A LOT of Catching Up to Do - Israel Today Seminar (I'm so behind!!!)

Last you heard from me, I was home from Italy and in the middle of Israel Today Seminar. The Seminar was great. I enjoyed much of the programming, learned a little, and had some fun experiences. After that, it was time to head south for our Southern Tiyul. In order to catch up quickly on over two jam-packed weeks, I'm going to simply cut and paste the schedules from those two weeks and give my own explanation on them. In some cases, we had multiple options, I'll only write what I chose.

Sunday January 31

8:00 Shacarit

8:45 Breakfast

9:30 Lecture on Israeli current issues – Editor in Chief of the Jerusalem Post

The talk was interesting, though I disagreed with many of our speaker's points. I don't believe it was actually the editor-in-chief of JPost because that is David Horovitz and our speaker was named Jeff Barak. My biggest issue with him was his view on Israel's demographic problem. My views are colored, for better or worse, by this article, which I read on Jpost.com.

12:00 - 3:00 the Menachem Begin Center

The Begin Center was really cool. Unfortunately, I was exhausted and fell asleep during the movie at the end. I definitely need to go back and do some independent reading on Begin in addition.

4:30 Panel discussion on the Israeli Army

This was a great program planned by Cori. Cori, Elkana, Nadiv and two of Cori's friends answered questions that Cori had written about their experiences in the army and then fielded questions from us. In particular Cori's friend Brian gave very candid answers which painted a sometimes haunting picture of what it meant to serve in the IDF during a major operation, in this case Cast Lead.

6:30 Dinner

Free evening

Monday February 1

7:30 Shacarit

8:15 Breakfast

9:00 – 3:00

Option 1 – Israel and the environment

· Tour of Ayalon park Changed to Chava v'Adam

We went to Chava v'Adam, an environmental learning community. It was interesting to see the different ways that the residents lived and raised animals and small gardens with a minimal carbon footprint.

· Tour of Safdan water conservation plant Changed to Chiriyya Garbage Dump

Though Chara in Hebrew means "shit," apparently in Arabic it means beautiful - interesting fact. The dump is located on what used to be (pre-1948) the Arab village of El Chiriyya. There, they have all sorts of projects in place to find better ways of disposing of garbage to try and reap some benefit from it. The original mountain of garbage, now covered with grass, is being slowly converted to a park with a beautiful view of Tel Aviv. The goal is that Ariel Sharon Park becomes a beautiful nature reserve and promenade overlooking Tel Aviv.

3:00 Comics museum in Holon Cancelled

4:00 Israeli Cinema at the Holon cinematek

We watched the movie The Lost Islands. The title of the movie made the Lost clique all jump immediately. Turns out, it's named for an old Australian TV series which used to be played all the time in the summers back in the 70's and 80's when Israel only had one TV channel. The movie is about a family in that time period living in Kfar Saba and the intrigue and loss in their lives. It was excellent - very funny at first, building to a sad ending.

6:00 Dinner at Azrieli mall in Tel Aviv

For dinner, we all got NIS 35 to spend at the mall. I went with Gabe and Lainie and Ilana and a few others to a chinese place which was pretty good.

Tuesday February 2

7:30 Shacarit

8:15 Breakfast

9:00 – 3:00

Option 2 – Israeli politics

· Tour of Supreme court

The tour of the Supreme Court was interesting and something I've always wanted to do. (While looking for a site to link this blog to for more info on the Israeli Supreme Court, I came across this gem - I should have realized that the Rothschilds were actually a Masonic cult! Here's the link for more information on the Supreme Court building)

· Workshop on Israeli politics

A woman who Ariella and I recognized from Shira Hadasha spoke to us about the barriers to Israel writing a Constitution.

4:00 “branding Israel” - Ido Aharoni, Head of Brand Management Team, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Cancelled

Trip to Gush Katif Museum - What I expected to be the least interesting part of the day was actually a really interesting portrayal of what I've always viewed as a sort of "other side" (the former residents of Gush Katif).

6:00 Dinner

8:30 “Please Touch” Theater Company, Old Yaffo.

The Na LaGaat theatre company is comprised of deaf-blind actors. The show they put on would never even come close to being nominated for a Tony, but it touches the heart nonetheless. During the performance, entitled "Lo Al HaLechem Levado," "Not by Bread Alone" the actors prepare bread dough and bake it while telling a little bit of their personal background.

Wednesday February 3

8:00 Teffilot

8:30 Breakfast

9:30 Orientation for Kibbutz group in Ariel

11:00 Orientation for Kehilla group in Ariel

12:30 Lunch

Afternoon pack and free

On Wednesday night I finally shaved off my beard which had been growing for about 2 1/2 months. I decided that just for that night, while I went out with friends, I would keep the mustache. I looked a little something like this:

I'm posting this just so you know I'm still alive, I'll get you all up to date as soon as possible,

Seffi

The End of Italy

On Sunday evening the other boys group checked into our hotel in Venice and we spent some time hanging out with them. We watched the Jets-Colts game, and then I went to bed. A bunch of people (especially the Vikings fans) stayed up to watch the Vikings/Saints game – they weren’t happy in the morning. When we woke up we went down to breakfast (more tea for me!) and then made our way over to the train station. We caught our train to Verona, and made our transfer to Trento. On the train from Verona to Trento I finished Have a Little Faith. It is one of the most beautiful and best books I have ever read – I definitely teared up while reading it. Right when I finished we arrived in Trento, a city which, I later found out, has the highest quality of living in Italy, and already knew as the site of the Simon of Trent blood libel accusation.

Once there, we walked down the block to the Trento bus station and, after killing some time and eating some pizza, boarded a bus for Madonna di Campiglo. The view from the windows of the bus as we made our way up the mountains was stunningly beautiful. Gushing rivers and babbling brooks slowly gave way to icicles and frozen streams, barren deciduous trees yielded grudgingly to more resilient evergreens, and the temperature slowly plummeted. I came to the slow realization that I may have never been in mountains like this before. My Wheels bus only skirted the Rockies, and there is nothing on the East Coast or in Israel like the Alps in winter. After about a three hour bus-ride (which contained about an hour when we served as a school bus, and half an hour when we were a skibus), we arrived in the town of Madonna di Campiglo. We waited another fifteen minutes for a taxi, which took us to the front door of the hotel, the Carlo Magno Zeladria Hotel Resort Spa. We checked in and went to our rooms. Because Joshy, Adam and Seth would be getting up early to ski, they stayed together (with Gabe as well), and Joey, Nadav and I were the other room. The rooms were basically the same – each had two floors, each had two TVs, each had two bathrooms, both with bidets, one in each room with a bath, each had a master bed and three couchbeds, and each had a balcony with a magnificent view of the majestic Dolomites, this particular part of the Italian Alps.

We all spent some time exploring our rooms and relaxing (I took a bath), and Joey and Nadav went to sleep for the night. The rest of us went back into town for dinner, I got pretty good pizza, and then came back to the hotel and went to sleep. In the morning, Joey and I woke up around 9:00 and we got up and woke Nadav downstairs. We all went down to breakfast with Gabe. Breakfast was incredible – there was yogurt and granola and cheese and bread and eggs and apple juice and donuts and croissants and jelly and hot chocolate (I deliberately made no mention of the bacon or sausage because they just don’t interest me for obvious reasons). After we finished our (several) plates, I got tea – English Breakfast of course – which was wonderful!

After killing a little time, the four of us changed into our bathrobes (courtesy of the hotel) and got into bed to watch a movie. We watched 500 Days of Summer which is a surprisingly good movie – not your typical chick-flick (one of my favorite genres), but still very sweet and deep and insightful and funny.

Joey and I went to the spa in the afternoon and spent time relaxing in saunas and lying on water beds and fun stuff. The skiers ended up meeting us there.

That night we all went out to the same restaurant as the previous night. Since I never had lunch that day, I decided to have a bigger dinner than usual. I got penne al salmone to start (really good penne with pieces of salmon mixed in) and then a pizza. When we got back home we lazed around for a while and then everyone went to their separate rooms. Joey and I ended up playing a game where we tried to name everyone on Nativ and one interesting fact about them. It went pretty well.

In the morning we got to breakfast right after the skiers left. Breakfast was wonderful again, especially since Gabe accidentally made himself a medium boiled egg and I got to have it without any of the work. After breakfast we hung out in the rooms for a bit and packed our stuff up. Around 11:00 A.M. we left the hotel and caught the skibus which dropped us off at the bus stop for the bus to Trento. We arrived in Trento 2 hours later and went to the train station for our train to Milan. Once there, we located our train and waited in the snack bar for it to get there. About ten minutes before the train was supposed to arrive, the letters “SOP.” appeared next to our train. I went out to the main room of the station to check the bigger time board and ask information what the letters meant. The bigger board said “Sopresso” next to our train, as well as the next train to Verona (where we would be transferring to our train to Milan). After waiting on line for quite some time, I finally got to the information desk, to a man who didn’t really speak English. The only information I was able to get out of him was that Sopresso means “no train” (or, literally, “deleted”). We went to grab lunch and waited some more, in total about 2 hours for a train that we thought we might get kicked off of, because it might have needed reservations, which we did not have. The skiers (who had skied that morning, and so were two hours behind us) caught up to us on the platform and we all boarded together. The train was really cool, with compartments instead of just seats, so that I felt like I was on the Hogwarts Express. We made it safely to Verona and boarded our train to Milan. On that ride Gabe and I watched Horton Hears a Who, which is a great film for children and adults, funny and sweet.

When we got to Milan we dropped our bags at our hotel (a 1-star establishment which may actually have been the shabbiest place we stayed at, despite its status as a hotel and not a hostel) and headed out for the downtown area. We went to a bar which called itself an Irish Pub but reminded me more of my time in Memphis on Wheels. We spent a couple of hours there and then made our way home.

In the morning we were out of the hotel by 10 a.m. and went to the Duomo area of Milan. We went into the Duomo, which was pretty cool and then we walked around and went shopping. I bought a tie for myself and gifts for family. We went to lunch at Ciao, which is actually Italian fast food, but we had delicious pasta and cheese and bread and fruit and it was pretty good. After we finished eating, we realized that there was nothing left to do in Milan so we took the subway back to the train station (where we’d left our bags), retrieved our stuff, and got on a shuttle to the airport. We got to the airport around 4ish, and our flight wasn’t until 10:40. Josh and I did some more gift shopping, we hung out with the other guys group a little and Gabe and I started The Terminal. I went to the book store to check if there was anything I wanted for the plane, and there I saw the Italian cover for the Harry Potter books, they are totally ridiculous and have nothing to do with the plot.

We got on line for security and stuff around 7:30, grabbed dinner, bought chocolate at duty-free, and went to chill by the gate. I “read” an Italian newspaper and talked Have a Little Faith with Ariella. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and told me they were making a minyan, so I was a part of that. We boarded a little late and then we were off back to Israel!

On the plane, we had incredibly delicious sandwiches – mozzarella, tomato and cucumber on ciabata bread – and then tried to go to sleep. I didn’t sleep for a minute, which was annoying, but what can you do? When we landed, people went to get their bags (I already had mine because I always fly carry-on whenever possible) and then we got a sherut and headed home. We got back around 5:30 a.m. and I slept from then until noon (at first I thought that this might be a bad idea but then I remembered that I sleep until noon every Friday morning). When I got up I got lunch and then went with a bunch of people to Ben Yehuda to see the Tu Bshvat festivities going on – lots of people creepily dressed as trees and plants; only in Israel.

Shabbat was closed, but we were allowed out for davening. I went to Shira Hadasha on Friday night and played Settlers after dinner. On Saturday I got up and did Shacharit in my room and then went with Asaf to Yemin Moshe in time for the Haftara, Musaf and Kiddush (which wasn’t as good as their Kiddush usually is). After lunch and Mincha, I played more Settlers and then it was time for Maariv and Havdalah. Josh’s dad was in town for a trip of Chicago businessmen called Nachshon. He came to Israel to see Josh and then was flying to join the group in Kiev before flying back to Israel. We (13 of us) met him at the Citadel and did Havdalah with him and then went out to Olive with him for a lovely steak dinner. It was a pleasure to see him and it was really nice of him to take us out to dinner again.

I’m too tired to finish this up now – at least I finished Italy.

Up next is Israel Today Seminar, where you’ll hear about my experiences learning about the IDF, Israel’s environment, Israeli cinema, the Supreme Court, Israel’s lack of a Constitution, the Withdrawal from Gaza and a special acting troupe and the message they are trying to spread.

I’ll be away on Southern Tiyul over the next week. I’m moving into Yerucham on the 11^th and I may not have internet until the 12^th or so. Try not to miss me too much.

Love you and miss you all!

Talk to you soon,

Seffi

Many Little Bridges

Our time in Florence was pretty good. In our afternoon there, Joshy, Joey, Nadav, Seth and I went to the Accademia to see the David. It was absolutely breathtaking. The sheer size of it is incredible (especially when considering this tidbit I picked up from a nearby tourguide: between the fall of the Roman Empire and the time of the David’s carving, there were no statues made anywhere near the size of the David. That means that 500 years elapsed and yet Michelangelo had no problem taking hammer and chisel to a massive block of discarded marble to bring out the David), but beyond that, the entire body is in perfect proportion, and it is just stunning. The rest of the museum is unimpressive, though Joshy told me that I missed a room with a Stradivarius violin, which is upsetting. After that, we walked to the Duomo (closed but we marveled at the outside) and the Jewish Ghetto (the synagogue was also closed, but again, beautiful from the outside). When we got back to the hostel, we relaxed for a while and then hung out with girls. It was great to see them (and watch an episode of Lost), but after dinner I didn’t feel like going out so I watched Anchorman and had an early night.

The next day, after breakfast with the girls, we split up into two groups, Adam and Gabe went to see the David because they had missed out on it the day before, and the rest of us went to the Da Vinci Museum. On our way there, we passed the Duomo again, and went in this time. The dome is absolutely breathtaking, but other than that, I wasn’t too impressed. I may be Christianity-ed out, or maybe all churches just pale in comparison to St. Peter’s. In the Da Vinci museum, based on da Vinci’s original plans, they have created some of his incredible machines. They have early bicycles, machine guns, parachutes, tanks, and a 12-sided room with mirrors covering every wall. It was really cool, and we ran into the other boys group there which was nice.

Once we finished there, we went to the train station to catch our train to Venice. The ride itself was very pleasant (the train was the nice, express kind which we’d also had on our way to Florence, with unbelievable leg-room, which is very important for people like me) with scenic mountain views out the windows. I read Have a Little Faith and listened to my iPod the whole way (I’m finally finished with My Year of Living Biblically, by the way. Good book). We got to Venice in the early afternoon and checked into our hotel. I had gotten us a slightly better deal on a slightly better hotel by talking to the Chabad rabbi in town, but Seth discovered that if we were to cancel our reservation at the place he’d booked, we would have to pay a penalty, which made the rabbi’s deal actually financially prohibitive. So we’re not staying in the best place, but it’s a place, and it’s close to the Ghetto. There doesn’t actually seem to be that much to DO in Venice, which is a little surprising. We went for a quick walk on Friday, and then went to the local Shul for services. I knew that Venice was filled with canals, but I guess I thought that there were cars too. There aren’t. It’s really a crazy place. After Shul, we went to the Kosher restaurant Gam Gam for dinner. It is free on Shabbat, courtesy of Chabad and though they are PACKED, the food is good and the atmosphere is fun. The Chabad guys loved us because we (along with Judah and his group) sung a lot. They had their own take on the song Kol HaOlam Kulo – Kol Venetziah Kulo (The actual song says “The whole entire world is a very narrow bridge…” theirs goes “all of Venice is a bunch of tiny bridges [harbeh gsharim ktanim]”) – oh Chabad. After dinner we went back to the hotel and watched The Usual Suspects (which I found predictable) and then went to bed.

On Saturday morning, we woke up late and went straight back to Gam Gam for lunch. We had to wait about an hour and a half because they had no room for us (even though they knew we were coming). The food was good once we finally had it. After lunch we went back to the hotel and watched The Truman Show (which I enjoyed). After that, we went for a walk from our hotel to San Marco’s square which is really cool, in that it was both cool colloquially and literally freezing. Shabbat ended while we were out there and then we walked home. While I would love to take boats everywhere while in Venice, they want 6 Euro per ride (roughly $9), and Italy is just TEARING through my Payoneer card so we decided we could just walk stuff. We made it home from San Marco’s pretty frozen. After thawing in the hotel, we went out to dinner and then back to the hotel to hang out and watch Kung Fu Panda (a Seffi and Matan favorite).

This morning we woke up, had the wonderful hotel breakfast (I had Twining’s English Breakfast tea with one sugar and honey, my favorite) and then set out for the Murano Venetian glass factory. When we got to the dock for the boat ride to Murano Island, we found out that it was closed (which may or may not have actually been true). We hung around on the freezing dock for a while, and then headed home, stopping off to look at Venetian glass at several stores on the way. I had hoped to get souvenirs here, but to my eye the jewelry isn’t understated enough for the ladies in my life (Eemah and Navah), so I didn’t buy anything.

We had lunch on the way home and then watched Star Trek while we thawed. We’ve napped for a while and now it’s just about time for dinner and American football!

Talk to you soon,

Seffi

Naples, Sorrento and Florence!

On Monday night we left our hostel around 9:30 and boarded a Metro for the edge of town. After transferring to a bus, we arrived at the Olympic Stadium. There, we met the girls (Adina, Rachel, Ariella and Debbie). It was good to see them. We walked for about 20 minutes down a large street and then turned off to a smaller street with a gelateria. There I had my first ever canoli.
Now, brought on by my thoughts of canoli, I hope my readers will allow me a brief tangent on those foods that I believe all tourists should get while in Italy (aka, the best stuff I’ve had so far):

1. Pizza all over the place – the best pizzas I’ve had so far have come at the Irish pub in Rome where we watched the football game, the little restaurant after the botanical garden break-in/out and a restaurant just outside of Pompeii (you may think I listed all the places I’ve had pizza. You’d be wrong. So wrong. So much pizza). I didn’t love the pizza I got in Napoli, but that was the one time I departed from my usual margherita pizza, so that my have been the problem, after all, Napoli is the birthplace of pizza, how could it be bad?
2. Gnocci alla Sorentino (Sorrento-style gnocci) at English Inn in Sorrento – we found this place without the help of Rick and it was a spectacular discovery. The waiters are friendly and funny, with good English, and the food is delicious. The people who got pizza here loved it too, but the gnocci was the best thing any of us ordered. We ate here two nights, and the second night I got fagotini instead (more to be able to say I ate fagotini than because I didn’t want gnocci again). The fagotini was good, but the best part of the meal was when they made us extra gnocci and gave half plates to all of us for free.
3. Gelato from Gelateria Della Palma – This is a big gelateria two blocks in front of the Pantheon, and probably more worth going to this part of Rome than the Pantheon itself. They have over 150 flavors, and the all look delicious. In particular, I loved the mango and the mascarpone. The most exciting part of eating there may have been examining my cup and noticing that they seem to have a store in NYC. Something to look into.
4. Hot chocolate from Illy – Illy is a European coffee chain, sorta. They also sell alcohol, candy and, most importantly, hot chocolate. On a tip from another Nativer a bunch of us had our eyes peeled all trip for an Illy and we finally found one. The guy who made it for us slaved over the pot for about five minutes, including one point where he called over the store manager to help him – they are serious about their hot chocolate.

We left shortly after and took a taxi home because the public transportation system ends early. The next morning we got to the Termini early and boarded our train to Napoli (Naples). Before the Rome portion of my blog ends I want to mention one interesting thing I discovered there. The letters SPQR are everywhere – on buildings, on manhole covers, on street signs. We spent some time trying to guess what they stood for, but finally I resorted to Wikipedia. SPQR stands for Senatus Populusque Romanus - the Senate and the People of Rome. The acronym refers to the ancient Roman government, but is used today as well.
The train was long, but I passed the time by reading Rick Steves on Napoli and Sorrento by watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith and, of course, by looking out the window as often as possible. We arrived in Napoli (which Rick Steves, the Arbibs, and everyone we met said was a very dangerous city) and bought the Arte Card. With that, we would have unlimited public transportation for three days, as well as free admission to two sites (same basic idea as the Roma Pass). We headed right down to the Circumvesuviana commuter train (absolutely COVERED in graffiti like everything here) and boarded the line which terminates in Sorrento. We were on the train for about 35 minutes before we got to the stop Pompei: Villa dei Misterei.
When we disembarked, we went right to the ticket booth to get our tickets (free with the Arte Card) and store our luggage. Then we went back to the row of pizza places we’d seen earlier. We walked along each store checking prices until we got to the largest one. The guy there pulled us aside (when European shop owners see seven Americans walking, they REALLY want to make a sale) and asked us where there was room for a pizza kitchen in the other stores we passed. He had a point; they were really tiny. We went in and he gave us a pretty good discount. We each got a personal pizza (that seems to be the way they sell pizza here) and we bought lemoncello for the table. Lemoncello is a product of Sorrento, which is known for its lemons and other citrus fruit. It’s a dessert liquor, but we had it with lunch – it was pretty awful, but apparently it’s supposed to be served chilled and ours was warm.
After lunch, we went in to Pompeii which was really cool. We walked all over the city, with Adam guiding us with Rick’s tour. Many pieces of the city were closed off for renovations, and parts of the site had been converted to a cafeteria and gift shop. This was all a little annoying, but we still had fun exploring and climbing over walls and ancient ovens and things. I was especially struck by the size of the city. All other ancient cities I’ve been to (with the obvious exception of Rome and Jerusalem) have been little more than towns, Pompeii is HUGE. We finished our tour in the city’s amphitheatre, and took a nap on the grass in the sun in the middle of it. We did some last illegal climbing there and then hightailed it back to the exit.
Back on the Circumvesuviana we enjoyed the beautiful views of the Bay of Napoli on one side and Mt. Vesuvius on the other. The presence of mountains is an impressive feature in the backdrop, one to which I am unaccustomed. I am consistently feeling the tug of a heretofore-undiscovered desire to hike all the time – I think it has to do with these mountains in the not-so-distance. We arrived in Sorrento about 35 minutes later and schlepped our stuff to our hostel. The sign said “Deluxe Hostel,” and they were actually being serious. The lobby was beautiful as were our rooms and best of all there was free WiFi. We hung around for a while and then walked down the street in search of a place to eat. The first place we saw looked good, a place called English Inn. Dinner was absolutely wonderful. After we finished, we were exhausted and went straight back to the hostel. We went to bed early for a good night’s sleep.
In the morning we got up and went back to the Circumvesuviana and took the hour-ish long ride back to Napoli. We spent about and hour arguing over how to reserve tickets for the ride to Lecce and the night train from Lecce to Venice. Finally, we bought tickets and went for pizza. The argument was pretty mean-spirited and exhausting and totally unnecessary, but I guess this is what happens when seven 18-19 year-olds travel together. From the train station we walked a while to what Rick Steves described as the best pizza in Napoli. They had a line out the door so, consulting Rick, we walked around the corner to the best pizza’s rival. They had much more room inside, and their pizza was still very good. From there, we walked to the Napoli Archaeological museum, where all the really cool stuff from Pompeii and Ercolano (Herculaneum, a city nearby, also destroyed by Vesuvius), as well as other stuff, is now located. We had fun running through the museum and posing next to statues. Statues have gotten kind of old for many of us, though the big ones are still really cool. We tend to really enjoy frescoes and mosaics. Once we finished at the museum we were tired and still a little crazed, so we went right back to our hostel instead of climbing Vesuvius.
Once back in Sorrento we spent some time exploring the town (pop ~12,000). The place is really beautiful, with storefronts painted in bright colors, and tiny streets weaving their way through the town. The orange and lemon trees all over the place add even more color. We walked the streets of the town pretty aimlessly, stopping off every few stores. We finally ended up back at English Inn for dinner which was good again. I went to bed pretty early, because we knew we needed to get up at 6:00 a.m. to make it to the Napoli train station for an 8:50 train.
Everything seemed to be going right in the morning. We were out of the hostel by ten to seven and we made the right Circumvesuviana train to Napoli, projected to get in at 8:25. Only the train took forever, stopping for several minutes at several of the stops for no apparent reason. It became evident that the only way we were going to make out train was if we ran as soon as we got to the station. We jumped off the train at exactly 8:50, praying for our train to Lecce to leave late (our train from Rome to Napoli left 15 mins late) and sprinted. For about ten feet. Then we hit a solid wall of people and were forced to slow down to a crawl. We made it to the platforms at 8:54 – and the train was gone. After a pretty contentious powwow, we decided to ditch the idea of Lecce and instead take a train to Florence. We grabbed breakfast and boarded our train without a problem.
I'm finishing this post in my hostel room in Florence. We're staying in the same place as the girls. Hopefully everyone will get over their sulkiness enough so that we can do some sightseeing.

Talk to you soon,

Seffi

Archaeological Dig and Shabbat in Roma!

I’m gonna start with Israel Experience Week because so much good stuff has happened that I’m just not sure I can remember what I did in between my last blog post and then. On Sunday, January 10^th, we woke up early and all davened together. The three groups (volunteering in Haifa, Gadna, and Archaeological Dig) got on three different buses. I was really quite excited. I sat with Adina and caught up to her in Lost. When we got to Teveriah we went directly to the site and got showed around by our guide Gilad who is an archaeologist at the site. The theatre is pretty cool, part of old Teveriah from Roman times, 2,000 years ago. After a pretty brief look around, we went into the city of Teveriah and explored a bit before heading back to the hostel for (an absolutely delicious!) dinner. Joe, Joey, Gabe and I (room Joe Joe Joe Gabe) spent some time hanging out in our room and then went to bed early.

The next day, we woke up, and davened. I read torah (Vaera, the first reading I ever learned), we went back to the theatre, Judah and I volunteered for some work that Gilad specified needed guys while everyone else brushed the theatre to prep it for birds eye view pictures being taken by a hot air balloon later in the day. It turned out that Judah and I were hauling buckets of dirt for some archaeologist who was clearing out the floor of a room. It was boring and not fun because the guy wasn’t friendly. After about an hour of that, we went to Migdal and saw a recently excavated Beit Knesset from Second Temple times. I hesitate to use the term synagogue because of its modern meaning. The Israelis telling us about it always think Beit Knesset (literally house of congregation) and translate that as synagogue. The problem with that is that it wasn’t a house of worship, that was the Temple in Jerusalem. It was a place for studying torah Ezra and Nehemia style. We dug there for a little and then headed back to the hostel. The boys gathered in our room to watch Zach and Miri and then we went to bed.

In the morning we woke up, davened and went to the theatre. My digging group, Joey, Adina, Seth and I, dug really productively. We were in a hole which was probably the foundations of the building, surrounded by four roman walls (better built that Arab walls). Our task was to level out the floor and pick out pottery that we found. After the dig we went to Nahal Tabor in the Golan (I think) for a hike. It was a very easy hike for about 2 1/2 hours and then the last 30 minute stretch was about a 70 degree incline - brutal. Joe and I freestyled to the tune of Eishet Chayil, it was pretty cool. Once we got home we had dinner (the food at Karei Deshe is really good) and then I watched Notting Hill with Adina, Ally, LeeAnn and Judah

The next day we woke up, davened, packed up and went to the theatre. The group was much less productive than the day before. We spent several hours evening out the hole. When we left the dig we went to gamla which was so cool! Gamla is an ancient town that was destroyed by the romans 1900 years ago, and was never rebuilt so it never became a tel. Our tour guide, Dani, is the guy who first discovered it and dug it up, so he had a lot to say. The hike back to the top was hard as the day before, made harder because it was raining. In the evening we got to the new hotel, which was pretty nice with delicious food. My room was the joes, me joey and joe - such fun. A bunch of boys got together and watched the movie Role Models.

On the last day of the dig we woke up, davened, and had an incredible breakfast at the hotel. We went to theatre and dug for a few hours had pizza for lunch and then it was time for the bus home.

On Friday morning at 2 a.m Jlem time, seven of us – Joey, Joshy, Nadav, Adam, Seth, Gabe Ci and I got into a sheirut along with another group of three who were also going to the airport. The driver asked us if we were in a hurry. We said yes, even though our flight wasn’t until 6:00. We got to Ben Gurion exactly 28 minutes later. Pretty impressive driving. Some of you know how much I was freaking out about going to Italy, and how stressful it was for me. When I got to the airport that feeling of apprehension didn’t go away entirely, but it began to melt away a bit. We made out way through security and all that, bought the requisite Ben Gurion McDonald’s, and went to our gate. At the gate, I started reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. Strangely, I’ve never read anything by him before. When Navah was in Israel, she finished Have a Little Faith, his latest book, which Auntie had given her for Hanukkah, and lent it to me. I found Five People lying around Beit Nativ and figured I should read the one first. I alternated between reading and dozing off until 5:50, when we began boarding. We took our seats on the plane, and passed out. I woke up for breakfast, and then sporadically throughout the flight.

We landed in Rome at around 9:00 a.m. Rome time. We made our way through the airport, took out Euros from ATMs and did lots of little things. On the plane, I began to familiarize myself with Rick Steves’ Guide to Italy, specifically the Rome section. He highly recommends (and I guess now I do too) purchasing the Roma Pass. For 22 Euro (I think), you get two passes, one for sightseeing and one for transportation. Each is good for three days from the first use. The sightseeing one allows free entry to two sights and discounted entry for certain sites after that. The transport one provides free train and bus rides for three days. We took a shuttle to the Termini, the main train station in Rome, and walked to our hostel from there. Along the way, we lost Joshy and Gabe. It was frustrating trying to find them, and frustrating that they got lost and I was worried that this difficulty was indicative of what was to come. We found them quickly enough and went to our first hostel, Freestyle. We met Philippe, the manager of the hostel and he let us leave our stuff in his room while they got our rooms ready. We went back towards the Termini to a pizza place we’d seen earlier and got our first taste of what is sure to be LOTS of Italian pizza, and it did not disappoint. Kari had told me about a pizza place to look for, but I couldn’t find it…the pizza we had was incredible anyway.

After lunch we went back to our hostel and moved into our room. We had a seven-person room, which was lucky as we expected to be split up. It was weird that the room was actually around the block from the hostel office in an apartment building. Weirder still was that the common room of the apartment (which has thee hostel bedrooms attached to it) is also where one hostel employee, Yusuf, lives. Yusuf sleeps on the couch and makes free breakfast and dinner for his guests. He also loves me because I told him that my name was also Yusuf – sorta. We threw our stuff down, and headed out to the Coliseum. When you get near the Coliseum, you KNOW it. It is so massive and just dominates the view. We took lots of pictures overlooking it before we even approached. I know, Navah, you don’t want me to go because it’s $50 and just filled with trash inside. Well, we got in free because of the Roma Passes, and inside was REALLY cool. I’m not sure if it’s because I had just come from an archaeological dig, or because I had seen Gladiator somewhat recently, because I’m a guy or just because a lot can change in five years, but the Coliseum is awesome. Sure, it’s missing the floor, so you can just walk around it in a ring on the inside (and up one floor also), and sure, it was build by Jewish slaves, but this 50,000 seat stadium is a crazy testament to Roman barbarism and brilliance all in one (I’m talking like Rick Steves’. Weird.)

With the Coliseum behind us, we went back to the hostel and discovered that Judah, Adam and Ben were also staying in our apartment. I was spending much of the day making final arrangements for Shabbat dinner. What I finally got worked out with the Chabad rabbi was that he could put up the four of us who are Shomer Shabbat for dinner, but the other three would have to eat at the hostel – they were cool with that so that’s what we did. The four of us went to shul and sat through a crazy service. Everything was said out loud and most of what I think of as Kabbalat Shabbat was left out. I’m not sure if that was local Italian tradition or Sfardi. I was told to seek out the Arbib family, Vito and his son David. The rabbi of the shul told me that he was an Arbib, but I was looking for his brother. He gave me the address, and we found the house – eventually. It was nothing like what I was expecting. The Arbibs own the penthouse of a six floor apartment building. It was the most beautiful home I had ever seen. We figured that it was probably worth significantly more than any of our lives. We met a man, Rahamim Tshuva, who was a friend of the family’s, also there for dinner, but we sat for about 30 minutes before we finally met Mr. and Mrs. Arbib and their 16-year-old son David. Their older son is studying at IDC after a year at HaKotel. Dinner was delicious. The wine at the beginning for Kiddush was even good, and I don’t like wine. Vito told us that he makes all the food himself (it was actually brought to the table by a servant) and that he is Libyan, and that is the style of cuisine. They were very generous and nice, but there were awkward moments when they were all speaking Italian and we just spoke quietly amongst ourselves. David gave a Dvar Torah and we did a little singing. During dessert, Mrs. Arbib insisted that we come back for lunch and there was no way we were turning her down. We asked and she said we could bring our friends as well. We went back home and fell asleep quickly.

On Shabbat morning we woke up and showered and got dressed and left around ten a.m. We went to the National Museum (free for us with the Roma Pass, so I deemed it Shabbat appropriate – in hindsight, maybe I should have gone to Shut, but I didn’t really enjoy the place we went to Friday night and we didn’t know of any other options) and walked through all of the galleries. They have statues of Agustus Caesar and Socrates, one of the statues of The Discus Thrower, great mosaics and frescoes, ancient Roman coins and ornaments – it was awesome.

After we finished at the museum we killed some time just walking around until we ended up at the Arbibs’ again. Imagine our surprise when we walked into the dining room and saw the other guys group (Aaron, Max, Jonny, Asaf, Brian and Jesse) seated around the table. We had fun talking with them and singing zmirot, which Vito loved (Especially the more Sfardi sounding tune for Dror Yikra). He was so happy with our singing that he gave us all a little bit of his 21-year-old whiskey – it was pretty cool, especially the way it annihilates your sinuses. We did Mincha with the Arbibs, and then it was time to check out their bathrooms and hit the road.

After lunch, we walked over to a sports bar on Via Nazzionale and some of the boys went in to see if they would show the Vikings/Cowboys game on Sunday night (7 p.m. here, 1 p.m. in America). They told us they would. After that was settled, we walked toward the Roman Forum, intending to follow Ricky Stee’s (my pet name for Rick Steves, because it reminds me of my favorite place to eat, the Frankie Si cafeteria at Heb U) walking tour there. I read some cool facts on the way over, and Rick really set the stage, writing about where Marc Antony offered Caesar the crown and where great orators would address the people of Rome.

We spent a few hours walking all around the Forum, but we couldn’t get in because it closes at 3:30 p.m. That was a let-down, but we saw most of it. From there we walked around Palatine Hill and Capitol Hill and saw lots of beautiful buildings. Once we finished that, we walked home, and had the great free dinner that was waiting for us at the hostel. Yusuf had made penne vodka and it was great. After dinner, Joshy, Joey, Gabe and Nadav went out to buy beer, but they came home with a 5-liter jug of white wine instead, intending to split it between the four of them. It was a pretty hysterical moment because of the sheer size of the jug. They finished it and then we headed out. A few people had wanted to go on a pub crawl, but instead we went to the Spanish Steps and hung out with the girls (Adina, Rachel, Ariella, Debbie and Jordana).

(In this next paragraph, names are changed, with Italian flair, due to privacy considerations) We hung out there for a bit, and then went to the McDonald’s nearby, apparently one of the largest, and by far the classiest in the world. Rachel and I were splitting a McFlury and then we turned around and saw Giuseppe throwing up. A lot. After a few minutes, we got him to stop and Joey took him outside while Debbie, Jordana and I cleaned up. While in the bathroom washing my hands after cleaning, I spotted one sink filled with regurgitated pasta. I knew then that this was going to be a difficult night. I found Napoleon sitting out front with Debbie and he confessed to me that it was he who had thrown up in the sink. Meanwhile, Giuseppe was sitting outside with Joey, still throwing up. Joey was trying to get him to drink water, but he was refusing and when he did drink, he threw it up about five minutes later. The other boys group showed up at that point and started taking videos and pictures of the whole thing. Paolo, Benedetto and Fabio went home, because the Metro allegedly stops running at 11 and we wanted to make sure that they had a way home. Giuseppe told us, in perhaps his only clear thinking moment of the night, that he would pay for a cab. Joey, Napoleon, Giuseppe and I got into a cab, but had to quickly get back out because Giuseppe wasn’t done throwing up. We sat at the curbside for another half an hour or so before we finally were able to get in a taxi. We made it home, and as soon as we walked into Yusuf’s room, Giuseppe bent over and started retching. He was running on empty though, so we gave him a garbage can for good luck and put him to bed, same deal with Napoleon. It was a very crazy night, but fun to look back on now.

On Sunday morning we got up and had breakfast and then went back towards the forum on out way to the Jewish Ghetto. We went in – for free because it’s the same admission as our free Coliseum admission – and saw the Arch of Titus up close. One interesting fact that you may not have known is that apparently the vast majority of costumed gladiators who charge for pictures with them outside of the Coliseum are Jewish. One of them, spotting my kipa, grabbed us and pulled us aside. He pointed to us and said “You Jewish! I Jewish too!” He pulled out a Jewish Star necklace and showed it around. He then said “You want picture with gladiator? For you, picture free.” And then, “I have a message for all the goyim f*** you!” He made us take pictures with our middle fingers extended, cursing non-Jews. It was pretty weird. After that experience, we made our way over to the Jewish Ghetto and walked past the Great Synagogue, in search of the Kosher Deli that cousin Ronit had told me about. We found it and had lunch. It was no Kosher Nosh, but it was ok.

After lunch, we wanted to go to the Great Synagogue, but it turns out that that was actually when the Pope was speaking so we couldn’t get in. We went back towards the Pantheon to get gelato from gelateria Della Palma, heavily recommended by both Navah and Rick Steves. It hadn’t yet been three hours so Nadav, Joey, Seth and I figured we would wait it out. We all went to the Pantheon and then the Trevi fountain. The Pantheon is very ugly from the outside and very pretty on the inside, very large, with a very wide dome. The Trevi is more impressive, with water cascading around a depiction of Neptune. Aftet the Trevi we split up with the four of us plus Joshy going to the Four Rivers fountain and Adam and Gabe going back to the hostel. The Four Rivers was less cool that the Trevi but still pretty awesome. The four rivers are the Danube, the Ganges, the Nile and the Ria de la Plata, representing the four known continents at the time of construction. Each is depicted in human form which is pretty cool.

After our fountain tour, it had just about been three hours, so we went back to Della Palma. I got Kit-Kat and milk chocolate (not very creative, I know). From there we went to our new hostel, Mosaic, just down the block from our old one. While Freestyle had a homey feel, Mosaic feels much more structured, but it also has better accommodations. We napped a little and then went over to the sports bar for dinner and the football game. We had pizza dinner while we waited for the game to start (great pizza) and Brian and Asaf showed up from the other guys group. After we’d watched the game a little, the girls showed up and I moved to a booth with Adina, Rachel and Ariella. We had fun talking and paying a little attention to the game (Vikings/Cowboys doesn’t interest me too much, as long as the Cowboys lose), and it was nice to hang out with them. From the bar, Joey, Joshy, Seth, Gabe and I joined the girls and walked to the Trevi Fountain again to see it lit up at night and eat Gelato there. I went slightly more adventurous that time and got nutella and mango (the mango was out of this world). We all stood by the Trevi for a bit and then Adina, Rachel and Jordana went home. The rest of us went back to the Spanish Steps and walked/ran to the top, which provided a beautiful vista of Rome laid out before us. A great way to end the night.

Today we woke up and boarded the Metro for Vatican City. Once inside the Museums (8 Euro instead of 15 with a student ID), we split up into two groups – I walked with Joey, Joshy and Nadav. We went though the whole museum, and saw a lot of cool Egyptian and Mesopotamian artifacts, as well as Roman and Greek statues. After those exhibits, you enter the maze of rooms, many of which are painted, I believe, by Rafael, which ultimately leads to the Capella Sistina, the Sistine Chapel. The paintings on the ceilings and walls were unbelievable, really impressive. The final several rooms before the Sistine Chapel are filled with Christian modern art. It was weird, because I generally love modern art and there were definitely some good pieces, but on the whole I only like Christian art when it is old, because I appreciate it for its age. The Sistine Chapel really is magnificent though, and its beauty grows the more you stare into the ceiling.

Following a tip from Ricky Stee, we left from an exit in the corner which is only for tour groups and let us right out to just outside of St. Peter’s Basilica, which we entered straightaway. Talk about impressive. The sheer size of antique churches is usually what impresses me the most and this puts all other churches to shame. According to Rick, the floor plan of the Basilica covers 4 acres, and fits 95,000 worshippers. The place was just beautiful and baroque and BIG. Once we finished walking through the Basilica, we went out to St. Peter’s Square and looked around there too. Also really, really cool and pretty – a breathtaking display of architecture.

The group of three had skipped the Basilica and raced through the Museum and were already on their way home so we started walking in what seemed to be the right direction. It wasn’t. We wandered for about an hour, finally leaving the road and following a wooded path down in what looked to be the right direction. We hopped a fence and ran into a couple who told us that we were in the Rome Botanical Gardens. Realizing that we shouldn’t have broken into the gardens, we got out quickly and kept moving. We eventually got to a pizzeria named Miraggio where we had probably the best pizza on our trip so far. We were so far away from the touristy areas of Rome that the people at the pizzeria spoke no English and I needed to used my Italian (thank God for Spanish cognates) to order and pay. After lunch, we made our way back to areas we knew, and I insisted on another stop at Gelateria Della Palma. This time I really went crazy and got mango, chocolate caramel and (because the guy said they go well together) mascarpone. It was so delicious. From there we got on a bus back to the Termini and headed back to the hostel. Tonight we plan on hanging out with the girls, grabbing dinner and walking around, and tomorrow we have a train to Sorrento for the next leg of our journey. Should be fun.

Talk to you soon,

Seffi

P.S. I'll add pictures later

New Years and Visitors!

Sunday night was the last of our Beit Midrash classes. Jordana and I showed up an hour late because the staff wrote the wrong time in the weekly email but it was ok because Yonina was ok with staying late and going over what we'd missed and then just talking about stuff.

On Monday I had Isaacs and Talmud (no Hebrew because that's over!). I spent all of Monday night working on college stuff for applications due on 1/1/2010.

On Tuesday I had no school and again spent much of the day (sleeping and) working on college stuff. Tuesday evening was the Nativ formal, but I went to the Old City instead to hang out with Navah and Raffi and Alex by the Kotel

It was great to see Navah. Alex and I walked to the Old City from Beit Nativ together, but Navah was at a pharmacy getting meds for her kids so we had some time to kill. We walked up and down Mamilla and went into a bunch of stores. When we finally went into the Old City we saw Navah's group immediately but not her. We sketchily tailed them to a spot overlooking the Kotel right next to the Muslim quarter and then broke off on our own when we saw Navah down below. We ran and gave each other a hug and it was lovely. Navah brought me a goody-bag of stuff from home with pumpkin bread, twix bars, SI (see above for my Kotel reading material of choice) and two tshirts from Navah (the UNChallenged 100 years of UNC basketball one and the State Radio one she got me at the concert they played at UF). We davened maariv at the Kotel then she and her group went on the tunnel tours and Raffi, Alex and I sat in the cold and rainy grossness outside. Then Navah came out and we said goodbye and went home.

Wednesday was my last day of classes. I had double Isaacs as a makeup for an earlier class that he needed to cancel. During Talmud I gave my presentation on Metatron (an angel in Jewish mystical literature who is pretty cool/crazy and often equated with Hanoch, the minor character in Genesis). A brief digression into the realm of Jewish text: The book of 3 Enoch, also known as the Hebrew Book of Enoch or Sefer Heichalot (Heichalot literature is a whole rabbinic genre that talks about the efforts of various rabbis of the Talmud to get to Heaven to learn secrets from God) is an apocryphal work about Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha's ascension to heaven with the angel Metatron. The book describes Metatron thusly: Metatron is the size of the world and made out of fire, he has 72 wings, 36 on each side, with each wing also the size of the whole world, he has 365 eyes, each eye like the sun, with eyelashes of lightning. I once knew a girl like that (alternate line: what was Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha smoking?!)

On Wednesday night we had Erev Nativ (it was moved to Wednesday because that's the date that worked for our speaker) with Adina's dad! Rabbi Allen is the founder of Hechsher/Magen Tzedek, the justice certification that came out of the whole Rubashkin's/Agriprocessors balagan. Basically they are working to put a certification on products of companies with fair workers practices. They aren't really up and running yet, but look they are doing good work. Look for their symbol in the coming months:

Thursday was New Years Eve. We spent the day hanging around (I was working on college apps) and then we all went out. Sorta. The bar that we usually go to had a cover that night, but since Gabe and I don't drink we weren't going to waste our money there. We went with Ariella and Britty (a friend of mine from Schechter and of Ariella's from Nyack who is at seminary) to get ice cream and then went for a walk through Mamilla to right outside the Jaffa Gate. We talked (Ariella did most of that) about the New Year and about life in general. The intellectual atmosphere was fun and we were all happy with how we spent New Years.

On Friday I submitted a college app and then I went to Shira Hadasha with Navah. After services we talked to Rachel Immerman for a few minutes and then Navah, Joshy and I headed off to Navah's friends from Columbia, Michael and Adina. They are a lovely couple and dinner (with them and four other friends of Navah's including Yael Steiner who I know) was delicious and fun.

On Shabbat morning Navah and I couldn't amicably decide where to go to shul, so we ended up just walking a little and then hanging out in the room. For lunch we went to Navah's friend Sylvie's apartment. Lunch was with a bunch of people Navah's age but it was fun. After lunch, Navah and I walked down to meet Bentzi and we walked with him for a while. When we got back to the room we hung around a bit and then did maariv and havdallah/walked around for a while trying to find Nativ maariv and havdallah, failed, and went and sat in my room again. On Saturday night Adina's parents and sister took Ariella, Josh, Jesse, Debbie, Jonny, Shara and me out to dinner at River Noodle Bar. Dinner was great and Adina's parents are really nice (surprising, right?) In all seriousness, Adina is one of my close friends here and it was great to meet her family.

On Sunday we had our Silicon Wadi final which went well, I think. That night I spent time studying and working on Isaacs stuff.

On Monday I had my Isaacs final which also, hopefully, went well. After that final I went back to bae and hung around for a bit. At night, Raffi, Alex, Elan, David, Gabe Co, Navah and I went out to dinner...sorta. We were going to go out together, but Japanika sushi had a long wait for big groups. Navah and I went there and had a lovely dinner. After that I went out with Raffi, Alex and Elan for a few hours.

Today Gabe, Jesse, Jonny and I went out to lunch at Yummi's with Peter, our 45-year-old friend from our Talmud class. We had a great time hanging out and then we came back to base. Tonight our Erev Nativ Speaker was Rabbi Steven Wernick, new CEO and Executive VP of USCJ and son of the great Rebbe Wernick, my teacher through high school and fearless leader of the Men's Minyan. He spoke about his vision for the Movement and values that he feels the Movement needs to adopt in order to achieve his vision. I'm still digesting so I have no clear opinion on him yet, but I generally liked what I heard.

That's all for now - the internet is down in Beit Nativ so I'm freezing my fingers off to get this to you sitting outside the Yeshiva.

Talk to you soon,

Seffi

Christmas in Jerusalem

Sunday night we had Beit Midrash for the first time in a few weeks. It was fun learning with Yonina. This program has been a very successful one, and it's nice to have Sunday dinner covered by Nativ.

Monday was its usual long day. When I got home, however, a number of us decided to go to see Avatar. Gabe Co, Joshy, Miles, Gelb, Joe and I went to Talpiot, to the Rav Chen cinema where we saw the movie. Avatar is one of the most incredible movies I have ever seen. The movie is a 3D epic about coexistence between enterprising, colonizing humans and the locals of a planet called Pandora. The basic idea is similar to that of the marginalization of Indians by the United States in the 19th century. The 3D in this movie is not a gimmick that is needlessly employed; the audience's immersion in the beauty of the planet Pandora is critical to the development of the film. There are some pretty cool fight scenes too. Avatar is the most expensive movie ever made with a budget of around $300 million. To date, it has grossed over $400 million - it deserves every penny; it's well worth seeing.

I woke up Tuesday still marveling about how good Avatar was. After Hebrew I went back to the room and watched an episode or two of lost with Adina. We also went to the Mister Zol down the street to buy stuff for one of her friends. I also picked up another bottle of apple juice. So far this year I had chosen to forego apple juice because in Israel it always lets me down. A few weeks ago I was out shopping with Brian at that same Mister Zol and he bought a bottle of a kind I'd never tried before so I figured I'd buy one too. It's the most similar to American apple juice that I've found. It is great to have real apple juice again, hopefully I'll be able to find it once we're down in Yerucham. Tuesday night was Erev Nativ. We did a program when we went around the circle answering questions asked by our staff. People were encouraged to be respectful to others and truthful in their answers. After we all answered questions the staff asked who people thought was most truthful, who we were most similar/different to, who loves life the most, who would be the best leader. I think that the program was very interesting. After the program Rachel, Adina, Debbie and I discussed everything in my room. There were definitely some problems with the program, but there were also some very good aspects.

On Wednesday we had the first part of our Hebrew final, the oral exam. I spoke for about three minutes on one of the stories that we read before my teachers cut me off and told me I'd done fine. It was a good feeling to know that the oral went well, especially since I wasn't sure what to expect with the written exam on Friday. On our way into Alick's class, there was a group of Christians singing carols. I got there a little too late to hear them, which was a let-down, but once he got there Alick said "I dare anyone to name a Hanukkah song that is even half as good as Silent Night." Not sure if that's the Christmas song I would have picked, but they certainly are wonderful. Another one of Alick's gems was when class discussion turned to the (quickly overturned) arrest warrant in the UK for Tzipi Livni for war crimes. "War crimes?" Alick scoffed, "I've committed more war crimes that Tzipi Livni." A lot of the class laughed, but then he reminded them that 18 years of combat duty (reserves included), including both Lebanon wars, adds up. A rather sobering realization that this funny, sweet, learned man is also a battle-hardened warrior - Israel makes for some very interesting people.

Thursday is a day off. I woke up at 1:30 PM and hung around the room working for a while. Thursday night Gabe and I headed over to Lev Yerushalayim to see Raffi, Alex and Elan. It was great to see them (and not just because Alex had a bag with pumpkin bread in it for me) and I'm excited to spend the next couple weeks hanging out with them. I got back to my room a little bit after midnight and was able to fall asleep pretty quickly, despite having only been awake for 12 hours.

On Friday we had our Hebrew final. Josh Goldberg pointed out that you know Israel is a special country when it seems weirder to you that you're coming in to school on a Friday than on Christmas. I think the final went well, but it's always hard to tell with these things. For sure, my essay was really good, and so was the oral, I'm not sure about some of the finer grammatical exercises but we'll see. Friday afternoon I spent some time in the Shuk walking around with Raffi, Alex, Elan, Gabe and others. While I was waiting to buy Marzipan, the guy behind the counter handed me one steaming hot, right out of the oven. It was the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. After I got home and got dressed for Shabbat, Tyler, the Gabes, Joe and I headed over to Josh apartment for davening and Shabbat dinner. We had a wonderful time with wonderful food and cool people. After dinner, we played Settlers and sung zmirot and then we headed home. Raffi and Alex came to base and Gabe and I hung out with them for an hour or so, catching up.

On Saturday I slept through a wake-up knock from Adina, and slept until 12:40. I made it down to lunch just in time to grab something. I hung out with Joe for a while and then Joe, Gabe Co, Tyler and I headed back to Josh's for wiffleball. I had a lot of hand trouble, but it was still fun. Saturday night a lot of us went out to celebrate Shara's birthday. A lot of visitors joined us a Herzl and all over downtown having a good time.

This morning the Silicon Seven (minus Joey, who isn't feeling well) had our usual lunch followed by class. This is the start of finals week, so we'll see how things go. Navah is here in addition to Alex and Raffi, so I'm looking forward to spending lots of time with them in between studying. That's all for now.

Talk to you soon,

Seffi