this year is). Anyway, the song Mishenichnas Adar has special significance when we get two months of happiness and 3 days of Purim craziness, so it was a fun song.

After Havdallah was over, we found 9 other people who were also going to back to Jerusalem, so we ended up getting to Sheiruts back to Jerusalem. After some freshening up, a group of us went downtown to the Ben Yehuda street area for a night on the town. We started off at a really cool bar with half priced drinks for students before 11 (where I enjoyed my Diet Coke - Israel hasn't changed me that much :-p) and then headed out to a club. After a while at the club, a few of us moved on to another bar/restaurant to hang out and talk over a VERY delicious bowl of french fries (or chips as they call them here). After a little while, one of my friends Mike, who had stayed with the group at the club called me to tell me he was meeting up with his friend from Young Judea Year Course who I had known he might have plans with. Why did I care? Well, it just so happened to be Ilit, one of my mefakdot (commanders) from Gadna (another JAMD shout out!). When she saw me she knew she knew me from somewhere, and when Mike said Gadna, she was like "Oh my god! Of course I remember you!" She asked how I was doing and how the rest of the grade was doing, couldn't believe we were already juniors, and was sad to hear that I was the only one who made it to Israel this semester. It was cool seeing her, and she is apparently studying medicine at Hebrew U. Mike and her are supposed to be hanging out later in the semester, especially because she has a break coming up soon, so I'm sure I'll see her again.

Amanda, me, Jessica, and Courtney ready to go out, joined by Rosie and Marissa, who live next door, on the ends

Me and Ilit (Ken Hamefakedet!)

And, of course, it was not fun this morning when my alarm went off. But, after a one day weekend, we were off to another week of Ulpan. One of the other classes at my level shares one of our teachers, and both of our classes' second teacher was sick, so we had a 30 person class today with one teacher for 5 hours. It was, well, interesting, but at the very least more lively than more normal very subdued class.

After class was over, I went on my second Office of Student Activities trip, to Eretz Bereshit (Genesis Land). It was about 20 minutes outside of Jerusalem, and is a place that they do camel rides! Since I've never done any Birthright or Federationy trips, I've never gotten to do that before, so I decided to go. It was a really fun experience, and the view overlooking the valley and Jordan was absolutely breathtaking. I got to ride the camel twice, because the first time my friend that I was with was really scared and screamed the whole time, and since our group was too big and we had to take turns along the trail to let everyone have a turn, and there was one camel that could only take one person, they let me go on again so I could actually enjoy it the second time.

The view from one of the places we stopped along the path to switch riders and learn about the area and the camels

Me with Luba, the second camel I rode

After we got to our final destination, we went into "Abraham's Tent", where a man who was supposedly Abraham invited us into his tent so he could fulfill the mitzvah of inviting guests. He told us some corny cutesy version of Abraham's journey and life, and then gave us a "feast". Seeing as we were all starving, and the food was phenomenal, we definately ate a lot. "Abraham" told us to eat until he could see we were satisfied by the glow in our eyes, and I think our eyes were definately all glowing by the end.

Me and Jordana with "Abraham's Feast" (like the outfits? They made us wear them so Abraham would recognize us since our modern clothes were confusing)

Anyway, like I said, it's been a long week. I apologize for the long entry, but let's just say this is why I'm not sending out update emails. Read at your leisure, and feel free to leave comments!

Shalom Al Yisrael,

Leah