Monday, August 7…

So I am almost done with my blog for today and just realized something. This one is also really long. So I am back at the beginning and here is what I am going to say. I realized today that I am doing this blog for me more than anyone else. When I get home, I am going to print and bind this entire thing. I am going to read it and sit back and go wow, that was pretty much the most amazing thing I have ever done. I am going to read it to my kids, to my grandkids, and let anyone I ever meet who wants to read it do it. I also need to say that the way I type is pretty much free flowing thoughts. I could go off on tangents and sit here typing for hours and hours just talking about stuff, obviously related to this program and what’s going on, but still. So I will just say this. I know that very important and close people to me are reading this (hopefully!). Everyone from my parents to sibling, from my rabbis to relatives and friends. If you really care about what I am doing and what is happening to me over here then PLEASE read. I want you ALL to read these, but I know that it might take too long or whatever. I promise it won’t take more than 5 or so minutes to read any blog, no matter how long they look. I know for a fact my family will read them all (I love you mom, dad, jake, and rachel!), and to be honest, that is good enough. If you are a really good friend of mine and are reading these all too, then I love you too! Maybe even more since you are reading this cuz you are interested. Thanks to everyone who is reading this and who will continue to read these as much as they can. Your love and support means a lot to me over here. Anyways, back to #6 down below…

I was right. When I was making my decision on whether to come to Israel, I told myself that no matter what choice I made was going to be the right choice. Now obviously since I am here now, I will never really know what it would have been like to have made the decision to not come, but I have to say right now, that this was the right choice. I know this for many reasons, but one will always stick out in my head until the day I die.

Before I explain why I need to get something out in the open. Now by this point, you should probably all know that I can be very emotional. Not saying that I saw the movie The Notebook and cried (alright so I did cry a little, but it was a good sappy movie! haha shut up) but when I am very happy or feel that something is beautiful then I am not afraid to let it out a little. Anyways, so back to the point. Now that I have been here for a little over a day (it’s actually Tuesday right now but I didn’t have a chance to type anything for yesterday because everything was just so awesome and overwhelming) I know that coming to Israel right now for this program was where my heart and mind needed to be.

The instant the plane touched down on the ground in Israel, I started to cry. It wasn’t like a my cat just died type crying, but it was crying from deep down in my heart and soul. I didn’t even plan on it. You know how sometimes when you think really hard about something sad, or beautiful, or whatever, it can be a lot easier to cry. But this came from somewhere else. I was just sitting there, listening to pretty relaxing music, and then the second I felt the plane hit the ground tears filled my eyes. It was such an amazing feeling, like the feeling of being reunited with a long lost family member or friend. It was a feeling like I have never felt before. A feeling like everything was right, like I was about to do something that would change my life forever.

Now that that’s out of the way, I just want to give a little update to all of my loyal fans out there as to what I am doing right now and what happened yesterday. I will make it quick and to the point unless it is a good story.

1. We landed

2. I cried

3. Got off the plane (okay, im just kidding, enough with the stupid details right!?)

4. Met Momo (the president of Oranim), Erez (the director of the program, run by Oranim), and Chava (our mommy for the next 5 months who I might add is the most amazing looking grandmother I have ever met). Chava and I met before anyone else, and she is just a stunning person. She always has this smile on her face that just makes you happy when she’s around. I have met SO many people, mostly women, in Israel that have this magical presence about them that when you are around them you have no choice but to be happy. It is amazing. Just one of those things about Israel that makes me just love it. People are happy. Yes, life is hard, but the people are very kind, warm hearted and happy.

5. We got on a bus to our house. Oh yeah, I forgot to say something really cool. So when I first came to Ramla about a month ago when I was staffing a Birthright trip I met with the principal of the best highschool in Ramla. We had an idea that some students would follow us around and film what we are doing. To make a long story short, we show up in the airport and there are 2 students, one guy one girl (who might I add is veeeeery cute but we’re not quite sure if that would be kosher ? ) They are doing a documentary on us. They are going to be filming us and other stuff to make this thing every day for the whole time we are here. It’s like a class for them but it is going to be really cool when it’s all done. We want them to call it “The Real World: Ramla”. What do you think? Other than the fact we’re all pretty sure that Ramla would be the last place in the world they would ever want to film the show.

Okay, enough of the numbers…We got to the house and I must say that it is just stunning. Although there is some broken stuff here and there and some necessities missing, overall the house is great. You walk in and to your right is a huge kitchen. To your left is a common room with a tv that doesn’t work (yet), a couch, chairs, fireplace, etc. Straight through the front door almost is a bathroom and right next to that is a bedroom (remember there are 5 bedrooms, 2 people in each). Down some stairs is a huge bedroom, which the first pick guys took right away. By that is the bomb shelter. Yeah everyone, I am in Israel don’t forget ?. But we are hopeful and praying that we never have to use it. Mom, you are going to freak out when I say this but read it ALL before you do! The bomb shelter is filled with the stuff of the previous owner. Bu filled I mean there is no room for people. We are people. We can not go into the bomb shelter. Calm down mom! Haha We are moving all the stuff up into the attic tonight so that is going to be fine. Just thought it was kind of funny that we got here and it was full of crap and we’re like, wow nice haha.

So the girls got the biggest room upstairs (stupid girls I hate that). Upstairs is 3 more bedrooms, the girls has its own nice bathroom (which I might add the guys use ALL THE TIME already because there are only 2 showers in the whole house for 10 people) a huge sleeping room (main room), a walk in closet, and it’s own patio. Yeah, its pretty much not fair. Next to their room is another room. Now this room was the room that the last pick got. I’ll tell you why. There is no AC unit in the room (its like 100 degrees here), there is no closet in the room (theirs is in the hallway, yeah lame again), and the room is like really tiny. It doesn’t get too dark in there because their curtains are just pieces of cloth hanging over them. Anyways, that room is housing the 2 biggest guys in the group. Sucks for them haha.

Now to my room. First though, next to that last room I talked about is a shower and sink room, and next to that is a toilet. There is a wall in between them for some reason. Oh yeah, and I went up there last night to wash my face and there was a cockroach looking around just inside the window. Yeah, gross. Oh yeah again, there is a dead one sitting on one of the stairs to upstairs. Um so it has been there since we got here, no one feels like throwing it away haha awesome. Where was I……..oh yeah, sorry a tangent got me. So my room is awesome. I am rooming with a guy named Daniel. Him and I had talked a few times before the trip and he seemed real cool so when I met him and found out he was, it was the obvious choice. So we have the best room I think, well other than the huge guys room downstairs and the girls room (still bitter…). Our room is pretty small though, about 6 feet between our bed which are on the wall. But we have a big closet that all of our clothes fit into. And yeah, I’m sort of a chick I feel like because I brought more clothes than anyone…even the girls I think. Wow, I feel like an idiot now. But I had all that extra room in my bags! And I even packed a pillow and blankets and stuff! Whatever.

In our room too is a nice new AC unit with a remote. Actually last night it got too cold so I had to turn it off. I told the big dudes in the other room today. They weren’t too thrilled… Only problem is that the thing started to drip water almost on my head in the middle of the night. It was fun trying to figure out what that noise was. And here’s the kicker. Our windows open completely. But theres two layers to them. One is a sliding window which clicks shut and the other are these like metal blinds that when closed, make the sun disappear! It could be high noon and it would be pitch black in our room. Niiiiice. But dangerous. You know what I mean.

Alright, I will move on to the last thing that I will talk about for this entry. Last night after Momo came over and we had a little talk we cooked dinner. It was pretty good. Pasta and potatoes. I made the potatoes. Took like 2 hours but damn were they good when they finally came out! I never realized how crazy it is to try to cook for 10 people. A lot of food quickly becomes a pile of crumbs in a heartbeat.

After dinner we did what all normal people would do. Since we didn’t have a hot tub or swimming pool like a real “Real World: Ramla” should, we did the next best thing. We walked 80 meters from our house to a liquor store and threw ourselves a little party. It was a lot of fun. We played some games where we got to know eachother a lot better. It was really nice because we could all say things that no one knew yet and that the first impressions and skewed opinions of eachother didn’t allow for. We went next door to the neighbors house because they were having some people there. One of the children there, Schmulik (I think that’s how you spell it) left for the army today. It was really nice to see him having a good time with a bunch of friends before he left to serve his country and his people. He was heading up to the north for some training before possibly getting involved in the action. Very cool kid. We are all going to be praying for him. At the house was pretty much all guys and a few girls (one amazingly hot but had a boyfriend there, oh well, it was the first night we have plenty more ladies to fall in love with). I met a guy named Asaf who is pretty much the coolest Israeli guy I’ve ever met. We talked for a while while he tried to figure out a way to talk to the 2 girls in our group and not be too aggressive. Now there is a huge difference between American and Israeli people our age. The guys are more forward, sexual, aggressive people and the girls are exactly what you would think they would be like with guys like that all around them. Americans a lot more uptight, reserved, and just overall less aggressive in all ways. But Asaf is really cool, I got his number and we are going to hang out (yeah, the first number I got was from a guy, real smooth but don’t worry my head is still on straight…literally). He has a car and offered to take me and some of his Israeli girl friends to Tel Aviv or to parties sometime. Niiiiiiiice. Way to go Ben.

So at about 3 am I went to sleep because we had to get up early for a guided tour of Ramla. Everyone but me and Daniel, and maybe a few others, not too sure, were there til 2:15 just hanging out knowing that we wouldn’t get to do that for a while since the guy who lived there was leaving for the army. Anyways, I got back to the house, laid in bed talking to my roomie for about an hour about our lives and things like that and went to sleep.

So that’s it for now. I really think these will shorten up once I start doing much of the same thing every day, but right now I am getting everyone comfortable of what is going on and what I am going to be living with for the next 5 months. I will write again tonight on what happened today (Tuesday). Take care everyone, know that I am safe, HAPPY, having the time of my life (and Ive only been here one day!). I love and miss you all very much, but I gotta say this is awesome. I can’t wait for what will come next.