WOWOWOW!! So much has happened since mi last post.
      First of all, I am part of a group at the mechina called tzevet giyusim. It is our job to recruit people for the mechina next year. I don't know why they thought I would be any help in this tzevet but here I am. I took four buses and walked for thirty minutes to get to and from a school where we 'recruited' for two hours. Although I only understood around 3% of what anyone was saying, I got to see an Israeli high school, so that was cool.
     Later that day, I went to the preschooler I will be volunteering at for the next few months and met the teachers there. It is very very different than I was expecting. The kids are all so cute and the teacher is very sweet. They are all refugees from Eritrea, and the preschool is in the teacher's very small home. (More details to come)
     And after that very long day, we went on a dessert tour of Jaffa. I probably gained around 30 pounds but it was so very worth it.
(some Malabi)
 Next came some yummy yummy halvah with this beautiful view!
next we tried this strange ginger hair looking dessert.  I don't remember what its called but it was absolutely amazing.

We walked around Jaffa for a little while and then we sat down with some tea and bakhlava.
Happy happy fun times!
Other than that we are all exhausted (but happy exhausted)

More pictures!!!





(we found enchiladas!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XDefZ48QEc

Shana Tova !!!

More pictures!
Graffiti/Art in Florentine ( a little hipster neighborhood next to Shapira)










(the dog in the picture is also in the painting!!)








And some views from the roof of our apartment of course:




MORE TO COME!!

Hi all! I realize that I am extremely bad at not only email, but keeping anyone up to date on the goings-on in my life at all. I am not promising that I will post on this, daily, weekly, or more than just this once (just being honest) but I thought it would be nice to share some pictures/commentary on those pictures so buckle up. Here goes:


First and foremost: The food. Israeli food is good, Mechina food is awful. Every day, a different member from each kvutza (our kvutza is called GAP) gets to go be on toranut (kitchen duty). Food normally consists of rice, lentils, and Israeli salad. We are a little bit hungry but Israeli snacks are to die for and I have probably gained 300 pounds from Israeli food.



The apartment: small. Very small. Here is out living room, a beautiful panorama of our bathroom (credits to Sam Bakal for all of these), and a very blurry video. I would show you my room but I do not want my mother to have a heart attack.



The roomates: We are perfect for each other. Naomi(far left) is from Hamburger, Germany. Samantha(center) is from Chicago. We are all disasters.









The people: We like them! A LOT! People are from: Chicago, Rhode Island, San Francisco, Australia, Germany, New Jersey, Shanghai, North Carolina, New York City, Canada, Michigan.






Exploring Tel Aviv/Jaffa: It's beautiful here. Almost as beautiful as Sophia:

Just kidding. She's beautifuler. We call her Poop.
No it's amazing here and so different than Palo Alto (Thank the lord)
Ok that is it for now. Thank you for bearing with me.
I will try my hardest to post soon, but again, no promises!
Much love,
Lauren Maxine