The Great Outdoors

Well this must be a first. There is less than 6 months between posts!

Things have been going well here in Jerusalem. The holiday season really is in full swing. Rosh Hashana was nice - actually baked an apple pie! Tried to make fortune cookies - now that was a sight. My friend Adira and I ended up with a pile of moosh (that tasted like playdough) so we tried to pass it off as a "Philipino Lucky Pocket" (which no such things exists) packed it with fortunes...and well, we laughed way to hard (and drank to much) and the truth came out!

Yom Kippur is also really neat here, the whole city shuts down. We're talking turns the traffic lights off. While leaving shul, I bumped into my friend Safi from Toronto. We decided to just sit in the middle of a major intersection (as there were no cars.. well, there were emergency ones just keeping an eye on things, but nothing too big...) watching the world go by. thousands of people were just wandering around jerusalem. So, as Safi and I are sitting there this woman comes up to us (in Hebrew) and asks us why we were sitting in the middle of the road. Now me, in my usual Nikki way, responded "Why not?" She then told us to move as we were blocking traffic. Now, Safi and I looked around and noticed that there was not a car in sight and just laughed - oh Israel!

Now it's Sukkot. As I dont have a Sukkah myself, I decided to adopt my friend Ian's sukkah as my own (I even got to decorate) The past two nights I have even slept out there. However, this morning we were all woken up to rain... Its been great!

I'm off on break right now from the YEshiva so for the next little bit I will be just taking in everything. Tomorrow (Thursday) I am going to go to Hevron for a festival out there and I am sure I am going to hit Tel Aviv as well (BEACH!) This Shabbat Im making the meals at Ian's sukkah - so if you need a place, let me know!

Alright, time to go to the post office!

Modim L'simcha

Nikki

Ok. Ok. I suck with this.

Ok Ok.

So, at the bottom of my email it says to check out my blog, yet how can it be worth checking if I NEVER add to it..

So here I am trying to begin to update it on a psudo semi regular basis.

here is a mass post that I sent out that really sums up everything...

Greetings from the Holy Land,

This has been typed quickly and without a good “read-over” so I apologize in advance for spelling and grammar errors in advance…

I actually have a few seconds to sit down and write an email, so I wanted to take this opportunity to reconnect. I realize that I have been really bad about emailing – but I hope that this is all going to change… For those of you that I have not spoken with in a long time, many things have changed!

This year has been a hectic year. Major life changes, major events in history and new challenges.

This past December I decided to make living here a permanent thing and declared aliyah. After countless instances of lines that were just too long I am finally an Israeli citizen. It’s really nice to be living here as part of the society and not as a visitor.

I moved from the ghetto where I was living (not kidding, it WAS the ghetto) to Nachlaot (the bohemian area of Jerusalem) where the streets are narrow, the buildings are old and filled with personality (and 5 min to the shook!) It’s been great. I have a great roommate and we are having a good time. The apartment came with nothing, so now I own all sorts of things (a fridge, a bed, pots and pans… guess I am growing up…the horrors!) We’ve really made it a home and it’s great. I even have a great landlord (which for those of you that have lived here before know that it’s a hard thing to find…) I have a lot of friends that live in the neighborhood so there is always somewhere to go and something to do, its nice very special environment. I also have a nice core group of “Israeli” friends, family that lives here and that is always important! (And an adoptive family that have been wonderful)

For the next few months, I will be continuing my studies at the Conservative Yeshiva here in Jerusalem. I am now a third year student and there is a really nice hevra (community) here. After that, I will be beginning my ulpan (intensive Hebrew studies) for 5 months (so I can really get myself into Israeli society) and hopefully working. (Need a job for January, any leads?) So I am looking forward to that (well, in a luke-warm kind of way) Also, I have just started a new internship. I am interning for JESNA (Jewish Educational Service of North America) for their Israel graduate seminar, so that’s a good thing. We’ll see where that leads me…


Well, that’s about it. I am looking forward to Rosh Hashana. I will be at different homes for all the means (both Students and “living here permanently” places)
I want to wish you and your family a shana tova u’metukah. I hope that this year brings much love, happiness and health to you and your families. I hope that you are all inscribed in the book of life and health.

I also wish you all a sincere apology for anything that I may have done to harm you in anyway (I know that this is done in a mass email. but…)


I hope that you visit soon!

Be in touch,

Nikki

---

So thats it for now.. but I (Bli neder...) will attempt to work at posting more often....

Ok. Ok. I suck with this.

Ok Ok.

So, at the bottom of my email it says to check out my blog, yet how can it be worth checking if I NEVER add to it..

So here I am trying to begin to update it on a psudo semi regular basis.

here is a mass post that I sent out that really sums up everything...

Greetings from the Holy Land,

This has been typed quickly and without a good “read-over” so I apologize in advance for spelling and grammar errors in advance…

I actually have a few seconds to sit down and write an email, so I wanted to take this opportunity to reconnect. I realize that I have been really bad about emailing – but I hope that this is all going to change… For those of you that I have not spoken with in a long time, many things have changed!

This year has been a hectic year. Major life changes, major events in history and new challenges.

This past December I decided to make living here a permanent thing and declared aliyah. After countless instances of lines that were just too long I am finally an Israeli citizen. It’s really nice to be living here as part of the society and not as a visitor.

I moved from the ghetto where I was living (not kidding, it WAS the ghetto) to Nachlaot (the bohemian area of Jerusalem) where the streets are narrow, the buildings are old and filled with personality (and 5 min to the shook!) It’s been great. I have a great roommate and we are having a good time. The apartment came with nothing, so now I own all sorts of things (a fridge, a bed, pots and pans… guess I am growing up…the horrors!) We’ve really made it a home and it’s great. I even have a great landlord (which for those of you that have lived here before know that it’s a hard thing to find…) I have a lot of friends that live in the neighborhood so there is always somewhere to go and something to do, its nice very special environment. I also have a nice core group of “Israeli” friends, family that lives here and that is always important! (And an adoptive family that have been wonderful)

For the next few months, I will be continuing my studies at the Conservative Yeshiva here in Jerusalem. I am now a third year student and there is a really nice hevra (community) here. After that, I will be beginning my ulpan (intensive Hebrew studies) for 5 months (so I can really get myself into Israeli society) and hopefully working. (Need a job for January, any leads?) So I am looking forward to that (well, in a luke-warm kind of way) Also, I have just started a new internship. I am interning for JESNA (Jewish Educational Service of North America) for their Israel graduate seminar, so that’s a good thing. We’ll see where that leads me…


Well, that’s about it. I am looking forward to Rosh Hashana. I will be at different homes for all the means (both Students and “living here permanently” places)
I want to wish you and your family a shana tova u’metukah. I hope that this year brings much love, happiness and health to you and your families. I hope that you are all inscribed in the book of life and health.

I also wish you all a sincere apology for anything that I may have done to harm you in anyway (I know that this is done in a mass email. but…)


I hope that you visit soon!

Be in touch,

Nikki

---

So thats it for now.. but I (Bli neder...) will attempt to work at posting more often....