First Weekend and First Day of School

Alex dancing on Simchat Torah

Hey followers, so this past weekend was pretty fun. Thursday, I met up with my friend, Patrick, from Birthright. He went to Colorado State for undergrad and now is doing MASA's Career Israel program, living near Dizengoff Center (a central shopping area in Tel Aviv) and teaching kids English for 5 months. He and I went to this pizza place on Ben Yehuda St. (which parallels Dizengoff); I had pepper pizza and he had toscana. Sooo good.  We caught up, we hadn't really seen each other in almost 3 years. After that, he and I walked over to Rabin Square to celebrate Simchat Torah (for those of you who don't know, it's the holiday at the end of Sukkot that celebrates the end of the reading of the Torah for the year; it's always a big celebration). On our way, I saw from a distance, my friend Alex dancing the Hora at an Orthodox synagogue, so we joined in. I got to dance and carry 2 Torahs. We then walked to Rabin Square to meet up with Simon, Loni, and Emma to watch the big celebration from afar.

First roommate picture with Simon

Friday night was a blast. I have become good friends with Shoshana and Anna L, who live in the apartment right above Simon and me. Shoshana, Anna, and I went to this restaurant (know idea what the name is, but it's known for its red cones) on Frishman Beach and drank and smoked hookah. It's a great feeling to be able to smoke hookah on the beach late at night; it's just so relaxing. On Saturday, I just relaxed during the day but   went out with Shoshana, Anna, Lucy, and an old friend, Jeff, from my Los Angeles trip in March. It was really nice to see him. He's mutual friends with Lucy, what a cool girl. We all went to a couple bars after going to dinner at Cafe Cafe (a restaurant/coffee place). An nice Israeli guy tried to pick up Shoshana, but she declined a date from him because she has a boyfriend. Shoshana and I met both a guy and a girl named Tal (WHOA!) and we just drank.

On Sunday, everyone in the program took the bus to school to register for classes....... We took Bus 72 (I need to keep that in mind the whole year) and we were all disappointed about the school's location. Get ready: we have one classroom hidden away on the third floor of an abandoned mall. Yes, that's right -- an ABANDONED mall. Next door is a real mall. But it's cool, the professors seem to be okay so far, except for the Organizational Behavior professor, who is pretty cool. I'll have fun learning stuff in her class which I never learned in Social-Organizational Psych at UConn. I'm signed up for OB, Marketing, Organization Theory and Design, Staffing Orgs, and HR Management. This should be a good first semester.

Lucy's Abraham Lincoln (or something)
masterpiece at Max Brenner's

When I got back from signing up for classes, I had laundry to do. I went to the closest laundromat and did laundry. The weirdest thing happened, though. While there, I met a couple girls and a guy (2 American, 1 Israeli) who were charging their phones. I randomly started talking to them and we played Never Have I Ever. We hung out for an hour while my laundry finished. I just found it a bit odd how this 38 year old guy was chilling with two 17 year old girls. At night, I went out with Lucy, her roommate Rotem, and a few other people from the internship program to celebrate Rotem's 23rd birthday. We had sushi, then we split off and some of us went to Max Brenner's at the port. The fondue was DELICIOUS!

Monday: The first day of NYU Poly grad school. I woke up at 7am to catch a bus and get to the abandoned mall for 9am. I had Org Theory and Design first. Classes are 3 hours long, and we get 30 minute breaks in between classes. OTD wasn't a bad class, the professor seems to know what  he's talking about. Marketing was kind of a boring class, I'm not sure I'm going to stay in it. I didn't learn anything I didn't already know, and I have the option of waiving a class if I've already taken it in undergrad. Org Behavior was a good class, though. The professor is nice and I think I might learn something I didn't learn before. My brain was completely drained, though, after sitting in the same seat for 10 hours, learning. One positive thing: I met this girl from Berlin, Germany who's in the academic part of the program, but not doing it through Oranim. She's really cool, cute, and sweet. She and I sat next to each other all three classes. She told me she has a boyfriend, though. That's okay, I'm keeping my options open for now. I've only been here 1.5 weeks, I've got time to find someone. At night, Alex, Shoshana, Anna, and I went to this nearby bar to meet up with a friend of Shoshana's. We just talked for a good 2-3 hours. I love getting to know people better.

Pictured left to right: me, Lucy, Jeff, Jess, and Shoshana.

Israel so far is amazing. I hope to be able to celebrate Noa's birthday this Friday with her and her friends. I will keep you updated. L'hitraot (see you later)!