Ani lo mevinah Ivrit.

And I don't understand Russian either.  But thanks for assuming I did.

 

I'm in Israel now, have been for almost 2 weeks.  We spent a few days in Tel Aviv, met my dad's cousin Uri and his wife and kids (Ella, Ron and Hadar, respectively) and then went to Jerusalem.  After that we went to visit family friends Raz and his family down on Moshav V'at Kikar, I think.  A Moshav is a place where the community works and farms together like a Kibbutz, but people have private property and such.  Their moshav is by the Dead Sea and they grow dates.  Really really good dates.  Their tiny daughter is adorable, but after 5 minutes in a car with her I was ready to throw her out the window.  This is why I am not having children.  Ever.

 

After the moshav we picked Evan up in Tel Aviv (he chose to stay with Uri) and went to Haifa.  We stayed in an empty apartment that mom and dad's friend owns with her siblings since their mother's death.  But no one had been there in a LOOOONNNG time.  How do we know?  We found a bird skeleton on the couch.  No feathers, no organs, no skin anymore.  Just the skeleton.  It looked really cool, but I felt bad for it.  From that apartment, we went to Safed, Moshav Kinneret (where dad's other cousin Tami lives with her family who is awesome), and some other town or two.  Tami and her husband are marine biologists and they invented a sunscreen that neautralises jelly fish stings.  Totally safe swimming. 

 

Now we are back in Tel Aviv.  On Monday my parents and brother leave Israel.  I will take a bus to Jerusalem to see Rachel Marder (who I ran into at Simchat Torah services at some synangogue), Mari, and MichelleAran, both of whom are at the University of Jerusalem for the year.  Then I will go to Eilat and snuba diving I hope at the reef Mark told me is amazing near the Princess Hotel.  From Eilat I am going to Cairo, Eygpt to see pyramids and stay with a friend of Courtney Robinson's.  From there back to Haifa to spend a day with Haley Panneton, who has started her year of university there.  Hopefully another day at Moshav Kinneret (the lake is probably my favortie place to be in in Israel) and a night at the cousins'.  Then back to tel Aviv for my last 4 or 5 days to stay with Lior half the time and Uri half the time. 

 

The 25th I go to Munich, hopefully not all the way to Prague (gonna try to not get on my connecting flight).  I fly back to London on October 29th at 7 am (gross).  If I have the time in Munich, I am going to go to the Dachu Concentration Camp. 

 

I will be back in London for Halloween, although lord knows where I am going to stay.  I've got 3.5 weeks in the UK.  I'm hoping to visit Wales (yay, AshKitty!), Manchester, Liverpool, York, Bath, and maybe Brighton or the Costwalds to visit Hermione's family homestead.  I fly back to California on November 22nd and plan to spend the following month in a complete depression (save seeing Natalie) of having to live in Elk Grove and not Israel or London. 

 

Man, when I put it like that, my trip is practically over.  (It's moments like this I have to remind the depression to wait until I get home.)

 

And in really important news, I am now the owner of bright pink (yes, Meredith, pink) jeans that Lior didn't want.  Hehe.  I love them.