HOWWWW DO I GETTTTTTT YOU ALOOOONEEEE

Now, let me explain. No, I am not some creepy dude trying to get you alone. Merely trying to explain that since my apartment has discovered surfthechannel/megavideo, we can now watch tv shows. 72 minute limit per day, but still. Aaand, last episode of glee (DUH, we're all addicted to glee), they sang "alone" by Heart. And since, it has become our theme song for the apartment and we have generally been rocking out to 80's horrendousness/beststuffever.

"We built this city....we built-" I digress.


This past week has been long, and is still continuing on that trajectory. Today everyone in the Hertzl apartments took off of work and stayed home to pack up all of our stuff. MY MOM should be proud becuase it really didnt take me very long--everything was already organized into its respective places so i just shoved it back in my suitcases and was good. I was also proud becuase I only needed 1 more backpack to put stuff in than I came with, a good sign for when I actually have to leave this place (can you believe I'm 1/4 of the way done? and its almost my birthday???). We also have to pack up all the food and everything too, so schlepping tonight/tomorrow is going to be fun. Slash they hired a moving team and I am going back to work tomorrow, but still.


Speaking of work...
I had my first day on Monday. And may I just say, IT FREAKING ROCKED. I didn't really get to do anything hands on, but I really enjoyed watching all of the procedures and seeing stuff happen. After studying this area for so long, to see it going on right in front of me was AMAZING. There were some iffy moments, since I just came from a really sterile lab environment (ahem, using a long rubber tube and their own mouths for suction, ahem), but overall it was a wonderful experience and I cant wait to go back tomorrow. I will be in the IVF lab for the next 2 weeks, then in the Prenatal Genetic diagnosis lab for 1 week, and then the stem cell lab (you know, they just have their own stem cell lab, !!!) for 1 week as well. YAY!

And, can I just dork out for a moment and explain HOWFREAKINGCOOL the scrubs vending machine is F!@$&@(!@(#&!!!! I will say it again. SCrubs. vending. machine. As in, i get my uniform from a machine, that is automated. With a swipey card. SO COOL!

Other things that I've done in the past week:

*The Matisyahu Concert in Jerusalem: Unreal. It was the first time back in jerusalem for me this trip, and we were only there for a few hours, but it was still amazeballs. Matisyahu was a very dynamic performer, and the best encore that I have ever seen of any show in my whole life. Crowdsurfing, lulav-shaking...it was a blast. And all outdoors, right in the shadow of the old wall of the old city. In Jerusalem. Im such a lucky ducky.

*Hike to Mt. Meron and Rosh HaNikra: This was yesterday, and I think I'm going to ask Ricky, our leader, to start giving me a better idea of what to expect for our hikes. After the last sweaty, sticky, hot, desperate-climbing-oh-my-gosh-im-gonna-pass-out hike, all of us were expecting something along the same vein for this one (only some people came this time). No, totally wrong. We approached this GIANT mountain all sort of groaning, but were told 'oh, we're driving up and you're just walking down.' Um, what? So, we sort-of-kind-of walked downhill in the shade of big trees for less than 2 hours and we were done. Barely broke a sweat. Huh??? This was at the complete other end of the spectrum from our first hike, but we still had fun beucase of the view (right across from Sfat and, well, Lebanon) and becuase we played fun mind games on the way down. The first of these, thanks to Becky, was: If I'm holding a bee, whats in my eye? Let me know if you get it.... (hint: what are you if you're holding a bee?)
And then was a crazy one about "If he had seen the sawdust, he wouldn't have died." And we had to ask yes/no questions to get to the scenario. Took us awhile, but we got it! Really fun, lol. Slash im a huge nerd (shocker).

*Watched 1/2 of a bootlegged version of Inglorious Bastards: Woah, Quentin Tarantino is a madman/genious/freak. Like, what a whacked-out movie?? We only got through 1/2 and it was a baaad bootleg, but whoof. Yep. Thats about all I got to say about that (you know how I feel about blood peoples....oy!)


The only other things that are going on state-wise here are that the crazy mopedists/motorcyclists are staging protests becuase they are increasing their insurance rates. Becuase they are maniacs. Who try to kill me everytime I step outside my apartment. Becuase they drive on sidewalks when they feel like it. I digress...
The riot was pretty cool: A sea of riders coming down Hertzl street, honking and making a ruckus and waving flags and signs and wearing underwear and being generally rowdy. But people on the street were cheering them and it was really cute. It was like a 15-minute long constant stream, but pretty cool. The other thing going down here, which I have been chatting with Michal about, (and I am not sure if this is a local Tel Aviv thing or an all-of-Israel thing) is that they are talking about what to do with all of the illegal refugees who are here from all over: Ethiopia, Darfur, Sudan, etc. This directly affects Michal becuase these kids are in her schools, and the general talk right now is to send them back to where they came from (=not good). Its shocking that they have come to a decision like this given the history of the country with the law of return AND the fact that its a jewish state, Holocust, refugees...HELLO??? It's very tough to see this go down right now, but they are working through it.



That's all for now, I hope you all are safe and sound and staying warm (haha, suckers) while I watch my roommate pack and procrastinate doing my ulpan homework. Sigh. Maybe I'll begin planning birthday/Halloween shennigans for myself. Hmm, what am I going to get me for my birthday?? :)

LOVE FROM THE MOTHERLAND!!

HWOTD: balagan. It means crazy/hotmess/nuts. like, everythings balagan here. like WOAH.

ps. Stay out of corners ;)