My latest update.

So, it has been a long time since I sat down to have a nice write. I hope you are doing well and that life is treating you nicely. I am going to start with the beginning of December, and if I remember something worth mentioning from November, I will mention it, don't worry.

1/12, we went to Beit Shemesh. The kids who we have been getting to know (we had that scavenger hunt with them a while ago) invited us for Shabbat dinner. What an interesting experience. First we had them over here for Kabalat Shabbat, or welcoming the Shabbat and the evening service. They were all very intrigued by said service. Most had never experienced a Jewish service before. We were all intrigued about their intrigue. We have been going to services for many many many years, and there was nothing new or special there. But anyway, we went to dinner afterwards. I was paired up with Charlotte (in the lowest Hebrew class), to go to Tzvi's house. Tzvi is from a family of Russian immigrants. I learned that Tzvi's family knows only slightly better Hebrew than I, with no English on the side. Charlotte was absolutely lost. The family was very interested in us, and I had to act as translator. Poor Charlotte. It was a lot of fun though don't get me wrong. They offered us all sorts of alcoholic beverages in Hebrew, and I declined graciously in Hebrew. Really it was a lot of fun.

On 3/12, we went on extended tiyul (which is a trip if you had forgotten). This tiyul is called the security tiyul. The goal was to understand the six-day war (1967 war, known in Arab civilization as the second disaster) and the yom-kippur war (1973, known in Arab civilization as the october war), as well as borders to the state, and Druze civilization. I feel that I understand all of that a lot more than earlier. We went up to the Golan Heights to look at fortifications, to see a documentary about a tank-corps, and understand certain territorial issues. We went to tel-dan (which I loved!) to learn about biblical-times Israelite culture. Yes, we did learn that already, but it was a full circle thing. A lot of fun and interestingness. The last part of our journey was Druze learning. First we watched a video called ha'kallah ha'surit or the Syrian Bride. It detailed the journey of a Druze girl in the Golan heights to marry a Druze man in Syria. Lots of trials and tribulations. We later went to visit a Druze village above Haifa. A secular (atheist, also) Druze was our guide into the Druze culture. We had dinner at a Druze house, but never met the people that live there...It was delicious. We learned all about the Druze religion and culture except for the religion bit ;-). Apparently, discussing the Druze religion's ideas is forbidden. Besides, our guide did not know about it. You choose at age 15 to become religious or to be secular. He chose secular and does not regret that decision at all. Once you become religious you start (yes, I did say start) to learn about the religion, and you can leave religious life later if so you choose. On to different things though.

On 8/12, we had breakfast at the houses of our Hebrew teachers. This was a very interesting experience. My Hebrew teacher apparently is a bachelorette, and likes dogs (living, stuffed, and statues). She has this funny looking thing that she calls a dog (though she actually calls it calvah) I think it might be a shitzu (or however it might be spelled). We watched a movie in Hebrew whose setting was sometime in the 70s. It was really odd seeing 70s Israel. They liked spanish pop songs...It was weird. Later in the day, David W and I went to Eitan Chamberlin's house for Shabbat dinner. It was delicious. You remember that name. He is going to be as famous as JK Rowling. He wrote an excellent book (I'm in chapter 4) named Ikkibu and it is the first of four books in his quadlogy. Afterwards, I went with David to Walter Zanger's house. Walter is really an intriguing guy (and he is already pretty famous...or was). Also staying at Walter's that evening was Noam. Noam is the boyfriend of the girl who was my tourguide at Hampshire college. The two of them are doing a semester in Israel. The three of us went 'sploring the next day to all sorts of places and had lots of fun.

10/12 we went to the Israel high court and learned about the judicial system. Much different (and better, in my opinion) than the American one. The next day we went on tiyul around the Kibbutz. Visiting all sorts of places or interest (like an ancient Islamic cememtary, or a mosaic floor, or the house of a "holy man", or even a second temple period collumn). On 12/12, we had mock knesset. Knesset is the parliamentary law-making body of Israel. For the week or so beforehand, we were supposed to research a party (we were assigned to these parties) and make a campaign. I was the Avodah party (Labor party or the Party for the Workers of the Land of Israel). There were five of us in the group. I seized control of the party because no one else could remember the facts and improvise like I can. We were going to have one person know diplomatic issues and one know security and one know socio-economic (that was supposed to be me). However, we found out .5 hours before we were to present that just one person presents and others can add things in. so as I said, I seized control and led our party to almost victory. At the end, we had a vote. The Knesset has 120 seats. Parties get a number of seats based on proportionality. For example if 50% of the population voted for Kadima, they would get 60 seats in Knesset. So the votes came in, and my party got 7 of 28 votes. 30 seats in knesset. The party that won got 11 seats or about 40 seats. This is much different than real life. Since there are so many parties in Israeli politics, getting 40 seats would be quite an accomplishment. So in real life, my party has 19 seats in Knesset and is the second largest party in power. I feel that we would have won if kids didnt just throw away their votes...three kids voted for the shas party- a bunch of ultra-orthodox Jews that have no thoughts on defense other than "let God handle it". Two kids voted for Ichud Leumi which believes in the deportation of all Palestinians by force. These five kids don't actually believe what they voted for...they just wanted to be funny. I think its unfortunate. As we say in hebrew חבל.

We have had our last J-hist class. And boy, is that a depressing thought. I'm on the verge of a biblical breakthrough of Solomonic proportions, too. Again, חבל. We also had our finals in Hebrew. I had fun on that one...I will probably have fun on the J-hist final and even the calc one. The physics one, I will probably be tearing out my hair though.. But anyway, hebrew was good clean fun. I will see ya'll soon....I do miss you. But, I don't want to come stateside. I want to stay here. At home...