One Month Left

Gulp. I seriously cannot believe it.

In the next month I will:
-write 3 more papers (History, Israel Seminar, Bible)
-take 5 exams (Liturgy, Hazal, Bible, Hebrew, Grammar)
-have 4 more Shabbats here
-try to live it up as much as I can for as long as I can.
-say goodbye to my life here in Jerusalem and many of my friends who won't be coming to New York.
-pack up my life into suitcases to take back to Maryland.

So there. Now it's on record, I can't take it back

What to do? Have the best month here. Do it all. Stop saying I'm going to do things and just do them.

May/June 26th '05- Maryland
July 26th '05 -J'lem
April 26th- J'lem
May 26th- Maryland
June/July 26th- Camp
August 26th- NY.

Time flies when you're having a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The End of Matza Season

I love vacation. LOOOOOVE. L-O-V-E.

Mostly because I haven't had to do anything. I've slept in every day except for one when I got up at 9:30am. I've seen 3am for three mornings in a row.

I've watched 18 episodes of the second season of Grey's Anatomy. [I love this show- I miss American TV!]

I've listened to 8 L Word podcasts.

I've eaten easily a whole box of matza by myself as well as 2 passover chocolate cakes. My digestive system HATES me right now. Probably because I've eaten no salad or fruit in the last 7 days.

In the last two days I've begun to get some work done. I've written 4 pages of the Liturgy paper that I will finish tomorrow. I'll start Bible on Friday.

Passover is over here and I am super-excited to get some chametz in this city.
CHAG SAMEACH CHAMETZ Ya'll!

See Karen's Sad Face :(

Ali left this morning. You know that someone's a life-long, amazing, best friend when you haven't seen them for 10 months and then they come for three days and suddenly you can't remember life without them. Plus, theres nothing like seeing someone whose known you longer than 9 months. She and I really had an amazing time. Lots of snuggling. Lots of Center Stage. Lots of laughing.

So yeah.

I finally got to sleep in today. It was fabulous. Beyond fabulous.

And now, it's Shabbat. I'm going to Shira Chadasha tonight after a 3-month hiatus. With the influx of Pesach tourists, I hope I can even get a seat. Then dinner with Rena and Michael's families. I'm making my guacamole.

Tomorrow I MUST [repeat MUST] begin my tons of work that I told myself I was going to do during break. In a week and a day I'll be back at school and I'll be kicking myself for being lazy during vacation. I think I'm going to try and tackle Biblical Grammar and save the paper writing for Sunday.

And thought some may argue with me, I LOVE PESACH FOOD. Matza brei, matza with cream cheese and jelly, matza with chooclate spread, matza with egg salad. Matza in chiken soup. It's all wonderful. Ask me again in 6 days how I feel, ok?

Time for guac-making and lazy friday-enjoying. Oh yeah, and some homework.

Lehit, ya'll.

Passover in Israel in Pictures

The Kotel all empty and clean in preparation for the Chag.
Lots of Chasidish guys burning chametz near the Kotel. I though there was a fire or something. It made the Old City smell kind of gross. What's cool about this is that I had never actiually seen people "burning" their chametz before.
This is a sign when you walk into the Jewish Quarter of the Old City reminding everyone not to bring their chametz [levened bread products] into the city. Ali and I ended up eating latkas and salad at a cafe b/c there was no bread. Turned out that only made us want bread so much more. So we went home and before the seder ate pita and hummus, tortilini and chocolate with peanut butter. Then we felt really sick.
A great sign welcoming Pesach and visiters to the Old City. Actually, this sign is all over the city. What's funny is that the pictures is of Jerusalem is made out of Matzah. Ha ha. [sorry, bad Jewish/Rabbi humor]

More pictures from Ali's visit and a post on my first Pesach as an Israeli. It was awesome. To those celebrating second seder/day in the states- Chag Sameach V'Kasher!

Negev Pics

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaNWTlq2bOXmA

Check 'em out!

Not so much sleep but whatever...

Thursday morning we left on our final tiyul, this time to the desert. I'll recap the highlights since most of the four days were spent relaxing and enjoying the beautiful scenery with my friends. Thursday after visiting Miztpe Ramon we drove to Kibbutz Yahel (the first Reform kibbutz) and picked up camping gear. We drove an hour south into Eilat and camped near the Israel/Egypt border.

I thought the camping was great, but some of my classmates didn't agree so much. Especially after they told us there would be a bathroom and there wasn't. Ashkenazi stomachs + every other girl on her period = need for bathrooms. Some people went back to the kibbutz to sleep, others stayed at the campsite. I ate dinner, smoked hookah and drank wine with Sandi, Mel, Rena and Shayna before getting some shut eye beneath the stars. I can't remember the time I've seen stars that bright and beautiful.

Friday we woke up, packed up the campsite, went hiking for about 5 hours and then went back to Yahel for Shabbat. I stayed with Rena, Mel and Shayna who turned out to be *fabulous* roommates and provided for much late-night entertainment. Plus, we had 5 episodes of L Word - Season 3 to start watching. I'm so hooked. [I've only watched 1-5 so please don't spoil the other espisodes- especially what happens with Dana...I have two weeks of waiting until the next episode!]

Shabbat was wonderfully restful- I helped lead tefilot in the morning and took and long shluff in the afternoon. I also led Havdallah with Emily Dunn. After dinner we watched more L Word and then joined in the fun at the group kareokee event. My standard piece, "Papa Don't Preach," wasn't available so I sang "Always be my Baby" by Mariah Carey. It was a really fun night [I mean, who wouldn't want to sing kareokee with Paul Liptz, Moshe and Gingi?!]

Sunday we woke up and visited Kibbutz Lotan before getting back to J'lem around 6pm.

Sunday night I met up with Rena, Deb and Rena's parents who are in town for Pesach. We had dinner at Foccacia Bar- [yummy bread before we can't eat it anymore] and I got home late in order to unpack, gather my laundry and clean my room.

Monday I met Rena early to have breakfast with her parents before getting Asher and getting in the car for a little day trip. We went to Rosh Pina, a little town about 3 hours north of Jerusalem. We shopped a little and had a late lunch at Shokolateh, a *fabulous* chocolate-oriented restaurant. Right before dessert we ran into Yael and Simon, the daughter and son-in-law of Rena's mom's friend's sister [confused? don't worry- i am too!] who are in town from London for the seder that we'll all be at on Wednesday night. We left Rosh Pina and made it back in time for me to go to dinner with my friend Robyn and SEVEN of her family members that are visiting. After dinner I rushed home for a quick shower and job interview with a religious school in New York. Assuming my references check out, I'll have a 2-3 day/a week job at a wonderful shul in the city. Names and details to come once it's official. After the interview and on cloud 9, Rena and I went out to celebrate Shayna's 27th birthday with Mel and Lev who were leaving at 2:30 am for Bellarus.

Cut to Today- Tuesday.
I got up at 4:30 am to get in the car to get to Ben-Gurion by 5:30 where my very best friend ALISON RACHEL was waiting for me there! Yay! I haven't seen Ali since July, before I left for Israel. She's on the last leg of her spring break trip (Budapest, Prague, Israel) before heading back to Madrid for the rest of her semester abroad. We took a quick morning nap, met Rachel for coffee, shopped til we dropped (literally) and did the Passover food shopping thing.

Then I aluminum foiled my entire kitchen in preparation for Pesach. I made chicken soup. I moved the chametz stuff into the oven room. I got a new toothbrush. Pesach is here whether I like it or not. Don't worry, I like it.

Plan for the rest of Ali's visit:
-Old City/Kotel
-Seder
-Day trip to Masada, Dead Sea and Ein Geddi.

Sleep? It's for the weak. Or, I'll start catching up soon. Pictures from the tiyul to come tonight.

Pre-Tiyul Post

So what's more fun than missing school for a week, then having a 4-day week and then having a 4-day tiyul?

Oh yes, having 10 days off from day for Pesach Break after that. Can you see my smile from where you're sitting? It's HUGE! No school until April 23rd! Wahooooooooo!

I'm about done packing for our Negev tityul where we'll visit Mitzpe Ramon, S'de Boker, Eilat, Kibbutz Yahel, sleep under the stars, hike, snorkel and enjoy a lazy, chill Shabbat. I wanna get my brother one of those Kibbutz Yahel shirts that we all got when we were here on our NFTY trips.

I'm rooming with Mel, Shayna and Rena which should prove for an enjoyable time. AND, Rena was able to download the first five episodes of L Word. Sooo excited. I bought wine and cookies. Yes, its going to be a great weekend.

I'm also looking forward to having some time with my BFFAE, Miss Alison Rachel Petok who is coming on TUESDAY! [yay yay yay yay yay!] I haven't seen her since June. There is much catching up to be done. We'll do the Pesach thing, the shopping thing, the laying-in-bed-watching-center-stage-thing and the going to Masada/Dead Sea thing.

After that It'll be time to get down to work- make-up Hebrew work, a Bible paper, biblical grammar, a liturgy paper and research on my Kadima paper. I know it doesn't sound like so much fun, but it'll be really nice when all this work is done at the end of break and I just have to worry about finals. [Finals start in about 7 weeks if you can believe it.] [I'm going/coming home in 54 days. No I can't believe it either.]

For those who are curious about my post-biking recovery, I'll just say that most of the rashes have cleared up nicely. There is almost no pain in my knees. I even went to the gym today. I feel great and am super excited for the hiking, swimming and just being in the 90-degree desert weather!

Tiyul and biking pictures to come...Chag Sameach everyone...