Chanukah

Okay so on Wednesday i ate a lot of doughnuts and lit candles in school.

On thursday i ate a lot of doughnuts and lit candles in school.

on friday i went to my teachers Mrs. Younger for Shabbos Chanukah.

Over Shabbos one of the girls and the whole family came down with the stomach flu.... that was fun.

Sunday I went to the shuk with a friend from my BYDetroit class. We stayed for the Chabad lighting there. They lit a giant menorah with lanterns on top. I bought a pink scarf and lots of doughnuts. Sunday night I came down with the flu. I spoke to Rivky, Mommy and Tatty on the phone while they were starting their Chanukah party in Detroit.

Monday I didn't eat a lot of doughnuts... or any other food for that matter. I lit with my friend Sarah E's cousin Ariella and her family.

Tuesday I didn't do anything and didn't eat anything. Tuesday night the sem went on an overnight all night trip to Massada and the Dead Sea, I stayed behind because my bus to Tel Aviv was leaving the next morning before the trip would get back. All the girls painted there faces with cool designs over the eyes and stuff. I had a lot of fun helping them do the cool makeup.... sigh, true art. That night I had my laptop so me and the other girl who didn't go on the trip stayed up practically all night eating junk food, listening to chaim yisroel CD's, and watching home movies. Then we slept in.

Wednesday I took a bus to Tel Aviv. Tante Chava picked me up in the middle of the street where i conveniently parked myself in order to be seen :) I joined the family for a Mesibat Chanukah that night. I got to see and meet all the family!! and I even tried really hard to talk to Hadar and Ohr in Ivrit. Itay and Yanir set up my laptop internet connection. And Wednesday night I got to skype with Sarah E!!!!!!! and then i got to sleep in the basement a.k.a. the suite of Michal, as per its designer. Tante Chava gave me a pretty chanukah gift.

Thursday I went to Azrielli mall in Tel Aviv to meet Tante Chava when she got back from work. That night Itay and Adva took me out to dinner. On the way we stopped in the Givataiim mall to buy Itay a sweatshirt for winter and they surprised me by letting me choose something as a chanuka gift. And as anyone who knows me could tell u that i needed a lot of help from Adva in picking something out. I ended up buying a really cute brown tunic-sweater-dress-thing for shabbos. Then we went to eat at Shoshana's Blintzes. Then I got to see Itay's humble but really nice apartment.

At 9:00 Friday morning i went back to Yerushalym to get ready for shabbos.

A very special Thank you to Chaim and Tante Chava for working so hard to accomadate all of my funky food needs!! :D

Let's Play Catch Up... November

Alright, so I know I'm just about a full month behind here... and so I'm gonna try to catch you all up in what will probably turn out close to the length of the chanuka story :)
O.... HAPPY CHANUKAH EVERYONE! .... i'll really be getting to chanukah in my next entry so- hang in there!
Okay... After Eilat we had an in shabbos where basically the whole sem stayed in the dorm because we were all so tired out from teh trip.
On Rosh Chodesh Kislev we had a fun dinner at our Mechanechet's house.
That week I also got a new roommate. That was FUN... i bet u can guess that the word fun was said sarcastically. I guess at the time I felt like my whole world... one of my strongest constants, was shaken. But now its fine because the new roommate is the most awesome person ever! no really she is. Her name is Batsheva and she sleeps on the new bunk on top of mine :D Her closet is outside of the room and she is going to let me use her guitar... so she's cool!! lol
That thursday I went to the beach with a couple friends who were all feeling as depressed as me. Even though we didn't get there until dark, it was very theraputic. Especially the pizza craving we fixed. :P
I spent that Shabbos at Sharon's.... Me and Shira saw a cow... a wild one. At least we think we did. That was cool. We also didn't find ice cream. That was not cool.
Motzei Shabbos I went to my friends house in Ramat Beit Shemesh and met her family and her dog. :)
Tuesday nights are our Tznious group meetings... if you want to know what that's like, its kind of like the AA. We all sit in a circle and discuss our experiences, thoughts, personal victories.... despite the brain washing aspect we always seem to have a full house. Maybe it has something to do with the food and late curfew ;)
The next Shabbos was a Shabbaton in Maalot Dafna. I stayed at my friend Shira's brother and sister-in-law's house. The sem ate together for Friday night. Shabbos day we ate at our hosts and Shallosh Seudot we went to different teachers. Motzei Shabbos we had a speaker from Aish talk about how we can change the world no matter what age we are. He showed us a documentary about the efforts of some canadian 12 year old on behalf of the child labor issue in Asia. It was pretty cool. My sem really wants to do something... so we are trying to start a group. We'll see if that works.
Monday we went on Tunnel Tours... which was a tour around the Kotel area... where they showed us the actual stones of the Beit Hamikdash and the other 3 walls besides for the Kotel. We also went into a museam of stuff that was made to look like stuff from the Beit Hamikdash up in the old city.
We got another new girl on Tuesday I think.... She moved in to the dira opposite mine. She is double blackbelt in karate and she is giving me lessons in the evenings! I already started and I love it. Also, she takes really great notes! so now we can count on each other for notes if we miss class.... rox :D
Wednesday night we played Machanayim in Gan Saccer until 2:30 in the morning. Now THAT was fun!
Thursday night a few of us went with a Madricha to a Cumzitz in the Rova by Aish Hatorah. It was really very inspiring. There was a saxifone and flute and guitars, bongos and shaky intrument things. The men were sitting under the million dollar gold menorah singing and playing music while the women stood behind and listened. We walked back at 1:30 when we left.
That Shabbos I stayed in again with 2 friends. We went out for the night meal and made our own day meal. Thank you Chani for all your work to make that possible!!!!!!!!!
And then on Monday we had Play Auditions. I wasn't going to try out at first, but last minute I decided to try out. I'll update e/o about what I get into when I find out.
.....And I believe that brings us to the end of November since Chanuka started on that Wednesday. Cool- thanx e/o for putting up with me!!! No really- Best Wishes and a Happy Chanukah to everyone I love!! (You know who you are!) :)

Eilat (Nov. 3-4)

Day One in Eilat:
The Madrichot woke us up at 5:30am to load the buses. The first activity we did upon arivval 4 hours later was a hike thourhg Tamar Canyon. We actually missed the group hike so the bus took us to the end of the hike and we worked our way backward. We didn't get to do the whole thing but the part we did do was really cool. It basically entailed scaling the mountain side on these iron ladders that were bolted into the rocks.
Afterward we had lunch on the docks followed by Pancaking. I have never seen anything quite like it in America but its basically like tubing (riding a tube pulled by a speed boat) except the tubes were like giant blow up matresses (hence the name- pancaking) There were two on the back of each speed boat and each one fit 5 people. The pancakes had 2 handles per person and we basically just had to hang on. :) I rode the middle of mine and nobody on it fell off... Unlike on the other pancake which lost two girls during the ride. Everybody agreed that it was wicked fun!! We also jumped off when we were close to the dock so we all ended up drenched. :D
Directly following that we did a 40 minute hike through who knows where. All I remember from that was it was hot, very dessert like, and hard.
When we loaded the buses again we were all really tired. Which is why half the school stayed in the bus while the other half went searching for Sne rocks in the Sinai area near Egypt. I'm sure you've heard of the rocks that have pictures of thorn bushes printed into them... no matter how many times you crack them. That's what i'm talking about. I didn't go search for them but i got to see some cool ones when the girls got back.
Finally we checked into the villa we would stay at that night. It was actually really small but there were HUGE blow up matresses all over the floor. Like 6 person huge. We got assigned beds and I fell asleep upon my shared matress. When i came too, the teacher/chaprone was standing over me telling someone to wake me up and peel me an orange. Apparently she thought I had passed out. Well, i did... but not in the literal sense. Once I was up, I became aware that there was a BBQ going on... poolside! There was a whole cool back yard, with a pool, patio, BBQ, lawn chairs, and a pool table!!!! boy do i miss playing pool. Music was blasting and soon e/o was dancing and having a great time.
After we all had a chance to shower and chill out for a bit we hopped back on the bus to go to a pontoon. Where we partied it down for about an hour an a half on the second story party boat on this gorgeous sea of black water surrounded by a thousand sparkling lights of different colors.... sigh, it was awesome! During the Dance Party a girl smashed her head and got a concussion. I knew it was a concussion because of my recent personal encounter with the ailment. I half carried her back to the Villa where we waited to find our which hospital we could take her to. And let me tell you- keeping someone awake who is in pain and totally unaware of their surrounds, is a hard task.
Finnally a Hebrew speaking madricha and I were able to take her to the ER. In the Israelli ER we waited 40 minutes to be seen since surprisingly the American-Israelli insurance office wasn't open at the hour of 1:30 a.m. They wouldn't let us be seen without knowing that we had some way to pay for the visit. On a positive note, when we did get in everything was alright. The girl was given pain killers and we were told to watch her for 24 hours. When we finally made it back to the Villa it was close to 3:00... the place looked like a dead town. There was not a sound to be heard anywhere, and the girls were stretched out, sleeping on couches, floor, grass, lawn chairs, or wherever they had found room. At that point i made the wise decision to check myself off the 'to wake up at 4:00 for the murder 6 hour hike up Har Shlomo' list.

Day 2 in Eilat:
Unfortunately, i had not quite escaped reality.... which woke me up at 6:30 to go on the not so murderous 3 hour hike through the dessert.... whoever calls it not so murderous must think they're funny. You know what its like to walk on the beach... through all the hot sand?? well imagine walking through that, only your surrounded by giant red sandy mountains and the blistering hot sun is beating down on your head, for an hour and a half- on an upward slope. And then we got the privilede (no sarcasm here) of hiking down the mountian for an hour and a half. The privilege comes in by nature of the fact that somehow there was a breeze on that stretch and because there was almost no sand. :D The climb we did was called the Red Canyon, it looked kind of like Pride rock in the lion king.... we even got to see real live lion-king-trees! :} (the smiley is because i just reminded myself of the time I was explaining to my 7th grade class about the bodies exibit in Detroit... [its made up of cadavers]. the line i'll never live down is "and they have real live dead bodies!")
After the Red Canyon our wary troups met up with the Har Shlomo survivors and together we progressed to our next activity. SNORKLING! ahhhhhh, sigh.............. it was a blast. I decided to wear a bright green dress that i bought at a thrift store in order to have a tznious beach dress for exactly this purpose. I have to say that together with my black knee socks, sneakers, and snorkling gear, i must have been the most stylish snorkler there!! Watching the coral and fish was the most amazing thing i have ever experienced. At one point i was practically holding a tiny Nemo fish and i saw tons of other beautiful and colorful kinds of fish including Dori! The coral was all colors... purple, red, orange, yellow, black, pink... all different types and variations. One of the girls by mistake touched a piece of coral and got this massive poisonous infection... it was soo cool!
Afterward we went on a glass bottomed boat to veiw the deeper coral. While we were going between the veiwing spot and the dock I got to sit on top of the second story of the boat, right in the front. It felt like I was flying.... totally free.
And then we left.... and our last hike was canceled due to popular Demand. So instead we made a pit stop by the Egyptian border and girls took turns taking pictures with there hands stuck throught the fence to show they were in Egypt. While half of e/o was running around doing stupid things for the camera the other half of us were being lethargic in the bus... like me for instance. But i got out pretty quick when an army jeep and tank pulled up. :} And then the picture taking on the army equipment ensued while the drivers were talking to the tour guide and security gaurd. When one of the girls asked if she could drive the jeep the dude said that if she could figure out how to turn it on than she could drive it, and then he went back to his conversation. he he. :D needless to say, we figured it out. but sorry to dissapoint you all, we didn't get to drive it any further than the 10 feet we got before they realized we were in motion.
On the way home we stopped for pizza. And I slept in the overhead compartment again. And that just about concludes our trip to Eilat.

The Girly-Girl... and the Tom-Boy

Wednesday night i had my second Sheitel Class. It is an optional class where they teach you how to wash cut and style, hair and sheitels. How cool is that??!

Contrast...

After the class I convinced a few of the tougher girls in the dorm to teach me self defense.... sounds like a good idea right?? Well, basically it went like this-
Other girl speaks about different techniques
Shayne gets grabbed by a fighter 7 inches taller than her
Shayne tries to defend based on theorized techniques
Other girl counterattacks based on defense
Shayne gets beat up or thrown across the room
Shayne gets back up and tries again.
lol... it was actually really educational simply because I had never come up against genuine opposing force before. Major accomplishment for the night... Got beat up in just about every way possible. And I won't go into it b/c if i do I will probably be dragged home by my parents and chastised by just about e/o i know.... :D lol. I did learn a few really good moves from it as soon as a Krav Megaah chick stepped in to work with me on defense.
Ended up with a minor concussion, because I got thrown across the room, about which I was responsible and took myself to the doctor over. (A very hard thing for my personality to do, mind you.) They said was totally fine and I should just rest off my bruises and bumps... and that i shouldn't practice self defense again for a few days. I'll most likely start working with the krav Megaah girl on a regular basis though... after i take it easy for a few days. :}

Sally the Camel had 2 humps

Monday the school took us CAMEL RIDING! We went to this place out on a mountain top in the middle of nowhere and met Domesec Eliezer. Who if you don't know... (because none of us did) is Abraham the Forefathers main servant [like seriously]. He was dressed in old tradditional garb and explained to us that in his time how and where they lived. Which is right on the spot where the place was built actually. We were challenged to use our superior jewish intellect and group effort to figure out how to make a tent out of a piece of cloth and some sticks. Which wasn't very complicated because there were wooden top piece things in the cloth wherever the sticks were supposed to go. Then we tied the tent down and moved on to the actual camel riding.
A lot of girls were screaming and freaking out. Someone even shreiked loud enough that she was going to die that the guy put her camel down and made her get off. I didn't really have an issue with the camel riding. My teacher commented that i rode like a queen... what she means is that I maintained my posture and didn't grip the saddle with every once of my strength :}
When the group was learning to herd stinky sheep, a bunch of us uninterested people were looking over the side of the mountain and taking pictures of how far it was until the valley in between. (Mind you, we weren't leaning directly over a cliff. There was plently of mountain sloping within walking distance that it was 100 percent safe.) The Eliezer dude told us that it was about 800 meters down. Not a ginormous mountain at all. One of the girls decided to get risky and see if it was climbable. Of course I followed. It turned out that the mountain side wan't as steep as it looked and in fact we only climbed about 40% of the way. The other 60% we basically walked. Not to say that it wasn't dangerous... but it probably wasn't too bad because the guide did know what we were doing and didn't exactly try to stop us. At the bottom we could see the tiny dots of the people above that we hadn't been able to see for most of the way down. Although we could hear them perfectly due to the awesome echo. Climbing back up prooved to be infinetely harder than climbing down and it took us almost double the time and a lot more caution. But we did it. The whole thing took us about 40 minutes tops. The camel riding had been an experience but it wasn't such a big deal for either of us. Climbing the mountain was a challenge that we both appreciated.

Beachy ;)

As I previously mentioned, Monday afternoon I took Geveret Tzipora shopping for a bunch of things she needed for her grandchildren and herself. She made sure to point out which foods were healthy and which ones weren't. And taught me to always look at receipts to make sure you weren't cheated or wrong-changed. When I dropped her off at her apartment she made sure to pack me up some dates for the way. lol... and I mean tamar not boys.

Friday Morning a friend and I woke up at 5:30 a.m. and got on a bus to the beach. Originally we missed the bus to Ashdod but made a spontaneous decision to get on a bus that was just leaving for Ashkelon. I was so excited to be wearing my new sunhat that Tante Chava bought me!!! The bus ride was about an hour and half. At the beach we walked along the shore, put our feet in the water, tanned, and I even built a sand sculpture!! We also bought ice cream to substitue for both meals we were missing. lol... it was worth it. Finally at about 11:00 a.m. we left.

When I arrived back i quickly packed up my bags and shipped out toward Nivei where i would spend shabbos with 2 friends. We were allowed to use a room in the dorms.... in the same building as Midreshet Tehilla- the Seminary I was supposed to go to but changed my mind. On Shabbos Day we ate at our Teachers house and Shalosh Seudos we ate ourselves with food we bought on friday. Really It was my most relaxed shabbos outside of the ones spent in my own dorm.

Shabbos in Sefat!

Erev Shabbos we woke up at 7:00 am to leave for our Shabbaton in Sefat. After a 3 hour bus ride, without breakfast, we went to the Kevar of the Arizal. It was a blisteringly hot day, and as much as we might have been looking forward to davening by his kever, nobody was in the mood anymore seeing as we were hungry, tired, and sweaty. A lot of the girls didn't make it up all the stairs, choosing to return to the bus until the group came back.
Then we went on to the house we would be staying at. To say 'House' would be a massive understatement. It was no house. It was a stunning mansion filled with beautiful mirrors, chandeliers, and mehogony funriture. The rooms had tons identically made beds like a hotel... but the cool thing was that the beds were all high risers so that the place could be reconverted into a regular house at any time. My room had 5 beds out but it would regularly have had a bunk bed and a single bed.
We all quickly called showers and started to prepare for shabbos. Of course I was running around like crazy trying to figure out which of my choir girls would still be joining us in presenting that night. It ended up being myself and 2 other girls and we made fast improvisations to the songs.
Friday night we went to the shul of my roommates father. Rav Weingatt's shul, Mekarev. I have to say it was the most beautiful davening I had ever heard. It was hard to see but I heard that the men were also dancing the whole time. The atmosphere itself was very uplifting.
Afterward we enjoyed a beautiful catered shabbos meal at the mansion. We heard speeches, the choir presented, we sand zemirot and then we had a panel discussion followed by Oneg (more food). Me and a friend went for a long walk through the old city of sefat and tried to count the steps from the top to bottom. We got to 202, which was about half way, before we had to run and lost count. We got back just in time for curfew and stolen cholent. :D
Shabbos day we again ate at the mansion and then had a game followed by a tour of the old city which i missed due to exhaustion. I didn't regret it too much though since I had litteraly scaled the place the night before and I plan to go back with my roomate some time in the year.
Havdala was done by a NaNach (a guy who followes Ooman [Rabbi Nachman]) who told us a whole story with a guitar and acting and everything first. Then he sang the most beautiful Havdala I've ever heard.
After Shabbos we all packed up and boarded the buses once again... this time homeward.

Drive 4 Purpose

On Monday, instead of having a tiyul, we had a day to prepare for the shabbaton. Each person was either put in charge of a committee or put in one. I was in charge of a choir presentation, and so my commitee was just basically looking for pretty but not so well known songs the whole day.

Fun story... Thursday I called both of my chesed families to ask if either one of them needed me, and as it turned out, both had other things going on and I didn't have to come. This made me very happy because it gave me the much sought after time to read and do laundry. Unfortunately, trivial things loose their glamour in so short a time and after about 3 hours, I got really bored. So I decided to take a walk. I walked for near an hour when I came to rest on a bench opposite the central bus station. Close enough to observe the unsuspecting people running by, minding their own business, and far enough not to be seen. Somehow this form of entertainment seemed to only intensify the boredom.
When it seemed there was no hope for my mood, I remembered something one of my teachers said in class that week. His class was all about distinguishing fantasy from reality, and revealing society for what it is... He explained that just like hunger is a signal of the Neshama to eat (not a cheeseburger like on the commercials, but certain nutritious foods that we know we should eat) and thirst is a signal for water (not soda or gatorade) so too, boredom is not a state of being... its a signal. Boredom is a signal for purpose. When the Neshama is crying out to do something- to do good deeds, the person feels bored. As he so plainly put it "What happens when you eat when your bored? now your full and bored." It's not that we have nothing to do... its that we don't want to do anything. We are reaching out for PURPOSE.
Once I realized this, I felt happier. I understood that the reason for my boredom was missing chesed, and that I now needed to find a chesed to do. I quickly set off back for the seminary, assuming that I could probably find someone who needed help with something there. My opportunity came sooner than expected when I met an old woman stooped over and pulling a shopping basket behind her. I went over to her and asked if I could help her out. She asked me my name and told me she was on her way to the Center right next to the Tachana and that usually her grandchildren go shopping with her but everyone had been too busy that day. I knew right away that Hashem had sent me a unique opportunity to do chesed right then and I wasn't going to let it pass me by. On the way to the Center I learned alot about Geveret Tzipora and she about me. She even told me that we should only speak hebrew between us so that I will learn to speak it very quickly. She is a really smart and exceptional woman who takes care of her family and grandchildren even though it is hard for her. It was so clear to each of us that this was a shidduch Min HaShamayim. It also turned out that she lives only a few minutes walk from the seminary. When we got to her apartment we exchanged numbers and said goodbye with the promise to do it again in the future. Which we did on the following Monday.

It's Raining its Cheshvan

So, a cool thing was that it rained on Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan... how awesome is that??! It was a really encouraging thing b/c it demostrated so clearly the fact that there is a Seder in the world and that every little detail is orchastrated and cared about by G-d.
One of the girls in the sem was really cute about it. When she saw the rain she went running outside soooo excited and came back in all dissappointed. When I asked her why she was down she said, '"you always hear that when it rains in Eretz Yisroel all the people come out and dance in the streets... but there was nobody outside dancing." lol, i seriously wanted to pinch her cheeks. :}

That Shabbos we were able to get a large enough group together to stay in the dorm for shabbos. After having to go out and find places to stay and eat all the Chaggim a lot of girls were glad to just be able to stay in. We ended up with about 30 girls more than anticipated.... which didn't do so well for the food situation. Luckily we are not animals- well actually, to be honest, that is not entirely true for the whole group. But never fear, we managed and e/o was happy.

Motzei Shabbos we had a Melava Malka at our Eim Habayit's house. We played a game, and ate food, and sang. And then since it was such a beautifully cool night some of us did the hour long walk back to sem.
After we came home, there was a Sefat Shabbaton Breakout. Where we made a mock shabbos meal... which had us all rolling on the floor laughing. Then when our stomach's couldn't take anymore abuse, we decided to play freeze and justify. And to sum it all up, we were all crying with laughter the entire hour. I was taping it with s/o elses camera. All the shtick i can remember at this point included... our mock bubby being chased around the room by the mock tatty with a stick, a belly dancer, a bipolar chick, obama, hippies, and scary chassidish men.
lol. I'm sure you get the picture. :D

and his name was Catul...

Funniness.... its been a while. :D I have more than a Megilla to write, so I'll try not to go too much into detail.

Deep quote that states the obvious but is generally overlooked- "A relationship is only as strong as the one that loves the least." Rav Noach Weinberg

And just an cute quote I found from I don't know where- "G-d doesn't give you the people you want- He gives you the people you need. To help you, to hurt you, to love you, to leave you, and to make you into the person you were meant to be."


Okay, starting from 2 weeks ago-

On Sunday we had an aerobics class.... which I conveniently missed on account of doing my laundry (which, for your information, I do by hand since its so expensive here). But afterwards I went down and learned some cool gymnastics from a girl who is really awesome.

On Monday we went to Ir Dovid, the location of Dovid Hamelech's palace, to go caving. We hiked through waist deep water (which is more than likely not waist deep on anyone else besides me) in an underground tunnel in the stone. We sang the whole time and that helped the girls who were really clausterphobic. In some places the ceiling was so short, I even had to crouch. the entire length of the cave was a 40 minute walk and the width was barely a small man's width throughout. One way or another it was a lot of fun.

Tuesday me and my roommate went in search of a horse farm she had heard was nearby. Much to our delight we found it and spent some time petting them. There were also all the other basic farm animals there. And even some not so basic ones.... like the donkey. Eehaw!!

Oh- did I mention that I have begun learning French. I am learning Hebrew as well, but that is a given. We have girls here from Montreal and from France. They are having a lot of fun teaching me their language and I have figured out that as long as I am actually using it, all the skill I need is memorization.

On Wednesday my roommate, one other girl, and I all went back to the horse farm. While we were there we met the owner of the farm. He is an old man with a small family that built the entire farm and his house with his own hands when he came to Israel. While we sat and talked to him we had the chance to get acquanted with his kittens. One of the girls I was with jokingly said "Can I keep him?" and much to our surprise the old man said Yes! He even told us how to take care of it. We discussed it among ourselves, and of course reason was tossed to the wind as unsatisfyed childhood dreams resurfaced from decomposed graves. We had always wanted pets.... and it was housebroken.... I don't think its even necessary to say that we took it home.


We figured our biggest challenge was going to be getting the kitten up the 4 floors and into the room without anyone noticing anything amiss. (We didn't factor in the fact that I am allergic to cats and that we aren't allowed to have pets.) Once there, we could keep the door shut and nobody would know. We named it Catul... derived from the hebrew word for cat- Chatul... and made him a bed and litter box and gave it dinner. It was a top priority secret so by that night, naturally, everyone knew about it. Well, not everyone. Not the girls who we knew were even the slightest bit afraid of them. Although we did have a few close calls... Like when we put a 'forbidden to enter without knocking' sign on the door and everyone was convinced we were hiding something. Luckily, at the time that they pushed there way through the door looking for the boy, Catul was sleeping in my lap and I was reading a book over his head... making him invisable. lol But all night, the sympathizers and animal lovers were hanging out in our room.


At about 11:30 at night, nearly an hour after curfew, the Am Bayit... who has been suspicious about our room since day one (on account of the many secret missions we carry out from within our silent 4 walls) :} came to visit our room. I basically shut the door on her face and then went out to talk to her..... the conversation went something like this:
"Hi!"
"What is going on in that room??"
"Nothing.... absolutely nothing... why would you think s/t was going on?"
"Haha, very funny, what is happening in that room??"
"Okay okay, we sort of got a rabbit."
"A... rabbit.... like a live rabbit?"
"um..."
"Wait, you seriously have a live rabbit in your room??!!"
"um... well... its a little bigger than a rabbit"
"... a little bigger than a rabbit. What does that mean?"
"well, its not exactly a rabbit..."
"I'm not getting it."
"Okay, we sort of have a kitten."
"Your joking."
"emhem... no i'm not."
"You brought a live cat into the dorm?? into your room??"
"um, yes."
"Let me see it."
"Be my guest."
So the end of the story is that she sympathized, because she likes cats.... but she made us get rid of him anyways. Right away. So I got to break curfew to walk the cat back to the farm, he never made it though, because my friends cousin wanted him and came to pick him up.

And so ends the saga of Catul, a dream fulfilled and then taken away before I really got a chance to appreciate it. lol.... :) it was still fun.

Simchat Torah with the Tragers

Okay, Hi everyone. Sorry that I'm so behind. My bad ;)

Shmini Atzeret/ Simchat Torah I spent at the Tragers house in Ramat Beit Shemesh. Getting to see everyone and spend quality time with them was amazing. Avrami, Eli, and Alex have grown up so much!! I barely recognized them!
The Shul was beautiful, the dancing leibadick, and the candy overwhelming. lol. The kids looked like they were really enjoying themselves. Its interesting that here in Israel shmini atzeret and simchat torah are on the same day... but cool.
The first night meal we ate out, and the rest we enjoyed together at home. Thank you Sharon and Shira, the food was amazing!!! lol- especially the rebellious waffles ;P
Oh- and I forgot to mention the cat which doesn't have a name yet... or rather has many names. Some of which include Quagmire, kitty purry, Citty, Kat, and Chatuli. She is soooo cute! She is a tiny little kitten that the Tragers saved and adopted in infanthood. They even had to bottle feed her at first. She is sooo playful and mystchevious!!!! I love kittens!
puuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall a hugungous thank you to the Trager Family!!!! You guys are the best!

Chol Hamoed and CPB&J ;)

First 2 pics were from the shul in Aco.

Last three are taken in Tel Aviv with Dror.

So I had a thought.... So you know how Chol Hamoed is smushed in the middle of the 2 yomim tovim?? So succos here was kind of like a Whole weat, crunchy peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The Chaggim were thick and yummy like whole weat bread, but chol hamoad had all the action!! lol

Talk about busy... from beginning to end, Chol Hamoed was a whirlwind of fun activities!!
Sunday night P'ninim took us to the old city to celebrate succos with a Simchat Beit Hashoava on the roof of the Heritage House. There was music, lots of different styles of dancing, and of course- food to feed an army. It took me some time to warm up but in the end we all just let loose and had fun!!! We also had a speaker (and this is for Meyer) who used the Word 'LeMafreah' which, for all you people who don't learn Gemara, means 'retroactively'... and i knew what it meant!!! Overall we had a blast!
On the way back there was so much food left over that every single one of the nearly 50 girls in attendance had to carry a box or pan the 20 minute walk to where the bus was parked. Me and a friend found an easier way than struggling under the weight of our boxes and put them on our heads. We marched through the streets of the old city with conspiritorial smiles and confident steps. An old man even begged to take a picture with us!! lol, we did it and the whole sem was laughing. Right before we left on the bus a man with a little kid asked us if he could have a drink because he was thirsty... there was so much left over that I was able to give him almost a full bottle of fruit juice. Again we all laughed and shrugged... only in Israel.

Monday I went to Tel Aviv to meet my cousins. Dror picked me up from the bus and took me to Yafo, the old city of Tel Aviv, to sightsee. We got to look at all different kinds of cool art and the area itself was beautiful. Dror explained to me that a lot of it was just newly redone in order to attract tourists. We visited the old train station and even got free shwepps flavored bubbly water samples.
When we were no longer able to stand the heat, we went out for lunch. Dror bought me my first Felafel in Isreal. Which was surprisingly good since I really never liked felafel in America. Although everyone did warn me that its better here. For desert we both got 2 gigantic scoops of icecream. :D
After lunch I went with Dror to pick up his two daughters, Hadar and Ohr, from Gan. Hen Col Cach Chamudot! At the Gan we also met up with Karen (Dror's wife) and her sister Anat and then we all went back to their house to hang out. Dror took me to go see Michal for a few minutes at the fancy Salon she works at.
For Supper Chaim and Chava joined us and we ate in the succah. :) After dinner Tante Chava took me to a really fun program called (in english) "Invitation to Silence". It is an hour and a half program to help you understand deaf people and the world they live in. We had to wear headphones and not talk or make noise the whole time. There were about 14 people in the group and we all had to work together to complete tasks and communicate messages to one another. I could talk about the experience from today till tomorrow but i'll suffice it to say that it was a lot of fun and very educational.
Tante Chava drove me to the bus station and even bought me a beautiful white sunhat that I can't wait to wear on the beach!
And so ends my day in Tel Aviv..... Todah Raba L'Tante Chava, Dror, V'Karen Al HaCol!!!! I had a really great day!!! Love you all!

Tuesday the Madrichot (dorm counselors) woke us up at 6:00 am to get ready for a super all day tiyul to Aco!! Fortunetely we had a few hours to sleep on the bus.... unfortunetely it was like trying to sleep in a cheap movie theater seat. Needlesss to say, not much sleep was happening. But its okay because seminary girls don't need sleep... (and this ones for Reuven) 'its part of the brainwashing process' lol.
We stopped breifly for Breakfast and then visited this amazingly beautiful shul in Aco.... some of the decorations were actual silver and gold. They probably spent millions of dollars on it. Then we headed to the docks for lunch. One half of us ate while the other half boarded a speed boat. I was in the second group to go on the boat so naturally it was time to kick up some trouble..... :-P actually it wasn't even my idea. lol
I dont' know what that big metal thing is called... the one that fishermen use to attach a net for catching mass amounts of fish. It swings out into the water from the boat and then back in when they want to bring in the catch. So a few girls were hanging on on of those when it was over the docks, myself included. The tour guide came over and asked who would be brave enough to swing out over the water and jump, naturally I volunteered. And that is just what I did.
The water was really salty but not too deep, and despite my long skirt and knee socks :} i made it easily back to the dock. The weak tour guide wasn't strong enough to pull me up on a rope (no offense to him but i'm really not that heavy...). So I swam under the dock and climbed up from the other side on some rocks. I then took a bow and everyone on the dock cheered.... hehe.
Although the stunt on the dock was my star moment the actual speed boat ride wasn't at all anticlimatic. It was actually a blast. It felt like a roller coaster. The captain told us all to sit up front and then he revved her up to full power which pitched the nose of the boat into the air... hence all of us. Then we'd come crashing down after a huge wave and get soaked.
Afterward we drove 2 hours to our next activity..... Grape Picking. We spent the last half hour until dark picking delicious green grapes. We brought the grapes to a location 10 minutes away and the guide showed us how to make grapejuice... in the dark. Luckily flashlights were on the packing list. A bunch of girls smushed the grapes with their feet in a baby pool but the more sensible girls took the time to do the process by hand. Me, hanving no interest in swimming in sticky grape pulp, didn't join in these activities. Rather I stood by the side taking pictures and laughing at all the funny things that were happening around me. In the end everyone got a little bottle of grapejuice... and I also got to keep my grapes. *Win Win*
On the way to our final destination... the Sand Dunes of Ashdod... the bus discovered that small enough girls can fit in the overhead baggage compartment. So next thing I knew I was being shamelessly stuffed into it. :-) It turned out the be the most comfortable spot on the bus. The girl that had been put into the opposite compartment and I both fell into our first good sleep since the trip started.
(I have pics of this 2 but just so e/o knows what the hold up with pics is.... It's been really complicated working out blogging in general on account of not having my computer. unfortunetly the pic sitch has been a bit frustrating to work with. But I'll get it worked out and have them posted as soon as I can. )
In Ashdod a few girls stayed behind to work the BBQ and the rest of us climbed a huge sand mountain and had a race rolling down it. It turned out to impossible to breath while doing said rolling so we all had to stop a few times on the way to spit sand and take a breath. :D But we made it down alive and then the tour guide told us a cool story from the gemara... which, incidently i don't remember. Then we rejoined forces for the BBQ and finished our evening with a not too long bus ride and cat-fights over the showers. :}

Wednesday I put up the calendar bulliuton board I had been working on for a few days, as per my job in Seminary.
I then did some shopping in the school's hefker room and packed a yom tov bag to bring with me to the Trager's.
Which brings me to Shmini Atzeret....

Succos...... and the Chamtzin

Wanna start out by wishing a Chag Sameach to all my dutiful readers out there!

I've actually had a cold for the past couple of days so that was a really fun part of my chag... [cough cough, hack wheez] Um... for the first days of Succos I stayed in Kiryat Belz so i could be close to the Chaimowitz faimly. I went with my friend to her great aunt's house for the first seuda of yom tov. Which was really nice since I up until Wednesday morning I didn't have anywhere to eat for that night. i felt really at home among the bustling family and constant noise of children playing. She seriously had like 25 grandchildren under the age of 10... so anyways, i really like it.

Then for the first day meal i went to the Chaimowitzes. Mrs. Chaimowitz really took care of me, like my own mother would. And it was really nice to get to know all the kids and meet some of the new recruits (Chozer BeTshuva people).

Then for the second day meals I walked to Har Nof..... an hour and 20 minute walk in the heat. Crazy.

Oh- right, did i mention the Chamtzin yet? So there was a heat wave here. Its the hottest Succos anyone can remember. like 90 or 100 degrees. Cool right.

So Thursday night I ate at the Yarmishes.... who are an amazing family that are always doing chesed, together with 50 other seminary girls who needed the american meals. During the each seminary needed to have a girl present a Dvar Torah and also each girl individually needed to answer a bunch of questions such as: What is your name and where do you live? What seminary are you attending? Do you get along with your parents? Tell us one thing nobody in the room knows about you... There were some really interesting responses like "I crashed the car during my road test" and "I built a hydrogen generator" lol- okay that was me.

Unexpectedly during the meal I was tapped on the shoulder by a very good friend of mine that I haven't seen in a few years but used to speak to often. We went to camp Agudah together after 8th grade and saw each other twice in NY since. I was very excited to see her and we spent the whole meal catching up. Afterwards I went to see her dorm and meet the Rav of her sem.

Thursday night I stayed at Rabbi Meisels house (the principle of P'ninim). When I walked in that night I had another amazing surprise. In the Rav's living room sat an old and true friend also from Camp Agudah, who just happened to be my Rav's neice who was also staying there for yomtov. We talked long into the night and finally retired in the early hours of the morning for it had been a very long day.

I had the Friday day meal there with some of the other girls from the P'ninim in the Meisels succah on the roof and then walked back to Belz for shabbos.

I got slightly lost on the way and ended up near the old city but I quickly figured out where I had erred and made it to Belz about 20 minutes from Shkiah.

Friday night I went with the same friend from Wednesday night to her sisters house which was beautiful on account of cool weather and wonderful company. Shabbos day I went back to the Chaimowitz's and stayed till the end of shabbos.

I then caught a bus back to Kiryat Moshe.

All in all, I really enjoyed First days Succot in Yerushalym.

Dirty Details ;-)

This cat we met and fed in Netanya.

These 2 pictures were taken in Maboa.

lol. It seems this past week was characterized by all the dirty little details.

On Sunday my Israelli roommate taught me how to do Sponja!! (it was my clean up job)
So for all you Americans who don't know what this entails I am going to give you a play by play of the job.
Step Number One: Pour buckets of soapy water on the NOT swept floor.
Step Number Two: Take a squeagy and PUSH AROUND THE DIRT.
Step Number Three: Once all the corners have been thouroghly dirtified, pull the dirt and water to the middle of the floor with the squeagy.
Step Number Four: Push all the gunky water into the drain.
Step Number Five: OOOOOOO, My favorite part! TAKE THE GUNK OUT OF THE DRAIN WITH YOUR HANDS!!! (okay i didn't do this step :D)
Step Number Six: Put a shmata over the squeagy and use it to dry the floor. (genious!)
Step Number Seven: Pour fabric Softner on the Shmata and go over the floor one more time to make the room smell as if you ACTUALLY cleaned it :)

And there you have it folks- SPONJA! [stay tuned for pics... they r on my friends cam]

On Monday we went to a place called MaBoa... i think. it was at the bottom of these beautiful mountains (again- i'll post pics as soon as i can). We hiked through water and rocks, under this canapy of palm tree's bamboo and other plants for about 2 hours. It was a great first major trip because as it seems, when you and everyone around you keep slipping on rocks and getting pulled into strange currents- you tend to bond in order to stay alive. ;-D At some places we had to hold hands and make a chain so that nobody got hurt. I did the hike with two girls from London. lol- love the accent!
Not to mention at the end we got to go into this giant natual pool where everyone was pushing everyone else in. So basically we all ended up soaked and caked in dirt (from the hike back- which we did on the mountain side). It was the most fun that I think i've ever had!!!

Tuesday I went to Natanya to catch some sun... but to our luck we got there when it was already dark. :} woops. And since we had spent all out money on the ticket, we basically just hung out with my friends friend and walked around seeing the sights. We even ended up spending the night there..... a long sleepless night.
In the end, even though it was dark, we went to the beach and got all gross and sandy before going home at 6:00 am. Where we fell into bed and slept until we had to get up to get ready for Succot.... which brings me to my next entry.

Some Pics... for now

Okay, so one pic is of the basically the whole sem at Tashlich... and the other one is a bit of a sneak peak for next week (since it was taken today) of me and my 2 roommates :)

Yom Kippur in the Old City

I had a dream of spending the holiest day of the year in the old city where I could go down to the kotel and pray where the Beit Hamikdash once stood. Luckily for me there are people like the Gershaw family in this world!! Mrs Gershaw invited me to stay with her and her family in the old city to spend Yom Kippur with them!
The bus ride up to the old city on Friday was pretty long and rough because traffic was insane. I think there was even some accident on the road but I don't know for sure because the bus driver told the lady who was telling me about it to shut up :} ...Israel. I took some funny pictures because I was really bored. (o btw, i'm going to upload some pics soon)
Anyways, I met Rochel Gershaw, age 12, by the Beit Cneset HaChorba and she took me to the home we stayed at. It was beautifully designed (of course...) courtesy of Mrs. Leora Gershaw :D and staying there was B"H very comfortable. The veiw from the roof is also really amazing.
I accompanied the Gershaw family to friends of theirs for the Seudat Hamafseket, and I daresay we left a few pounds heavier than we came. :P
I wore all white when we went to Kol Nidrei and Maariv at Birchat HaTorah (the aish Hatorah shul) down the block... stoney road... alley way??? lol- wtvr. The davening there is very serious but I the strongest adjective that comes to mind is inspirational. The chazan really had a power to move people with his beautiful voice. That made the whole thing really wonderful for me.
Michal Gershaw and I woke up at 4:00 am to catch the Netz Minyan at the kotel. It was chilly but that was good since I'm not sure how else we would have stayed awake. :) It was my dream fulfilled to be there... and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to have done it.
The rest of the day passed by quickly, between sleeping and davening, and ended with a dramatic crescendo of Neila. After which I proceeded with the Gershaw family to Rav Green's house for Havdala and the break-fast. Which was also a wonderful opportunity since the Green's will be moving to Pheonix, Arizona in only a few short weeks.
A huge Thank you to the Gershaw family and every other person who was involved in hosting me and helping me acheive my dream Yom Kippur.

As an afterthought, I wanted to share something with everyone that I found really interesting but true. It was something Rabbi Wallerstein said at the shiur he gave to the sem on Motzei Yom Kippur...
He mentioned that this Yom Kippur felt very different to him... that it wasn't as scary. Not as serious or sad. He said that it worried him a little how unemotional he was during the tefillos compared to past years. And interestingly enough, most everyone else in the shiur felt the same way.
Rav Wallerstein was quick to reassure us with his theory about why that might have been. He said that since this year, Yom Kippur fell out on a Shabbos, there was an extra measure of Rachamim Min Hashamaiim and therefore the Yom Kippur judgement itself was not as scary.
And I thought that was cool and reassuring so I wanted to share it with anyone else just in case they felt the same way and were nervous about it too.

Aseret Yimei Teshuvah

The week started out as inconspicuously as possible but it soon became apparent that this week was anything but ordinary.
Monday afternoon tiyul began with a trip to a fountain to do Tashlich.... I'm not sure the girls found 'throwing away your Aveiros' in the fish-free-fountain as entertaining as the water fight that ensued. After snapping the same painfully posed group picture with 45 cameras, we reloaded the buses on our way to Kever Rochel.... no we did not take a bullet proof bus :)
We did Mincha there and beseeched our Mother in heaven to cry... to raise her voice and cry for her children who are so far from home. Her children who live in an invisible hell, the extent of which we do not know or understand.

On my own time I went twice to Geula. The first time I went to just watch. Watch the people, the throngs of jewish people, rushing about trying to buy everything for the Chaggim. And though it wasn't even Yom Kippur yet, you could smell Succot in the air- Tzedaka stands and succos decorations every 5 feet that we walked.
The second time in Geula we did Caparos... okay I'll rephrase that, my 2 friends did Caparos and I took a video being as #1 it smelled #2 i really wasn't interested in the little boys, who by the way were running the stand, waving a sqauking chicken over my head. :D So I took the easy way out and kindly offered to take the video. As it was, we were all on the floor laughing. (lol- I'm giggling just thinking about it.)
But never you fear! I did do Caparos with a real live chicken on Erev Yom Kippur with my school. :} Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of that one.

Another Highlight of the week leading up to Yom Kippur was that I learned how to make a french braid on myself!! I plan to upload pictures as soon as I'm able.

and a Happy New Year to YOU too!

For Rosh Hashana I went to Maalei Amos to spend the high holy days with Leora Gershaw and her family, who so graciously welcomed me into their home, with open arms and open hearts!! Leora and Aryeh Gershaw were friends with my parents when they were living in Yerushalym nearly 19 years ago.

Maalei Amos is a Yishuv on the West Banks. Around the Yishuv were barbed wire fences and soldiers keeping guard from their arab neighbors. The scenery in and around the yishuv is beautiful. Flowers, fruit trees, and exotic plants grown in abundance in the middle of what seems like a total dessert.

The community is small but very warm and welcoming. Indeed I felt at home there. They have a beautiful shul, both a boys and girls elementary school, and several parks. In summary, I would say that the community is thriving, and the families seem to be very close.

I got the opportunity to join the yom tov meals of some of the other families in the yishuv in addition to the Gershaws (thanx to Leora) and met some really wonderful people. Some of whom knew my parents and some of the most important people in my life... like the Hochstadt, and Stern families.

I had an amazing time with Michal and Rochel Gershaw and some of the other warm and accepting girls on the yishuv.

I hope I will get the opportunity to go back many times and create lasting friendships there. All in all, it was a wonderful Chag and a beautiful experience.

A very warm and special thank you to the Gershaw family for having me and taking care of me in every possible way!!!!!

Messengers...

How spectacular is Your holy land, Hashem... that even the birds openly do your bidding???

Monday night I had been so exhausted from having class from 8:20 am until 10:30 pm that passed out cold in my cloths without even setting my alarm on my phone to wake me up in time for class the next morning. But to my surprise and utter delight, At exactly 7:35 the next morning (the time I need to wake up) I woke up to a most peculiar sound. Its not one that I am completely unfamiliar with but not one I expected either. There, in the window next to my bed (which is basically a hole in the wall with a shade covering it), was a silhouette of two pigeons perched on the sill- calling me to wake up. As soon as I said Modeh Ani they flew away... mission accomplished.

...and A New One Begins

Chaim Esptien was there to meet me at the airport. Of course, he recognized me right away :) and how happy I was that he did. He helped me out of Ben-Gurian- pushing all 4 suitcases and loading them into the car and drove me all the way to Kiryat Moshe in Jerusalem. Then he helped me bring in all of my things and even took the time to program my cell phone with some important phone numbers! He took care of me like my own grandfather might... Thank You Chaim!!

The first day I set up my room and that night the school took us to visit the kotel. Unfortunately I had not slept in about 30 hours and was not able to properly appreciate it.

My Dira (apartment) is on the 4th floor and the view from my window is beautiful. Thank G-d, I am only sharing a room with 2 other girls. One is Israeli and one Spanish. The three of us have much in common and I look forward to a long and prosperous friendship.

The Classes that I have been to have all been positively amazing!! Every one of the teachers has a real ability to move and inspire. Each one of them has their own style of teaching but at the same time they always agree with each other. Very often I find that the underlying message the teacher chooses to bring out from the lesson is something the last teacher mentioned in a totally different context.

This Shabbos we stayed in the dorm together and participated in many group activities that allowed us to get to know each other even more. From silly things like having to sit at a certain table and then trying to figure out what everyone at the table had in common (all the girls at my table had an interest in medicine), to a really fun game called marsh mellow... which incidentally, had nothing to do with marsh mellows :) For Shalosh Seudot we walked to the kotel (an hour walk in the heat... carrying salads, rolls, and water bottles) and we ate on the roof of the Heritage House overlooking the old city.

All in all, I am really am beginning to feel at home here and know that I will have a truly amazing year. I only pray that I have the courage to face every moment of it with an open heart.

Miss you all!! <3

Love,

Shayna

A Chapter Closes...

August 29th

9:45 pm: I am now leaving America. the place i have called home for the past 17 years. Oh how the city sparkles beneath the wings of the plane. From the sky, Philidalphia is 1000 brilliantly gleaming jewels in its night glory. In all my life I've never seen anything quite like it. My head is heavy with exhaustion but I'm too wound up to sleep. America, I will not return to you for some time.

G-d please send angels to keep me safe in Your holy land.

Israel- here i come.

August 30th

2:00 am: It is now 2:00 am, but we have already crossed the time barrier... traveling toward the sun. Outside my windown I can see the beatiful sun rising over the horizon and I simply can't tear my eyes away from it... breathtaking.

3:30 am: Sleep is a seductive temptress who takes great pride in her teasing.

4:45 am: Wakefulness is relentless in its pursuit. It simply will not be dismissed. The passengers are restless and upon braving a peak out my window I can see that the sun is easily in a noon position. Soon BeEzrat Hashem we will arrive in the holyest land on earth. But for now- All i can do is wait.

7:00 am: I just saw Israel from my window under the wing of the plane. Its looks just like i've seen it one hundred times on the maps in Tanach class. Looking down upon it I had the feeling of looking upon a farmiliar face... one that you memorized a long time ago. One that you haven't seen in a while. It feels like coming home.

It is now 3:30 pm... I have crossed over to Israel time.

Haven't slept since 8:00 am yesterday. But I have arrived, and that is all that matters.

Welcome

Hello All!

Thank you for taking the time to check out my new blog! This is the beginning of a diary intended to record and document my journeys through life- starting with my upcoming year in Israel. I am extremely excited to be going. A special thank you to everyone who helped me get there... which is namely- all of you. :) Love you all and I'm going to miss everyone like crazy. Make sure to sign in so you can post comments!!