Not the holy city...but the hilly city

Now, while I can't tell you what the title of my blog has to do with anything I am about to tell you all about, I can tell you that for those of you who have not been to Jerusalem before, I can officially tell you that there are more Hills in this city than any person without a care would enjoy. I would also like to apologize for my lack of a blog update recently, since all I have been doing is Ulpan and ulpan, and oh wait, did I mention Ulpan. Now that Ulpan is over and school is starting tomorrow...yes that's right...tomorrow, I can update you all about everything that happened in between days of Ulpan and after school.

Like I mentioned in my previous blog, I was practicing for chanting Torah. Which I did, rather successfully too I might add since I was sick. The parsha I did was Ki'TeiZei.

At school we put on an event called Beit Cafe. Which pretty much implies it is a talent show. The school needed volunteers so of course, yours truly felt obligated to do so. So myself and two fellow classmates worked together to put on an amazing evening. We prepared food and beverages and organized acts for everyone who wanted to, to perform at. I did not perform at Beit Cafe since 1) there was already a bunch of singing acts and I didn't think everyone wanted to sit through a night of singing and 2) since I had already planned the evening I didn't want it to be the Jaqui show (even though we all know I don't think i would have minded if it were). The night was so much fun and everyone kept talking about it for the next week. A+ for me!!!!!!!!!

At school we have a gentleman come in who was part of the North American Bone Marrow Association and we were all able to get tested to see if we are matches for someone. As of now I don't think anyone has gotten a call saying they are a match, but we are all waiting patiently to see if any of us are the lucky ones.

Last week I had a meeting with a man named Shalom who works for Avi Chai. Avi Chai is the name of one of the Truma projects I am doing. It works with Israeli's who go to summer camps in the United States. The meeting was very productive and it got me really excited about all the different things I will be getting to do. Specifically Ryan and I (ryan is a classmate of mine who is also doing this project with me) will be working on getting American's to become participants in this program called B'yachad (together in Hebrew) and it is specifically designed for American's who are in Israel and plan on returning back to summer camps during their next summer in the states. As we were talking about this program I couldn't help but think about how I would love to work privately with Tawonga while I am here on their Noar l'Noar program or working with their Israeli's since I am here in Israel. I plan on contacting Jamie or Adam in the next couple weeks. I don't want to bother them when I know they are currently working on stuff for family camps. So as usual, I will keep you all posted about what will happen with that.

I finally got my student Visa! woohoo!!!!!

At school we are each part of committees. I am a member of the Administrative and Academic Affairs committee. For each committee their is a chair or co-chair, and I would like to formally announce that you are all reading from the co-chair of the AAA committee. As a co-chair I attend chair meetings and work with the director of the year in Israel program, the faculty, as well as the head of student affairs. I am really excited to be part of this committee and feel honored to be one of the co-chairs.

This past weekend since it was our weekend off between Ulpan and the official start of the regular semester I went o Eilat with some friends. Eilat is the southern most city of Israel and from the beach you can literally see Jordan. For some reason my computer isn't reading my camera right now, so when I get all that square away I will show you all. It was an amazing weekend. We left Tel Aviv at 8pm on Saturday night and got to Eilat around 1am. We immediately went to our hotel, the Isrotel Rivera, and passed out. Carlie and I slept till about 10:30 and then hit the beach to meet up with Sam and Alexis. We laid out on the beach for a while and then went and got some lunch on the boardwalk. From their we went back to our hotel to meet up with our friends who had spend the past couple days traveling in Jordan. We took about an hour nap at the hotel, since we all know how tiring laying out in the sun is, then we woke up and hung out at the pool. From their we all showered and went to dinner at a Sea Food restaurant where I had shrimp! It was really good! After dinner Carlie, Sam and I walked around the boardwalk. I bought a book to read on the beach the next day (which I have yet to put down and it took a lot of strength for me to step away from the book just to update you all about my life) and I got a really cool hair wrap. Now the hair wrap isn't actually around my own hair, they have thought of this amazing thing where they use synthetic hair and make a loop at the top and then they somehow attach it to your hair. But this way I can take it out andput it in whenever I please. The next day we woke up around 8:30 and make breakfast in the hotel room and then went to coral reef and went snorkeling. And while it was no Hawaii it was still really amazing. From coral reef we went back to the beach our hotel was at, where I laid on the beach and read my book. We departed from Eilat at 4:45 and got back to Jerusalem around 9:30. It was a really long drive but definitely worth it.

What else is new....I got to talk to Avery on the phone about a week ago. I loved hearing her voice. Hearing Rebecca together with the whole family though definitely made me a little homesick. Luckily I have amazing friends out here who got me to snap out of my funk immediately.

Also, Mom (or i should really give myself credit for this) officially booked her flight to come out here!!!!! She will be landing on the 19th of Decemeber and leaving on the 31st. And while typing this I realized that means she will be with me on hers and dad's anniversary and I can't thank you enough for taking that time and spending it with me. I am so excited you are coming to visit. It means to the world to me that I will get to see you.

Uncle Dennis will be here in a little less than 2 months which I am also very excited about, and there is a large chance that my lovely sister Rebecca will be coming to visit me in December. I can't wait!!

So tomorrow is another 1st day of school My 3rd in the past 4 months....I think that has to be some kind of record. But now this is real school. All day every day from 8:30am to 7:30pm on my latest day. Wish me luck!!!!!!!

I love you all so much and can't wait to hear from you all. And i would also like to take full credit for my sister's blog, because i know that if I hadn't started one, she wouldn't have. Just thought I would put that out there!

miss you allll soooooooooooooooooo much!!!! xoxo

Honeymoon is Over

sorry there hasn't been an update, my life is rather boring at the moment. i go to school and then come home and do hw try and fit some time in for dinner and then go to bed. that's about it. Clearly the honeymoon of being on "vacation" is over.

I did get to go see a movie here is Jerusalem which was quite an experience. I went with my friend Sam and his cousin. First of all they paid for everything which was above and beyond what they should have but they refused to let me pay. Secondly, I think Israel has got this whole seating situation in the movie theater thing totally messed up. First of all there is assigned seating, as if I was going to a baseball game. So my biggest concern was what do you do if someone is sitting in your seat, do you just move somewhere else or do you make them move...to little surprise the Israeli mentality is to make them move. And yes, I got to experience this first hand....there was the couple sitting in our seats and sam's cousin made them move...not something you would experience in an american theater.

There is a disgusting heat wave going through Israel right now and all I want to do is stay inside and stand in a cold shower....I think this might even be worse than Tucson because not only is it hot, but there is the humidity factor to add in. All the Israeli's keep telling me that it is dry, but I tell them they need to go visit Arizona and then they will know what dry is.

Sam keeps telling me that I am going to be the only person successful in the Ulpan program since I am the only one really utilizing my hebrew. And by utilizing he means talking with the people that work at the places next to me and using Hebrew as much as possible...we'll just have to wait and see if it keeps improving throughout the year.

I am sad to announce that I still have yet to receive a package and Oma is still my favorite. (sorry to the rest of you). When i got my letter from Oma I was soooo happy. Like I said before you should all follow her example.

MOM! I forgot to tell you when I was on the phone with you earlier today that last night for an extra ed night we went to our teachers house to eat dinner and watch a movie. We watched Mr. Hollands Opus! I thought of you immediately.

Ok, that's all for now. Love you all!!!