I have not written in a while due to my busy schedule. I cannot say that all of my days were filled with studying for Hebrew. In fact, last week David and I had plans every single night with different people. We are finding that our social lives here are the best they have ever been. We are constantly making plans to go out to eat dinner, dessert, or spend time at other people’s apartments. It has been an interesting experience and we enjoy most of the people in our classes.

Instead of going day by day of what occurred last week I will only tell glimpses so that I can hopefully write in more detail. I have found that my composition of these journal entries have been mostly detail-less and I would love to dive into some of the interesting stuff that has happened to David and I.

As I said, David and I were constantly busy last week. We found ourselves going out with different couples each night of the week. One night we went out with Josh and Nikky, a newlywed couple who will be coming back to LA next year. We did sushi with them and then ended up at one of the most popular restaurants/cafes/dessert stops called T'mol Shilshom. What I found to be the best part of the evening was just relaxing. The last few weeks there has been a sense of rush to get to know everyone quickly and get caught up on everyone’s lives. The night with Josh and Nikky was relaxing and fun. David and I are so happy to have found other couples that are just as fun and just as cool as us (Did I call David and I cool? Hahahaha). As you might have read from David’s diary we enjoyed sushi and coffee with Josh and Nikky. It was truly a wonderful night. We also spent a night with Matt and Lindy at the Arts Festival that is happening here through all of August. David has been spending most of his time with Matt who he knew from working with Hillel in Los Angeles. Lindy and I however, had heard about each other from one of my bosses last year, but had yet to really spend time together. It was such a blast! Little did I know that we would be “traveling around the world” when we attended the Arts Festival. There were booths upon booths with cool and fancy arts and crafts made in Israel. However, if you walked a little further there were booths set up from all over the world premiering their artwork. For instance, we saw art from Nepal, Ethiopia, Peru, Brazil, India, China, etc. It was fantastic. I cannot forget to mention that the food was incredible as well. They had booths with Chinese food, Thai, Japanese, and more. We all dove into Chinese food since there is nothing worse than Chinese food in Israel. It was fairly tasty, plus we were hungry so anything would have satisfied us!! It was an unforgettable night and was very nice to shop around. I am sure that I will go back to the fair before it ends next week.

If this schedule does not seem busy enough, we were privileged to also have dinner with Luke and Jordana (another couple going back to LA with us) at a phenomenal restaurant that none of us had tried yet. It was called Foccacia Bar and you can only imagine how amazing the foccacia bread was. It was so tasty! We then went to David’s and my favorite dessert place, Dr. Lek, for chocolate and banana crepes. YUM.

This Shabbat, although we were constantly socializing and had a lot of fun, was not as relaxing or rejuvenating. We were invited to two of my classmates’ apartment, Melissa and Esther, for Shabbat dinner. We met our dinner group prior to dinner at a Reform synagogue, Kol Haneshema, for services. This was one of the first times David and I decided, and were available, to go to services on Friday night. It was very enjoyable especially because half of my HUC class was there for services. From services, we walked to Melissa and Esther’s for yummy brisket, chicken, couscous and more. It was a small group of eight of us but we had a blast. We spent most of the night laughing with each other and really enjoying each other’s company.

Unfortunately, David and I had to leave Shabbat dinner somewhat early (and for Israeli standards leaving dinner at 11:30 p.m. is early!) because we were getting up early to experience Shabbat morning services. We met up with David’s rabbi from California for services at 8:30 a.m. We attended Shira Hadasha, an amazing modern Orthodox service. Yes, there was a curtain separating the men from the women, but it was practically see-through and women led services just as much as the men did. It was a cool experience and both David and I liked being there. We are sure that we will attend again. From services we went to David’s rabbi’s house, Rabbi Donnell, to meet up with his wife and to have lunch. They have just recently moved to Israel permanently and their place was unbelievable. Although somewhat far away from HUC, they live in an incredible place and we had a very nice lunch with them. Saturday night David and I were invited for Havdalah (a service to say goodbye to the Sabbath and welcome in the new week) with all of the students from my Hebrew class. We had wine and dessert and socialized for a while before David and I came home to crash. Like I said, David and I had a great weekend but are tired and ready to get some good sleep under our belts before leaving for Greece on Sunday!