Thursday, August 31, 2006

First real post

Today is of course my first real post. The airport was first, and I met everyone and found that they are a good crowd. I was so pumped for the semester. We all had mini conversations and almost played cards...and it was all good fun.

The in flight movie was "Failure to Launch". It was a funny movie but really silly and predictable. There was also XXX 2, but I saw that one on some other plane some other place. So I did not watch. The girl who was sitting next to me, Hannah suggested that we watch a movie on a laptop, and so we did. We watched "Walk on Water", and it was a superbly amazing movie. Highly reccomended and all that jazz. I walked around a bit, got to know some people, etc.

I found that I had already known or known of many people. I had known Elana since we were very little. I knew Noa Nissim from Camp Harlam, and we were apparently good friends back then (3-5 years ago). I also knew Carina Lee from Camp Harlam, and at the time I thought her quite annoying, but is now a real person. Nathan Zeplowitz has done a couple NFTY events with me. Matti has also done a few events and is very good in hebrew; we are in three classes together. My roommates are currently Jacob and David. David wears tzitzit. Jacob is simply awesome and has hair about as long and crazy as mine was about a week ago :( .

My madrichim (counselors) are absolutely amazing. Ray (female) is amazing in hebrew, with a native's accent and everything. She used to work in admissions at Wesleyan (or however you spell it), and seems like a very helpful, nice person. Josh moved to Israel exactly one year ago. He is also great and helpful and all is good. Tom (almost rhymes with home) is our security guard/madrich. He stays up late at night watching out for baddies and is therefore allowed to wake up late.

We had Jewish History orientation today, and it seems like the kind of learning that I will enjoy. It is fully interactive and the information is presented in a riveting manner. My teacher is Reuven (reh-oo-vein). He presents info in a simply emphatic way. The other teachers are Shira and Josh, but they teach the other class together.

We also had the Hebrew orientation. That was actually a placement test, in which I excelled (I am amazing....don't forget it). There was hard stuff on there, don't get me wrong, but I got an overwhelming majority correct. I also did well in the oral part of it although I forget how to say that I was touring (tiyalti). I am therefore in the top hebrew class, and I was happy.

Our final orientation was the general studies. My schedule currently has two classes on it....AP Calculus AB, and AP Physics C. English is a part of Jewish History while AP CompSci and Latin IV are currently independent studies (Latin may end up becoming a regular part of my schedule but we don't know yet).

The photos are a comparison for you....I'll put up more, don't worry.

I know that was a lot, but those who have read to the bottom are the ones that I like most. Shalom chaverim, ve'lehitraot!

Sunday, August 27, 2006

The first of the Israel Blog

Today is Sunday, Aug 27, and I am so pumped to go. My mother is having me do plenty of busywork. This includes: making a cd bookshelf, making my room spic and span (not racial), cleaning the monster, installing a printer, and plenty of other nonsenses. Did I mention that I am excited?

I will update this blog as often as possible while in Israel, and then you dont have to wonder about me.....