Mood: happy
Well, it's official. I have booked my first trip out of Israel...and no, it's not home...it's to BARCELONA!!!!! Me and about 8 other girls (including my roommate Leah) from HUC are taking a 7 day-6 night trip to Spain. Our package deal included airfare and breakfasts and accomodations at a nice hotel located in the heart of Barcelona. We officially booked it today and we will be going during our break between summer ulpan classes and our fall semester (Aug 27th-Sept. 3rd, I think). I'm really glad to do this big group travel thing now, and especially because it's not with tons of people that I know...so it will be a good time to get to know some of these girls, as well as feel like it's a big group trip before I get tired of big groups throughout the year.
The truth is, i'm not so sure that I would have chosen spain of all countries on my own...but we got such a good deal (I'm sure coming from America would have been SOOO much more expensive) and it's such a good group that I couldn't pass it up...besides...it's Barcelona and I've never been before!!!
So as many of you know, from my Jerusalem Post quote, it was Tisha B'av yesterday. Although I had never really recognized or celebrated (lamented?) the holiday in the US, it was neat to see what they did here. I decided to fast (it is a public fast holiday with no food or water) but I had to do the water thing otherwise I would have passed out. It's so hot here and my body sweats all the time, so it would have just been unhealthy and dangerous not to. If you are really interested in my views on fasting, I can elaborate more on those to you later (as I've already done with my Uncle and with Phyllis) but it's a lengthy conversation so I will spare you the details. Anyway...needless to say I was exhausted and hungry by last night....so I went out to Moment with some friends and we all ate a little bit and relaxed.
Today i had my first ulpan hebrew test. Now...as far as hebrew tests go, it wasn't hard or bad at all. However..it pissed me off. It went over such unimportant things (or at least things we barely even focused on) that I feel like what's the point of class anyway? As I noted earlier, I HATE my teacher. She's rude and impatient and frankly...she looks like skeletore from Masters of the Universe (you know He-Man and She-ra and all those characters). She doesn't seem to really like any of us, she never listens to what we are really saying, and her damn CELL PHONE rings at least once a day during class...at which point she answers it!!!!!!!!!! I'm just fed up and I feel like ulpan is a waste..maybe i'll go talk to someone about it tomorrow.
So tonight we have our text study thing again and then I think we are going into the old city and doing site text study there tomorrow. Not as adventursome as the water tunnels, but hopefully thrilling nonetheless. After that tomorrow, I think i am going to meet up with my Israeli friend Yifat (whom I know from summer camp) and hang out with her for a bit before she goes to work.
And now.....Menucha!!!!! Rest before my night begins!!!! Have a good day y'all!!!!
Posted by Elizabeth
at 4:09 PM