Food Vs. Food

1:30- Lunchtime
Today, instead of taking a nap during lunch, I went to help out at the local  soup kitchen.  The soup kitchen is in a great location because it over looks the kotel and when you walk inside, it looks pretty nice and clean, almost like a restaurant.  Everyday, a different group of girls go to help out so today I went with my friends Rachel and Rachelle.  When we walked in, we went straight to the kitchen in the back to start helping out.  We put our bags down on the side and go to work.  First we put pots of soup on every table.  Then we made up plates with meat, potatoes, vegetables, and a plum.  The women were served first and then the men stood on line at the window to get their food.  After everyone was served, people were allowed to come back for seconds.  Everybody there seemed so grateful and wished us a happy new year.  It was a great way to spend my lunch and I'm looking forward to going again in two Mondays.

4:15- Break in between classes
My friend Melissa and I were hungry so we decided to go to the little store down the block called Sammi's to get something to eat.  I wanted to get wafers because we had meat for lunch and they were pareve.  We saw a bunch of different wafer flavors like lemon, coffee, and vanilla, but then we saw a big box of chocolate covered wafers and we knew that we had to get them.  We bought the box, brought it back with us, and when we looked inside, there were so many more wafers than we expected.  There were four packages inside of about 20 wafers each so we each had two packages.  We started eating wafers but then stopped after 5 or 6 because class was about to start.  Everyone started asking us for wafers but we didn't really want to give them any.  Then a bunch of things happened all at once.  Melissa and I started getting really hyper, our box of wafers was "stolen" and hidden from us, and class started.  Basically we were kinda going crazy which was lots of fun.  We eventually stopped ourselves from laughing, got through the class, and got our wafers back, and all was good... Until Melissa had control of the box and wouldn't give it to me until I gave her back her shoe, (yes, I stole her shoe, but that was only because she put her foot on my lap) but in the very end, everyone got back what was theirs and we were all happy.  Shalom V'lehitraot!

P.S. The answer to the title reference question was 'Friends'

The Beach!

Yesterday 12:30- Announcements
"Blah, blah, blah, something, something, something... oh, and we're taking you to the beach today!"

Yeah, so they took us to the beach yesterday and it was so awesome! We got on the bus at 2:00 after we ate lunch and I put on sun tan lotion as we waited for the buses to leave.  The ride was about an hour and a half, and of course I slept through most of it.  When we got to the beach, I went right into the water.  The water in the Mediterranean Sea was beautiful.  It was so clean and the temperature was amazingly warm.  The water is very shallow and doesn't really go past your knees closer to the shore.  You have to go really far out in order for it to be about shoulder height, which is good enough to swim in.  I brought my goggles and I swam about a hundred strokes.  It's actually much harder to swim in the sea than in the ocean in NY.  The tide is very strong and only wants to pull you to the shore so swimming across it requires a lot of effort.  I stayed in the water for over an hour, swimming and hanging out with my friends.
When we decided to go back to shore, everyone gathered around in a circle and a few people who brought their guitars began to play and we all started singing.  It was kinda late by the time our dinner came, so when we saw the pizza show up, everyone was so excited to eat and most of us ate at least three slices. We stayed on the beach for a little bit longer and we left at around 9:00.  On the bus ride home, the two girls behind me were singing the entire time.  It was actually very funny because they both didn't really have such good voices and the songs they were singing were just funny.  When we got back to the dorms, I was too tired to run like everybody else did to the showers so I had to wait a while before I could get all of the sand out.  I went to sleep early, at like 11:30 and I hope I will get to do the same tonight.
I know I don't talk much about my classes, but this stuff is just so much more interesting to write about it.  Don't worry though, some day I'll get around to talking about it. Until then, I hope you enjoy what I've written so far.  Shalom V'lehitraot!

The One with 3 Parts

Part 1 of this post is really exciting because it is my first of hopefully many video posts!
Check out the link on you tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbAZVf35vI0

Part 2: Tonight's Adventure!
My friends Giselle and I went to go see our friends in Shalavim, Penina and Ariella, since Mondays we have the night off.  We took the #19 bus to get there.  I was really excited because I found out that I could get a kid's bus pass since I'm under 18 and I could ride the bus for about half the price, so I bought 20 rides.  When Giselle and I got to the bus stop, Ariella and Penina were there waiting for us and then we went to go check out their dorms.  Their dorms are so nice compared to ours, it's like living they're living in a hotel.  Anyway, we then went to the mall.  To get to the mall, you have to walk down over 300 steps.  About half way down the stairs there is this huge dog that barks at you when you pass by.  It was dark outside so the first time we passed the house, the dog just jumped on the fence and started barking like crazy.  I couldn't really see anything and I basically jumped because I was so surprised.
Once we got to the mall I was so hungry because I hadn't eaten dinner.  Penina and I went to go get pizza, and Giselle and Ariella went to get meat. After I had a huge slice of pizza, I was still hungry so Penina took me to a bakery and 'forced' me to get a huge donut... which was sooooo good! When we met back up with Giselle and Ariella, Giselle started telling us this story about some random guy who just came up to her and asked her how old she was.  It was really weird and we decided that it was probably some bet that he made with his friends.  At about 10:00 Giselle and I decided it was time to go home, so we had to walk back up all those stairs, past the crazy dog, and up to the bus stop.  We got on the bus and weren't exactly sure where to get off.  We got off at the stop that we thought was ours but then we weren't exactly sure where we were.  After asking a few people where to go, we finally figured it out.  On the walk home, we walked into a huge group of soldiers who were also walking in the same direction as us, so far a good part of the way home, it was like we had our own little army surrounding us.

Part 3: I don't often write anything philosophical or thought provoking on my blog but I thought I might share a thought I had with you.  I'm in Israel. It's crazy, i'm in Israel!
I know you know that, and I know it too, but sometimes when you're sitting inside a classroom or in your bed, you kinda forget because you're just comfortable there.  But then you look outside your window and remember, oh I'm not at home... I'm in Israel!
Don't miss me too much! Shalom V'lehitraot!

PS: Anyone get the title reference?

Shabbat in Efrat!

This Friday I woke up kinda late. I woke up at around 8.  I didn't really do much for most of the morning besides for pack, get ready to go, and hang out with my friends.  I had to go out to get a gift and on the way I saw a bunch of people from camp getting lunch so I got lunch with them too. I was supposed to hang out with my friend Melissa (Hi Melissa- see I mentioned you in my blog!) but I ditched her.Don't think she's a loser, cuz she's not.  Anyway, after they left, I went back to my dorm.

I then went with my friend Abigail to Ben Yehuda street because I didn't really have anything else to do.  We walked to the train and got on.  After about 15 minutes Abigail said that she thought we missed our stop.  We checked and we did, so we got off and got on the train to go the other way.  We didn't actually know what stop we were supposed to get off at and we didn't actually know where Ben Yehuda street was so we were kinda just walking around a lot trying to get directions, but following directions from Israelis is not the easiest thing to do.  Then my friend Giselle called me because she was also going to Efrat and she wanted to meet up with me so we could take the bus together. As we were walking towards where I thought Giselle was, we saw the camp people that I had lunch with earlier.  They told me that there was a surprise party for my friend Noga's birthday that was about to happen. I really wanted to go because it was really close but I already told Giselle that I was going to meet up wither her and I didn't know where she was. I eventually gave up looking for her and we decided to meet at Big Apple Pizza which is where Noga's birthday party was happening.   I didn't know where that was either but I happened to see Brenda and she knew where to go so she started walking with us.  As we were walking, I happened to look across the street and I saw Renna and Ali.  I was so excited to see them that we stopped walking and crossed the street to say hi.  I kinda felt bad, but I think that this was the point where Abigail left me to figure out where to go by herself.  Brenda and I finally got to Big Apple Pizza just in time to say 'Surprise!' as Noga walked in. It was so much fun because almost all of my camp friends and school friends who were in Israel were there.  

I had to leave after about 15 minutes to catch my 2:45 bus.  I went with Giselle and my other friend Miriam on the train to the central bus station at about 2:25.  We got to the bus just in time at 2:45.  I got off the bus at the first Netzach Yerushalayim stop.  I knew that their house number was 63 so I saw that the first number on the block was 22 so I started walking down the street.  But as I walked down the block the numbers were going down.  I walked back to the bus stop and saw a set of stairs going down.  I then realized that I remembered from the last time that I was there, about 7 years ago that you have to go down the stairs to get to the rest of the houses on the block.  Once I realized that I quickly found their house.  When I went inside, everyone was so welcoming.  Yehuda and Millie are the parents, and their kids are Gili, Avihu, Yehonatan, Matanya, Hadar, and Naama.  Savta was there too.  We sat on the couch and talked for a little bit.  They started out speaking to me in English but once they saw that I understood most of the Hebrew and could answer them, then the rest of the Shabbat they spoke Hebrew.  We got ready for Shabbat and then the boys went to shul and the girls stayed home.  Naama took out a deck of cards and asked me if I wanted to play.  I said yes but I didn't know if we knew any of the same games.  Turns out that I knew all of the games that she knew.  Mostly we played president and Hadar kept winning.
Once everyone came home, we sat down to eat.  We had this really good fish and chicken soup.  After the meal, one of Hadar's friends came over and she invited me to go to one of their friend's houses.  I went to their house for a little bit but I came back early at around 11:00 because I was pretty tired.  The next morning I woke up at around 11:00 and I was so surprised that I slept for so long.  After I finished getting dressed, Naama wanted me to play more games with her, so we played Trouble.  We then had lunch and then afterwards everyone went to take a nap.  At around 3:00 Giselle and Miriam came over to hang out.  We were just sitting on the swing outside talking and then both of them fell asleep.  I sat there for a while watching them until they finally woke up.  We talked a little more and then they had to go back to the people that they were staying with.  The rest of shabbat was very relaxing and the family was just hanging out together.
After Shabbat, Avihu was taking Savta home and since she lives near me, he took me back also.  I got back to my dorm at around 9:00 and then went out to eat with my friends.  I was really tired because I didn't get my Shabbat nap so I went to sleep early at around 11:30 which was before either of my roommates were back.  I slept pretty well last night and now it is time for me to go to sleep again.  Shalom V'lehitraot!

My Adventure!

Today I went on an adventure during lunch with my friend Aliza.  Okay, so you have to remember that we have two hours for lunch, from 1:00-3:00.  Sounds like a lot of time right? Not really. We spent the first half hour eating chicken for lunch (and cucumbers, there are always cucumbers, so many cucumbers!)
Then we wanted to explore Jerusalem to see if we could find a place to bike because we're thinking of renting bikes.  I heard that there was a park near the central bus station which is about a 15 minute train ride/ hour walk.  We decided to take the train there so we walked the 15 minutes it takes to get to the train.  We thought we might walk for a little bit since we had so much time but we saw the train coming around the corner so we decided to take it.  We got on the train and then realized that we didn't exactly know where the park was or what it was even called.  We were wondering how to say park and bicycle in Hebrew, when a nice lady realized what we were talking about and kinda told us how to get there.
We got off the train at our stop at around 2:00 and began walking in the direction that she told us to walk in.  We had to ask for directions a couple more times because we really had no idea where we were going.  But after about 15 minutes of wandering around, we finally found it. At first glance it just looked like a soccer field where a bunch of yeshivah boys were playing soccer, but then we saw a little path and decided to follow it thinking that it would make a little circle around the field.  We walked up the path and saw that there was so much more to the park but we would still be able to follow the path around.  Still walking 15 minutes later, we realized that the park was much bigger than we thought and we still hadn't quite gone all the way around it.  We finally came back to the beginning at around 2:30 and decided that we had enough time to go to the shuk and the walk back for class.  Now it was a very hot day outside and we had just done all that walking and yet we still decided to walk a little more.  We walked a little of the way down the shuk smelling the amazing smells and looking at how cheap the prices of fruit were and then we decided to go back.  We realized we didn't have much time to get back to school so we decided to take the train... and there it was at the stop a block ahead of us.  We ran like crazy to catch the train in the boiling hot sun... and we made it!  We took the train back to our stop, walked/ jogged to our school, and made it just in time for class.  Yes, we were quite sweaty but, we had our adventure, did some exploring, and even made it to class on time in under and hour and a half. More explorations coming soon.  Shalom V'lehitraot!