It is Raining יורד גשם

Friday night, I went to שירה חדשה, the conservative synagogue in town for Kabbalat Shabbat services.  It was okay, I guess--much better than most shuls I have been to in Israel.  I think, in some ways, the synagogue you grow up in spoils you for other ones.  I have tunes that I am used to now and always want to hear.  Not to say that I don't enjoy new melodies, and with a lot of prayers, I even have a couple different tunes that I like, but the order of things and the flow of all the singing together will always be cemented in my head a specific way.  I'll probably go back next week with Nathan to see how he likes it, and then maybe start going every Friday.  We'll see.

After this, I had dinner at Cera's apartment with a fun group of people, getting to see both Andrew and Ben Jirik (who we thought was going to go to Tel Aviv, so this came as a pleasant surprise).  Also, MY FAVORITE SCOUT TOMER CAME INTO TOWN!  That was pretty great.  After dinner, we headed over to Andrew's apartment for a bit before leaving for Muza--Friday was the designated night of celebrating Max Levitt's birthday.  On the way over to Muza, Tomer, Nathan and I participated in "Sayeret Ittai," a not-so-elite unit that jumps over things unnecessarily and finds ways to dive and roll whenever possible.  It reminded me of how ridiculous Tomer and I would sometimes be in the apartment in Bat Yam at night, which was nice.  Muza itself was nothing too special, but it was fantastic to see all the Marva people (especially Roie).

Saturday my entire apartment woke up pretty late in the day, and then Scott, Nathan, Jake and I went for a hike with Sam, Shirit, Cera, and others that ended early when Shirit had to go home.  It was fun regardless.  We then went back to our apartments and relaxed for a while--later that night, Cera and I hung out and listened to a podcast, and then I went home.

Sunday morning, I awoke and went to volunteering.  I got to feed one of the kids who has taken a particular liking to me recently, Mimi (I'll put a picture of her up soon), and noticed that, unlike the Darfurians in Tel Aviv who openly share utensils, cups, etc, the Sudanese here take care to feed each child with a different spoon, even if they're all eating from the same plate.  Cecilia also showed me some of her English work--she had written down the names of all the children in the gan in English.  I put up the English alphabet on the wall that Laura had made, as well, before Cera, David and I went out to lunch.  At lunch, we had a very interesting conversation about murder, free will, morality, good and evil, and almost every other deep and thought-provoking thing you can think of.  It was pretty great.  We got back after lunch and stayed a little longer before leaving.  As Cera and I left, we were heading towards Jerusalem Street and a police officer started yelling at us that the street (which is not a real street, it's more of a sidewalk than anything else) was closed and to turn back.  It was pretty surreal, I have no clue what was going on.

Sunday evening, I went to optional class, which more and more seems to be a tremendous waste of everyone's time.  The teacher has a frustrating teaching method wherein she attempts to get a specific answer just by asking the same, abstract question over and over again.  I don't think I have been taught this poorly in many years.  Additionally, this past Sunday was one of the first times in that class when we almost had a good conversation about the ideals of human rights with regards to different cultures around the world, but then the teacher cut it short to get back into the provincial framework of the lesson she had already planned out.  Oh well.

After classes, I went to 15 חן again to teach adult lessons.  This was fine, as usual, but the most exciting part was that on the way there it began to rain. :)

Sam and I left the building for a minute to walk two kids from the earlier class home in what had quickly turned into a downpour.  On our way back, we stopped for a second to look at the gushing torrents crashing down on the city, and as we were watching rain slide down a lamppost, a flash of lightning knocked out all of Arad.

For a split second, everything was lit up with an agony, and then, total darkness.

We rushed back into the building and were about to tell the adults that we couldn't really conduct class anymore, but then the power came back.  The entire ordeal was invigorating--it's the first time it's rained since I've been in Arad, and I REALLY enjoy rain.

Upon returning to the apartment, Scott and I went for a run, and I saw streaks of lightning jazzing out over the desert.  Thus he and I were determined to go out again once we got home and watch the lightning, but by the time we got to the place I thought it would be cool to observe from, the show had stopped and the rain was just cold (additionally, it was not a covered area as I had previously thought).  I played in the mud at this playground for a bit before we went to Monique's apartment.  We left in short order and went back home to sleep.

This morning, we went to the אדמא (earth) museum in the artist's quarter.  It was pretty cool--the artwork there was intriguing, and we got to make our own clay by crushing rocks and then turned the clay into our own works (I made a hand and felt like I was in 5th grade again).  After this, Nathan and I grabbed some shwarma in a laffa before heading back to the apartment to do homework.  Then we had Ulpan and class, which was pretty much the same thing as always, although for some reason I could not pay any attention in Ulpan--I think it was just too cold outside.

After class, I had one of the most dangerous bike rides home ever--it was raining, a lot of the streets were flooded, and my bike was hydroplaning every which way.  The wind was so strong that it was blowing me up hills I was trying to go down!  Upon returning home, Nathan, Ephy, Simon and I went grocery shopping, and then returned to the apartment.  I spent the rest of the night cleaning and finishing up some loose ends for various chores.  I hope you are having an excellent week so far, and that it is not too rainy where you are (unless you enjoy rain as much as I do, in which case, I hope it is equally as rainy, if not rainier)!