6 days?!

So in honor of my upcoming move to Rwanda, I've changed my blog layout to something a bit more fitting.
That's right my friends, in less than one week I will being my Rwandan adventures for 25 days. Before you ask, yes, I am excited.
The Tikun Olam Rwanda Young Judaea group is the following: Ali G, Marnina C, Jen G, Eli S, Katie M, Adam G, Marissa F, Alex B, Maddie G, Genna W, Aliza S and I. Basically the coolest kids ever. You can expect to hear some fun stories about them in the future.
What I'm most excited for is seeing the gorillas! But the whole experience will be cool too...I guess.
And from what I've gathered, life in the Agahozo Youth Village isn't all too different from life at Yemin Orde, so adjusting shouldn't be too hard.
No promises or guarantees about consistent blogging. Wish me luck!
As always,
Julia Rosie

Going places & doing things

So here's just a quick funny story. Last week I went to go hang out with my assigned bitan (like an advisory that lives together), which is 12th grade boys. They're all Ethiopian, ranging from ages seventeen to twenty. They're great guys, and I've become fairly close with them.
So anyway, I went to the bitan. I walk in with a fairly loud "WHADDDDUP BOYZ?" and the immediate response from all of them was "SHHHHHHHHH!" They were crowded around the TV. I walked over to them, expecting to see some football (or as you Americans call it...soccer) program or whatever.
Do you want to guess what these boys were watching?
Hi. Vampire Diaries. Bye.
Tomorrow I'll be spending the day with my bitan. You know, going places & doing things.

I leave for Rwanda in two weeks! and Year Course is half over.
Time flies my friends.
As always,
Julia Rose

Long time no see ya stranger

OK....so maybe I've been avoiding blogging recently. Actually, I know I have been. Just to get to this point of writing after opening a new Internet page, logging on, clicking on my blog, clicking new post) it took me a good half hour. Even while typing that sentence, I had to stop to take off my sweatshirt. Anyway, let me break down how my life has changed since my last post on December 8th, 2012.
December 10th-11th was spent with ALL of year course (which means all three sections) at a fake Bedouin camp (I say fake because it had electricity and heating and was really just a tourist destination.) We went on two hikes, and it was really cold at night. I was really stressed out just from moving, making sure I didn't forget anything, and then bringing my most important items (laptop, camera, cell phone ext..) with me overnight and leave them in a tent with no lock. It was a hot mess, at least for me. On the afternoon of the 11th we set out on a hike and then set out for Arad. Which was more than inconvenient for the other villagers and I because we were moving to Yemin Orde...by Haifa.....151 miles north. So we had to switch transportation vehicles once in Arad, say our goodbyes to the rest of the section, and hit the road. Its a three hour drive. We traveled through the entire country in a day.
December 12th-14th: Were my first days in the village. They were really relaxed because the village was on Hannukah break (which is the Israeli winter-break) so there wasn't much for us to do.
December 14th-December 16th- We packed a weekend bag on Friday afternoon and headed back to Arad for a section Shabbat. Honestly, it was really pointless. I love section 2, but the forced environment we were put in made the weekend pretty dull and boring. Though I did spend the majority of the time with my friend Adi G, who's one of the sweetest girls you'll ever meet I swear, so that did make the weekend a little bit better.
 December 14th-20th- Was a lot of sitting around, but I got assigned to volunteer at the school, which seems like it will be really fun, but I spent that week making English posters, for grammar rules. This week dragged on FOREVER. Mostly because on the 21st, I was going home for winter break, which I couldn't wait for.
December 21st-December 31st: Home. Home. Home. Home. Home. It was too amazing. Just to sleep in my own bed, to go to Walgreens on a Friday night, and to have a dishwasher was beautiful enough. But what was even better than all that, was the time I got to spend with my friends and family. I definitely returned to Israel refreshed and happy and ready to take on the next five months. Also my single wish for home came true. I wanted it to snow so so so badly. I mean, I'm obviously not Christian, but even I felt the magic of the miracle on the morning of December 25th when it softly began to snow. It was a perfect visit home.
January 1st-Jaunuary 3d: More general time in the village, Jacob B joined us (only Ali, Ellie, Nora, Nadav, Ari, Danielle and I were there before break).
January 3d-January 5th: Jacob B and I made our way to Jerusalem where we spent time with our section 3 friends at Beit Ar El (the Jerusalem campus of Year Course). I want to thank Cami and Vanessa and all their roommates for having me and letting me stay in their apartment, and for all the other friends I hung out with this past weekend for showing me a great time. Even though there is absolutely NOTHING to do in Jerusalem on Shabbat, I really had an awesome time.
January 6th: I traveled to Bat Yam by myself, for my second to last Rwanda meeting. Before the meeting started, I had Aroma (which is like a chain resteraunt coffee place...its an Israeli thing, I wouldn't expect you to know..) with the wonderful Adi G and Jenn G before the meeting.  Side note: this trip is coming up SO SO SO soon, I'm getting all excited and nervous and emotional as we get closer. That evening Eli S, Ali, and I (they were also at the meeting, because they are also going to Rwanda!) went back to Yemin Orde to find Jonathan B, who was the last person to arrive at the village. We were greeted with a wonderful surprise: Abby S and Gideon W have joined the village people, we are now a group of 12! I'm so excited for them to join us, because we're still a group of great people at the village. Something a lot of people commented on while I was in Jerusalem was the difference in dynamics our section 2 group of village people compared to previous village people from section 3. We (being the current village people) know each other much better than the last group did, and we were all generally friends, which can only work in our advantage. That's just my opinion.
But today, January 9th, I am blogging. Obviously. I know my parents will comment about how I gave so little detail on my life here at Yemin Orde, but I did that on purpose. What I want to try to turn my blog into is share little stories of what happened to me every other day, rather than saying "in the mornings I worked in the school and bla bla bla bla afternoons." I think my avid blog readers would be much more interested to read an actual experience I had while in the village, instead of just reading about my schedule. Lets start today!
SO, last night, it was SO SO SO windy. Like Eli S told me this morning that some roofs fell off places last night because the wind was so strong. It actually kept me up most of the night. At one point I put on my glasses so I could actually see out the window (ya'll know my terrible eyesight, and if you didn't..now you do!). I was looking out for maybe 20 seconds before I see something suddenly jump up out of the corner of my eye. The wind had also been shaking the door, and I had thought to myself at one point "Hmm..that actually sounds a lot like someone trying to get the door open." So of course when this thing jumps out at me it scares me half to death. For a moment I was sure whoever had been trying to get into our house had come to bang on my window for me to let him in.
Yeah it was just a plastic bag.

I know I need more sleep, ok? I'm working on it.
But yeah, that's all I got for today. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, if you haven't donated to the Agahozo Youth Village (my Rwanda village). Every penny counts, and we have a goal to reach!
http://tikkunolamrwanda2013.causevox.com/

As always,
Julia Rose


P.S. I miss you Jenna!