Here Goes Nothing

            After the upsetting BCS game followed two weeks of well, nothing.  Lots and lots of people left that first weekend, and only 3 people were really left here in the dorms.  There was a 21st birthday, and then she went home.  One friend is now free traveling for the semester.  Lastly, my final friend in the dorms has left on a trip to Budapest.

          BUT do not fret, friends and family! I am about to embark on my first ever backpacking trip to Europe!  I actually leave Tuesday morning for a 6am flight, but I know this post wouldn't be written unless I did it now.  I borrowed a backpack from my friend here and have literally just been walking around my room with it on to get used to it.  Please enjoy my photo shoot with said backpack.

 

          My flight is at 6am Tuesday morning, so being me, I will be at the airport at 3am the latest!  Not sure I'll even go to sleep tomorrow night at all for I'll be too nervous to miss my flight.  I will be flying into Rome, and some very gracious nuns are helping me with some set-up there.  Still not sure if I'm staying with them specifically, or if there's something else I'm staying in.  I'll keep you all posted on that!  Also, I now want to watch the movie "The Trouble With Angels" before I leave.  A classic nun movie.  From there I will be going to Florence or Venice and then meeting my cousin in Munich!  From Munich we will be together until Feb 21/22 when I catch a flight back to Tel Aviv, and she will venture to Italy.  My cousin's name is Katie, can't ya see the resemblance!  We're obviously related!

           See, we're both super tan and brunette!  I'm actually super pumped to do this with her for many reasons.  1) I don't actually see her very often since we live on opposite ends of America.  2) She's actually my Confirmation sponsor, so that's cool and 3) She has friends that live in Europe and I don't, so that's free housing.  No, but really, we've been texting and planning this whole time.  I wouldn't have known what to bring or anything had it been for her, since I've never really done the whole wear the same shirt for a month thing before.  And ya know, doing this by myself would still be cool, but having a friend is even cooler.  So if you're reading this Cuz, know I'm pumped and I can't wait to see ya in a week!

           Friends and Fam, I'll try to add as many pictures to Facebook as I can while I have wifi and my handy-dandy iPhone.  I don't know how well blog posts will go since I will only have my iPhone, but know that I will keep very detailed notes for my future blogs about each place!

            Here are our rough list of cities we're hoping to hit:  Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Prague, Krakow, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Dublin, Paris, Barcelona and Madrid!

            If any of you guys are going to be in any of those places, inbox me on facebook or email!  I would love to have an international coffee date, or maybe crash on your couch?!

            Pray we travel safe and stay warm!  Nothing like leaving 70 degree warmth for 30 degree winter weather!  

Here Come the Irish

                 I figure while I'm up at 230am waiting for the BCS Championship game to watch the Irish beat Alabama, I should use my time to finally write this blog post.  Gotta say, Notre Dame culture here is the exact opposite from the Notre Dame culture back home.  I mean, being one of the only Christian people or even Irish people in this program made the game a little less hyped, unlike if I were still with Mommy Dearest who went for both Undergrad and Law School.  But Notre Dame Football team, if you're reading this, know there was at least one person in Israel watching the game.

               So January 2nd I was off to O'Hare once again.  Somehow I brought more clothes with me than last time, but hey, you can never have too many clothes.  And my day was already full of surprises.  I had gotten to my gate and heard the stewardess say my name over the intercom.  I went up to the counter and they informed me that I had been bumped to Business Class!  Not only was I served food from a menu, but I didn't feel bad about my stinky feet once.  Then after Frankfurt's airport kicking my butt with long un-needed corridors to walk down, I was again back in Israel!

               Not sure how many of you are aware of this program but, Israel has this thing called "Birthright" or "Taglit" in Hebrew that is a free trip for Jewish people around the world.  You must be 18 to take the trip and trust me when I say this, but if you're not on Taglit and Israelis assume you are it's just an insult.  When I got to Israeli customs, it seems that Taglit programs are in full swing.  So customs was just completely taken over by different colored lanyards.

               When I got back to the dorms, it was a completely different atmosphere.  Half the residents had already left for America, but thankfully not many of them were my friends.  I ran straight up to Nofar, gave her a huge hug, and then ran over to Ericka.  From there, I made the rounds to all the other apartments.  Sadly two close friends were leaving that night and I only had 4 hours with them.  But then from that moment on, more and more people were leaving.  Nofar left tonight, while my new roommate Koral is leaving early in the morning.  

                BUT because people are leaving...I got all their stuff!!  This includes pans, mirrors, guitars, blankets, pillows, food and more.  

                  So Nofar, Koral and I definitely have the most stocked and hopefully the most home-y room of all.  I got a lot of free candles from people, so I've taken a liking to making candles out of bottles we have around the apartment.
                  I'm now just counting the days until I can hope the puddle to Europe and meet my cousin for a little backpacking in the nice and warm February.  But really, it will be a lot of fun because we have never spent too much crazy time together, and what better way when you realize you're the only people that speak fluent English in your small enclosed area.
                  The only truly saddening thing about this return is knowing that the one and only Dayna will not be returning to us in Israel.  Because of how things have panned out with the conflict and credits, I now have a room to myself.  Picture to come (still don't have my clothes out of the center of my room), but I will be turning my room into one big single.  Hopefully I do not have a roommate show up while I am gone because it will not be tailored for two people by the time they arrive.
                  So, it's been a bittersweet week.  I've had to say goodbye to hometown friends again, but then I had to return to Israel to say goodbye to everyone here.  I have roughly two weeks until I leave for Europe and everyone is gone, so I will just be decorating and traveling around Israel.  Off to Jerusalem tomorrow to track down a friend on Taglit without any sleep because of this game.

                  It's now the second quarter, so hopefully the Irish can pull it out of the fire, because I did not pull an all nighter with jet lag for nothing!  Go Irish!  God Country Notre Dame!