Adoptive family and such...

Firstly, I do apologize for not posting pictures recently. I'm going to try my hardest to post this week, or today if at all possible.

Last weekend all of the Otzmanikim went to their respective cities to meet their host families. I was picked up in Tel Aviv at about 9:30AM by my "father," Yigal. We went to his car, and he drove me back to his house where I would be spending Shabbat with the rest of the family. We arrived at the cute little apartment on the third floor outside the center of the city in Tel Aviv, where I was greeted by my "mother" Chedva and "brother" Roy. I don't have any pictures of Roy, but he was a typical (or not so typical) Israeli 17 teen year old who did not hang out with his family unless he had to and basically did his own thing. He maybe said two words to me the entire weekend, so I think that meant that I fit right in with the rest of his family. He said about three words to them. Anyway, I am digressing. I walked into the door and put my things in my host sister's room, and took a nap because I was so tired. Yigal went to sleep too after we had chocolate cake and coffee for dessert with Chedva. I woke up from my nap, played on the internet for a while, and planted myself in front of the tv for like the next 4 hours until Shabbat came in. Normally I might be bored of this, but considering I don't own a tv anymore, it was relatively fun to do something mindless. An anecdote about my "mother" Chedva, she was such a typical Jewish mother! She comes from a Yemenite background, so everything she cooks has a certain flavor to it. She loves to cook and talked about all the different recipes she liked to try. I basically had no choice but to try everything put in front of me, and I have come quite a long way from my "spaghetti no sauce" days! However, I think Chedva thought I was too skinny or something (which is nuts) because literally whereever I went the entire weekend, there was food. I went to the computer to play on the internet, and there was a plate of fruit. I sat in front of the tv, and there was two kinds of seeds, more fruit, chocolate cake, chocolate, and coffee. I am not kidding. For Shabbat dinner, their cousin and grandfather joined us and we had about 8 different dishes on the table. I ate, and ate, and ate the entire weekend, and none of it was bad food at all! I fell in love with different Yemenite foods, like the pita like doughy bread that you put eggplant and tahina spread on. Amazing! I don't remember what else I tried, but all I remember thinking was that my parents would be proud of me! After Shabbat dinner, which was quite traditional despite the Israeli soccer game we were watching in the background, we all got dressed and went out as a family to the boardwalk of Tel Aviv. It was beautiful! Tel Aviv is not a religious city in Israel, and in fact I would say it was odd to see any shops closed given the amount of people and noise. The tayelet (aka the boardwalk) was completely packed with people strolling, street performers, and bars packed with people and loud music. We sat at Mike's Place, made famous by the terrible suicide bombing that happened in 2002, and drank beer and listened to the live rock music. I have to say, for an Israeli band doing American Classic Rock, it wasn't so bad! We got home at about 3AM and went to bed right after that night. One thing I haven't mentioned yet, my family only speaks a limited amount of English. I found the language barrier to mean two really neat things. First, you can communicate with someone and make them feel completely welcome without being able to understand tham completely. There were only a couple times that I didn't understand or participate in most conversations that weekend, and that was because they made me feel welcome in so many other ways. The other thing I realized is that they truly wanted to communicate with me, and would sit with a dictionary for words even if it was a little frustrating. I was forced to try to use my Hebrew more than I have to daily living with my Otzmaniks, they helped me say the words correctly and likewise. I think that they are just as excited to improve their English as I am to improve my Hebrew. Even though it is a little harder to communicate, I think it is going to be that much better in the longrun. On Shabbat, we walked around Old Yafo, which is the old part of Tel Aviv where it is about 50/50 Jews and Arabs, and along the other part of the tayelet in Tel Aviv. We were incredibly hot all day, so we went back to the apartment and rested until S'udah Shlishit. For the last meal, we went up to the outskirts of Tel Aviv to Yigal's sister's house, which is this huge house on top of a hill and beautiful. My first taste of the elite in Israel. The family was incredibly sweet, and spoke perfect English, so it was nice to be able to communicate more clearly than I had all weekend. I was dropped back to the bus by my entire family (except Roy of course) at about 11PM with hugs and warms wishes. I am going back there for Rosh Hashanah, and am really looking forward to it. I already have spoked to my "sister" Liron this week, and I know that this hopefully will grow into an amazing relationship over the year.
In other news... I did my first volunteer opportunity with the Atidim kids this week in their high school this week. About 20 high schoolers showed up, completely enthusiastic and happy to be there with us. They came from a variety of backgrounds: Russian, Ethiopian, South American, and Israeli. I am truly amazed to see the spectrum of backgrounds that people come from in Israel. This truly is a country of immigrants, especially in cities like Beer Sheva. We played games with them all including English, and they came away from it wanting to do more with us in the future. We are basically going to teach them about American pop culture, so I think our curriculum will include a lot of baseball, Kelly Clarkson, and MTV. I am excited! We have another session on Tuesday, so hopefully it will be as good as the last.
Finally, I don't usually talk about my love life on my blog, because it is a little awkward, but I feel I have to mention one quick thing... I met this French, Jewish, good looking, TALL, DENTIST named Michael at my Ulpan a couple weeks ago, and we have hit it off pretty well. Excluding all other details, I basically ditched all responsibilities and went on a bus (one-way, direct, SAFE) to Tel Aviv after Ulpan and went to the beach with him this Wednesday. Needless to say, the water was fantastic and the tayelet (the same one I was at on Shabbat) was absolutely breathtaking. I layed on the beach with this hot French man who seems to like me quite a bit, and just truly soaked in the sun and the rest of the day. As I was laying facing the Meditteranean Sea, watching the sunset, and taking in the beauty of the shoreline of Tel Aviv, I realized that I was actually having a "moment" with a cute Jewish boy in my amazing homeland. I think I am falling in love... with Israel. I cannot put in to words how that moment made me feel, but I just honestly couldn't believe that this is my life right now. I am so lucky.