My scrabble board, where I finally beat Michal (SORRY she hates it haha). This gets filed under the "things we do when we don't have TV".
We had no fruit, nor a real sukkah, but what do we have? A porch and Jewelry!!! Plenty decorative for us!
Checkin out the streaming elections for the Olympics! We were out :(Well hey ya'll! Howzit??
boy do I got a lot to update you on. I am going to attempt to do this chronologically, but I may fail. I'm just warning you--I've been battling some insomnia this week and I'm just.not.all.there.yet. To the batcave!
I guess first things first, I made the agonizing decision to cancel my LSAT. sigh. I did it in the last hour, after much deliberation, and while I dont regret it I don't think I am going to easily get over not knowing what score I would have had. Its one of my problems in life--I hate not knowing things like this. I also feel slightly failure-tastic and all-for-nothingish, but I think that will pass. I came to the conclusion after this whole mess that I am happy with my score, and am confident (enough) that it can get me into the school of my choice.
Sukkot started on Friday, and since most people were out of town,my roommate Becky and I decided to have a fruit-themed dinner, which turned into a mango themed dinner, and we cooked and had a ball and decorated our fake sukkah (ahem, balcony, ahem) with decorations (ahem, jewelry, ahem) in honor of the holiday. and had guests over, yeah us for being good jews! We made the most awesome mango-cilantro quinoa salad, and had lime-cilantro chicken and mango juice as well. What a wonderful night. And in "we have to live without TV part 2", we played texas hold em with whatever 'poker chips' we could find. These consisted of: agurot (israeli cents), an assortment of credit and starbucks cards, and unopened various razor blade cartriges. Us jews obviously came prepared in that area, hahaha. It was a really fun night, and fun knowing that I dont totally suck at poker (Becky, who had to help me buy back in, would not like to concede that point. haha I so hope you are reading this.)
In other "we have to live without tv" news, there have been some EPIC travel scrabble tourneys going down in this area. I mean, epic. See above picture--my fam should be SO PROUD. Michal and I are both fierce competitors, and neither of us like to lose. That makes for some funnn games, haha. When we're not tearing each other apart on the scrabble board, we got the opportunity to hang out this weekend and ventured into Yafo for some famous hummus ful. Now, americans, there's hummus, and there's hummus ful. Hummus ful has either beans or chickpeas like, in it, and its homemade hummus, and simply to die for. We went to yafo for arguably the best hummus around, at a place called Abulafia, which is also a famous bakery. It was a very fun adventure, especially since Yafo is a pretty Arab-centric place.
This weekend we also ventured out to the movies! I was so excited because we decided we were going to see Geshem Shel Felafel, or cloudy with a chance of meatballs (or, in Israel, Falafel), in 3D. we were STOKED, and so ready to go have a movie-and then-celebratory-falafel night. I got us to the movie theater without a hitch (yay my photographic placement-memory) and we bought our tickets (REALLY pricey here--45 shekels for a movie which is like over 11 dollars...whoof!) and waited for our other friend Jacob to join us. As we were waiting, Becky was just wanting to make sure that the assumption about movies in Israel that we had was correct, that they are English movies with hebrew subtitles. After Michal assured us that "Of course its in English!", we sent her to go check, and turns out, its the ONE MOVIE in the whole theater that is actually dubbed in Hebrew. Of Course (welcome to my life). So, we switched our tickets for Up, another Pixar movie, and it was good as well. There are assigned seats here in the movie theaters which was interesting to get used to, and the theater was VERY small, but other than that it was a good movie experience. Really wish we could have seen shel Falafel though. Sigh.
Yesterday my gym partner/friend Amy and I decided to be brave and try a class that our gym offers--we settled on vinyasa yoga. We somehow also talked our guy friend Matt into joining us for the fun. Let me tell you, not only was this class all in hebrew (both a fun way to learn how to say down dog in hebrew (chattarunga is the same!!) but also really funny interjections just for us of "PUSH FORWARD YOUR TUSHIE!") but it was also NOT a beginner class. I was sweating up a storm!! There were some really buff guys in the class too-intimidating! At least I havent totally lost all of my flexibility, lol. It was a really good experience but MAN have I been getting more progressively sore as the day goes on! Great class though--next we shall try pilates, and perhaps bellydancing after that?
Today we went on another field trip, this time to a childrens museum in Holon (south of Tel aviv). Our purpose there was not for the childrens part but to take part in an exhibit called...well, I dont remember what it was called, something about Silence. In the exhibit, you have a deaf tour guide/instructor, and they take you through the experience of being deaf/vocally and hearing deprived (because you can't ever really know what it's like to be deaf unless you are deaf). So, we weren't allowed to speak, and we were wearing heavy duty rifle-range-grade earmuff things, so we really couldnt hear. To tell you the truth, I was a bit apprehensive about this (in a totally closed-minded, I-am-going-to-embarrass-the-hell-out-of-myself-using-nonverbal-communication way) but I have to say it was the most eye-opening and wonderful experience. You moved through a series of rooms, where you had to communicate first with your hands, then with your facial expressions, then with your body, and then we learned a bit of Israeli sign language (different from ASL) and ordered coffee/water at a "silent bar" from another deaf waiter. It was such an eye-opening experience and really made you so aware of how sound and your voice affect communication and perception of life. It also, for me, was not the total embarrassment factor I expected, but was really nice to open myself up to this new way of thinking and problem-solve ways to communicate without a voice. It was also not as hard as I thought it would be--when everyone is communicating like that, and with SUCH an amazing deaf leader, it was much easier for me to pick up on what people were trying to get across than I expected. Really, really wonderful. They have another exhibit there called Dialogue in the Dark about blindness, and I would really love to go back to experience that as well.
I guess the only other big piece of news from this week is that we are definitely, 100% moving apartments, probably sometime next week. While I am excited for being able to have a closeness with the rest of the girls on the trip, and a REALFREAKINGOVEN, I am sad to leave our Hertzl apartments. My beloved City Cafe three doors down will now be a 10 minute walk, and our downstairs AM:PM (convience store) with the SUPER nice cashier ladies who give me hebrew and arabic lessons will no longer be. And our 10 shekel falafel stand on the corner. Oh, how Iwill miss this area. And our balconies--no balcony at the new place. But, I think we are all bucking up and saying it will be for the best, we just are DREADING PACKING EVERYTHING AGAIN OH NO. At least they are hiring a moving company, so all we have to do is pack up and they will move it, thank goodness. I was having nighmarish visions of schlepping 87 lb bags on top of taxi cabs. OY.
Tomorrow our group banded together and got tickets for MATISYAHU IN JERUSALEM--its going to be epic. This will be my first time back in Jerusalem since I came on birthright, and I am SO looking forward to this concert!!! I think it will be insanely fun.
Miss you all, and wishing you a happy sukkot and SORRY its getting cold there but I am just dandy in my shorts and tank top. and Mediterranean. hehe. Jealous yet?? COME VISIT!!
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