I feel like there has been so much I haven't blogged about, so bare with me.

Volunteering:
Two days in two weeks I didn't go because of my cold. The actual work at the dig isn't bad enough that I would have to skip, but its the fact that I have to get up at 5:30 in the morning and that doesn't provide me with enough sleep because my apartment is always too loud at night. It has been going very well, other than the waking up early and sick part. We are making new friends and getting to know people. Last week, during sharsheret, bucket chain, I was talking with an Ethiopian who moved to Israel when she was very young in 1989. I'm having a lot of fun at the dig.

Sunday afternoons we've started to take a class called Service Learning. At first I did not want to be there at all, I know why I am volunteering in Israel, but as the class went on, we discussed more about the history of Ir David and we plan on talking about why that area is controversial and other things about the dig. At the end of class, I was glad to have it. Now I will know the history and all things Ir David to make my experience working there more meaningful.

Classes:
Classes are like Prozdor, everyday I see it more and more. I've done 4 years of Prozdor and I've taken these classes more or less.

My Comparative Religion Siyur class is great. We had to do reading from a college textbook for homework. Originally, it was hard to get into the reading, but as I continued, it got very interesting. The past two weeks we learned about Christianity. This past trip, we went to a Hebrew speaking Catholic Church where we got a lecture from a monk there. He told us about his job there and how he teaches children of Philippine immigrants who are integrated into Israel and Jewish society and culture. He talked about how the kids know more about Jewish culture than they do about their own Christian background, which happens to be the same problem with us Jews in America. As younger kids without much Jewish education, we would know more about Christmas and Easter than our own holidays.

15 Girl Apartment:
It is always a mess, always loud, always people over and never good internet, but other than that it isn't that bad.

Holocaust Seminar:
This event was a day and a half long of intense Holocaust studies, most we elected the class we wanted to take. The evening started off with the story of a Holocaust survivor. Her story was an unusual one in the sense that she was 5 to 8 years old during the war and got passed around from motherly figure to motherly figure until she ended up in New York City adopted in a Jewish family. She has no pictures of family and only recently found her birth certificate during a trip to Poland a few years ago. After her incredible story, we listened to a woman with a PhD in Holocaust studies and is an expert on Holocaust deniers. Deniers claim the Jews are exaggerating the history and that there were no gas chambers. I think I had heard her presentation before on Na'aleh with camp. It was very interesting and she is a great speaker.

In the morning, we went to Yad V'Shem. I had elected the specific tour for Stories of Rebellion and Resistance but the guide barely knew what he was talking about or knew what we were there for. I've been to the museum before and nothing was that new or interesting except for the computer room we went into. The room had about 20 computers dedicated to answering questions. You would pick your language then the computer would give you about 15 questions to pick from. Each question had about 6 different historians, survivors, or experts on the subject that would give you different kinds of answers. One example of the questions was, "Could the Holocaust have happened if Hitler didn't take power?" I wish I could have stayed longer in that room listening to all the different kinds of answers.

In the afternoon, we had classes focusing on different topics. I took a class on Modern Anti-Semitism that is forming into Anti-Zionism/Anti-Israel. I also took a class called The Road to the Final Solution that was taught by my Hebrew teacher. The class was just a lecture and didn't teach me anything, sadly.

The day ended with a little play performed by my fellow year coursers, a song, a touching poem by my friend Hannah (whose "family" I'm going to for the Seder) about her Grandmother who died in December and finally Hatikvah.

Weekends:
So far, I haven't done much around Jerusalem. Last Friday night, I went to the Great Synagogue with a few friends to a Lone Soldiers Shabbat Dinner. I am part of a support group for many of my friends and I who want to make Aliyah. It is an information session about all the things we need to do to make Aliyah happen.

Guess what, I also did???

I got my nose pierced! How does it look? You better say it looks good!

I'll be better about blogging each week. Passover break is coming up soon and thats going to be a crazy fun exploring and adventuring week and a half!