First night of freedom

On our first night, we weren't allowed to go out. We won't ever have curfew when staying at Beit Nativ, except for that first night. Instead of being smart like the rest of the group and going to bed at about 1 am, me and 7-8(it depended on the time) just hung out in one person's room and literally did an all nighter. While it was not the smartest thing to do, it was a ton of fun. We had a great view of the sunrise from the balcony on my floor.

The day was generally ok, I didn't start to get tired til about 3 when my 2nd semester group did  neighborhood tour so we were walking a lot, and then during Nativ orientation I actually fell asleep while sitting right next to the director. Later on we all went to a bar-b-q which was pretty good.

Afterwards a lot of the people took full advantage of their legality and lack of curfew, whereas I did not. A friend of mine had surgery on his foot before he left so he can't walk a lot, so instead we just crossed the street, got a beer and then just hung out with this other girl at a very pretty fountain right next to where we stay. Eventually people started coming back, so we again just hung out around Beit Nativ.

All in all, a very good day and night and I can't wait for the rest.

P.s. We did ice breakers by 2nd semester group, so I met a lot of my group and they are really cool, and my staff are also really awesome, along with all staff in general,

First Day of Nativ

I first started off my day finishing packing, but then realizing I had misplaced my passport. Not a good way to start my day. Eventually I got to O'Hare no problem, went through security and all and got my flight to JFK.

All of the people from Chicago then basically chilled around JFK for a while because our baggage was checked through and we got boarding passes in O'Hare. After the long wait of getting almost everyone through checking, we all went through the long and tumultuous process of security.

10.5 HOUR FLIGHT!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!! Except not quite, none of the Nativers were really allowed to talk because so many people wanted to sleep. So we were basically all sleeping or talking quietly with those around us. 

We landed around 5:30 local time, and the weather was gorgeous. Took an hour bus ride to this very random site to have Yossi (the director) give us a little speech about questions and how we won't leave with answers, but instead better questions. We then continued on our busses which were separated by our 2nd semester tracks until we got to Beit Nativ (where we are staying) in Jerusalem. We got our bags in our rooms, ate, and got our phones.

We start getting more serious tomorrow with orientations and all the good stuff. So far, a great start to hopefully an even better year.