we're runnin- keep holdin' my hand, so we don't get separated

I miss them. Chatting with Marli just now made me so sad. I can hear their voices now and they are so distant. 6968 miles away.

I went running today. It felt so good, I was like bursting. I want to better myself, I havent worked out in so long and am sick of it, I feel my body begging me to be active so I responded today but not going back to work after lunch, and running. Running as fast as I could for 30 minutes. It's not much, but its a start. I walked to the nearby fields and just took off until I felt like I was going to pass out, then had to walk back. I would have stayed out there until nightfall if my lungs had let me, its the most beautiful place. I like to think of it as mine, although I know I'm not the only one to run there. You can see so much of Israel, its so open, so green. So peaceful. I dont think I could ever enjoy a treadmill again.

left us sore

Wow- its been a while since Ive written..its either so much is happening that I feel too overwhelmed to write about everything..or that nothing exciting is going on so I dont feel the need, or a mix of both.

The Gadna, by far one of the funniest experiences we've had since weve been here. Most probably dont understand what "Gadna" is and I dont really know how to explain it, except that everyone does a Gadna week or month, whatever, before joining the Army, while we were there there were 100's of high school kids that were there "for real." Its kinda like preparation and to get a feel for what you are in for, it is in no way a direct example of what it will be like at your base or anything, so its hard to explain. But anyways, so the Ulpan goes every year because there are a lot of new immigrants in these Ulpan programs that will have to serve in the army for a while and its just a good experience to go.

Mel and I had no idea what we were in for!! When we got there, from the second we stepped off the bus, it was military style. Standing in lines and rows and running around everywhere and answering the commander properly and addressing the officers. We had wepon lessons- M16 shooting, handling and self defense. We had a field training day where we went out to this giant olive tree field, which was red sand/ mud and rock infested and we learned how to run from granades and we learned hand signals used during war time and how to crawl and walk without leaving shoe prints..just really cool shit. We talked about the war and had interpersonal discussions and kinda got to know where everyone stands on some topics, good bonding experiences. One thing we did was our unit, which had like 14 Ulpan peeps in it, had to all stand on this army blanket (which was not too big) and we had to flip the blanket without stepping off of it. We all had to stand there and strategize real quick and try different things and finally 4 of us decided to get on the guys shoulders and one guy squatted down and flipped parts of the blanket over while others stepped around so it could successfully be flipped over, it was a challenge!

We had ceremonies every morning where we would sing the Anthem and they would raise the flag, it was cute but it was FREEZING there. We were on top of this huge mountain, we were about 40 minutes away from the Kineret and we could see it perfectly. We could see across it to the other side! It was amazing. The pictures dont even capture the beauty my eyes have seen. We would wear like 2 tank tops, 2 long sleeve shirts, the army shirt we were assigned and the big, puffy army jacket over all that and still be shivering. Leggings under our pants and 2 pairs of socks. Terrible, terrible situation for me since I get cold in the summer!!!!! But loved it.

Shout out to all the January bdays in the fam! Wish we could have been there to celebrate with you guys, just know we're thinking of you on your bdays...

Mirelle's new addition

"Now your body is not naked"

Mirelle got a tattoo!!! She has been wanting this for a while and finally did it!! She got the word Karma tattooed on her right wrist on the inner part. It's written in Hebrew and is so small and perfect in black ink. I had been writing it on her wrist in permanent marker for like a month now and we always talk about how Karma is what comes around and goes around.

Anyways, besides that..havent written in a while. But we saw snow on Christmas!!! Dad, Simi, the little ones and Mirelle and I took a road trip to Ramat Hagolan to visit an apple factory where Simi knew the owner and we got to taste big, fat, juicy, sweet red apples that are grown in that region. Delicious! Then we drove to the Hermon Mountain, where it snows here in Israel. The drive was beautiful, just amazing. Scary at times because we were climbing the side of this mountain with almost no guard rail and we were freaking so high up! Anyways, we just played around in the snow, throwing snowballs and freezing our butts off..then came home and rested..went out a couple times this Hanukkah break with Jonathan and Dekel. Went shopping with Mika and got a nice little utfit for the job interview I had. I met with the President of the company Biotis and we talked for a while, think he just wanted to meet me. We'll see what happens, but keep your fingers crossed!!

Going to go now, helping watch the girls and they are going nuts!! Miss everyone that's reading this.

no name

I usually sit here for like 10 minutes trying to think of what to name the blog I am about to write when just now I thought...maybe I should wait until after I write the damn thing!! ...and I still cant think of what to title it...

So last week was fun, we had an ULPAN trip to Jerusalem on Thursday. Mel and I were up by 7 to eat a breakfast of yogurt and bundle up because it was coolllddd and we loaded onto the bus to get going, the bus ride took about an hour and a half or two hours and we first stopped at the Holocaust museum. The museum was amazing, not as intense as I would have expected it to be- I thought the Holocaust museum in Washington DC hit harder- but it was impressive. Definetly bigger and more elaborate with personal stories and visual effects. Mirelle and I were shocked at how long it was taking us to read the informative paragraphs in English, our brains are on overload when we try to speak/read English, I find my brain thinking in Hebrew sometimes. So we walked through the museum and walked around the campus afterward with a tour guide who spoke English, telling us about all these sculptures and monuments that surrounded the museum. We had lunch there outside of the museum sitting in the sun, a lunch that had been prepared for us the night before, from food from the kibbutz cafeteria, and had been refrigerating until the moment we ate it...it was stone cold schnitzel with stone cold corn and stone cold pickles and pita...ewwww! (the same lunch we were served on our last trip to Ramat Hagolan and the same lunch we will probably be served on every future trip we take with the ULPAN) So Mel and I ate the snacks we had brought with us, a green apple, a granola bar and some dry cereal, mmmm.

After the museum we took the bus to the Knesset, which is the Israeli Parliment. The Knesst is where laws are enacted, the prime minister is elected and where the work of the government is supervised. It was abeautiful building, massive and like a maze inside. The works of Marc Chagall covered an entire wall in the Knesset and it was amazing- one depicted the present state of the Jews, one the past and one the future...in that order, maybe because our past links us to the present and the future?

After the Knesset we rode to the Western Wall where we were able to walk around for a whole 20 minutes. Mel and I put notes in the Wall and took pics by it while women stood there swaying and praying. We left shortly after that back to the kibbutz.