Beach Weekend March 30, 2008

This weekend was basically the most relaxing weekend ever.  Last Monday we just sort of decided we would go to Tel Aviv for the weekend, and it was amazing.  Four of us left campus early Friday morning.  It was even early enough that the bus stations was pretty empty.  We had timed our leaving perfectly to be able to arrive in Tel Aviv exactly at 12:30, check in time at the hostel.  Of course our room wasn’t ready yet.  So we walked to a little cafe which we had eaten at last time we were in Tel Aviv, and it was just as good as we remembered.  We then returned to the hostel, got our room, got ready for the beach, and then walked the one block (!) from our hostel to the beach.  We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach until the combination of the setting sun and the ocean breeze made it a little too cold.  We headed back to the hostel to shower and then all ended up taking naps because we were so tired from the week and the sun at the beach.

 

That night we went to dinner at this little bar/cafe.  It was a really great atmosphere.  It was, of course, recommended by my guidebook, and it was just as fun as promised.  They were setting up for a live music performance right as we were leaving, but at that point we were ready to just head home.  We ended up taking a walk all the way up and down the beach (about a mile each way).  It was just a really nice stroll, very relaxing.  Then we returned to the hostel to prepare for the next part of the day.  We went to the Max Brenner’s in Tel Aviv.  For those of you that don’t know, Max Brenner’s is a chocolate restaurant (although they’ve begun to serve a bit of real food too).  It is so amazingly delicious and I would definitely recommend a trip to one of the restaurants in America.  We shared a sampler plate, but we all agreed the warm crepe filled with loads of chocolate was the best.  We were planning to go out after dessert, but we were just so full and tired we went home to sleep.

 

We got an early start on Saturday because we had to check out of the hostel at 10:30.  We went out to the beach by our hostel until about 2pm.  Then we walked a little farther north along the shoreline to a restaurant on the beach.  It was so fun to sit in beach chairs under an umbrella and eat lunch, while being able to squish your toes in the sand.  Afterwards we headed out to the beach right by the restaurant and just lay on chairs until it got cold again.  At around 5pm we brushed off and headed towards the mall near our hostel (since we had already checked out).  We sat around for a while, sort of all staring off into space and then we headed back to the hostel to change out of our swimsuits, get our stuff, and head to the bus station.

 

By the time we were at the bus station, the relaxation portion of the weekend had already started to wear off.  We were all getting nervous and antsy about the immense amount of work we have.  But it was still a really great weekend.

The Supreme Court and Random Pictures March 27, 2008

In my Israeli Legal System Class took us on a short field trip to the Israeli Supreme Court. The trip was kind of cool, there were some highlights, but for the most part, it wasn’t that exciting. On the other hand I know a lot about the architecture of the building. The building has three contrasting themes, which were actually visible to the normal visitor (me): inside and outside, old and new, lines and circles. The Supreme Court of Israel has fourteen justices and justices sit in a panel of three for most cases, or larger panels for more complicated or important cases. A cool thing is that any Israeli can just walk in and sit for as long or as short as they want to view a case. We got to see a case that the President of Court was presiding over and one of the other justices was the first Arab justice.

A view from the window of the building:

The smallest of the 5 courtrooms

An inner courtyard (with lines and circles & old and new)

Some pictures from my daily walk to campus:

British World War I Cemetery

Lookout over the Old City

Cool purple tree in the cemetery

Road to campus

Israel’s endangered flower…grows best in dry dirt (so the whole country, and it’s illegal to pick them)

Some pictures from the Old City on Purim

Purim Extravaganza March 24, 2008

Last week began with a really great visit on Sunday with my grandparents. They are in Israel for an elder hostel and I had lunch with them and then spent time with them before the program began. I really enjoyed the visit and it was nice to be able to tell someone about the goings on of my semester in context.

It’s important to preface this with the fact that it is a commandment to get so drunk you can’t tell the difference between the phrases “blessed is Mordechai” (the hero) and “cursed is Haman” (the antagonist).

Tuesday was the beginning of the crazy Purim extravaganza. The Office of Student Activities hosted a Purim party. There were people on stilts, belly dancing and one dancer who had a baton with fire. It was a pretty cool night. Wednesday was a bit of a break from Purim as I have class the entire day. Thursday night we went to a Megillah reading in the Great Synagogue. It was okay, nothing too special considering how immense the synagogue is. The congregation appeared to be almost all American immigrants. Thursday night we went out to Ben Yehuda street for a truly Israeli experience. People were just out in the street with a bunch of bottles of alcohol, serving themselves. It was absolutely packed with people just standing around, enjoying Purim. In one area there were a bunch of religious Jews with a speaker system and DJ and they were attempting to get people to dance with them.

Friday night was much more relaxed. My friend and I had a low-key Shabbat dinner. Saturday was also really relaxed. I thought about doing homework, but took a nap instead. Later I gave my room a much needed cleaning. Saturday night two of my friends and I went out to a late dinner to get sushi. We were going to check on this street party downtown, but instead we decided to go back to the dorms. The campus bar was hosting a party just in the courtyard between two of the dorm buildings. It was absolutely crazy.

Sunday was again pretty low-key. Classes were canceled for Purim. We went to a Purim meal in the Old City at 4:30. The meal was completely insane. It was hosted by this guy who runs a bunch of religious programs for college students throughout the country. My friends and I stayed pretty sober, but most of the guys there were definitely fulfilling the commandment.

All in all it was a pretty fun weekend. It’s kind of sad that we are now back in classes and back on a normal schedule. Also a note, this weekend was a crazy heatwave in Israel. Even in Jerusalem (which is in the mountains) it was 96 degrees on Saturday. Yesterday and today are both highs of 90. Luckily the high is supposed to go down to 80 tomorrow.

Shabbat, Tsfat, and the Mystical Kabbalists March 17, 2008

This weekend, I went with three of my friends to a secret Chabad house in Tsfat.  The hostel didn’t outwardly advertise it’s connection to Chabad, but as the lectures began it was clear that it was basically a Chabad house in hiding.

 

We began the weekend with the usual bus trip.  The bus was supposed to leave at 3:12, but it didn’t arrive at the stop until 3:55.  Then we stopped twice at rest stops.  We didn’t get into Tsfat until around 8:00pm.  By then we were all starving.  Luckily, the hostel put some leftovers from dinner out for us toi eat.  It wasn’t my favorite food but at that point we weren’t really in a position to complain.  Afterwards we went to our first two lectures on studying Kabbalah.  They were actually really interesting, and I didn’t feel my usual annoyance at religious lectures which manage to offend people.  The main point which I took out of those two lectures was that a sense of entitlement deprives us of joy we might receive every day. 

 

The next morning we were scheduled to go on a nature hike.  I was already planning to skip because I wanted to do some shopping in Tsfat.  My friends weren’t initially sure what they wanted to do.  But that morning it was rainy, cold, and pretty gross out.  So everyone decided to join in on the tour and shopping trip.  We started out by going to an artist specializing in Kabalah art, then to a Judaic bookstore.  We saw a Davidka mortar left from the war in 1948.  The mortar doesn’t shoot anything, but it makes a lot of noise so the Arabs thought the Jews had way more firepower than they did in actuality.  Then we walked down this crazy long staircase in order to get the synagogue district.  The staircase was built by the British as a definite separation between the Arab and Jewish sides of the city.  We went to the Tsfat candle store, just to make sure we fulfilled the tourist quota for the weekend. 

 

Davidka Mortar

 

 

Grossest day of all time

 

 

Staircase

 

 

After we tried to visit a bunch of synagogues, but only one ended up being open, the Ha’Ari Ashkenazic Synagogue.  The synagogue is named for Rabbi Isaac Luria, given the nickname Ha’Ari.  Luria was a rabbi in the 16th century in Tsfat and was considered the foremost scholar on Kabalistic thought.  The synagogue is located on a former apple orchard he would visit with his disciples.  There are really only two interesting features of the synagogue.  The first is the ark, which took sixteen years to hand-carve in Italy and then was shipped to Tsfat.  The second is more exciting.  At one point during a war (I forget which), shrapnel was continually being blown everywhere.  During one prayer service, someone bowed and a piece of shrapnel flew right over his head.  The hole was never repaired and serves as a reminder of the miracle.

 

    

 

After we headed to a little cafe in the old city for lunch.  The cafe was in my guidebook (of course) and it was absolutely delicious.  It was literally three little tables and two women and in regular house-sized kitchen.  While we were eating lunch they were even baking muffins, which we then were forced to have for dessert.  We then wandered around the synagogue quarter a bit more, going into a bunch of stores when the rain got heavier.  After it got nicer, we headed down to the Tsfat cemetery.  Ha’Ari is buried there, as well as Shlomo Alkabetz (the writer of the prayer Lecha Dodi).  Also buried there are students who were massacred by the PLO after a hostage situation (which we learned about in another class).  After, we had to hike all the way back up to the top of the hill, only about 260 steps to the top.  Then back to the hostel for a quick nap before Shabbat.

 

Cute little kitchen

 

View of the cemetery

 

View half-way up the mountain

 

Another view up the mountain

 

 

Shabbat was pretty relaxed.  We went to services friday night.  They somehow lasted over 2 hours, and the pulled us out early to take us to our families for shabbat dinner.  My friends and I got placed with this really nice family.  We ended up staying until about 11:30pm just sitting and talking.  After there was a bit of a lecture with a “famous” rabbi.  It was a bit offensive, but they fed us, and we left early, so it was okay.  The next morning we slept through services and got up for lunch at noon.  Lunch was of course accompanied by another lecture with the offensive rabbi.  Again, we left early and took a great Shabbat nap.  At 4:00 we went on a tour of Tsfat with the same person who gave the lectures Friday night.  The tour was very interesting, but it was really windy out, so we were all freezing.  We then rushed back to the hostel for a light dinner.  Afterwards, my friends and I packed up and went to the bus station for the trip back home.

Contact Info March 12, 2008

I realize I’ve forgotten some very crucial information, my contact info.  My address in Israel is:

 

Amanda Rudman c/o One Year Program

Rothberg International School

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Office of Student Activities

Boyar Building, Mount Scopus

91905 Jerusalem

ISRAEL

Weekend in Tiberias…Away From the Madness March 10, 2008

After a brief delay Thursday afternoon, two of my friends and I headed down to the central bus station to get the bus to Tiberias.  The bus was no where near as crowded as the bus to Tel Aviv had been, so already the weekend started off much more relaxed.  Of course there was some sort of traffic (rumored to be caused by a soccer game) so it took us over an hour just to get out of Jerusalem.  The whole trip is supposed to take about 3 hours normally, so this was not a welcome delay.  We finally got into Tiberias at around 8:20.  So we ran to our hostel, checked in, threw our bags down, and ran out again in order to make a 9:00 dinner reservation.  We had dinner at Pagoda, a Kosher Chinese/Thai restaurant.  The food wasn’t as good as American Chinese food, but it’s still really exciting to be able to eat meat out. 

 

Of course, as soon as we ordered our food, one of my friends called to tell us about a shooting that had happened in a yeshiva in Jerusalem.  Immediately, we all got out our phones and called our parents to let them know we were alright and we were away from Jerusalem for the weekend.  About fifteen minutes later I got a call from a Cornell staff person in Jerusalem saying there was a bombing in Jerusalem.  And about five minutes after that one of my friends got a call from the US saying there had been a shooting at another yeshiva.  By this point the three of us were starting to get pretty nervous.  It wasn’t until after we finished dinner and got back to the hostel that we were able to watch the news and see that there had been only one attack.  Either way, the news was incredibly difficult to deal with.  First of all, this attack was completely unexpected.  Usually, when something like this happens, there’s already been a warning sent out by the Israeli Government (sort of like the American color-coded alert system).  This time there was no warning.  Second, everyone was expecting unrest from the protests scheduled for Friday, so no one was prepared for something Thursday night.

 

We were all sort of shaken up and went to bed pretty soon after we got back to the hostel.  The next day we woke up prepared for a relaxed day of tourism.  We started off heading towards Rambam’s tomb.  However we got distracted by the rows of stores we were passing and just had to go in and do some shopping.  We did finally reach Rambam’s tomb.  It’s a really pretty complex and includes a couple of other tombs.  One of them was Yochanan Ben Zakai.  He was carried out of Jerusalem in a coffin during the Roman siege in the first century.  Then there are some other parts of the story I don’t remember and he was able to found his own school.

 

Views from the porch of our hostel room.

 

The complex of tombs

 

Yochanan Ben Zakai’s Tomb:

 

Rambam’s Tombs:

 

Then we walked around to find a place for lunch.  We ended up a little Italian place.  We were able to sit out on their balcony because the weather was amazing.  It was about 85 degrees out both days.  After we walked around the by the water and found a cute little gelato place.  We then found a cab and drove out to the ruins on the outskirts of town.  The archeological excavations include the original hot springs of Tiberias, what is considered the original entrance to the city, and a synagogue from 3rd-5th c. CE.  The site was really pretty, and also included a bath house from Turkish times.

 

The old entrance to the city:

 

A bimah from the “new” synagogue

 

Mosaic from the old synagogue:

 

Complete view of the old synagogue:

 

Turkish bath for the public:

 

Private bath for the wealthy:

  

 

We would have walked back to the hostel, but because of the heat we took a cab.  We then waited to be picked up by my family friend who lives on a Moshav nearby.  We had a really amazing Shabbat.  We slept a lot, ate a bunch of real food, and just had a great time.  After Shabbat was over we took a bus back to Jerusalem.  The ride was much shorter.  Though the heat on the bus was broken and was cranked way up even thought it was 80 degrees out.  So it was a bit toasty.  But other than that, nothing too exciting.

It Just Got Real March 6, 2008

The second week of classes has been pretty boring.  One of my classes got dropped, so I had to choose another.  Now I’m in a class on the Israeli Legal System instead of Emergence to the Israelite Monarchy.  The class isn’t too exciting but one of my friends is in it.  On the other hand my class on Iran is already proving to be a pain.  The professor got confused what day the class was so he had to end the class 40 minutes early last week.  So now he has decided that he will add 10 minutes on to every class for the next 4 weeks until we catch up on our lost time.  Or he generously offered that we could skip our 15 minute break (in a 3 1/2 hour class) and make it up that way.  I’m not a fan.

 

Anyway.  As you may have noticed, violence is increasing in Gaza Strip and on the Israeli border.  I heard it isn’t getting much play in the American media, but it is all consuming over here.  On Monday there was a political protest outside the gates of the campus and they stopped letting people into the school at one point.  Although it was the most organized protest I’ve ever seen.  The Israelis were on one side of the street and the Palestinians were on the other.  Traffic was still inching through and there were police everywhere.  I stayed on the outskirts but I managed to get some pictures.

 

I was speaking with one of my Israeli friends, and he provided some insight into the current Israeli thinking.  His is only one opinion, but I’ve heard many others like it.  He was saying that many Israelis believe a full war will be declared soon by Israel.  As with any country, they cannot continue to have their citizens attacked daily by rockets.  This would mean that many reservists will be called up, including a lot of my friends.

 

The next day we heard that rockets had begun falling on Ashkelon.  One of my friends lives there and had gone home for the weekend so we called him immediately.  It turned out a rocket had landed under his family’s car while it was parked in front of the house.  No one was hurt, but it really shook everyone up.  That’s just not something that I’m prepared to digest.

 

Once he was back in Jerusalem he told us that a rocket fell about 15m from his brother while he was skateboarding.  He was really lucky because he was out in the open and there was nowhere to take cover.  Later so many rockets were falling the family had gone into the shelter nearest to them.

 

This whole thing is just really insane.  And even know Condoleezza Rice is here trying to discuss peace with both sides.  It’s just absolutely crazy to think about.  I don’t even have words to describe the whole situation because it’s just not something I know how to comprehend.

First Week of Classes February 28, 2008

So classes started this Sunday.  My first class, Arabic, was an absolute disaster.  I wasn’t officially registered for it, but I decided definitely not to take it.  My next class, Rapprochement and Coexistence was a little boring but still very interesting.  My classes Monday were really great as well.  First class of the morning was the Short Story of Shai Agnon.  The class is in Hebrew and it’s a bit challenging but really interesting.  My next class was a four hour class on the Emergence of the Israelite Monarchy.  It was somewhat review, but it’s only the first class, and the class is only once a week.  Next I had Belief and Ritual in Early Islam.  The class was really great.  Plus the professor is actually familiar with some professors from Cornell.  I then waited around on campus with some of my friends before the first meeting of the critical reading group for the honors program.  It was actually the worst meeting ever.  They wanted 20 people to coordinate their schedules to all meet at the same time.  So of course, we spent an hour arguing and getting no where.  Then the next day they sent out an email announcing a time which clearly didn’t work for me.  So when I went to speak to the director his solution is for me to meet separately with the discussion leader.  So basically I have to go out of my way in an awkward one-on-one situation and everyone else gets to listen to lectures together.

 

Tuesday was a really great day.  My first class was at 4:30pm.  So I had a really relaxing morning and was actually able to go grocery shopping for the first time in a while.    Wednesday was also pretty good.  I had my 8:30 class again.  Then I had a pretty long break during which I picked up my readers and sat outside doing some of my homework.  One really nice part about campus is that there are a lot of really gorgeous places to sit outside, which makes me miss Cornell just a tiny bit less.  Wednesday I also had the first meeting of my course on Iran.  It’s a three hour class but two of my friends are in it so it’s kind of fun.  Plus the professor is a really great lecturer. 

 

I’ll be in Jerusalem this weekend so I should be able to explore and relax.

Akko/Haifa February 23, 2008

This is kind of a long entry so please bear with it until the end. Or just look at the pictures, I’m okay with that.

This weekend, I went with five friends to visit Akko and Haifa. We all left Thursday evening after class. Half of us left on the 7:20pm bus from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, walked 10 minutes to the train station with our luggage, got on a 9:10 train to Acco, and finally arrived at our hostel at about 10:45pm. The owner waited up for us to check in and get settled. It was this really cute (somewhat dingy) family-run place. At that point the three of us were completely worn out, but we had to stay awake to explain to the rest of our group how to get to the room. Of course, they didn’t leave Jerusalem until about 10:30pm, so they didn’t get to the hostel until 1am or so. So we had to stay up, which meant not too much sleep for us since we needed to get up early to start touring. In the mean time, we went to this really cute coffee shop/hookah bar. It had a very Middle Eastern feel, with couches, Arabic TV, and everything else.

Friday morning we left the hostel at 9am, hoping to make a 9:30 train. Let me just say now, that did not happen. First we had to pay at the front desk for the night before (which we couldn’t do because the owner had to go visit people) and then Friday night. Then we decided to walk to the train station because my guidebook, which I love and follow word for word, said it was only 2.3km. Of course it didn’t give exact directions so we got them from the front desk. They were really great, except the guy we got them from forgot to mention one crucial turn. So we kept walking straight until we reached train tracks, which was almost helpful because we then just followed them to the station. We missed our train and then just hung out on the platform for half an hour until the next one.

We got into Haifa at 10:30 and our tour was supposed to start at 10:45. We got into the first taxis we saw, accepted their price without bargaining (an absolute no-no), and raced to the Bahai Gardens. The Gardens were absolutely beautiful. They took about 15 years to construct and cost $250 million. The shrine in the center of the gardens was built to house the founder of the Bahai faith about 100 years ago. That was also really gorgeous, but you aren’t permitted to take pictures inside.

Here are some pretty pictures:

They actually built the gardens right over a street.

Looking back up the mountain.

We wanted to go get lunch afterwards somewhere nearby, so we asked a security guard for directions. Again, we got directions part of the way there and then we just sort of had to figure out the rest. We ended up in the German Colony. We actually ate at a restaurant which was recommended by my guidebook. It was this cute outdoor cafe with amazing food, everyone actually agreed that they enjoyed it (which usually doesn’t happen). Of course our lunch took so long that we were again rushing to find cabs and get to the train station. We caught the last train north before the transportation system shut down for Shabbat. We made it back okay, walked back to the Old City, and went directly to the Market there. It was really fun, but quite a bit smellier than the Jerusalem market. There were a lot more fish stalls and a lot less ventilation.

After making sure we had enough food for Shabbat dinner, we all went back to the hostel to collapse. Half of us napped while other people hung out and went to find a synagogue in the new city of Akko. It was a really great nap. I neglected to mention before that one of my friends is the most ridiculous snorer. It actually would have been impressive if we all hadn’t been trying to sleep. So the nap was much-needed. After, we got up and joined a bunch of Young Judea year course kids who were staying in the hostel for dinner. They had their own catered meal, but it was nice to sit near them in the dining hall. Being with them did make me realize how much I’ve grown up from high school though. We found them all a little obnoxious. The real problem was that they were sleeping in the rooms to the right and left of us and the room above us. So we were surrounded by these people who were very loud, stayed up very late, and woke up very early.

Saturday morning we woke up at about 10am (after getting 11 hours of sleep) and started to pack up our stuff. We had to check out but we were able to leave all of our stuff in the hostel. The first thing we did was go up a ramp that was right behind the hostel. It led to the top of the wall and the ramparts where they put some cannons to replicate what it would have looked like when Napoleon tried to conquer the city. (He failed, for all of you keeping track.)

More pretty pictures:

A cemetery outside the walls.

Sitting on a cannon.

Even weeds in Israel are pretty.

The Al-Jazzer Mosque.

After a bit of exploration, we headed over to the tourist office to buy tickets to stuff in Akko. After a brief tourist informational video (which was kind of boring) we went to the citadel where the subterranean crusader city is located. It was kind of cool to see all the stuff, but we had more fun playing in the ruins than just looking. The exit is of course through the Turkish Bazaar. Though we didn’t buy any souvenirs, I did get some delicious fresh-squeezed orange juice. Afterwards we headed over to the art museum (nothing special but it was included in our ticket). Then we went to the Al-Jazzer Mosque. The mosque was absolutely beautiful. It is the third holiest mosque in Israel (although I can’t remember why). The mosque was followed by lunch in a sit-down falafel restaurant with probably the worst service I’ve ever seen. On the other hand, it was delicious and my falafel was incredibly fresh. After lunch we headed over to the Templar Tunnels. These were built by the crusaders to be used as sewers or as an escape during times of war. After the tunnels we walked out to the coast and walked along the walls near Akko’s lighthouse. It was a really beautiful view, and we had fun climbing around the crusader ruins.

Crusader City:

Notice I am short enough to still stand up straight.

Kefiyahs and Kippas on sale at the same stand.

Al-Jazzer Mosque:

Washing station.

Clock with daily prayer times.

Arabic: Women’s prayer section

Hebrew: No entrance to strangers (non-Muslims)

English: Don’t enter

Templar Tunnel:

From the Walls:

A jellyfish that died while we were watching it swim.

This camel was randomly tethered in someone’s backyard.

Children with toy M-16s…just what I want to see.

This clock tower has Arabic numbers on one side.

Afterwards we had a bunch of time to kill before Shabbat ended. We decided to walk to a beach which the guidebook said was 100m away. Of course before we walked 100m along the coast, we reached a gated area. So we tried to walk around it. After seemingly getting lost we asked directions of a security guard and he said it was just another three minute walk to the beach. Of course, the beach turned out to be closed during the winter, so we sat down for a while before walking back to the old city. The day before, we had noticed a little bit of shoreline next to the walls. It said no swimming, but it did have a few nice picnic tables. We sat there and relaxed for about an hour until Shabbat ended. At that point we went back into the city for a quick dinner. Then we raced back to the hostel, quickly called a cab, ran into the train station and pushed our way onto a train that arrived about 2 minutes later. It was the first train running south after Shabbat ended and it was incredibly packed. It’s definitely an experience I would like to avoid. Three of us were forced to stand incredibly close to one another. This wouldn’t be so bad normally, but none of us had showered because the showers in the hostel were actually faucets coming out of the wall in a room with a toilet. So it was slightly unpleasant. After that experience we got to the bus station in Tel Aviv and booked it to our bus, which arrived about three minutes after we did. After a lot of pushing and shoving (which seems to be the Israeli way) we actually all managed to get on the bus and we were able to save seats for everyone. It was a fine ride, but I’m definitely glad to be home.

Snow Day…Again February 21, 2008

Sunday after the Market was really fun because my roommates and I went out for sushi in Jerusalem.  It was really great, plus it was some fun bonding time.  Monday was a regular day of class.  A bunch of us are interested in testing out of our current Hebrew level, so we tried to get more information on that.  After talking with three different people and getting all sorts of different information, I sort of have an idea of how things work, and I’m not too optimistic about the possibility of moving up.  I’ll try but we’ll see.

 

Tuesday we had another snow day, it’s getting kind of old.  At first we all got a text message saying class would start half an hour later.  So I got up, showered, and got dressed.  One of my friends called to find out if I was still going early for coffee.  I told her I was going to wait in case they canceled school all together.  At this point I looked out the window to see that it was snowing pretty hard, and I wasn’t looking forward to trudging through that for 20 minutes.  Then literally right when we hung up we got the text saying school was canceled.  I then went to sleep until 1:30pm (this after taking a 3 hour nap Monday afternoon). 

 

I really didn’t take advantage of Tuesday at all in terms of studying for the final that we have on Thursday.  I did however plan out a bunch of trips with my friends, both weekend trips in Israel and stuff for breaks.  I’m also starting a West Wing marathon with one of my friends (who had never watched before today).  So this should provide a good and constant procrastination device for the entire semester.  When I got back to my room a bunch of my roommates were around and we started getting nostalgic about old school Disney Channel movies.  Then of course, Daniel and I did the talking in West Wing quotes and laughing thing while everyone else stared and laughed awkwardly at us.  The crazy obsessiveness apparently is awkward and ridiculous in all countries.

 

Wednesday was our last regular day of ulpan.  Absolutely amazing.  We also were able to work out the whole test taking thing.  A bunch of us are going to take the test to move up a level and then immediately afterward we’ll take the final for our class.  We all got together for a horribly ineffective study session.  The time was mostly spent doing impressions of people in our class and laughing hysterically.  It’s possible I studied more than I would have on my own, even if it wasn’t the amount I should have studied.

 

However I can safely say that studying was not crucial for these tests.  I took both tests today with one of my friends in the class and we finished both before most people had even finished one.  Of course only time will tell whether this was a stupid idea or not.  The way we find out our grades is very old fashioned.  Everyone’s student number is posted in order on a board with their grades next to the number.  Then it’s a mad dash to look yours up without revealing your grade.  I’m off to go take a nap now.  But we’re going to Haifa and Acco this weekend so I should have a lot to report and lots of pretty pictures.