a week's worth of adventures

This last week has been busy, but awesome. On Wednesday I went to school with Daniel (he goes to the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya), which involved an exciting drive on the freeway on his Vespa. He had two classes - one on the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, and one on the media's role in influencing the society. His studies are in English, so I was able to understand, and it was really interesting on a few levels. Of course, the topics themselves were interesting to learn more about, and both professors were great. It was pretty cool to talk about government, culture, and society in a way that wasn't from the American point of view. And the diversity on the campus was fascinating! Many of the students are Israeli, but there are quite a few international students as well. It was a really cool window into that part of Daniel's life.

Thursday was a bit of a stressful day for me - I had places to go, and Daniel was at school all day. I tend to think that I'm a pretty confident, capable, and independent person, but that changes the minute you put me in a new city, surround me with unfamiliar streets and buildings, and make everyone around me speak Hebrew (or Russian or Swedish or pretty much any other language you can think of). Thankfully, most people can at least understand and speak a little bit of English and are very willing to help if you have a question. So, all by myself, I took a bus to Nazareth to visit my friend Mary!

Mary was one of the participants in Sound and Sand, which is how all of this crazy chapter of my life started. She studies in the south of Israel, but comes home to Nazareth on the weekends, and her family welcomed me with really wonderful hospitality. I felt like I was constantly being offered something to eat or drink, and I ate some of the best food I've had since being here! Mary and I didn't do anything touristy, but just had a great girly weekend; we watched movies, ate chocolate, did our hair and went shopping. It was so fun getting to meet her family and stay at her house and spend time in her world like that, and I was really blessed by our conversations and the generosity of Mary and her family.

I took the last bus back to Netanya on Friday, and it felt like coming home! I really like that. Saturday was church, and those days are quickly becoming my favorite day of the week. Once Shabbat starts, nearly everything shuts down, which can really throw a wrench in your travel plans if you are running late or forget. But a part of me really likes the impact of that - wherever you go on Saturdays, you see families out and about and people spending face-to-face time with each other. There are significantly fewer cars on the roads and more people walking around. Daniel and I went to the beach after congregation and it was packed...but a part of me was really happy to see that! I think about the way we function in America, and I really think more people would be healthier, appreciate and enjoy nature, and have better relationships if more stores, movie theaters, and amusement parks were closed one day a week. There's something great about being forced to come up with your own entertainment and taking the time to really be WITH the people you're surrounded by much of the time.