So I almost died last night. And not from gunshots or rockets. From the highway. Trying to get to the bar. For real. This all innocently started out as an fun trip to the Temple Bar, in Cinema City, which is a healthy 1/2 hour bus ride for me to get to anyways. The last time I went, it happened to be in a car, so I didn't have to experience the highway of death before. I saw the highway in all it's glory from the relative safety of my friends car. I say "relatively" because if you think that New [View Full Entry]

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Od rega (hold on a minute). Apparently my Hebrew is much more limited than I thought it was. Not that I was anywhere near fluent anyways, but holy shit. Let's just put it this way. If someone is speaking to me, like my super nice hamorah (female teacher) and goes slowly enough, I can grasp the basic meaning. However....and this is where the big however plays in, my reading and writing sucks. As in by the time I'm done actually phonetically sounding it out like some deaf person and then trying to translate, my homorah is wayyyyy onto the next subject. [View Full Entry]

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Prelude: I just posted 2 entries at once, so read the other one as well...sorry been quite busy and no internet in the room kinda kills it. I'm having a bit of a dilemma. The problem is this. I've only been here a week and I'm already feeling bogged down by what I have to do as far as ulpan and work. It's not necessarily the fact that I can't handle it, but I keep having to take days off to do the basic oleh chadasha (new immigrant) stuff, such as opening up a bank account, going to misrad haklita (Office [View Full Entry]

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So turns out....Ika's son is gorgeous. Enough said about that because I'll just sound like a girl. :) We're hanging out later this week. Their house is amazing. It's this Spanish style villa in a moshav (gated community). They have 4 floors to it and it has vaulted ceilings. The backyard has fresh mint, thyme, jasmine, lemon and banana trees. Ika actually gave me some fresh herbs to use in my tea which make tea out of this world! Each one of their sons rooms has a LCD flat monitor screen with a new computer, new stereos and big TV. It's [View Full Entry]

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So the craziness continued today. Of course. I mean becoming a new immigrant in any country is an adventure in of itself. But this country is famous for its quirks...or as they say an "Only in Israel Moment" I promised pictures and I took some of the lovely great city of Ra'anana where I am living and of my room. I am staying in what's called a mercaz klita (absorption center) which is basically just a dorm room with a kitchen, bathroom and dining room area. The friggen doves or pigeons or whatever they are need to die. They're my new [View Full Entry]

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So to start off this blog....I have a promise to make....a promise is that I will update this blog as often as I can and also have pictures when I can as well. Today there are no pictures as I ran out of batteries for my camera. But there will be. Now with that out of the way, let's continue shall we? "Shalom. At oleh chadasha? Shalom Eretz Y'Israel! B'Hatzlacha" Since my Hebrew deficient friends (not like I'm any better myself haha) are reading this, that translates into "Hello! Are you a new immigrant? Welcome to Israel! Good luck!" But let's [View Full Entry]

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"Jessi?? Are you awake?" I hear my roommate Anthony whisper through my door....well yes. I am quite awake actually. Even though it's 3am. So what do I owe this waking up to you ask? Well that would be our mouse hunt. Apparently he set the trap and the mouse ate the cheese but escaped with its life because the trap didn't set off. It was the mouse's lucky day I suppose. See we have this problem. It's called, the house is old (as in old victorian 100 year old - old) and it's cold outside. Cold enough that if I was [View Full Entry]

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So do you know what's weird? I flew home from Israel on Janurary 14th and that is the last time I will have to fly back to the states to live. Because in less than 4 weeks, I will be the newest immigrant to the state of Israel. That's kinda mind-blowing. It's been a crazy month of January. Not only did I have to get all 40 of my participants ready for the trip (I staff birthright trips) but then I also had to pack a bag of stuff to leave in the country with my best friend until I come [View Full Entry]

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