Smart Girls Have More Fun!

My journey to Israel has bonded me to this country in a way I never ever expected, but I am so incredibly ecstatic about; I am joining the Israeli Women's National Lacrosse team. This is the first year of the establishment of the team, but it's an amazing opportunity for me. Yes, you read right the FIRST EVER Israeli Women's National team! I love playing Lacrosse and being able to be a part of the inaugural team, introducing my beloved sport to Israel is an incredible honor.  The team is playing exhibition games this summer in Amsterdam in the European Championships and I'm amazingly excited about the opportunity to be a part of this team and also to go on this amazing trip to Amsterdam. Because we are a newcomer team each player has to raise money to go. This is where your donations will come in. Your donations will send me along with Team Israel to the European Championships! Team Israel needs your support! Please support me and my teammates, by donating and se...

“Don't grow up too quickly, lest you forget how much you love the beach.”  -- Michelle Held I am an Island Girl to my core! I LOVE the beach! It's my happy place. Laying in the sunshine, frolicking in the water, playing around in the sand, I love it ALL!  After living in a land locked city for so long, it's absolutely amazing to be living in a place where the beach is so easily accessible. It's one of the many reasons I didn't hesitate to move here.  Last week we had so many nice days! I joined a Lacrosse team here, after so many years. It's been fun getting back into the groove of the sport. 2 days in a row teammates and I met on the beach to throw around. It was beautiful! Just about anything that involves being on a beach is absolutely blissful for me.  Yesterday was another really nice, warm day here so my roommate and I decided to enjoy the last day of our Pesach break on the beach! It was very relaxing.  We had a great brunch and then walked...

As you all know, I'm a full time student. Making the shift from having a Corporate America job for 4 years to being a full time student for almost 2 years now, was scary. It was frightening because it's this big leap of faith to take as an adult on a career path to walk away, give all of that up and start over jobless. For an independent person like myself this reliance on my mother again and student loans, etc is not the greatest feeling, but it's a small price to pay for my happiness. My friend Michelle came to visit last week and one of the things she said to me was that I'm different now, I'm happier!  This is so unbelievably true! I feel like a totally different person almost. Misery is like a venimous snake! It's a life threatening poison if you don't treat it. To have a job and a paycheck is never worth your life or your happiness. I'm so blessed and grateful that I recognized it and made steps to change my life and find myself, my better, happi...

This past weekend was the beginning of Pesach (Passover in Hebrew) and it was also Easter, the Christian version of Passover. I also had a friend in town so I spent last week showing her around Tel Aviv and then we also went to Jerusalem and the dead sea. Oh and we had a little stop over in Palestine. We walked the stations of the Cross while in Jerusalem and then on Easter we went back and saw the last 4 stations of the Cross at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is believed to be the sight of Jesus' crucifixion. Being in that place on Easter Sunday was a pretty amazing experience to have. The church was packed with people from all over the world. I wish I could describe the experience, but I can't really find the words. Jerusalem is just an amazing city if you believe in God and to be there during religious holidays makes it that much more amazing. The energy and the people are intense, but warm and inspirational and moving all at the same time. I wish everyone could e...

I am literally less than 2 inches away from being completely natural!!! It's so exciting on one hand, but totally scary on the other. I sort of fell into the natural transition on a whim one day in August 2010. During pretty much the entirety of my transition I just pressed my hair so nobody could really tell the difference between my natural hair and my relaxer unless they asked.  Well now that I am one trim away from completely natural hair it's harder and harder to keep my hair pressed straight for very long. Also as I mentioned before, living in Israel, I've not really found anyone that can press my hair and though I am getting much better at pressing my own hair, I am FAR from professional. Plus I just hate spending an hour of my life pressing my hair, it's not the most enjoyable use of my time if you know what I mean. Plus I feel like part of the joy of having natural hair is embracing the curls. I'm excited about my curls! I'm a girl who has not seen my...

The first week I got back to Tel Aviv it was Purim. Which was pretty awesome. It's like the Jewish/Israeli version of Halloween, Jewloween. Seen as I missed Halloween, because it's not really celebrated here, I went all out for Purim. I was not really big into Halloween as a kid, but as an adult I am totally into dressing up and having a good time. I call Halloween the day that a girl gets a pass to be as "slutty" as she wants to be without judgment. :) With this in mind I pre-ordered like 3 costumes before I went home. All similarly themed but different none the less. I got a swat costume, a sailor/navy dress, and an army dress. This Purim I wore 2 of 3 of my costumes so it's a good thing I bought so many! ;) At Purim people dress up and consume copious amounts of Alcohol, just like Halloween. For the 1st party I went to an all you can drink party for the equivalent of about $8! Great deal I know. It was fun. It was at the apartment's of one of my classma...

I headed back to TLV the day after my grammy's 75th birthday and for the 1st time in over a decade I finally got to spend her birthday with her! It was a nice feeling to be home with her. March 3, 1937 my Grammy was born! She's affectionately nicknamed Wally after Wally Simpson. She's the awesomest Grammy ever! My grandmother and I may be closer that my mother and I in some respects. I will say that in her old age and her illness she has become quite ornery, but regardless I love her all the same. My Grammy treats me as if I am her own, she actually calls me her child, she's taken care of me my whole life. She is the one person I know I can tell anything to and she will not judge me. She is my biggest cheerleader and therefore my biggest motivator. My Grammy inspires me in ways I didn't even really realize until I was reflecting about her and what she means to me on her birthday. I think it's because of my Grammy that I have always...

Hey guys, I know it's been a while since I last posted. So let the catch up efforts begin.... February is the shortest month of the year, this year was a leap year so it was 29 days instead of 28, but even still it's kind of a blur to me at this point. It kind of flew by! So much was going on. I went home for pretty much the entire month to visit my family and help my mom out with my grandmother. She went back into the hospital and had emergency surgery at the beginning of February. Thankfully she is recovering now and so far so good. So I am back in Israel. I was already scheduled to go home in February seen as we had a break for the month to write our finals. I was only meant to go home for the last 2 weeks, but as has already been established, my grammy is my EVERYTHING, so when I found out she had to have surgery I immediately changed my flight and headed home. Being home during a time when things are so critical for my grandmother, trying to write final exams, and y...