This year in Jerusalem! (slash Tel Aviv)

Life in the Eretz is still going pretty well.  Despite the fact that I've been here for a little more than a month, it still feels like Year Course.  We're having the time of our life!  On Friday morning, they woke us up at 3:30 AM and told us we had ten minutes to get ready.  We then walked from our lovely moshav to Acco for breakfast, where we enjoyed Israel's best hummus.  Afterwards, we went to a country club where there were water slides and jacuzzis and all sorts of wonderful things.

My hebrew has gotten a lot better and I've only been here a month, but I can honestly say it's the most difficult thing I've ever had to do in my life.  I find myself getting frustrated incredibly quickly and overwhelmed with my learning.  But I know that I'll get there.  We also received our "manillas" which are the list of options we are allowed to choose from in the army.  I chose education as my number one choice, and then I chose a job that would be working with international organizations and then my third choice is a fitness instructor (i could teach spin class!)  Supposedly I will get one of my top three choices, and I'm counting on my education degree to get me into the education unit.

Everyday I find things about Israel that make me smile and remember why I'm here.  This country is just incredibly unique and ridiculous and also really compassionate.  A couple of weeks ago I was in Tel Aviv and I needed directions so I stopped to ask this older man with a kippa where I should go and after giving me directions and talking for about 15 minutes, he pinched my cheeks, called me a cutie, and sent me on my way.  Had that happened in the States, who knows what my reaction would have been, but it felt so normal here!  Everywhere we go, my roommate and I tell everyone that we are new immigrants and more than half of the time, we receive discounts.  It's a beautiful thing that whenever we do tell people we are immigrants, they don't scoff like people may do in America.  Instead, they smile and say "wow, kol hakavod (all of my respect), welcome to Israel!".  That's amazing!  And this happens EVERY DAY!

The holidays are coming soon and we have a lot of free time!

And so it begins!

We FINALLY got internet that works in our room, and I'm so excited!  Things have been really good recently.  I still feel like I'm on Year Course, because life is so easy and wonderful and I travel whenever we have an open weekend.  A couple of weeks ago we had our Tzav Rishon (our first call up).  We went to this building in Tiberias and we had to take all of these ridiculous tests.  I had a doctor check up, I had to take an IQ type test, took a Hebrew test, and I met with a social worker so that the army knows I'm a lone soldier and that I'm financially independent.  I then got my social worker to bring to me another lady who is in charge of placing people in positions, and I got her to fax my resume to an office in Tel Aviv that is in charge of seeing what positions are open this year for my giyus (my draft date).  It was a really long day and I was exhausted by the end of it.  I did pretty well with my scores though...not as good as I wanted, but still pretty good.  The week was pretty standard, we had ulpan and then that weekend we had a closed weekend and it was two peoples birthday in my garin!  We went out for dinner on Thursday night to this REALLY good burger place called BBB and then we went to the pub that is close to our moshav called The Para'a (The cow).  It was bira vnshira night (beer and singing) so you can only imagine how happy I was.  I didn't even drink anything and I was up and singing and dancing with the old people.  I love Israel because they play  fun songs like Shemesh and Mitachat Hashamayim.

This past week we had Gadna, which is supposed to be an army simulation.  It was one of those things that when I was in it, it put me in a really bad mood but now that it's over it was really fun. I had a really good group of people and we had a blast together.  Our commander was this adorable little girl (seriously...she was 3 years younger than me).  When we broke distance on Thursday (that's when the commanders finally stop yelling and tell us about themselves) she was really funny and the truth is that the whole time we were with her, she cut us breaks.  We rarely got in trouble, it was pretty fun.

After gadna, I visited my family in Hertziliya and then on Friday I slept at Shimon's house (my scout from year course).  we went to shabbat dinner at our other scout's house and then another scout came and we went to this really cool thing called a poyka where basically there is a bon fire and everyone puts food in and we make a delicious stew thing and then you eat it.  It was really really fun!!!

Things are going pretty well still and I am really happy and thats about it!