Kosher Terrorists

On Tuesday, I and the people who volunteer at the Sudanese ganim in the area met up at about 9:30 to work on projects and planning for trips.  Later in the day, Scott, Karin, Chanya and I went for a run.  I ended up going for a 10k and got a time of 50:07, which means I only have to drop 7 seconds to reach my goal in the race this Tuesday.  I was pretty excited about this, especially considering that I have also been a bit sick, so I should be able to do better healthy.

After, this, I went to 15 חן to teach English to kids, but then had to leave before the adult class to clean the apartment for mifgash dira. It's a shame I left, because I heard the next day that, as Karin was trying to explain to one of the adults what a bone was, she began to draw it on the board, and he got the concept after she drew only one half of it, so she just rounded off the other side--hence it looked like a penis.

Anyway mifgash dira on Tuesday night was excellent--Eli seemed pleased and didn't get mad once; he even brought us a mix CD.  It's too soon to tell, but perhaps, now that Arad is almost over, we are reconciling with him.  SOLID.

Shortly after this, I went to the Ulpan for the Garin Tzedek activity that night, which was basically sexy icebreakers.  We played that parcel game where you pass around a packet with questions written on it and unwrap it to find the new questions.  Thus all the questions were sexual and the traditional prize after the last unwrapping was two condoms.  We also played a musical chairs-esque game where you and a partner dance and when the music stops quickly get into a sexual position.  At the end, we played a game of sumo (that lap-hugging game) for quite some time before going home.  Overall, the activity was pretty good.

Wednesday I awoke and went into the gan until about 12:30.  I need to take some more pictures of different kids soon, because the repertoire of children that I work with has changed.

Ulpan on Wednesday was excellent--we met at Guy's apartment at 3:00 and then walked to our teacher's house.  Eti gave us some delicious food and juice, as well as a plateful of fruit for tu'bishvat.  It was one of the best classes we've ever had, sitting around the table and talking about many things.  After we finished eating, we also played a game called "מלך הפלפל", "King of the Falafel."  This was also copious amounts of fun, despite my having terrible luck.  Essentially, you draw cards that are different parts of the falafel, but if you drew two of the same card, you had to throw all of your cards away.  If you drew a pita, however, it served as a checkpoint of types, allowing you to only throw away the duplicate card you draw and end your turn.  There was also, of course, a card with a broken pita which forces you to discard everything.  In any case, it was a fun game that I'd love to get.

After this, Immigration class was canceled, so Karin and I went to her apartment to work on our project for our Service class.  Shortly after this, I went to the Wednesday night activity, which was paintball this week.  I've never been paintballing before, so it was a cool first experience even though we kind of got our asses kicked (the 5 guys there, me, Nathan, Ori, Guy, and Gans, decided we would all be on a team together versus about ten girls and the madrichim).

Wednesday night, Cera and I watched the movie "American Beauty," which was messed up but very excellent.  Most people here typically do "wine Wednesdays," but we ended up just watching the movie with some wine.  It was good to have a nonchalant night.

On Thursday, we went on a siyur to an army base in the desert.  While I initially thought that this was going to be quite mediocre, it ended up being the BEST SIYUR EVER (in Arad).  Upon arriving at the army base, we were fed a handsome breakfast of assorted fruits and cinnamon rolls.  We then got to speak to some חיילים בודדים, "lone soldiers" who move to Israel without their family here and join the army.  We got some free נחל (the name of the division of the army at the base) hats and then split up into groups and took a tour of the base.  Then we went into a building and fought through a simulation with fake M16s, shooting up terrorists who were on the screen.  We left the base (with far too many stolen bullets) and went to downtown Be'er Sheva for lunch.  After lunch, we took a tour of the Israel Air Force museum.  This was pretty excellent, as the Air Force is one of the coolest parts of the army.  We learned about all sorts of awesome things, like the process of the ejection seat, the survival kit that comes with it, and the history of the air force.  All in all, it was excellent.

Upon returning to Arad, Nathan, Scott and I watched the movie "Youth in Revolt."  That night, some of the Tzofim (Ohad, Adi, May, and Yoni) from Bat Yam came into town and we spent the night at Florentine, the only dance club in town.  It was great--probably the latest I've stayed out in a long time, and probably the first time I've danced in a while.  For one night, it felt like Bat Yam again.

Friday morning we woke up late and watched "Sherlock Holmes" on Nathan's computer before going out that night--two more scouts, Lior and Guy, arrived in Arad on Friday, so Friday night was again pretty crazy.

Then, today, we all woke up late and Yoni, Ohad, Simon, Ben, Nathan and I went over to Abby's apartment--for some unfathomable reason, she fed all of us quite heartily, and then Nathan, Yoni, Ohad and I proceeded to go to Muza to say goodbye to Lior.  Of course, upon arriving she told us it was going to be quite some time before her parents arrived to pick her up, so we ended up all going to Andrew Crompton's apartment for a while before she and Ohad left.  Andrew, Nathan and I chilled for a bit before going to Pizza Tokio to get some bagel toasts for dinner.

Just a couple minutes ago, a woman came down and knocked on our apartment door, telling us that we have been too loud for the past two and a half months, and that she is pregnant and wakes up in the middle of the night, and that her husband has to wake up at four in the morning for work and can't get any sleep because of us, and that her young daughter wakes up all the time because of us, and that a man a floor under us has had two heart attacks in the past several years and has had surgery and that we are probably keeping him up, and that all of the residents in the building complain about us, and that we are the root of all evil.  It's very possible that we've been too loud, but it's preposterous for her to wait two and a half months to tell us and suddenly, now (when we are essentially not making any noise, it's a quiet night), be extremely angry and threatening towards us.  Essentially it comes down to this: if there is a problem, you have to make someone aware of it on order to expect things to change.  I'm fine with her asking us to be quieter, but it should have been brought to our attention earlier if it was such an issue.

ANYWAY, I don't want to end on such a negative note, so here is the story of when Nathan, Andrew, and I went to the grocery store here, Shufersal, after dinner:

We had a hilarious time, making fun of many things (like the Katzenugen candy that Andrew and I got, which had a cat drawn on the cover, which led us to believe that the chocolate was comprised of cat parts.)  We also switched the caps on several peanut butters and put things in places they don't belong, which was, of course, hysterical.  Andrew also suggested that, on the last day of Arad, we be "Kosher Terrorists," and order a bunch of cheese at the deli counter, then proceed to throw it into the butchery area of the store and ruin the kashrut.  We would, of course, never do this, but the thought of it was hilarious.

All in all, this past weekend was excellent.  My webcam is broken right now, but I will gladly borrow a roommate's computer if anyone would like to videochat.  I hope all is well with you, and that we talk sometime soon!!!  Take it easy. :D