Poland

I spent a week in Poland with 26 other Nativers, 2 madrichim, director Yossi, and head of USY Jules Gutin (who was also our tour guide for most places).  Purpose: Learn about Poland’s pre-Holocaust Jewish life and the Holocaust.  This trip was somewhat similar to other Poland trips (a USY summer program, March of the Living, Camp Ramah post-camper pre-staff summer, Israeli 11^th grade trip) in that we saw old cemeteries, old synagogues, and the remnants of concentration and death camps.  But unlike these trips we all already knew each other (this is the same for the Israeli trip; and I also must say we had a great group), we’re a little older and more mature, and we all had to prepare a presentation about a place, person, or text, which helped us find a little more meaning in a particular thing we saw.

It was an amazing trip.  We were full of emotion, but still able to have fun during our long bus rides, at hotels, and during our free time. 

I don’t want this blog to be a history lesson, and I also don’t want to relive this week, so I’m going to post our itinerary and say just a little more about some things.  The places we went and the things we did were very interesting, so I suggest you look these places up if you want to know more.

Jan 18

3am- leave Jerusalem

9:20am- arrive in Warsaw

Old Jewish cemetery in Warsaw

Noyzak synagogue

Go to Lublin 

Jan 19

Old Jewish Cemetery in Lublin

Yeshivat chachmei Lublin

Majdanek

Go to Krakow, visiting synagogues on the way

Jan 20

Tour of Jewish Quarter

·         Synagogues: Ramah, Kuppah, Tempel

o   Some absolutely beautiful, but it’s the people not the appearance that makes the davening for me
·         there are store signs representing how there used to be Jewish life here
Jewish cemetery
Schindler’s factory (now a Polish Holocaust museum)
Free time to wander Krakow (I went with a group to see an old castle)
Nativ services in Tempel synagogue

Jan 21

Services at Ramah synagogue
·         Very few non-Nativers, about half of whom were visitors
AltaShul (“Old School”)
·         was the Jewish school, now a Jewish museum which one Nativer said reminded her of an exhibit of ancient Egyptians, about a people that doesn’t exist anymore.  And in Poland, this may as well be true
Mincha- guys went to back to congregation from morning (so they’d have a minyan); girls had women’s davening at hotel (so we wouldn’t have to be back behind a really bad mechitza)
Free time in Krakow Square

Jan 22

Auschwitz I

• buildings turned into a museum

Auschwitz II- Birkenau

• we left walking on the train tracks that brought over a million people to their deaths

Go to Lodz

Jan 23

Cemetery
Deportation center
Go to Warsaw

Warsaw Ghetto

·         this area has been reconstructed to a new residential area

·         several memorials

o   one main one was sculpted by Nathan Rappaport, who had the same name as my great-grandfather who came to the US from Poland in 1914

Jan 24

Lupochova forest- mass graves of Tykocin Jewish community

Treblinka

·         nothing left.  There’s the forest built to cover up evidence of the camp and stones similar to gravestones for countries and cities impacted.  The only person’s name on a stone is Janusz Korczak, about whom I did my presentation with Gila the night before.

*This day I felt very conflicted because there is little more beautiful to me than forests, and I saw what may be the two most horrible ones.

*This was the most meaningful day for me.  I don’t know if it’s because we saw places I knew very little about or if the whole week had been building up in me, but this day was hard.

Return to Warsaw to leave in the morning

Trivia: What was the highlight of the week?  Returning to Israel.  I hope to never go back to Poland

Winter Break (Part III): North and South

Jan 11

After a night of horrible sleep (our room was freezing!  Turns out, the window was open) and a quick run, Julia and I took our bus to Tzfat.  I was too awake to sleep and too worried about carsickness to read, so I mostly just looked out the windows at the beautiful country.  I saw cows grazing by the road!

Once we arrived in Tzfat, our next task was to get to the hotel.  The people on our bus were as nice and helpful as possible in getting us to the hotel.  This concerned Julia, but she’s from Brooklyn, where there aren’t nice people. 

It ranged from slightly to very rainy all day, but this didn’t stop us from walking around looking at the famous art.  (I guess in better weather we would have seen more, but still.)  The art was beautiful. Much of it has Kabalistic symbols.  There’s also a little shop where you can get a snack of cheese made in Tzfat, a second hand store (I got a nice skirt, a scarf, and an ugly sweater vest to add to Mia’s collection of ugly sweaters), and a really cool candle store where they not only have the expected Shabbat and Havdallah (ceremony for transitioning from Shabbat to the rest of the week) candles, but wicked (I mean, a piece of string is in it, not Elphaba-related) wax sculptures of books, characters, flowers, and Biblical scenes.  We were back in our room by 6, giving plenty of time for movies and relaxation, but I want to visit again in better weather and see more.

HLOTDTF

M- eating chick peas out of a can

K- nice people helping us on the bus

Jan 12

We woke up early to pack up, check out, and go to the Alma Cave.  This last part didn’t really happen.  The woman at the front desk told us (contradicting my tour guide book) that you can’t get there from Tzfat, and even if we did, this would be horrible weather, especially with bad drivers.  We considered doing something else for the day, but decided to just get back to Jerusalem early. 

Back in Jlem, we had great weather.  I walked to the shuk and stocked up on food for the next few days, went for a run, and relaxed for the rest of the day.

HLOTDTF

M- watching “A Clockwork Orange”

K- being in my favorite park

*break*

Jan 13-14

While we wanted to do a short hike in the Jerusalem hills this morning, it was raining pretty badly.  Before leaving for whatever we were going to do for Shabbat, the only time either of us left our room was to go across the street to the grocery store.  A very lazy day.  Doing nothing, there could be no HLOTDTF, so I’m just going to continue the story with Shabbat.

In the pouring rain, walking in a couple deep puddles, I walked to the hotel where Mia and her parents stayed for break.  So as to not ruin any shoes, I wore my Shorashim, which may or may not be sandals, leaving my feet very exposed to the elements.  But it’s ok; my feet were only temporary numb.  The four of us walked to Roz’s for services.  It seemed we were doing particularly random tunes (you never know what tunes will be sung there), but that wasn’t the most interesting part of the service.  At the beginning of maariv (the evening service), the lights went out!  It being Shabbat, we couldn’t turn the lights back on, but we didn’t need them anyway.  With the small amount of light from the heat lamps, we had the most spirited service I have ever experienced.  Roz’s minyan is always the best davening.

Shabbat morning, Julia and I went to Yakar.  The beginning of the service was really nice, but then it was just a basic service.  We had a shiur before Torah reading, but it was over my head.  Then we went to Vered’s (a yeshiva teacher) home for lunch with her and her family.  It was so nice there.  We played with her youngest son, Natan, a lot, as well as their dog Sheba (who has become my favorite dog in Israel) before lunch.  Then we ate a lot of yummy food, followed by sitting and talking and looking at their book collection.  We then came back to base and I read until the end of Shabbat.

HLOTDTF

K- when I felt like Sheba loved me

M- cute, entertaining little kids at shul

*break*

Jan 15

We wake up kinda early, we leave our room on time, and in the lobby, I see a friend from different summer programs I’ve done over the past 5 summers, Nic.  I hadn’t seen him in so long!  He was here with his school for a few days, but this morning they were leaving.  After just a couple minutes of talking, Julia and I went to the light rail for the bus.  We had to wait 10 min for the train, so I wonder if I hadn’t seen Nic if we would have caught the last train…

Well, we made it to the bus station in time to chase after our bus, not catch up to it in time, and wait another hour for the next bus to take us to Masada!  Julia had never been before, so after this day she could finally say she had been on a youth trip to Israel.

We had a bit of a walk to the entrance of the mountain (which also has a museum, which we did not visit), paid, put all of our stuff in a locker, and began the hike.  It was less tedious, but more difficult than what I remembered.  Once at the top, we walked around looking at the remains of the community that lived there.  There is a beautiful view, and in the Dead Sea the reflections of the mountains in Jordan are purple.  We were both pooped from the hike, so we didn’t see everything, and we came down.  We ate and hung out for a while before walking back to the bus stop to take us to Arad.

In Arad, we settled into our hotel room, showered (hiking in the south in the heat=sweat and stench), and rested for a while.  That night we went out to the mall, ate, walked around, and saw what Arad is like.  It’s a very small town, where they only have 2 bus lines (and probably just 2 buses) which stop running at 8pm.  Everyone we met was very nice, including a possibly stray dog. 

HLOTDTF

K- davening mincha on Masada

M- making it up and down Masada in one piece

*break*

Jan 16

This morning we woke up, checked out, and headed to the central bus station where we were to part ways.  Julia wanted to go back to Jerusalem, so she took a bus to Beer Sheva, to then get a bus to Jlem (can’t go directly from Arad).  I took a bus to the Ein Gedi, somewhere I had never been before. 

The Ein Gedi was beautiful.  I hiked in the mountains for a few hours, saw 2 great waterfalls, and was completely unimpressed by the actual Ein Gedi Spring (maybe it’s nicer in another season with more water).  When there, you can’t help thinking, “What is this life doing here?!  This is the desert, and the closest large body of water is not really know for supporting life.  And here there are waterfalls, plants, animals, and a palm orchard.  What?!”

This was the first time I went hiking alone, which I felt safe doing because the whole area had a lot of people (more school trips than I expected) and the hiking wasn’t too difficult.  I really enjoyed hiking alone, being alone with my thoughts in nature for a couple hours.

With taking the bus back to Jlem with Lucy and Jake (who had spent the past day in Ein Gedi), I concluded my winter break.  I have now seen so much more of Israel, but there is still much I want to see.  I feel like I know the country better.  Many of my friends went to different places in Europe (England, Ireland, Luxemburg, Paris, Prague, Rome, Spain, etc.), and their trips sound amazing!  But I’m glad I was able to immerse myself in my country outside of Jerusalem.  I’d say this was a successful winter break. 

HLOTDTF

K- falling back asleep after waking up at 6-something that morning

M- the maitre d’ coming to our room, instead of us going to the front desk, for check out 

Trivia: What do I want for my next major trips?  US- to see the Grand Canyon, Multnoma Falls in Oregon, and Alaska (among other sights); Spain- Madrid and Barcelona; Prague; and everything else in the world really worth seeing. (This will give you an idea of what I mean: http://iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=16814)

Winter Break (Part II): The Boring Days

Jan 8

On January 8, I was concerned with my small quantity of money.  For some reason I do not know, I wasn’t able to transfer money to my debit card.  I had to then ask my parents to put money on the card (promising to pay them back), wait for them to do it, and wait even longer for the process to complete.  This meant I was not going to have access loaded onto the card until the morning of January 9.  I still had some money, just not a cushion that may be necessary with traveling.

The plan for this day was to go to Chaifa, and while that should be extremely exciting, the limited funds were not the lowlight.  I woke up really early, which was bad because it was very little sleep, but great because it meant I had more time to get everything out of my room (I had bags to put into short-term storage).  Somehow, I managed to still be late, something for which I am very sorry.  Julia and I missed our bus and had to wait for the next.  This bus also came quite late.  I was upset about our shortened day in Chaifa.

The bus came, we both slept some (while I was half asleep and we were almost there, Julia was awake and saw Kfar Chasidim!), and we found our way to destination 1 at the perfect time!  This was the Bahai Gardens.  You are supposed to reserve a tour, which we did not do, but getting there right at 12, right when the English tour for the day begins, we managed to join.  I was hoping to learn about the Bahai religion, but I heard a total of about six words from the tour guide (wind, nearby roads, a lot of people=loud).  I think the gardens are beautiful in a man-made nature kinds of way: everything is very well tamed and groomed.  It’s set up as several layers with the shrine at the bottom, which gives it a nice effect.  Overall, not my thing, but I’m glad I went.

We walked past the science museum, destination 2 for the day, but decided we wanted to drop off our heavy backpacks at the hotel, so we walked a little farther to check in.  The hotel turns out to be the exact opposite of the hostel in Tel Aviv.  We got there, and it looked so nice.  We had a choice of 2 rooms, and there is space and color.  And then over the next 5 ½ hours, during which time we did not leave the room once, we discovered it was not so great of a place.  It was really loud from the road and had weird things, like the toilet was in a little room on the balcony while the shower and sink were in the main room.  The maitre d' smiled like how creepy murderers smile in horror movies, and whole hotel reminded Julia of “The Shining.”

We left around 7 to get some dinner, see the water, and just walk around.  We really did only 1 of these- walk around.  Walking towards the water, we were blocked by the train tracks and industrial buildings, and we couldn’t get near enough to really see anything.  Probably because we walked toward the port and this is really just a business area, all of the restaurants were closing.  What a lame city!  We got food in a 24hour mart.  We returned to the hotel and hung our before going to sleep early.

Conclusion: Chaifa is probably a nice place to spend a couple hours and see museums (and Lucy told me she did a really great hike there), but overall a lame city.  Can’t wait to live 20 minutes away next semester…

HLOTDTF

M- successfully using the camera which she has had for 7 years for the first time

K- discovering no utensils are needed to eat a Milki (pudding) (Thank you, Avital, for getting these for Suzanne, and thank you, Suzanne, for leaving them in the fridge J)

Jan 9

Monday morning we woke up early to check out early to get to Tverya early.  Check out took longer than we wanted because we didn’t have the money at the time, but luckily, by booking through a website, they were able to charge my card a few hours later, and all was swell.  We take the bus to Tverya.

We wanted to go there to hike Mt. Arbel, which is supposed to be a really great hike.  We needed a cab to get there, we got there, and it was closed due to weather (it had rained earlier).  Sadly, this day was mostly a waste of time and money.  We drove back down to down the street from the central bus station to go to a small national park.  It was pretty cool, but not the most exciting of places.  We saw the remains of a very old synagogue with a cool mosaic floor, remains of dwellings, and the hot springs.  Interesting, but overall, this day could have been better.  Especially as it started to rain pretty hard.  We walked back to the bus station, but had trouble with this because we didn’t know where it was, so we were left in the rain for a while.  We were very close to the Kinneret, and I kept on thinking the water and beaches would be so pretty if it were not so foggy.  And for every mountain I saw (and this was also true for nearly every mountain I saw when in a bus during all of break), I just wished I could climb it.

As we finally approached the bus station, there was a random Statue of Liberty on a store.  I have no idea why.  While waiting for the bus, a cat was hanging around.  She kept on walking around our legs, and not knowing what diseases she might have had, we tried to shoo her away.  Didn’t really work.  A crazy cat lady, also waiting for the bus, would pick her up, pet her, and feed her.  I hope the cat wasn’t rabid or anything.

We arrived in Jerusalem early, settled into our new temporary room (with Pam as a 3^rd roommate), saw other Nativers who were at base, and had a nice break from vacation.

HLOTDTF

M- sitting after long walk from national park

K- the cat hanging around the bus station

Jan 9-10

Monday afternoon and all of Tuesday, neither Julia nor I really did anything.  We were both doing our own thing during this time.  I watched 3 movies (total during break is probably around 7) and had a nice run and a nice walk.  On Tuesday we had to switch rooms because our shower was broken.  And that’s about all.

HLOTDTF

Non-existent, we were never walking or waiting together.

Trivia: What is a core value in the Bahai faith?  The spiritual unity of all humankind.

Winter Break (Part I): 4 days, 4 cities, HLOTDTF, met a different family each day

Definitions of “winter break” (because this post isn’t going to be long enough with the selected details of each day):

1.      Time off of school between semesters

2.      When children play in snow all day, drink hot chocolate, and watch movies

3.      When high schoolers act as the children in no. 2, fill out review packets for classes, sleep half of the day, and possibly study for the SAT.

4.      When many of my Jewish friends from high school went to visit their grandparents in Florida.

5.      When the winter is apparently broken because it is unusually warm and snow-less after being cold and snowy.

6.      The 2 weeks of being completely on your own in Israel or Europe (or I guess going back to the states, and I think 2 people went to Thailand) prior to the week of being on a strict schedule in Israel or Europe (specifically Poland) prior to about another week and a half or something of programming in and about Israel prior to the actual beginning of second semester. 

Shockingly, winter break #6 best describes the winter break of Nativ.  From January 4 to January 16, I travelled around Israel with my friend Julia.  This was the first time for both of us planning what we wanted to do, scheduling in as much as we could, booking hostels, and transporting ourselves around.  We accomplished less than we intended, but slept more than I thought we would.  We’ve met many nice strangers, driven past miles of beautiful land, and every day, whilst walking or waiting for a bus or something boring like that, told our ‘highlight of the day thus far,’ or HLOTDTF.

Shall I begin the long, very long, recap?  I shall.  I’m splitting it up into different posts, but I’ll point out good bathroom/coffee breaks to help you through each. 

*break*

[Disclaimer: At the time of posting this, my pictures have not been uploaded.  I have some reminders in here to post certain pictures, and I’ll hopefully put up more.  You just might have to wait a month…or 2.]

Jan 4

Julia and I got up early to get our last day of breakfast at Beit Nativ and catch a bus to Rechovot.  In waking up early and finishing packing for the next 3 days (my backpack was heavy!), I unintentionally made an obscene amount of noise, waking up both Leah and Suzanne (I’m so sorry!).  I hugged them each goodbye, as I won’t see Suzanne until just before we leave for Poland, and I won’t see Leah until after I get back.

We arrived in Rechovot, and people were so nice!  We were told good directions (very special in Israel) to get to our first destination- the Weizmann Institute.  The first thing we did was watch a short video about Weizmann and how great their research is.  Julia and I both fell in love and want to work there (she wants to do biomedical engineering, and I want to study neuroscience).  We then walked around, enjoying the warm weather and beautiful campus.  In making our way to the science park, we found a large chess set!  Obviously, we decided to play chess, even though pieces were missing and we had to make do with the random broken pieces lying around.  We played two games, and I won both!

[insert picture of my knight]

At the park, nearly everything demonstrates some physics principle.  There are tons of pendulums!  Different things demonstrate periodic motion, transfer of energy, and Euler’s question proof with the Seven Bridges of Königsberg.  After a couple hours of playing here, we left for the Ayalon Institute.

Getting to the Ayalon Institute was a bit of a walk.  It was mostly uphill, rather hot, and again, I had a heavy backpack.  Luckily, we got there with enough time to sit and cool down before the tour.  The Ayalon Institute used to be a kibbutz founded for the sole purpose of secretly and illegally manufacturing bullets for Israelis right under the noses of the British.  We learned the history and logistics of the kibbutz (those not making the bullets didn’t even know it was happening!) and got to see their machines underground.  I came here when I was in Israel when I was in 8^th grade, and it was definitely worth a second visit.

After the tour, one of the people who works there called for a cab to take us to the central bus station (CBS).  Because of the available tour times, we had to go later than I wanted to in order to get to my next destination as soon as possible.  We waited for the bus for about a half hour, then gave up and started to walk.  If only the cab had come, Rechovot might have become my new favorite city.  In any case, we made it to the CBS. I found out about a better and less expensive way than I previously knew to get to Ashdod, and Julia returned to Jerusalem

Why go to Ashdod?  Well, that’s where Rachel lives!! Who’s Rachel?  Rachel worked as a counselor at the JCC day camp by my home for the summers when I was 5 and 6 years old, and during these summers, she stayed at my house.  After not seeing her for 12 and a half years, I was finally able to visit her!  In these years I’ve changed quite a bit (for starters, I’ve grown about 2 feet taller), and she too has changed, now married with 3 children. 

I went out to dinner with Rachel and her family.  Then we went to her home, and her kids went to sleep almost instantly.  We stayed up talking for hours, catching up, recounting memories of Rachel’s time in Flossmoor.  Unfortunately, Rachel needed to go to sleep to be able to teach in the morning (she teaches high school math), so I too went to sleep.  It had been an incredibly busy, but amazing day.

HLOTDTF (by last initials)

K-playing chess

M-finding someone from her METNY (Metropolitan New York USY) encampment (convention thingy) working at the science park

Jan 5

I woke up somewhat early this morning to go to school with Rachel.  Before we left, I had some time to play with her adorable kids!  At school, Rachel introduced me to other staff, and I got to see what her classes were like- different, but not too different from an American high school.  Her students were excited about my presence, too.  Then during a break at 10, Rachel took me to the bus stop to get on my way to Tel Aviv.  I truly regret how I was only able to spend a night and morning with Rachel and her family.  It was not nearly enough time.  It was too hard to say goodbye.

*break*

Waiting for the bus to take me to the Ashdod CBS, I talked with a half-blind French man in Hebrew.  For some reason, he thought I spoke Hebrew well!  I’m glad someone thinks so, I guess.  After a while, the bus came, and the bus driver turned out to be really great.  She gave me my money back and dropped me off at a different bus stop that the Tel Aviv bus will stop at so I didn’t need to go all of the way to the CBS, and because of this, I was able to get an earlier bus.

I met Julia at the Tel Aviv CBS.  Sadly, we wasted time going halfway to the Diaspora Museum, then getting a cab to just take us to our hostel.  We were really just tired, and the bus we needed was taking too long.  When we got to the street of the hostel, we were a little worried.  We saw the correct address with nothing indicating it was anything at all.  I called, but the booking website did not provide the correct Israeli number.  We exit the cab, and walk to this address, and see on the door information about the hostel.  Few!  We go in, climb a few flights of stairs, and check in.  After the brief orientation of the building, we decided to forget the rest of our plans for the day and take a nap.  We watched some youtube videos (they had excellent internet!) and talked a little with others staying in the hostel. That night we went out to dinner and hung out with one of Julia’s USY friends and her sister.  We returned to the hostel and went to sleep.

HLOTDTF

M- finding out the hostel exists

K- talking with Rachel’s kids in Hebrew

Jan 6

This morning, we lingered around the hostel to have breakfast there, packed up, and spent the morning just wandering around, looking at art and architecture.  We then took a bus back to Jerusalem to visit my cousin’s friends, a family living in Ramot (neighborhood in Jlem), for Shabbat. 

*break*

Lynn was such a Jewish mother!  The first thing she did when we reached her house was offer us lunch, and over the course of Shabbat and post-Havdallah, this happened a few more times.  We helped the family prepare for Shabbat and went with them to shul.  Their Friday night shul is a lot like the Yakar near our base- a lot of great singing and so packed that many people have to stand outside.  The shaliach tzibur (leader, cantor for the service) was fantastic.  When we returned to the house, we had a great dinner with many great vegetarian foods.  At some point, Julia and I played some more chess.  I read for a while, and then went to sleep.

HLOTDTF

M- lunch given once we reached this family’s house

K- a piece of art on the side of a building in Tel Aviv of a tree with names of Jewish texts among the leaves

[insert pic of tree]

Jan 7

In the morning Julia slept late, but I accompanied Lynn to the synagogue (her husband had gone earlier, and her children [the youngest 16, not little] came later).  This shul had very nice tfillot.  After services, when hanging around talking, I saw someone I knew- Reb Mordechai, my Talmud teacher!  It was a pleasant surprise to see him and talk with him there.

Back at the house we had kiddush and played “Life’s a Pitch.”  For brevity, I’ll just say it was a little like Apples to Apples and a lot of fun.  We then had a delicious dairy lunch.  Julia went back to sleep, and I spent the afternoon reading until Lynn asked if I would like to join her in walking Ice, their dog.  How could I resist?  We took her to a forest where she ran around and we talked.  For a while 10-year-old Ice entertained us by playing with a puppy.  The forest was absolutely beautiful, and there was a great view of the hills in the distance.  There is little I enjoy as much as being surrounded by this type of nature.

After Shabbat, we took a bus back to base.  Actually, I got off a couple stops earlier to meet Mia, her parents who are visiting for break, Maya (another great friend on Nativ), and Mia’s friend Shira and her mom from Cincinatti for dinner.  I had met Mia’s mom a few times over Skype, but it was great to meet her and Mia’s dad in person.

After dinner, we walked back.  Shira and her mom actually had a bus to Tel Aviv to go back to the US that night, but Maya and I walked back to base, nearly all the way with Mia and her parents who were staying at a hotel very close to us.  I then finished packing, brought things into storage, and Skyped with my mom to wish her a happy birthday (something I most definitely did not forget with the stress and chaos of packing and traveling).  

HLOTDTF

M- sleep

K- Ice’s walk

To be continued…

Trivia: Will I manage to go all of break not entering a single museum (not considering ‘institutes’ ‘museums’)? We shall see.

Reflections on Leaving Jerusalem and Room 633

A lot of things are changing here.  In the past few days, I’ve had my last yeshiva classes (but I want to come back to study here another time), my last Nativ Learners’ Minyan, and my last stress-free day in my room.  I’ve started packing, and will need to finish today.  Tonight is my last Erev Nativ.  Tonight is my last night in my room, my last night in my bed, my last night of being the roommate of Leah and Suzanne.

There is a lot I’m going to miss here.

I will never forget this place.  Room 633 is full of great memories: throwing the long Ethernet cord around until we got wifi; Suzanne being too tall for her corner of the room; our chair hidden by clothes; yelling at Leah to open a window when she puts on perfume; our friends coming in and using our room as theirs; the complaints about how loud my water bottle is; so many kfar girls congregating here when taking pictures on Thanksgiving; and the times when Suzanne, Leah, and I are just laying in our beds, talking and laughing.  Room 633 will forever be my home.

In spite of the crazy packing I have to do (separate things packed for break, Poland, South tiyul, and the kfar), I’m excited.  Tomorrow morning, I leave for Rechovot.  I’m spending the night in Ashdod, reuniting with the JCC day camp counselor who stayed at my house for two summers.  The next day and night, I will be in Tel Aviv, and then I come back to Jerusalem to spend Shabbat with my cousins’ friends.  Saturday night, as well as a few more nights during break, I will stay at Beit Nativ.  Saturday night I will be back in 633, but with Leah and Suzanne away, it won't really be our room.  After then, I will be in a different room, and with the construction in my building, no one will ever sleep in my 633 again.

I’ll try to keep you posted on what I do during break, in Poland, for our Israel Today Seminar, and in the south, but I might not get around to posting for a few weeks.

Trivia: In the next few weeks, I’m going to many places I have never been.  I hope to say that after this I truly know Israel.