Shabbat Nefliah (wonderful shabbat)

Hi Everyone!
My computer battery is running low and these two pictures are out of sequence with the others but there was no way I was going to leave them out! So without further delay, it's on with the blog!

Laura Langberg

Jake Seigle

WARNING: This blog post contains many pictures! If you have someone who is on the

Michigan Teen Mission 2010 you may well find him/her in one of the photos ahead.

Each Shabbat here is so special and is over way too soon. This Shabbat was no exception. Ziv's sister, Noa was home from the army and she and her boyfriend Gili picked me up Friday morning. We went back to the Amoyal home which is the same home I went to when I arrived three weeks ago. I can hardly believe it's been three weeks but alas, and yes I use the word alas, it has been three weeks.

After a short while we went to pick up Itzik (Ziv's dad) from work. Then Itzik and I went shopping for my Naot sandals - but no can do. They were out of my size and on top of that, they don't have nearly the selection of colors as they do in the U.S. There were only two colors here as opposed to 5 or 6 back home. That was quite a surprise! After shopping, we went to the fruit market and the Super (as in Supermarket).

Here's Itzik picking out some candy for his grandchildren, Aliya, Aviv and Yuval.

After, we came home and started getting ready for Shabbat dinner. Well, being the photographer I wasn't as much of a help....(pictured grandaughter Aviv, Noa, Itzik, Adi (Aviv's mom) and Ruti

This is Yuval, Aviv's brother....another beautiful face of the future of Israel...and a head full of curls!

We all cleaned up and are now ready for our scrumptious dinner. OY! It was so wonderful and so plentiful. I think Ruti and Itzik thought Noa was bringing the army home with her!

Saturday morning Aviv was all ready for her cousin Aliya to come play with her. Itzik dropped me off at Kibbutz HaOn and took the girls to the beach for a little while.

And now it was time for me to see some beautiful faces from Michigan! It was wonderful to be at Shabbat services and be a part of the Mission for a short while. Everyone looked GREAT! And I gave a big hug to everyone pictured here for all of you moms and dads. Your kids look fantastically happy (I don't know if that's gramatically correct but that is how they looked!). What a wonderful gift you've given them.

Enjoy the following pictures....

Cousins Rachel and Eric Berlin (madrich). Mishpocha :)

Madricha Tara Forman

Our shaliach from Michigan, Yoav Rabin!

My patient, Alana Karbal

My American cousin, Eric and my Israeli son, Ziv - Madrichim!

Two very lucky American women who help make Teen Mission 2010 succesful: Amy Niestein and Beth Margolin

Rabbi Daniel Schwartz

As usual, it was very hard to catch Rabbi Josh alone, although maybe it was for the better as he told me that every week he does something different with his facial hair, although you may not be able to tell in this photo. Needless to say, it was still wonderful to see him!

Shortly before I left, Harel came back to see me with his girlfriend, Adi, who is a sweetheart. It was wonderful to meet her and we had a great visit.

Now I am back at the dorms, very much like a university student who has returned from home. Ruti packed me food to bring back; Harel and Adi brought me wonderful gifts. I find that when I go away for the weekend, I continually come back with more than I brought. I am touched by the warmth, love and generosity of my family of friends here. It is overwhelming to be taken care of so lovingly and by so many people here.

I cried when Harel and Adi left.

I cried saying good bye to Ruti and Itzik and their family.

And I'm trying very hard not to cry now, thinking about having to leave a week from today.

I miss my family and friends and it will be really wonderful to be home - but leaving Israel really, really, for lack of a more mature word, sucks.

So...it looks like I have to start saving my money again! And I'm looking for someone(s) to join me next time!!!!!

xoxoxo

Shabbat (haSheni) Shalom

It feels like each day here is filled with new things and experiences. Even when I don't travel far from the dorm/classes, unexpected things happen. All of you who told me what an adventure this was going to be were right. It is not just going to classes and learning Hebrew. My days continue to be filled with funny, interesting and introspective happenings, for lack of a better word.

I left class early on Thursday as we were having our midterm and I didn't want to take it. How's that for calling the shots? I think at my age I should be able to, right? But nooooooo. My teacher, Ayellet, who I love, told me I could take it at a later date. Great, lol.

Harel picked me up and we went to Jerusalem. First we went to the 9-11 memorial which was really hard to get to and then even harder to see. I was told that it's the only memorial in the world that has every name listed of those who died. It was very somber for both of us.

The memorial is made out of bronze and has a piece of the towers encased. The names of those who died are enscribed around it in panels and there is also a plaque from when it was dedicated.

After we went to the memorial, Harel and I ate at this great restaurant where they served tapas. Tapas has made it to Israel. How small is this world we live in? (I think it's a lot smaller than the hotel the restaurant was connected to since I lost my way back after visiting the sherutim!)

Harel looks tired but he has the most amazing patience in the world. We searched high and low for a certain item I wanted and finally we found it in the shuk. By the end of our shopping I finally got the whole bargaining back and forth with prices thing down. Harel was very proud of me :)

After spending the day together, Harel dropped me off at our cousins at Kibbutz Shefayim. While Shefayim is still a kibbutz, it recently was privatized which has changed a lot of things for people living there. It was a problem that some people in the kibbutz worked very hard and others, not so hard, yet they received the same salaries and benefits. This is a problem for many kibbutzim in Israel nowadays. Shefayim became privatized this past January. Many people bought their own cars but they still have a small fleet of cars from which you can sign up for online. The schools and daycare are no longer free. We did a little shopping over the weekend, rested and ate a lot. I guess eating only vegetables, eggs, cheese and hummos at the dorm finally caught up to me because I ate a lot! Pini and Zivi drove me back going the back way - we drove up Mt. Carmel and the sight was incredible! Unfortunately the pictures didn't give it justice.

Shabbat dinner with cousins Estee, Tzvia, Shaul, Zivi, Gaby and me

Here's Zivi standing next to the stand of Israeli chips. Don't ask me why I took this picture; I just love seeing so much Hebrew, the colors looked great and I asked Ziv to stand next to it cause I wanted her in the picture too!

It's nighttime now and the night is still young. I've been asked by several people to go out to the club but have declined (yeah, I know I'm such a shy person!). Do you think I should have told them I needed to finish my homework?! Nah...

Thanks for your comments- it's so much fun hearing from you!

Glorious, Beautiful Shabbat

Anat, me and watermelons!

Matan, me and beautiful flowers

Pinny, Tal, me and Anat

What a glorious Shabbat I had!

The Sarigs picked me up on Friday to go to their home in Merchavia. We hosted their son, Nitzan, 8 years ago for 3 summers when he was a camper and one of their other sons, Tal, has also stayed with us. Since then we have become good friends. They've visited us and Zack was their adopted son when he lived in Israel. The Sarigs live in a moshav; it's a community where all the people used to have different farms but now not everyone has one. Pinny grows grapes to make wine and also does important work improving how grapes grow (there's a name for it but I don't remember it now). They have 2 horses, a bird, 2 dogs and a bunny; their neighbors have loud sheep and loud cows and on Sat morning, somewhere very close there was a very,very loud rooster who continued to make himself known even though it was well past day break!

I happened to mention that I missed my ofanaiyim (ok..that means bicycle) and Sat morning at 6:30 am we went on a phenomenal bike ride! Where else but in Israel can you ride a bike and see sunflowers that are going to be harvested for its seeds, watermelon growing (which Pinny karate shopped cut in half with his bare hands-YIKES!) and almond trees. We went to this beautiful stream and rested for a short while before heading back.

After breakfast Anat and I went shopping and then went home to spend time with Matan. Matan was on the Teen Mission 2006 and when it was canceled, he came to Michigan for a few weeks. We had a wonderful time together, catching up on everyone and everything.

The flowers, as you can see in the picture of Matan and me, are so beautiful here. The colors are vibrant...just like the people. Speaking of which, if ever you need to be away from home, Israel is the place to be. I cannot begin to express how warm and inviting everyone is here. While I still have a little less than 3 weeks left, I question whether I will manage to see everyone or see them again. And I thought a month would be a long time!

It's Sunday now. I'm back at the University and have had a long day of classes and homework. There really are 3 hours of homework daily. I wanted to work out but it got late. I guess I shouldn't worry too much about it; I climb 3 sets of stairs daily. In all there are 130 steps on these stairs and that's only on the way up to my class. I still have to go down them too! So instead of working out, I ended up going to a Druze village with a few kids for falafel and it was great. That should also answer any questions about how I am fitting in :)

One last note - the World Cup games are huge here. Not sure if I already mentioned that when I was on the bus the other day coming home late at night, tons of people were watching the games outside of bars and other shops. There's a large screen t.v. in the main area that many people are watching as I write. With all these different nations represented in the school population, someone is always happy with whoever wins!

Time to say shalom to y'all! xoxoxo