well well well..... man has it been a jammed packed week. So here in Jerusalem, not only was Purim 3 days long but it seemed to last a full week. The parties started Tuesday, our study abroad program had a party for us, it was nice, that day I had not yet bought a costume so I to spend the weekend on the beach. We went to wore my overalls and a beater and said I was a farmer. Then the real fun started on Thursday, I went with some other reform-os to HUC for megillah reading which was reform-tastic and actually kind of boring. Then we were rudely told to leave by some woman at HUC when we tired to go to the meal afterwards eventhough we had been invited. So we took a walk and went to dinner at a pasta place that was not kosher and me and zack both got pasta with shrimp and calamari and mussels, it was deliciously satisfying. Then we just walked around center city for a while and watched the craziness that was going on, there were haredei men playing music and dancing in kikar zion and then there was this purim bus with lights all over it going down the street, it was very funny.But I was dressed as a devil with red fishnets, horns, a tail, and a bowtie, I looked very funny! Afterwards, me and zack went to get some waffles at Bebette's, yummy!!! Friday morning, a bunch of my friends and I got a bus and headed down to Tel-Avivnachlat binyamin, the artisan's shuk and we got really yummy israeli breakfast, then we headed down to the beach where we sat all afternoon, it was so beautiful and the water was nice and cold, and there were so many cute little babies to watch playing. Friday night, the Shenker's (my grandparents good friends who live in Tsahalah) came to pick me up and I had shabbat dinner with them and stayed over at their house. Saturday morning they took me for brunch at a place on the tayelet (boardwalk) and we had bacon!! It was a traiftastic meal! (traif means non-kosher). Then I meet up with my friends again on the beach and we sat all day again, just us 3 girls, we had so much fun. Saturday night we came to Jerusalem and I went out to dinner with my roommates and they introduced me to some of their friends, and they mostly spoke Hebrew the whole time so it was fun to try to follow what they were saying and participate in the conversation. Sunday was another fun day, we had no school because of the 3rd day of Purim, I went in the later morning to the Old city, it was easter and Purim, so we wanted to experience all the fanatics doing their thing, it was cool to see what was going on. Also, Aharon, one of Jason's friends invited me to come to his place for a Purim seudah (a festival meal, a big tradition on Purim), so I went. It was all of Aharon and his wife's friends who were 5-10 years older than me and had all made aliyah and been living in Israel for a few years now, I felt very out of place there, also on top of all they, everyone was orthodox, so that added to my discomfort level a little bit, but everyone was very nice and it was nice to be around some Americans that weren't the kids on my program. And now its back to school for a full week.
Check out all the ridiculous costume, Purim, and beach pictures on my web albums!
PS - the crazy colors and fonts are in honor of Purim funness
xoxoxo, Adra
Monday, March 24, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
a band that sings in english and chinese food?
its been a packed full of fun past 24 hours so i figured out would just put out some words about it. last night, my roommate Rotem took me to the local dorm bar to see one of her favorite bands, missFlag. so i had never heard this band before so i was prepared for israeli rock music. well i was in for a surprise, not only did i really love the band, the music is like a mix between keane and maroon5, but the band sang all in English (as the title of the post lets on). Then, this morning two friends of mine from back in the day atOSRUI came down for Herzliya to do some errands in Jerusalem and they picked me up for a lunch date. it was really nice to see some more friends of mine here. then, even more fun, it was one of my friend's birthday yesterday so tonight we went out for dinner, and we went to a non-kosher Chinese restaurant right in the middle of downtown Jerusalem and the most surprising part of the evening was that the food was actually pretty good, i mean nothing compared to Golden Chef but it was tasty and it hit the stop. now i need to get back to studying for my hebrew quiz tomorrow, so many words to memorize, ahhh!
love love,
Adra
love love,
Adra
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Camp Brandeis
its been another great week in the holy land. Its starting to become spring in J'lem and new flowers and trees are just starting to bloom. The walk to school has now become full of vibrant colors and smells. This week had a ton of new and interesting experiences. I started my internship at the NFTY office in Jerusalem on Monday and Tuesday. I am working on birthright Israel itineraries. It is exactly up the alley of what I want to do in life. Also, this week, Wednesday night to Thursday, I took a day long trip up north with my friend Emily. Our mutual friend who has made aliyah was having a tekas masa cumta (the ceremony when a soldiers gets his first beret). We went up to Haifa the night before and 4 people stayed on the floor of my friend Harrison's dorm in Haifa, then the next morning a group of 6 of us headed up to ZichronYaakov to see the ceremony. There was a group of about 20 people there just to see our friend Josh, we were all Americans who had either made aliyah or where here studying. There ceremony was great and Josh was honored when his commander gave him his own beret (its a big big honor!) and then afterwards, Josh's Israeli host family made a picnic [hey boo boo, bring me a picnic basket!] lunch with food for all of us. It was also Josh's 21st birthday so we had cake and sang to him, it was nice. Then me and Emily got back on the bus to J'lem, where we got stuck in a ton of traffic. Thursday night a bunch of Brandeis students that are studying in Israel this semester arrived at Hebrew U. This weekend was the Brandeis Shabbaton. So Friday morning we went out on a day long hike in the Judean hills right outside Jerusalem, it was a nice day and beautiful hike. Then we spent Friday night having services and Shabbat dinner at a local synagogue. Today we had Shabbat lunch at Cheryl (the Brandeis liaison in Israel)'s house, the food was really good.
Thats all for now, more soon, and check for pictures soon.
xoxo,
A
Thats all for now, more soon, and check for pictures soon.
xoxo,
A
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Hiking in the desert
shalom to ya'll.
so it has been what i would call a pretty normal college week for me here. I had class all week and did my homework and mostly stayed in at night. On Monday, I ventured to a salsa class near by campus, it was fun but I'm really bad at salsa dancing and I'm not sure I'm going to go again. On Tuesday afternoon I have a 6 hour break between classes, so Zack, Lindsey and I (all Brandeis people, by the way) headed out to a camping store to buy the necessities for our hiking trip this weekend and then we went to the shuk, i got so many yummy vegetables and fruits. Then Thursday, I went on a paint balling trip through the student activities here, it was pretty fun, i didn't actually get hit by a paint ball and I'm pretty sure I only hit one person, I am a very bad shooter. Thursday night was very scary, on the way back from our paint ball trip, they let us know that there had been a terrorist attack in J'lem, as you know by now, 8 students at a yeshiva in the city were killed. It is so sad and horrible to think that terrorist would use a holy place of study, which i have read is mostly for high school students, to make a statement to Israel at large.
so, luckily i got to get out of the city for the weekend. i went on an amazing hiking trip in the Judean Desert. 2 full days of hiking. so we started out Friday morning by descending down from the highest point into the wadi (like a river bed), the desert here is not really made up of sand, but instead is composed on many different sized rocks, from sand to boulders, so going down the mountain was scary because the rocks kept moving beneath our feet. but once at the bottom we reached a very nice spring that was full, like above you head, with freezing cold water, so a few of us went swimming. then we continued out hike along the bottom of the wadi floor all the way along until the end of the day. we camped out near a parking lot. we were 10km north of Masada and you could see it from where we were and 15km south of Ein Gedi. once at our campsite and set up, we made Shabbat dinner. as an appetizer we had yummy popcorn. then a few hours later, after cutting vegetables and frozen chicken (which was my job and sooooo gross) we had delicious soup, salad, and poukeh (which is a Hebrew word for a camping stew). everything was delicious. after dinner was cleaned up we had tea and went to bed. me and Zack set up our sleeping bags next to each other and we watched the stars for a little, they were absolutely beautiful and clear in the desert (Zack and i were trying to participate in tefillah b'teva, we missed you guys!) also, across the dead from where we were we could see the light of Jordan, which was pretty cool. So this morning, i woke up so sore because of sleeping on the ground and the strenuous hike but of course we continued on. today's hike was crazy ridiculously hard, and intense and yet fucking amazing. we started out by scaling up a mountain, which took like two hours and was tough! then we walked across the plateau between two mountains, and then we descending into a second and even more gorgeous wadi. this wadi also had a small spring which we took an afternoon siesta at. then we continued to walk the wadi floor but this time it was as if we had entered a natural playground. the floor of the wadi turned into a narrow canyon made out of this white smooth stone, which was almost flowing across the floor, as if smoothed from floods, and we had to walk, and slide across and down it as we went, then sometime we would hit a spot where the wall just dropped off like 10 feet and we would have to climb down on these metal steps that had been put in. other times we would run into little pools of water which were waist deep that we had to wade through, other time you would hit a spot were you would actually have to slide down the rock to get by. and towards the end we found a spot were we had to climb down like 40 feet on those little metal steps, it was scary as hell but i made it. the hike was great, my entire body is aching from it but i still had fun. but the thing that put the cherry on the sundae was once we got back from the hike i went go back to my apartment and the elevator was not working, so i had to talk up 8 flights of stairs with all my crap and being incredibly sore and stiff, it was funny to watch I'm sure. also, my pants i wore hiking had holes in the butt from sliding on rocks so that was probably really ridiculous. and once i got to my room, i went to shower and while i was lathering up the water suddenly shut off for like 2 minutes, i was so pissed and confused, but then everything turned out alright.
I'm going to bed now but i will surely post pictures from this weekend very soon.
xoxo,
Adra
so it has been what i would call a pretty normal college week for me here. I had class all week and did my homework and mostly stayed in at night. On Monday, I ventured to a salsa class near by campus, it was fun but I'm really bad at salsa dancing and I'm not sure I'm going to go again. On Tuesday afternoon I have a 6 hour break between classes, so Zack, Lindsey and I (all Brandeis people, by the way) headed out to a camping store to buy the necessities for our hiking trip this weekend and then we went to the shuk, i got so many yummy vegetables and fruits. Then Thursday, I went on a paint balling trip through the student activities here, it was pretty fun, i didn't actually get hit by a paint ball and I'm pretty sure I only hit one person, I am a very bad shooter. Thursday night was very scary, on the way back from our paint ball trip, they let us know that there had been a terrorist attack in J'lem, as you know by now, 8 students at a yeshiva in the city were killed. It is so sad and horrible to think that terrorist would use a holy place of study, which i have read is mostly for high school students, to make a statement to Israel at large.
so, luckily i got to get out of the city for the weekend. i went on an amazing hiking trip in the Judean Desert. 2 full days of hiking. so we started out Friday morning by descending down from the highest point into the wadi (like a river bed), the desert here is not really made up of sand, but instead is composed on many different sized rocks, from sand to boulders, so going down the mountain was scary because the rocks kept moving beneath our feet. but once at the bottom we reached a very nice spring that was full, like above you head, with freezing cold water, so a few of us went swimming. then we continued out hike along the bottom of the wadi floor all the way along until the end of the day. we camped out near a parking lot. we were 10km north of Masada and you could see it from where we were and 15km south of Ein Gedi. once at our campsite and set up, we made Shabbat dinner. as an appetizer we had yummy popcorn. then a few hours later, after cutting vegetables and frozen chicken (which was my job and sooooo gross) we had delicious soup, salad, and poukeh (which is a Hebrew word for a camping stew). everything was delicious. after dinner was cleaned up we had tea and went to bed. me and Zack set up our sleeping bags next to each other and we watched the stars for a little, they were absolutely beautiful and clear in the desert (Zack and i were trying to participate in tefillah b'teva, we missed you guys!) also, across the dead from where we were we could see the light of Jordan, which was pretty cool. So this morning, i woke up so sore because of sleeping on the ground and the strenuous hike but of course we continued on. today's hike was crazy ridiculously hard, and intense and yet fucking amazing. we started out by scaling up a mountain, which took like two hours and was tough! then we walked across the plateau between two mountains, and then we descending into a second and even more gorgeous wadi. this wadi also had a small spring which we took an afternoon siesta at. then we continued to walk the wadi floor but this time it was as if we had entered a natural playground. the floor of the wadi turned into a narrow canyon made out of this white smooth stone, which was almost flowing across the floor, as if smoothed from floods, and we had to walk, and slide across and down it as we went, then sometime we would hit a spot where the wall just dropped off like 10 feet and we would have to climb down on these metal steps that had been put in. other times we would run into little pools of water which were waist deep that we had to wade through, other time you would hit a spot were you would actually have to slide down the rock to get by. and towards the end we found a spot were we had to climb down like 40 feet on those little metal steps, it was scary as hell but i made it. the hike was great, my entire body is aching from it but i still had fun. but the thing that put the cherry on the sundae was once we got back from the hike i went go back to my apartment and the elevator was not working, so i had to talk up 8 flights of stairs with all my crap and being incredibly sore and stiff, it was funny to watch I'm sure. also, my pants i wore hiking had holes in the butt from sliding on rocks so that was probably really ridiculous. and once i got to my room, i went to shower and while i was lathering up the water suddenly shut off for like 2 minutes, i was so pissed and confused, but then everything turned out alright.
I'm going to bed now but i will surely post pictures from this weekend very soon.
xoxo,
Adra
Saturday, March 1, 2008
having a cold in j-town
so, its been a very long week this week. We started our real classes for the semester on Sunday, all of my classes haven been really great. I am taking 3 academic classes plus a Hebrew class 4 days a week. I have my Jewish education internship class, a class on halacha and its contemporary applications (which has a fantastic professor and seems as though it will be an amazing class) and a class on ancient archeology and how it relates to the bible, where we have this very strignent Israeli professor but the subject matter is very interesting. Other than class this week, there hasn't been too much going on. On Tuesday, I went to the cinemateque, not a movie theater, but a place that shows movies and has other events in J-lem, and I saw the movie "P.S - I love you" with my roommate Rachel, it was a really great movie, a big tear jerker. On Thursday I went into the Old City to pick up my Hadya necklace, this is a jewelery store where they inscribe verses onto a silver charm, mine has two very nice verses on it. One is from the liturgy of the morning service and in English means "G-d, the soul you have given to me is pure" and on the other side has a verse which correlates to my Hebrew name and it means "Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart." Also, after we picked up our necklaces, i got them with some friends, we walked down to the city center and did some window shopping. Thursday night was the Idan Raichel concert, which we came to find out was a Masa event, so everyone there was American's or other non-Israeli's who were spending a long period of time in Israel. The concert was absolutely fantastic and I had so much fun! However, this week kind of sucked because I started to get sick on Wednesday and have been feeling pretty yucky since then. I haven't been going out at night and I have been spending alot of time sleeping. And because of this cold, I was not able to go and visit the Shenker's this weekend. So instead Friday night we went to Kol Haneshama, the reform synagogue in Jerusalem, the service was alright, but the funny part was that I ran into the Klein-Katz's, a couple who used to work at OSRUI. After services me and my friends went out to dinner at a non-kosher place, hahaha, it was fun. Today me and two girlfriends went to the Israel Museum to seethe stolen art exhibit, it was really interesting, it was about all the art that the Nazi's stole from people. We also saw the shrine of the book, which houses the dead sea scrolls, it was a really fun way to spend shabbat.
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