The times, they are a-changin'

Hi everyone!! I'm sure everyone is excited about our new president. Everyone I'm living with is (except maybe the Canadians aren't as excited). People stayed up all night last night to watch the elections and started screaming with joy at about 5:30 in the morning. It was certainly an interesting way to wake up.

Unfortunately for the people who stayed up all night last night, we had a field trip today to a couple of different museums concerning aliyah. I really liked it, and I think that those who were awake for it really enjoyable. It was a big contrast, going from one display of patriotism to another. It was very interesting to be here while so much is going on at home. But I'm still really happy I'm here.

The past week's been fun. We celebrated Halloween all weekend. On Thursday night, we started off the weekend with "Rocky Horror Picture Show" night (weekends start on Thursday for us). You can look for the pictures on Facebook, once my sister finds the chord that will let me put my pictures on the computer. The next night, the Brits we were living with planned a very elaborate murder mystery that involved some of the villains of American horror movies. It was a lot of fun...very scary, but fun. After the mystery had been solved, we (the American/Canadians) went back to our house and had trick or treating. Our house has two separate hallways and each room set up their room with a different theme. You went from room to room (with the people from your own room) and got candy and played games. Then we just had a party.

A couple of days ago we went on a short bike trip in the Golan Heights. We learned about the Yom Kippur War and went to one of the battlefields of the war. It was right on the border of Syria. We could see several Syrian villages from where we were sitting. We Also got to go inside a tank. I think you all can count on me not signing up for the army- I was scared just sitting in that tank. After looking at the battlefield, we went to this rally that was set up by the Israeli Army for teenagers who were in their last year in high school and would be entering the army the next year. They fired off some of their tanks, which really scared the people I was with, but it seemed to empower all the Israelis who were standing around us. You could clearly see the cultural differences.

On Friday my group is heading to a youth hostel near Jerusalem to have a seminar on Yitzchak Rabin. He was assassinated around this time of year 13 (?) years ago. There's a rally in his honor every year around this time in Kikar Rabin (the place in Tel Aviv where he was assassinated). We're going to that on Saturday.

That's all I really have for right now. Hopefully next time I write, I'll be able to put up pictures (meaning that my sister had better get on finding that chord...)

All My Lovin'
-Phia