post #3

picture 1- first day of classes looking quite smart and prepared with my roommate hillary!

picture 2- on shabbat on saturday with my friends vicky and rochelle

picture 3- shabbat friday night at the kotel with my friend maddy!

sorry i haven't written in a while... we've been very busy!

friday we did a very fun archaeological dig! we dug for artifacts, got lost in underground caves, and toured ancient burial sites! then we got dressed up and went to the kotel (western wall) for kabbalat shabbat services. after services behind the wall, we went to the wall for a little bit. There were so many people there! There were male soldiers dancing around so we joined in, but then they yelled at us because we were girls. It was interesting to see all the different types of Jews there. My favorite was the ultra-orthodox Jews with the big fury hats- they were really funny-looking.

saturday was very relaxing, we had services in the morning and then a lot of free time during the day to hang out. I got to meet to new friends and we ended up walking around outside and talking for a while! It was really nice. Later that night we were supposed to go to Ben Yehuda Street, but it was raining so we went to a really big mall in Jerusalem. I ate really good falafel! I also met up with some people from my camp that are studying at Hebrew U for the semester! I'm pretty sure I was at this mall the last time I was in Israel, and I love it! Even though it's ery close to American malls, it's still really cool to see a lot of stores in hebrew! As a group of girls and I passed by a shoe store, a man working there said hello! I stopped and asked him how he knew we were American (because he said hello not hebrew). He said you can tell because our presence is very different from Israelis (not in a bad way). We dress differently and the way we walk and the expressions on our faces are different. I thought this was very interesting.

Today (Sunday) was our first full day of classes! We started at 8:30 am with Jewish Studies for nearly 3 hours! It actually went by very fast because we were all very engaged and wanted to learn! Then I had Hebrew for about an hour and a half which was actually not that bad! After that I had lunch and then General Studies classes (physics, calculus, english, french) until 7 pm! But I had a couple of free periods in between so it wasn't that bad... Im alone in my math class which is kind of awkward but good one on one with the teacher. I have 3 other kids in my physics class and 2 in my french class, and we only have english monday/thursday so i'll see how that goes tomorrow! We had dinner at 7 and then started our loads of homework. It wasn't that bad and it's fun because we can all do our homework together!

Since I will be having a regular school day a lot, I won't write a blog for those days but probably for when we have Tiyuls (trips) which is a couple times a week. Our first one is on Tuesday!

love, paige

post #2

i didn't write yesterday because yesterday was a boring day and all we did was have orientation for lots of different things.

but today was a lot a fun. first we had introduction to our jewish studies classes and i have the best teacher! he took us to the top of the "tel" which is a mountain near kibbutz tzuba (where i'm staying) that overlooks jerusalem. after a short hike, we made it to the top and all sat down on a very high part of the mountain, where we began class. as David (my teacher) was talking about what is Judaism and how it's more than just a religion, i couldn't help but look around. We were in Israel, on the top a mountain that had a breathtaking view... and in class. It was so cool and i'm so excited for more times like that! It's not gonna be like that all the time though, we do have a real classroom but still.

Later today we did our first community service project for an organization called Table to Table. We went to a farm and picked lots and lots of clementines off of trees for needy. It was so much fun and the clementines were the best any of us have ever tasted.

love paige!

i have arrived!

shalom everyone!

right now it is 12:34 am on Wednesday, January 27th 2010... i think? I pretty sure but this whole time difference is screwing me up.

i'll start from the very beginning. we arrived at JFK airport and i met the people from my group who were already there! but before i could do anything, i had to weigh my luggage, and each of my bags were 10 lbs over! we resolved that quickly though with another bag. we then got our tickets, went through security, the whole shebang and before we knew it we were at the gate ready to go on the plane. i sat next to lindsay and jacob on the plane! yay plane buddies! i was next to the window and we were really cramped but it was all good because i fell asleep before we even lifted off, thanks to having no sleep from packing the night before all night with mayaaa. we had turkey sandwiches for "dinner" but other than that i slept for the first like 6 or 7 hours (thats why im not tired now!). when we landed after customs and everything, we got our group assignments (there are 2) and went on our bus with our group. i made a lot of friends in my group so im really happy! then we got to KIBBUTZ TZUBA!! and did the sheheckyanu and blessing over the wine and bread and sang. next we had dinner. i was expecting to have a really good tradtional israeli meal right? no, we had pizza. it was bad. i was disappointed. anyway after that we just had some ice breakers with our group and then we went back to our rooms and unpacked. my roommates are really cool! hillary is from arizona, melissa is from LA, and julia is from denver. we unpacked a little and now i'm here!

PS I VIDEO CHATTED WITH JASON BUCKMAN

love, paigeeeee