June 1

Okay, the month of May. Not in any particular order:
We went for our forth trip with the Ulpan, once more to Tel Aviv. Very disappointed that we only get 5 trips with the Ulpan, andn two of them are to Tel Aviv.I thought they'd be taking us to see the land, to places where we wouldn't be able to go without tour guides. I think they're being cheap with trips because since the beginning of the program 8 people have left and/or been kicked out, and that may make the program lose money. ANYWAYS, Tel Aviv. We were taken to the diaspora museum,which was a museum that talked about Jews from outside of Israel; different Jewish traditions andcommunities around the world, and our orgin, I guess. It was interesting, but not overly exciting. At the mjuseum, we got to hang out with another Kibbutz Ulpan, from Mishmar Hasharon. They were telling us that at their Kibbutz, the types of jobs they ave mostly revolve around the fishing industry they have there. People catch the fish, skin the fsh, sell the fish, and it sounds awful. When we drove back to our Kibbutz, they shared the bus with us, and when they drove into our Kibbutz they were amazed at how nice it as. Apparently their Kibbutz is not so pretty-ha ha, suckers. They were all very nice though, which is good becuase apparently they will be joining us for the 5 day army thing at the end of the Ulpan. Our final test is on the 25th, and then from the 28th, to the 2nd ofJuly we have the option of doing this boot camp, experience the army type thing. This is one of many examples of how this program is mostly targetted towards new immigrants. But, everyone is doing it, and itshould be a very unique experience, and nothing I will everdo again. I think at some point we get to shoot a gun....scary thought.
After the museum, a bunch of friends and I remained in Tel Aviv to visit a coupleoffriends whoi had left the Ulpan. We walked around a market, in the mall, where we decided to visitour childhood and ride one of those 2 dollar carosels. We then walked along the beach, and sat down for a drink. On our way home looking for a cab, at first we were told it would cost us 200 shekel. Luckily, we were with a friend who's Israeli, so he managed to get our cab ride down to 150 shekel(which is what it should be), and then 50 shekel for him to his town- Israelis know how to bargin.
Last weekend, David and I went for a trip up north,on the eastcoast to Naharia. We were getting a ride to the bus staion from the teacher of his class, and although we had originally planned to go to Haifa, we weretold there wouldn't be anything to do there, and it was recommended to us to go to Naharia, and feeling no attatchment to Haifa, we changed our plans. This was my first experience on the train. Very confusing. The people who work at the station don't have any knowledge of which train goes where, so we boarded the train hesitantly, only to find out that noone really knew where the trains were going either. Luckily, we were ableto get in touch with the friend who was able to tell us we would have to switch trains at a certain point, and so we were okay. Arriving in Naharia, we found ataxi driver,and hetook us to a hotel, since this towndidn't have hostels. Cheap hotel-double bed, and the weird (but typical) israeli bathrooms where you have a toilet, sink, and then a shower, wich isn't closed off, just leads to a drain in the middle of the bathroom. It was a very quiet town, very pretty, andeveryone we walked past spoke Russian.Also thelady who worked at thehotel spoke Russian, and I'm pretty sure I knew more Hebrew than her.Luckily we were just a minute away from the beach.We were right by this touisty type place with all sorts of restaurants, icecream places, playgrounds, andrinks wherepeople were rollerblading. There was some hockey goijng on there which reminded me of home. Friday night, weexplored the beach,ate some food, and then watched some Family guy on TV,which was amazing to see. In our lovely cheap hotel, we encountered a cockroach,which I forced David to kill, even though he doesn't like killing living things. We also got eaten alive by a few mosquitos that snuck into our room.
The next day we swam a bit in the ocean, then went even further north to Rosh HaNikra. It's as far north as you can go- we were able to touch the border to Lebanon. At Rosh HaNikra, there are beautiful white rock cliffs, and grottos. We fell into the trap of paying money to take the gondola down to the grottos(a 1 minute gondola ride), seeing amovie with cheesy effects about the history of the places, and renting bikes togo along the coast. The bike idea sounded neaxt, until we started going. We had to ride along the road with cars trying to pass us. We took the bikes back, and walked along the water. We would have jumped offcliffs, but decided it wasn't safe to leave allof our stuff. Instead, we found a little private area, where there nwere rocks, and we were right on the water, andswimming around. It was beautiful,I have to repeat it because it really was.One day you will see all of my pictures.
Last Tuesday we went again to Tel Aviv with the Ulpan for an event that featured a speech by the Israeli Prime Minister, a bunch of talking/videos, and then a concert ofMoosh Ben Arie, a famous Israeli artist. I'd actually heard of him, and his musicsince I've been here, what were the odds? The event was organized by Masa, the organization that I am doing myprogram through, so thousands of young people from hundreds of prgrams, from (they said) about 100different countries were there. There was a lot of "Move to Israel" talk, but the concert was fun. We all got up and were dancing.
This past weekend, we had Friday off becauseit wasthe hoiliday of Shavuot. Thursday afternoon David,Yaniv, Avraham and I (me andmy Spanish speaking boys who I travelled with over Passover)took a taxi, bus, another bus, andanother taxi to go up North to the Kineret (Sea of Galillee). We sat on a bus for 4 hours in traffic, but got there in one piece. We set up our tents on the beach, on a camp sight on the east side of the lake, right across from Tiberias. Since it was a holiay it was incredibly busy andl9oud, soi we found our own little private corner, so we could have the relaxing time we wanted. Isfraelis don'tknow whatcamping is- they just bring their house to the beach. I guess it's their version of a cottage. I kid you not,people brought fridges, entire stereo sound sytems, spotlights(instead of fire light), computers, chairs, andI even saw a screen set up, that was playing a movie through a projector. It was quite loud atnihgt- people were up drinking until 5or6 in the morning with their music, and assoon as they turned itoff,people woke up with their music to go fishing,and make their noise. We stayed for two night, two days. Hottest 2 daysof mylife. There was no way to avoid the sun. The ground was burning hot, you couldn't stepon the ground without shoes, andalso I couldn't leave my shoes out in the sun since they were black, and they two were burning hot. We swam, we ate, we rested, we walked along the beach, but mostly we just relaxed. Thefirstmorning atbreakfast I had an interesting experience. We were eating spicey soup, and I got some in myeye. Since there was chillispice in thesoup, it burned my eye like crazy. I guess I was touching my eyes after andmanaged to get siunscreen in them. I was tearing for over an hour, splashing waterinto themover and over again,and forcing them open withmy hands to air themout. I felt like I'd been peppersprayed, and I was close to reaching the point oflooking for help with some sort oflifegaurd. Luckily, I cried it all out, and then took abit of a nap since the experience exhausted my eyes. The sun there was so hot,and strong. I hope I can handle the summer heat. Travelling here would be made easier if we could rent a car, so we could get to see the exciting, and beautiful places that are off the beaten path. Renting cars here is apparently cheap, but I've heard you had to be over 23 to rent- or something like,if you are under 23, the insurance is quite quite high.
Those are the exciting points of my may. I'm still in the zoo, although I now work alone becuase myfriend who I wasworking with left. Now it can get boring, since I have no music(my Ipod broke) and I have no one to take breaks with,since the manager of the zoo is never really there. Class is still class- on the 10th we have our oral test, which counts for 40% of the final evaluation. Yesterday in class we were learning phrases relating to how to complain. We've also had lessons on how to thank, how to recomend,and we'll have one on how to appologize, but the complaining one was fun becuase we werejust yelling these phrases out, and it wasalmostlike therapy-just letting it all out.It was a very funny class.
As of right now,I'm notpositive when I'm coming home,since I would like to go travelling after the program with David, and some friends. We're talking about touring around Israel, and maybe taking a boat up to Greece. It all depends on expenses, timing, andplanning, since we are running oput of time to plan.
I miss everybody, and hope all is well, and I wonder if anyone still reads this considering I never really update it.