Not the best updater, am I?

So it seems that I've kind of let this blog go for a few weeks, haven't I? I guess with all of the major excitement going on at WUJS, it completely slipped my mind. And can you detect the sarcasm in that statement?

So, WUJS may not be particularly exciting, but my life outside of the merkaz klitah is a bit more interesting. My mom and dad came to visit for about a week a little while back (February 9th through the 16th). I met them in Jerusalem, and we hung out there for a few days. We did Ben Yehudah Street quite a few times and bought lots of cool stuff. The boys and I each got a tallit, though I must say that mine is much prettier than theirs! We ate REAL food in restaurants, and I'm talking about food that consists of more than grease. We had a great day when another family from Milwaukee joined us, and we went through Machneh Yehudah (the shuk) and then to a restaurant.

After Jerusalem, the 'rents and I headed south for Arad. There, I showed them the sights of the city, mostly consisting of my crappy room, the mall, the merkaz (center of the city), and the music conservatory. I introduced my mom to the delights of Tokio Pizza, my favorite "restaurant" in Arad, where I eat my weekly bagel toast. My parents bought me a bunch of socks at the mall, which is good. I was kind of running low. Then I had a violin lesson, so I took them to meet my teacher, Galena. That was cool. She doesn't speak English, they speak very little Hebrew, and my dad's Russian consists of ten words...but somehow they got their points across.

After Arad, we spent the night in Mitzpeh Ramon, sight of Machtesh Ramon, which is a giant crater in the earth. It's one of three such craters. The other two are cleverly named "Machtesh Ha-gadol and Machtesh Ha-katan, which mean "big crater" and "little crater." Ramon is the biggest of the three, and the one I rappeled down a little over two years ago. Apparently, peer pressure is a greater force than I thought. Anyway, my mom said she was impressed that I would rappel down the machtesh. My dad just said I was a bigger idiot than he thought if I did that. I tend to agree with my dad.

After Mitzpeh Ramon, it was off to Eilat for a few nights. That first afternoon, we decided we would go and have lunch in Egypt---just for the fun of saying we've been there. So we headed to the Taba border crossing, got our passports stamped on the Israeli side, and were in Egypt.

My first impression of Egypt was that they had very nice uniforms but very little to back the uniforms up. It was weird. They made us go through about three metal detectors (in the same building, believe it or not), but then forgot to stamp our passports! Egypt's officious inadequacy was a far cry from the Israeli system of laid-back competence.

The resort (Israeli-built) in Taba was absolutely beautiful. And absolutely empty. I think they were more than happy to take our money! We ate a lunch of salads outside, overlooking the Red Sea (which is very blue). After that, we looked around a bit. My dad bought a souvenir hat, and we went back to Israel. That night, we walked on Eilat's beach promenade.

The next day, we toured some kibbutzim, including Kibbutz Keturah, where I stayed a few months ago on a WUJS shabbaton. See pictures from an earlier blog entry. We also went to Timna, the site of "Solomon's mines," which is very touristy and heavily sponsored by Milwaukee Jews. Then it was back to Eilat to scout out a place for dinner.

Getting back to WUJS was very disappointing. It was also a very long bus ride.

Last night, I held a very short recital for my friends at WUJS, comprising one violin piece and the two pieces I will sing at my HUC audition in less than two weeks. By all accounts, it was quite successful.

Purim preparations are underway here. I'm going to dress up as a pirate.

And finally, this blog entry is done! Was it long enough??

Happy Tu B'Shvat

This is a picture of some of my WUJS friends planting trees in Sansena. From left: Josh (one of the three), someone I can't see well but I think is Jessica, Rachel, David and Deb.


I know that Tu B'Shvat was actually last Saturday, and the wish is a little late. But today we WUJies (or "wedgies" as some like to call us) celebrated the real thing in style. How? By planting trees, of course.

For those of you who don't know, Tu B'Shvat is most easily explained by a children's song, which informs us that the holiday is the "birthday of the trees." Basically, it's supposedly starting to be springtime in Israel (but it's still seriously cold), and it's a holiday that celebrates trees and fruit and all that stuff.

So today, we went to a new settlement called Sensana, which is situated in the negev just this side of the green line. The place is so new that houses are just now starting to be built. Everyone who lives there still lives in pre-fabricated houses that they call "caravans," which are about one step up from a trailer, it seems. It's a fairly religious settlement, and there were lots of tiny children in tzitzit and kippot or little skirts (for the girls) running around. There was a ceremony with some speakers, and then we planted. It didn't take very long, but it was pretty fun.

Other than that, life has been busy. I took my stupid psychological tests for HUC earlier this week, and the experience was both boring and frustrating. If I never have to do that again, I'll be happy. Also, I found out that Israel actually uses handwriting analysis. Hasn't that been proven to be complete bullshit? I know it's totally inadmissable in court in the US. Anyway, HUC didn't make me do that, so I'm happy about that!

While I was in Tel Aviv the night before the testing, I met some Brazilian kids who had extended their Birthright trips. I hung out with them, and it was a lot of fun.

Next up is the third of our three breaks from WUJS. My mom and dad are coming, and I'm heading to Jerusalem on Friday. I'll meet them there on Saturday, and I'll get to sleep in a real hotel that probably has CARPETING! Really, carpeting is scarce here. The little and barely significant differences between Israel and the States are rather weird.