happy

mood: jedi (hehe)
so i just want to let you all know i'm deliriously happy. naybeth dedicated her blog to me (thehostthesoulandtheseeker.blogspot.com <-- check it out!). only five more days till breaking dawn. and i may be going to the hamptons with mia next weekend! the only thing that could possibly damper my spirits is the knowledge that i still have four spanish papers to write. ugh. ...aaaand, back to the happy stuff. like israel! wow, i really haven't updated in a while; i haven't written ANYTHING about israel. man. that was an awesome trip. it was my second time going there (the last time was four years ago) and this time was definitely more laid back, less touristy; i felt like i really had a chance to enjoy the culture. and the hebrew! lol, naybeth can attest to this- when i first came to israel, i was in this little bubble. i didn't know any hebrew at all. it was so frustrating; not understand anything being said. and the result was that i started thinking in spanish. (weird, right?) hopefully, my spanish got better, because for the first week, ALL the conversations in my head were in spanish, because i couldn't understand the hebrew.

so then i started a notebook where i wrote down hebrew words and phrases. by the end of the trip i had three completely full pages of words. and not only vocab, but grammar, too. lol, if i was a real blogger, i would probably already have pictures taken of this notebook, and would have added it here so you all can see. too bad. i didn't.

and in another effort to learn hebrew, i tried to find hebrew music-- and discovered the amazing Idan Raichel. this guy is awesome. he's israeli, but his music has a lot of ethiopian influences, and he's collaborated with over 70 other acclaimed artists. the funny thing is; i discovered this artist/group on the plane to israel. (that plane ride was one of the best parts of the trip.) each seat had its own tv in front of it; complete with over 300 movies, like 600 tv shows, and hundreds and hundreds of albums of music. of course i went straight to the world music section, and for hours and hours i listened to Utada Hikaru and this Idan Raichel guy. i didn't sleep at all; i was just too entertained by this little tv.

so anyway, on the last day of my trip, my aunt and i went into jerusalem for its film festival, and afterwards, found a music shop where i could buy "M'm'amakim", Idan Raichel's newest cd. they only have this specific version in israel; in the US, there's only one cd that combines select work together from his two albums. anyhu, the album is really great. i recommend the title track, and number ten, "Azini", which is sung in arabic.

wow. this must seem really boring.

i need to take a break. i'll write more another time. XD

ciao


oh, since i mentioned jerusalem, here's some pics from the visit:


in front of the capitol


at the Jerusalem film festival.. sorry it's sideways :P


this store was completely devoted to selling kippas.. it was awesome XD