The first taste of Arad

I haven't had a chance to blog for about 2 months now.. I know that's a long time to catch up on, so i'll break this up into a few posts- starting out with the first three weeks of Arad:
So, on Sunday, we packed everything up and cleaned the apartment one last time, said our goodbyes to the madrichim and scouts, and piled onto a bus heading south. Me, Shayna, and Masha are all roommates here in Arad, only the three of us, but that made it much easier to divide up the rooms and shelf space, and also to make meals and such. At the same time, though, it is much emptier than what I am used to- never before have I lived with only two other people.
Anywho, for the first three weeks, all us three did (since all of us are on Marva also) was go to classes from 9-6 every day. Since we're on Marva, we need to jam all our classes into the 3 weeks we had in Arad before winter break. But for anyone who has now clue what I'm talking about when I say I'm on Marva: Marva is a 2 month program run by the Israeli army (IDF) and it is basically like being in basic training, but it is meant for 18-19 year olds who are thinking of making aliyah and moving to Israel and are interested in the army. So, since it is 2 months long and we only had 3 months in Arad, one week of which was winter break- tha left only 3 weeks for classes- and in order to have them be worth credit, we had to put in 3 hours a day, 4 days a week. It was hard to do after having so much free time in Bat Yam, but I was glad to be busy again.
I had 3 classes: History of the IDF.. which was one of the most boring classes I have ever had; Absorption of Immigrants- very interesting, and which I really enjoyed; and Ulpan.. cause we all hafta learn Hebrew. So every morning, I had Hebrew from 9 till 12, but it weas really enjoyable. The teacher's name is Eti, and we went on a feild trip outside of the clsasroom or watched a movie in Hebrew, or played a game almost every day, so I was glad to finally have a class where I used my Hebew instead of practicing it in a useless conversation with the class about what we did that day. We even went one day on a trip to the Telma factory, which is a cereal factory where they make all the great Israeli cereals, like Cariot- chocolate filled crunchy pockets. And when we were there- having a tour in Hebrew of course- the tour guide let us taste the cereal as it was falling out of the machines- so I got to taste it all fresh, and hot- it was the coolest thing I've ever done in class.
Next, after an hour lunch break, I had IDF history class- which was only 1.5 hours long, since it is paired with our time on Marva as hands- on time or something like that. But either way, that was the longest hour and a half of my life, every day. Yikes- well, I learned alot about wars, but I do not enjoy listening to lectures from someone who mumbles everything and on top of that has an impossible Israeli accent and also just shoots facts at you... But afterwards, I had Immigration class.
Immigration class was great- we learned all about immigration waves to Israel since the foundation of the state, but also about identity changes the people go through, as well as their reasonings for going and coming and such. The teacher was very knowledgeable, and the class reminded me a bit of how Ms. Page's class was, but this was more laid back, and there was nearly no homework.
SO, i had a final after 3 weeks of class, and then had a weeklong break to get ready for the start of Marva- and to visit with my parents :)
I had a great time- we went to the Deaf exhibit in the children's museum in Holon, went to see Petra which was beautiful, then spent New Years and Shabbat in Mitspe Ramon- we went on an amazing hike in the Ramon crater and watched High school Musical and When Harry met Sally on New Years Eve. I was glad to see them, but then I had to start packing for Marva and get ready to go...

Last days in Bat Yam

So, this week's siyyur was really fun- I went to this set of underground caves and tunnels where the people involved in the Bar Cochva rebellion hid- It was alot of fun, and I had to crawl on my hands and knees for most of it, and the rest I had to crawl on my stomach. We needed to use flashlights (as our tour guide said: torches). I loved crawling around in the dark and small tunnels :)

For the rest of the week, we didn't really do much- we cleaned ALOT and had a few talks about what Arad will look like. Tomorrow at 7 in the morning, we are all leaving Bat Yam and moing down to Arad, located in te Negev, or the Southern desert of Israel. It's supposed to be a small town, but with a beautiful veiw of montains, although with not much else to speak of. I'm not worried because I plan to join the Marva program, which is an army program (through the Israeli army) for the last 2 months of nixt semester, and the first month will be dedicated to my classes (from 9-6 every day but shabbat). So I wont really be spending much time in Arad itself.

I'm excited to move into a new lace, and to explore and such, I'm ready for a change of surroundings :) But at the same time, I'm sorta sad to see Bat Yam go. I'm going to have a much smaller aptt in Arad (only 3 of us in total) so I'm gonna miss the others that I won't be living with anymore :( And I'm gonna miss our apt itself, it's been my home away from home for 3 months now and now I gotta move into a new apt...

It's for the better, though, since I know that I would not enjoy having to live here for too much longer- it's just that the moving process is painful as well as difficult.


Some fun facts about my first semester in Bat Yam:

• There is an elementary school half a block from our apt and every school day we heard its bells through the windows: "Row your boat", "Twinkle, twinkle, little star", and "Dear old Clementine" were some of the tunes used
• Maddie made us pasta nearly every day :)
• there are millions of cats that hang in our courtyard, and I saw some of them grow from being kittens to beng adults in our stay
• It takes 30-45 minutes to get to Tel-Aviv from here by bus
• There is a wonderful bakery right net to the bus stop that I always use in the mornings to get to volunteering where I buy either breadsticks or a Sufgania (doughnut) in the morning for breakfast
• The laundramat and the little food store across the street each know me by name, since I go ther often enough (it's wonderful, I'm gonna miss them)
• We have seperate shower and toilet rooms- one with just a toilet ant the other with the sink and a shower
• We didn't know that we had to flip a switch to get how water for the first month... which means we had a month of cold showers
• We always had various horrible songs playing over and over again from Maddie's computer ("Sexy Bitch", anyone), now it's lots of Jewish songs.. slightly better
• We run out of tolet paper very quickly... and we ran out a week ago- too late to but any more, it would be wasteful, so instead, we just stole from the Ulpan and from the shul and from the Gym and other kids' apartments to last us :)
• Stipe was always running away, or not working
• I have an awesome apartment and I'm gonna miss it!! (both people and the building)

Love you guys, and I'l next talk to you from my new (and supposedly bigger- but with fewer people) place in Arad :)

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