Shabbat, Patriots, and Jews gone wild!!

Boker tov from David Ben Gurion airport, again!


I'm sitting here at the airport, no mom I'm not going home, waiting for my Master's Program participants to arrive from New York. The college career fair is a week long informational tour, which will bring us around the country's higher learning institutions. All the interested parties are potential olim chadashim, new immigrants, except me. I am a oleh chadash who has already made the mushugana (crazy) decision to live here as a citizen. Needless to say, I am excited to learn about my options.


Over the weekend, I spent a lot of time with my friend Todd ( a fellow oleh chadash who I met on my Birthright Israel trip 2 1/2 years ago) who opened his home to me. I owe him and his flatmate Jessie a big thanks. I couldn't have managed during this difficult transition without the awesome accommodations and hospitality you showed me. Todah Rabah!


A cute Hebrew story: On Friday afternoon I actually gathered enough chutzpah to leave Todd's apartment and venture out into the wilds of Israel. Before Shabbat, I went for a walk to the neighborhood store. I wanted some wine, challachot (the twisty bread used to celebrate Shabbat), lettuce, hummus (NOT HAMAS!), and some veggies for a salad. I asked the store keeper: Effo ha hummus? Where is the hummus, but he heard in my oleh accent: Effo ha hemitz? Where's the bread products? It all worked out because I need the challahot (bread products) to go along with my hummus, which I found on my own with some creative searching. Ok, so not a fall down funny story, but it made me laugh and that's all that matters. You try living here!


Shabbat was peaceful and relaxing. I went to shul (temple) in downtown Kfar Saba off of Hertzel and Weizman street. Todd met me afterwards for a delicious dinner at his friend Yonatan's home. On Saturday I davened (prayed) at shar'arie shalom, the gates of peace, also know as my mattress; I slept in late. I managed to drag my lazy self to the corner shul for Mincha and Ma'ariv. Apparently in Israel, Havdalah is saved as a private, family experience at home because we didn't celebrate that aspect of the service in the shul.



On Saturday, Todd and I went to Tel-Aviv to supervise a Taglit Birthright party at one of the local bars. I forgot how much fun 240 screaming, hormonal, drunk college students could be. Take me back to the good old days!!! After the party was over, I stayed in, or rather I stayed up, in Tel Aviv to watch the Patriots game live at 3AM in Mike's Place, a famous English speaking bar on the water. Well, it's never easy listening to Greg Gumble at any hour, but 3 AM was rough. Eli Manning had the game of his life, and it still wasn't enough to beat Tom Terrific, Randy Moss and the unstoppable PatRIOTS! After Brady marched our troops down the field for the back breaking final touch-down run by Maroney, I triumphantly stood up on the bar, there were only maybe 20 of us in the joint by 6:15am, and announced: Let's hear it for the greatest team in N.F.L history!!! Now, dont make a fool out of me Tom and get beaten like a red-headed step child in the first round of the playoffs. Let's finish what we started in training camp; Super Bowl or bust! After the come back was finalized, I turned around, watched the most beautiful sun rise outside of Mike's Place over the sea, and walked to the bus station.