Challah From Tel Aviv: Hapoel Hapoel / Purim Sameach / Jumbos!

Just started Week 2 of classes today- its definitely strange to be doing classes here because the past month has been so casual and free- just hebrew in the mornings and exploration all afternoon and all night. but nonetheless, i guess thats what i came here to do. this weekend was SOOOO rainy! every israeli keeps saying the winter (aka rain) is done and then more and more rain...hopefully its done now.

thursday night we went to a hapoel soccer game- hapoel played russia in the POURING RAIN and we were there and we were POURED ON! despite the rain it was really exciting to see a soccer game in israel- its a big sport here- and we loved some sweet hapoel cheers/songs

Friday night began the purim celebrations! Purim is a hugeee holiday here because its essentially their halloween. its a mitzvah to get extremely drunk on purim (for real) and everyone dresses up and has huge parties and parades in the streets. of course, the rain was a bit of a downer and many celebrations were cancelled :( but i still managed to dress up twice (once as a devil and once as a cat) and we had alot of fun. apparently its "tradition" that it rain alllll purim weekend and that it did. it was certainly my most relaxed weekend here, involving alot of indoor/bed time, but cant complain about relaxation! i think my father became concerned with he skyped with me at 4:30pm my time and i was still in bed in my PJs.

sunday night we organized an ADORABLE/AMAZING tufts dindin. while all of us have made our own friends, we are all saps for being tufts jumbos and cant resist getting together and strolling down memory/professors row lane. its so much fun! there are 6 of us studying in tel aviv and we also had a visit from another Jumbo who is studying in be'er sheva at ben gurion university. we went out for turkish food (which i half missed half wasnt ready for) and it was delicious! Highlights for this upcoming week include: my sisters 25th bday tomorrow!!! (challah to my mommy's whos bday was this past week!) i'll be going down to jerusalem after class to hang/go out to dinner with arielle and ethan. also this week a friend of emma's who is studying in paris is coming to stay with us from wednesday to sunday which will be really fun to play tourguide and hopefully go to the beach assuming the weather clears up. also this shabbat i will be going to haifa to stay with our family friends for the night and also hopefully get to the beach! (i think you see a theme here).