Caesarea, Wingate institute, Zikhron yaakov, Yarkon river

On Sunday we went to Massuah, a holocaust museum that also has an exhibit especially on the subject of Adolf Eichmann and his trials in Israel, after the short movie about the trials of Adolf Eichmann, we learnt alot about how although the trials didn't need 100+ witnesses who survived the Holocaust to testify, they needed to share their stories and Israel needed to hear their stories so they could understand what they went through. After that, we continued to explore the museum. We listened to audio clips from the witnesses for the trials who survived the Holocaust on specific topics, looked at artifacts from the Holocaust and then met at the end to talk about the Holocaust and how it relates to Israeli society. We watched a couple of short movie clips about Israeli society one that was about Holocaust survivors and how the tried to integrate into Israeli society after such a surreal experience that can be difficult to cope with, another movie clip about Israelis going to Germany to buy a car to sell in Israel who then get stopped by German police and how they related the Holocaust to their interaction with these German police. After the museum we went home to make dinner and have a chill evening. Monday, we went to an outdoor amusement park and we did the ropes course it was pretty scary because it wasn't like a ropes course in America where there's a person below you that has a rope to you if you fall or want to come down they can drop you down by that rope this one you only had one rope that connected you just to a wire above the different obstacles which made me all the more uneasy with the whole thing, I only got to about the middle thing before I got scared so I went back to the ground which was very comforting after an almost nervous breakdown. After that I went to climb the little rock wall which was fun and then we went to the zip line, the place we went to is home to the second longest zip line in the world and the longest in Israel, that one was under repairs so we all got to go on a still very long 400m zip line which was so much fun and a big thrill. After all the excitement in Gush Etzion on the ropes courses we went in a hurry back to Lod because we had a shiur with the boys Rabbi from yeshiva who told us about Passover. On Tuesday we went to Tel Aviv to a park on the river to go paddleboating it was really fun and a kind of nice relaxing activity it was nice and sunny outside so that made it alot nicer. After that we went to the Ramat Gan Diamond museum to learn about how diamonds are processed, created, cut and traded. Ramat Gan is the largest diamond exchange in Israel, also what makes it special is that their offices are connected to cutting labs, processing labs and everything that they need to process diamonds for trade. Also we saw replicas of famous diamonds like Elizabeth Taylor's famous pear shaped diamond and many other fancy diamonds that are well known. After the diamond museum we had lunch and then went to the Wingate institute for Athletics. The Wingate Institute is home to some of the most advanced equipment for athletes, they have physiotherapists, psychiatrists, and trainers to help athletes train for the Olympics, soldiers train there for army exercises, there is also a boarding school in Wingate specifically for exceptionally high school athletes who stay in dorms at Wingate and train everyday along with their school studies. We took a tour around to see their Jewish Athletes Hall of Fame, learnt about the different techniques they have for measuring a person's fitness and a room the specifically has less oxygen in it to imitate high altitude training. We then took a kickboxing class which was fun but I wasn't dressed for it (jeans) so I only stayed for about half of it. When we all finished the kickboxing class we waited for our bus so we could finally go home to Lod. We had dinner and then a free night. On Wednesday we had tours in the north, we started in Caesarea where we saw the remains of the old Roman port and how amazing the advancements were for humanity even for that time. We started in the theater where we learnt about culture that citizens would've seen in the theater back in it's prime, like plays and drama. We continued to look at the port and all the houses and mosaic remains from the prime of this ancient port city. Although I had been before I learnt a lot of new things for example that there was a large Jewish population living in Caesarea in it's prime. After a couple of hours in Caesarea which I think is necessary to see everything we continued our tour of the north in Zikhron Yaakov, a town famous for the winery and beautiful town center. We started at a tour of the old cemetery to learn more about how the city began and what the hardships were in the beginning. Our plan next was to take a tour of the Aaronson house which was home to a spy ring for the British about the Turks, Sara Aaronson was captured by the Turks and was going to be questioned about the secret spy ring so she convinced the guard to take her to her house to change clothes and whilst he was standing outside, she killed herself with gun she had hidden in her wall behind a tile. This act saved the spy ring because she obviously couldn't reveal any information to the Turks, therefore she is known as a heroine to the community in Zikhron Yaakov. Unfortunately we weren't able to get into the museum which was sad because I was quite excited about going through to see her room where apparently the tile where she hid the gun is still there.Thursday we went to a shiur about Pesach and then continued to the Yarkon river for a tiyul. We walked around the swampy areas also to a cool castle type building and some people jumped into the river during lunch, then we got back on the bus and continued to another castle which had the most amazing view and you could see about 6 cities just from the one spot. After the tiyul day, we had dinner and then a free night

Purim, Moshav Carlebach, 19th birthday

For Shabbat, we went to Moshav Carlebach near Modi'in. The moshav was started by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, the Rabbi was well known in the sixties for being all about peace & love and was famous for taking jewish songs and adding short, catchy melodies to them, it's said that he wrote about 1,000 songs. The moshav being started by a Rabbi of peace and love was like going into a time machine to the sixties, over Shabbat there was plenty of beautiful singing and dancing in synagogue. We had a tour around the moshav and we went on a hike to the Maccabi graves, which was really interesting. We had a shabbat rest of playing cards, we had seuda shlishit, for the start of Purim we listened to the Megillah. We left promptly after the Megillah reading, came back to our house to get into to costumes to go to a purim party in tel aviv. So let me explain this "Purim party", first of all the organization that organized it rents out clubs and hosts religious Jewish parties for some people who want to get re-in touch with their Judaism. The party went like this, dressed in our costumes we got a ticket that gave us one drink at the club, there were lots of Bnei Akiva groups and random people dancing and drinking etc. The difference between this party and normal parties at clubs, is the separation of men and women in the dance floor, of course this is completely normal for religious Jewish parties, not normal for me, little weird. With many parties where alcohol, you may find that there are some people who can't hold their liquor. I'm not much of a dancer so I went to go sit by myself on the couches above the dance floor. What I found on my shoe was quite unpleasant, lo and behold, lucky me, I have the good fortune to step in some drunk person's vomit that they strategically put right next to the couches, thanks for that! Second situation, whilst I was chilling on the couch waiting for my boyfriend to return from the dance floor. Some religious guy starts hitting on me, trying to hold my hand, rubbing my back, which is quite possible the worst thing for me, I told him to leave because I have a boyfriend, he left to my relief. I was sitting there playing on my iPad and was drinking my drink spilled it on myself, being a klutz. We were meant to leave the club at 2:30am but of course the bus was late and we didn't get home until 3:45am which sucked because we had to be up at 9:00am the next morning. The next morning we went to volunteer to give out food for Purim in Lod. After that we had purim seuda organized by some of the group, we played games after which was really fun. After that around 9:00pm we went to Jerusalem for a midrasha Purim party, this wasn't fun for everyone, we were all there for about three minutes before everyone split, even our madricha left and we went to Ben Yehuda St. which had quite a party going on with lots of crazy costumes and drunk people for Purim. After that we left to go get the boys who were at a yeshiva party at the yeshiva that they were at in November and December, they had a great time and were all drunk and singing. When we got back I went straight to bed. Monday, we went back to Jerusalem to volunteer at two retirement homes and then continued to a Bnei Akiva Purim seuda, good meal with all the Hachsharot so it was a little crowded but still enjoyable. After the seuda ended at about 3:00pm we had free time in Jerusalem, we had a vote about when we were going to come back we decided on 8:00pm to some peoples frustration, because we didn't really understand what people were going to do in Jerusalem for five hours. Me, my boyfriend and our friend went to Mamilla Mall, hung around on Ben Yehuda St., I had to get some crocheting stuff. After that we met with our other friend and went to a video game place where you can play video games and just pay by the hour, so I sat and watched them play video games for about 3-4 hours which was kinda boring but I started knitting again which is quite exciting, I'm making a scarf. Tuesday we started back into volunteering as usual, in the afternoon I worked on baking for me and my birthday buddy's dessert party Wednesday night, I made a brownie cake with cream cheese icing and butter cookies which both came out good. Wednesday we had volunteering as usual and then went to Yafo for a tour. Shockingly, on route to Yafo we heard on the radio of a terrorist attack in Jerusalem near the central bus station, it was a really shocking event for all of us because it's a place that we frequent a lot and it's so much more shocking when you are in Israel when a terrorist attack happens. When you hear about it in the news from outside Israel it's less important than when you're in Israel when these terrible things happen. With sad news on our minds, we continued to Yafo which was really lovely and the city is beautiful and was a bit of a mood booster. We got to check out the flea market which is always interesting with many characters. Everyone was really stoked on the dessert party that we organized I also made homemade hot cocoa and whipped cream for everyone. Everyone sang happy birthday to us, we had a crazy countdown to midnight and then we blew out candles (I hear that it's bad luck to blow candles out before your birthday). I got presents from people three of my friends including my birthday buddy got me a little guitar from the Yafo flea market, it was so sweet of them. Such a nice present. Also got a big basket with lots of food from my dad and stepmom which is amazing with a chocolate cream cake with "Happy Birthday Rachel" on it. Today, I'm 19 which is very exciting.

3/6/2011-3/8/2011: Israel museum, volunteering, Samir's

On Sunday, we had our weekly tiyul day, we started the day at the Bnei Akiva offices in Jerusalem for a seminar about synagogues and how they get started, so we had to design and synagogue. What it would be called, how the rooms building would be set up, activities offered, what adjectives would we want it to be described as. Our group of 5 made a synagogue called New Generation in Hebrew, our synagogue had two floors one was a banquet hall and kitchen for parties and bnei mitzvot; our second floor had a large prayer hall the altar was on a circular stage and on the women's side the kid's play room was attached so that the children wouldn't disturb the people praying, it was a pretty great setup. After that, we had lunch and then we were scheduled to leave the BA offices at 1:15pm but of course since Israel usually runs on Jewish Standard Time (the scheduled time in always 20-30 minutes later in JST), so we didn't leave until about 1:40pm, we were headed for the Israel museum where we had a tour scheduled for 1:30pm so we didn't start until probably 2pm. So that was just peachy because if any of you have ever been, seen or heard about the Israel museum, it's massive it like the Israeli Louvre. We were meant to have like a good 2-3 hours at the Israel museum, which still is barely enough but at least we could've gotten to see a lot. Thankfully we had an awesome tour guide who took us to the important parts of the museum that were really what we were there to see, a lot of the people in the group have been to the Israel museum multiple times and have "been there, done that" but I found seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls, statues of the kings, artifacts and the model of Jerusalem depicting the city during the second temple period, I found it really interesting and just the vast collection the museum has specifically on its own history, shows how much has happened on this small piece of land. We had a half hour of free time to check out the museum for ourselves so I went to look through all the artifacts from other countries that this museum has to offer, there are artifacts from the Americas, Eskimos, Native Americans, China, Africa, Oceania, it was amazing to see such a vast collection of artifacts from so many different places in just one country's museum. After two hours at the museum we continued on the bus to Mevasseret Zion to volunteer for World Hesed (kindness) Day, half of us went to one place and the other went to another, the gist of our volunteering was to go to different youth hostels where underprivileged, special needs and people who have had a hard life and need a safe place to stay, we went to visit these people for Rosh Chodesh Adar and cheered them up, played bingo with them gave them face paint all in the spirit of Purim. The group I was in went to the hostel with the special needs people, they are all so sweet and it was really rewarding to cheer them up even if it was just for an hour. We then went home at 6:30pm had to get some groceries for the week, make dinner and eat dinner then I went straight to sleep at 11pm. Monday morning we went to our volunteering jobs and came back for lunch, after that we had ulpan, we then had a meeting about an idea the madrichim have, to make a Purim shuk/carnival at the Ethiopian youth center in Lod next week, we have to split into groups of 4 and come up with an idea for a stand, our group of just Americans is doing that classic game of having bigs jars of candy and the people having to guess what the correct amount of candy is in the jar and whoever guesses correctly wins a prize or maybe wins the jar of candy, we'll see how that goes. That night my boyfriend's dad invited my boyfriend and I to tag along with his program from Kansas City to a dinner in their sister city Ramla. We went to a place called Samir's the restaurant serves classic middle eastern food like hummus, shish kebabs, falafels etc, the owner (Samir) is a friend of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, so when people from Kansas City come to Israel they always eat in Ramla at Samir's. the dinner we had was big and complex, there was a guy who is involved in the distribution of Israeli wine internationally, consults vineyards about their wines, also produces wine himself, the chef made a dinner that was served in four courses, appetizer, second course, main course and dessert and each course was paired with a different wine. It was a delicious dinner appetizers were olive bread, pitas, zatar, hummus with warm chick peas, onion jam all was great the appetizer was paired with a really nice Chardonnay, the second course was rice and lentils, stuffed vegetables (grape leaves, carrots, squash), roast potatoes, and falafels with tehina the second course was paired with a Bordeaux. The main course was lamb chops, shish kebabs, Nile perch and roast chicken stuffed with rice and fruit, the main course was paired with a Cabernet Sauvignon. There wasn't enough time because of their schedule to have dessert paired with the dessert wine which was fine we still got some delicious baklava for the road which was really nice. We went home to Lod, me and my boyfriend watched some of 'Milk' which is an awesome movie if you haven't watched it, check it out. Tuesday, we had another morning of volunteering we discovered that we actually don't have to come to school on Tuesday until 10am not 9am so I think we'll remember that for next week. We had a especially boring day we were in the computer room for about 2 hours and then we had one hour to work with the students on their argumentative essays and then we decided that it wasn't worth staying for another hour to play on the computers so we asked to leave, and we called the cabs and went home for lunch. After lunch we had a shiur about Purim to which my German friends from the German Bnei Akiva group went to which was awesome because I've missed them a lot after that we had free time, pancakes for dinner and some more free time that I spent watching family guy, finally finished 'Milk' which took about 3 nights to watch, then I went to sleep, got a semi-early night at midnight.

2/16/2011-3/6/2011: visit with my parents, settling into Lod, Shabbat in Efrat

After finally getting my parents from the airport,we headed to the Crowne Plaza in Tel Aviv to start my parents' Israel vacation. It was about 4am on Thursday morning, so we were hungry so after getting "breakfast" we all went to sleep until 2pm, see we were going to do some sightseeing on Thursday but we didn't have that much time after our sleep until 2pm. But we did have time to meet up with my boyfriend so that my parents could finally meet him for dinner. Friday morning, we spent the morning at the Diaspora museum at the Tel Aviv University and then a tour of Caesarea, including Dad's kibbutz, the neighboring Sdot Yam. We then ended our day at Dad's old friends from the kibbutz who live in Pardes Hanna-Karkur, and we stayed the weekend for Shabbat, it was very relaxing with lots of tea and a lot of catching up for everyone. Sunday, we first went to Zikhron Yaakov for breakfast to see the place that my stepmom spent the year at for ulpan, after that we went to my stepmom's cousins in Beit Oved to visit and get ourselves settled, we did tons of visiting the first couple of days. After my stepmom's parents arrival the night after we arrived in Beit Oved, we had a lot of catching up to do after two years of not seeing them, it was so nice to see them and I was very excited for our week in Israel together. The next day on Wednesday we went to Jerusalem for the first of two days in the Old City, we visited the Kotel and went through the Arab shuk which is always an experience. In the Arab shuk, my father has a tendency to bargain with all the vendors who are there, he does this every time he has the opportunity to, this time he met his match, he got kicked out of one of the stores it was quite unbelievable, I never thought it would happen. We went home to see family and have teat catch up some more and the next day we continued our tour of Jerusalem with a visit to Yad Vashem. It is one of the most amazing holocaust museums, it takes about 2 hours to walk through and it really gives you a true history and understanding of the holocaust it's a really great experience especially on the second time going it was even better than the first time. After a moving tour of Yad Vashem we then went to Abu Gosh for the best hummus and food that I've had in Israel. That night we went to our cousins for dinner and so more visiting. That Shabbat, we continued our task of visiting everyone who's family and friends in Israel we went back to dad's kibbutz friends in Binyamina and friday visited one cousin in Raanana and then to his brother on Saturday in Binyamina, after that me and dad went to Herzliyya to have dinner with my boyfriend's dad. Sunday, I went shopping with my stepmom and her mom to buy gifts for the family we stayed at. Monday, after breakfast with my dad, my boyfriend and his dad we continued to go to Lod so I could start getting settled. After saying my farewells to my dad we started off our afternoon in Lod with a huge house meeting to discuss food budget per week, house chores and schedule and house rules. The meeting was similar to trying to get cats and dogs to sit in a room together without fighting, there was a lot of arguing about stupid things, but somehow we got through it and agreed on most of the plan. The rest of Monday was spent getting settled and acquainted with Lod, we had a city tour and then we chose our volunteering jobs. I'm working at a school teaching English. Tuesday we met the teachers at the school and started working, we've helping the 8th grade students how to write argumentative essays because they need to write one for their entrance exam for high school. Wednesday and Thursday were the same from 9-12:45am we all go to work and then come back for lunch we have some kind of activity in the afternoon and evening or a free night then we sleep. Thursday night was free, so a couple of us went to Jerusalem, I went to dinner with some of my boyfriend's friends, my boyfriend and his dad to a nice restaurant on Emek Refaim. We saw our bartender friend Roni at his bar and hung out for a while before going back to Lod. Friday afternoon we went to Efrat to start our group Shabbat, we had Maariv, shabbat dinner, games and a little bit of singing, then we went back to our host families to sleep. Saturday was very relaxed we didn't have to do anything until about 4:30 so we played my favorite Munchkin and then just chatted about random stuff with some of the friends we've made on previous trips to Efrat, then we had Maariv, Seuda Shlishit, and then Havdallah, we all went back to our host families after that and then went home to Lod.

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.