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).