Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

And my body wants to me to barf, sleep, run a marathon, and never eat anything ever again. It is NOT nine-thirty PM. It is TWO-THIRTY PM. Must resist urge to sleep. Ughhhh...

Israel was fantastic. Wayyy too much effort to go into detail here, but it was truly amazing. Some highlights:

1. I finally get the whole importance-of-having-a-home-for-Jews thing. It wasn't until I got to Israel that I realized what a truly Christian country we live in, and how wonderful it is to be in a place where I am the ethnic majority (I don't say "religious" because there are a lot of secular Jews in Israel, and it really is a matter of culture, not faith). Except I did get a little tired of the whole kosher thing. Ham and cheese sandwich plz.

2. Jerusalem is gorgeous- the whole city is made of white stone, and built into the mountains. Tel Aviv is like NYC on the beach, and the Mediterranean is wonderful and puts the Jersey shore to shame (well, duh).

3. I met so many fascinating people: lots of soldiers (everyone has to join the army at 18, there were always a bunch of kids hanging around in green jumpsuits with M-16s slung on their backs), a wonderful family that was like the Israeli equivalent of my own, an old Hassidic war veteran who gave me a little book when I helped him send an email, a Bedouin man with two wives who lived in the desert in a tent.

4. Got lots of loot. But only spend 350 shekels (100 USD). Scorrrre.


And now I am home. My head is spinning and I haven't gone to the bathroom in 35 hours. I officially hate planes. But it is very nice to do nothing after getting up every day at 7am to get on a tour bus.

BACON TIME.

(cross-posted at bonbonsofsin.livejournal.com)

Bastille Day!

Spent the day in Philly, having a lot of very silly fun. I had a picnic in the park with Emilie, and then did a bit of shopping, during I FINALLY set foot in Anthropologie, and even bought something! Okay, so it was a four dollar crystal goblet, but in my defense, I am quite poor at the moment. Plus, it will look badass in my dorm.

The storming of the "Bastille" was really ridiculous, but there was no pretense of any historical accuracy whatsoever. They even let Marie off the hook!


I ended up sort of dressing up, mostly with accessories. After being in the 90 degree heat for about five hours, I wasn't sorry about my wardrobe choice.

Then we went to Old City Pizza for dinner, which I would highly recommend- super cheap, and reallly good pizza and cheese steaks (which I can attest to from the days before I eschewed beef).

Lots of fun activities for Philly folks to enjoy!

PS: Having picture formatting issues. I'll deal with that when I feel like it (i.e. never)

What I Did Today

1. Made red white & blue cupcakes, except I made them with lemon cake mix, so they turned out pink, yellow, and teal.

2. On the way out of the driveway to see Don, backed into my mom's car and left a dent that is going to cost 1,000 bucks to fix. The subsequent freakout caused me to miss Don's family before they left for his grandparents' house. Goodbye, trip to Mexico. Goodbye, one day I could have seen Don during this weekend that will be our second-to-last this summer.

3. Sulked in my room for approximately four hours while my family went to two different 4th of July picnics.

4. Woke up, stopped feeling sorry for myself, reread my book about Victorian prostitutes, made dinner.

5. Took a walk even though it was raining. Got huge blisters on my feet from my shoes. Decided to cancel order for second pair of said shoes in a different color.

6. Practiced earnestly for the first time in about a month. Faure, Handel, and Offenbach all sounding a bit iffy.

7. Painted my toenails.

8. Popped blisters on my feet and had a minor freakout from the pain.

All in all, not one of my better days.