The Scenic Route

The Scenic route.....

Sunday January 16, 2011

Yay for late mornings!!  After a wonderful Shabbos and Motzei Shabbos in town we were able to sleep a little later this morning before we rounded up the troops to go to school!  Today we tried out different seminaries and sat in on classes to get a feel for the different styles and structures of learning.  I (Sydnee), Jenna Bish, Ashley, and Eleanor tried on She'arim, and the lone, the brave, Jenna Baz, attended Midreshet Rachel.  Both schools are more text based than Neve, and we spent the morning learning Chumash (the 5 books of Moses) and Halacha, reading and translating Torah with tutors, and learning about HOW to learn Torah and understand the accompanying commentaries.  WE were directly studying Torah!  How cool is THAT?!

Although the change of pace of the morning classes was a great experience, it was wonderful to get the whole gang back together again in the Maidel Mobile for some afternoon adventure!  It was no hang gliding on a Dorito, but we DID spend the afternoon driving around, from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, to Aroma, and then Ben Yehuda Street.  The original plan was to go to Zichron Yaakov, see the botanical gardens, and walk around town.  We figured we would chance the rain to go see it, but as we were driving, and it started POURING, we had to re-evaluate.  So, we turned the van around, made a necessary pit stop at Aroma - the sustenance of our trip - then headed back toYerushalyim.  Despite the fruitless driving and unwarranted stress Bayla had to put up with, it turned out that we had some great car conversations.  (BY THE WAY... MAMASH SHOUT OUT TO BAYLA FOR HER AMAZING DRIVING AND PARALLEL PARKING, DESPITE CRAZY ISRAELI DRIVERS AND A FRUSTRATING AS EVER GPS!!)

Don't worry, after approximately 4 hours of "touring" and "seeing the sights" we got a good 20 minutes of shopping in in town, then we went to Shayan, and amazing Asian restaurant, for dinner.  We had a lovely, really nice meal all together (plus really good food), and as we sat at the giant round table, staring into each others' eyes, and passing the water on the broken lazy susan, we were able to appreciate how AMAZING everyone is on this trip!! (For real, these 6 women here are INCREDIBLE!! Mamash the BEST!!)

Once we had eaten enough that we were virtually immobile,we went back to our apartment, where a Kallah teacher, Esti Hamilton, was coming over to teach a class about the Mikveh and family purity laws.  We sat at the kitchen table, learning about the purpose of the Mikveh and the Halacha of family purity.   An amazing discussion was capped off with a quick drive to a beautiful Mikveh in Na'achlaot.  Esti gave us a tour and an explanation of the process of going to the Mikveh, then were had the pleasure of continuing our class in the gorgeous waiting room. 

We came home to end another day with hours of talking and giggling and silly You Tube videos and eating.  It's so comfortable here, and it's a lovely feeling to be at home in Israel with such inspiring women.  But we miss you all terribly, and hope that you can live vicariously through us as we are living the dream!!

Laila Tov, and talk to you tomorrow!!

Shalom from the Holy Land :)