Last day of WUJS

So, the time has finally come to say goodbye. It's the last day at WUJS for me, and for most of the other participants of the October 2006 machzor.

At the beginning, I wasn't sure I was going to make it. I was in a weird country, in a weird little city, and a very weird building. I still think the building is weirdl, but I love Israel and I've even become fond of Arad, small and provincial as it is. Basically, I'm going to be sad to leave.

Last night, I officially graduated from WUJS. The staff put on plays, read poems and handed out diplomas to those of us who achieved the required attendence in classes and ulpan. I passed. Some did not.

Today, checkout procedures are currently underway. After that, in about half an hour, we leave for a spa near the Dead Sea, for our end-of-the-machzor party. Swimming suits are required. I'm looking forward to this.

Tomorrow, I leave Arad for Tel Aviv at 11:00 in the morning. My plane leaves at night, and I'll be home in a little more than 48 hours for now. I'm going to miss Israel. Please excuse me for a few weeks if I accidentally litter my English with key Hebrew phrases. I will just be missing Israel, where everyone understands that stuff!

Only four days left

A joke, courtesy of Adam Richter:

What do you call it when the WUJS director keeps putting you off?

........
........
........

Give up?

Alon deferral!

Ok, sorry for that, everyone. That was actually the best of Adam's jokes in the past two weeks. It's terrible, isn't it?

WUJS is almost over. We're all packing up. It's pretty sad. This weekend was the last shabbat of the program, so we were basically all in Arad. My roommate is actually completely packed, so my room is half-empty. It's very strange. Even her amazing bulletin board is bare.

I'm excited to go home, but I'm also sorry to leave Israel. I'm just looking forward to coming back to Israel in the hopefully near future, hopefully for another long period of time.

Drawing to a close...

So I have less than two weeks left in Israel, and I've just started to realize how sad I'm going to be to leave this place. Not the merkaz klitah (I wouldn't mind never seeing this particular building and its overgrowth of mold again), but the country in general and Arad in particular (a little bit). I had my last rehearsal with the Arad orchestra (all ten members were present, I believe), and I'm going to miss it a lot.

It also occured to me that someday, preferably within the next ten to twelve days, I'm going to have to pack. I hate packing. This may just be a good excuse for staying in Israel, right? If I stay, I don't have to attempt to shove all of my belongings into suitcases. I'm also not particularly looking forward to thirteen hours on a plane.

This week at WUJS should be fun, though. Last Monday, the artists had their Arad gallery opening, and this Monday they open in Tel Aviv. It's always kind of amazing to find out that the people I'm living with are talented. Last week, I was just an audience member, but this week I'm backing up three of Brandon's poems with some violin music. We've been practicing so one of us doesn't finish way before the other. Yesterday, it seemed to go fairly well.

Other than that, ulpan and other classes continue on as normal. And the food here still sucks, so maybe I'll go to the store tonight and get some stuff in order to avoid the dining hall!

Once again, reporting from Ramat Gan

So, once again, I'm writing my blog from a REAL house, as opposed to the moldy merkaz klitah in which I currently dwell. Janie and Moshe (my mom's cousin and her husband) are once again back in Eretz Yisrael, and therefore I get a break from Arad. It's nice, because they take me places and feed me well and talk to me and stuff like that.

This past week was very weird. Sunday was Purim, so we had an extra day off of classes. Monday was Shushan Purim, so nobody went to classes anyway. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were taken up by a tiyul (hiking trip) in the north, which I didn't attend.

Instead of going hiking, I went for my HUC interview and audition. So I spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Jerusalem. It's over, I won't know anything for some time, but I can now relax. It's now not the end of the world if I catch a cold!

According to two of my closest sources, Charlotte (my roommate) and Rebecca (another friend), the tiyul was lots of fun and lots of walking. I'm sure I'll hear more when I get back to WUJS on Sunday.

As of today, there are less than three weeks left in WUJS. Soon, I'll be home, but I hope it will be for a short time (meaning that I hope I get accepted to HUC). I have lots of plans for my first days back. A short time ago, I started dreaming about eating Kopp's custard while playing with the dog, and variations on that theme!

Purim in Arad

A few nights ago, I put on a fake beard and eyepatch, picked up a plastic sword, and went downstairs to join my fellow WUJies for our official Purim auction. Yes, an auction. We fulfilled the mitzvah of giving to the poor on Purim by selling things that nobody else would ever buy.

I bought several things, including dinner at our director's house, Brandon (I'm not sure what I'm doing with him yet) and Rivka's dryer-babysitting services (she'll sit and watch my laundry, and pop it in the dryer before any Russians or Ethiopians can steal my turn). I sold a half-hour long private concert (Rivka bought it and intends to have me perform for her adoptive family) and four violin lessons (Mike is looking forward to learning how to play "twinkle"). All in all, it was a good night. We made over $600 for the new children't library at the other merkaz klitah in town, which means a lot of little Ethiopian children will get to read.

I'm staying in Arad for Purim, and only heading to Jerusalem after the excitement of Shushan Purim is over. For those who don't know, Shushan Purim is a special second day of the holiday that is only celebrated in cities that are surrounded by ancient walls, such as Jerusalem. Luckily, although I opted to stay in Arad, my ulpan class has been cancelled for Monday. As a result, I have basically no classes until next Sunday. If I wasn't going so crazy over my audition/interview, this would be a very nice break.

I'm counting down the days until: 1. my audition, and 2. I get to come home. The audition is in a nerve-wrackingly close five days, and I'll be back in Milwaukee in 27 days from now.