so much to say.

It's been really long since my last blog and y'all have my deepest apologies. There's been a lot going on and I've been less than healthy so its been a hard sell to sit in front of a computer for more than five minutes at a time. Here is my small attempt to catch y'all up...

I met my American family (Marsha, Eldad, Yonaton, Shelly and Daniella) at the airport and travelled up north with them, which was beautiful only I have this bad habit of falling asleep in cars--so I basically slept through msot of the north. BUt we walked around Akko and tasted kanufe, which i still dont understand what it was made of...and Danny spent all night talking like we were little girls again and I tricked Shelly into telling me things she didn't want to tell me about her adventures with growing up and it was just really really nice to be with them again and be familiar with people again.

Then my friend Assaf came up to the Kineret (lake that jesus walked on) and we spent the day walking around the lake looking for a pretty beach which basically never happened and we settled for a clearing of rocks and broken glass net to a half sunk shopping cart in the water. It was awesome. One of the most beautiful places in all of Israel and we were sitting next to a shopping cart. I love the absurd.

The next day I headed wes,t over to Hertzelia to stay with the Reiches (Yakov, Emira, Dana, Yariv and Ayal) I've known this family for my entire life, still able to recall memories of playing with Dana on her terrace when I was four and her taking me to a party where all the little kids spoke hebrew and wanted me to play the games but I couldn't understand the rules cause again, they were in hebrew, so instead I just hung out by the snack table kicking stuff untill it was time to go. Ah, the memories. It was wonderful to see them all again, especially cause everyone has gone and grown up. Ayal took Simone and I to the beach where he taught us how to spin fire without the fire, very daring.

After knocking myself in the head with what could have been balls of flame, we eventually stopped and cruised around Herzelia. My friend Golan (from Laos) met up with us and introduced us to the incredibly happening nightlife scene. A little too happening if you ask me, crowds of fancy people standing in herds waiting to be noticed so that they could stand in a herd on the inside of that dividing line. We opted for a slightly less scenestery irish pub where the music was hilarious and the crowd a little less "concerned."

Later in the week Yariv drove Simone and I up to the Golan Heights which was beautiful and green and lush and all that good stuff. We played around on a mountain that had old army barracks/bunkers for tourists to interact with. Boy did I interact. I ran into every barrack, jumped all over all the pretend soldiers and to Simone and Yariv's great dismay made up loads of spontaneous games that I tried to involve them in. Yariv shirked most of my attempts but eventually I did get him to stick his head in the dragon made out of army bits' head:

Yariv then took us up to his old army base where he used to work with cannons. It wasn't exactly legal for us to be there so it was all on the hush hush. He gave me a hat to cover my mohawk, as if that was the reason why I would stick out on an army base... His friend was on reserve duty there and was generous enough to show us his cannon and let us run around inside of it (not that there's much room to run around) but he let us touch everything and ask loads of questions and wear the helmets and all that sort of fun stuff. I think Yariv is still confused over my appreciation of weaponry and vegetarianism...killing people totally different than killing animals...(just kidding). Anyways, it was awesome. A little bit creepy, but awesome.

Also I gotta say, damn those missiles are heavy...

Simone and I had intended on hiking and camping that day but we decided to run with our lazy streak and continue on with Yariv to his 8 year old cousin's birthday party. We ate amazing food and stared at the beautiful view of the Kinneret and got to know even more of the family and slept on the ride all the way back. It was a really excellent day full of cake and guns. Yeah for cake and guns!

Later that night we headed back to Jerusalem where we rented a car and headed down to the Dead Sea. I want so badly to be someone who enjoys camping, but the truth is, right now anyways, I'm just not. After about three hours I was ready togo home. I sucked it up and stayed, but I was ready. It didn't help that I had gotten sick somewhere between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. By the time that we did actually return in the morning I was beyond sick witha fever and a throat that made me want to punch nuns. The next four days I basically spent in bed. Pooor Simone. I was less than fun, but glad that Israeli television includes such TV greats as "Head of the Class" and "The Hogan Family." After catching up on my terrible shows I finally healed enough to journey south again...to be continued.