Sunday's are always hard since they are "work days," miss having that extra day of the weekend.

Went with Raina to King George Street shopping. Proudly conversed about curtains in Hebrew.

Tonight was ladies MEATMEET night....went with Rollin, Raina, and the galls. Oy so so stuffed.

The best part of today was that I decided to call the Uhers and see how they were doing since I knew Rebbie was due any day. I called to find out that they had a beautiful new girl named Eliana. I am so thrilled for them and very sad that I am not there to see here. One thing I look forward to going home for in January. YAY MAZEL TOV!!!

Today was a much welcomed day of Shabbat...finally a chance to sleep in and relax. Studied some Hebrew and went to the park for lunch with Jill, Sandi, Star and Jordan. We had a really nice time, ate way too much. Had a nice relaxing rest of the afternoon. I needed to have some time to myself so I took a lovely walk to Yemin Moshe and loved to be able to look out at the walls of the Old City.

Tonight we did Havdallah at another park, it was really pretty. I love all the little parks here. Then I came home to get ready for another school week...trying hard to adjust to this Sunday is a work/ go to school day!

T.G.I.SH. Thank goodness its Shabbos. Boy it has been a long week. Tonight we are hosting a Shabbat dinner. I got up and did some last minute errands for the weekend at SuperSol. Headed home and began making my yummy gazpacho (recipe available upon request). Had to stop early to go meet Neil for lunch, we went to Atara on Azza and it was so delicious! When I came home, Raina, Rollin, and I finished up all the cooking and getting the apartment “guest ready.” I called Mom and Dad to wish them a Shabbat shalom and got ready to go to services. We went to the Conservative Synagogue, the service was lovely because students were leading. Raina's friend, Ben, led mincha.

Afterwards, Heather, Owen, Dena, Ben, Raina, and I all headed back to the apartment to meet Rollin for dinner. We had a lovely dinner of my gazpacho, lasagna, veggies, and of course Marzipan (this really awesome gooey chocolate rugelach!). It was a really nice group to have join us. We were all really ready for sleep.

Today I am really excited because we are going on our first field trip (“site learning experiences”!)........bright and early we met at HUC to catch the buses. Off we went to the Tayelet- Haas Promenade for a brief overview of different points in Jerusalem and the Kidron valley. We took a little hike down a path and got to see pomegranate, date and olive trees. We boarded the bus and headed to East Jerusalem. Wow! What a difference from where we came from. Everything is in Arabic and the mannerisms were different. We got off the bus along side part of the Valley and saw the Mount of Olives Cemetery. Absoloms tomb is located there. It was so interesting to see the beautiful masoleums hewn out of the stone. All of the tombs have biblical names but were built in the 2^nd Temple period. A 3000 year old tomb we saw was the grave of Pharoah's daughter. Originally there was a pyramid on top by that was destroyed to use the stone for other uses. Along the same wall there were lots of openings that led to caves that were burial chambers. (Location: Silwan...Arab/Palestinian village)

It was amazing to be right next to the Old City wall and have the Al Aksa mosque right there on the other side. We continued down the road to Ir David- City of David. We stopped to look around and discuss David and Bathsheba. After lunch we headed down to Warren's shaft which led to water but was impossible to obtain water from since clay jars dropped down that far would hit the walls of the shaft and inevitably break. Off to Hezekiah's tunnel we went. So glad to have my Tevas! The water was really cold at first but felt great coming from the heat. We walked and walked and walked through the tunnel which seemed never ending. It was so amazing being inside and thinking that human beings dug it out over time. I would love to go back again and walk through it in complete peace!

After a shower and power nap....we went to hear Shlomo Artzi and Shalom Chinuch (think Israeli version of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen) at the Sultan's Pool, they were amazing. Not to mention that we had the Old City walls to our right, a real, WOW I am in Israel moment!

Picnic in the park

Going to the Wine Festival

First day of Ulpan, I am in a Kitah Daled with Osnat. She is great. We read a story and talked about it. Afterwards we played a game where we wrote 4 numbers significant to us and the class had to guess what each of the numbers meant. I did 13, 2, 6, and 4...guess their significance to me.

Afterwards Rollin, Raina and i did a much needed trip to the grocery!

Today we had services at HUC, pleasant. Ran into a Cleveland Rabbi from the congregation I taught at. Went to park for shabbos lunch. Lovely except for the guy who sat staring at us for the entire time. Luckily Robert came and guarded us :). Went back home and relaxed.

Evening reception with HUC alumni, ice cream, wine, pastry. Met the brother of a father whose kids I sit for (make sense). Small world. Nice little havdallah service.

Went with Jill to get new Harry Potter on Ben Yehuda. What a scene seeing ultra-orthodox to secular Jews pouring into Steimatzky to get their copy after Shabbat ended!

Tomorrow first day of ulpan....

Today we had our last day of orientation. Welcoming by David Ellenson. Learned about adjusting to Israeli culture.

Got ready for Shabbat, all very tired.

Picked up my suitcase that Amy and Simon so nicely brought along on their Young Adult mission from Federation!

Shabbat at HUC, pleasantly nice. Dinner on patio, was lovely. Afterwards had a song session that was so much fun, everyone got into it and it was great.

Today we met with Rabbi Ellenson and he spoke to us. We then had a cross-cultural workshop with Alyne Bat Haim about adjusting to life in Israel and the many realities we will face.....to be continued after shabbat.....

We went home and got ready for Shabbat. Naamah did a program with us on Shabbat and then we were joined by the community for Shabbat services. Afterwards there was a special dinner for us on the patio. It was really nice. The best part of the evening was when all of us students got up and sang and danced after dinner. How wonderful to feel such spirit from my classmates! Hope it continues for the rest of the year

Shacharit, middle east update with Paul Liptz, Israel Progressive Movement presentation.

Went to Jill and Sandy's for dinner, very nice. They are much fun!

Orientation began last night with a get to know you activity and ice cream.

Today we davened shacharit and had a series of speakers on HUC and Uplan.

Went to Malka mall had lots of fun going all around and getting stuff....really enjoyed my Whopper from Burger King!

Today Raina and I went to register as students at HUC. Everyone seems great there.

Afterward, walked to Mahane Yehuda with Raina and spent a while there adventuring and buying goodies. We got lost on the way home but were pleasantly surprised how helpful the Israelis were in finding our way back. On the way we found this fantastic restaurant and had lunch there, yum!

Today we went to the beach in Tel Aviv. Was lots of fun. Too many jellyfish in the water though. We tried to get some fun drinks from the beach side bar but the guy there didn't know what he was doing and made some horrible mix. Got a Sprite instead. Went to the really good dairy restaurant and got a really great milkshake and ate Matt's salad (it was so big there was leftovers after I ate).

Much fun day, exhausting.

We planned to go to services but didn't get up on time......went to a picnic at the Liberty Bell park. Was lots of fun meeting a whole bunch of people. Shabbat nap (required!). Went to Jordy's apartment for Havdallah and dinner, lots of fun.

Friday we went to Supersol and loaded up on groceries and our first Shabbat. Went to Owen's for dinner, missed services to pick up my luggage. Lots of ruach at dinner, was great!

Today we got ready for Shabbat. Went to Supersol and loaded up on food. Made sandwiches together for lunch. We then made lasagna to take to a dinner at Owen's. I went over to his apartment and then got the call that I needed to meet the luggage deliverer at my apartment. I got my luggage, went back to owens and had dinner at his apt.

Today I left for the airport. Alan drove me. We stopped to say goodbye to aunt norma and hunter. My flight was delayed in taking off due to rain on the east coast. When i got to New York- my flight had already taken off to Paris. I had to wait for several hours. Finally late at night my flight took off on a direct flight to Israel. I ended up landing just shortly after I was supposed to on my old flight.

I met some of my classmates in the airport- Star and ...... Only one of my suitcases arrived. The other one is MIA, I had to go and put in a lost luggage report. I met Jordan on the sherut- she was reading the "red" HUC booklet. I finally arrived at my apartment and met my roommates Raina and Rollin. I took a shower and changed clothes. Matt and David came over and we went to Paradiso for dinner.

Welcome to my blog....I hope to keep you posted on my adventures in Israel while I am studying abroad.

July 6 I left for Israel and my wonderful cousin drove me to the airport because my parents were in Italy. [We thought they were going to be coming back the day before and we would get to see each other before I left but we misread their ticket :( ] Off I went to the airport. I got there with plenty of time and when i arrived at the gate, a kid from a Panim el Panim trip I staffed was there. We chatted about where we were heading. Little did I realize that our boarding was delayed. Finally we got boarded, only to find our flight was delayed due to weather in Newark. I moved to the front of the plane so I could get off quickly and catch my flight to Paris. After running across Newark airport to another terminal I find I have missed my flight. Ughh, so I was upset, I went to the ticket counter and asked if they could get me on another flight that night. There was a seat on a later flight direct to Israel. Somehow I was already entered into the computer for it! Long flight but gladly made it to Israel just a few minutes later than my scheduled flight. As I go to exchange money this girl comes up calling my name....ends up it was Star who was supposed to be on my Paris-Israel flight. We were all ready to share a Sheruit to J-town but I couldn't find one of my suitcases. I went to file a lost luggage claim, oy.

As the second to last person in the Sheruit, i was finally dropped of at my apartment....well down the hill from it. I finally arrived and got to meet my roommates. We got ready and went out for dinner with Matt and David....nice time. Came home and crashed.