Israel

I just got back from Israel and had so much fun. We saw all different parts of the country in such a short period of time-10 days. I extended my stay an extra three days in Ramot, North Jerusalem. I felt really safe when I was there, safer than I feel in my own neighborhood. However the situation with Gaza was tense and at first I thought I was crazy to even go to Israel. It's still on the travel warning list for places not to go to. The plane ride took 10 hours on a direct flight and 12 hours on the way back. My favorite part of the trip was being in Jerusalem at the Wailing Wall on Shabbat. I found the whole experience very spiritually moving and as corny as it sounds reconnected with my Jewish roots. The wall is smaller than it looks in pictures. We went to the wall twice and during the second time there was a beautiful rainbow over Jerusalem after it rained. We really lucked out on the weather because it only rained once.

We started our trip in Haifa and visited a high school connected with the Boston-Haifa connection, an exchange program between these two places. Afterwards we visited the lovely Bahai gardens, a holy site for the Bahai faith.

Then we went to the sea of Galilee. Afterwards we went to the Negev desert. After, we went to Eilat.


We hiked Masada at sunrise. We swam in the Dead Sea which is shrinking every year and will be gone in the next 100-200 years.

We went to Zvat, a holy place for those studying the Cabbalah. We talked to an artist there who used the expression awesomely awesomely awesoomme! to describe the Jewish traditions.

On Monday, we went to Tel Aviv. The Mediterranean was so vibrantly blue.


We stayed in Jerusalem the longest, 4 nights, and spent time in the archaelogical sites. We walked on the ramparts of the old city and had time to do some shopping.
We had the opportunity to meet 8 Israeli soldiers on the trip.



The next day we stayed in the Bedouin tents and rode camels. The desert was so quiet and serene at night. The endless expanse of sand and sky was hauntingly beautiful.



Next we went to the Golan heights.

I extended my stay an extra 3 days in North Jerusalem. I had so much fun!!

I can't wait to go back!

The Boston Science Museum

We had a fun Thanksgiving at Grandma's house. However there was an incident with the dog. Grandma suggested that Carmen stay over for the night, but mom insisted that Carmen go back to Providence so she opens the door and Carmen runs out. Then we hear "Carmen No! Skunk!" says mom as Carmen gets sprayed. "Quickly go to the car!" shouts mom as we walk through the plume. The whole car smelled like skunk.

The next day we went to the Boston Science Museum and saw the Butterfly Gardens with cousins George and Sam. After, we went out to eat at Peach Farm in Chinatown and ordered a large Alaskan King Crab which came out in three different presentations. It was a feast to remember with five courses. We had lots of fun!

Hi everyone!

Last week was kind of uneventful. I did lots of studying. I'm enjoying my classes so far. My favorite and also the hardest is Genetics followed by Russian Literature. In genetics we are doing a cross of drosophila fruit flies in order to construct a genetic model. In Russian literature we read Eugene Onegin by, Alexander Pushkin. I highly recommend it. The weather here is nice, but getting a little bit chilly. Yesterday I went into town to my favorite store, Faces. I signed up for a trip to Israel in January which I'm really looking forward to. It's a 10 day birthright trip. I finally ventured out to Mount Holyoke. The campus center is nice, but I still think Smith has the best campus. I plan on visiting all of the campuses. I still need to visit Hampshire. Maybe next semester I'll take a class at Amherst.

Lamont

Hi everyone!

Welcome to my blog. My room is all set-up and looking great. Thanks mom for helping with the decorations. The first week of classes went well. I'm taking Biology, Abnormal Psychology,Mineralogy, English, and Russian literature. I'll probably drop mineralogy because I'm thinking of being an English major. Most sophomores that I've talked to don't know their major yet so I still have until the end of this year to decide. I've gotten in touch with the English department and I also want to get in touch with the psychology department.

Here are some pictures of my camping trip I went on last weekend to the Ossipee mountains of New Hampshire. The trip was fun, but was washed out by hurricane Hanna. However we had some nice weather the first day when we visited the Castle in the Clouds.



Here are some pics of my first few days at Smith.




Yesterday I went to Casino night. I didn't win anything, but I brought my camera that I won last year. Some girl won 4 times!