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.