Lots of stuff to update on.. but I'm a bit distracted right now because I'm listening to a shiur (lesson) by this Rabbi about Rosh Hashannah (the Jewish new year thats coming up this week). The kibbutz I'm living on is so secular, and I'm used to much more - and to be honest, I really miss being (more) observant. So I do little things like listen to Rabbi's teachings. DON'T WORRY MOM I WILL NOT FLIP OUT AND WEAR ONLY SKIRTS

I like boys too much :)

So I just had a wonderful weekend up north in Yokenam Moshava at my friend Yiftach's house. I know Yiftach from last summer when he was part of the Israeli mishlachat (delegation) to Ramah Canada- the camp I was working at. He was on my staff and we became good friends very quickly.

I went up north and stayed at his (beautiful) house. I went with my friend and roommate Talia, which made the 4 hour journey much easier. The weekend was so much fun- Yiftach celebrated his 22 birthday on Saturday and although he technically lives on a moshava (much different than a kibbutz- more privatized, etc.), the social life between he and his friends on the moshava are much like that found on a kibbutz. In other words, all his friends were chill and fun and we all had a great time hanging out all weekend.

Not to mention we went to a beautiful beach twice!

One very interesting thing that happened while we were up there: someone was making a toast to Yiftach in honor of his birthday. Had the toast been in the US, I really believe that the speech would have been quite lighthearted and silly. If not, I'm not sure it would have compared to what these boys said.

In the middle of a party, while everyone was laughing and talking and getting drunker and drunker, the boys all raised their glasses and made a toast that Gilad Shalit (the Israeli soldier that has been held captive in Gaza for the past 5 years) should come home.

Imagine that! I've yet to see a group of American (drunk) teenagers taking the time to toast to the soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan. Then again, I don't drink so I wouldn't really have seen any toast at all.

Time to sleep, I'm super tired.