distance

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So, sorry I haven't written in a few days, but not much has been going on. Except for the last couple days. This week's theme has been distant family. So on Saturday night, we had a bunch of my cousins over for dinner. These were cousins I had never met before, who are all very religious. They were nice, and everyone said I looked like my dad or my grandma.

Before I continue, let me explain how I am related to my family here. All my cousins in Israel are 3rd cousins. That is, their great grandmother, and my great grandmother were sisters, making my grandma and their grandma or grandpa first cousins, and so on down the line. This family is on my dad's side. So now I have finally met most of my dad's cousins in Israel. Although, apparently, there are still more! And i haven't met most of their kids yet either. If i'm here for a while, I assume I"ll get around to meeting most everyone. I've also foudn out that I have some cousins here on my mom's side who I have never met, also who are 3rd cousins, and my mom has had much less contact with this part of the family, then my dad has had with his family.

So yeah, it was cool meeting these other cousins. Although most of them didn't talk to me much. Haha.

Then on Monday, my cousin Chloe from London (who I saw for only the second time ever when I was in London in June) was visiting Israel for her friend's wedding. So I got to see her again and met a couple of her friends. We spent all afternoon at the beach, and then went out to a nice dinner at a mexican restaurant! Which was very exciting for me, cuz there not many mexican restaurants in Israel, and my cousins don't even know what mexican food is! And, I love mexican food, so I was excited. Don't get me wrong tho, I totally love the Israeli/mediterranean food too.

I also got to see my friend Oded (yay hillel), who's apartment I stayed at for the 2 weeks while he was away. it was great to actually hang out with him and talk to him rather than through email, and catch up on the last year of our life since we both left pittsburgh.

So, august is practically over. Amazing. It means my "Vacation" is almost over, which is kinda sad, cuz I have enjoyed it. Next week, I start my program, on sunday to be exact. Here's what I know so far. The first week I will be in Jerusalem, and we will be taking tours of the city, getting to know eachother, and going to lectures. The second week starts our ulpan, which is hebrew language classes, so we can all learn to speak the language. I speak some, btu have a ways to go before being fluent. but i'm getting better!! So the hebrew classes is the rest of september, in a city called Netanya. Its about an hour north of Tel Aviv, and its the best ulpan in the country, which is awesome. I'm also kinda excited because I"ve never been to netanya. Its known as a rich beach town, and thats about it. So i should have plenty of time on the beach as well. Which you know I love. The end of september are the major jewish holidays, which I"ll spend with my family, and then I'll start an internship in october. When I start the internship, I"ll be living in an apartment in Tel Aviv. I do know where the internship placement is, but I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing. I just know I'll be working with under-priveleged kids. I'll let everyone know as I find out. Haha.

Ok, I know this blog was not very exciting, just letting you all know whats going on. Next week should be more eventful!

Love,
Leah

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