More updates!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008
11:37 am
Been a few days.Technically a couple.
I passed. I'm just a nut about exams.

4:40 pm

Un-f'ing-believable. I'm on a bus back to Chashmonaiim and apparently the first 5 rows are for men only? There's nowhere for the women to sit-- so I went and sat back down. A guy mumbled at me that the first 5 rows were for men only, and there were still plenty of seats, so I moved a bit back. Well, now the seats are full and the front was 1/3 empty, so I moved back up. If he has a problem with me sitting here, he can ask me-- NICELY-- to move. Not mumble at me that the first 5 rows are for me. Besides, it's not an official rule, just an unwritten one that people are assumed to know.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

16:45

Right. So yesterday was my first day. Went well. I got there a few minutes early- but better early than lare. Today I was late. More about that later.

So- first shift. I had an orientation with Boaz, the volunteer coordinator at the Jerusalem station. (Oh, yeah, I'm at the Jerusalem station, not Petach Tikva.) I was on an ambulance with Elkie, a driver, Mickey, and another guy who was doing ride-alongs, Simcha. Spoke mostly Hebrew, which is good for me. First call was a car accident- single car crashed intoa guardrail; guy had actually already gotten out of his car, so we put a Philadelphia collar (a type of neckbrace, one that I like) on him, and put him on the backboard on the bed. The next call was supposed to be one guy who fell at a construction site, but it turned out to be two guys who fell...anyway, there were a few other calls, then at 2:45 we got a call-- on the other side of town. Mickey put on the lights and sirens and floored it. Because it was 2:45 and our shift ended at 3.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Third day. My second day was also okay.

7:18 pm

Wow, I need to back up.

Starting from Monday: I passed the exam. Yehuda, Shloime, and Dan called us in individually and gave us our results. Yehuda had my test rolled up, and he, Shloime, and Dan were sitting there stone-faced. Yehuda said, "Lauren, I'm really disappointed in you. I expected better." So now I'm convinced I failed-- did horribly, bombed the exam. He handed me my test, rolled up, and I opened it-- 99. Apparently the look on my face was priceless, or so Shloime told me a few times. It was the math questions I messed up on-- I knew I messed that one up. After that I went upstairs, showered, and came back down all ready to go to the Waffle Bar with people. We (Elkie, Eden, and I) sorted out the sweatshirts, then everyone closed, and most of us went to the Waffle Bar, ate dinner, then went to Zolli's-- a hookah bar-- to celebrate being done. I had one drink and sips of other people's, and did not get drunk. Some people did, and others were relaxed and some were totally smashed. I think the quote of the night come from Arie Jaffe-- "Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge!" There is definitely a reason he had to be drunk (read: very, very drunk) to tell that one.

Tuesday morning: It was snowing! Yay! The downside was that we had to leave anyway. Coby had told us that if there was snow and the buses didn't run, we could stay in the hostel another day and have just a chilled day. Yeah, so it snowed, but the buses ran so we didn't get to stay another day. (I ended up not being able to get the bus form the hostel to Chashmonaiim, so they driver took me to the Superbus that I usually take in.) --Insert story about bus to Chashmonaiim here-- I called Aryeh to talk to him about my station, and he was able to get me into Jerusalem. Yay! Petach Tikva is also close, but it would be a 3 buses, which is a huge pain in the butt.

So now I take one bus, but it gets me to Saraei Yisrael, right by the Tachanah, at 7. And I'm supposed to be at the station at 6:45 to get on the schedule. So I'm going to call Elkie in the morning. But that comes later.

Continuing on to Tuesday: Got to Rita and Dov's, spoke to Aryeh, foind out that I should be at the station at 6:30 am, and slept at Chaviva's (whose roommate is Ms. Gordon!). --Insert first day's story here--

Thursday: Day 2: So I waited for the 5:55 bus that comes about 6:15. And I waited at the bus stop outside the yishuv, because that's where the bus compny said it stopped...yeah, not so much...it stops INSIDE the yishuv until 8 am...so I missed the bus. Another one came about 10 minutes later, and I got in about 7:24, which is late. I got on an ambulance-- one of the girls was leaving at 9 and hey were switching divers, so I got on then.

Friday: Nothing. Day off! I went ot the Old City in the afternoon and met the Grosses at the apt. Shabbat was nice. The apt.- not so nice. The electricity blew twice, then the Shabbos clock switched off and the neighbor found an Arab to come fix it. There was no heat (because we pulled out the heaters when we though the electricity blew and it was the Shabbos clock), but the heater in my and Sho's room didn't work anyway, there was tons of food left in the fridge, and open package of cookies left on the table, coats on the hooks-- it looked like the family just left for the weekend- which they might have done. But if you're renting out an apartment, it should look and be proper. This was not.

Besides that, there was an NY NCSY trip and we went there/had seudah shlishit with them.

Today-- Wait, Motzei Shabbat- went to Ben Yehuda and met Eden and Benny, and one of Benny's friends, Lenny. Benny called Kaufman and I called Arie, and neither one came. Although Arie sent me a text and I called him back and I'm not sure what I said...

Today: had a shift in the morning. My driver was Gabi and the bat sherut was Leah. Whatever. At 2, my driver switched and I was with Shmulik and another mitnadev, Yakov (I think). We had one call-- it was actually exciting-- it was an unconscious pt. in Har Adar- roughly the middle of nowhere, Yerushalayim. We were supposed to meet a Natan-- we were basically out of the area and the Natan showed up. The pt. was breathing and had a pulse but was non-responsive, even to pain. Shmulik put in an IV and that was that. Got back at 4 pm, then came back to the girls from MDA 69.

Monday, February 25, 2008

7:09 pm

Today was a 10.5-hour shift. It wasn't actually supposed to be, but it turned into one. At 1 pm, my driver left and Alfasi took over. I should have been done at 3-- well, I sort of could have left at 1 om, but then Alfasi wouldn't have a team and I couldn;t do that. But I can deal with him-- he actually cracks me up.

We had a couple of interesting calls- we got called to the Knesset and Dave broke all the rules-- he wore jeans and didn't have his passport. Those are the rules for going to the Knesset-- no jeans, and have your passport. There's this whole security process that you have to go through to go into the Knesset, but when it's a senator in an emergency call (okay, it was emergency because it was a senator, but whatever), you get to go in as long as you're with MDA. There was also a car accident- 3 cars. No blood-- at least on my pt.-- but yes backboarding and took him to the hospital, obviously. Anyway, I'm getting very good at opening a file. I also know how to fill out the forms and the hitchayvut (the thing that says who is responsible for the charge and how much the charge for the ambulance is). Yay!

I have to confirm the tiyul on Thursday. I'm trying to get all the info, but the guy is not getting back to me. Not helpful. -pause to call him- Okay, he told me to go to the Stagerim group on Facebook and get the info there.

In other news, I thought that one of the guys who gave us a couple of lectures was cute, but apparently he wants a tall, thin, blonde or redhead. I don't fit any of those categories. Oh, well-- clearly I'm heartbroken...

Yesterday, aka February 6, 2008

2:18 pm
In Chashmonaiim! Rita and Dov picked me up last night, do I've been here since then. Last entry ended off with The Adventures of Moving a Bed That Opened If You Didn't Hold It Closed. Wonderful adventure...
Yesterday we had a half day of classes because it was Tuesday. (I waited to talk to Rachel, but she was sick. So I'm going to call later.) And after school I went home to pack and help clean.
I managed to get all my stuff back in the bags it came in-- the only extra stuff was stuff I had gotten here, like food and shampoo, which isn't going back to the States anyway.
Speaking of going back tot he States, I'm actually coming in 2 days later than I planned. Remember how Israir canceled its flights in March and was rebooking everyone? So the travel agent, Batya, emailed me back-- I've been re-booked on an El-Al flight leaving Israel 1 am Tuesday morning, March 25, and arriving in JFK at 7 am on Tuesday morning, March 25. This is happy for me for a few reasons: (a) I'm not being re-booked for an earlier flight (b) Leaving Tuesday morning/Monday night means I can stay for purim Meshulash (c) Leaving then means I can be at Bar Ilan for Purim (addition: and Shabbat), in Yerushalayim for Shushan Purim, and come back to Chashmonaiim on Monday and spend some time here and Rita and Dov will take me to the airport. Yay! ::big smile:: The downside is that 7 am on a weekday morning is not good timing as far as traffic. Maybe I'll see if Andrea and Yoni can come pick me up and I'll hang out by them, then Mom and Dad can come pick me up later-- or maybe Zaidy can come-- actually, that's not a bad idea. ..maybe Zaidy can come pick me up and-- unless Bubby and Zaidy are in Chicago then...but who knows? Anyway, I have almost 7 weeks to figure that out.
Back to Chashmonaiim. It's really nice here. First of all, it's WARM-- I'm sitting outside in short lseeves, a knee-length skirt, and bare legs. It's probably about 70 degrees. Which makes me realize that I have nowarm-weather Shabbat clothes. Worst comes to worst I get something here...crying shame...There's a slight breeze, it's sunny, the birds are chirping...
All right, there is a downside now-- I hear the muzzein (sp?) doing the call for prayer. But that's actually pretty far from here-- sound travels.
I'm going to go explore the yishuv a bit, then head back- do some studying. Because I really have to.

Almost caught up!

Motzei Shabbos
10:46 pm
Back in my dorm, sweet dorm…er…”dorm, cold dorm” is more like it. It is so frikkin’ cold here! People say that it’s a cold that gets into your bones—I don’t think so, at least not for me. It’s a cold like there’s no heat—which there isn’t, because our heat seems to be on a “cool” setting…Lauren left a space heater (small), so I’m using that now to attempt to warm up my room somewhat. Whatever—it’s not like I spend soooo much time here awake anyway.

Okay. So Thursday night, Friday, and Shabbat. Thursday night I went to town with Avigayil—Andre’s cousin (very random how we discovered that connection). We went to T’mol Shilsom (which literally mean “Yesterday, two days ago.” It’s a restaurant with books; kind of like a restaurant/library. It’s off of Ben Yehuda—go to the Kent Station, make a left down that street, then go past the Underground and it’s a couple archways past there, if anyone cares) and I got a dulce de leche (hot milk, Irish cream, caramel, and whipped cream)—yum. The downside to T’mol Shilshom is that it’s more expensive than some other places. But then again, it’s also Ben Yehuda, so things are more expensive there ayway. It was 19 shek, which is about $5.27, so roughly the price of a Starbucks drink, but better tasting..0

Friday I was supposed to go pick up a check, but the office wasn’t open—I’m going to try Tuesday or Thursday; Avigayil is going home for a couple of weeks, so she’s giving me her monthly bus pass, so that’ll be good. Yay for unlimited bus rides in Yerushalayim! So I didn’t get the check, but met Zippy instead to give her her stuff, then we went to the shuk because she needed food for Shabbat, then she met up with Sivan, and I went to Rita and Dov’s.

The bus to them is a Superbus. But apparently Superbus rents other company’s buses. And if it’s not a Superbus that says “Superbus” on the side, the driver doesn’t have to take money…bit ridiculous—it’s the same company. Anyway, so the first bus didn’t take money…waited for the second one—THAT one took money. Got up to Chashmonaiim in plenty of time.

Shabbat was fun—chilled. The Brodskys and the Aarons live in Chashmonaiim—well, the Aarons are in the next neighborhood over, but it’s like— one side of the street is one neighborhood, the other side of the street is another. But the Brodskys are 5 houses away from Rita and Dov, and when I said something about, “I have to figure out where the street is,” Rita goes, “Claudia?” …yeah, they’re 5 houses away. The Aarons were 15 minutes, so it was all good. It was slightly pouring, but my jacket did a fine job of [keeping me dry]. After Shabbat I didn’t want to leave because it was pouring worse than before, but coming back to the dorm at 9:30-10 is better than having to leave Modiin at 6 or 6:30 am to get to school on time. SO I came back – left at 8:15-8:30, got in to Yerushalayim by 9:15-9:20, back in the dorm by 10.

Had a snack—carrots & chumus, and crackers & honey PB, juice, my iron pill, and now I’m going to bed. Once I put the heater back in Rachel’s room.