Being Snow Birds to Tel Aviv

Shalom to all my blog readers!

So I finally got a real live internet connection...yaaaay! That means I can update hopefully regularly, and, more importantly, I can skype now, so skype me!

The last few days have been a lot of fun. We had another snow day on Thursday, which was partially warranted (at least more so than the one on Wednesday), but the roads were still perfectly clear for our trip to Tel Aviv at 11am. We (Me and my roommates Jessica and Courtney, most of the JTS group - Becca, Sarah, Jacob, and Mike, Jordana - whose grandparents's apartment we stayed in, and Amanda) took a sheirut (group taxi) to Tel Aviv, and got there early afternoon. It was amazing to see the difference in the weather after only driving for an hour. We went from snow to beach and palm trees, and it was fabulous!

Jordana and I in the Sheirut

The apartment we stayed in was pretty fabulous, and by fabulous, I mean completely decorated from the 1970s, as Jordana had warned us it would be. There were egg crates on the wall, a box with gas masks and injections, crazy orange chairs, and a pretty fabulous 70s style wall (to name just a few things).

The Dining Room wall...yup, wall

Thursday afternoon, we played on the beach for a while, and then went and hung out at the mall (Israeli's do love their malls!) which obviously meant more Michal Negrin. :-)

The girls on the beach in Tel Aviv (From Left to Right: Courtney, Becca, Jordana, Jessica, Amanda, and Me!)

The beautiful sunset at the beach

Thursday night was a big mess. Basically I learned that when you are with a huge group traveling, you either have to have very defined plans, or just be ok splitting up into groups. We did go out for a little while in Tel Aviv, but apparently you really can't go out until like at least midnight, or you'll be the only ones in the club/bar (as we experienced). We also met up with a couple of Courtney's friends, who are studying at Tel Aviv University, and are both Phi Sigs at Syracuse! It's about time I had some LITP lovin in Israel!

Friday was a lot of fun, with lots of fun touristy stuff. We got up early and went to Jaffa, which had a cute little market/flea market, and a beautiful old city with a fabulous view of Tel Aviv and the Mediteranean Sea. Then we went back to downtown Tel Aviv to Nachalat Benyamin, which is a street in the center of the city that has a HUGE artisan fair every Tuesday and Friday. I bought a hand blown glass mezuzah and a gorgeous piece of art with the song Eli by Chanah Senesh on it which I'm really excited about - it was definately a good investment and I'm sure I'll have it in my home for many years to come.

Courtney, Jessica, and I overlooking Tel Aviv on the bridge to the Old City of Jaffa

On the outskirts of the Old City of Jaffa

Friday night mommy Jordana made us a yummy shabbos dinner, and we all sat around talking and laughing (while Sarah spontaneously fell asleep and fell off of things). It was a really nice, relaxing, fun evening. On Saturday, we all slept in, and then after breakfast on the mirpeset (balcony), we walked to the beach near (and by near, I mean about 2 miles from) the apartment. We played in the sand and the water until we were tired, then went back to the apartment for a late lunch. Then we packed up the apartment and came back to Jerusalem.


Today we had Ulpan again (finally! I almost forgot what going to class was like again), but my level only had the first hour and a half of class. After a fifteen minute break, all the level Gimmel students went to the archaeological dig that I went to with JAMD on my senior class trip. It was amazing to see how much it had changed! It's definately open for bigger groups now, and much more organized. They had everyone from level Gimmel working in partners going through buckets. It definately brought back some good class trip memories :-)

Sifting through artifacts from the Temple Mount

I have my first Ulpan test tomorrow (it was supposed to be on Thursday, but because of the snow days, it got moved)....more updates later!

L'hitraot,

Leah