Week Update: Dec 20-26

Hi!

Wow, I haven't written in while! It's been a veryy long time. Sorry about that.

Nothing too exciting has happened in the last 11 days. Lets see....

I spent the last Shabbat on base with Seffi. His grandma and uncle were in town so I went to dinner with them. The next day, I just hung around base. I went to Shira Hadasha in the morning with some people. Standard services, nothing extra special. The Shabbat was pretty fun, and I can't really think right now of anything extra special that took place. I just chilled with a bunch of people that were on base.

The week was pretty standard. Classes were long, and the fact that finals week is looming has been on my mind frequently. I had my first final on Friday, in Ulpan. It was pretty easy, which scares me more because when something is easy it means i may have overlooked something. So hopefully I did well.

The Goldklang family (Mom's brother's family, so first cousins) finally arrived on Wednesday night. Their flight was cancelled and they arrived here 2 days late. Lame. We went out to dinner on Wednesday night at HaShamen, the best Shawarma place in all of Jerusalem (and probably the world.) to my family: sorry I didn't take you there when you were here. I didn't know about it yet :( They loved dinner, and after dinner they went back to the Mamilla hotel to crash. I went out for the normal Nativ Wednesday night hangouts. I wanted my cousin Matt, a sophomore in high school, to come with me to meet the Nativers, but Uncle Bob and Aunt Mia were being super mean and didn't let him go. It was probably a good decision in hinesight because I didn't get to sleep until very late (mostly because I went back to base early to catch up with my good friend Amy on skype) and because I woke up early to get to the Mamilla Hotel at 7:45 AM the next morning for breakfast.

Thursday, I joined a group of about 50 people from mostly the San Diego area to Masada for Ari Lew's Bar-Mitzvah. I know this family through the Goldklangs. It was super nice of them to let me join them on Thursday on the bus, touring Masada, etc. The service was a nice reform service. It reminded me a lot of Solel back home, actually. We were greeted immideately after getting off the bus (I slept on the ride literally the entire 2 hours) by two Rabbi Nachman guys. They had HUGE shofars slung over their backs and bongos tethered around their shoulders. They played a little tune for us on the Shofars before rockin' out on the bongos the entire way up the cable car ride and walking across Masada. (Masada is a super big, historical and important moutain/plateau. Look it up if you don't know about it. cool story.)

After Masada, we went to the Ein Gedi restaurant for lunch. It was no Frank Sinatra lunch from Hebrew U, but hey I can admit Frank has spoiled me a little bit. After lunch, at which all the kids (Matt, Cole, the Lew kids, and a bunch of other random kids) were scaring the 20 cats away from our table, we boarded the bus and went back to Jerusalem. I got back around 4. I hung out with the cousins a little bit more, and then headed back to base to get ready for the night. Thursday night was serious. Serious studying for Ulpan the next morning. Allrighttt.

The next day, I was with the cousins again. We were in Mitzpe Ramon, rappelling down the same cliff I did with the family only three weeks before. We also had a cool camel ride through a small part of the desert. We ended in Tel-Aviv. I took a sherut back to Jerusalem. This taxi driver was actually even cooler than the "I'll help you with studying for you ulpan midterm tomorrow" taxi driver. I spoke in Hebrew the entire ride, one full hour. I didn't even feel that constrained with my ability to speak and I understood basically everything he said. It was crazy. We talked about many things. First, about why I was in Tel-Aviv, what I'm doing in jerusalem. Then about Hebrew U, and Nativ, and Israel, and America. Then about Coldplay and The Who, then about his family, then about my day with Mada. He thought that was really cool. It was a very quick hour car ride, and he gave me his number so if I was ever going to do that ride again I could call him. Taxi drivers like to do that, i've learned. To an American, it may sound a little creepy. But here it feels completely normal. I really like the inherent trust between people that exists here.

OK, now sitting in Silicon reviewing for the test next week. It's gonna be SOOOOOO HARD. Wow, I think its over. its exactly 3pm. This class ends at 4. NEW RECORD!!

Miss all of you. Talk soon

Josh

Closed Shabbat in Yerucham

Hey everyone-

I'm sitting in Silicon right now. Adam and I will soon be presenting our proposal to bring Build-A-Bear Workshop to Israel. Sounds good right?

Lets talk Yerucham (or as they spelled it Yeroham). We (the Kehilah track) woke up early on Friday morning. We departed base in Jerusalem around 10:30, and arrived in Yerucham around 12. Right after arriving, we dropped all our stuff off in our rooms at the hostel and loaded the bus again. We got to choose our rooms, and I roomed with Seffi, Joey and Tyler. Solid room. The bus took us to the Yerucham forest. There's a forest in Yerucham, aka the middle of the desert. Crazy, right? The forest was really nice. We enjoyed lunch there. The staff bought Holy Bagel for us back in Jerusalem. After eating, Tyler took out his frisbee and we played catch. Adam, Asaf and Noah quickly joined us. After lunch, our tour guide led us to the Yerucham pond. (now back at Beit Nativ). The pond was reallyyy cool. I hope that our houses/apartments aren't that far away from it because it would be a really cool hang out spot when we are there. The bus driver decided not to come back for us, so the staff got a mini-bus which took 12 people at a time to shuttle us back to get ready for Shabbat. We arrived with about an hour to prepare.

Shabbat was pretty boring, honestly. We had a lot of sessions with random important people that were talking a lot about Yerucham. They told us stories of how Yerucham got started. What I realized is that Yerucham is basically a top-notch developmental town in the negev. There are stores (a falafel store, a pizza store, a super sol, and a store called "Ha Makom" aka "The Place." I think they could have come up with a more inventive name), streets (there's one main street) and a bunch of parks (the slides are HUGE). I'm excited. On Saturday, we walked around Yerucham and saw one of the houses that we could potentially live in. It was a pretty run down house, but it also fits 10 people and looked pretty spacious. There also was a electric piano just sitting on the porch in front of it. So hopefully Tyler and I can get it to work. That would be great to play when we record the album. That night, we went to a community concert. At first, I wasn't liking the concert because the band was really bad. But then I realized that this concert wasn't for good music. It was supposed to bring the community together. I was sitting with Adam in the middle, and about halfway though the first part of the concert, we got up and started to dance. Nativ was about 1/3 of everyone in the concert hall. At first it was a little awkward, but during the second half when we were all expecting the bad music, Adina, Jonny, Jesse and Asaf joined in the fun. Adam and I went up to the back row to dance with them. Check the picture below.

The next day, we checked out of the hostel and said goodbye to Yerucham. We then visited the Ben Gurion museum. That was pretty boring, and most people fell asleep during the lecturer. We finished off the day with a great but short hike. The trip to Yerucham was really fun!

I also happened to work on the video on both bus rides (2 hours both ways). Speaking of that, we showed it at erev Nativ the other night and everyone really liked it! I'll post it soon, probably closer to when IC starts because I don't want people seeing it before then...

I'll post some pics from the weekend.

OK I think I'm actually all caught up now. Talk soon!

Josh

Seffi (my roommatey) and I hanging on a pole outside of the concert.

the Yerucham Lake

The hike

dancing during the concert

Jesse, Adina, Jonny, Asaf and me (adam was cut out of the picture)

Mada 2nd Post

Hey everyone--

Sorry I couldn't finish the post before. Talmud class doesn't wait for bloggers :)

Again, you probably shouldn't read if you don't like graphic detail.

OK so I ended with the riot/broken nose guy. Cool. We get a call for another man who had fallen. We rush to his house. When we get there, I took the ambu bag and oxygen tank. Alex took the chair. Yitzack and Shira took the papers and such. We get to the entrance to their apartment and his son is waiting there calling for us. We entered the apartment and saw a man recinding against the bottom of a couch. There were a ton of blankets/sheets/pillows all around him. We took his BP and talked to him about what happened. He said he didn't remember much, but he wasn't feeling well. He was drifting in and out of consciousness. His pupils were extrememly dialated. His blood pressure was rapid and weak. He didn't remember much. Any guesses? Seziure. We got him dressed, and of course against his wishes got him into the chair and out the door. Yitzack and Alex carried him into the ambulance. We transfered him into the bed. We didn't feel he needed to be carried from one to the other, and neither did he. When he stood up, he almost immediately fell down. I caught him before he hit the street. He would have hit it hard. We got him in, flipped on the emergency lights and drove quickly to Terem again. In the drive, he started to become more and more conscious. By the time we got there, he was putting coherent sentences together and didn't even need us to wheel him in the bed into the hospital. When he got to the front desk, he made a huge deal that he was fine and he didn't want to be there. He made Shira call his son, who he thought was his brother, to talk to him in English. The guy wouldn't let her talk in Hebrew for some reason. We left shortly after.

We then got a call for a guy named Danny. Apparently he calls all the time. We get to the house, I start to get the things and get out when Yitzack says "don't worry, he'll get in himself." We saw him walk out of the house, lock the door, walk up the stairs, open the back door of the ambulance, say hello and ask for the classical music station. We brought him to Terem, and he was immediately brought back to his house. It was pretty funny.

He then called again an hour later, and we got him again. This time, he was standing on the corner of the street and fell asleep in the ambulance ride to Terem. He loved the classical music station.

The next guy was the scary one. We get a call for a dehydrated man. I thought "this shouldn't be too hard." Little did I know. He was an 88 year old, ultra-orthodox man. He was sitting on his bed when we went into his room. He skin wasn't pale. It wasn't very pale. It was chalk white. Chalk on a chalkboard white. There were a ton of red/purple/black bloches all over his skin. And his feet were about 3 time as big as they should be. They were both deep purple and extremelyyyyyyy swollen. When I saw them, Yitzack quickly said in a calm voice, and English, "don't react." I tried my best not to. I looked at his arms, shoulders and hands. He literally was skin and bones. You've seen pictures of the starving people in Africa? Try seeing it in real life. He literally looked like a skeleton that was being held somehow by his skin. Yitzack and the helper of the house had to help get him into his diaper before dressing him with new pants and socks. After about 30 minutes with this guy, who ever 5 minutes would say "tzit-tzit kippah, tzit-tzit kippah," we got him into the chair. I took one arm and Alex took the other while transfering him from his bed to our chair. I actually thought his arm was goign to break off when I lifted him. I didn't see any muscle, or veins, or blood running, or anything. His arms were icy, icy cold. He felt like he had just gotten out of a freezer, it was that cold. We had to drive without the emergency lights because he couldn't have taken the sharp turns and such.

When we got him to Terem and transfered him from our bed to the real one, we found that his pants were absolutely soaked and dripped a lot of liquid onto the floor during the transfer. I wondered, "soaked with what?" I looked at the ground between the beds. I looked at the trail we left through the whole hospital. It was a light red color. Blood. He has completely soaked his pants in blood. Our bed was absolutely drenched in it. It took 20 minutes for Yitzack, Alex and I to clean it off. He soaked the sheet cover and the blanket so much that we needed to take a garbage bag from the hospital and leave them in the bag until we got back to the station. This was by far the most traumatizing call of the day. It was also the last.

There's my story. Hope you all enjoyed.

-Josh

First day of Magen David Adom

Hey everyone---

A lot has happened in the last few days, so it might take me a few posts to write it all. Remember when I said I was done with the IC video? Well..... not really. I think over the last 5 days I've put in probably over 8 hours. I racked those up doing some editing with Ian, then I worked a lot during the closed Shabbat in Yerucham (which I'll cover later) on the bus rides. Plus last night Ian and I got 2 hours in finalizing the music. It's a lot, but it looks great. I'll post it soon.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 10th 2009: A day that I will never forget. Well, I hope not. Before we get to Thursday, lets talk Wednesday. Wednesday, I'm sitting right over there (in the library of Hebrew U, where I'm currently writing this), and I text Nadiv, the staff for Kibbutz. When we finished Mada training, he asked us when we were going to start volunteering in Jerusalem. Everyone gave him an answer. Most people didn't have a desire to volunteer until second semester in Yerucham. I told him that, he said I needed to choose a time while in Jerusalem, so I told him I would on Thursday's after freshman writing ends. I texting him saying "how do I volunteer tomorrow?" he responded with a few phone numbers of Mada staff members saying I should call them.

First, I called Almong. She told me to call Arei. I called Arei. He didnt answer, but called me back an hour later. He told me to call Boaz. I called Boaz. Boaz didn't answer. I waited another hour, and called Boaz back. Still no answer. I called Almong back, and she told me I should talk to Arei again. I called Arei back. No answer. I waited a little longer and called him and Boaz again. Neither answered. I went to Talmud and ISP, waiting for a call. Nothing. I get back home and get a call from Arei around 7:30. He says "I'll call Boaz and call you back in 10 minutes to see if you can volunteer tomorrow morning." Perfect! It took long enough for these guys to get it together. I go to dinner and go out with some Nativers. Before I know it, its 9. Arei hasn't called. I call him and he says "don't worry, I'll text you when I get through to him."

11:30- no call. I call Arei, and he doesn't answer. I call again and still no answer. I call Nadiv and he says "if you go and they say no, at least your making a statement that they are disorganized and they need to get it together. if you go then you might be able to volunteer. if you don't go, then you definitely won't volunteer. Worst comes to worst, you come back to base and go back to sleep." I thought about it while walking back to base. The morning shift starts at 7 AM, so I would need to get up at 6!!!! Thats so early!! Especially for a Thursday morning. I set an alarm for 6 that night, but still didn't know if I would actually get up and go.

I woke up at 6 when my alarm went off, and laid in bed for about 15 minutes deliberating whether to risk it or not. Eventually I decided to get up and call my family to see what I should do. I stepped out of my room to make the call. It was warm, the sky was a little overcast but still nice. It was quiet in the hallway, but the window cracked open so I could faintly hear the traffic on Agron street while I made the call. There was no answer. There was a gust of wind and the window open all the way. The fresh Jerusalem air was delicious. I put my phone away, and got into the shower. When I got out, around 6:30, I realized that I had no breakfast. Breakfast at Agron didn't open until 7, so I was stuck with whatever was around my room. I remember that I bought soup for myself when I was sick a few weeks ago. Ramen would have to do. I got changed into my jeans, Indiana hoodie and the white Mada shirt over it. I took the ramen and went downstairs to the hot water dispenser that we aren't supposed to use. Whatever, that's a dumb rule.

I caught a cab at 6:40, giving myself plenty of time to get to the station. I arrived at 6:49. I walked in to see two people sitting on some chairs in the main lobby. They were wearing sweet blue Mada jackets and pants. I said hello and sat down. There was a boy and a girl. The girl said something to me in Hebrew. I made out the words volunteer, you, now and hi. I tried to say that I am a volunteer and it was my first time. I couldn't really figure it out that early in the morning. The boy then turned to me and said in English, "oh its your first time? that's so exciting. I'm Alex and this is Noa." Phew. Someone spoke English. I started talking with Alex and learned that he's been living in Israel for a little over a year. He is in the army. He is going to be a medic, so he's getting a month of Mada work in (as a medic, not a volunteer) before going back to the army. He is from Georgia, the country not the state. After talking with him for about 10 minutes as random people were coming over and saying hello, the drivers walked in. One woman asked Alex to be in her ambulance. I told Alex before that that we should be together. I didn't know if anyone else spoke English and I really don't like being behind the language barrier. Especially on my first day of Mada. He said it was a good idea, but unfourtunately it didn't work out. A man named Yitzack walked in and asked in perfect English if I wanted to be in his ambulance. I quickly agreed. Noa also agreed. She is also an army medic getting training in Mada. She didn't speak any English.

At 7, Noa and I went out to the ambulance to begin checking it. We spend literally 45 minutes checking to make sure all the supplies were there. She explained the purpose of everything to me in Hebrew. I caught about half of it. Then, Yitzack and a woman named Shira got into the front two seats. Shira went over the checklist with us. Her English was also perfect. I was soooo relieved. Shira took the lists and us to the warehouse. There, a man named Boaz gave us towels and blankets (the missing items in the Ambulance). I believe its the same Boaz, but I'm not sure. We got into the Ambulance, Yitzack turned it on and we started to drive. I thought to myself, "we're already going?" We got onto a main road, and he flipped on the sirens! They were realllyyy loud. We then drove through some intersections, went on the wrong side of the road, crossed over some barriers, went over the sidewalk onto main streets and sped like no other before going back to HQ. It was just a test run. Wow.

Noa showed me her office in HQ, and we got Cariot (a yummy cereal) to snack on while on shift. Right as we walked through the main area, we hear "Ambulance Shira, Ambulance Shira!" Yitzack comes running through yelling "Bo, Bo!" (Come, Come!) We get into the Ambulance and start to race through Jerusalem. Yitzack, Shira and Noa were all talking in Hebrew, and from what I understood.... OK I didn't really understand anything. There was a women and a baby. Something bad happened.

We arrived to the apartment and Shira said, "take the AMBU bag and oxygen tank" to Noa and I. I grabbed the bag and she took the tank. We went up the stairs to the apartment. Yitzack knocked on the door and said "Magen David!" A women opened the door. Sitting on the couch was another women, about 35, holding a baby. She looked very pale. They spoke mostly Hebrew, but a little English. Noa asked if I wanted to take the blood pressure. I wasn't ready for that on my first call, so I said she should do it. We took her BP, then the babies. We took both of them into the ambulance. I found out that she fainted while holding the baby, and the baby hit its head when hitting the ground. We turned on the lights and sped to Terem Hospital, right outside Jerusalem. We got them into the hospital, did the paperwork, etc. She was fine. A little dehydrated, pale, but nothing serious. The baby was also fine. We said goodbye, and instead of going to the ambulance, we went to the connected mall to get some food. It was already 10 o'clock. We grabbed some food and got back into the ambulance. I would consider this a pretty easy way to start my Mada experience.

WARNING: The information that follows is probably going to be graphic. So if you're easily grossed out don't read it.

The next call we recieved sounded much more urgent than the previous one. We quickly turned on our lights and sped onto the highway. Shira told us there was a riot at an Arab school in an Arab town outside of Jerusalem. We got to a side road after about 20 minutes of speed racing, Yitzack slowed down and turned off the siren. I asked why we stopped. He said that we weren't allowed to go any further without a police escort, so we were waiting for them. I'm sorry if you're all getting super excited for this story, because its a little anti-climatic. Instead of the police bringing us to the riot, they were bringing the patients out of the school to us. A dark, tall Arab man got into our ambulance once the police opened the back doors. His face all very bloody. His nose was obviously not in the correct place. He had blood all over his shirts and his hands. He fell into the bed. We strapped him in, and asked what happend while the others took his vitals. He told us that there was a test being given today, and the students didn't want to take it. One of his 10th grade students punched him in the face. His Hebrew was good. After about 3 minutes, he started heaving. Shira quickly took out a vomit bag, and he started throwing up blood. Every bump we hit, he moaned in pain. He threw up some more. He asked if that was normal. Shira told him there probably was some internal bleeding but nothing too serious. We took him to Terem as well.

That's all I can write now. I finish up the 4 other calls later.

Josh

Part III of MU (massive update)

Hi!!

I'll finish the 10 day-family trip now:

We went to Linda Gradstein's house for Shabbat/Thanksgiving dinner. It was a lot of fun. So much fun in fact that we invited them over the next day! My dad and I walked home together and the rest of the family took a cab. It was about a 35 minute walk. Much faster than over an hour when I went myself mostly because I actually knew where I was going this time. Big difference for sure. We got back to the Citadel and slept well that night.

The next morning, we went back to Shira Hadasha. Excellent service, as always. Jordana joined our family in the afternoon at the Citadel. We had lunch together, then went swimming and just hung out. My mom loved being with another girl, and I enjoyed spending time with the person I've known longest on Nativ (2.5ish years, and besides the Chicago people of course).

Jordana mentioned to us that there was a protest going on that night and that Nativ was invited. It was a protest against the Hareidi movement in Israel. We decided to join them and protest. It was reported that over 2000 people were at the protest. We walked down King George street and, of course, turned right onto Ben Yahuda. We decided to leave after about an hour and get back to the hotel a little early before they left. Tyler came with me to say goodbye to the family. It wasn't as emotional as when I left for the first time. I think I felt more comfortable because I walked up the street, and I was home. When I left in September, I was leaving home. Here, I wasn't going anywhere.

SO THATS IT! Wow.... I'm really happy that I'm all caught up.

So let's talk about today?

ITS FINALLLYYY OVERRRRRRRRR! Filming for the IC video officially took over my life in the last week. We filmed an unbelievable amount of scenes in sooooo many different places. I want to share a story about it...

Sunday was the start of crazyness. We filmed a few scenes in the lobby and some more at the basketball courts. Jordana Gilman and Aaron Leven are the stars of the video. Ally Turkheimer, Shira Kafker and I are the Directors (and Miles Berson but he didn't really do anything.) They are D'vora the Explorer (Dora) and Boots (her monkey friend). Monday, we filmed at Hebrew U on Monday. It was super stressful because the taxi driver stole the camera man (Ian, he's on the ulpan track and left school early to film at Hebrew U. So that was a bit tricky getting him into Hebrew U. Whatever. Filming was crazy, we staged a class (Israeli Lit) in which all the extras aren't even in that class. Funny.

Today is where the reallll crazyness starts. We got out of Ulpan at noon. There's a bus at 12:15, gets us to Ben Yahuda (where ulpan is) by 12:35, filming at 12:45, done by 1:15, Yeshiva by 1:45, done by 2:30. Tight schedule but do-able if everything goes to plan. So the first thing that goes wrong is the bus doesn't arrive until 12:25. No biggie. The bus won't start. Adds on a few extr minutes. Start to get nervous. The bus eventually starts and we make our way towards downtown Jlem. Behind schedule but not much. In the MIDDLE OF A VERY MAJOR ROAD the bus breaks down for good. IT JUST DIES. We are all told to get off the bus. Its 12:40 at this point and we're realllyyyyyyyyyyy freaking out. I call Elkana and ask if we can take a taxi on Nativ for the video. He agrees, so we hail a cab and yell at him "drive faster, faster FASTER!!!" We ended up doing the filming very productively because we had 2 days of experience under our belts already. We actually ended up finishing Ulpan by 1:15 and had time to get some pizza before going to the Yeshiva. jackpot.

Yeshiva filming was fine. nothing too stressful. Ian (cameraman/editor) shira and I edited the video for a little bit. Then I watched LOST with Seffi Adina, Debbie, and Rachel. We then had all of the Nativers (and by all I mean like 85%) of Nativers participate in the final scene. We all ran into the lobby as if we came back from the girls football game screaming and yelling LOUDLYYY. We all chanted "Nativ! Nativ!" over and over again. It was sooo much fun. Its a great scene. We then interviewed the past regional presidents to let them give shoutouts to their region. This includes Seth and a shoutout to CHUSY REGIONNNN! Sweet.

It's now 12:40. I really thought I was getting to bed early tonight. Guess not.

I'll write again soon. And when the video is done I'll definitely post it so everyone can see :)

-Josh

Part II

Continuing from last post...

Shira Hadasha was fantastic. After lunch, we all walked back to the David Citadel hotel and enjoyed some excellent lunch. Steven Daniel and I then went swimming in the outdoor swimming pool. Don't let the fact that Israel is in the desert fool you. It was COLLDDDDD. Still wayyy worth it.

Steven and I then chilled and watched some South Park in the room while Daniel took a nap. That night, we did Havdalah and then went out.

This night was an epic night for Nativers. I asked Seth, Seffi, Tyler, Joey, Jesse, and Jordana to come out to dinner with my family. the 11 of us went to La Guta, a delicious meat restaurant off of Derech Beit Lechem street. Everyone loved the food and I loved introducing my family to some of my best friends on Nativ. After the 3 hour dinner, we walked back to the hotel for another great nights' sleep.

The next morning, we woke up early because my family wanted to see Hebrew U campus. We took a taxi to Hebrew U and I showed them around. I first showed them the lookout point over West Jerusalem. It's a really beautiful view on its own, but its extra beautiful because normally, tourists aren't allowed where Hebrew U is. Hebrew U at Mount Scopus is across the green line, aka East Jerusalem. So, we got a totally different perspective of Jerusalem. Then, I showed them the Rotherberg International school where we study. We then enjoyed great lunch at the Frank Sinatra cafe. Steven sat in my Silicon Wadi class with me for the first hour and a half. That night, I didn't sleep over because my parents were leaving early the next morning for the south.

Monday started midterms week. Stupid monday.

On Monday night after school, I went down to Mitzpe Ramon to spend Tuesday with my family. I took off ulpan and skipped erev Nativ. My family called a taxi for me, and I began my long journey south. The hotel was pretty good, and I was very excited for the big day ahead of me.

I hope I get all this right. The next morning, we woke up and had breakfast. We then went with our tour guide, Michael, to the bike place. We picked up our bikes and rode all the way to Ramon Crator. Ramon Crator was where we had desert survival, but we hiked on the other side of it. My family and I biked on the side where there was actually a town, people, roads, civilization, etc. After the bike ride, we went rapelling down a cliff. It happened to be the same cliff that I rappelled down when I was on pilgrimage two summers ago, but it was still so much fun.

After an exciting rappel, we loaded up the car and headed off to the bike place. This place also turned out to be a bed and breakfast, so that's where we had an amazing veggie lunch. Yum. I wish I could describe it to you, but my writing is pretty bad and I don't really remember it too well. Yea I need to update sooner tell me about it. We went back to the hotel and swam (this time in an indoor pool) and chilled for a little bit. Around 8:30, I got into the taxi and quickly returned to real life: MIDTERS. For the record, at Deerfield High School we never called them midterms. We called the test after first semester finals, then the tests after second semester finals. So this term is pretty humorous to me. I studied Hebrew on the way home with the driver. He was super helpful and is part of the reason that I did well. I got a B on my midterm which I think is great considering all the studying I did was with a taxi driver for 45 minutes. Solid.

Wednesday was the Ulpan midterm. Nothing too difficult and as I said I did well on it so yea. I also started my freshman writing final paper and Israeli Society and Politics (now to be known as isp) paper. each had to be 10 pages long. grrrr

My family returned Wednesday night late, so I just met up with them after my final freshman writing class on Thursday. We hung around Jerusalem for a bit until it was time to go to the Nativ Thanksgiving Banquet!!!!

Everyone on Nativ was at the banquet, plus a ton of former nativers and other families that were visiting. We started the night with a short video for the parents and former nativers to show them what life on Nativ is like this year. We then split up by track (kibbutz and kehillah) for dinner. My family and I sat with my suitemate Jesse's family and Tyler. It was a great dinner. After dinner, I said bye to my family and went downstairs to the auditorium for the Nativ only video. It was really funny and clever. It included every Nativer.

That night, I went to a jazz concert in the old city. It was this new age jazz, I wouldn't even call it jazz, that I didn't particularly get into. Oh well. I got back to base around 11:30 and made it to the Citadel by midnight. My dad insisted on going out even though he was exhausted to get something to eat. We went down Kind David street towards Ben Yahuda (aka the place where all the Americans/Yeshiva Buchar's/Israeli hang out on Thursday nights until late). He was really surprised by the amount of people there at 1:00 am. There was about 300 people walking about. I wasn't surprised but I guess thats because I'm used to it by now. We went to the coffee shop and got cookies. They were really tastey. Around 1:45, we walked back to the Citadel to go to sleep.

Friday morning, we met up with our friends Roee and Mor. We walked around Jerusalem with them. We went to the shuk, Machane Yahudia to get some Marzipan and food for the weekend. After we found Dad and Roee (they got lost), we went back to the Citadel to hang out and prepare for Shabbat. We got dressed and went to dinner at our family friend's house Linda Gradstein. It was a very enjoyable Shabbas dinner.

Talmud time. Finish later.

Josh

the beginning of the massive update

HI!

Wow.... longest two weeks ever. Sorry I havn't been updating nearly as much as I wanted to be. Its already pretty late here and I'm exhausted, but whatever. details.

Let's start with two weeks ago....

Parents arrive on Friday night. It was super amazing seeing them. Steven didn't seem that different, a little taller. Daniel on the other hand was wayyyy bigger and spoke much much better than when I left him. He grew up a lot in the short three months.

We went to the Old City and the Kotel. It was soooo crowded on Shabbas eve. Then we attempted to go to the Southern Wall, but couldn't because it was closed. :( lame. We did Kab Shab near the Kotel and Southern Wall. We then walked back to the Citadel and had the best dinner ever!!! I hadn't had such good meal since leaving America. After dinner we hung out around the hotel and got some sleep before waking up super early the next morning.

That morning we went to Shira Hadasha. It was a great service and the whole family enjoyed it.

I meant to write way more. Its 1:30 and there's class tomorrow :(

I'll write during Silicon.

Josh