happy chanukah :)

Currently Listening Feels Like Today By Rascal Flatts see related

breif update:

im alive.

im voluntarily listening to country... does rascal flatts count as country?

i had thanksgiving in jerusalem at chars with about 35 people.

ulpan is drama filled: my teacher has cried twice in front of us in the last 2 weeks.

i've come to believe that 70 degrees means its cold out and that i need a sweatshirt or scarf.

im scared to drive in a car with justin but thats old news.

i need new shoes. i need a real jacket.

i dont like wheatgrass drinks, because well, it tastes like grass.

life in israel is hard. it just is.

John Pritikin is in town, and i became friends with his daughter, jaden. what a doll.  they're all coming for dinner this week.

my hebrew and spanish have fully co-mingled and i cant speak spanish without hebrew jumping in.

i wonder what ill be doing next year. where ill be, what will be different.

and ill be seeing you soon.

i never thought when upon arriving to the intersection of allenby and ben yehuda i would utter the words, 'home sweet home.' but alas the unthinkable has morphed into reality.  After a weekend conference with all the youth i am completely wiped out.  one can only do so much yelling, pleading, and counseling in broken hebrew mixed with spanish and english before the mind and body say enough ... try to imagine a 2-week souled out camp smashed into a 24 hour timeframe ... i am just drained! and imagine that there all these well-behaved, attentive, hungry-for-God youth; and then there are the kids we work with ... ay ay ay.

so, that is why i say "home sweet home" to allenby and ben-yehuda: the place where dirty green water from an unknown source is everflowing down the street, where the cats never cease to wail, where the freaks come out at night and don't bother to hide themselves in the daytime, where the strip clubs are endless.  never before have i felt so fond of and relieved to arrive home to my sketchy neighborhood as i do this night.  all thanks to the youth God has given me to work with.  ...so tonight I hit the pillow, knowing full well that i will not make it to ulpan class tomorrow. and my heart is overjoyed.

and just an encouragement to all of us: "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm.  Let nothing move you.  Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."                      1Co. 15:58

i finally am glad to be here for the long haul.  I see my purpose being more and more defined, and i am seeing more of the need for me and for the other workers here.  God is faithful, he's opening my eyes, and He's calling us to a higher command. amen amen.  let us walk forward into the plans He has for us, trusting in Him along the way. 

i really need to start bringing my camera with me wherever i go.  for example, my morning walk to school along the beach front always provides for some entertainment.  everyday without fail there is some wierdo who crosses my path.  like the other day, there was this woman laying in the sand on her back, with all her limbs in the air extended towards the sky.  not only were they all extended towards the sky, thats wierd enough, but they were all flailing about frantically, as if she were a bug that somehow got stuck on its back, and all its legs were working their hardest to roll her back over to the right side.  yeah.

and then today, the man who was standing at the shoreline, throwing his arms about frantically in an effort probably to stretch them, or something of that nature. yet it appeared that if he had just flung his arms a little harder, they would eventually fall out of their sockets and fly into the ocean.  there are just too many wierdos out early in the morning ... at least they make me laugh out loud everyday.  oh tel aviv, the treasures that you hold.  like the lovely scent of human/dog pee that hits my nose everytime i step out of my apartment.  its just one small joy of living here in israel ... and the random streams of water that run down the street, coming from i have no idea where.

honestly, i do like living here, its just quite different.  and the creepy freakishly insane cats that literally scream at the top of their lungs every night in alley brawls, no joke.  and then the crazy russian screaming at 6 in the morning one day... like wailing... where AM i???

there are so many other strange things here, i just dont have the energy or the will to decipher one from the other.  they all kind of blend together ... and dont even get me started on the soap opera that is my hebrew school!  put all the french, russians, americans and dutch together and you have chaos, really.  ... ive come to accept that this is just how it is ...

if only i had pictures or videos of these happenings, you would all appreciate this so much more ...