So... long time, no blog.
Here's the update:
Sunday we all signed up for the siyurim (tours) that we wanted to do (we ranked three choices for every tuesday. I honestly don't remember what I did the rest of that day, I may have just spent time organizing and cleaning our apartment.. nothing too serious.
On Monday we learned about our volunteering- mine is adult education, which I am doing with another kid from Shalem, namd Yosef (he was actually on my orientation, but wasn't Shalem at that point or something. We went, we met the woman in charge, then I took a nap- I know- BORING!!
But, after that refreshing snooze, I went with a few others to the beach to swim. Oh. My. God.
I live a ten minute bus ride away from the Mediterranian Sea. It is gorgeous and has soft sand and has the perfect temperture for water. Makes me wanna own a beach house (but not more than wanting to own a cabin in the woods..)
I got kinda burned at the beach, but I didn't mind.
Then we had free time till about 6, when Shalem met up with Avi Gabai, our Madrich (advisor/counselor) and we all went out to Tel Aviv for dinner. The food was delicious in the outdoor restaraunt where we ate- and there were 4 chairs randomly hung up around on the walls- don't ask me why.
The food was delicious- cous cous (a food so nice they named it twice) and potato soup stuff and meat (which was kinda weird) and of course Israeli salad and bread (but no pita). After dinner, Avi took us around the port city of Yaffo, and we saw some really cool things. It made me feel for the first time that we really were in a foreign and ancient country, exploring it all.
Tuesday. Shalem went to this mall about a half hour away by bus and volunteered by packing bags and transporting heavy boxes for an organization that was making packages to send to families in need for the upcoming holidays (Rosh Hashana- Jewish new year). It was so much fun, and we took a break halfway through where we went to this toy store above ground (did I mention we were working in the underground parking garage which was soooo hot) Toys R Us and we looked around at all the fun stuff. I decided then that I need to buy a kite and fly it at the beach. Good plan.
After we finished the volunteering, we quickly did a once-over to our apartment and called Avi to come do the first Mifgeshet Dira ("apartment meeting" where he checks to make sure our apartments are clean and that we have food to eat, etc.). We were si cinfident that our apartment was spotless. Until Avi came in and showed us the error of our ways. Obviously, we had to dust and wash the windows, as well as dust the tops of doors, mop behid the frdge and oven, and squegee the floor. He literally wiped his hand on the top of our fridge, checked shelves and such for dust, and said we would have to fix it an that he would check up on us again in an hour. He didn't, but we were cleaning for the next four. Yikes. Never again. Oh, and he told us how we should give hime something to eat seeing as the boys had given him something when he came into their apartment. So, we were prepared. We made hima turkey sandwich with all the fixins and when he came back, he said we did a really good job, and that he could see that we had worked hard. Yay! Then he helped us make green beans which we brought to a pot-luck dinner at the boys place where there was Schnitzel.. mmmm...
After dinner, we all went out to Tel Aviv, and roamed around, but not the best night ever, it was pretty boring.
Wednsday: Had our first Torah study class. I challenged the teacher on asically everything he said, it was fun. We talked about hostages, and what the Jewish laws (halacha) dictates we do in such a situation, such as our situation with Gilad Shalit. After the class, we took pictures around town to use as promotional stuff for Shalem. Then we kinda vegged out in our apartment. Maddie kept falling asleep on the couch, because that's just what she does at home- she can't help it- she just always falls asleep. But I finally got out to the mall but had to leave early for a security meeting for all of year course. Apparently, we wont be going to Dimona as the next town, since a few bikes were stolen from there and a few apartments broken into. No one was hurt, but they're all moving to Arad because the kids don't feel safe. So we will be there too for the next session.
After that, I just hung out with Tova till dinner, and we all (yues, all 20 Shalem kids) ate over at our apartment for supper. Not looking forward to dishwashing. Yuck.
That's all for now, I'll updte again before Shabbat, though.
Miss you all, and please don't hesitate to reply or shoot me an email or whatever, I love to hear from home (even if you're not still in MN/ the Twin Cities)
Love and peace to you all :)
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