Happy Halloween!

Ephy and Roie ended up skipping out on our apartment date for Moses Thursday night, so Tomer went home for the weekend.  Oh well.

Thursday before Ulpan we had a "Darfuri Dessert and Discuss" in the regular "Dessert and Learn" scheduled time--I much prefer the new, more alliterative name.  We had Nic, a British man working with an African refugee relief organization in Tel Aviv, come and talk to us.  We also invited Adam, the English teacher from the Darfuri community center, to come and tell a bit of his story.  What he had to say was very eye-opening, and really made me appreciate being a part of Garin Tzedek.  He told the story of how, on his way to Israel from Egypt, his family couldn't make it over the fence, and his wife was taken to an Egyptian prison.  She was pregnant, but, when she got to the prison, they tortured her and beat her, which caused her to have a miscarriage.  Although they're united again now, it was a poignant story that made me understand the importance of working with the refugee community:



In Ulpan we did the same old things, Nathan and I gave an oral presentation that consisted of a conversation about what we should do our oral presentation on.  After this, Cera and I headed into Tel Aviv to go teach some conversational English to the Darfuris at the school.  When we walked into the family center, however, the class was watching a documentary about the Darfuri refugee situation in Israel.  Adam was featured in it several times, and it was very intriguing.  I asked him for a copy and he gladly obliged.  We then proceeded to teach the class--I had them work on using English verbs in the past tense (which can be fairly hard--there is the standard "verb+ed" construction, such as walked, talked, laughed, but there are many verbs that are irregular in the past, such as ate, ran, swam, fought, understood, etc.)  Each student talked a little bit about their day in the past tense.  Last Tuesday, when I was there, I tried to teach them the future tense, but then realized that, in English, the future tense is the simplest one--you just say I/you/he/she/it/we/y'all/they "will" and then the present tense form of the verb.  If you've never studied another language, know that much of the time (especially in Hebrew) the future tense is one of the hardest ones.  That Tuesday one of the Darfuris also used the sentence in class "I don't like this country."  It's strange to think of how many of these refugees are forced here out of circumstance.  Every one that I talk to has said that their ultimate goal is to go home, once the violence stops.

The only bad thing about Thursday night was that, because of volunteering, I missed out on going out to eat dinner with Noah's parents, which everyone told me was fantastic (AND FREE).

After volunteering, we went to Max Brenner, a shmancy-fancy chocolate and dessert place, for Jackie's birthday.  We then went to Moses, which was, as always, delicious.  On the way home, the rain started to come down again.  Cera and I decided to take the 18 to its final stop, which was supposed to be the cemetery.  When we got out, though, it was raining a ferocious deluge, and we walked a couple blocks without seeing the cemetery before we gave up.  We had some very interesting conversations while waiting for a bus in the other direction, and then walked home after it didn't come for an hour and the rain let up a little.

On Friday I woke up at about 12.  It was still raining heavily, and, later that day, I actually saw a taxi that was in water up to the bottoms of its doors and couldn't move.  I went over to Eli Cohen 24 (previously known as Simon's/Nathan's/Scott's/BenJirik's/Aaron's/Ohad's apartment) for a little while for some reason I can't exactly remember, then headed over to the Hangar to buy some clothes for a costume.  I bought a pair of novelty Israel boxer-briefs, as well a pair of surprisingly comfortable man thongs.  In terms of the costume, however, I got a 6 XL red shirt.  I went home and wrote on it "You wouldn't like me when I'm the wrong color!" and wore my red shorts that night so I could be the incredible hulk in the wrong color.  Kind of a lame costume, but whatever, it's Halloween in Israel.  The party was okay, the club it was in was kind of small and it sucked having to take a taxi there and back, but at least Felicia, Adam and I went to a delicious restaurant after (Olive was the name I think).  Scott had a really clever costume--he wrote on a white t-shirt "Ceilings, ceilings, go ceilings! 2, 4, 6, 8, who do we appreciate--CEILINGS!" (he was a ceiling fan).  I also helped Shirit a bit with some of her essays for UC and got to see Omri, who I haven't seen since last summer (before the party).  Halfway into the night, I ripped several parts of my shirt open, and whenever someone asked me what happened, I told them that I morphed into the incredible hulk for a minute and ripped the shirt.  Lame, but what I am going to do with a 6 XL shirt that says "You wouldn't like me when I'm the wrong color" on it???

This morning I woke up late and the sky was clearing up.  It's still chilly outside, though, which is amazing--I love the temperature right now.  Shirit came over and we worked some more on her UC essays before I walked her to her Grandma's place in Holon.  I then went down to the beach with a large group of people, and some of us had pizza while others enjoyed falafel and shwarma.  Then we walked back hurriedly, because the sky was getting dark with looming storm clouds (although it didn't end up raining tonight).  I hung out at Eli Cohen 24 (previously known as Simon's/Nathan's/Scott's/BenJirik's/Aaron's/Ohad's apartment) for a while, then Scott and I went for a run.  I returned, had some dinner there, showered, and then Scott, Simon, Omri, Shirit, Cera, Emilie, and I watched "The Nightmare Before Christmas."  After all, it is Halloween night.  Anyway, now I'm back here and going to bed.  Happy Halloween everyone!

Rain!!!

This morning I woke up to heavy storm clouds announcing the presence of booming rain.  It was fantastic--for the first day since I've gotten here, I walked outside and did not feel hot at all.  It was a perfect 68 degrees Fahrenheit outside, and the drizzle was just beginning to come down as I got to volunteering at the school in the morning.

Some days when I'm at the school I feel disheartened about the future of Israel, because the kids I work with are all troublemakers who haven't learned any English.  Today, though, I got a chance to work with some of the better kids near the end of the day, and it was very relieving--they really knew their shit.

I realized on my way back to the apartment that I'd left my umbrella at the school; I hope it's still there on Monday.  I came back to a very clean apartment that Roie had spent most of the morning working on.  We had mifgash dira with Noa just a bit ago and tried to get her to say "fuck" the whole time.  This is one of the things that's listed on our "list of things to do before the end of Bat Yam (as an apartment)," but we couldn't manage yet.  It was a good mifgash though.  Tonight, we'll cross another one of the things off the list as we go to Moses, an amazing burger place in Tel Aviv, as an apartment.  I'll take some pictures and write about it later.

Anywho, I'm in a rush to eat lunch and shower before Ulpan, so I'm gonna go.  Hope your day is turning out to be pleasantly surprising!

יצחק רבין

The Sea Scouts siyur on Tuesday was excellent--we went to the beach at around 12 and played some fun games with the scouts.  We talked about how Israel doesn't do enough to fix its internal problems (increased violence, a water shortage, and, to some extent, even the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) because it is faced with going out of existence due to external problems (i.e. a nuclear Iran).  Then the sea scouts arrived and we went kayaking out in the ocean, which was pretty awesome.  The waves were huge and Nathan and I took a double kayak, so we felt them even more.  There were also a plethora of rocky outcroppings and reefs, which gave the entire siyur a high chance of death (making it that much more fun).

We returned from this and shortly thereafter I went into Tel Aviv to work with both the Darfuri children in their home (Talal, Musa, and Shima) and the adult class right after.  The adult class was hard, because Adam, their teacher, just gave me free reign to do whatever I wanted this time.  Last time, he gave me a textbook to work with them out of, so I had some sort of structure.  This time, I just worked with them on their spoken English and explained some concepts to them that they could use.  I am going again tomorrow, I think it'll be best to have a lesson plan this time.  In addition to this, we had some time to hang up a few laminated things in the gan--namely, the alef-bet and the numbers 0-10.  It was pretty cool to see how the gan will start to look after we hang more things up.  I'm very excited for the "after" picture of the room.  Before we left, I asked Adam to come and be a speaker at the "Darfuri Dessert and Discuss" we're having tomorrow at Ulpan.  I'm pretty excited about it, because now we have two different speakers from entirely different backgrounds (the other one is Nic, he is British and that's pretty much all I know about him).  It's awesome that they gave us the Dessert and Discuss time slot for this week, too.  When I got back home from Tel Aviv, I went for a run and then to bed.

This morning I woke up and did the dishes.  Then I went to class, and something very interesting was illuminated to me: for years I've been hearing things like "Iran will have a nuke within 12 months" (or sometimes less) and the number has rarely gone down.  How could it remain constant when time is always passing?  Well, apparently, many Iranian nuclear scientists have died highly suspicious deaths that suggest that either U.S. or Israeli intelligence forces may be assassinating them.  It's gotten to the point where Iranian scientists have to have a bodyguard with them at all times.

Then, in the David Project, we split into two sides and had a debate over how the Israeli barrier fence disrupts Palestinian lives: this wouldn't've been bad at all, except that I was pretty much the only person on my side (the Israeli one) to speak up, which made me feel like everyone was ganging up on me and, naturally, reduced my effectiveness--but I guess that's kind of representative of the situation on college campuses, now isn't it?  It's interesting, the more I learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the more conflicted I am about the entire situation.

Anyway, after classes, we went to the Ulpan to have a peulah with the tsofim about Rabin's death, and what it meant symbolically for Israel, as well as its farther-reaching effects.  We read a letter by his killer, a highly religious Jew (Yigal Amir) who thought he was steering the country in the wrong direction.  Yigal thought that, 20 years after his imprisonment, the state would see that they had been wrong to imprison him and they would release him with much jubilation.  This seems to be a very real concern, as the Bat Yam ceremony for Yitzhak Rabin that we attended shortly after the peulah focused not so much on the man but on the idea of "not murdering."  Modern Israeli society is concerned with emphasizing freedom of speech and opinion, but only up until the point where it begins to affect other people (i.e. murder or general violence).  This is a reasonable thing for the society to be concerned about right now, because, as I said before, there has been a drastic increase in violence and murder in Israel in the past two months.  The entire ceremony was very somber: there was no clapping, and all the speakers spoke with a certain deep sense of sobriety.  There were some songs by a choir and one performance by an interpretive dance group, but even these things were done with a distinct resignation and sorrow.  At the end, we sang the Israeli national anthem: התקוה, "Hatikva" (the hope).   Hatikva is one of the most poignant things in the world to me: whenever I sing or hear it, I feel a deep sense of pride and patriotism for Israel, in a way that I can't get from the American national anthem.  It manages to be both optimistic and sorrowful while maintaining an air of dignity.  It's hard to explain if you haven't heard it, and even harder if you don't speak Hebrew.

After the ceremony, we returned home, I played some Euchre with Jake, Nathan, and Scott, and now I'm here.  And that's that.  I have to get up early for volunteering tomorrow, so I'd better get to bed.  Laila tov! (Good night)

1 hour, 57 seconds.

On Saturday morning I slept in until about 12, and then spent most of the day hanging out in Lizzy's apartment with Scott, Andrew, and, of course, Lizzy.  We watched many stupid videos and had light meals, discussing how different things were going to work for the Nike 10k Nightrun that night!

When we finally headed out, it was about 6:15 or 6:30 in the evening.  We went to Rabin Square, and, on the way there, a significant amount of people wearing the shirt for the 10k got on the bus.  One was a woman who I heard say that a little over 10,000 people were participating in the run.  When we got there, the square was packed with red-shirted runners, such as Andrew and myself:



In the days leading up to the race, I ran several 4ks, but I thought for sure that during the 10k I would end up walking a couple of kilometers.  To my surprise, I ended up running the entire thing somehow--I suppose when there's a level of motivation and determination, things sometimes just come naturally.  I went into the race wanting to break 100 minutes, but I ended up crossing the finish line in 1 hour and 57 seconds--and I was the first person to finish in the 60+ minutes heat.  All in all, it was exhilarating, and I felt a distinct sense of accomplishment afterwards.  I find it strange that my first serious race was such a long one, but that just makes it all the more triumphant.

On Sunday I woke up at around 11:30 and went to a meeting with a Hadassah lady down at Ulpan--she thought that Year Course isn't a "whole" experience, and wanted to talk to a couple chanichim about how they feel the program works (or doesn't).  I'm pretty sure we set her straight...we also got free pizza, so it was totally worth it. :P

Then there were, of course, classes, and after that we got to go to an Idan Raichel concert.  It was pretty good, I suppose.  I'm not that into him, though, so I feel like some of my other friends enjoyed it a lot more.  It was definitely an interesting experience, regardless.  I also saw Hadley and Oren there, which was cool.

And then this morning I went to the school to volunteer.  It's very hard to work with kids who straight-up don't care.  I don't know how to tell them that they need to learn English because it's an important skill in Israeli society without sounding too harsh, and it's even more difficult because some of the students just scream the whole time.  Still, if I have to endure students who don't care for most of the day, there is one guy, Adir, who I work with just before I leave who makes up for it all.  He has great difficulty with English but has improved drastically since we've started working together, and he genuinely cares.  It's absolutely phenomenal, especially compared to the other kids.

Anywho, I then went to Ulpan for a presentation about our upcoming trimester (they always say semester) in Arad, and that's when it kind of hit me: we only have a month left in Bat Yam, with the scouts, in the urban center of Israel.  It's hard to believe 2 months have already gone by...although I've written down a lot here, I can't help but feel as though I've missed some things that I want to remember, as though some experiences slipped by without my even having a conscious recollection of them.  It's strange to think that there is only a month left here, but it is also invigorating: it makes me want to make this coming month the best one possible.

Tonight, after Ulpan, Garin Tzedek held a very successful Israeli dancing session, with many attending.  It was a good deal of fun, and included most of the dances from Young Judaea that I've grown to love over the years.

After that, Nathan and I went for a longer run, did some exercises, and returned to my apartment for a delicious stir-fry dinner that Roie cooked.  By the time I got out of the shower and got ready to go out, everyone who I called had already gone to bed--which is good, it'll be nice to get some decent rest for once.

Tomorrow, I was signed up for the Palmach Museum Siyur (a museum I've visited several times--interesting, but less so after the first time), and then today when I checked the list, I was suddenly signed up for Sea Scouts, which is what I actually wanted.  I'm not going to ask any questions; I'm just going to accept what fate has graciously handed to me.  Tomorrow should be a good day.  Take it easy, chaverim, I hope all is well!  Feel free to send me an e-mail or a message or leave a comment or something, I'm sure I'd love to hear from you!

שבת שלום!

Today, Adi and Lior got back from the pilot's gibush.  A gibush is an intensive, week-long training program that is only for certain elite units of the Israeli army (such as the air force) that determines whether or not people can even undergo the training for that unit, let alone become a part of it.  Both of them passed, though, so I was very happy for them--it is one of the hardest gibushim, and Adi has all these bruises on her body from how intense it was.

Anyway, Wednesday I woke up fairly late and went to class.  In Arab-Israeli conflict we discussed how dependency on oil forces American politicians to sometimes turn against Israel, and later that day I got home and saw an article discussing a speech BiBi Netanyahu (Israel's Prime Minister) had recently given about reducing dependency on foreign oil and seeking alternative forms of energy.  The timing was very interesting.  After classes, Cera and I went to the Mohammed house, where we teach Musa, Talal, and Shima.  We made flash cards for them and played memory with English words, and they seemed to have a good time--I felt like they actually learned something, too.  When this ended, we went to meet up with people from Midwest at Yotvata cafe, and to talk to Robin.  I finally got to see Tom again (he returned to Israel from South America the other day, he and I were good friends at camp), as well as Nofar!  It was excellent to see everyone and talk about stuff at Midwest, and got me excited for next year.  Oren was also there, which was cool, because it was one of the first opportunities I've gotten to actually speak to him since I've been in Israel.  Oren and I split a chocolate souffle that was even tastier because it was paid for by camp.

Earlier in the week, I'm pretty sure it was on Monday, Jake taught Scott and I (and Nathan) how to play Euchre.  I don't know if you're familiar with Euchre, but it's one of the more thought-intensive card games I've ever played.  However, I feel as though it's kind of a love-hate relationship.  At times it's exciting and intriguing, but sometimes I almost feel obligated to play it, and find myself slogging through it.  It's kind of like reading an Ayn Rand novel in that way.

Thursday I went to the school and taught some apathetic kids a small bit of English.  After having worked with the adult Darfuris, who care so much and are motivated to learn, it's hard to go back to trying with vigor to teach kids who are set upon finding distractions and just getting out of class.  Later that day, I went to Ulpan class, where we watched a movie called "At the End of the World, Take Left."  It was strange, and had a lot of sex scenes in it.  A lot of it was also in French, which didn't help with my Hebrew much. :P

Thursday night I headed out to go to Club Broadway again, like last week--it was fine, but nothing special, really.  Clubbing is clubbing.  That night I also found out that Alyssa, the absolutely crazy girl in Emilie and Cari's apartment, was kicked off of Year Course.  Apparently, she stole 100 shekels out of Shoshy's wallet, and then Shoshy called and asked her about it, promising not to say anything if it was her.  She admitted to it, so Shoshy called her madricha and the rakezet of Bat Yam to tell them what had happened.  They then called Alyssa, so Alyssa called Shoshy and threatened (in all seriousness) to kill her.  Shoshy told her madricha and the rakezet about this, and the executive decision was made to kick Alyssa off the program.  I would feel bad, but it's really far too much independence for her, and she's kind of a danger to her roommates--she's a bit crazy.  It's strange, that 20-year-old Lauren (she's 20 and on Year Course because she just got out of rehab) girl got kicked off last week after she stole hundreds of dollars and clothes from her roommates...I don't understand some people.

There is an interesting phenomenon in Israeli society: despite the drinking age only being 18, many bars have age minimums of 21 or even 24.  My cousin told me it was because they want certain demographics in their bars (i.e. soldiers or university students), and Liat told me last Friday night (when she kind of snuck me into a 21 and over bar) that it's because many bars feel like kids who've just turned 18 and can legally buy alcohol don't know their limits.  It's interesting.

Today I woke up at about 12:30 and went to the Super Douche to buy materials to make soup, because tonight we had a potluck dinner for Garin Tzedek, גרעין צדק. It was interesting--I made the soup out of chicken broth, onions, and yams, and it actually turned out pretty good.  The dinner was to help fund raise for the Darfuris in Tel-Aviv, and was delicious.  After the dinner, I hosted a "Whose Shabbos is it Anyway" oneg, which was also pretty fun.  After, Nathan and I went back to his apartment to play Euchre, and now I'm about to go to sleep.  I hope your Shabbat is excellent, make the most of it!  שבת שלום!

Clean Clothes!

Yesterday I woke up late for volunteering, at around 9:40, and hurried over to the school, only to find out that I wasn't  needed for an hour and a half or so because the class was taking a test.  So I only worked from 12-12:45 with a kid, Adir, who has a particular amount of trouble with his English.  After volunteering I went home and hung out in the apartment a bit before Ulpan.  We had a brief גרעיו צדק (Garin Tzedek) meeting.  After Ulpan, Cera and I went shopping for some materials to renovate the Darfuri family center in Tel Aviv, which we did today.

More importantly about yesterday, I got clean clothes! This is the saga of what happened over the past week with my laundry situation:

Last Wednesday
I brought my clothes to the man who lives under Eli Cohen 24 (previously known as Nathan's/Simon's/Scott's/Ohad's/BenJirik's/Aaron's apartment), and he told me that they would be done in two days--just like last time.

Last Friday
I went back to the man's laundry shop at 5 P.M. and he said "Oh, you're quite late!" To which I was happy and apologized, only to find out that he thought I was someone else and that their dryer was broken.  He said to come back on Sunday for my clothes.  By this Friday night, I already think I have only one clean shirt left, and it is a plain white T.  On top of this I wear another, only clean, button-down green shirt.  I think I am fucked.

Last Saturday Night
I go into Tel Aviv to go to the club called "Tel Aviva" and discover, much to my surprise, that I will not have to wear my disgusting white T (that is, by then, somewhat gray)--I find another shirt in my closet, one of those false tuxedo shirts that are mainly for kicks.  I wear this to the party.  This is literally the last shirt I have.

Last Sunday
I come on Sunday at about 5:30 and get turned away by the man's wife, with only the word "tomorrow."  Still wearing the tuxedo shirt.

Yesterday, 12:55 P.M.
I come in and the wife tells me "come in the afternoon."  It is one o'clock, bitch.  I know you work in a rundown laundry service store, but this is the afternoon--almost an hour after.  Of course, I don't say this--I just say "OKAY."  Still wearing the tuxedo shirt.

Yesterday, 6:15 P.M.
I come in and finally get my laundry.  It weighs ten kilograms, and thus costs 80 shekels.  No discount for waiting twice the estimated period of time. I go home and change out of the tuxedo shirt, for once and for all.  I am never wearing that for more than 2 hours again--it is clearly only for partying.  I can't tell you how many people made fun of me for coming to informal events "in a tux."  "Why so classy, Ittai?"  Har har.  Although, in their defense, I always think it's a tux for a second when I first look at it.

קצר, Anyhow, today, we painted one of the rooms in the Tel Aviv Darfuri family center baby blue and made a lot of signs to hang up in order to make the room ideal for small children.  We hope to set up a kindergarten-type daycare in the family center, where Darfuri kids who are not yet of school age can be dropped off near the beginning of the day.  Thus we made lots of posters with the names of things in Hebrew and English, and plan on hanging up the letters of each alphabet.  For now, however, all that is done is the paint job.

Although most people left today at 1:30 or so, Nathan, Emilie, Cera and I stayed, since we had to volunteer in Tel Aviv at 6:30 anyway.  Adam, the adult English teacher and director of the family center, cooked us some gristly meat, which was delicious.  We then went to ice gelato, a great ice cream place by the beach, and split up into our pairs to go work with kids in their apartments.  This part was okay, my kid had a lot of difficulty reading, but at least he was more motivated than most of the kids I help in the Israeli schools.  I feel like it was very hard on both Cera and Emilie to teach the kids, because the children primarily speak Hebrew with us.  It's not that bad, though--after all, that is why we split into pairs, so there is at least one Hebrew speaker with each pair.  What was really fun was after the tutoring of the children--we then returned to the family center and taught the adults, who are highly motivated.  Adam, the English teacher, simply gave me the book and had me start teaching the class--he left to do something else.  Although this was a bit of a shock at first, and kind of hard, I quickly figured it out and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I felt a sense of accomplishment at the end--all of the people in the class were very appreciative and I could tell that they'd all learned at least a bit more English today.  It just feels good to teach people who want to be taught.  Unfortunately, most people don't.

We returned home at about 11, I went for a jog, and now I'm going to bed.  It's been a long day, and I should actually get some sleep for once.  I hope you, whoever you are, are doing well! :)

Once again...

...I have waited far too long before posting.

The speaker that Wednesday night turned out to be excellent.  Although at first he droned on about his own experiences in the army and his own history, when we neared the end he took questions about Gilad Shalit, and his answers really changed my opinion on the situation.  Basically, Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip, abducted him and demands the release of 1100 Palestinian prisoners, some of whom are very infamous terrorists.  I have always had a problem with doing this, because it is not only an unfair trade (what other nation would give 1100 people for 1?  this just reflects the minimal amount of value Hamas puts on the lives of its people), but also can be interpreted as a sign of weakness by Hamas.  Furthermore, who knows if the people we release are going to return to wreak havoc and perpetuate more acts of terrorism?  Of course, there are also the families of the people who many of these prisoners have killed, who feel that it is an injustice to release them.  But the speaker at Ulpan brought up some important points: not releasing these people isn't going to bring the dead protester's relatives back to life, 16% of released prisoners return to terrorism, and Hamas and other militant organizations already know that we value our soldiers much more than they value their people, indeed, they are trying to kidnap Israelis all the time because they know that we will do everything within our power to bring them back.  This is why I know think it's worth trading the prisoners back: if we can have at least one Israeli soldier return home safe from the entire ordeal, isn't it worth it?  It's better than hearing of his death in a couple of months, or getting him back dead later for an equally exorbitant amount of prisoners (as is what happened with Goldwasser and Regev).  It's worth getting Gilad back alive and healthy, both for the moral of the nation and just for his own life.

In any case, Wednesday night nothing too special happened--I went over to Cari's apartment to watch Religilous with some people, but we all got tired of it and had volunteering in the morning, so we gave it up and I came home and went to bed.

Thursday, I went to volunteering late in the morning (my alarms did not go off properly), and then came back home before Ulpan to clean up the apartment a bit.  At Ulpan, we had an oral presentation, so Nathan and I did a scene where I was his uncle in Israel calling him to invite him to come over sometime and asking him why he hadn't called me since he's been in Israel for so long (a conversation that many Year Coursers have had with their relatives, no doubt).  After Ulpan, I went into Tel Aviv with the Garin Tzedek leaders and we met up with Yossein, who gave us ice cream and a hearty dinner of some version of cow haggis (intestines), which was delicious.  We then went to the family center, where we met some Darfuri adults who were learning English (and actually knew it VERY well, they were working on the perfect tenses, something many Americans have trouble with).  We also discussed the possibility of setting up a kindergarten in the center with Yossein, we're returning on Tuesday to pick out a room and renovate it.  The whole thing made me feel very optimistic, although it's still somewhat strange--while we were eating dinner at Yossein's, Cera was convinced the meat was pig, until I found out it was cow intestines.  Yossein and the other Darfuris speak primarily Arabic, and whenever we're at any of their houses Al Jazeera or another Arabic channel plays on their television.  It's very strange, yet also eye-opening.

We went straight from our meeting to the "first and biggest party of year course," after we got some vodka and roamed around trying to find the place for an hour.  The party ended up being the worst night I've had for several reasons that really aren't worth talking about.  I didn't end up getting any sleep that night, because my cousin Gil came at 6 AM to pick me up to go visit my cousin Dror's navy base up north.  It was pretty interesting, we got to go on the ship and find out about its different rooms.  I would have taken pictures, but they confiscated almost everything we had on us before we entered the base.  Afterwards, I and that portion of my family went out to lunch at a nice Chinese place in Haifa, which was delicious.

When I came back to Bat Yam that afternoon, I napped a bit and then went over to Eli Cohen 24 (previously known as Simon's/Ohad's/Scott's/Nathan's/BenJirik's/Aaron's apartment) for Shabbat dinner, which consisted of a hearty amount of pasta with meatballs--it was fairly satisfying.  Later that night, Liat Ferman from Midwest met up with me and took me to a bar in Rishon Lezion, where she lives.  The age to get in was 21, but she was friends with the bouncer. :P  It was refreshing to talk to someone older than me outside of Year Course for the first time in a while.  She and I had some good conversation, and decided that we need to hang out together with Tom Sela as soon as possible.  I am beyond excited about this--hanging out with Mishalachat members from camp should be awesome.

When I got back from Rishon, I went over to Lior's apartment and ended up sleeping there.  On Shabbat, I woke up late and we all went down to the beach for a few hours.  We once again went to Arlekino's (I have got to stop going there, it is unhealthy.  Here is a picture (finally) from the time before that):



Later that night, Scott got back, and we went into Tel Aviv to go to a club called Tel Aviva.  We got fairly lost but then some Israeli girl on the bus helped us get there.  Once we arrived, we found out they were only letting in people over 20 (according to some of our scout friends who were trying to get in).  However, I just spoke English quickly to the bouncer and he handed my and my friends' IDs to some girl who decided to let us in.  I don't know why, but they like Americans at their parties here, for the most part--perhaps it's because they expect us to spend a lot of money, or maybe just because they think Americans know how to party.

Anyway, that club was nothing too special.  Then came this morning--I woke up at 11:30 or so and went grocery shopping.  When I got back, I went to classes, which were pretty good.  After classes, I and some others went to 5-shekel falafel for dinner, and shortly afterwards went on our special siyur to the "na laga'at נא לגאת" center to see a performance by blind and deaf actors called "Not on the bread alone."  It was a very touching performance, and made me really appreciate my senses of sight and hearing.  At one point, one of the girls in the play who could hear only a little bit wanted to play piano for her deaf friend in the hopes that he would just "feel it."  This really made me think, there are some emotions I experience that I believe to be triggered by sight and sounds--does that mean that deaf/blind people have a smaller range of emotions than most?  It was just so sad when she was playing a beautiful song on the piano and he was smiling gaily, with such a sense of happy yet subduedly frustrated innocence.  To some extent, the actors couldn't have been entirely sure of exactly what was happening on stage, since they were blind--it was all very ironic and somewhat sardonic, and forced me to reflect a good deal on life and the human experience.  The whole point of the play, however, was the title--that they don't live only on bread, the simple pleasures, but also have grand dreams and other things.  At the end of the play, we got to eat the bread that they made in it.  The entire experience was fantastic, and something I doubt I'll forget anytime soon.

Anyway, I should really get to bed.  I have to be up in 5 hours for volunteering.  Good night, everyone, I hope I get back in the habit of writing more often soon!

(also, I have Hebrew on my computer now, something I'm very excited about.  לילה טוב! )

Yom Sport...

...was fun, even though team Noa Cohen's chanichim (us) lost every single game we played.  At least we got free t-shirts, which are the first legitimate Year Course shirts we've received (I don't count the super crappy "Year Course Orientation 2009" shirts we got, because I would rather not wear a shirt than wear one of those).

I and some others spent a bit of time in the country club after we played the sports there, just hanging out in the pool.  We then went home for 5-shekel falafel and I took a short nap.

At around 5, Nathan, Emilie, Cera and I met at the bus stop to go into Tel Aviv and see Yossein, the leader of the Darfuri organization that we want to work with, B'nei Barak Darfur.  He took us to meet the two families whose kids we are going to be teaching English on certain nights.  Seeing their smiles and surprised expressions at our seemingly random offer to help was very satisfying, but I still have mixed feelings about the entire situation.  The kids speak Hebrew and need help with English, but the parents know neither very well at all, and some of them wanted us to teach them English.  The entire time we were there I am pretty sure they were speaking Arabic amongst themselves, and, in the background, they were watching Al Jazeera TV, a huge Arabic media station.  Of course, I had realized before this that many of the Darfuris are Muslim, it is just something strange to think about.

One of the kids we met with, whose name I think was Fa'iz, told me that he moved to Israel from the Darfur region only 3 years ago.  He is now 11, and I asked him if he still remembers the trip over: "Yes, somewhat."  And I asked him if it was a hard trip: "Yes, at least 4 hours of walking."  And I asked him if he liked it better in Darfur or Israel :"I'm not sure yet."  I suspect he doesn't remember most of the trip, because it is much more than 4 hours of walking--it is supposed to be a hellish nightmare to get all the way from the Darfur region of Sudan to Israel.  Still, I found it incredible that he only moved to Israel three years ago--he speaks almost impeccable Hebrew, and, in a couple of years, will probably speak much better Hebrew than I can.

After our  meetings, the four of us went out to dinner.  We wanted to go to "24 Rupees," an Indian restaurant that was supposed to be close to where the Darfuris lived (Har Tzion Street).  We asked some people on the street and they had no idea, so eventually we called Noah Berman, but he told us to go to "Rupin Street."  We got to tachanat merkazit (the central bus station) and called Lior, who told us to take the number 4 bus to get to Rupin Street.  Turns out, Rupin Street is on the other side of Tel Aviv, and it is a domestic street full of apartment buildings--no food, no 24 rupee Indian dinner.  We called Michal, who had initially told us about the restaurant, and she said it was not at all on Rupin Street, but, as we suspected, near the Har Tzion neighborhood.  We gave up on this and eventually went to a place called Mexicana, where we all ate some pizza.  It was a fairly nice sit-down place that wasn't too expensive.  Afterwards, we went to "Ice Gelato," an ice cream place near the beach in Tel Aviv.  I was fairly skeptical at first, but it ended up being the second best ice cream experience I've had in Israel so far (aside, of course, from Arlekino, which I will have to go more in-depth on in some other post).

We went back to Cera's apartment to watch Wet Hot American Summer, but ended up all falling asleep about 45 minutes in, so we decided to go to our respective homes and go to sleep (both Cera and Emilie had volunteering in the morning anyways).

This morning, I woke up at 11 and went to a meeting with Michal about the Garin and future plans, including trips and weekly peulot.  I then helped Cera, Emilie, and Jess sell food in between classes, saw Adam Leinwand at Cera's apartment, went home to do dishes, and went on a run.  Tonight there is a speaker at Ulpan about Gilad Shalit who should be fairly interesting, and later on I may be playing a poker game with my apartment and Eli Cohen 24 (previously known as Simon's/Ohad's/Nathan's/BenJirik's/Scott's/Aaron's apartment).

Actually, the speaker starts fairly soon, so I should go--take it easy, have a good one!

Just a normal day

This will more than likely be one of the most boring posts ever.  Feel free to stop reading here.

I woke up this morning and went to volunteering, where many of the kids didn't care whatsoever to learn English.  Near the end of the day, though, I got to work one-on-one with a kid who spoke almost no English but really wanted to learn; which was a much more meaningful experience for me.  He seemed entranced with the idea of trying to learn English, despite his minimal knowledge, and I was pleased to be able to help him in any way I could.

I returned home and Tomer and I went to Super Douche to buy groceries.  On the way there, we saw the witch outside of the Bat Yam police station (the old lady who wears a hat with an excessively long brim and never leaves the front of the police station, just staring at you with eyes and a wicked smile that say "Have a good day...IN HELL!"), and Tomer made the poor choice of trying to talk to her.  He semi-waved (downwards) and said "Yom tov," "good day."  Instead of responding, she simply stared at him, and rotated her head without breaking eye contact until he and I turned the corner.  I am convinced he is now sterile.

Then we came back and cleaned the apartment for a mifgash dira with Noa, our madricha, during which she talked to each of us individually about our families.  Honestly, sometimes I think the other madrichim have absolutely no clue what they're doing.  All my friends tell me stories about what idiots their madrichim are, but Noa seems to know what she's doing.

I then went to Ulpan, and read, in Hebrew, about why Obama shouldn't have won the Nobel Peace Prize (something I largely agree with).  Class was, as usual, fairly hard.

Then we had z'man madrich with Noa again, when we all got the schedules for the week and she tried to do a peulah with us about the parsha that involved only us reading the parsha in English.  It was incredibly boring and a failure, I made her promise to actually prepare a paper for discussion next week.  After dinner, I went to erev tzofim, which was pretty much a Hebrew trivia game that my team won.  It was reasonably fun.

Nathan, Miki, Adi and I then went to the beach to meet one of Nathan's friends from home.  We ate some Arlekino ice cream, and that was pretty much my night.  We went back to the courtyard briefly, but nothing was really going on, so we all parted ways.  I should really get to bed, tomorrow is "yom sport" (sports day), and I'm signed up for everything.  I wish you a good night!

Ahhh, steak...

This morning I woke up at about 10 and went to Ulpan at 11 for a seminar with Judy about how to teach kids English in the schools.  It was okay, but didn't really apply to me, because, unlike most of the other volunteers, I work with the kids who are having the most difficulty and thus require me to speak Hebrew with them.

After this, Cera, Judith and I went to 5 shekel falafel for lunch, and I then went home to do some things.  We didn't have Arab-Israeli conflict class because I assume Sheldon is out of town or something.  At 2:15 I went down to Ulpan to help Cera and Jess sell snacks for Garin Tzedek to raise money for Darfuris--we sold both Bamba and brownies, and turned a considerable profit:



I then went to the David Project class, which was about refugees today.  Lately, it has become a better class than I anticipated.  After this, I went to the mall and got stickers with Hebrew letters on them for my computer--all I need now is a disc that will allow me to use Hebrew on windows.

The entire apartment then went to Gane Tikva to have dinner at Tomer's house--easily the best food I have eaten in a while, with plenty of steak (ahhh, steak...) and other meat to be had.  It was so satisfying.  Tomer's family was very kind to us and insisted that we eat plenty, and it was by far one of the best apartment dinners ever.

Upon returning to Bat Yam, I went over to Eli Cohen 24 (previously known as Simon's/Scott's/Nathan's/Aaron's/BenJirik's/Ohad's apartment) to poop, and then left for some strange courtyard I'd never been to before.  It was a pretty nonchalant and quite boring scene, so I decided to leave fairly earl.  I have Ulpan homework that I have entirely forgetten to do, so I should probably get to sleep so I can wake up in the morning and do it.  I wish you a delicious dinner, whenever you may be eating!

Succot!

This week has been crazy, since it's been Succot in Israel.  During Succot (largely one of the more insignificant holidays, if you ask me), kids have off from school, and it's generally a week-long national vacation.  Thus, none of us has volunteering or classes.  Tuesday night, after the siyur, I ended up doing very little.  Nathan and I watched Hellboy II, which was pretty much the same thing as the first one.

Then, Wednesday, we woke up late and went to Ulpan at 12 to do a workshop with a band called The Shuk.  The workshop was pretty lame, but then we came back an hour after it for a concert they put on that wasn't actually too bad.  That night, I saw Shirit, who I haven't seen since Machon.  She is on a different gap year program in Israel which sounds pretty cool, as well.  I then went into Tel-Aviv with Scott and Nathan to meet up with Hadley and some of her friends to see her for the first time since we each came to Israel (her on Nativ, a more religious program belonging to USY, and I on Year Course).  We headed over to Moses to meet up with both my apartment and Eli Cohen 24 (previously known as Nathan's/Scott's/Simon's/Aaron's/Ben's/Ohad's apartment).  On the way there, we saw Sam from sports track--he was wasted out of his mind, and we tried to get him to take a cab home but he insisted he wanted to "go home for free" after "beating the shit out of" his friends.  We decided to let him go after trying to point him towards Bat Yam for about twenty minutes (he kept heading in the opposite direction).  I'm glad I never get this way.

After this, however, we went to Moses, which is easily the best burger experience I've ever had.  Words cannot begin to describe.  Some other time, when I am less tired and less has happened to write about, and when I've just returned from Moses, I will devote an entire post to it, complete with pictures and all.  Just know that my burger zenith has been reached disappointingly early in my life.

Then we woke up on Thursday to go to the Tsofim tiyul in the Kinneret.  We went to the "Hidden Lake" in the middle of nowhere kind of near the Kinneret first, and then had barbecue on the Kinneret that night.  Scott, Simon, Anna, Carrie, I, and some others played a hilarious game of 21, and then the majority of us went skinny dipping in the Kinneret.  If Jesus walked on it, I should be able to swim in it naked.

On Friday, we went rafting in the Jordan River, something which is typically boring, but I actually had a lot of fun with this time.  Nathan, Scott, David, Jordan, Sam and I took a raft and decided to be pirates and steal other rafts' paddles.  At first, nobody suspected anything, and it was easy to steal paddles, but word spread quickly.  At the height of our pirating we had 9 paddles, but the pirate gods taught us a lesson for being too greedy and we slowly started to lose our paddles.  By the end of the river, we had but 5 paddles, and were missing Scott.  Technically it was 5 and a half paddles, if you count the "battle paddle" I was holding that was missing one of its ends.  Regardless, it was a fun experience:



As you may (or may not) be able to see, we also took Lior and Maya hostage at one point.

Then, when we returned on Friday, I went over to Eli Cohen 24 (previously known as Nathan's/Scott's/Simon's/Aaron's/Ben's/Ohad's apartment) and had Shabbat dinner with Noah, who was visiting.  Idan Tishell, our mishlachat counselor from Hadracha, also came over for dinner, and great fun was had by all.  After dinner, we all went into Holon to get some alcohol.  We got fairly drunk, and headed down to the beach, where I and Nathan embarked with Anna and Emilie and Judith to Arlekino, a fancy ice cream place.  For 30 shekels, we got 9 scoops of ice cream in three different flavors with a waffle on the bottom.  It was probably one of the best ice cream experiences I've ever had, I must go again soon.

Today, we all woke up fairly late, and the Midwest boys (I, Nathan, Scott, Simon, Ephy, Aaron, Ben, and Noah) went down to the park to play a rigorous game of ultimate frisbee.  We then went to the beach, and then came back home.  This is beginning to be the regular shabbos routine whenever Noah is in town, and I like it a good deal.

I went and watched "Waking Life" with Cera and Ilanah at their apartment, and now I'm going to sleep.  I hope your last week has been fantastic, and that this one matches if not exceeds the intensity of fun you've had during it.  Please, feel free to skype me or send me a facebook message or, hell, even shoot me an e-mail (ittai.eres@gmail.com).  Undoubtedly I would love to hear from you.  Take it easy!

Best Siyur Ever

Sunday night I and Nathan went over to Jake's to play some Beirut, which was pretty fun (although we got our asses handed to us).  Then we went to a park and hung out, swang, played frisbee, and played some guitar until the cops told us we had to leave.  The first time this happened, I thought it was reasonable--the first time, people were being fairly loud and smoking hookah and generally being obnoxious.  This time, however, and the past couple of times (but particularly this one), we weren't being loud.  We were playing the guitar and singing with hushed tones.  Honestly, I begin to suspect that the police just drive around looking for groups of teenagers to break up.  I heavily doubt that someone in the surrounding apartments called, because it would have been almost impossible to hear us unless they were sleeping with the window open and had a two-way walkie-talkie in their room and next to us.  But anyway.

I went back to the apartment that night after meeting Adi's boyfriend, and she called me and told me she had a lot more friends who were at the beach with her--but I really had to be up early the next day, so I couldn't go.

Yesterday, I was supposed to be at Ulpan at 6:45 so we could go to Jerusalem--hence I planned to wake up at 6.  However, since I sleep like a brick, I woke up at 6:45 and rushed to Ulpan, getting lucky enough to catch a bus.  Ephy woke me up because he was annoyed by my alarms that had been going off since 6--he was also going with me.

Speaking of Ephy, I keep having these terrible dreams where parts of Year Course are over and I can't remember them, and Ephy has to describe them to me, and I can never tell if he's lying.  In the first dream it was all of Year Course, and in the second it was the latter two months of Bat Yam.  I hope this doesn't happen.

So we got up preposterously early to go to Jerusalem, and everyone was tired (Simon hadn't slept all night:

)

To go to the Kotel, the holiest site in Judaism, which is the only remaining wall of the (twice) destroyed temple:


We went to Jerusalem so early to hear Birkat HaCohenim, a blessing that the Cohens give to all pilgrims during Succot (the pilgrimage holiday going on now).  This was pretty boring, because, as you can see, the Kotel was packed, and it was impossible to make it to the interesting part (the wall itself).  After standing outside for 2 hours, we finally met up again, and walked around Jerusalem a bit.  We got lunch, and then took a tour of Me'ah Shearim (100 Gates), an extremely religious neighborhood.  This was actually kind of interesting--the people seemed almost Amish, refusing to use anything made past the 1800s--they watch no television, don't use computers, etc.  Some of them were also very offended by the presence of people "less" religious than they--near the entrance of the neighborhood, a girl covered her little brother's eyes as he walked past us so he wouldn't see.  Later on, a child told Noa (our madricha) to, literally translated "Shutup" and "Shut her fucking mouth" when she told girls to walk ahead of us.  The tour guide, Nir, told us that he has often been yelled at when he's taken groups through the neighborhood.  As we ended the tour, we were sitting on some stairs, and a woman approached us and asked us to leave so she and her husband could go upstairs to their home without having to have their children see us.  Just how religious are these people?  Many of them don't believe Israel should be a state until the Messiah comes, hence, they don't pay taxes, don't go to the army, and some of them even feel this strongly:

It makes me feel secure knowing that these people live in Israel.

Anyway, after that we returned to Bat-Yam and I took a long nap before going to the beach, where I got entirely too drunk for my own good--if I wasn't sure of them before, I'm now positive of my limits.

Today, however, was the best siyur ever.  We went to Zichron Yaakov, a city about 20 minutes away from Haifa, and spent the morning in a museum for a Zionist spy group in WWI Palestine, fighting against the Turks.  It was fairly interesting.  We were then given an hour to go get lunch, so Simon, Ohad, Scott and I went to a delicious kebab place.  It started raining very heavily, which was cool (I always think the rain in Israel is amazing).

After, we went to a place by the beach where they harvest tchelet, the dye used in making the tzitzit on a tallas blue.  While there we watched a short film and created the dye of the raw materials, then went snorkeling for the snails that the dye is made of.  It was extremely fun, we got to put on snorkeling gear and just walk out into the ocean by ourselves.  I didn't find any of the snails, but Simon, Nathan, Aaron and I did find this massive crab that looked like it could kill us.

And then we returned home.  In all regards, today has been an excellent day.

Back in Bat Yam

Nothing special happened last night--we played a large game of poker in Noah's apartment for 120 shekels, which Sean won.  After that, we talked for a little while, and then went to sleep.

This morning I awoke and we started to have some breakfast and clean up a bit, because our bus from Arad left at 2.  At about 12:30, a little girl came and knocked on the door asking us if we'd like to perform a mitzvah.  Some of us followed her downstairs to a neighbor's apartment, and we did the brachot (blessings) over the lulav and etrog.

Only in Israel does a neighbor who does not know you at all invite you over to wave plants around inside their house, even going as far as to walk you through the words of the blessings.

Soon after, Ephy, Simon, Scott and I departed Arad and returned to Bat Yam.  This past weekend was pretty good, I just wish I would have gotten more (rather, any) pictures of the desert.  But I suppose I'll have plenty of time for that once I get down there in December.

I think I'm going to go to sleep pretty early tonight, because we have to be up at 6 tomorrow to go to Jerusalem--chag sameach, everyone!

Last night...

Was nothing special in particular--we went to Muza (the main bar in Arad) again, after having Shabbat dinner on Dan Ravitch's roof.  We had some Southern Sudanese Immigrants come and visit for dinner, but they left shortly after.  We had a long discussion to see what our goals were and what we wanted to accomplish throughout the year.  It was an important talk that we've needed to have for a while.  Later that night, Emilie and I went to the observation point, which was pretty cool.

This morning I awoke in Arielle's apartment without shorts or boxers on.  I went to sleep sober with them both on.  We discussed what might have happened, and most people agree that I probably took them off in my sleep, but I'm still not entirely sure--I've never done anything like that before, and never will.  Arielle then sketched a nude portrait of me before we left for lunch in the park.  In the park, we met with Joseph, a Sudanese immigrant, and then split into sections to talk about how we were going to implement the Garin in each section.

After lunch, we went to the new day care for the Darfuri kids and helped to clean it out a bit.  They're starting there on Monday, so we wanted to make sure that there was a little bit less asbestos and broken glass.  Then we were trying to put the lock on the door and it didn't work, so I slammed it against the wall and the keys turned once.  Then, once it opened, I could not get it closed again because the key couldn't turn anything.  We put the lock together without closing it and left--it wasn't as if there was anything to steal from the empty day care.  Noah went back later and CLAIMS that it somehow worked,but I have my doubts.

Now I need to go shower...happy succot, everyone, chag sameach!

Arad for the weekend!

Scott and I didn't make the same bus as everyone else yesterday because doing our laundry ended up taking longer than we thought.  Thus we got to the central bus station at 6:45, fifteen minutes after our initial bus was supposed to leave.  We took the 8:15 bus to Arad, and chilled in the bus station for a while.  We bought Noah a gift for his birthday (today): a rastafarian wine holder, which is also holding its dick.  It is a pretty funny centerpiece, I'll be sure to put up a picture of it later.

Once we got here, Noah came to get us from the bus stop and we chilled in the apartment for a bit before going to the bar.  That devolved into going back to Maddie's and Arielle's apartment, and then back to Noah's to sleep.  It was a good time.

Then, today, the scouts who came with us (Mei, Maya, Shir, and Nitzan) left shortly before lunch--which we had in a park nearby.  We then listened to two speakers from Young Judaea talk to us about the Garin.  We haven't done any work with Darfuris yet, but we're supposed to meet some tonight for dinner.  I'm looking forward to it--this is turning out to be a pretty good weekend.  It's good to see all the people from section 3, particularly the judaeans--I've missed them, I wish we could just all be together for the year.  Oh well, this gives us all a good excuse to visit other cities.

For some reason that I can't place, I love the Negev--I like Arad much more than Bat Yam, even though there is undoubtedly less to do here.  It was Ben-Gurion's dream to colonize and settle the Negev, and I can see why.  There's just something so enchanting about the desert.  Also, the weather is much better--there's almost no humidity.

Anywho, we're having a relaxed afternoon before we go to the dinner tonight.  I look forward to the rest of this weekend, everything has been fairly fun so far.

Shabbat shalom!

Happy October!

Yesterday, I woke up at 11 because I had no volunteering (English teachers at my school have Wednesdays off).  I went to Super Douche with Tomer to do some groceries, and barely made it back in time to go to class.

I don't think my Arab-Israeli conflict class could be more interesting.  It has presented a plethora of new and challenging ideas to me that have helped me achieve a much deeper understanding of the region.  It's unfortunate that I can't talk about what Sheldon says in this class, because he told us that it's all off the record (even the fact that it's off the record is off the record, so I already just went too far).

After this I went to the David Project.  I still feel like the class presents a very one-sided, propagandist view of things, but I am beginning to see its value.  I'm also okay with taking it because I take such an objective class in the period before it that I can balance it all out.

Then, Scott and I went running around a new lap:

View Larger Map
and did some push-ups and sit-ups in the park.  We talked about important things that we haven't gotten a chance to in a while, and then he gave me an inspiring speech about the movie Rocky IV (which I've never seen).

Then, I went with Nathan and Cera to Shuk 4 Ha'minim, a shuk in Yitzhak Rabin square that sells lulavim and etrogim for Succot, which comes this weekend.  Once we got there, we met up with Tomer, Nitzan, and ADI.  IT WAS SO MUCH FUN HANGING OUT WITH ADI.  ADI IS A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE, SHE IS PROBABLY ONE OF THE BEST SCOUTS.  FOR THE REST OF THE NIGHT, ADI AND I JUST TALKED AND HAD A GOOD TIME.  IT WAS SO MUCH FUN.  I WISH I COULD HANG OUT WITH ADI MORE OFTEN.

But, in all seriousness, we left the shuk because it was more boring than we'd thought--I didn't realize it was literally just going to be lulavim and etrogim.  Thus, Nathan, Tomer, and I went to Azrielli towers to meet our respective apartments for Black Burger!  Black Burger is a delicious burger bar in the Azrielli towers shopping complex that featurs a 49 shekel deal (roughly 13 dollars) that comes with a tremendously delicious burger (THE SCHWARZENEGGER), french fries, and a beer.  Eli Cohen 24 (previously known as Nathan's/Scott's/Simon's/BenJirik's/Aaron's/Ohad's apartment) bought their meal with the leftover money from their kupa (stipend) for the apartment, but we decided to just split our money evenly.  After this delicious meal (during which Ephy stole one salt and one pepper shaker from the restaraunt), we returned to Bat Yam and I went to sleep.

This morning, I woke up and went to Bet-Sefer Sharet to volunteer as usual, but Ronit wasn't there.  I returned after volunteering with her substitute for a little while, because she had nothing for me to do.  I thus slept several more hours before we cleaned up the apartment and had lunch before our mifgash dira (apartment meeting) with Noa, our madricha.  Both Ephy and Roie had to leave, so it was just me, her, and Tomer.  THE MIFGASH DIRA WAS SO FUN.  NOA IS THE BEST MADRICHA.  I WISH WE COULD HAVE MORE MIFGASHEI DIRA THAN WE DO ALREADY.

Now, I'm going to jump to Holon to do some laundry and then head out to Arad for the weekend for some work with Darfuri refugees.  It should be a pretty good weekend.

Quick side note before I go:
all conversations in Israel about the weather are the same--I heard two random ladies on the street today having one, just like every other one, that went like this:

"Jeez, it's pretty hot out!"

"Yep."

"I sure hope it rains soon!"

"Yep."

Have a good succot, hopefully I'll be able to post some over the weekend about visiting Arad.  Take it easy, all, and happy October! (we got our bus passes for October and I've decided I'm keeping all of them, I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with them yet though).