First School Day

Today was my first day of classes, though it wasn’t a normal day. Ironically, today was Integration Seminar day. This was meant for girls who have been studying for a while (term is ending this week). A few teachers would lecture on topics that are pertinent to keeping your Judaism alive as you leave the cocoon of seminary. So, this wasn’t super pertinent to me, as it was only my first day! The seminar started at 11:30, whereas normal classes start at 8:30 every day. Today was no different; we had several of the normal classes in the morning. I had three teachers who were all very good. The first taught us about King Saul, the Prophet Samuel, and (King) David, though we didn’t get to the part where he did anything as king yet, just to where he got anointed by Samuel HaNavi (the Prophet), to the astonished eyes of his father. The second teacher talked to us about Avraham’s family tree. Did you know that Sarah was his niece?? Yep, daughter of his brother Hanan and sister of Lot. Sarah’s name was Yiscah (Jessica). When she married Avraham, she became Sarai, which means My Princess. And, when G-d came to Avram (that was his previous name), He named him Avraham and his wife Sarah! The third teacher talked to us about Miriam, Moses’s sister, and a prophetess. Miriam was 86 years old when the Jews left Egypt! She saved Moses when she was only 5 years old (and she was already helping her mother as a midwife!).

At 1pm, they served lunch. Cucumbers, some kind of vegetable root, rice, couscous, and asian-style tofu with multicolored peppers. It was ok…I do wish there were some kind of fish. And the tofu was very salty. I took a walk afterwards with the remaining half an hour I had left. It’s difficult to sit all throughout lecture, sit for lunch, and then sit again until 5:30pm! It’s worse than high school! I didn’t end up sitting until 5:30pm. At 3pm, after another Integration Seminar lecture, Laura, Melody, and I decided that it wasn’t really pertinent and that we should go shopping for food items and items for our upcoming trip to the Golan with the school. We walked to a shopping strip not too far away, bought cheap crocs for a water hike, some nuts as a snack during the trip, and food items at the grocery store Remy Levi. I got squash mmm!

After we came back home (took a bus for the first time!), we did a yoga series from the same work out tapes. It was really good. Then, we made dinner. Laura made delicious salad from cucumbers, tomatos, red cabbage, and chickpeas, as well as brown rice, while I made two-part squash. One part is savory with garlic, and the other part is sweet with cinnamon. We’re still waiting to see how that’s going to turn out!

Ahava from Israel!

Elina