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.