Sea of Galilee

On Friday morning we left around 10:30 for our one night trip to the Sea of Galilee. We took the local bus down to the central bus station and then from there took a three hour bus ride to the North. Now, Israeli's have never heard of a line before, and just like Greyhound it is first come first serve on the buses. So if you don't get there early, you won't get a seat. Well, here, you have to wait in line, but then you have people come from other doors and cutting in front of you. You have to be very assertive and make sure no one gets in line ahead of you. Because then you have to wait another three hours for the next bus. And it is really hard if you were raised to let the elderly and pregnant step in front of you, but what are you supposed to do when the old women cut through the other door and push you aside? I stood firm and didn't let the woman on. And when I say, stand firm, I had to hold out my arms to touch the bus. It is just ridiculous. So we get on the bus, crowded and we couldn't find seats next to each other. Mike, Aviva, Morey and I were taking the bus as Effe and Jake were meeting us there. I found a seat next to a soldier and was quite lucky. there were two people that just sat in the aisles as they didn't want to wait for the next bus. The bus ride reminded me of the soccer bus rides in high school, where all of our bags were in the aisle and the freshmen had to sit there if there was no room.

It is not uncommon for you to sit next to a soldier as everyone has to go to the Army for two years. I think I was sitting next to one that was in the Air Force, he had a grey uniform on. He had his gun, and he had his clip hanging on the handle on the seat in front of him. The bus ride was alright, I enjoyed however, driving along the highway and seeing the villages in a distance. Specifically the Arab villages as you can see the minarets. Once we arrived a little north of Tiberius we had to walk about half a mile to our hostel. We were staying in the guest house of a kibbutz....it was a regular hostel to me. Although there were six of us in the room, it wasn't too bad. We each had our own bed, bathroom was big and the food was excellent. So now I understood that the Sea of Galilee is not a Sea and is a fresh water lake, but I expected there to be some type of man made beach. No. There were rocks and swamp area that you walked through to get to the clear water. Boy, did it make me miss Echo Lake! We didn't stay in the water too long, but we saw many boats that were replicas of the ones Jesus would have sat in. This was the area where Jesus walked on water. After our adventures in the water we all got ready for dinner and headed downstairs. They had a wide variety of food (no dairy, as it was a meat meal), and then we went back outside. They had TVs in the room, but we all just sat around playing frisbee and what not. We were pretty far from a town, and you couldn't get there as it was Shabbot. Later that evening, we watched Mrs. Doubtfire on Jake's computer...I think it is better to watch it when you are older as the jokes are a lot funnier. It was a good time.

Saturday morning we thought we had to be out by 10, but the gentleman at the front desk told us we could keep our things in the room until 5. Perfect! That way we wouldn't have to carry all of our things with us when we went for a hike. The hike ended up just being Mike and I as everyone else wasn't properly prepared and thought it was too hot. Mike and I walked probably two miles one way along the highway to the Mount of Beautudes, where Jesus gave his sermon on the mount. We had to cut through some thick grass and then walk along a farmers land. We saw a huge (!) black snake slither in front of us. Once we got to the top of the hill, they were closed for a few hours while the monks prayed, we walked down the hill to the Church of St. Peter, and the Fish and Loaves Church. There were a ton of tourists and many wanting to know where we were from. I wish I knew more about the Bible and Jesus' life to fully understand more of the things I am seeing. On our way back as we passed one of the bus stops ( and when I say bus stop, a wooden bench with roof on the side of the road, no taxi stand, no nothing. Middle of nowhere.) we walked in the shade and the smell of Camp Farnsworth camp back. Memories of being called Jellybean and living in Tall Timbers flashed before me. When we got back to the hostel I ran into the water. I was overheated. I floated for a while and thought about where I really was. The north is very quiet and picturesque. Many of the mountains reminded me of Northern France and a little bit of the White Mountains. On our way back to Jerusalem, the ride seemed to take forever. When we stopped at the rest stop, only one store was open as it was still Shabbot, I'm really starting to become irritated with so many things being closed...oh and the bathrooms at the rest stop! You had to pay a schekel and take your toilet paper in with you. Weird. Once we got home around 9 pm, I had a little reading to do for my class on Sunday.

Lo anglit!

Last Wednesday I went up to Pisgat Ze'ev to have lunch with Karen, I had to take a cab up there, and I spoke in Hebrew to him! I mean I only said "kenyon Pisgat Ze'ev" which is the mall there, but he turned the wrong way and then I told him where to turn...in Hebrew! I find that it is much easier to converse with people rather than taking my tests. Our teachers will randomly give us a word, and then throw it in the word bank. Meh. On the way back from having lunch with her I also spoke Hebrew to another cab driver. It feels satisfying :) On Thursday Aviva and I went to campus and booked out trip to Prague!!!!! Woot woot! So excited, we leave next Thursday! After booking the trip, I went and had lunch with Yoel at the Sports Center. (Fantastic egg sandwich!) I updated him on my classes, my trips and what Karen and I had spoke about. So my plans for Pisgat Ze'ev will now be to meet with people in the community, have lunch or dinner with them and then simply write about it. Karen was very clear that she does not want me volunteering my time for something that is not meaningful to me. I wanted her to know that I am very committed to keeping the relations between the college, and Staten Island alive with Pisgat Ze'ev. She said that there are more opportunities for me to come after Passover.

After lunch with Yoel, I spoke with Greg and Jeremy for a few hours. It was nice to talk with them and get updated with a few things. Jeremy and I talked about life in the Middle East and how he is adjusting to his situations in the Army. Aviva and I were planning on going down to the Old City to grab dinner, but she took a nap and we ended up getting Falafel at French Hill. French Hill falafel is so tasty. I like going there because they put enough hummus in, they have pickles, andddd it is 9 schek! People, that is 2 bucks for a whole falafel! After our falafel we weren't ready to just go back and sit in the apartment, so we went down to Ben Yahuda for a waffle! We had a falafel and waffle night! Haha. But this waffle place is the size of a bathroom and you can put any type of toppings on that you want. One humorous thing was that it was all Israelis working there, but they were listening to oldies and Elvis. And they loved it! What are they odds! After having our delicious and filling waffles, we stopped at a pharmacy and got a few random things. The odd thing here is that they have Clinique, Chanel, Estee Lauder, counters in the drug stores. It is convenient though as I needed something from Clinique and they don't have a Macy's or anything like that here. Once we came home, the rest of the girls were asleep and we needed to get to bed as we were leaving for the Galilee in the morning.

Lazy Weekend

Last Wednesday night a few of us went to a smaller bar downtown. Nothing too special. The french fries were amazing! The music was great, mostly american, and enjoy going to places that have more than two selections for wines. On Thursday morning the plan was to go to the Tank Museum, but we didn't realize how far away it was so we went to the zoo instead!!! I was so excited. I haven't been to a zoo in a few years. People joke that since it is the biblical zoo that there are two of every animal. Ha! Jake, Jon, Morey and I spent about three hours there. There were some other kids from Rothberg that we ran into. My favorite were the monkeys. So adorable, also, there were little like groundhogs that I fell in love with. Too cute. Thursday was my night to cook, so I we had chicken sandwiches and a salad. Later that night I stayed in with both Sarah's and we watched I Love You Man. I was just so exhausted, I couldn't go out. Friday afternoon I finally started doing some reading. Had a lot to catch up on. I also watched the season finale of Burn Notice. Thank you Megavideo. Morey invited us down that night for Shabbot dinner. I made another kosher mistake when I set the Andes mints package down on the wrong side of the counter. Ugh, I'll never get used to all of this. I stayed in on Friday night with Hannah and Adie and we watched Love Actually. I really felt like I needed a weekend to recover from Tel Aviv. Being in Tel Aviv just wiped me out, I hadn't felt like myself all week. I think Saturday was another lounge day and then Saturday night we had a party for Robert's 21st Birthday. (Sarah-UCSB's boyfriend) We hung out and played typical college drinking games, it was his choice for everything. Didn't feel too well that night :(

Earlier on Saturday night Adie's mom came! It was so weird because Sarah (Bates) had a few friends from home staying with us and one of them knew Adie's mom! When her mom walked in she looked at him and was like I recognize you from somewhere and he told her mom that he dropped her Hebrew class at BU because it was too hard. What a small world! Freaky moment. On Sunday I had class and Adie's mom made us dinner. You would have thought the way we all ate was as if we hadn't eaten in six weeks. It was comforting for her mom to want to cook for us. The food was delicious. At the beginning of the week I was trying to plan to try and have Uncle Eric come with his girlfriend Faezah to come and visit. Too much confusion, miscommunication, and it ended up with him decided not to come. Howeverrrrrrr, that means that now I will be in Prague for three nights! :) I went to the travel agent and told them that I wanted to go somewhere that weekend, and it worked out! Anddddd, when I return from Prague two days later I will be leaving for Rhodes for six nights! I am so excited for Spring Break! I leave for Prague in exactly two weeks!

In my Historical Geography of Jerusalem class we went to the City of David on Monday. I enjoy having a small, intimate class as our professor can speak more to us rather than having to stop at designated areas for speeches. We spent about three hours walking around the City of David, which was the original city of Jerusalem. The Old City of what we know today was added on during the Second Temple period. Yesterday (Wed.) I had lunch in Pisgat Ze'ev with Karen to talk about my community service. It has basically turned into me going to different homes throughout the week of different community members and then writing about it. She really wants me to become integrated with Israeli life and see how connected the Jewish community is. Today I had lunch at the Sports Center with Yoel and updated him on the past few weeks. I will be spending the beginning of Passover- the Sadir, which is the first day of Passover with him and his family, and family friends. Tonight Aviva and I will be going down to the Old City for a little bit I think, I haven't been down in a while.

Beginning of Classes

Classes I am taking: Hebrew, Arab Israeli Conflict, Historical Geography of Jerusalem, and Peace Building and Conflict Resolution. Classes are going really well so far. Hebrew is a much slower pace and I feel that I am finally (!) catching on. I have only had the Arab Israeli Conflict class once, and so far it is really interesting, I haven't had an in depth class about the conflict, and this class focuses in on how documents play a role. Whether the documents created a disagreement, or the documents were created after. I enjoy reading the documents and then discussing the cause or effect. The Historical Geography of Jerusalem is the bombbb!!!!! haha. No seriously, it is great. I love how it is a geography class and I know all the answers....go fertile crescent :) (thanks dad!) So in this class we will have lecture one week and then the other week we will be going down to the Old City and also the City of David which was the originally city of Jerusalem. It is fascinating to learn why the gates are positioned they way they are in the Old City as that is how the five valley's run through the area. The first class was an introduction about the history of the city, and most of the lecture was based off of the Bible. My teacher was pulling versus left and right. I was a little skeptical at first as to how much of it I should believe. But the Bible was the only written document back then, so I'm just going with the flow. But I really really enjoy this class so far.

So the Peace Building class- it got off to a chaotic start because there were more than 25 students signed up for the class. The teacher wanted us to tell her why we want to be in the class and then she chose 25 students. I was chosen (I also went up and told her that Yoel said hello, so that might have had a little pull- :)) and class went as planned last week. Then yesterday many students who were not in the class were upset and went to the director. So there are more than 25 students, and she was just very flustered yesterday. Class was cancelled today, and it just seems a little awkward. The class itself is off to a slow start but there is a lot of ground to cover. I am truly excited to see where this class leads as I want to see how this can relate to Human Rights and Genocides.

I don't get how we can fit all this course material into such a short period! Spring Break is three weeks away! :) But so far, I'm enjoying the classroom environment and just need to stay focused to keep up with the amount of reading I have.

Purim Weekend!

Last Wednesday was the start of my Purim weekend, my roommate Sarah(CA) went out with a bunch of people to this bar where a few kids from Rothberg were DJing. It was a fantastic night, a ton of people from school and great music. Thursday was a lazy day, Aviva, Jon and I walked up to campus to buy tickets for the Purim part on Sunday night. Aviva bought a few things for her costume (she was going as Scar from the Lion King). We came home and watched that Zohan movie. It was hilarious, very stereotypical of what people in Israel are like. I was able to catch onto all the little jokes after been here for a month and a half. That Thursday night I packed for Tel Aviv and did a little homework so I wouldn't have to worry about it all weekend. On Friday morning we left for Tel Aviv. Aviva, Maggie, Morey, Jon, Mike and I took a sheruit (large cab) to Tel Aviv and met Effe at the apartment. We rented out an apartment for two nights and it was two blocks from the beach. It was a great location. We fit seven people in an apartment for four, we were a tenement family for the weekend, ha! The weather was not so great, but there were breaks in the rain and we were able to walk along the beach and such. I really enjoyed Tel Aviv as it reminded me of New York, it was more modern, things were shut down on Shabbot, there were dogs instead of cats, (!!!) and it had much more of a young city vibe. On Friday night Morey went with some family to have Shabbos dinner while the rest of us walked to the Port and had dinner at Moses'. The best dinner ever. I had a cheeseburger....with bacon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot tell you how excited I was, I called Mom and Dad right away and told them that I had one. I would go back to Tel Aviv right now just for the burger. After dinner we went back and got ready to go out. We went to a few clubs and walked around different parts of the city. It was a fun night and it was my first trip to a gay bar. Interesting.

Saturday morning we got up and walked along the beach to the old city of Jaffa. It was a stretch, but it was nice to be able to walk in the water, the sun was coming in and out all day. We had a nice lunch at a small restaurant and then headed back. A few people took naps but I was all over watching the Olympics. I was really excited to have a TV as we watched a lot of different events, skiing, bobsledding, ice skating! It was very relaxing. Effe and I walked around to find a place to eat and see what was beginning to open as Shabbot was ending. We ended up going to this Italian restaurant right across the street from our apartment. I had lasagna with meat!!!! I swear Tel Aviv had been waiting for me for a month. I inhaled the lasagna. When we got back and were getting ready we were watching the news as the earthquake in Chile had just hit and they had the warning about the tsunami hitting Hawaii. We all went back to the Port to find a club to go to. Now Purim is a holiday where everyone dresses up as it is Halloween back in the States. We didn't dress up in Tel Aviv, but wow, the amount of people that were out and their costumes. It was madness. There were so many different clubs, but we ended up at one called Old something. We chilled there for a bit and then headed back.

On Sunday we had to check out and we headed back to Jerusalem. Taking the bus is really easy to do and it isn't a long ride at all. When we got back I unpacked and my clothes wreaked of cigarettes. I'm really getting tired of how everyone smokes everywhere. I took a quick nap and then started getting ready for the Purim Party in Jerusalem. My costume was a toga, it turned out really well to my surprise as I didn't know what I was doing that morning. We had a few people over before we headed out, it was fun to get ready with everyone and see all the different costumes. One of Sarah's friends was a cat in a trashbag. Ha! It was great, the costume wasn't the best, buttttt the idea was great. (Little cat story, so I was taking the trash out and I started to throw the bags in the dumpster and I heard rumbling so I knew it was a cat so I stopped for a second and out of no where this cat flies out of the dumpster right next to me, I started screaming and whipping around the trashbags. Traumatizing. :) ) Once we arrived at the Jerusalem theater, it was a stampede to get in. People in Israel have never heard of a line or wait your turn! I'm really starting to get annoyed with this. There were thousands of people there waiting to get in. I have never in my life been to a party this big, nor even see pictures. There were multiple dance floors and you just kept walking around and around just seeing all the people and their costumes. The music was great and the played YMCA! I was with a group of kids from school and so we knew the song and got really excited and this guy next to us looked at us with five heads as he thought we were crazy because we were so excited! Haha. Aviva and I headed back kinda early, around 2 I think. I was so tired, I'm not used to three nights in a row of partying. I was pooped. (We had Sunday and Monday off from school, so I had a five day weekend.) On Monday I got up and immediately did some laundry. I couldn't take the smell, I had a ton to do, about four loads. The rest of the day was lounging, did a little reading. Overall, Purim in Israel was outstanding.

Negev Desert Trip

Last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday. After class I tried to go down to the Old City to be blessed with the ashes. Didn't happen, services weren't for another three hours and I had my final for Hebrew the following day. It was a disappointment, but I did try. I find it exciting that I can experience certain religious days while in Jerusalem. Makes me proud of what I do believe in, and the fact I'm walking the same streets as Jesus was. Last Thursday we had our final. Didn't go so well, but I'm working on it...I'm really going to miss our Ulpan class. There are a few kids that are in my Hebrew class now, but there were two people that came to Jerusalem just for the four weeks. Stephen is a neurologist in Philly-his wife is here doing her masters. I'll miss him interrupting class if he couldn't hear, or something was blocking his vision of the board. Ha. Then there was Joseph who was from Romania, he is working on his masters. He liked to tell you the answers before you even had a chance to think about it...ugh. But we had a great time for the four weeks.

We left early Friday morning for the Negev. It is in the Southern part of Israel in towards the Dead Sea. We were on the bus for about three hours maybe. I had a horrible headache as the night before we had a huge party celebrating the end of Ulpan. We made chocolate covered strawberries, pretzels, apricots, and bananas. A lot of champagne too. Opps. I totally felt like Ina Garten heating up the chocolate getting it to the right consistency. It was a lot of fun. So while on the bus I tried to sleep. When we finally got to the beginning of our hike we all got of the bus and were like where are the bathrooms? (Efo ha sherutem- in Hebrew) The counselors looked as us and laughed and then pointed to the mountains. Boy that was fun. So we started hiking and we had a great guide. Very knowledgeable, made us stop and drink water every five minutes practically. It was so amazing though as we were walking and you could see all the layers from hundreds of years ago. We then started to begin the walk down in the river beds. You were walking in what used to be a river which I think ran into the Dead Sea, or I'm assuming, as that is where our hike ended. The mountains were huge on either side, I'd say five story buildings at some points.

There was a ton of limestone, both soft and hard, and a ton of flint. I took some small rocks. Once we would climb up to the top of the mountain, and we did climb, praying for dear life the person in front didn't slip, or the rocks didn't move. Seeing from above what you climbed was so amazing. The mountains went on for miles and the physical characteristics of each range was different. Some would be very dry and rocky, with a peak, and others were more rolling with a plateau. You just looked to the next person asking them if this was really happening. I'm so glad that I've been able to see so much of Israel, not just the cities. I enjoy exploring the entire country.

We stayed at this nice hostel, very secure. The food was fantastic! We had a TV, watched Lizzy McGuire before bed which I haven't seen in years and also Dancing with Wolves. What are the odds. Ha. But I kinda made a kosher slip though :( So for breakfast they don't usually serve the typically eggs and pancakes. It was more salads, bread, some fish, and cheeses. There was cereal though, phew. But they also had some puddings. So I had one at breakfast and wanted to take another back to the room for later. So when dinner came around, I decided I would have the pudding for desert. So we sit down for dinner and my friend Morey asked me to take it off of the table. I understood that you can't have meat and dairy in the same meal, so out of respect I took it off the table, but I still was going to eat it as I'm not Jewish. So after dinner, I open the pudding and start to eat. Then I hear Morey and Jake start talking and then Jake told me that I need to stop eating or not to let them see me eating it as I was using a meat utensil for a dairy product. He then tells me that they could lose their Kosher license if they catch me. I immediately stop and just go and throw the fork and pudding out. I know right, what a slip up. I felt really bad, but it didn't even occur to me that I was using a different utensil for the meat. Whoops.

Weekend in Tzfat!

Well, what an interesting weekend. So it started off on Friday morning as we left Jerusalem at 5:30 am. The bus ride was okay for the first part, but once we got up into the mountains it was like a snake road that kept winding allllll the way up the mountains. Northern Israel is beautiful. I could spend an entire day just sitting on a ledge and staring. It is really weird as one mountain is olive trees, one is spruce trees, one is rocks, one is grass, one is grass with rocks sticking out, and then in between you will find random houses. And these houses have no electricity or water running to them. It was so different to see that there were a few houses living in a cluster in the middle or on the sides of these mountains. Around 8am we stopped at this tiny park to have breakfast. There were two other schools that met us there, Ben Gurion University and Tel Aviv University were in the buses behind us. So we get off, have an orange, "shocko" (really good chocolate milk, but nothing can beat Wicked Good Chocolate Milk) and some rogalah. Rogalah is pretty much mini chocolate croissants. But don't say that to an Israeli. So we are all standing around and talking to people and a lot of people are excited to see their friends from the other schools. And you know how I said that I would never see anyone in Israel that I knew?!?! Well guess who was standing right in front of me! This girl that I went to St. Paul's with...her name was Samara and she was really good friends with Sarah. No joke, we just looked at each other and were like OH MY GOD what on earth are you doing here?! Like, words couldn't come out of my mouth as I was in such shock that I knew someone, but that it was someone from St. Paul's. Even more creepy, I was wearing my St. Paul's sweatpants. Ha! So after we talked for a few minutes, we got back on the buses, and we saw each other for the rest of the night and stuff, we headed to go ATV-ing. We had to pass this little test to see which kind of ATV we could drive. I got a check dash (orrrr as the guys told me it was a check minus) ha. Anyways, I wasn't the best at the ATV's but I was still good enough. So my parter was a grad student from Ben Gurion. He has his own bike at home and was a good driver. We went through mud puddles, up rocks, on the roads, it was insane. I sat on the back just taking a ton of pictures. The rocks were so sharp that I was surprised the tires didn't pop. Once the rest of the group was at the top of this mountain we were there and took a lot of pictures. The tour guide was showing us where Syria and Lebanon were. We were about two miles south of Lebanon.

On the way back down, I got to drive! The tour guide kept looking back and telling me to slow down. Opps :) It was so cool though just be on a dirt road swerving everywhere. After we returned, we had lunch and then headed to the caves. So these caves....you though the lemon squeeze at the Flume was bad?!?! So we had to first climb down about three stories just to get to the entrance of the cave we would be climbing in. It was so moist that the rocks were really slippery that I just sat and slid down. You really had to hold on tight to these rocks as it was so dark you couldn't see. The flashlight I had was running on half a battery. Oy. Once we were in the caves the guide told us stories about how people had died in there and blah blah blah. But they entire time we were listening we had to have our lights off and I was clinging onto the ten year old next to me because I was so scared. Ha. It was really creepy though. After we finally made it back alive, we then got to swing from the top of the cave into the entrance. It was so much fun! I was really scared before, I kept telling the guy to make sure my harness was strapped on correctly and then everything was sealed tight, and I just stood there shaking as he then just pushed me off and I went flying. Boy did I scream. It was so cool just go be flying towards the cave, and then getting so close to the rocks above you. It is really hard to explain, but it was just great. When I got back on the ground I just stood there for a second holding onto the guy because my legs were jello.

So we had to rush back to the bus as the sun was almost setting and we needed to be ready for dinner as Shabbot was starting. So this was my first Shabbot weekend and it was very interesting. I had a great time doing all the activities but the religious aspect was too spiritual/mystical/Kaballah for me. Tzfat is one of the holiest cities in Judaism and it is a strictly Jewish town. It is more like an artists colony. But we make it back to the hotel and I am staying with three other girls who are Jewish. Some more orthodox than the others. But they all wanted to be showered in ready within a half hour as you are not supposed to be doing work once the sun has set. So they got ready and then I got ready last. We kept the bathroom light on and shut everything else off and it would stay like that all day on Saturday. You couldn't turn on or off switches. When they weren't in the room, I turned the TV on and watched some of the olympics. Once we were ready we went down to dinner. Before dinner there was about 45 minutes of prayers out on the deck. I sat in the back and just observed. Then once we ate there were more songs and prayers that went along with the whole ceremony. And Friday night dinners are different than all the other dinners, but this was big as it was the beginning of Shabbot.

After dinner, we stayed up for a little, had snacks, and most of the people just sat around and sang songs. I only knew one of them. They were all in Hebrew and everyone knew that from going to camp. I'm pretty sure that out of the 100 students that were there, I might have been the only non-Jew. Don't get me wrong, I am very glad I experienced a Shabbot weekend, but it wasn't the most exciting thing. I felt uncomfortable during some of the prayers/song singing as it is completely different from going to Sunday school and Church. Saturday morning comes and the other girls get up to go to morning services, I slept in and it was fantastic. This was when I watched TV as they were out of the room. We then had a tour of the town, but I wasn't allowed to bring my camera as you can't use electronics on Saturday. It was almost pointless to have a tour as nothing was open. It was worse that Jerusalem. However, for those Jewish people that are more Orthodox and do believe in all the spirituality, this town was the place to be. After experiencing this past weekend, I can see how those that have been raised in a household without religion would think that most religions are some sort of cult. It was just a confusing weekend as you don't find just a Jewish person that fits into this category. I realized that Judaism is more of a way of life, more than a religion. These people fit their lives according to what the Torah or Talmud says. Each person I encountered had different beliefs and traditions that they were raised with. It is very confusing and I still question it. I did enjoy the weekend, but I wish I had experienced a Shabbot weekend before experiencing an Orthodox Shabbot weekend. And when I throw all these terms around, Orthodox and conservative and reformed mean different things to different Jews. It's weird and hard to explain. Once Shabbot ended we packed up and headed back to Jerusalem. I tried to do some homework, but got a little sick. We followed the Sea of Galilee for a while and then finally made it back to the Student Village. I was very excited.

I didn't make it to class on Sunday, I hadn't done my homework, I was really tired, just needed an extra day. It was fine, we are given two days to miss if we want. I was nervous that I would miss a lot of Hebrew, but I was fine. Today being Monday I made it to class and we were learning about the infinitives. Ugh. Ulpan ends on Thursday and we need to start getting ready for our final. It was gorgeous today, about 90 degrees Fahrenheit! :) So the week ahead looks like a lot of studying and then on Friday we have a trip to the Negev desert. Wish me luck on my final!