Achayot means Sisters!

My sister is already on her 12-hour plane ride back to the States. Somehow, she's become my best friend. We used to fight so much I could hardly stand the sight of her face. And now, she's one of the people I know best in the world, and probably the person around whom I act most like myself.

On Tuesday, the Ulpan had a tiyul (trip) to Jersualem. We went to Har Herzl, a cemetery where many famous and important political people are buried, and also a military cemetery. We took a tour of the Old City, visited the Kotel, had a picnic lunch, and went to the City of David, where we did the same underground water hike that I did with birthright. Actually, everything we did in Jerusalem on Tuesday I had already done with birthright. I'm like a super-tourist. Or maybe I live here.

Rayna and her friend Tali were staying with Tali's uncle in Jerusalem, and they were going to try to meet our bus and take it back to Haifa with us, but it turned out to be too complicated and they took a public bus later in the evening. Rayna got to the kibbutz around 10PM, and I introduced her to all my cool new international friends. On Wednesday I had class at 8AM, and she slept until lunch. She went to class with me in the afternoon, which was also pretty sweet because I happened to be giving a presentation on my life that day and I had a real live breathing exhibit for people to stare at. I showed her the center of kibbutz life in August, the pool, and she also got to experience the misfortune of the Ulpan dinner. I introduced her to Ori, my friend and Lazar's kibbutz sister, and the three of us watched the movie "Ratatouille" (in English, but it's so cute, ani mamash mamlitzah oto, I really recommend it--if you're a kid at heart). Thursday I only had work until 10 in the morning because I don't like to linger around those toilets, and then a bunch of us headed off to the beach with half a watermelon. We had dinner there too, which was much more satisfactory than the Ulpan dinner

but less satisfactory than my cousin Sarah's cooking. On Friday, after class, we traveled via train and with Rayna's two HUGE duffels (this was quite the experience, running to catch the train carrying half the stuff a 16-year-old girl packed for two months) to our cousins' house. There was a big family dinner with our cousins Sarah and Moti, our great-great-uncle Chaim, our cousin Ben and his fiance Dana, and our cousin Nir, his wife Sigal, and his two sons Aviv and Ori. Ben and Dana are getting married in November, when my dad will be here visiting me! The last time I was in Israel five years ago, I was at his brother Shai's wedding with my mom.

Rayna and I spent Saturday reading, sleeping, and playing shesh-besh (backgammon--you HAVE to be a decent shesh-besh player to live in Israel). And eating, because Sarah is one of the best cooks I've ever met. And then last night I came back to the kibbutz, and Rayna flew home late this morning.

Lazar messed up his foot playing football (soccer) on Thursday, and now it's all bandaged up and he's on crutches.

My laptop charger broke.

I'm going to try to see my cousin Gary and his daughter Adina, who are also visiting Israel right now, sometime in the next two days.

Tonight is movie night at the pub.

That pretty much brings everybody up to date on everything that's going on here. I'm going to try to post kibbutz pictures as soon as possible, and that will also bring you up to date on the pictures.