Reporting from Ramat Gan...

It's Chanukah break right now, which I have to say still sounds a little strange to my American ears. I'm used to a "holiday" break, if not simply a Christmas break. Amazingly, there are chanukiot in the window of almost every store and building in Israel at this time of year, and the toy store I visited yesterday was selling a Dora The Explorer-themed chanukiah.

I'm staying at Janie and Moshe's house until Friday, and as usual it's very nice there. There's hot water, a shower that's actually enclosed, edible food and a television. Therefore, it's pretty different from the mirkaz klitah.

Yesterday we went swimming, and then I accompanied Moshe to the market, where we bought all sorts of fruits and vegetables. Today, Michal's dog Yehoshua is visiting, which is a lot of fun. He's a big, sweet, naughty dog that reminds me quite a bit of my Cinn. He's lots of fun to play with.

I've been spending a lot of time working on my application essays over the past two days. So far I've already written half of it, deleted it and started over again. And there's a lot more work to do. Plus, only three of the five people I asked for refrences have responded so far. It would be really nice to know that I've got everything I need!

Apparently, I need to stop obsessing about this application stuff. So I'd better go take my mind off of it!