Hello again!
I think that last time I wrote I left off at Simchas Torah - which was an amazing holiday to experience here in Jerusalem. At all the shuls there is a part of the service where everyone leaves the sanctuary to go outside and sing and dance around with the Torah; it was a lot of fun. On Tuesday night, after the holiday ended, all the Nativers were taken to a big park where there was a continuing celebration, like a mini carnival, complete with food stands selling cotton candy and popcorn. There, the entire park went CRAZY dancing around and singing for several hours. It was really a great time.
On Friday night I decided I was sick of eating all my meals on base, so I resolved to have a meal out. There's a man named Jeff Seidel who will set anyone up for Shabbat or Holiday meals. The only catch is that he sets you up with very orthodox families in an attempt to convert you to orthodoxy. Not so worried about being converted (I enjoy bacon too much), I decided to try it out - he advertises through Facebook and HebrewU, so a few Nativ kids have used him to get meals before and I'd heard good things. If you don't call ahead of time, you can simply go to the Western Wall on Friday night, meet him by the water fountains, and be set up for dinner. So I got my friend Carmie to go with me and that's what we did.
Once at the wall, there were a lot of people standing around waiting to be set up. We introduced ourselves to Jeff, and told him we were from Nativ, and he immediately put us with a group. We then walked back to the house of Alan and Bonnie Cohen. It was me and my friend Carmie, two boys our age who were in Yeshiva, two tourists from America, and two other friends of the Cohens. Apparently the Cohens do this every Friday night, hosting anywhere from 8-15 people for a given meal.
When we arrived at the Cohens home, it was spectacular. Not only was the home itself gorgeous, but from my seat at the dinner table I had a view through the sliding glass door onto the patio - and behind that I could see the walls of the old city lit up. It was really incredible. The Cohens housekeepers served us four excellent courses, and we ate with fancy silverware. Between courses, we had shots of chocolate liquor to 'cleanse our palates.' It was a meal that was much needed and greatly appreciated considering the food I'm used to on base.
The Cohens have a tradition of going around the table and telling a little about yourself and how you were raised Jewishly. And although it was clear that they were orthodox and that their beliefs differed from my own, it was nice to have a discussion and I had gone into the dinner with the right mindset: ready to possibly be judged. Even though they were pushy at times, they were still very nice and obviously very generous. My personal feeling is if religion can inspire you to share and invite people into your homes and be hospitable, then that's what works for you - although I do believe you don't need Torah to do any of those things.
After dinner more people showed up, perhaps about 20, for oneg (snacks and singing after the meal), and snacks and wine were offered to all as songs were sung around the table. Apparently, because it had been raining very hard, that was a 'slow' night, and on some Friday nights up to 150 people enter their house for oneg.
At the end of the night we were given business cards with contact information and invited to join the facebook group "I did Shabbat with Alan & Bonnie Cohen in Jerusalem." Apparently this home is a tourist destination. Overall, it was a very memorable experience and a much-needed wonderful meal.
Normal classes at HebrewU resumed on Sunday, and I must say, I really missed it. I love being on campus and feeling like a real college kid, and I also enjoy being busy and having a routine. Between classes I get lunch and go to the gym, and I've started trying to talk to some of the kids in my classes who aren't on Nativ. I do enjoy all of my classes, and all of my professors are really nice. On Wednesday, it was pouring while I was in Mysticism class, and through the window I could see a rainbow. I excused myself from class to go look, and it was the most spectacular rainbow I've ever seen - it was a double, with one of them perfect with all the colors easily discernable, over the white stone houses and buildings of Jerusalem. I grabbed anyone who was around me and made them come look; it was incredible.
Additionally, Nativ offers activities for us at nights. There's a girls flag football league in Jerusalem, so Nativ has a team and we compete against Israeli high schools and Yeshiva girls' teams. We practice on Sundays or Thursdays, and the games are on Monday nights. This Monday will be our first scrimmage. The coaches assigned me to offense, center position (don't laugh, I'm not TERRIBLE), and last night at practice we learned some new plays for the scrimmage. On Sunday nights I also have book club where we're reading Israeli literature. Every other week we also have Disney B'Evreet, the club I started, where we watch Disney movies in Hebrew with English subtitles. Beauty and the Beast was a huge success, and I think next we might do The Jungle Book. Wednesday nights is the Beer Pong League that someone on Nativ started at a local bar, and if you want to see my standings you can view them at israelbeerpong.blogspot.com. Although my team (me, my friend Kesha, and my roommate Becky) have yet to win a game, we play really well and usually give the boys a run for their money. And we always have fun regardless.
Last night Nativ had its own Halloween party - even though no one in Israel recognizes the holiday. I dressed up as a tree, and coincedentally Adam and Eve made a guest appearance at the party and so I put on my glasses and became The Tree Of Knowledge. There were Britney Spearses, street signs, ninjas, and the Joker. We got a couple of funny looks from Israelis when we went out to get food, but it was a lot of fun anyway, although I do miss candy corn and pumpkins and trick-or-treating!
Thanks for reading, Shabbat Shalom and Happy Halloween!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Birthday Celebrations and Desert Survival
nShalom! In my first blog as a 19-year-old I hope you all take notice of the additional maturity with which I will tell my chronicles.
Tuesday night I went out for a lovely birthday dinner at the local Italian restaurant, Luigi's, with Keren, Ashley, Matan, Josh, Jason, and Eli. The food was excellent, I had bruschetta and sweet potato ravioli. Everyone toasted to my birthday and gave some funny speeches about favorite "Kari memories." It was a really nice night.
Wednesday morning I was up bright and early as we had to meet downstairs at 5 AM to leave for our 3-day desert survival tiyul (trip). We were to spend 3 days hiking and camping in the Negev in our groups (so I was with Yerucham). The morning started off a little sleepy, as we took a two hour bus ride to a small town near the Negev called Ein Gedi. There we had services and ate breakfast, after which we had a jeep ride to where we would begin the hike. The jeep ride was a LOT of fun over the bumpy dirt road, a lot like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.
Wednesday we hiked for about six or seven hours, stopping for an hour to eat lunch on the plateau on the top of a mountain that had a great view. It was fairly cloudy, so although the walk was tiring, it wasn't unbearably hot. Wednesday night we got to camp around six or seven o'clock. Although the hiking was pretty intense, the 'survival' part of the trip wasn't nearly as challenging. A company was in charge of all the logistics for our group, so when we arrived at camp our overnight bags were neatly laid out, there was running water so we could wash our faces and hands (no bathrooms though), there were mats around a bonfire, and there was hot soup waiting for us. The food we ate that night was WAY better than the food we get on base, and although I'm sure it tasted better because we'd been hiking all day, it actually was delicious. At night we did some bonding activities around the campfire, including a game where we all got into our sleeping bags, lined up, and rolled over each other to the end of the line. The temperature at night was a little cool but perfect when bundled up in a sleeping back, and the moon provided ample light to see by. Sleeping outside was definitely amazing.
Thursday morning we woke up at 5:30 for services and breakfast, and then we were off for nine hours of hiking. Although Thursday was a long day, filled with challenging uphills and downhills, it was my favorite. We were hiking on a path that only about 2,000 people see a year - in three days, we saw only three or four other hikers. It was a really unique experience to be the only people around for miles and miles. At some times, the path was clear, but at other times we were literally climbing uphill over boulders with no clear path in sight. And although it was a long hike, we found ways to entertain ourselves, like singing songs and playing games. It was also a great bonding experience with the rest of Yerucham. I talked to a lot of people that I hadn't had a chance to really interact with before, so that was really exciting. Thursday night we again had a fantastic dinner and campfire activities.
Friday morning I woke up bright and early at 4:30 to a chorus of 'Happy Birthday's. Although waking up at 4:30 AM is not what I would like to do on my birthday, it was really great to be able to wake up in a place where our whole group was together. I got lots of morning birthday hugs and kisses, and after services there was cake and the whole group sang to me. Then we had our final hike - only five hours - and we made it to the bus that drove us back to Jerusalem.
When we (finally!) arrived back in Jerusalem, I walked into my room to find that Keren and Ashley had decorated it with balloons and streamers for my birthday. Mom sent them a package with supplies to continue the family tradition she started years ago, and they had managed to decorate it at 5 AM Wednesday morning before we left. Since I was a little sad to not be home for the first time ever on my birthday, it was really nice to have some familiarity. I also got to finally open my birthday package from home, and that had lots of wonderful goodies in it. I also got lots of cards for my birthday (thanks everyone!) all of which are now hanging on the wall in my room. And for a GREAT birthday present I got to take a shower after 3 days in the desert, which was WONDERFUL. Then I settled in for a much needed relaxing Shabbat.
All in all it was an amazing 19th birthday and a wonderful Tiyul. =) If you'd like to see pictures, I uploaded a new album that can be found here:
Tuesday night I went out for a lovely birthday dinner at the local Italian restaurant, Luigi's, with Keren, Ashley, Matan, Josh, Jason, and Eli. The food was excellent, I had bruschetta and sweet potato ravioli. Everyone toasted to my birthday and gave some funny speeches about favorite "Kari memories." It was a really nice night.
Wednesday morning I was up bright and early as we had to meet downstairs at 5 AM to leave for our 3-day desert survival tiyul (trip). We were to spend 3 days hiking and camping in the Negev in our groups (so I was with Yerucham). The morning started off a little sleepy, as we took a two hour bus ride to a small town near the Negev called Ein Gedi. There we had services and ate breakfast, after which we had a jeep ride to where we would begin the hike. The jeep ride was a LOT of fun over the bumpy dirt road, a lot like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.
Wednesday we hiked for about six or seven hours, stopping for an hour to eat lunch on the plateau on the top of a mountain that had a great view. It was fairly cloudy, so although the walk was tiring, it wasn't unbearably hot. Wednesday night we got to camp around six or seven o'clock. Although the hiking was pretty intense, the 'survival' part of the trip wasn't nearly as challenging. A company was in charge of all the logistics for our group, so when we arrived at camp our overnight bags were neatly laid out, there was running water so we could wash our faces and hands (no bathrooms though), there were mats around a bonfire, and there was hot soup waiting for us. The food we ate that night was WAY better than the food we get on base, and although I'm sure it tasted better because we'd been hiking all day, it actually was delicious. At night we did some bonding activities around the campfire, including a game where we all got into our sleeping bags, lined up, and rolled over each other to the end of the line. The temperature at night was a little cool but perfect when bundled up in a sleeping back, and the moon provided ample light to see by. Sleeping outside was definitely amazing.
Thursday morning we woke up at 5:30 for services and breakfast, and then we were off for nine hours of hiking. Although Thursday was a long day, filled with challenging uphills and downhills, it was my favorite. We were hiking on a path that only about 2,000 people see a year - in three days, we saw only three or four other hikers. It was a really unique experience to be the only people around for miles and miles. At some times, the path was clear, but at other times we were literally climbing uphill over boulders with no clear path in sight. And although it was a long hike, we found ways to entertain ourselves, like singing songs and playing games. It was also a great bonding experience with the rest of Yerucham. I talked to a lot of people that I hadn't had a chance to really interact with before, so that was really exciting. Thursday night we again had a fantastic dinner and campfire activities.
Friday morning I woke up bright and early at 4:30 to a chorus of 'Happy Birthday's. Although waking up at 4:30 AM is not what I would like to do on my birthday, it was really great to be able to wake up in a place where our whole group was together. I got lots of morning birthday hugs and kisses, and after services there was cake and the whole group sang to me. Then we had our final hike - only five hours - and we made it to the bus that drove us back to Jerusalem.
When we (finally!) arrived back in Jerusalem, I walked into my room to find that Keren and Ashley had decorated it with balloons and streamers for my birthday. Mom sent them a package with supplies to continue the family tradition she started years ago, and they had managed to decorate it at 5 AM Wednesday morning before we left. Since I was a little sad to not be home for the first time ever on my birthday, it was really nice to have some familiarity. I also got to finally open my birthday package from home, and that had lots of wonderful goodies in it. I also got lots of cards for my birthday (thanks everyone!) all of which are now hanging on the wall in my room. And for a GREAT birthday present I got to take a shower after 3 days in the desert, which was WONDERFUL. Then I settled in for a much needed relaxing Shabbat.
All in all it was an amazing 19th birthday and a wonderful Tiyul. =) If you'd like to see pictures, I uploaded a new album that can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kaleibowitz/BirthdayCelebrationsAndDesertSurvival#
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Yom Kippur and the Fall Semester
Hi everybody! Hope you are all well.
I'm going to have to start this post by backtracking a little since I've let myself get behind on my updates. With Beit Nativ shutting off the internet for all the holidays, it gets even more difficult to keep up on here.
Last Shabbat (not the one that just passed, the one before Yom Kippur) was an open one, so a couple of girls and I decided to go away for the weekend. And by a couple, I mean 11 others. 12 of us spend Shabbat in Tiberias - which was an experience to say the least. I'm glad I went, just because I'm always glad to be travelling and grateful to be seeing new places and things, but it's an experience I probably will not repeat. We stayed in 3 rooms of 4 people each in a real live youth hostel - complete with a shower that was just a showerhead on the ceiling and a drain in the floor, no lights in the bathroom, and four beds that touched each other. Friday night we tried to go out, but we severly overestimated how many places would remain open for Shabbat. We ate at a very tourist-y restaurant and on the boardwalk it looked like we were the only Jews there. Saturday was much better, although a little expensive. We paid 40 shekels each to get on to a private beach, but it was definitely worth it. I've really missed the beach since I've been here. The beach was gorgeous, with lounge chairs and palm trees and music, and I spent the day reading in the sun and swimming in the Kineret. We all shared a very economical lunch of pita, pretzels, humus, and almonds. Although I loved going to the beach for a day, overall the trip was not worth the three hours there and three hours back. Next I'm just going to go to the free beaches in Tel Aviv.
The day after we returned from that adventure was the start of the fall semester at HebrewU. However, October is a very jumbled month because of all the holidays - I think we have something like 7 days of class total in the entire month. Besides the required Hebrew and Freshman Writing, I'm also taking Intro to Jewish Mysticism, Issues in the Study of the Holocaust, and Intro to Early Church History. I really like all of them, and I'm happy that I got to take all classes that are religion or Judaism based, because I figure here is the place to do it. We can only take freshman level courses, so our options are limited, and as a result there are quite a few Nativers in all of my classes. However, there are also Americans from other programs and a couple people from other places, such as Germany, England, and Australia. I've only had one or two meetings of each class so far, so I haven't made any friends yet, but I completely intend on making enough friends from all over the world so that I can travel around staying places for free =).
Yom Kippur was definitely one of my best experiences in Israel thus far. Although I wasn't used to the intense 26 hour fast (I did get a little cranky at the end - but Marcus at home was far worse), or the 7 hours of shul at a time (for those of you who don't know, that's not really how we do it in my family...) it was still amazing. The ENTIRE city shuts down - like someone flipped the 'off' switch - far more than on Yom Kippur. It's the only day of the year where there is no radio or television broadcast and no flights allowed in or out of the country. Jerusalem especially shuts down. There was not a single store open, and all the streets are closed to traffic: the traffic lights merely flash yellow. Kids take advantage of the empty roads to ride bikes and scooters down the city's giant hills.
After synagogue on Friday night, I went with a few other people to Emek Rafayim, a popular street that has many shops and restaurants, and is usually very busy. The entire street looked like it had turned into a street fair, with tons of people just walking around talking to each other. Then when we walked back up the hill to Beit Nativ, we heard singing. When we got to the top, there were dozens of Nativers, sitting in the middle of what is normally an EXTREMELY busy intersection, singing songs while a huge crowd of people stood around, sang, and watched. We immediately joined the circle in the middle of the road. It was a very unique experience to be sitting down in the middle of a major street, one we have to wait for the light to cross every day for fear of being hit by a crazy Israeli driver, just singing songs.
Although a lot of what I did this Yom Kippur I will probably never do again (including sitting through the entire service), I was really happy to be able to experience the true observance of Yom Kippur in the place where it was truly meant to be observed.
One final word, I just want to say a HUGE Mazel Tov to Dale and Ira on their wedding today! It made me very sad that I couldn't be there with them, but I heard Dale looked beautiful and I can't wait to see pictures. And I'm sure Sabrina looked adorable as always =).
Bye for now!
I'm going to have to start this post by backtracking a little since I've let myself get behind on my updates. With Beit Nativ shutting off the internet for all the holidays, it gets even more difficult to keep up on here.
Last Shabbat (not the one that just passed, the one before Yom Kippur) was an open one, so a couple of girls and I decided to go away for the weekend. And by a couple, I mean 11 others. 12 of us spend Shabbat in Tiberias - which was an experience to say the least. I'm glad I went, just because I'm always glad to be travelling and grateful to be seeing new places and things, but it's an experience I probably will not repeat. We stayed in 3 rooms of 4 people each in a real live youth hostel - complete with a shower that was just a showerhead on the ceiling and a drain in the floor, no lights in the bathroom, and four beds that touched each other. Friday night we tried to go out, but we severly overestimated how many places would remain open for Shabbat. We ate at a very tourist-y restaurant and on the boardwalk it looked like we were the only Jews there. Saturday was much better, although a little expensive. We paid 40 shekels each to get on to a private beach, but it was definitely worth it. I've really missed the beach since I've been here. The beach was gorgeous, with lounge chairs and palm trees and music, and I spent the day reading in the sun and swimming in the Kineret. We all shared a very economical lunch of pita, pretzels, humus, and almonds. Although I loved going to the beach for a day, overall the trip was not worth the three hours there and three hours back. Next I'm just going to go to the free beaches in Tel Aviv.
The day after we returned from that adventure was the start of the fall semester at HebrewU. However, October is a very jumbled month because of all the holidays - I think we have something like 7 days of class total in the entire month. Besides the required Hebrew and Freshman Writing, I'm also taking Intro to Jewish Mysticism, Issues in the Study of the Holocaust, and Intro to Early Church History. I really like all of them, and I'm happy that I got to take all classes that are religion or Judaism based, because I figure here is the place to do it. We can only take freshman level courses, so our options are limited, and as a result there are quite a few Nativers in all of my classes. However, there are also Americans from other programs and a couple people from other places, such as Germany, England, and Australia. I've only had one or two meetings of each class so far, so I haven't made any friends yet, but I completely intend on making enough friends from all over the world so that I can travel around staying places for free =).
Yom Kippur was definitely one of my best experiences in Israel thus far. Although I wasn't used to the intense 26 hour fast (I did get a little cranky at the end - but Marcus at home was far worse), or the 7 hours of shul at a time (for those of you who don't know, that's not really how we do it in my family...) it was still amazing. The ENTIRE city shuts down - like someone flipped the 'off' switch - far more than on Yom Kippur. It's the only day of the year where there is no radio or television broadcast and no flights allowed in or out of the country. Jerusalem especially shuts down. There was not a single store open, and all the streets are closed to traffic: the traffic lights merely flash yellow. Kids take advantage of the empty roads to ride bikes and scooters down the city's giant hills.
After synagogue on Friday night, I went with a few other people to Emek Rafayim, a popular street that has many shops and restaurants, and is usually very busy. The entire street looked like it had turned into a street fair, with tons of people just walking around talking to each other. Then when we walked back up the hill to Beit Nativ, we heard singing. When we got to the top, there were dozens of Nativers, sitting in the middle of what is normally an EXTREMELY busy intersection, singing songs while a huge crowd of people stood around, sang, and watched. We immediately joined the circle in the middle of the road. It was a very unique experience to be sitting down in the middle of a major street, one we have to wait for the light to cross every day for fear of being hit by a crazy Israeli driver, just singing songs.
Although a lot of what I did this Yom Kippur I will probably never do again (including sitting through the entire service), I was really happy to be able to experience the true observance of Yom Kippur in the place where it was truly meant to be observed.
One final word, I just want to say a HUGE Mazel Tov to Dale and Ira on their wedding today! It made me very sad that I couldn't be there with them, but I heard Dale looked beautiful and I can't wait to see pictures. And I'm sure Sabrina looked adorable as always =).
Bye for now!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Shana Tova!
שנה תובה
Shana Tova everyone! I hope that you all had a happy holiday. As the weeks get busier it gets harder to update this frequently, so I'm currently a little backed up.
The mini-semester ended last week with finals in Hebrew and Jerusalem class, both of which I feel really good about. The real semester starts on Sunday, so I'm looking forward to my classes, both for the content and for the fact that I will be having class with some students outside of Nativ for the first time. Additionally, I joined the gym at HebrewU, which is gorgeous, so I've really been enjoying going to exercise when I get the chance.
Last Shabbat Keren, Ashley, and I went to Rehovot, a town outside of Tel Aviv, to stay with Keren's family. Keren, for those of you who don't know, is one of my best friends from USY, and I've known her for about three years now. Her father is Israeli so she has a ton of family here, and speaks Hebrew - which is very useful when we go out places. Her family was really nice, and I ate really well, which is always a welcome change from Agron (our youth hostel) food. She has several little cousins, so I got to use my child-like Hebrew while I played with them. For example, her little cousin Shachar had a toy bug, so in Hebrew I could take it from him and say 'My bug! Not your bug! Mine! Mine!' (That sounds a lot meaner than it really was, he actually thought it was really funny.) That was about the extent of the Hebrew I could use with her family. It was nice to have some sort of family around but it also made me really homesick for my own family to be taking care of me. It was nice to go away though because when I came back to base it really felt like home and I realized that I had really missed it.
Rosh Hashanah in Jerusalem was amazing. First of all, it was really the first time that I'd gone to synagogue both days, sat through services the whole time, and celebrated with several large meals. Second of all, the entire city of Jerusalem shuts down. There are a few cars on the road, but not very many at all considering it's a big city. Almost all of the stores are closed, and the streets are filled with people walking everywhere dressed in their best. The first night all of Nativ prayed and ate together, which was really great, and the food here was good for the first time. The first day I walked very far to shul with my Yerucham group in order to attend services at the shul where my host family would be. All the Nativers were paired with host families to have us over for lunch. I went to lunch with my friend Jordan and our host family was very nice. The host mom even had a sister who is a professor at Emory and a brother who teaches in Neptune, so that was really cool. Plus they made us pumpkin pie =).
That night we had an open dinner, so Matan, Jason, Josh, Ashley, Keren and I all went to Matan's mom's apartment for dinner. She recently made Aaliyah and lives not far from us. It was most of our first time meeting her. She was SO sweet and reminded me of my mom, which made me miss her very much. Overall though it was a really fun dinner to just be relaxed in a home setting with my closest friends here.
The second day of Rosh Hashanah we went to a shul close by since we were all sick of walking, and then just came back to base for lunch and relaxed. I was really glad that I bought my Machsor since I read the English during a lot of the service to keep me occupied. All in all it was definitely my best Rosh Hashanah yet.
Happy new year!
Shana Tova everyone! I hope that you all had a happy holiday. As the weeks get busier it gets harder to update this frequently, so I'm currently a little backed up.
The mini-semester ended last week with finals in Hebrew and Jerusalem class, both of which I feel really good about. The real semester starts on Sunday, so I'm looking forward to my classes, both for the content and for the fact that I will be having class with some students outside of Nativ for the first time. Additionally, I joined the gym at HebrewU, which is gorgeous, so I've really been enjoying going to exercise when I get the chance.
Last Shabbat Keren, Ashley, and I went to Rehovot, a town outside of Tel Aviv, to stay with Keren's family. Keren, for those of you who don't know, is one of my best friends from USY, and I've known her for about three years now. Her father is Israeli so she has a ton of family here, and speaks Hebrew - which is very useful when we go out places. Her family was really nice, and I ate really well, which is always a welcome change from Agron (our youth hostel) food. She has several little cousins, so I got to use my child-like Hebrew while I played with them. For example, her little cousin Shachar had a toy bug, so in Hebrew I could take it from him and say 'My bug! Not your bug! Mine! Mine!' (That sounds a lot meaner than it really was, he actually thought it was really funny.) That was about the extent of the Hebrew I could use with her family. It was nice to have some sort of family around but it also made me really homesick for my own family to be taking care of me. It was nice to go away though because when I came back to base it really felt like home and I realized that I had really missed it.
Rosh Hashanah in Jerusalem was amazing. First of all, it was really the first time that I'd gone to synagogue both days, sat through services the whole time, and celebrated with several large meals. Second of all, the entire city of Jerusalem shuts down. There are a few cars on the road, but not very many at all considering it's a big city. Almost all of the stores are closed, and the streets are filled with people walking everywhere dressed in their best. The first night all of Nativ prayed and ate together, which was really great, and the food here was good for the first time. The first day I walked very far to shul with my Yerucham group in order to attend services at the shul where my host family would be. All the Nativers were paired with host families to have us over for lunch. I went to lunch with my friend Jordan and our host family was very nice. The host mom even had a sister who is a professor at Emory and a brother who teaches in Neptune, so that was really cool. Plus they made us pumpkin pie =).
That night we had an open dinner, so Matan, Jason, Josh, Ashley, Keren and I all went to Matan's mom's apartment for dinner. She recently made Aaliyah and lives not far from us. It was most of our first time meeting her. She was SO sweet and reminded me of my mom, which made me miss her very much. Overall though it was a really fun dinner to just be relaxed in a home setting with my closest friends here.
The second day of Rosh Hashanah we went to a shul close by since we were all sick of walking, and then just came back to base for lunch and relaxed. I was really glad that I bought my Machsor since I read the English during a lot of the service to keep me occupied. All in all it was definitely my best Rosh Hashanah yet.
Happy new year!
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