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