June has already come and gone

Well, as I suspected, time flew by and my program is done, I've had to say goodbye to many of the wonderful new friends I met while here, and I am out of my apartment. I’m not living on the streets, so don’t worry. My friends Rachel and Ben from camp (when I worked there in 2008) have graciously allowed me to use their incredibly beautiful apartment (that overlooks the Israel Museum and the Knesset) as a home base for the rest of my travels here.

Fun fact: because their apartment is near the Knesset (and the President's house), you often hear a motorcade passing with the sirens blaring. Which then means you can effectively say that the Prime Minister and/or President gave you your wake up call for the morning.

Before heading out to their HUC Shabbat dinner

Here’s a look at one of the projects I worked on this semester. The basic explanation is it’s based on the idea of souvenirs and what sort of memories I would want to take home with me from these past months. So I designed “personal souvenirs” that were each based off internal or external body parts to remind me of different aspects of my travels here. For example, the ear has a whistle attached to it to remind me of the Hebrew I heard while here, that while I enjoyed it, sometimes it just sounded like noise.

My personal souvenirs 

There are a few things left on my list of things I’m trying to do before I leave Israel, and one of them was to go to the Hadassah hospital in Ein Kerem and see the [Marc] Chagall Windows. I took the bus there, and they were absolutely gorgeous. Chagall uses a style to make the stained glass have a beautiful watercolor look to it, which is different than most stained glass.

The Chagall Windows at Hadassah Hospital

And now I'm off to Tel Aviv for a couple days to enjoy the beach, and then I'm heading off to the Lower Galilee to participate in WWOOFing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms but through the WWOOFing Israel section) to volunteer on a farm- Yarok Az. I am both excited and nervous. I hope to see another side of Israel, as well as to learn a bit about organic farming, and most importantly I hope to learn to make goat cheese.

Maybe I'll even get my own photo with a goat