Sleepless, sick and an early arrival

On Saturday night, as it notes in my last post, I couldn't sleep at all, not a wink. So Sunday was pretty boring because I stayed at home to catch up on some shuteye. Even though that attempt for a nap went poorly as well, I played games the whole day. Monday, was a day off for us that we took from work, so I went to visit the girls who are living in Netanya doing Magen David Adom, there apartments were decent they have cable and wifi which I'm jealous of, given my constant state of boredom in Lod. It was also Valentine's day on Monday, so one of the girls doing Magen David Adom in Netanya's boyfriend lives in Lod, I convinced her to come back with me to surprise him for V-day it was a success, I played Cupid a bit this year. My boyfriend took me for an ice cream and also got me a bag of all my favorite candies and chocolate bamba. Tuesday, I spent packing all my stuff and cleaning out my closet etc. in preparation for the arrival of my parents. So I had a misunderstanding as well as to their arrival date & time, me having idiotic moments, thought that my dad explained that their flight came midnight on the 15th and by the time they arrived it would be the 16th, but he meant that they were arriving midnight the 16th so then it would technically be the 17th. So what do I do, I say to everyone I'm gonna surprise my parents at the airport they won't be expecting me until the next day, it's going to be a great surprise. So I pay 65 shekel taxi to go to the airport to get there a bit early and wait, then I wait and I wait their flight arrives and no parents, alright cool. Held up in customs, I think. Maybe bags are lost, I think. Then I call my dad, asking "Where are you?" to which he answers "LA, our flight is leaving in a half hour." then it hits me of course, dad meant it was the 16th that they were flying out, duh! So I tell dad about the surprise plan (now ruined), that I thought the flight was today, I feel like an idiot and am embarrassed, he says that he's sorry and he'll make up the cab fare to me, ok no problem. I'm still hysterical whilst leaving the airport to get a taxi back to Lod, to make matters much worse, the taxi driver rips me off, I have to pay 100 shekel for the same cab that I paid 65 shekel for the way there. The best part is I'm hysterical in the back talking to my roommate and boyfriend telling them this ridiculous story of me being dumb. The taxi driver when he's dropping me off, "Why are you swimming?", like that makes sense to me, oh wait he meant crying, right, I understand, excellent english verb choice taxi driver. I do love when they mix those sorts of verbs up. That made me feel better, I try to sleep, failed attempt yet again. Wednesday, say bye to the teachers and my class at the special needs school, went back to my house to go hang out, maybe work on crocheting but just my luck this week, the Germans are sleeping, I call them, no answer, I have no purse (containing crocheting) with me because I didn't think I would need it, so I go to the boys' house to hang out to wait for them to wake up, bored out of my mind for a good few hours. My day improved though we had a good ulpan class, art class in which I finished my painting and now I'm going to be headed for the airport for "take 2" of meeting them from their flight.

Haifa, bronchitis and Jerusalem

Sunday, a day trip to Haifa, in one of our meetings last week we decided to go to Haifa for a day trip, over Ashdod and Ashkelon area. When we got to Haifa our first stop was at the Baha'i Gardens, one of the holiest places in the world for the Baha'i religion, it is known that one of their prophets is buried there. It is one of the most beautiful places of the many that Israel has to offer, with perfect symmetry and balanced architecture, landscaping and all around aura it gives, the gardens are really a stunning place to see. Every time I hear about the Baha'i faith it sounds ideal, the equality of everyone and that the only way we can make the world a better place is if we work together in harmony, that all people are just human not a race or nationality. Of course, I'm proud to be Jewish but it does seem like a very kind and peaceful religion, I wish even if were aren't of the Baha'i faith we could and should be so accepting and without prejudice. After the visit at the Baha'i gardens, we headed to lunch where we had delicious shwarma and then we continued to our next stop, the Carmel mountains. The area of the Carmel mountains is one of the most lush and green that I've seen, apparently it's like this throughout the year, I'm jealous of the animals who call it home. Although much of the area was devastated by the fires of December during Chanukkah still the area is lush and green, after a long hike through the Carmel area which was stunning to be modest, we were headed towards our last stop, Eliyahu's cave, one of the world's holiest caves it is said to be the place that Eliyahu rose to G-d from. It was interesting but also like many other religious sites in Israel, but still a nice place to visit. After the cave,we called it day and headed home to Lod, to get some sleep before volunteering on the next day. Monday, a normal day at the school, we made cookies for "Family Day" which was fun it was hard to manage all the students trying to cut cookies out with cookie cutters but it was rewarding to put a full tray of sugar cookie hearts in the oven. Tuesday, another sick day, but this time I spent most of the morning making a doctor's appointment for the afternoon, come afternoon I'm on my way to the Arab neighborhood Jawarish to the doctor, finally a proper doctor, although a house call is more convenient, the actual doctor was much more thorough and came up with a better diagnosis: (drumroll please), Ladies and Gentlemen, after weeks of coughing, stomach issues and all around unwellness, the doc has come to the conclusion that I have bronchitis. Although unthrilled with this diagnosis, at least I have a diagnosis now, it's much better than no diagnosis, after the news, time I got the prescription, having to go into the depths of Lod to a pharmacy which worked with the insurance I got there to discover that they didn't even have the medication I needed anyways, how convenient, hunting the streets for another option we found one that had it, then we went home to a barbecue being held at the boys house for our madrich finishing his psychometric exam. Wednesday, another normal day at work, with my body's newfound discovery of its bronchitis it seemed to up the level and severity of the coughing also completely unnecessary, thanks human body, you've been great. Ulpan for three hours, a great addition to my usually intellectually unchallenging week, I'm actually getting ulpan compared to the past months that I haven't gotten much ulpan time. But otherwise a pretty average day. Thursday, I had a bit of a sick day again because of not sleeping much the night before, that evening we made challahs for the family I stayed at for the Shabbat, and again I didn't sleep throughout the night but I slept a lot in the on Friday day before heading to Jerusalem for Shabbat. We had a lovely shabbat dinner and an even better shabbat sleep. Saturday, we spent most of the day with the host family's kids playing computer games and napping. We came home to lod pretty late but I'm awake still, can't sleep as usual.

1/30/2011-2/5/2011

Sunday, was a boring day spent housesitting, what is usually a touring day most people were sick our visiting our friend at the hospital, I so I was stuck in the house all day waiting for them to come home so I could open the door. But thankfully it was raining a lot outside so I had no particularly good reason to venture out of the house anyways even in my boredom. Monday, was my first day of work for about a week, it was nice to do something useful after being sick all week. Nothing special except that we had the monthly birthdays for the students with January birthdays so my friend and I spent most of the time dancing and singing with the students, it was fun as well tiring but always rewarding. Tuesday, another day of work, we had an average day just helping with assignments and taking the students to their different classes, we had a visiting school of 10-11 year olds from a school in Lod. This school group came to do activities like sports, arts and dance with the students at the special needs school. In the evening we had our volunteering at the youth center with the Bnei Akiva kids who originate from Ethiopia, we played games as usual, we do the same volunteering thing on Thursday too. Wednesday, I had a museum day in Tel Aviv with all the Magen David Adom people in the group, we went to two museums, the Independance Hall were Israel became officially a country and the Hagana museum, where we learnt about the history of the Hagana, which was one of the important building blocks of what the army is today as well as its importance in making Israel the country that it is today, that night we had a art class in which I made a wooden tissue box holder, appropriate given my sickness during the past couple of weeks. Thursday, was a pretty average day volunteering at the school except that me and my volunteering partner got moved to volunteer in the art room, cool for me because the teacher gave us an assignment to draw a painting it was nice to do some drawing and also working in the art room was fun. Also on Thursday I made a cool discovery, the convenience of doctor house calls, something that is pretty old fashioned in America, but is apparently still around in Israel. Friday was the beginning of a group Shabbat that we had in Jerusalem, it was really nice to see the group and also amazing to be in Jerusalem, we had shul on Friday night, dinner and some time to play board games in the evening. Saturday, we had Saturday morning services and a short kiddush and shiur with the boys' rabbi from their yeshiva time, after we had a shabbat lunch and then more rest time when me and a couple people played some Monopoly, it was annoying because it was nonstop arguing about the game rules, British vs. American rules of Monopoly. After the rest we went to the other madricha's to have Seuda Shlishit and Havdalla, after saying goodbyes and leaving our respective Shabbat locations, a few of us went back home to Lod.