#Officially Israeli

Dear friends and family (and maybe the random, unfortunate person who happens to come across this brain cell-killing blog), I am feeling much better, Baruch Hashem. 

I got much sleep the past few days, did not go to school or work, and just read and cried and ate soup. So, a very productive week, I have to say. 

Let's first talk about last week. Much happened, I'm sure. I just don't remember most of it. OPS, you see. 

I do recall going to two beautiful vorts, one on Wednesday night, the other on Thursday. I went with my friend from Milwaukee, DD Goldner. Some of you might know her from her nickname, Devorah. I got to spend some time with my friend and go to simchas. So that was nice. 

For Shabbos, I went to Banay Beraq with mikvah-jumper Avigayil, where I got to practice my non-existent Hebrew some more. The kids actually liked me this time. They let me read them some books, and we played together. It was very nice. Loved spending time with my cousins. And I met some of their friends, which was all super cute. 

Then, Sunday was a regular day of school and homework. In the afternoon, I actually went out. I went to my friend, Bayla's, apartment in Arzei Habira. She just got married a little bit ago and now lives in Israel with her husband. So I went to say hi to her, and we talked and hocked it up. We were going to bake something but didn't end up doing it. I got to see all the pictures from her wedding. So that was very cute, as well. 

I left her apartment at about 7:00 pm. The bus stop was teeming with boys. I was the only girl in sight. Maybe seder had just ended because there were hundreds of guys milling around. I felt very underrepresented. 

On Monday, I woke up at 7:00 as usual, but I didn't feel very well. So I went back to sleep--a very fitful, restless sleep, being that my head was pounding and my stomach was killing, and I had a very ugly cough. So I diagnosed myself with a virus. I didn't have fever or anything, so I assumed it wasn't flu or coroina. Things were going around, and I'm not known for never getting sick, so it was inevitable that I would get something. 

Monday was a bad day. We won't talk about Monday here. 

Tuesday was slightly better than Monday, but not great. We won't talk about Tuesday here. 

Over those two days, I slept a lot and ate much soup. Enough said. 

Wednesday was definitely better than the prior sick days, but I still wasn't feeling 100%. 

Didn't matter. I still left the apartment to go to Misrad Hapanim. No, it's not because I love waiting in lines for three hours just to hear that, "Sorry, I'm taking my lunch break now." Um, excuse me, maam. It's 4 in the afternoon. 

It was because I wanted to make aliyah. And so I did. I saw two other people I know there, also making aliyah. 

Funny Story: I was getting my teudat zehut when I saw that my birthday was 8.12.2000, instead of 18.12.2000. So, in my broken Hebrew, because the person who was helping me didn't speak such good English, I said my birthday is wrong. 

She fixed it, and it was all dandy. But then, I saw my Hebrew birthday, which said 21 Kislev, not 22. So I said it's wrong again. 

She looked at the calendar on her computer and answered, "No, no. The Hebrew date for your birthday is the 21st of Kislev."

So I responded, "I understand, but I was born at night. The Hebrew days and English days don't always correspond exactly because the Hebrew days start at night."

Mind you, I said this all in very bad Hebrew. 

Then she said, "No. Your Hebrew birthday is the 21st."

So, now I have a new Hebrew birthday. 3 birthdays. What a lucky girl I am!

So, that was the highlight of my aliyah process.

Honestly, I'm kind of ambivalent about the whole situation. Maybe it's because I already live in Israel and making aliyah is just an official step. But, whatever it may be, here's how Wednesday went: I made aliyah, took a picture with a sign, went back to my dorms, listened in on class for about an hour, and then took a solid three-hour-nap because my head started pounding again.

When I finally joined the land of the living again, I was feeling better. 

The rest of Wednesday was spent doing homework, except for those few hours where my friends and I were so fed up with doing coding and programming that we all just quit our homework and said, "Let's play a game." And we chose code names. (CODE names, everyone. We're such nerds that even the games we play are brainy games.) So for a few hours, I played code names, tried to not cheat during code names, tried to stop my friends from killing me because I was so annoying during code names, and lost at code names. Then, randomly, my friend Shana and I decided to make rice and sweet potatoes at 11:30 at night. 

And then came the real discussion of the day. In Marvelous Middos Machine, during the jealousy song, they say, "You must love the baby more. You never yell at him!" There is much machlokes concerning the above lines. Are they two different people talking about two different injustices? Or are they the same person? Who would yell at a baby? 

So, we had a long, long, in depth talk about that. At 12:30 in the morning. Don't judge us. It was a hard day. 

And then we come to Thursday, where I did homework and went to the kotel. 

So, that was my week. Hope you all enjoyed. 

Toodles from Hoodles!