How will I keep coming up with witty titles?

One week and one day into the program and I'd say all is going reasonably well. My internship is tres cool and my Hebrew is improving. Albeit slowly, but Ulpan (Hebrew lessons) started on Monday night, so with two classes a week I'm hoping that I'll be mumbling "eehhhh" with the best of them soon enough.

The funniest part is seeing people's reactions to me telling them I'm from Australia. Israelis say "wow, so far!" and I nod sagely informing them of the day-long flights it takes to get here. But the Americans take the cake. You guys are growing on me, but it still cracks me up to see you say ever so enthusiastically "OH MY GOD, YOU'RE AUSTRALIAN? THAT'S SO COOL!" Well, shucks. Fortunately the amusement (or bemusement) goes both ways. Not only do the 14 Americans (and Ricky, our Israeli program coordinator) in my group have to contend with learning Hebrew, they also have to deal with my Australianisms.

Ahem, for example...

- pissed (this includes, "getting pissed", "taking the piss" and "man, I'm so pissed")

- tea towel

- the phrase "smash it"

- wanker (and all its derivatives, "this is so wanky" and "this is such a wank")

And then there's jumper. Ahhhh jumper. Which of course is pronounced "jump-ahhhh". The source of hours of giggles for my compadres.

We went on our 2nd siyur (excursion) today. Not such a winner in my books. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact I was running on four or so hours of sleep and was shaking off the effects of the previous night's festivities. But judging from other people's reactions, I wasn't the only one in the "this is such a wank" boat. We went to a biblical recreation place. No, your eyes do not betray you. There was a cistern, there were team-building exercises, there was sheep and goat herding. Okay, I won't lie, there was a baby goat who made the trip a little worthwhile, such a cute little fella.



But I was not built to shepherd. Oh no. So I'm sorry WUJS, epic fail in my books on the siyur today. Nevertheless, I will still be posting some photos from our little excursion.

So back to last night's festivities. They were not intended to be so festive! It was the birthday of one of the owners of one of Tel Aviv's newest and hottest clubs, Supermarket. As my bosses are friends with him and it's a club that we deal with regularly, Rachel (the other intern) and I were asked to come along.



Turns out we didn't even get to meet him, but we still had a great night. On a Monday night, people. This got me thinking... in Tel Aviv, on a Monday night, this club was full. Chock-a-block full. It was going off, and the people were loving it. It could have been a day during the weekend from the looks of it. People love life here, this city is effervescent and it was amazing to see it in full force on a week night.

The only way for me to describe how I feel being here, is lighter. Your worries don't seem to matter as much, or maybe the Israeli attitude to life is just starting to rub off on me. They go with the flow, and I know that is having a positive effect on me. We joke about how Israelis do everything in "Israeli time" (meaning they're constantly half an hour late), and while it's taking some getting used to their lackadaisical attitude to good time-keeping and punctuality, they are still some of the least stressed people I've ever met.

And that's something we can all take on board - stop and take a proper lunch break and sit down and enjoy a proper meal where you can watch the world go by and remind yourself that you're still a human being, and not a machine. Life is here to be enjoyed, don't just trudge through it. Jews toast l'chaim ("to life") for a reason! So l'abriut, enjoy xx.

Greetings and salutations

I've finally taken the desire to make a blog and added to it a little bit of motivation and turned it into the semi-final product you're reading now. It will always be a work in progress, that includes the title; if anyone has any suggestions, I am open to them.

But firstly, maybe I should explain the title...

While staying at Momo's in Tel Aviv, I had the pleasure of meeting and spending what seemed like endless hours talking with some ex-military Americans. One of them greeted me one morning by the name "LaMa" which initially confused me, I'll admit. I turned to him, puzzled, and gracefully said "huh?" He explained it's my moniker and I replied with, "No, no, you weren't paying attention last night. My nickname is Loz Maz!" He responded by explaining that LaMa is just taking the first two letters of my name and surname, and ending up with a name like J Lo and such. Et voila, a new nickname, that also means "why" in Hebrew - an unsurprising coincidence?

So there you have it; LaMa in the HL. For the uninitiated, HL stands for "Holy Land", AKA Israel. I came here on Taglit (Birthright) in January, and I had only booked to be overseas for 4 weeks - 10 days on Birthright, 8 days free time in Israel, then a 10-day tour of Egypt. In the days following Taglit I started thinking that I don't really want to come home to Australia. After all, I had no job or boyfriend to come home to, and while I dearly love my friends and family, I had no commitments holding me there. So after some lengthy discussions regarding logistics with my parents, I made the watershed decision to stay on in Israel and participate in a MASA program.

The program I'm doing is called WUJS Intern Tel Aviv. It involves me living in share accommodation with the other participants in the Florentine area in Tel Aviv for 5 months, working 4 days a week as an intern for an events company called Tel Aviv VIP Nightlife, having 2 nights a week of Ulpan (Hebrew) classes and 1 day a week reserved for siyurim (excursions/day trips). Today we had a siyur to the Ein Gedi National Park next to the Dead Sea. This place is amazing, and I recommend it for all visitors to Israel.



Our destination on the hike was a gorgeous spot with a small waterfall and pool. Not everyone got in, due to the lack of change rooms, but sure enough I got in regardless and had an awesome time. I'll post some photos in the next few days.





Our program officially started on Monday and we've just been having orientation week and been busy settling into the flats and learning about what each of our internships involves. Everyone is fairly keen to get started, myself in particular, because while traveling is brilliant, there is nothing like living in a foreign city to truly experience it and get a real feel for it.

That's it from me for time being. So welcome - or bruchim haba'im - to LaMa in the HL.