We Like Grass

By Cameron Rusin Hi friends! It’s been years! I’m not even sure what the last blog I posted was about. I think it was before thanksgiving? Oops… Anyways I felt the need to write just a little something about my last couple weeks of school because if I don’t blog now I’ll have not blogged for probably 2 months by the time I’m back at school. Also this is a nice way to procrastinate studying for my sociology exam that starts in 4.5 hours. At this point I’m done with ⅘ of my classes, with my sociology final being that last ⅕, which is crazy. I know we did this in high school after every semester, but this feels different. Like in high school even though whatever class I was taking was ending, I knew I would still see all of my friends elsewhere and could stop by to say hi to teachers if I really wanted to, but now with a student body of 5,500 instead of 1,500 and the increased number of classes available to take, finishing a class means that there is a fair chance that I will...

By Tamika Whitenack I am standing at a charging station in the JetBlue terminal of JFK. I have been in the terminal since a little after 12 noon, and my flight doesn't begin boarding until 3:10. I took a nice stroll down all of the gates of the terminal and discovered a nice outdoor space. I feel very much like my father's daughter because I am trying to minimize seated time as much as possible. My plan is to write this post (standing) and then perhaps go do some yoga in the corner (or maybe in the kid's play area, that sounds like a good idea!). It is a bit surreal to me that I am finally leaving, and also that I have been living in New York the past four months? I am trying to process it, but I am also mainly just so, so happy to finally be going home. Yesterday was long, but not terribly so. My friend’s uncle generously offered to take the two of us out to breakfast before our Psych final, so that was a nice way to start the morning. I then ...

By Jae-An Wang Hello! As I write this, I sit alone in my room. Kyle left on Monday, Jonathan this morning. There’s a string of tangled lights sitting on my desk, but I’ve been too lazy to hang them up, so they’ll be unlit for a while. The fridge is open and empty; we had to thaw it out yesterday and wipe up all the water so it wouldn’t get all nasty on the inside. Now that my suitcase is out of the wardrobe, the doors are finally closed. It makes the room look bigger than it actually is, although it’s still a lot of space for one person. These past several weeks have been…strange, I guess? I meant to post something around Thanksgiving break, but never got around to it for whatever reason. I guess I’ll start from then, even though by now it’s already been three weeks, I think. This is an insult to pizza. I still tried it tho I stayed in the dorm for Thanksgiving. That’s pretty much about it, I think. I didn’t go out much since all the places to go w...

Hello everyone! It's been quite a while since I've last posted -- eek! Here's a word bank that will hopefully be helpful in understanding my life at the moment: Hanoar Haoved ve Halomed = our sister youth movement (translates to the working and learning youth) NOAL = acronym for Hanoar Haoved that makes sense in Hebrew Ken = literally, nest. In this context, the place where programming takes place. Machoz = region Madrichim = counselors Communarim = the people our age in NOAL who are the madrichim of the high schoolers who are the madrichim of the little kids Luz = short for luach zman which means schedule :) it's cool these days Kfar Yona = the city where I lead Giyusim = recruitment Yom peilut = the day in the ken when there's programming Yom kvutza = the day when our counselors come and run programming for us Okay actually I sent you all an email link to a video recap... it's awkward. Enjoy. 

By Tamika Whitenack This has probably been one of the longest, slowest weeks of my life. I cannot remember the last time that time passed in this way for me. Part of me is pleased because I often worry that life is moving too quickly, especially as I get older, so it is nice to know that the pace of life is not entirely dependent on age, and can be affected by circumstances as well! Anyway, each day has been a plodding countdown as I wait to go home... What have I been up to in this long, long week, and why does it pass so slowly? Basically, the only things I had left to do this week were my Spanish final on Tuesday and my Psychology final on Friday. Studying is important and I've certainly been doing plenty of it, but I definitely feel like I have way more time than I need in order to get sufficient studying. As a result, I have been not stressed at all, which is good (although, as we discussed in Psych, acute, short-term stress is actually good because it motivates us, divert...

By Tamika Whitenack So this is supposed to be the most stressful time of year, but I'm not exactly experiencing that. Today I spent a lot of time SMILING because it SNOWED! IT SNOWED. S    N  O     W !    !       ! It was magical, beautiful, marvelous, splendid. I squealed, possibly multiple times. I had resigned myself to believe that it was too warm for us to get snow before I would go back home, but earlier this week I saw that snow was in the forecast and I started obsessively checking the weather every day to see if it consistently said it would snow. I began to anticipate the snow yesterday night when my weather app said 100% chance of snow, but I did not want to get my hopes up. Best to set your expectations low for these sorts of things, the weather is not known to please. This morning, I woke up and left for a run at 9:30. It was chilly and cloudy, but no snow. We ran to the Walkway Over the Hudson, and ...

By Tamika Whitenack Tuesday is my last day of class, and then we enter study period and finals week. Naturally, I should probably be very stressed right now and doing lots of work and studying...but I am not feeling stressed and did a lot of fun and interesting things this weekend! Friday evening: I went along with two friends to the Poughkeepsie holiday parade and tree lighting, as well as a fireworks show over the Hudson! The fireworks were definitely the highlight of the event for me. I was slightly underdressed and chilly (I only wore a long sleeve shirt and sweatshirt, oops), but we had a great view of the fireworks. I love fireworks, even though I know they are bad for the environment and the trails of pollution they leave are not beautiful. But fireworks themselves are beautiful! I think my favorites, at least from this show, are the golden ones that shimmer down like fire rain. I also like the twinkling ones. An interesting thought that I had about fireworks was how they a...