שנה טובה!!

Tonight is the beginning of Rosh Hashannah which means the Israel Service Fellows get a much needed break! Moving to another country is a lot of work it turns out... We had our first Ulpan session yesterday where we took more placement tests and had mini "interviews" with the instructors. Then we had a group meeting to go over roommate contract type issues as well as some Hevruta (small group study) about Rosh Hashannah and what it means and why we celebrate it. 

Tonight I'm going to have dinner with an Israeli family associated with my program and a few other ISFers and hopefully tomorrow I can find services somewhere. We were told the family speaks very little english so definitely getting in some hebrew pracice tonight :). Akko is not a very big place so there is at least one Moroccan schul very close by and an Ashkenazic one pretty far away and thats about it. 

Last night we did our "burnt new years offering" aka bonfire מדורה with the Israeli peers and made more friends! We also discovered that there is a mental institution right on the beach near our flats, fun times. But the beach is really beautiful and at night Haifa is all lit up and very visible! I went back this morning with some of my roomates to watch from the shade as other people get their daily UV dosage. Theres a nice little workout area with new machines right on the beach and we had the entire place to ourselves except for the occasional low flying bird! 

We are slowly learning all of the adorable quirks about the apartment. Our electricity does this nifty trick where it keeps randomly shutting off. Its not too much of a problem because you just hit a button and it is back to normal except that AC units leak when they are shut off suddenly. So my computer is sitting in a box of rice and may need life support. 

While I hope and pray for my computer, I am finding other ways to entertain myself, such as mixing my own henna from the giant bag of powder that the previous tennants left us! 

Shana tova and metuka! שנה טובה ומתוקה! I miss everybody at home so much and am thinking of you!