CHANGE HAS COME

A little Obama-loving bird informed me that I have yet again been doing a bad job at blog updating. I am crossing my fingers that we will get internet set up in our apartment next week, because we now have Israeli roommates, and I will be much easier to be in contact with.

Speaking of Obama… WOW! I am truly proud to be an American and thrilled of the barriers that have been broken because of this election. We had an election viewing party at school, from 2 AM to 6 AM, complete with live coverage and our own voting ballots, which of course Obama won as well. I didn’t make it till the official announcement, but it was pretty clear when I went to bed who our new president was going to be. It was fun to watch with both Americans and Europeans, always interesting to see all sides of an important issue and see how this election truly impacted the entire world.

My time in Israel continues to be wonderful. I really love all of the friends I have made here and will miss so many of them when they leave after this semester. Like I said, Gaby and I have 3 new Israeli roommates. They are all sweet girls, it is just a bit difficult because their English is not so great and my Hebrew isn’t either. But we all will definitely get along and they brought a microwave, so no complaints!

Because of my movie obsession, everyone has discovered that I brought a big binder of my favorite movies and constantly ask to borrow them. Every Monday night I host a movie night in my room and show movies that I think everyone needs to see, so far they have included The Shawshank Redemption, School of Rock and Rat Race. Next week I’m thinking about either My Big Fat Greek Wedding or When Harry Met Sally. I just wish we had a screen bigger than my laptop, oh well. It's funny seeing 15 people squished together on the floor.

My classes are going alright. I’m doing well in Hebrew, got an A on my first quiz! The class is sometimes a bit slow for me because of the other kids in it, but I am definitely able to understand things and conversations a lot easier than when I arrived. My internship continues to be an interesting experience. I have taken a few trips to their office downtown and met some of the coalition’s staff. They are having a big event in a few weeks with a prominent professor in the field of environmental health from the US coming to speak and hopefully I will get to speak with him a bit as well. My psychology class isn’t that great… the teacher has a strange obsession with Menachem Begin, so we spend the majority of the time comparing everything in society today to his life… eh but it’s only once a week and it’s credit I need to graudate from UF. I think I will have a wider range of classes of interest to choose from during the spring semester.

In terms of Graduate School, I am applying to the MPH Community Health Program at NYU and the MA in Health Education at Columbia’s Teachers College. My personal statement is giving me quite the headache, but I think I’m getting to the point where I feel okay with it. It’s sort of intimidating to put all of your influences and goals into a two-page document, but I know that is exactly why they do it. So hopefully those applications will be done within the next few weeks and then we just have to wait.

The international school sponsored a day trip up to the Galilee a few days ago. We spent some time in the city of Tiberias and saw several beautiful views of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). My friend Kaitlin is HOPEFULLY coming in January and we will travel to a few countries because she graduates this fall and has free time! The plans are still in the making, but I am really really hoping this happens.

I am heading to Jerusalem again this weekend to see the Abrahamis and Uncle Bruce, who is bringing me a wonderful package with winter clothing and protein bars from my mom! Oh the little things in life...

Not too much else to update on because we have been staying around here. Just a much more crowded, busy school with all of the Israeli students. I hope things are well at home. I miss you all very much and will talk to you soon!

orli sharone

Addie's Big Fat Jewish Wedding

Yes, that's exactly where I felt as was at just a few days ago. And it was wonderful!!!

I was lucky enough to be able to represent the Shull/Pila Fam at Addie Zaritt's wedding last Wednesday night. It was at a beautiful reception area at Kibbutz Einat, just outside of Tel Aviv. I seriously have never been to a location where I would want my own wedding to be at more than this place, it was really something else. I did find it funny how there still managed to be at least half a dozen stray cats roaming around the wedding, they really are everywhere!

Addie's dress was gorgeous and fit her so perfectly. I got there far too early due to a bus mishap, so I was able to be there for all of the family pictures and pre-wedding chaos. It was also really nice to see some familiar faces and talk Tampa for a little.

I have to say that I have never seen more people standing under/surrounding a chuppah (Jewish wedding covering) in my life. It was like everyone was getting married together :) And there was definitely no walking down the aisle at the end of the ceremony, more like mobs running toward the front to say congratulations. I have to say that I almost shed a tear as Addie was walking down the aisle, it was really beautiful to see her and Gilon so happy.


As always, the 15ish courses they served were incredibly delicious and filling. My favorite, I have to admit, was the open ESPRESSO BAR! Ha, I'm probably the only person in the room who preferred that bar to the real one on the other side of the room. Heaven for Orli :)

Lots and lots and lots of dancing. The highlight for me was when Gilon was lifted standing up, by about 10 people, onto a large wooden board that they danced around the room with. The look on Addie's face when they pushed her to be next was hilarious. She managed to avoid that one, but of course did the chairs. There were even a bunch of english old people songs and rap songs!


Then of course there was the most ridiculous part of the evening... Nancy Kinsler, a family friend from Tampa, was in for the wedding and was graceous enough to let me spend the night in her hotel in Tel Aviv. However, through some mishap the only car back to Tel Aviv at the end of the night was with Addie and Gilon. So, Nancy and I had to get into the "Just Married" decorated car with the newlyweds for the 30 minute drive back to Tel Aviv. It might have been alright if Gilon's entire family didn't bang on the car and sing until we left the Kibbutz. I have never seen anyone as embarassed as Nancy was as she yelled "Duck down Orli, Duck!" But they were completely sweet about the situation and told Nancy she was being ridiculous. I must admit that it has always been a guilty pleasure of mine to know what they talk about on the car ride after :)

Anywayyyyyyyyy it was wonderful. Thank you Zaritt's for everything and Mazel Tov again to Addie and Gilon!!!!!

Long Overdue!!

Once again, I apologize for being out of touch. But I have good reasons and good stories! So hopefully you all will understand my absence after this post.

I hope things are going well in the USA, I am sure glad that I am only getting about 1/2 of the election media nonsense, only 15 more days yes? Funny, I thought I was getting away from all of that over here!

Things with me have been busy busy busy. Haven't had class in the past 2 weeks, we start up again on Wednesday... but my friends and I have managed not to stay put. I can't exactly remember what day this was, but a group of 12 of us from the International School headed to Jordan a few weeks ago. The trip started with a midnight-6 AM bus ride to Eilat, where we would cross the border into Jordan. However, of course the bus ride could not be easy for us. Somehow the bus company had no reservations for our group and some of the kids managed to convince the driver to let us all sit in the aisle, for the entire ride! So yes, 12 of my friends and I rode for 6 hours in the aisle of a bus. It was quite the experience that's for sure, I'll never be ungrateful with any seat on a bus again, as long as it's a seat and there arn't feet in my face.

Once we got to Eilat, we sat out on the beach for about an hour, watching old men dance and then took a cab to the border. Being at a border crossing for the first time was a bit intimidating, especially when they took us aside due to a security problem... but I am totally excited to have more stamps on my passport!

Jordan, as a whole, was quite the experience. I am very glad I went, but I think it might have been a bit smarter to do my first world traveling to a country a bit more easy to handle. I learned the true meaning of "haggling" while I was there, from the taxis to the supermarket, you had to haggle if you did not want to get totally ripped off by people who think you are just a stupid tourist, which I guess I sort of was :) Anyway! We stayed in a fairly nice hostel in Petra, the owners were pretty cool dudes, always willing to give us rides and offer us advice about where to eat and visit. Of course I have to mention the delicious Challyah dish, which is Jordan's signature dish, and is made out of stewed tomatoes, onions, spices, and lots of salt, yay! With fresh-baked pita, it was so delish! I also tried some traditional street bakery desserts, one of which I thought tasted like macaroni and cheese, ha, but I think they are all supposed to be mostly hearty as opposed to sweet. Okay, enough about food... for now.

Petra was also quite the experience. Lots and lots of walking... well, technically we were offered various forms of animals at every corner by Jordanians, I could have gotten to the Monastery (one of the main attractions) by riding a horse, then a camel, and then a donkey. But we decided to save our money and deal with the constant haggling instead, ONE DINAR FOR RIDE they would say at every corner. It was incredibly beautiful there, and I did some intense mountain climbing, even though my friends called me chicken when I often was on my hands and knees trying to climb.

We spent about a day and a half in Petra and then 3 of my friends and I headed on a bus to the capital, Amman, for a night. Amman was quite the shocker after coming from the old, traditional city of Petra, it was highly industrialized and we all pretty much felt we had been driven into a major US city, complete with skyscrapers and huge billboards with english writing. The hostel there was not as nice and my friend Gabi and I found in incredibly humorous that our room happened to be RIGHT ACROSS for a mosque's loudspeaker, so at 4 in the morning we were woken up for prayer! Well, we found it funny after the screaming and chanting had died down...We got back into Israel the next day through the northern border, which was a lot easier to deal with than the one near Eilat, and somehow we managed to get back to Haifa several busses and taxis later.

A day or two later the International School took about 30 of us on a trip to Masada, the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi. We did the typical tourist stuff the first day and then stayed in a Bedoin tent and cooked ourselves dinner at night. The second day we did about a 7 hour hike through Ein Gedi, which was exhausting but beautiful. Lots of nature for Orli!!!!!

And today I just got back from Rebecca Rosenwasser's family near Tel Aviv. Her cousin Stav took Gabi and I shopping everywhere! We did not buy much though, just spent the day running around trying to see as much as we could. I did get some Israeli sandles though, not made from cows! Her family is wonderful, they made us feel right at home, it's so nice to meet such wonderful people who I have really done nothing to deserve such love from, but are still kind as ever.

As always, I love and miss you all. I should be able to post more often once school gets underway, although there is apparently talk of a strike by the students and teachers here... so who knows when the Israeli school will actually start up. Our classes should stay fine though.

Oh and Addie's wedding on Wednesday, so I will update about that when I return!

LOVEEEEEEEEEE, ORLI!

Jerusalem and Food!

Hi Home!

How are you? Good I hope. Things here in Israel are going wonderfully. We finally have a few days of classes this week, after a week of break and more breaks beginning on Wednesday. But everyone is definitely keeping themselves busy around here.

Last Sunday I took a bus to Jerusalem and spent the holidays with my distant family- The Avrahamis. I think by the end of the trip we all knew how we were related... Anyway, it was an amazing trip! Being able to go to Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) services in Jerusalem was wonderful, seeing the streets packed with people walking to services and walking home from dinner with family and friends, smelling delicious food at every corner, and hearing the horns blasting through the city saying that the holiday had begun.

Speaking of dinner, I was fed so much food that I can't even remember it all. I went to several meals at The Avrahami's friends houses and, I kid you not, each meal had at least 15-20 options. And if you only had about 8 or 9, they asked you why you were not eating, ha! It was all unbelievably delicious as well. I had lunch one day at an Italian family's home, and instead of a soup or salad appetizer, you were served a bowl of pasta with a choice of 4 sauces! I also had a true Israeli BBQ meal with kabobs, cinammon rice, and fresh hummus. Another interesting food story is that at Rosh Hashana dinner they prepared something similar to a seder plate, but with special Rosh Hashana foods including dates, a leek pancake, beets and pomegranete seeds.

The Avrahami's were also so kind to let my two Korean friends stay as well since they had no holiday plans. It's great having those two around because I never have to take pictures, since they take pictures of everything! It's like having my own personal photographers, I love love love it. My friend Hannah was able to meet up with a Korean priest and we wandered all over the old city seeing lots of holy sites, complete with my Israeli cousins Merav, Eitan and Ben as tour guides. Seriously, my own tour guides and my own photographers... so cool!

I taught everyone Set and Nickels, got to go to a real Israeli b-day party with Merav, did a lot of store glancing, went to the shook, drank turkish mud coffee and yah... really really great time.

How were the holidays at home??

I also heard from Addie and am very excited to go to her wedding on the 22nd! And I'm starting to work on grad school application stuff, scary.

Some friends and I are in the process of planning some trips for the upcoming weeks. Hopefully Jordan and/or Greece will be in there. We shall see!

As for classes, we only have two days of those this week, sort of ridiculous. I did, however, meet with my internship advisor Jimmy yesterday. Basically I'm going to be doing public health spy work for him, ha. He's really into uncovering the corruption in the system by government employees working for industry heads, so I'm going to be doing some letter writing, interviews and researching for him. Should be a very interesting experience...

Please leave comments, I'd love to hear from you.

MWAH!
Orli

It's 5AM at Home...

Hi again America,

We had a welcome activity at the beach a few days ago, here are some pictures!




Things are going great here. I am sorry if I have not talked to you at home yet, I am trying to get on the internet often at night, around dinner time for you all. So hopefully we will chat soon.

I got an internship with this guy named Jimmy (who I will meet on Sunday), who is in charge of the Coalition of Public Health in Haifa. I am going to be helping him with research regarding pollution and cancer in the Haifa area. He already sent me a bunch of stuff to read and hopefully I will learn a lot and be of some help to him!

Some cultural differences that will take getting used to:

NO DRIP COFFEE! This morning I asked for a coffee at the cafe and they all looked at me like I was nuts because I didn't want a latte or a cappucino, I just wanted coffee. Ha, thankfully there was an American working there so she understood and from now on I know to ask for Americano. She did make me a delicious cup with a heart drawn into foam on the top (apparently my coffee still needs foam on it).

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION! Lots of busses, which makes me feel more environmentally conscious. They don't, however, recycle here very much. Maybe I can include that in my project!

CATS AS SQUIRRELS! Apparently here, cats take the place of squirrels. Which makes me sad to see so many sick ones running around and scrounging through trash cans. But I try to speak friendly cat hebrew to them, ha! It makes me more happy to know my cat Marceley is safe and taken care of at home.

Ok, time to go check out the gym.

Much love to you all,
Orli Shool (Hebrew-pronunciation!)

I Have Arrived!

Beautiful Haifa!
Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Well I made it! The travel process was not as smooth and enjoyable as I would have liked, but after a 6-hour delay in Tampa, I made it to the University of Haifa at around 8 PM on Friday night.

My room is nice enough. I have my own bathroom so I'm not complaining. No air conditioning though... well see how that ends up... There are 6 rooms in my apt., right now there is an Israeli student living in one of them, but she is moving out next week. The only other person living there so far is Gabbi, who is a Junior from BU. She's a lot of fun and I think it's pretty neat she chose to come here because she is not Jewish. But I guess a lot of the international students here are not, I've met kids from Germany, Hungary, Denmark, South Korea and of course the US. My buds from South Korea are so funny! I definitely haven't met everyone yet, but tomorrow I'm sure that will change.

Pictures of my room/apartment:


Today, we took a tour of the Bahai Gardens and an Arab market, where I bought a bunch of delicious fruit and pita.
Look what I found!!

Me with my roomie, Gabbi

The Gardens

World's Biggest Eggplant!

We had pizza for dinner and they showed us this ridiculous cult Israeli movie that was sort of Wet Hot American Summer like... Now I'm just catching up online and going to head to bed soon because early tomorrow morning is Orientation! I'm looking forward to getting more settled and knowing more about the school/program.

I love and miss you all so much! Leave comments if you can! Be back soon with more.

Orliiiiiiiiiiii

I Hate the 50 Pound Rule...

Hopefully I will have dirtied enough stuff in the wilderness so they won't be as heavy on the way back, although I'm sure that the cute local bags I buy might take up that extra room :)

Well, after hours of attempting to get my bags the right weight, I am done, all packed and ready to go. I'll be leaving for Israel from JFK Airport around 8 tomorrow night and get in at 1 in the afternoon on Friday. Hopefully no issues will arise and I will sit next to someone amusing on the plane who will play set with me the entire way there.

The key should be waiting for me in the dorm entrance, so no details on where exactly I'm living on campus yet...

Because many of you inquired and I will LOVE as many phone calls and letters as you would like to send, here is my information:

Orli Shull
C/O International School
University of Haifa
Haifa 31905
ISRAEL

Cell #: 054-260-4759

Wish me luck! Talk to you soon!