Shalom everyone,

Here is how my last week for my first 6 months here has been:

I also had a long weekend, which I took pretty chill. On Friday I had a meeting with Cynthia and Guy at the Federation and this is pretty much what I did that day.

On Saturday I went for a brunch with my Israeli neighbor, then hung out with Guy and in the evening I went with a friend for a dinner. In between I spent time with my host family!

On Sunday I worked on things that need to be done for the week and also for after I come back from Israel.  In the afternoon I had an event with the middle school kids at Ronald McDonald! This is a house for families who live far away from St. Louis and they have a kid who’s hospitalized in the hospitals around the city. We made salad, cooked chicken, pasta and brownies! It was an honor to do this volunteering!!!

On Monday I hung out with my host family and in the evening went to bowling with the middle school kids! It’s been a while since I’ve played bowling and it was fun to do it again, although I’m not the best at it.

On Tuesday I had classes with the ECC at Shaare Emeth, this time visiting the Dead Sea! We saw pictures from there, even one that my dad recently sent to me! I read them a story that I wrote that explains why this place is so special and played an Israeli childhood game that’s called “Salty Fish”! Was a blast!  In the evening I had lounge night with USY!

On Wednesday I had Religious School at Kol Rinah, and did a program about the south in Israel- we did a camel’s race, because the camel can live a few days without water- a thing that is a lack in the desert, learned about the Dead Sea and Eilat! After that I had my Cafe Ivrit, this time we talked about a kibbutz and primarily about my kibbutz! It is always fun for me to share how it is like to live on a kibbutz and how it works, because it is so different from the United States.

Today, I am flying back home, to Israel!!! I’m so happy to go back home and visit all my family and friends that I miss so much!!

See you in two weeks!

Shaked