Circle Completed

             

              I didn't know how to write this blog post until just now, exactly 10 hours until I am due to move in to my dorm as a freshman at the University of Notre Dame.  This moment happened when I walked into our hotel room and I saw only one thing, Lilly Pulitzer.  Preppy.  I'm not preppy, I'm far from preppy.  I love Salvation Army.  And that was when I knew my gap year was over.  I was now starting to focus on all things future.

  

              I wish I could write something profound and earth shattering but, all I can really do is reflect on what this year has taught me. After a year of crisis, travel and life experience...I only hope that the next 4 years of my life can be just as amazing as this one year was.

              I spent a year learning a new language and culture. I spent a year budgeting money. I spent a year working outside of my comfort zone. I spent a year educating myself and others. I spent a year working as an adult. I spent a year to de-stress. I spent a year learning about myself.

              There are a few big things I got out of this year, that I'd like to share and that hopefully I can keep with me these next 4 years.

              1)Friendship has no age limit.  My friends this year ranged from 18- 40+. In some cases, I was becoming friends with people who had known me as a toddler.  In any case, I learned that your grade and your age aren't something that measures maturity.

              2)Be adaptable

              3)The world has so much more to offer than just a party.  Simply put, there will always be time to hang out with friends; there won't always be a seasonal festival in the local square.  But at the same time, never pass up the offer to party at that seasonal festival.

              4)Have patience

              This is where my after-crying starts.  It's officially over.  And I wish that after a year of being on my own I wouldn't be nervous to start anew in a small community with football and cornfields, but I am.  Even through all the troubles that Israel may have presented, it was home.  I made amazing friends and had some life altering experiences that I don't want to let go of.  And on top of that, no matter how old you are, it's hard to be the new kid.  Luckily, I have a couple thousand other kids who feel the same way.  And if all else fails, I just bought my own pair of Sperry's.

              To those who were active members in my year doing the abnormal and unthinkable, let's do it again some time.

The Week Everything Went Right

             I literally leave in 47 minutes to hop in a cab, to get on a train, to get in a plane to see my friend Katie in England.  And the thing is, I still haven't told you all about anything that has happened since i've been back.  I can only think of one week that is blog worthy, and it's been nicely dubbed "Taylor in Israel".  This week was the week everything went right.

             Background to this week goes as follows.  Taylor and her family live across the street from me back home.  They moved in the winter of 2nd grade, and a week after that, we were running back and forth between houses.  Our family dynamics are as follows...Taylor and I, Trevor (12 grade), Maureen (11), Noreen (10) and Tori (9).  We took prom pictures before our dates arrived and gladly took graduation photos while our moms were crying in front of us.  Needless to say, I don't really remember not having them live across the street.  They are my second family when I need to get away from mine, and are truly some of the people I miss the most.  Taylor was supposed to visit me in December, but ya know rockets and stuff, so she re-booked her trip for her spring break which perfectly matched up with mine.

              Once college applications came out for the graduating seniors, I too, jumped on that bandwagon.  I had already deferred my acceptance to Indiana University, but thought why not take one more shot at any school I wanted.  This then would prove difficult since teacher recommendations and counselor recommendations were informed a little later in the game since I didn't even know I was going to do this until October.  There was also the added difficulty that my counselor himself had retired the year we graduated, so I had to kindly ask him for a moment out of retirement to get this application finished.  In the middle of December I clicked one final submit and was subject to a waiting game until decisions would be released.

               Lastly, I was applying for two jobs for a program I was completely in love with as a summer job.  I have spent a large amount of my time praising this program and actively participating in it and wanted to do more.  There were two positions open for the summer and although the former occupants will be truly missed, I got right up on that application process and was also waiting for a response from them.

                So without further ado, Taylor arrives March 22nd.  After tearing up at every reunion I saw at the airport, I finally saw Taylor walk out alive from the border control.  I honestly couldn't be more thrilled to see someone in my life.  Finally a little piece of home was with me and I couldn't wait for all the adventures we were going to have.  We got Taylor home and tried to keep her awake for as long as possible until she fell asleep mid-conversation.  Jet lag from California (she goes to Stanford), I mean I don't blame her.

                But while Taylor was asleep, I got a bagillion Facebook inboxes from Nonie to go on Skype. So as I reluctantly went on with a towel in my hair, it seems the decision envelope had arrived.  And though I wish I could have done it myself, mommy dearest kindly faced it towards the camera the whole time so that I could be the first to read that I was ACCEPTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME! (All caps my friends, no doubt about it).  I accepted my acceptance almost immediately and am now officially part of the graduating class of 2017.  Apologies Indiana University! I honestly would have been just as happy to go there if I hadn't gotten in to Notre Dame.  But since I did, GO IRISH!

                With Taylor still asleep, I was up late, I was also informed that I was offered the position of the American Delegation Chaperone for Hands of Peace this upcoming summer.  Like Notre Dame, I accepted immediately and couldn't be more happy.  I was now going to be staff and give back the program that brought me here in the first place.  So watch out american kiddies, we got a new sheriff in town this summer.

                When Taylor woke up, I told her all the good news and then we were off to explore this place I happen to be living in.  We went to Jaffa, hiked Masada at 5 in the morning, hiked Ein Gedi, floated in the Dead Sea, saw the Dome of the Rock, went to a Palestinian refugee camp, and saw the wailing wall.  You name it, we did it.  And since it was Passover week, we were blessed to go to a Passover seder as well.  Gosh, I literally can't tell you how much fun it was to have a reason to go to all those places again.  It was cool to be able to teach someone about all the things I learned and see that it's really something new to them.

                 Taylor and I quickly decided we need to spend time bugging the heck out of our mothers by being lazy in our backyards this summer, and that it was really nice to actually catch up.  School makes it hard to keep up with people, and then add the crazy time difference and it's almost impossible.  But Taylor has known me longer than most people and it's gotten to the point where she's just second family now.  I don't need to feel like i'm impressing anyone or anything, I mean she knows me inside and out.  She made me really realize how much I missed home and how much I loved having familiarity around me.  But gosh, that was two months ago! Where has the time gone?!

                As I quickly sign off with now 10 minutes before I leave, I can't help but realize I only have 3 weeks left.  That's it, 3.  Where has the time gone?

Paddy for Pope

Pope's Blessing

              Before we knew it, Katie and I found ourselves in Rome.  We made our way to the nuns once again and were surprisingly given separate rooms.  This was the first time we were going to be sleeping in separate rooms the whole trip.  But that didn't phase us since I spent most of my time sitting in her room anyway.  There were two things we wanted to be in Rome for that week.  We wanted to see Pope Benedict's final blessing and his final Papal Audience.  They were a few days apart so we spent a little less than a week in Rome.  Honestly, I never would have expected to be in Rome again, truly a blessing.  Caution, this post is a doozy...so much happened!  **Click on pictures to enlarge**

crowd for the blessing

           


      There's a priest from back home that is near and dear to my heart, Father Paddy.  This wonderful guy has said mass at our house for many years to make sure we weren't stuck with the ChrEasters on Chirstmas and was the head of the Kairos retreat that I went on and eventually lead.  My parents have known him since he came to America from Ireland, which is just another part of his charm.  The moment the pope announced he was going to step down, many people jokingly started posting pictures and statuses with the phrase "Paddy for Pope".  On top of that, his health wasn't in tip top shape.  So I figured, well...When in Rome.  I was hoping this would show him how loved he is and maybe help him feel better.  So the day of the blessing, we found ourselves in the midst of people from all around the world with my sign for Paddy.  This is when I whipped out the sign and got a picture in front of the Vatican.  Many different people took pictures of me with the sign, and others thought I had some special cardinal in mind for the papacy.  Little did they know, it was just my favorite crusty old man from back home.

              The rest of the week was spent sightseeing for Katie and people watching for me.  Since I had been there a little more than a month ago, it was fun to go back to all my favorite places, especially since suddenly Rome seemed to be poppin'.  Katie would leave early in the morning for mass almost every morning and so we would meet for a later lunch and then head back together.

              Finally the day had come.  Katie and I had picked up our tickets for the last papal audience, although they honestly they were probably useless.  We had somehow convinced the nuns to let us camp out at the Vatican that night and were off for the train.  This train however, did not exist, and we waited an hour at the train station before we were on the correctly timed one.  We were trying to waste as much time as possible as to not spend more time sleeping on cobblestone.  We ate some amazing Pizza and got ourselves in quite the conversation, one that was eventually destined to happen, but was hoping not on this night.  But as luck would have it when tensions were high, we stumbled upon 3 characters.

Priest in the train

              At this bar (again friends, I am of legal age here), were 3 other english speakers.  Katie and I couldn't help but eavesdrop, and were eventually part of their conversation.  One was American while the other two were from England.  Now you're probably thinking these guys were maybe 25-30.  WRONG.  We're talking roughly 40-50 year old men, but honestly they were the most entertaining people I had ever met.  The way they were dressed pointed to wealth, which was later proven via business card, and they all liked to mess with each other.  Plus they bought us drinks, so we didn't have to pay a thing.  By the time we left, we decided to head back over to the Vatican, and the spat we had earlier was completely forgotten.

Not happy to sleep on ground

She's happy to sleep on ground

              We made our way over and staked our ground near the entrance gate to the city which was blocked off.  The sleeping bags we had were great because they were specifically made for the cold weather.  We set up "camp" and I snuggled up real close to Katie as I was about to sleep on cobblestone.  We woke up at 530 to a mass of people that had somehow accumulated while we were asleep.  We then pushed our way to the front of the crowd and had the joy of waiting until 8 am to be let in to the Vatican.

camp out friends

              We found a great group of students that were studying abroad in Rome and decided to camp out as well.  We had staked our ground in the mass of people, and when I felt like I was going to puke, they gave me some of my bread.  We sat and shared blankets and when it came time to shove our way through, we blocked for each other.  Before we knew it, it was 8am, and the gates were open.  I wish I could tell you that the majority of the people that were pushing against me were young people, but really those Italian nuns are not a force to be reckoned with.  This was the one time I didn't mind pushing a nun because I had slept on stone for this, I was not going to get a bad seat.  When they finally opened the gates, Katie and I were separated.  I ran in first, yelled at a French nun in French, and got us front row seats in the process.  Besides the obnoxious French students that smacked their flag against us every 5 minutes (followed by our response of "remember Normandy?"), we had amazing seats.

At the barrier 

             
           Then, Benedict here, took that Popemobile out and drove right past us, maybe 7 feet infront of us, maybe closer. **No zoom on any Pope Pictures**  And this is when people ask me why I wanted to go see the Pope.  For me, seeing the Pope is like seeing the President of France (Obviously a little more important).  I do consider myself Catholic, but there are many things about the church that really bother me.  This includes not allowing women to be priests, the fact that homosexuals are "morally wrong" and more.  Thus, the administration of the Church is not exactly something dear to my heart.  But, regardless, the Pope is the Pope.  So, the President of France isn't exactly dear to my heart and doesn't really affect me too much, but if I were to see him up close, I'd be pretty pumped.  But this was just my opinion.  The coolest aspect of this was seeing how much the Pope really did mean to certain people.  People were crying, screaming, in pure joy seeing him pass by.  I was witnessing a world event, something that is anthropologically very cool.  The amount of people and languages I encountered was crazy.  Over 100,000 people were packed into the Vatican, and even more in the streets.  Truly a sight to see.

Pope pic 1

Pope pic 2

         

The crowd waiting for the Pope

Pope pic 3

And the next day, I was on my way back to Israel.  Katie rode with me to the airport, and we had to say some weirdly quick goodbye as she handed me a pretty hefty envelope.  Inside was such a sweet note and a big bar of white chocolate.  She had adequately predicted I was going to eat a Cheeseburger once more before I go back to the land of Kosher, and I did.  And that's how it felt.  After roughly 5 weeks of on your toes traveling, I was headed back to a place I considered stable.  I could finally sleep in my own bed and just watch a tv show without feeling like I was missing out on much.  Honestly, what a way to end a trip!

Thank you Sister Joan

Southern France

               So here's Southern France.  I can't believe we didn't plan this place in our initial Europe plan because I've truly fallen in love with Southern France.  Not only did my french come in handy once again, but it was just plain old beautiful.  Katie described it best as a combo of French and Spanish cultures.  You got the color and vibrant flare of being a spaniard with the snooty and posh-ness of being  French.  Plus, it was just so dang gorgeous.  **Click to enlarge photos**

                We had been in cities so long, that when we got to Marseille we decided to check out "The rocks"(Les Calanques).  Apparently it was the big attraction in the spring and the winter, and since we got lucky with a 60 degree and sunny day, we decided to take the bus ride out.  Honestly, no one really told us what we were going to be presented with.  Turns out we got ourselves one awesome hike that ended with an amazing view of the Mediterranean.  It was so nice to not be surrounded by buildings and just have a breath of fresh air.  Honestly, just let the pictures do the talking.

               














             

       

          Next we rented an apartment in Nice.  It was a converted wine celler in the old city which was amazingly centrally located.  The best part of the apartment was that we got to babysit the lady's cat!  The downside was that it was a converted wine celler and it smelled like cat with the lack of ventilation and windows.  But honestly, I think I took more pictures of that cat than I did the scenery in Nice.  With the amount of puppies we had seen in the past weeks, I was just so happy to have a 'lil buddy to play with.  Katie didn't like the cat.  Nice was gorgeous too, and had the best chocolate next to Belgium.  Again, the best I can do with southern France is show you pictures.  It was just so scenic and just what we needed before heading to what we knew was going to be one hectic place.  

Barcelona

               The moment we reached Barcelona, we saw a major shift in culture.  Not only were things not as proper and posh, but everything was so much cheaper.  So much so that I was starting to understand why so many college students choose to study abroad in Spain and not France...this was then overridden once we hit Southern France after Barcelona.  *Click to enlarge photos*

                Imagine a land where chocolate is acceptable for breakfast, nachos can be a daily thing and lots of color.  This land would be Spain.  Churros (legit good ones) dipped in hot melted was our daily breakfast along with big cups of coffee.  I don't think you understand our struggle with big cups of coffee, they don't exist in Europe.  This was then followed by lots of real nachos for dinner, which I learned don't usually include nacho cheese, and soccer.  But Barcelona also seemed to be the place of random discoveries.

       Our first day we decided to venture through Barcelona without any guidebooks.  We had agreed upon doing a circle route while looking at the maps on our phone.  These maps, while so helpful, do not show any indication of altitude, and we soon found ourself walking straight up on the top of a hill/mountain thing.  We seemed to have stumble upon the very touristy viewpoint/castle.  We applauded ourselves for somehow finding the most popular tourist attraction without trying, while also stumbling upon another site.  This time it was the base of the Catalonia National Art Museum.  We saw people gathering around the pillars staring at the fountain.  We quickly did our research and learned that on this day of the week there are two fountain/water and light shows.  We were there 30 minutes before the start so Katie got us hot coffee and we watched a free show.  We then found ourselves in a local bar witnessing a soccer game through the eyes of the local crowd.  But this was just day one of our happy stumble-upons.

Catalonia National Art Museum

               Day two we walked through the old town to find that there was a big celebration and festival occurring.  I literally can't describe this festival in words other than "human tower with children as the top".  Video attachment later.  Check back for it.

Katie with her flip flops

               Day two was Sunday, but it seemed we had missed the noon mass because it was canceled for celebration that was going on.  Personally fine by me, I'm pretty sure Jesus would be all for me seeing and having adventures around the world.  But see, this was now the reason why later, I had completed the hardest run of my life.  Ok all, I was on Cross Country and Track and I did pretty well.  But, the best I can do in Israel is try to find a cold time in the day to go for a run (that cold time doesn't exist), so I am not in the best shape.  Luckily since this was the end of the trip, I had gotten a little more in shape with all the walking.

             

Run destination

         Katie decided she wanted to go on a run while I was trying to figure out my flight plans.  I was supposed to fly out of Madrid in a few days, but there had been a ground strike canceling half of my flights.  International calling wasn't working so I opted out for mommy dearest who actually had a working phone and decided to run with Katie.  We picked a site and decided to run.  Well friends, this site was 4 miles away.  Wasn't really a big deal until Katie wanted to run back in time for mass.  I think we maybe had 45 minutes tops...and we had to run 4 miles back.  Trust me people, I tried my hardest to convince her that God understands we're exploring the world and didn't want me to throw up a lung.  But no worries, I made it in time to listen to 1.5 hours of Spanish.  Los sientos Jesus, yo no comprendo.      

               Barcelona was a relative break point.  Lots of different things were happening at once.  There was a lot happening with my travel plans a few days before departure, Katie and I had a bumpy moment and school was starting soon.  But give it a good night's sleep and bam, we decided to cancel my planes and go to Southern France and then Rome for the pope stuff, the bumpy moment had been forgotten and my friends were going to register me for classes.  We were now on our way to what was to become my very favorite part of the trip, Marseille and Nice.

Church that's been under construction for over 100 years

same church as pictured left

Paris

               I forgot to mention a really important part of our trip back in Belgium.  As we were standing outside the chocolate shop after hours, we noticed that we started getting notifications on our phones because they were automatically connecting to the store's wifi.  We found out the Pope had decided to step down.  This also led to multiple emails from both of our parents telling us to head back to Rome for the last Papal audience.  We rushed back to our hostel, got on real computers and started emailing away and looking at how to rearrange our trip.  With the support of our parents and an email sent to the nuns, we shifted our attention to getting to Paris.  **Click on photos to enlarge**

                Ah yes, Paris, the City of Lights, or to most, the City of Love.  Being the smart girls that we are, we stupidly made it so we were in Paris for Valentine's day.  Single ladies unite!  At the same time, we do credit ourselves to a cost efficient and very authentic Paris experience.  We quickly realized Paris hostels were not going to be cheap and so we opted for a thing called airbnb.com where you rent out someone's apartment and roughly pay the same price as if it were a hostel.  So we ended up with the cutest studio in the 3rd arrondissement, which is walking distance from all the tourist sites.  We arrived after a train ride of literally running to the train after last minute buying seat reservations.  Again, yay for backpacks.

                This was the start of the week I kindly dubbed "I think God is sick of me".  We went to mass on Sunday in Amsterdam, and now our first whole day in Paris was Ash Wednesday.  So for Wednesday, Katie found times to go to Ash Wednesday mass in Notre Dame.  When we awoke in the morning, I was informed we would be participating in the fasting process with no meat...yes Paris and i'm fasting.  So we had some coffee and walked ourselves to Notre Dame.  It was actually pretty cool to not just be any other tourist and sit down and see this huge space be turned into something other than a cool picture backdrop.  But see then the next day, it was raining and we opted to visit Rue de Bac, which is another church.  Welp, mass just happened to start the moment we were about to leave, so that would be mass number 3 this week.  And then apart from visiting many other churches during week, we went to mass in Barcelona on Sunday.  So we were 4/8 days in mass.  Sorry God, I'm sure my face got annoying.

                I finally got to prove myself worthy of our trip.  Not only did 4 painful years of high school French utterly pay off, but it seems even in this day and age, some 29 year olds don't know how to use public transportation.  Katie's got an ok excuse though.  She lives in Los Angeles where that just doesn't exist, so I was our conductor for the trip.  With an amazing subway system like Paris', we went anywhere and everywhere.  This would include climbing to the top of the Eiffel tower, seeing the painting on the opposite wall from the Mona Lisa and any quaint thing we could get our hands on.

 

                But Paris, City of Love didn't disappoint.  One of our waiters legitimately turned his back to me to talk to the lady with the "pretty eyes" and introduce himself to her in french.  Even when I tried to tell him that Katie didn't speak French, he kept his eyes solely on her.  Now as Katie was trying to explain to me that the waiter there "only felt bad for her" and that was why he hit on her, we got waiter number two named Bruno who slipped a note under her plate when we got the check.  This time she told me it was because he "pitied the apparent single mom".  I then proceeded to tell her to knock it off and accept that she was pretty while I bought our large bottle of wine for our Valentine's dinner in.   Seriously, Valentine's day in Paris, what were we thinking?

                 Honestly though, Paris is everything you want it to be; sophisticated, quaint and surreal.  I learned that I actually like French because I wasn't practicing grammar or taking tests, but rather being a part of the culture.  Renting the studio truly made the experience what it was because we were on our own, eating from local bakeries and restaurants.  I could never get sick of Paris.  Also, relatively unrelated to this post.  Everyone, go watch "The Untouchable" right now.  Honestly one of the best movies i've ever seen.  It's French.

                 Few random things: Katie spent more time taking pictures of the flip flops she owned throughout Europe than of herself.  I found goldfish, but they only came in two flavors...Salt&Vinegar and pizza...WHAT?!  America shouldn't have nice things because we would just spend our time trying to find a way to make it funny. Next is Barcelona.