home. safe and sound.

Wow. So I'm officially the worst blogger ever. I just kind of figured no one was really reading this (except the mom) so I put it on the back burner. Things got way busy in Israel and I definitely just stopped posting. Probably not the best thing to take a back seat because this is something I really do enjoy doing and would like to continue while I start my new "professional" life as well.

So anyways, my last month in northern Israel was absolutely amazing. It was filled with both happy and sad emotions that were coming from every direction possible. I was looking forward to coming home and seeing my mom and friends but at the same time I couldn't even bare to think about leaving the amazing people I had spent the past 5 months with. Also, the students and teachers at Ofek High School are incredible and I would have loved to stay and hang out with them for as long as possible.

All in all, a once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget. I couldn't, even if I tried. I did amazing work with friends that I know will continue to be in my life. Being home right now has been difficult to say the least. We all know I love my crazy mother but her and I are already at each other's necks just for being ourselves. I'm ready to find a job and move on out and start making money! Trust me, I literally have nothing in my bank account at the moment and that is definitely not a good feeling.

So to end this exciting and (mostly) true saga (at least the Israel part) here are a few fun pictures from the last month of this crazy adventure...

Some of our 9th graders came to Yehiam to hang with us on our last Sunday in the country. We had so much having lunch and exploring the castle together. I will definitely miss these kids...

Arron and I were Harry Potter and Hermione for Purim. Purim is pretty much a big deal for Israeli's and was way fun. We went to a Purim party that the high school had this night and also attended one at the pub on the kibbutz.

My host mom and dad dressed as "Americans" for the pub Purim party on the Kibbutz. I was a pirate...I didn't feel like dressing as Hermione again.

Me, Jackie, Talia, Emily and Arron with one of our very sexy coordinators (center) Yariv. He made a very sexy lady for sure...

Veronika and me having the best time ever at the high school's Purim Carnival. I totally won this round too...

Me and two of my 10th grade girls! Hodaya and Shelly were amazing and organized a little party for me and the other Americans that were in this class on our last day at the school. They even made us cake!

Our entire group and Ulpan teacher Dalia at her house. Instead of having our last night of Ulpan classes, Dalia invited us over to her house where she made us dinner. It was so sweet of her and we had such a nice time.

The English teachers at Ofek threw us a little going away party and they even gave us these awesome Ofek HS English Department t-shirts. So this is our group at the high school with the teachers as well. They will be missed dearly.

My host mom and host sisters outside their home on a sunny day that they invited me over for lunch! They are also holding the stuffed animals that my mom sent me to give to them! So cute! I'm going to miss them so much....

We went on a group trip to the Golan Heights at the end of February and this is Jon, me, Emily, Talia and Veronika posing in the middle of the sweaty hike. It was absolutely beautiful.

I guess that ends this. I hope all is well with everyone. I'm home in one piece and ready to take on the job market now. That in itself will be a whole separate adventure for sure.

Love,

Sara/שרה

happy february!

shalom.

Wow. I really suck at this whole keeping up with the blog thing. I seem to always put it off and then I forget what I did and that just creates a whole big mess.

But anyways, we're coming down the end of the program. And to be completely honest, I am getting so pumped to head back home to the States. I am so excited to get back to Ohio and start figuring out my life from now on. (I also really miss the snow.)

We went on a really fun trip a week and a half ago to Jerusalem for the Jewish holiday of Tu'Bish Vat. This holiday is known as the festival of trees and it is celebrated by eating lots of fruit/nuts and we were also lucky enough to be able to plant trees in Jerusalem. It was a day trip in which we were given a great tour of the city, which included the Kotel and all the major things to see while there. I actually ended up staying the night with my cousin Freyda who has an apartment right in the city. It was so much fun and she showed me a great time. I'm literally so thrilled to have been able to meet her and have family here in Israel! Now she just has to come visit me in the States...

My cousin Freyda and me!

A crazy beautiful building in the old city.

Emily and me planting our tree in Jerusalem on Tu'Bish Vat.

Our whole group. Awwww.

I also had quite a nice day yesterday when my host family stopped by and invited me out to lunch with them. It was a great way to get off the kibbutz and of course, the food at the restaurant was quite delicious. The day did end kind of weird though when I electrocuted myself. That was fun, but thankfully I am still alive and well. :)

All for now. I'll be home soon...

rain.

Hello all. :)

All is well with me. The weather in Israel has gone down hill. This involves a ton of rain for the next few days which just ends up becoming a disgusting mess. Yucky.

I got to go on a really fun adventure the other day with the Partnership 2000 that I have been lucky enough to be a part of since I've been here. This time it was special because a group of people from the Jewish community in Youngstown were present along with the mayor of Youngstown and his wife and also some other important people from home. I attended a meeting with the mayor of the nearby city of Acco in which the key to Youngstown was given to the mayor. It was all very cool and exciting. We also toured around the city and had quite an exciting day.

My favorite stop was probably the Strauss Company factory. Here, they make many of the great dairy products that are found here in Israel. (My favorite would be their puddings called Milki.) We were given a tour around the factory and we had to wear hair nets and white lab-like coats. It was quite interesting to see the processes the products go through in order to get on the grocery store shelves. My favorite part was the taste-testing room at the end of the tour. :)

This is the Strauss Co. logo. They are actually opening a plant up

in Richmond, VA in order to reach the American market more thoroughly. Their main presence in the States now is their hummus, Sabra (below), which I'm sure you've seen in the grocery store.

So that was definitely a fun adventure and it also included a trip to a local college and a delicious dinner to top everything off. I'm really very thankful for the Partnership to include me in all these fun trips because I'm getting to see many things that I would not be able to if I went on my own.

Oh in other news...I got my camera fixed! I'm so excited so I took some random pictures today at school. They aren't all that great but I'll post them anyways. Enjoy...

Alex, Veronika, and Mike enjoying the delicious/cheap sandwiches at the school cafe. Alex didn't want this taken and that's why her face is hidden. haha

Veronika drawing for a student in the 7th grade. If the students do their work, she rewards them with a drawing.

And of course, you know me and my love of small dogs! This one wandered into the 7th grade and I went crazy. You can obviously tell from my facial expression that I'm in love.

All for now. I hope all is well in the States and I miss everyone tons and tons.

let the new year begin...

hello! I hope everyone has had a good first week of 2010. I think I have, all the weeks here are really starting to run together at this point. I'm loving it still, but I'm definitely more than excited that the end date is slowly but surely approaching.

Yesterday, instead of volunteering, a few of us chose to go on a day trip to places around the North. Honestly though, I'm not even really sure all the places we went and were lectured on but it was a nice break from volunteering. For some odd reason, I was so tired and was basically a walking zombie the whole day. It was fun, but I definitely crawled into bed at about 7:30 last night with every intention of getting up and going to the pub later but instead, woke up at about 9:15 this morning. I feel like a new person so I guess I really needed that. It was quite the epic nap.

Also, I was very stupid last week when I managed to drop my camera (last year's birthday gift) and break the lens. So I now have to steal pictures from friends. Major bummer.

Jackie, me, a girl from another group that was along for the day, and Emily on a train at one of the stops on the day trip.

A beautiful view from a short hike we took.

While on a watch tower looking at some beautiful views of Israel and its borders, a group of Israeli soldiers came by below us. We had a fun time watching them to say the least...

We also visited the site of an ancient Roman city that was built over 2,000 years ago. It was an absolutely beautiful day to be outside and walking around. It was probably close to 75 degrees. The ruins were spectacular and quite the site to behold.

So on a different note, I have started to make a few decisions about what's going to happen when I return to the States in under 2 months. I have decided on Pittsburgh (get excited Phil and Deb!) because I have a few friends there and it is close to home. It is also far enough away that I feel like I'm going somewhere different because I barely know the city at all. This is very exciting for me actually. Now, I am working on the job search. Grad school is still in the cards but I think I'm going to wait awhile until that actually happens.

That will do it for now.

Much love,

Sara

2010!

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! It is officially a new decade and I know it'll be a good one. Also, I have been here now for a little over 3 months, which is literally insane. Time sure knows how to fly by when you don't pay close attention to it.

The same as usualy has been happening lately. Still going to volunteer at the high school and I'm still really loving it. Last weekend was interesting actually. I traveled to Rechasim to visit the Branse's. They are cousins from my mother's side of the family and the father and mother moved to Israel many years ago where they decided to become observant Jews and raise their family here. I had never met them before and the experience itself was very interesting for me. I have never been to a real observant Shabbot before. There are many rules that are followed which include not turning on or off lights or tearing toilet paper.

Overall, it was a great experience in which I was able to meet family and have an amazing learning opportunity as well. I really loved Freyda too, she is 21 and lives in Jerusalem but came home for the weekend for Shabbot.

The Branse's and me! (Definitely not the best picture of me...)

So the rest of the week was a good one and last night was a ton of fun celebrating the New Year with my fellow Americans and our Israeli friends at the Pub. We all got dolled up and just had a great time. Apparently, New Year's is not that big of a deal here because everyone celebrates Rosh Hashana - the Jewish new year in September.

Happy January and I will be home soon! I love it here but boy do I miss home. Expecially you mom! (I thought you might like that shout out.)

Love.

a little vacation and a couple bday's...

Hi all! Guess what?! I'm 23! I can't believe it, I feel so old. :(

So anyways, I had an amazing time on our Israeli Adventure this past week. It was great to finally get out and truly explore the country we have been living in now for almost 3 months! (yea...time flies.) We started our tour d'Israel last Sunday morning with a full on soccer-mom mini van and we drove south to Ein Gedi, where the Dead Sea is located. We also toured the nature reserve/park where there was beautiful waterfalls and springs. It was incredible.

The girls. Talia, Emily, Jackie and myself in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve.

The Dead Sea. The mountains across the way are Jordin. This sea has its name because there is nothing living in it due to the fact that it is insanely salty. You can literally go in and lay on your back with a newspaper and float because of the salt. It's not fun when you have any open wounds though...

After exploring all that Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea had to offer we stayed the night in Bedouin tents. It was super cheap and kind of like a fun sleepover. We didn't arrive until after dark so we really were not aware of the beauty that surrounded us until after we woke up in the morning...

Emily and I with the most beautiful scenery right behind us. We totally got to sleep in the midst of this the night before. Incredible.

We continued our adventure in our rented mini van up to Jerusalem, the holiest city in the world. On our way we had to stop because we saw camels. Who wouldn't stop? So we all took turns riding them of course! I got the privelege of riding Charlie the camel. We became fast friends and got along swimmingly. This is us below...

hehe. I love Charlie.

We spent 3 nights in Jerusalem and it was amazing. We stayed at a hostel in the old city and thoroughly explored the area. During the time we were there we visited the Kotel (the Wailing Wall), Yad Vashem (the Israeli Holocaust Museum) and had our fair share of fun (including Emily's 24th bday!) It was seriously amazing and such a fun time. I had lots of fun people watching as well. I feel like I can walk away from Jerusalem and actually have a good sense of direction if I am to ever return.

Emily and me at the Kotel. This wall is the holiest place in the world for Jews. It's the last remaining wall of the second temple. There is a division line for males and females and so many people intensely praying. It is tradition to write a not to God and stick it in the wall as well.


This is the Dome of the Rock (The Golden Kippa) which is the holiest place for people of the Islamic faith. It is so interesting because as you can see, the Kotel is located right in front of it.

We headed to Tel Aviv on Thursday morning (my bday!) and had a fun day exploring the old city of Jaffa (where our hostel was) and heading closer to the heart of the city to meet up with other friends and go out for my bday!

This was on the wall at a pool bar we went to in Tel Aviv. I got way too excited and HAD to take a picture. As you may know, no one quite loves Ohio like I do...(even if the Franklin county is Columbus.)

Overall, I had a pretty cool bday in the great city of Tel Aviv. We went to a fun restaurant for dinner and then headed to a bar later on. There were 10 of us at dinner and it really did feel like birthday.

Me and the girls showing off our mustaches at the bar. Everyone even sang to me later on! hehe.

That will be all for now. Everything is still amazing and I cannot believe that this program is already half way over. I have to start thinking about what I'm going to do when I return home now...oy.

Happy Chanukah!!!!

Hooray! It's Chanukah! Anee ahohevit Chanukah! (I love Chanukah!) We have also had a fun couple of days. We had most of the week off from volunteering this week because there were other plans made for us here around the kibbutz and because there were special seminars going on at the high school that were put on by the 11th graders. I'm sure they would have been fun to watch and maybe interesting if we would have been able to understand them. So, that's why we didn't have to go. That does not mean that we were bored though. Our coordinators put us to work on the many things that had to be done for last night's kibbutz Chanukah program.

We also had a day trip on Thursday that was a lot of fun. We went to places all around the north. We started at the Rothchild Gardens. These were absolutely beautiful and even the tomb was massive and quite a site to see.

A view of the beautiful gardens.

Rothchild's enormous tomb. Which was in a huge crypt. Insane actually.

After the gardens, the bus took us to a place where we hiked for about 2 hours. The only problem was that it had rained a considerable amount the night before leaving the trails quite slippery and muddy. I managed to not fall at all due to my insane cautiousness that I luckily inherited from my wonderful mother. A few people wiped out but no one was hurt. We all ended up covered in mud though.

After the hike, we went to a nearby Druze village where we were given an hour to get something to eat and shop around a bit. A few of us went to a fun little local place where we ordered lebana (a yogurt like cheese) and zatar (a delicious spice used in many Arab dishes) on pita. So gooood.

After our short break, we drove to Haifa (I was there a few weeks ago) where we just stopped at the top of the Bahai gardens to get the best view ever. It was nice because the last time I was there a couple weeks ago we went in from the bottom and got a completely different view of the place. Haifa is such a beautiful and amazing city. So far, it's my favorite in Israel when it comes to beauty.

The view of the Bahai Gardens and of Haifa from the top.

Last night was a ton of fun here on Kibbutz Yehiam. We attended the Chanukah program/Birthday party of the kibbutz. Not only did we have a large part in helping to make the decorations and set up for this event, we also got to sing a Chanukah song (not willingly) in English in front of everyone during the program.

Mike, Jackie, Veronika, Alex, and Talia enjoying dinner (beef stew) and dessert (jelly dounuts) at the 1st night of Chanukah celebration!

This is me and one of my host sister's! Her name is Shachaff (it means Seagul in English and is a rather popular name for both girls and boys here) and she is 7 years old. Although we have a very hard time communicating with eachother we seem to make it work and she always goes out of her way to find me and give me a hug.

This is our masterpiece! This is what a couple others and myself spent hours and hours on to complete for this program. It is a HUGE TV (40 meters wide! I'm not sure how many feet that is, but it's a lot...) made out of cardboard that went on the stage. It is the TV that the Kibbutz members first received here way back in the day. Many of the older Kibbutz members really enjoyed it and the skits were based on TV prgrams so they were performed right in front of it.

So that'll do it for now. Oh and in case you were wonderfing, only 5 more days! Woot! Also, me and four others are leaving tomorrow morning for a trip around Israel. We are coming back on Friday afternoon and I am so excitied! We are renting a car and are starting out in Ein Gedi, where the Dead Sea is and then making our way to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Should be amazing and a great way to spend my 23rd bday!

Until next time...