A Bottle and a Language

I asked for a water bottle for my birthday.  I had one last summer that I lost at a construction site (more like, it got packed up by someone . . . or someone stole it) that was fantastic.  My new water bottle of the same fashion is green and wonderful and large (holds 1L).  I finally got it when I went home for the summer and have been joyously using it to hydrate myself since.

It is tragically missing.

I think I left it in the classroom yesterday :/

So I spent today trying to find the guy who locked up last night, to no avail.  In my pursuit, I was forced to use my fantastic Hebrew skills to talk to the cleaning lady.  As I was walking away, I shook my head in embarrassment of how stupid I must have sounded.  I'm glad I live in a country where most people are immigrants and have to learn Hebrew as a second language. As least people give me a little more grace.

I met her in the hallway as I was wandering around trying to find my lost precious.  She stands about 5'2" and was armed with gloves, a smock, and a rubberband to hold her long, soft black hair in a loose ponytail. She was pushing a cart that was twice as big as she is, and she paused as soon as she saw me looking at her.

Me: "Excuse me.  Yesterday. My the water bottle. Green. Here. Summer." (I meant to say 'classroom' instead of 'summer')

Lady: "I only work in the morning, and the other people who work in the evening aren't here right now."

Me: "What name you?"

Lady: "Juliana." (smiles)

Me: "Nice to meet you. What name other people?"

Lady: "Joey, Sarah, Ingrid. . .I don't remember who else."

Me: "He was other man?"

Lady: "Yes, but I don't remember his name.  Talk to Joey, but he's not here right now."

Me: "How much time he here?"

Lady: "In the morning, but I don't really know."

Me: "In the morning?  Okay, thank you very much.  Where are you from?"

Lady: "Colombia."

Me: (in English) "Oh shoot, we could have spoken in Spanish this whole time." *facepalm*  (in Spanish) "You speak Spanish? I speak Spanish!" (in Hebrew) "Thanks so much, have a nice day!"

Next month we have a Hebrew evaluation.  I think I'll be ehhh, studying ze Hebrew during my abundant break times.

Summertime (a.k.a. the time in between exams)

Well, hello, there!  It's been such a long time since I've posted, I almost forgot this place existed.  Since my last post, a few adventure-esque things have happened in Israel.   I'll give you a short summary. I've made it through two exams and two more systems (Hematology and Endocrinology), took a couple trips to Haifa (my favorite part of Israel, I think - it has a beach and mountains and a forest - all in one place!),

Haifa with my classmates!

attended my first MSIH graduation (which is a delightfully unique experience), played like a hippy with flowers in my hair (minus drugs and other icky hippy things, of course) outside Jerusalem with kehila for Shavuot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shavuot),

Chillin' on the hillside for Shavuot

and said goodbye to the graduated fourth years whom I had the privilege to get to know.

Goodbye dinner for our beloved graduated DOCTOR friends!

Then. . .I went home!  Woohoo, summer!

The trip home was ridiculously long, which is partially my fault for being such a cheap skate (I couldn't pass up a $1 Megabus ticket to replace my domestic flight!).  After over 36 hours of constant traveling and convincing people they should let me out of or into their countries, I finally got to see my parents!  After a few more hours and a stop at church camp (where I was doing everything I could not to fall asleep standing up), I got to see the rest of my family!

While home, I finally got to meet my niece Arielle,

Beautiful baby girl!

ride/drive Ben's boat (this time I didn't put a hex on his watercraft),

I'm on a boat!  And driving it too!

sing at open mic night with my friend Steve, 

Steve and I being awesome at music.

take a day at Cedar Point with my little bro,

On our way to Sandusky to enjoy a day of waiting in line in the hot sun!

and hang out with my mum and sis at camp!

Mum and little sis at church camp!

After relishing time with my family for a week, I hopped on another Megabus to go to Chicago to visit my best friend Alexis!

Enjoying our time on Lake Michigan!  This pretty much sums up our sanity.

 She's getting marrieddddd!!!!

I returned home for another week and a half (the time was far too short), then made the long road trip down to Memphis, Tennessee, where I took part in a 3-week internship with Christ Community Health Services.

The admin building has a cool shape.

My time at CCHS was spectacular.  I learned a little about crossing cultures, how to integrate spiritual health, and even a tiny bit of medicine.  Additionally, the other interns were great, and we went out on the town, oh, every few days.

BBQ nachos!  Wow, I'm really craving those right now.

We got our portraits drawn by beautiful Jasmine!

Then it was time for family vacation!  In cabin in the Smokies, we had a wonderful six day relaxation time.  I had been looking forward to it for months and months!

Hot tub after a day of hiking!

The end of a hike that was surprisingly difficult, especially with two babies.

All of the girls in our family :)

So there's that, my summer in a few words (and photos).  I'll try to keep this thing semi-updated, but 2nd year is super busy (with studying, of course).  If anything particularly interesting happens, I'll be sure to let you know.  Like, for example, the breaking up of our family (phone plan)!  Never has a family splitting up been so joyous!

We finally were able to split up our phone plans.  We're not a family anymore! Yay!

Well, it's a long story, but finally Hellephone did something right (well, we think - we'll see).  No more minimum talk times (with a $30 monthly fee if we don't - yeah, ridiculous, I know)!

So anyway, back to studying the heart (we're in Cardiology right now).

Lehitra'ot!