Friday, February 26, 2010

I'm Famous!!

I just realized that there are actually people out there who do (or at least did) read my blog! I am so excited about it, and I'm not even sure why...

How did I find this out?

So... I was watching Band of Brothers with David, which is an amazing series that HBO put out about American troops in WWII, and it made me think about my grandfathers, both of whom served in the war. After watching the last episode, in which the real troops that the characters represented were interviewed, I wanted to find out more about where my grandfathers served. Unfortunately, unlike my generation who live our entire lives on the internet, it is not so easy to find out about their army services through google (and if it is, it just means I'm not very internet adept.) From there I started googling myself using my various name combinations, and lo and behold, someone else quoted me on their blog and even posted a link!! The best part about it was that it made me want to go back to my blog and read what I had written almost 2 years ago (no, I can't believe that time has flown by so quickly!)

It was pretty apropos that the post that was quoted I had written on a fast day, and today was a fast day. In my old post, I had a lot to say and a lot of emotions having just moved to Israel and all. Now I feel that a lot of that is missing. I have settled down to a "normal" life routine and things don't seem to excite me and amaze me so much anymore like they used to. I wonder if in all of my attempts to create a normal life for myself I have let some of the power of making aliyah disappear. Re-reading my post also made me realize how wonderful of an outlet this blog has been, and now hopefully I'll really start writing again at least semi-regularly.

For now, Purim is this weekend and today was Taanit Esther. It was pretty uneventful... I went to the library and rushed to finish a project that I had ignored until the very last minute. The amazing thing though is that I am right now in the most intense wedding season of my life. I have already been to 4 weddings since the start of the year and I have 3 more coming up in rapid succession, and David just found out that another of his friends just got engaged. While it is a bit overwhelming, exhausting, and frankly quite expensive to have so many friends get married in such a short span of time it really is a truly wonderful thing. I would rather be exhausted from happy occasions than from sad ones! May we all be blessed to join together only for Smachot!

Happy Purim!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Back and Better than Ever!

After a Very long break, I'm back! I had sort of gotten out of the blogging rhythm and felt like I didn't have much to say, but after such a long time there is plenty to update :)
I am currently in my second year studying Archaeology at Bar Ilan. I LOVE it. It's fun and interesting and I'm having a great time.

There are a few changes though this year. I'm volunteering and working.

I just started working as a research assistant in one of the Archaeology labs (read: data entry.) It's a pretty lame job, but I'm thrilled. My first real job in Israel and it's in my field! This is the time to make the connections that will hopefully help me throughout my entire professional life. This was one of the main arguments I made to my parents when I told them I wanted to study in Israel, and see, its true!

As part of being an immigrant, I get a scholarship for school from the Government. In order to get the entire value to which I am entitled, I have to do a certain amount of community service. To fulfill the requirements I have started working at a place called Beit Noam (Noam's House). Beit Noam is a day center for adults (21 and up) with serious physical and mental handicaps. It is a place that provides physical therapy, hydrotherapy, reflexology, communication therapy, an opportunity for the capable participants to work and make money, programming to inspire creativity, and an opportunity to give parents a break from dealing with their grown children during the day. In addition, Beit Noam has a series of apartments that are fully staffed so that participants can live independently. It is an inspiring place and I love working there.

I come in twice a week and have 3 participants who I work with one on one for an hour at a time. They are all of varying levels of disability and have different levels of communication. I have only been working there for 3 months, but I already feel a strong connection to them. When their faces light up when I walk into the room I get moved to tears, and when their classmates recognize me from the other side of the room and ask how I'm doing I get goosebumps. It is such an incredible place, I feel like I am being sucked into this special little world where, as their motto goes, "Everyone feels equal." I would attach a link, but I don't think they have a website. Hopefully I'll post pictures soon.

David is doing well and working hard. I am still just as proud of him as always.

Hopefully I'll start updating more regularly now, even though I'm not sure if anyone still reads this thing!