quick update

i have twenty more minutes of breaktime and i gotta go to the bathroom, but i'll update VERY fast:
thursday we went to em's cousins' for dinner and the night. it was a lot of fun. we drank whisky with her cousin alon--not bad, but not great :-)
friday we got home at 12, had about an hour and a half in the room, then headed out to a Yishuv (settlement) on the jordanian border, northeast of the city, called Kochav HaShachar--dawn star. it is a completely orthodox yishuv, which was quite an experience for me and Emily. We stayed with a very nice family; Nanette, Avi, and the kids Shali (12), Mayer (7), and Leah (3.5). They were great. we went to services on friday night at their shul, where the women sit on a balcony with curtains so the guys don't get distracted. oy. not our thing at ALL. saturday we slept in as best we could with Meyer singing at the top of his lungs before they went to shul...got up, had lunch (cold shnitzel...oy.) and then went for a walk with Nanette, Leah and Em and played at the playground for a while...Then went home and got into an intense discussion of different religious movements with Avi that made us...well...uncomfortable to say the least. He sees things as black and white--G-d gave us these rules, and we are supposed to follow them without much question. We are reform/reconstructionist and see Judaism as being more personal, adaptable, etc. Yeesh. it was interesting to hear his views but yeah. no. we played with the kids some more and then went to a Bar Mitzvah party thing where there was nothing for me to eat but bread...then packed up our stuff and baaaaarely caught the bus back to Jlem, then waited at the Tachanah Mercazit for EVER for a bus before giving in and taking a taxi (which actully was pretty cheap, considering). Finally got home, showered, skyped kimo, did homework, ate, crashed. class today 9-1:45, and every day but tuesday this week is 8:30-1:15. UGH.
ok, if i wanna go to the bathroom i gotta go NOW. so yeah. more later, perhaps...