Shabbat in Bat Yam/ intro to volunteering

Ok, so I left you guys off at Wednesday night. Thursday we were supposed to have volunteering- but as you may or may not already know- my volunteering was not set up correctly. Here's what happened- yosef and me were supposed to have gone on Wednesday to volunteer, but we couldn't because we had a talmud class then. So, the woman in charge of organizing this adult education (her name is Levana, and the program is called Tehila) figured that we didn't want to do it, and thought we had quit on her. So when we showed up Thursday morning to volunteer, no one was there for us. A couple of phone calls later, and alot of bad Hebrew later, I finally set us up to start our volunteering on Sunday at 8 in the morning. So we spent Thursday hanging around, and then before dinner, me and Tova went off to the beach and swam in the waves. In case you forgot- the beach is absolutely gorgeous. I wish we had an ocean nearby in MN.... not those nasty lakes with leeches- ugh.



Anywho, the plan was to go up to Jerusalem on thursday night, and I was gonna meet up with Elianna Mintz, but I decided last minute to stay in, since I was tired and had a headache. I watched some TV with a few other kids who had stayed behind and it was fun :)



Friday- same thing- we hung out, and since there were lots of visitors for shabbat (people's friends who came to visit) we spent alot of time getting food and accomodations ready for them. In Friday night, I went with a few others to a shul a block away from our apartment, then we all had dinner together. It was really nice to eat together :)



On shabbat, we all had lunch together, and hung out, then i took a 2 hr nap. That's the whole day!



Yesterday, I woke up early to walk our guests to the bus stop, then got home in time to eat breakfast and run off to my first day of volunteering. I helped Yaakov- a 65ish year old guy who's learning how to read hebrew, and Rachel, a 65ish year old lady who is learning to both read and write hebrew. She's reallly sweet- she was telling me about how her grandson is having his bar mitzvah this week. I think its amazing how these adults are trying to learn to read and write so late in life. Then at night, there was this big commencement ceremony officially welcoming us YJ chanichim to Bat Yam, and at this great- hem hem- get together- I gave a speech. Yes, me- about who I am and why I chose to do this program. All because Avi called me and tole me at like 12 that I was going to do this. It was not a request. But I did okay, and everyone liked what I had to say about pluralism being understated by the general public- esp orthodox.

For anyone who is curious, my main problem with orthodoxy in general- could be any religion- is that everyone should be open to discussion with another Jew (for ex) regardless of the section of Judaism they belong to. There is no legitimate reason why I should be discouraged from mingling with less observant Jews on the chance that they will make me lose my connection with god or whatever. We should all be encouraged to discuss religion with everyone of our faith- not isolated to maintain observancy. That's just like sticking your head in the sand in my opinion.

Anywho, I got to skype with family on Sunday night! Yay! I miss you guys. And for anyone reading this who does not have skype- I recommend it. It's free. Just costs whatever you need to pay for the camera(if you even want one). Ans I would love to talk to you all. :)

Today, I accidentally made our whole apartment miss morning prayers (Shacharit.. and if you need help pronouncing the "ch" ask Kathleen). But it's all good because Avi hates reprimanding girls. The boys he'll punch and attack, but the girls he wont even yell at. Thank god I'm a girl. And likable. Did more volunteering today- I'm really starting to like it. I also got adopted today by a 50ish year old woman named Allegra who tole me she would be my mom as long as I am in Israel. And she gave me her phone number and tried to invite me over for the upcoming holidays. I didn't even care that she was pinching my cheeks the whole time. I also got rugalach- which are delicious croissant-like pastries that often have chocolate in them- from these women Yosef and I were teaching to use computers.
I love my volunteering- I always get food :)

Today we had our first Hebrew classes- of which there are seven groups and I got put in the highest one- we'll see how that goes. It's hard, but she seems nice and didn't give us any homework. Yesterday I had my first Bible Babel class (about Israel's political situation during the times of the temple) and I got a reading packet for homework. Except the teacher is really relaxed about it and said that we can do whatever we want to as fara s hw goes,a dn that all tests are open book and open notes. We can even bring Aunt Tzimma's cookbook if we want. (his words, not mine)

And tonight we had out second- but first official Mifgeshet Dira- apartment check/ deliberation. Our fridge still has too much dust on top of it to let us pass- but again, we didn't get in trouble. Then I made fish for dinner- from frozen fish, some oil, soup mix, and lemon with some potatoes thrown in for more substance. It was gone within 7 minutes of it coming out of the oven. SUCCESS!!! But right now as it stands we have virtually no food unless you wanna eat noodles-again- or rice or barbecue sauce. That's pretty much it. So we're going to the Dush for food shopping tomorrow (after the Siyur-trip- in Tel Aviv to the markets)

We need more pears. They are delicious. Scrumptious. I could probably live off pears and cottage cheese. No lie. But i need meat too... Sorry Tal.

K, so I'll check in again soon. Hope all is well settling in without me and into college- whichever situation you find yourself in. And know that I am having a great time. :)

Love to everyone <3 :)