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...

Only 13 more days....

I think everyone who is reading this knows why I made the title of this post just that. I still am having a hard time just getting over the fact that it is now December. Not only has the second half of the year flown by, but it also feels nothing like December here in northern Israel. It is still in the low 60s most of the time but gets pretty chilly at night. We were given a space heater for each of our rooms but it is like the nightlight from hell. The thing lights up the entire room and is hard to sleep with it on. What a conondrom! To be warm or to have a dark room to sleep in?

I have been very happy keeping busy recently. Last week we made Thanksgiving here for our group and we also invited a couple of the local Israeli boys to join in for their first ever Thanksgiving. We spent all day slaving in the kitchen and it was an amazing group effort from most of us. Mommy, you would be so proud of your little girl! I cooked up a storm and only ended up with one band-aid by the end of the day. (I need to learn how to chop stuff better.) Here some pictures of the process and the finished product...

My amazing mashed potatoes!!!

Emily and me tasting a bit before we got started. We also added some Israeli salad (chopped cucumbers and tomatoes with lemon juice and oil) to the spread to give Thanksgiving a little flare...

Thumbs up to our amazing turkey!

Everyone eating/finishing up....

Besides getting a cold this past Monday and not being able to go to school, everything has been going well as always. Yesterday we took a day trip to the city of Acco. I was there about a month ago when I was able to go with the Partnership to visit the Arab High School and such. Yesterday was a completely different trip though. We were given a tour of the Old City and were able to walk around the open-air market as well. We also went with the group from our neighboring kibbutz of Ga'aton (they are dancers) so we also went to an Arab dance studio in a small Arab village and we went to a gymnasium where at risk Arab teens learn traditional Arab dances. This group of boys performed for us in traditional costumes and it was absoultely amazing.

The day was a long one but so much fun! We ended the night back at Yehiam and a fun night out at the Kibbutz Pub. Here are some pics from our day trip....

A beautiful fountain in the old city.

Emily and Elana!

Part of the Old City. This whole area was once beneath the city and was excavated. I knew it all looked familiar and it took me until they lead you through the gift shop at the end to realize that I was here before in 2005.

The Arab teenage dancers in traditional clothing.

So that's about all for now. Today is the weekend and I have every intention of lounging around, reading, and watching movies all day. Sounds pretty good to me.

Love.