Rain, Rain Go Away

We've had a lovely 24 hours without rain. Although it has been very cold (40s mostly) so I unfortunately did not spend the day outside. The rain will start again tomorrow. If you haven't heard, the south of Israel, including Eilat, have received more rain than they typically get in a winter and many places are experiencing serious flooding. My day trip to Sefad was postponed, once again, because of the rain.

On Wednesday of this week, we had a lecture about the 100 years of Tel Aviv. Last spring, Tel Aviv celebrated it's 100 year birthday and this spring the Kibbutz movement will celebrate their centennial. The lecture talked about the many mayors of Tel Aviv and how each had a different vision of how they wanted the city to be--what should be located in the city center, who should live in the city, etc. A fun fact was learning that until 1990 Israel only had one television channel, which included a half day of Israeli educational programming and a half day of some international broadcast.

Also, we've had another excellent Israeli movie night. We watched "Someone to Run With" ("Mishehu Larutz Ito"). Apparently the book it is based on is much better-the plot was good but the movie was lacking. Still enjoyable to watch, but not the best filming or something. It shows the lives of two teenagers intersecting. One of a boy with a summer job to find the owner of a stray dog. In doing so he learns about the other main character, a female teen who ran away from home and plays music on the streets. I don't really know how to write a description without giving away key elements, but needless to say it was good.

Anyway, today I got a new roommate, my friend from the program, Emily, moved in. A new girl joins the program on Monday and instead of moving in with me, she'll now move into Emily's old room.

Not much else to report. We head to Jerusalem on Thursday for a group day trip. We'll be planting trees. That's all I know about the trip thus far. Then a few of us will stay in Jerusalem through Saturday night. I have not been yet and am excited to go. Also next week we are going as a group to Kibbutz Gaton to see the final dance performance of the international visitors there (including the girl I know from home).

I hope everyone is well stateside...or wherever you are reading this from. I am excited to come home in six weeks but am also savoring every moment here.