October... and still 80 degrees F with no air conditioner

So, I know it's been an entire month since I last posted a blog, I have been very busy and it was difficult for me with the holidays and such... and yes I do kno that's a poor excuse. The main thing is that right now, I am postponing my much- needed nap to finally blog. Yay!!

So, here's Sukkot (hut holiday) in the one- minute version: I was with my friend, Jason Edelman (also on Shalem), and his family in teir Jerusalem apartment for both ends of the holiday, visiting the Kotel (Western Wall) a few times and on Simchat torah, a huge dancing party-thing. The food there was delicious (it may even rival yours, Grandma, although no one can come anywhere near how great your Borscht is), the hospitality was wonderful, and I had a wonderful time hanging out with Jason and some other kids from Shalem who also went for the holiday. In the in-between days of Chol Hamoed, Shalem all went to the Western wall to hear Birkat Hacohen, and the next day we went (I'm not sure where) snorkeling for techailet- a snail used to make the blue dye used for talit/tzitzit. I had alot of fun exploring around, although i did not actually find any of the right kind of snail. I did see this really cool school of fish, though, they swam together in such a way that they looked like Medusa. But I didn't bring any extra clothes, so I was wet on the bus for the hour- long journey home.

I had my birthday over Sukkot, and I had a great time, getting to hear the birthday song way too many times, but on wednesday after my birthdya, all of Shalem went out for a birthday dinner to a nice meat restaraunt. I had alot of fun going out with everyone, which doesn't happen very often. :)

Everything else the past couple weeks has been as usual, volunteering, classes, etc. are pretty much the same, nothing to note about those, the only new things to talk about are the Tuesday siyurim. So, diving for techailet was one siyur. The next one was sports day, where all the tracks (Shalem, medical, classic, bussiness, sports) played basketball, volleyball and soccer against each other in a tournament. I played 3 games of volleyball (we lost to the sports team but beat everyone else), one game of basketball (again lost to the sport track) and one game of soccer... needless to say I was totally wiped after that insanely hot and active day, but I'm pretty impressed with how we did since I was the only one there who had ever played team sports at all in high school.

And the Siyur this week was to "Dialogue in the Dark"- a blind museum in Holon. Basically the entire place is pitch black, and ther are rooms that each set up a scene- a boat, a marketplace, a street, a forest, a park ranger's lodge. Everything is in the dark, and you are guided through there by a blind or visually impaierd person. It was definitely an interesting experience, but i felt so lost the entire time, always calling to the guide to reorient me every so often.

Oh- and yesterday, i finally got my package from the Young Judea Office!! Yay!!!
Then I went to the Comic book shoop in Tel Aviv with Barry- and then Falafel for dinner!!

If there's one thing you should know about the food here, it's that both falafel and schwarma are delicious and great meals- I got mine last night for 14 shek ($3.50) for a meal!!

peace out, lovelies
miss you all and love you

<3
Anna