-- catch up on some much needed sleep. I slept til after 10 or 11 almost every day I was there. JOY!
-- weekend/Shabbat getaway with Steven - to Tel Aviv and (drum roll please) HAIFA! Never been, this will be my only chance before leaving the country! This also meant renting a car and driving there myself! Me, behind the wheel after 6 months of not driving. It felt a bit weird, but it also felt a bit cool. It's not like you just forget how to drive if you don't practice. It just comes right back to you! But, it was definitely a strange feeling to be driving on roads and in places that I had only been in as a passenger in a car or riding on a bus. Coming back from the Goldsmith cousins on Saturday night (last chance to see them and give them gifts from England!), I was behind the wheel when we went through the checkpoint. We weren't stopped, but it just felt weird to be the one driving! Throughout the weekend, we were busy: we had dinner on the beach in Tel Aviv (hooray for good weather), watched baseball at Mike's Place in Tel Aviv (quite a different experience from Mike's Place in Jerusalem), made a quick visit to Caesaria, went to Shabbat services at Or Chadash, dinner at Giraffe (an Asian fusion restaurant), walking down 700+ steps in the Bahai Gardens, which was stunning, but painful on the calves the next day, and seeing the Goldsmith cousins for dinner and hangout time on Saturday night before heading back to Jerusalem.
-- ice skating at Kikar Safra with Avi Mayer! When he posted on Facebook that the rink was coming into town, I knew the dates overlapped a bit with mine, so we made a promise to each other and stuck with it! Of course, Lisa Friedman was there with us in spirit. Avi printed a picture of her so she came ice skating with us. I think she enjoyed it :) And I met a cute little 8 year old boy who I decided is my new best friend slash younger brother. He was so cute, and kept skating near us when we were going around and around. He fell a couple times (unlike Avi or me, who somehow managed to stay on our feet the whole time) but got himself right back up again. What a trooper!
-- Rangers vs. Philly game on Sunday night at Mike's Place. I invited all my Israel friends to come say hi, and/or bye, and/or have some food/drink and/or enjoy the hockey game! I had a really nice turnout of friends from WUJS, Pardes, HUC, and some others. It was a great night with great company, AND the Rangers won! I think it was the first game I had watched in Israel that came out a victory! Finally!
-- "How to Lead a Passover Seder" workshop at HUC followed by Rachel Goldberg's Passover class on Monday night. Seeing as Passover is SO by far my fave holiday, it was no wonder I agreed to go to everything I did on Monday. Shelly, a liturgy professor at HUC led this workshop, geared mostly toward the HUC students who are leading seders in the Former Soviet Union, but opened it to others (including me!). I also got to go to Rachel's class that evening with the new WUJS crew, and surprisingly, they had the room filled! We only had 5 or 6 people on average attending her classes. Either it's still the beginning for them, or they have more people interested in the learning aspect. I loved the class, as usual, and wish I could study more with her. Her approach and teaching style is so engaging, and so "real life." I'm afraid I won't really ever find that same style in a Judaism teacher. She'll be missed!
I had some firsts, and I had some lasts, during my last week in Israel, and it was a great last week to have. I was in many cities, saw many of my friends, and did a variety of activities to keep me interested in being here. I wasn't otherwise really interested in being here, with the exception of seeing friends and family. I am ready to go home; NY is calling my name. I have spent many months away from my parents and my close friends from home. I want to be back in my apartment in NYC. I still have some processing to do of all of the experiences I've had in Israel; it will certainly take some time. But that time to process can begin soon now that I am on my way home.
America here I come!
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