08-31-08 Day before Kate starts school and before Anniversary!

Today I woke up very late. I did a lot of stuff I needed to do on my computer and did some laundry which was nice to get out of the way.

I love showering in a clean shower. I think nice, clean bathrooms are one of the most important things in a house. When you clean yourself in a bathroom that's not clean it just feels gross. The bathrooms here are awesome and clean and spacious.

I went over to Kate's for a nice lunch that she made. It was pasta with tuna and israeli salad. Delicious. We watched the Simpsons Movie which was pretty funny and then made a little picnic outside with books. We tried to draw eachother for a while which was funny. I want to be able to draw really badly!

Then we read this personality type book that Kate has that is pretty awesome. It is based on the enneagram... which is a 9 type ancient personality system that pegged Kate, myself and her roommate really really well. I usually don't buy into that stuff but it was unnaccanny how accurate it was. Also when it talked about the relationship between the types that Kate and I are it was like reading problems that we have had and things we've bonded over!

Then Kate and I went to the pizza place for a cheap but tasty dinner, went our separate ways and are chatting online now! Pretty relaxing day. Tomorrow she starts school and I have to find some fun hobbies or something. It's also our anniversary and we're going to an amazing dinner! I'm very excited!

Hope all is well
Omz

8-30-08 Shabbat before aniversary!

Shabbat just ended which was wonderful. For Friday night Kate, her roommate Rebecca and I went to a very sweet couple's for dinner. And then for lunch today we went to one of Kate's teachers homes. Both meals were awesome and the company was fantastic. I happened to run into my current roommate's good friend who was hoping to meet up after the meal which worked out amazingly well.

For third meal, Kate had the amazing idea for a picnic. So the three of us had a small meal out in the park with Kate's new roommate Yvette and her new classmate Miriam. It was also really nice and cool because we saw the sun set and stars come out during the meal.

Also I forgot to tell you all about my experience watching a sofer at work. A sofer is someone who writes Torahs, megillahs, mezuzahs or anything that requires proper written Hebrew. Rabbi Norman picked this up as a hobby a while back and is now doing commissioned work. So he brought myself and Isaac over to watch him at work. He had to repair a letter in the Megillah he was writing. There are a lot of rules with writing a holy document and he explained many of them to us. The letter he had to repair required him cutting the piece of parchment that the letter was on without cutting through the piece... but removing the entire letter... lets just say watching it was pretty awesome.

Lastly, for this blog, Monday is Kate and my 2 year anniversary! So we're gonna exchange presents and I'm taking her to a sick restaurant that I can't mention yet but I'll let you know about afterwards!

HOPE ALL IS WELL
Omz

8-28-08 Moving to Machon Yaakov

I moved to the Yeshiva I will be in for the year. It is quite gorgeous. The building is only a few years old and theres a full exercise room and a computer room with a ping-pong table. They also have wireless internet and the building is just overall pretty. We also have a sick view of the Judean hills. check em out here: http://machonyaakov.com/photos/

Theres a lot of pictures of dudes from the yeshiva but a couple cool pics of the scenery. If I hadn't gotten my camera stolen I would post them. Too bad...

Anyway for the past few days I've been bringing Kate groceries and she's made us lunch and we've watched movies. It's really nice. I don't have a kitchen... and she hurt her ankle so it works out! Otherwise we were going to go travel to Tzfat and other places but she's not supposed to walk on it too much.

I gotta go meet up with her to watch the mummy! Hope all is well with everyone!

TTYL HOMIEZ
Omz

8-24-08 STEP IS OVER

STEP, the program I was in for the summer, is officially over. I have from now until the 10th of September to do... nothing! Woohoo. Now what should I do? That's a great question. First I need to write here since I've been a slacker and haven't written in almost 2 weeks.

Something very sad happened the other day. Kate just finished staffing a trip from NYC. And I went to go visit them and got home and realized my backpack wasn't on me anymore. Then Kate retraced my steps for me because she was still around and we realized that when we were talking in the streets of downtown, someone snagged my bag which had my map, camera and a couple books. Very sad but I got over it pretty quick... not sure why but I just feel like there's more important things in life than worrying about what's out of my hands.

I also have some weird stomach thing. It's kinda funny because Kate just realized she might be somewhat lactose intolerant and a doctor told me I also might be... random! I also noticed if I have alcohol I get weird feeling so maybe that's it... who knows.

More hilariously, one of Kate's friends kept calling me Rabbi Omri at dinner... and later in the dinner two people I had been talking to for a while... asked me if I was actually a Rabbi... so funny.

I realized today that I'm really into environmental architecture... like eco-friendly buildings and solar paneling etc. I was talking to Kate and thinking maybe that's what I should start to get into when I'm doing real estate when we get back.

I also really want to do lots of crazy hobbies like helicopters and airplanes and boats and cars... remote control... for now haha. AND I really want a room in our house with tons of instruments and music...but at the same time it's totally soundproof so that people can just jam in there. I feel like if I learn about all of these things I can teach my kids! AND maybe if I ever make tons of money or Kate does, we could create after school programming and stuff with all these hobbies to get kids off the streets... crazy rock and roll listening druggies... seriously though I would love to do that.

And who knows... maybe someday I'll become a Rabbi

8-12-08 AWARDS and Jewish dopeness

Sooo... Tisha B'av is over which was not so much fun. It culminates in a 24 hour fast after 9 days of being limited to washing clothes and yourself. I didn't drink enough and almost blacked out at the Western Wall... luckily Sam Yamshon helped me get some water to make me feel better. Otherwise it was my first time really observing the holiday which was interesting.

I just saw Batman The Dark Knight yesterday with Kate. It was pretty freaking awesome, although dark and sad because I really like Heath Ledger.

I also just received news that I won the Aepi International Phillip Cohen Undergraduate Achievement Key at our convention in Chicago this month! That's still sinking in. Josh Borenstein also won a sick award and the chapter, thanks to an amazing president (Saul Miller) and hard work on everyones behalf, won chapter of the year.

There's definitely a bunch more to write about but I can't think of it all.

I had an amazing Shabbat this past weekend at Rabbi Axelrods (who took us in last minute) and a family we met at Aish's Discovery program for lunch. Also Rabbi Sigler took us in for third meal and had an amazing feast. I love his family. He has 9 kids and they are all so different but all really cute and fun and smart.

Ok... so I'm not so sure what else to write about. My friend just got a bike... I made a group on facebook called Challenge the Rabbi for people to ask me good questions... and that's been moderately successful.

A lot is going on! I'm actually still somewhat excited to get all of this knowledge under my belt and start a life back in the states with Kate though. It's a little frustrating at times.

Anyway hope all is well
Omri