Belgium 09/11/2009
 
After the Netherlands, I had an invitation to stay in Gent, Belgium with Katrien's family.  Her sister was overdue to give birth to her baby when I arrived, so that was interesting, but we had a blast... I visited Gent with all of them, and I traveled independently to see Brussels and then Brugge... Each place was unique... I want to share some of the wonderful photos with you!


Top - Gent, Middle - Brussels, Bottom - Brugge
 
 
I had an exceptional time with my family in America... We were blessed with quality time together.  I felt like James Bond the day I left, because I went speed-boating in Kennebunk, ME with my cousin Wes Mills, and we jetted past George HW Bush's compound on the sea, and then my uncle Mike drove me to the Boston Airport to fly to Amsterdam... I had a fantastic trip in the Netherlands with my friends Joyce and Katrien from my school in Tel Aviv... Here, check out some of my pics!
 
 
I usually don't post blog-entries from America, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be heading to Europe in September for a week, and I will gladly share my experiences with you!  Keep your eyes on the blog starting in September... right now, I'm finishing up my time with the family!
 
Kiev, oh Kiev 08/19/2009
 
I used my mom's frequent flyer miles to buy my flight to America for this july, because she was worried the airlines will get ride those programs... but there were only enough miles to buy a one-way ticket from Tel Aviv to New York, on one day, and on one itinerary... it just happened to be the exact one I needed, and the best perk of all was that I got to visit a new country: Ukraine... 
Kiev was definitely an adventure.. thankfully, I taught myself the Cyrillic (Russian) Alphabet before arriving, which ended up being very very useful, but even so, I ended up walking around Kiev for 3 hours (with my bags) looking for my hostel.  It was a nightmare... My back was killing me, but all that changed when I arrived at the hostel.  A very sweet girl named Ira was so kind and offered to show me the city by night and we had a blast.  She brought me to the river, and we went on a night-cruise, and then we walked to some of the most famous sites.  Overall, I was very happy to meet a new friend and to get a fabulous tour of Kiev.  It is beautiful, but next time... I'll take taxis!

The Alphabet used in Ukraine: Cyrillic

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I suppose I have quite a few updates since I've posted last... July was a sort of transition month for me... I knew I would be heading to the states, and I had just returned from an amazing time in Romania, so I wasn't terribly active... I did, however, visit a Sudanese Refugee Center at the end of month and it gave me a renewed sense of blessing.  These people have so much joy and thanksgiving in their hearts, even though they have nothing.  Most of them are living in Israel illegally or on temporary visas, and cannot even work, and because they've been to Israel, the hostile Islamic Combatants in Sudan will execute them upon their return, so they are truly homeless.  It really impacted me.  

That evening, we invited the director over to our home for a mixer with some of the donors of the project, and we had so much fun... I'll post some photos below of the mixer, but I won't post pictures of the refugees for security reasons.  
 
 

One of the many perks of living in the Holyland is having visits from friends from the past.  One such example is my friend from elementary school Sharona.  Sharona has been living in Washington DC and was accepted to be a research assistant at the Moshe Dayan Center this summer... which just happens to be at my school!  It was so neat when we realized that we were going to be reunited... I haven't seen her in 15 years, although we have been friends on facebook.  I have some photos of her first week here, but I was able to introduce her to everyone and she has really adjusted well!  A girl named Lisa also was on her program with her, and the funny thing is that Lisa studies in the same department I graduated from at Indiana Wesleyan!  What a small world.

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The Wachtler Girls... Well... About the Wachtlers - I met Jalene (Yael) in Jerusalem last year, and she felt like God wanted her to return to Israel.  She and her sister Jennifer took a big leap of faith, and arrived a couple of weeks ago without return tickets!  They want to stay long term.  I was able to introduce them to several key people and they are having so much fun!  
 
My Romania Trip 07/07/2009
 

I've been back from Romania for about a week now, and I have to say I had an absolutely spectacular time.  I have always felt connected to Romania because of the heritage I have there, and now I feel like I have life-long friends there as well.  
You can see the video we made of Mount Postavarul, where we stayed - near Dracula's castle.  That was breathtaking.  After that I continued on to Cluj-Napoca where I met with my friend Delia.  She and her boyfriend treated me to dinner at a great place on a swan lake!  It was awesome.  Then I headed down to Timisoara where I met the son (Nitza) of the family I stayed with last year when I was in Romania.  He showed me around and introduced me to several friends.  We all stayed up until 4 in the morning laughing, (which was a trend that continued the rest of the time I was in Romania).  The next day Nitza and I boarded the train to Arad, where we met up with my friend Cornelia, and then we headed to the small village of Pancota where I stayed for another 4 or 5 days.  Mrs. Ionita is a cheese-maker and they have about 18 cows.  I didn't get to milk the cows because that is done electronically, but I did get to help sell the milk!  While there, we played games, cooked, hiked, went fishing, played pingpong and soccer (and both Nitza and I got goals)! I also went with them to a wedding in the middle of a thunder and lightning storm!  It was an amazing time... I can't say I slept enough because we stayed up so late every night laughing and telling stories, but it was definitely worth it.  I'll be back there soon, I just know it!

 
TRANSYLVANIA!!! 06/21/2009
 

I'll upload more pics later... but this is a video I made about where I'm staying right now in Transylvania while I'm on a 10 day vacation between semesters!  What a blast! (by the way - all of the high quality pics are mine, so the place really is  that awesome)!

 
 

A few months ago, I found out that my University was adding a Masters in International Conflict Resolution in english.  My eyes widened!  I was so excited about the possibility of studying something so pertinent.  The department was unsure, however, about allowing me to transfer over to the program.  WELL... I just found out today that I have been permitted to transfer over to the other academic track.  SO - come this fall, I will be pursuing a Masters in International Conflict Resolution.  YIKES!  Well, I'm excited, anyway.  
Here is a copy of my letter of intent:

letterofintent-maicr.pdf
File Size: 1495 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
 
 

Haven't I learned anything regarding computers over the last 15 years as a user?  This weekend, my hard-drive crashed and I hadn't backed up everything.  I lost all of my notes from the whole semester... OUCH!  I know they are still on the hard-drive, but I guess I don't feel like spending 500 bucks to recover the info.  Thankfully, Tuvya's wife, Ifat, is the sales manager at the Apple Store Equivalent in Israel: iDigital... she got me right in and they replaced my hard-drive (doubling it's size) and finetuned my computer so it is as good as new - just without any docs.  I was really thankful, however, that I had kept all of my pictures on my external hard-drive - so no worries there.  BUT - the moral of the story is: ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATA - FREQUENTLY!