Israel Trip Part 7 (Last Part)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

So the next day was Saturday. Aka, Shabbat. So leaving the hotel before night was a no go. But that's okay. We spent the day together, having some fun by the pool, talking, having a B'nei Mitzvah for the members of out group who wanted to do that in Israel. It was very fun. After the service part we had a party. But not just any party, a 2004-06 ish themed party. Because that's when most of us became B'nei mitzvah at home.

Then night fell. We performed Havdalah. Then we went to the boardwalk.

There was an adorable little pony.

Also shoes. And hats.

 There was a light/water/music show. They projected stuff onto the water. It was really cool.

Then we went off to bed, preparing ourselves for what would be the longest day ever.

It started innocently enough. We went to Tzvat. We toured it and learned its history.

We looked at a synagogue with a super rude modesty checker (We'd been told that girls needed to cover our knees and shoulders, but this guy made us wear shawl to cover our elbows too. Which is fine, if that's their standard but he had such attitude about it.).

Then we went to the coolest candle store ever! Not even a little bit joking here, it was awesome.

This was the shop sign. Are you ready?

Candle.

Also a candle.

Still a candle.

Some candles in the back, with some sweet candlesticks in the front.

BAM! Another candle.

Look how adorable the owl and book candles are!

After the candle store we walked through the city towards the artist colony.

Then we got on the bus. It was mid afternoon at that point. The smart among us napped. The foolish (and me) did not.

We arrived at our final (non-gas station, non-airport) location. We were going rafting. Unfortunately  I have not pictures of this event. Cameras+Water=bad. But we rafted a little down the Jordan river. When we arrived at the campsite at the end we got to partake in a rock climbing wall (I kicked butt), a zipline into the water (it was awesome) and archery(I...could have done better). Then we were able to retrieve our change of clothes from the bus, and get dinner.

After dinner we watched an Israeli comedy movie, while our bus driver slept, powering up to finish our long trek. After the movie our group leaders mocked us with skits (it was okay, we'd done mocking skits a few days earlier as part of an activity).

You can't tell by looking at it, but they were being hilarious.

Still being funny. Still can't really tell from the picture.

After that we got on the bus and drove to the airport. We had a 5 AM flight so we arrived at about 1 AM to the airport. Again, the smart ones slept on the bus, and again, I was not one of the smart ones.

I also didn't really sleep more than an hour on the plane. And the plane ride back was about 12 hours, plus a layover. Basically when I landed and went through customs I had been awake for 35 of the past 36 hours. I was having fun.

Also when I landed in New York, I was greeted by something I'd forgotten existed about 10 days in Israel. Rain. And not just drizzling rain. Super heavy rain. It was refreshing.

Also, because I am smart, I didn't actually go to sleep until about 6-7 hours after I got home because I wanted to wait and go to sleep at a normal time. Dinner with my parents that night was...interesting.

Happiness Week?

So this week is Happiness Week. There's a student group called Happiness Club and this week they are doing something everyday to try and perk up the campus. Normally I'd be thrilled. Unfortunately, this school-wide Happiness Week is occurring right during my own personal "Everything is Due and There's No Escape" Week.

As much as I want to go out and get a temporary tattoo, or join in a water balloon fight, I can't because every time I think I'm done, more work pops up

That being said, I have made the decision to at least attend flashback Friday. It takes place after my last class on Friday, and it's only two hours. I will definitely have earned a happy fun break.

The End of BEDA

Last day of BEDA!!!!! It could not have come at a better time. This week brings 3 midterms and a performance, so I am ready to get through it. It has mostly been fun doing this though. Once again I learned some new skills. I finally learned how to take a screenshot. I got better at cropping pictures. I learned that I can usually think of something to write.

I'm glad I stuck through BEDA this April. It was a great experience, especially since I (hopefully) will be unable to do BEDA in August. Not because of anything bad. I applied to a trip that takes place in August, so if I get to go (crossing fingers) I will be traveling internationally, and won't always have reliable internet, and thus would be unable to do BEDA for all of August. So, let's hope that this is my last BEDA for a year.

I'm going back to my old schedule of blogging Tuesdays and Saturdays. See you... oh come on tomorrow? Really? Can I please wait until Saturday to restart my schedule? Please? Especially since April started on a Sunday, so I posted March 31, then April 1 already. Yeah, I'm skipping tomorrow. See you Saturday.

3 Wishes

If a genie popped into my room this instant and offered me three wishes, here's what I'd wish for.

1. A complete understanding of C++

2. To not be sick.

3. More hours in the day.

Ah to be done with midterms.

It Will Never Stop

So I'm taking 5 classes this quarter. Most of you, who go/went to semester schools are probably thinking that this is not a big deal. However, on a quarter system normally only 4 classes are taken each quarter. Because we have three short quarters, instead of two long semesters. So anyway, 5 classes. What this basically means is that every time I think I have free time, and don't have work to do I'm wrong. There's always more problems sets to do, more textbooks to read, more tests to study for.

And, because I am smart, I have added to my workload my choosing to do BEDA. Plus another project I'm in the middle of and literally haven't touched for a month. And a scarf I'm knitting and could probably bind off but I want it to be longer. And I just volunteered for another non-school project. 

But you know what? As much work as there is, as intense and stressful as it is, I like it. I like always having something to work on. Having multiple things due means I can't convince myself that I have plenty of time before it needs doing. I actually have to get everything done.

So I'm going to go study for a midterm. Then I'll outline an essay (or two) and do my reading for another class tomorrow.

Two Bad, One Good

I do not like today. Firstly, because I had an 8 AM class, which is a thing that now happens every Tuesday and Thursday, but you know, I'm still unhappy about. Just perpetually unhappy. Well not perpetually. But from 7:30 or so until class is over I'm pretty unhappy. Just to sink in how early this is, I usually get back to my room from this class the same time my roommate leaves for her first class. So that's the first bad. The second bad also has to do with my class schedule.

See, my campus is divided into north campus and south campus. Every single class I've taken this year up until this quarter has been on north campus. This quarter I have a class on south campus. Like, south, south campus. On Thursdays, I have plenty of time to get to this class, as I have class at 8, and then not again until the afternoon. On Tuesdays however, I have class up north, and then I have ten minutes of not class, and then I have class down south. On Thursdays, I walk over leisurely and it takes about 15 minutes to get there. The past two Tuesdays I've been able to make it on time by walking a little more quickly. Today however, my north class let out 5 minutes late. I was late to class. Luckily the teacher was having technological issues so class hadn't started ye, but still.

The good news however, is that I went to CVS and got Easter chocolate on sale, 50% off. I find it entertaining just how strict they are about defining something as "Easter" chocolate. I mean, I understand why the bunnies are half off, but there was a bag of Hershey's kisses that I wouldn't have thought counted had it not been stacked with the other items. The front of the bag had some flower pictures on it and the back of the bag had a small panel about a website with ideas to make Easter great. This qualified for the half off price. So, the good news is, I now have chocolate. So much chocolate. Which will come in handy when I need sugar to help me study for the two midterms I have this week. The two midterms I should get back to studying for.

I'm Very Very Sleepy

So having early morning classes is taking more out of me than I thought. If you know the feeling of being very giggilly when tired, that's been me for the past three hours. It's been causing concern in my friends. Good night.

Things I've Been Doing Instead of Studying for My Last Final

1. Cleaning my room.

2. Packing for home.

3. Seeing if the internet has stopped being interesting.

4. Playing Spider Solitare

5. Playing FreeCell

6. Doing my programming homework/project (in positive news that's all done now).

7. Playing bridges

8. Doing logic puzzles

9. Getting smoothies with friends.

10. Getting dinner with friends.

11. Going to the free ice cream study break with friends.

12. Checking in for my flight tomorrow.

13. Checking the weather for the next week.

14. Showering

15. Writing this post.

I'm going to go study now. I promise my next post won't be about my procrastination.

Time to Focus

For some reason my brain thinks that reading week and finals week are the best time for me to work on independent writing projects and re-watching old TV shows.

So far this week I've written two new chapters for the book, as well as editing a few old ones. I've finished re-watching Dollhouse.

I've also, to my credit, have nearly finished my final project for my programming class. I also spent today looking over practice tests for math and determining what I need to improve on. In about half and hour I'm going to a math review session. Tomorrow is dedicated to studying for chemistry and trying to finish the programming stuff. Then Monday brings two finals, followed by more programming fun. Tuesday is for packing, studying for EA and going to programming office hours because I swear I will finish before I leave. Wednesday has one last final, and then if everything goes according to plan, I will be coming home.

Also, somewhere in all of that I will be trying to finish up all my points for the quarter since they don't carry over and I literally have half of them left.

Basically it's time to focus. But then I get spring break! And unlike the lame-os on the semester system I will have no homework over break. Assuming I finish my programming before I leave. And even then I will have no homework after Friday.

Busy Week

I have so much going on this week, it's amazing, but stressful.

On Sunday I went ice skating on the outdoor rink built by student government (a picture of the rink is available in my last post), with some friends.

Today my dorm hosted a "fireside". The Rabbi from Hillel came and spoke to us about being a Jewish ghostbuster. It was a really interesting talk and I feel like I learned a lot about the Jewish views on ghosts, angels, ect.

Thursday there's a Q+A about the liberal arts requirements for engineering students at my school and an info session about career mentoring that night.

Friday night I'm going to the Chicago stop on the Dial-Up tour. 

Add into all this my need to do all my homework. Of the six things I have due between Thursday and Friday, I have one completely done, two halfway done and three not even started. So, I'm going to get back to work.

Step Inside my Brain

It's finals week so here's a list of the various things currently on my mind.

1. I should be studying for math.
2. But I did so well on my midterms that I don't need to worry.
3. Except I know I need to review.
4. Maybe I'll watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special Preview again.
5. Now I want to see some Doctor Who fan vids on youtube.
6. Liisakee is really good. Why aren't all vidders as talented as her.
7. Right math.
8. I know how to do this stuff.
9. This one's a little trickier, but I can handle it.
10. Wait, why isn't that working?
11. Seriously, why isn't this working.
12. Maybe I should study a little more.
13. But first I'll write my blog post.
14. Thirteen thoughts? That could be the next YA book after 13 Little Blue Envelopes or 13 Reasons Why.
15. Except now it's more than 13.
16. Okay I will end this post, put a link on Facebook, then get back to studying.
17. Seriously, that's what's going to happen as soon as I put in the links above.
18. Okay I've done that, now I just need to do the labels, then I'll hit publish and post a link on Facebook.
19. Seriously, as soon as I figure out a title for this post.
20. I now have no ideas.
21. Wait yes I do.
22. I was going to do something about the number 21 but changed my mind.
23. Okay I have a title I like mostly because it makes me think about Inception and the new Pixar movie.
24. Okay I'm really done now.
25. Really, I just wanted to end on 25, it's so much more fulfilling than ending on 24, or 26.
26. See what I mean, wouldn't it be better if I just stopped at the last one?
27. This is getting out of hand.
28. Okay, I'm really going to hit publish now.
29. As soon as I get to 30.
30. kthnxbye

13 hours

Last week was midterm week. There were lots of late nights, lots of studying. There was the smoke detector in my room going off at 4 AM as loudly as possible because it wanted a new battery waking up myself, my roommate and the people in the rooms next to us. All in all there wasn't much sleep being had.

Until last night.

I was reading in bed and fell asleep. I woke up about 3 hours later at 11. I was then faced with a choice. Go back to sleep, or go out. I picked go back to sleep. And I slept until 9. Then stayed lazily in bed until about 10. But in terms of actual sleep I got about 13 hours. This makes me very happy.

I didn't have the greatest week so this was really good.

Goals

A lot of times when I give myself a goal, I set two deadlines. One is the absolute deadline, the other the dream deadline. For example, today is Tuesday. If I have an assignment due Monday at 2, my absolute deadline is Monday at 2. My dream deadline however would probably be Friday at 6. That is I want to try and finish it by then so I have the weekend free but know that if I don't well, I have time. I tend to finish things by the absolute deadline more than the dream deadline.

Sometimes goals don't have specific deadlines, but rather levels of completion. I gave myself the goal of not drinking any soda in October as a dream goal, but gave myself guidelines in which I was allowed to drink soda without it counting against me (this was mainly just that I was allowed to have ginger ale if I got sick). As it happens I did achieve my dream goal of no soda in October. I gave myself this goal because I noticed that I was drinking more soda than I normally did before since it was now readily available in the dining hall.

Now that October is over I decided I need a new goal. This one will be more traditional in terms of deadlines. I began writing a novel nearly three years ago. I finished the first draft after a year and a half, though interestingly enough the last third of it was written in the space of a week because I was able to give myself a scheduled writing time everyday. Once I finished my draft I stopped allocating time. Which is why it's now almost a year and a half later and I have only about 2/3 of the book edited into a second draft. And since the first draft is hand written it also means I only have the first 2/3 or the book saved somewhere besides a binder. So since November is National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) I am taking this opportunity not to write another novel, but to finish the current draft of the one I've been writing for the past three years.

Here's the thing. I have classes. And homework. And a second round of midterms. So I've decided that while my dream goal is to finish my current draft by Novermber 30 at 11:59 PM whatever timezone I happen to be in, my absolute goal is December 31 at 11:59 PM whatever timezone I happen to be in, since my quarter ends December 10, and I have 3 weeks off from school with no homework or anything. Although to be fair I managed to do almost no work all summer even though I had pretty ample free time (I was also working at a day camp which is very tiring though, she said unconvincingly).

Considering that I just spent a good chunk of free time writing this longer than usual post, I think this will be an interesting month or two.

Shanah Tova!

Tonight is Erev Rosh Hashanah! Which means that at sunset it becomes Rosh Hashanah! Which is the Jewish New Year for those of you who were wondering. Now, in high school and earlier, this would mean a day off from classes so the Jewish students (such as myself) could go to temple and pray and all the gentiles (or goyim or non-jews or whatever you want to call them) had a day off from school to spend merrily. But that's okay because we got apples and honey.

Anyway so it turns out that at university (or my university anyway) Rosh Hashanah is just another day. I mean, there are services and dinners and lunches. But there are still classes. And labs. So there's a lot of emailing professors to be done. Or a lot of energy drink drinking to be done.

Obviously, this happens every year, so the professors are prepared for it. Also, my schedule is such that I only have two classes this Thursday. That's the good news. The bad news is that my morning class is doing an online lab, at the same time as the morning service. And while I can attend my afternoon class and the following 2 1/2 hour lab without a problem, there is Tashlik an hour later. And a dinner two hours later I'd like to attend so I can get some more cultural fun in. Not to mention the lab report due within 24 hours.

At first I was panicking a bit at all this. Currently, I'm cautiously optimistic. My morning class teacher still hasn't told me when I can do the online lab, but those tend to not take very long and I can probably do it on Friday afternoon (here's hoping I don't have to squeeze it in later on Thursday, I may be able to but I'd rather not be held to that). The chem lab I'm also getting hopeful about, since I will have time at night (a little) not to mention 2 1/2 hours after class gets out on Friday to finish the lab.

Of course, I also just spent 15 minutes writing this post instead of doing chem problems so maybe I should be a little more worried.