Sept 30- Oct 1

Hey
So this is my free time...thursday night-sunday morning, so I thought I might as well start a blog about my trip.
I arrived in Tel-Aviv on the 29th via plane( layover in montreal and frankfurt) and met Haya and Dana Ragosin at the Tel-Aviv airport. After exchanging greetings we travelled back to their Kibbutz( Givat Haim) via 2 trains and a car ride. David was waiting when we pulled up. We went inside their house where they showed me around, and where I would be staying for the night. I was exhausted, but I tried to stay up as long as I could to help ward off jet lag. I made it to 7:30.
The next day I woke up at 5am, and got dressed and ready in about 10 minutes. Haya was driving David to a train station, and I tagged along. After David Got out we continued to a nearby parkade where we parked and took the train to a city where I would take a cab from to get to my apartment in Ness Ziona.
Haya set me up on a cab, and he drove my to my apartment. He spoke minimal english, but the communication barrier was noticable. Once at my apartment, I met the 6 girls I would be sharing living quarters with. Two rooms of two, and one toom of three. My room is the one with three. Emily Schiffer, Jaclyn Horowitz, and me. After unpacking, we met Ronly, our coordinater, and ther went to the other apartment to meet the rest of out group. There wered 8 more. We played getting to know each other games, and had lunch. We then went grocery shopping...That was interesting! After shopping we returned to our apartment and finished unpacking.
The next morning we woke up at about 8am and had breakfast. We all got ready in about an hour... impressive for 7 girls sharing 2 bathrooms. We then went to the other apartment where we did more getting to know you excercises. After this, we went to the city hall to meet with out program heads, Momo and Ofar. We had a very long, interesting meeting where we discussed everything from drug use to the intrusivness of israeli boys. After our meeting was finally done( late) we had a 2 hour lunch period. I went to the mall near the other apartment with 2 girls from my program, Allison and Sarah. I didn't want to walk back to my apartment, since we had to meet at the other apartment anyways, so I bought a frozen pizza at the supermarket and made it in their oven.
When our group gathered again, Ronly took us on a tour of the area. Afterwards I went back to the other apartment. I had dinner there, and just hung out with them untill Ronly showed up to show them how to use their washing mashine. She was coming back to our apartment, so I went with her. Shortly after I returned, my roommates went to Tel-Aviv.
The rest of us, Emily Seigel, Elana, Hailey, Meredith and me, decided to go to a local bar in town after a visit from our next door neighbor\9he told us where it was.) Emily's boyfriend met us en route and drove us the rest of the way. There wasn't enough room for all 5 of us in the car, so I ended up on Elana's lap. It definitely helped having a native hebrew speaker with us at the bar/resteraunt to translate, and we all had a good time. At about 2am we came back the same way, and now I'm writing this.