The Alpha Day and the o-MEGA EVENT...

I'm in Israel! In case you didn't know, my sister Lisa and I are on a Birthright trip (google it - 10 free days in Israel for Jews age 18-26)!!! We just had to get ourselves to Philadelphia by January 2, the reason for our nice and relaxing pre vacation in New Jersey with Uncle George and Kathy (we've decided every vacation should have a pre vacation).
We flew into Tel Aviv arriving yesterday afternoon and so far it's all been a blur. Everyone is so nice and friendly and we feel like we've done so much and yet soo little already. Today we began with a quick walk around Jaffa (Tel Avivs nearby twin) and then drove into Tel Aviv where we were split off into groups to examine different aspects of the city (we were assigned fashion).



Lisa and I standing in front of Tel Aviv (in case you are bad with geography, that's the Mediterranean Sea...)




Floating orange tree sculpture in Jaffa.



Bits of the fashion we observed at the market.
One of our scavenger hunt assignments was to buy something "designer" for 20 shekel (about $6) and we were encouraged to haggle for it. When our leader Dahlia tried this approach, the shopkeeper gave us an earful and told us she wouldn't sell to stupid Americans. So that didn't go over well...



Lisa in front of a dog park - her favorite thing. Ever.

Then we went on to Jerusalem. We are lucky to be here for a Birthright MEGA EVENT. I capitalize this because it was written as such on our itinerary and was referred to this way by our leaders. We didn't know much except that all the otherBirthright groups (Jewish kids from all over the world) who were currently in israel would be there. We were also warned that security would be tight. And what a scene it was!
At least a few thousand of us were lead into a huge auditorium for performances that included pyrotechnics, speeches including one by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and then a concert by a big Israeli band! Though we were extremely tired (jet lag is not treating Lisa or I well this time 'round), the whole thing was pretty spectacular.



Lisa and I gearing up for the MEGA EVENT.




The full center. We noticed that the Brazilian and Argentinean groups had the most energy and danced pretty much the entire way through.




The PM giving a really motivating speech about why Birthright exists.




And then the party really got started!

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As one chapter ends, another begins...

I really can't complain about 2011. This has been a year of risks and celebrations for me and though by no means was every day, or even week, a good one (some were even downright awful), on the whole it was a year of real growth for me and I can only hope that 2012 will be half as wonderful.

Some highlights of 2011 (I'd make it a "top 10" but I've just enjoyed so much and really can't rank it):

- Bungy jumping - Queenstown, New Zealand - this was so scary, but I gotta say, I was left with the feeling that if I can jump off a bridge and trust that I'd be okay, I can do anything.
- Kayaking in Halong Bay with my Alex's
- Missoni for Target Sale - Morgan and I even scored some new friends out of it.
- Dinner and a cab ride in New Orleans
- Wilshire Walk with my fearless companions Rob and Sidney
- Seeing Book of Mormon - yes I saw it and YES it is every bit as wonderful as is I'd hoped.
- Dodger Game with the German boys
- Super fun girls game night - this has become my moms signature party and is always a good time.
- Glow Worm Caves
- Tour of Disney Channel Animation (thanks Jill!) and lunch at the American Girl Place with cousin Bella
- Angkor Wat - wins the awe factor of the year
- Harry Potter Christmas Party - I literally went to Hogwarts. Hands down the best party I've ever been to.
- MONA Museum in Tasmania - the more I think about it the more I want to go back.

And that's just my short list. Tonight I rang in the New Year with Uncle George, Aunt Kathy, and sister Lisa in New Jersey as Lisa and I are about to head off on our first grand adventure of 2012!! Stay tuned as we will be posting as frequently as possible in the coming days.

Happy New Years!!!

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When your adventures follow you home...

Oh god how much I wish I took pictures of this! I have sunk back into my old habits of never having a camera with me, which is really too bad.  Also, a really really frustrating thing just happened to me and you are reading the SECOND typing of this story.  The first one was ALL deleted.  Ugh.  But here's the story...

So remember when I wrote about our hike in Abel Tasman National Park near Nelson, New Zealand?  Well, so insignificant it didn't make it onto this blog, on the hike we stumbled upon a group of kids about my age while crossing a beach at low tide (it was very time sensitive because the beach didn't exist at high tide, so we were racing the clock!)  They asked us to take their picture and so we did.  They seemed like a really fun group.  We ended up walking at about the same pace for awhile and ended up chatting with a young man from Germany.  He explained that he was really only there with his one buddy from home and that the other three girls they had just met that day on that hike.  Did we get his name? No, but he stayed back with us as we had to take off our shoes and cross the swelling ocean water "creeks" filled with sharp shells.  He told us that he and his friend were on a world tour similar to the one I was just nearing the end of: Australia - New Zealand - Fiji - Los Angeles!  Of course we had to ask their plans and it turned out they had none.  I gave him my email address and told him to get in touch with me if he wanted any help trying to figure out what to do.  And that was that!

Flash forward to about a week later when another kind stranger, Donna, put me up my last night in Auckland.  When I asked her at the end what I could do to repay her, she simply said, "Pay it forward."
It was that day that our German friends, henceforth known as Marcus and Sebastian, sent me an email.  They were in Fiji and needed an address to give US customs on their arrival and wanted to know of a good hostel.  Hostel? Not in Los Angeles.  After a few emails back and forth we determined that I would pick them up at LAX and that they could stay at Jeff's house for two nights while we all figured out what they should do to maximize their stay in the states.  And oh how many people rallied to make it a good time in the states for the Germans!  Their first night, my mom, Jeff, Scott, Melissa, and I took them to Mijares for their first Mexican meal.  (When asked if they'd ever had Mexican food they answered, no.  When asked if they'd had a margarita before they looked at us like we were insane.)  The next day, my wonderful friend Rob took us on a tour of the Paramount Lot on a golf cart.  Marcus and Sebastian were particularly stoked with their little gate passes with a map of the lot and a ticket that reads "Paramount Pictures Welcomes ___(name)___"  Great souvenir, and I've got to hand it to Paramount for stepping it up since my days writing gate passes.  We then did the touristy-ist thing - Hollywood Blvd and the Chinese Theater.  Marcus and Sebastian really enjoyed picking out the other German tourists.  That place is a zoo.  That afternoon I had some work to do so Melissa met the boys in Old Town for a bit of shopping.  They had some great success.  That night, we went to a Dodgers game.  Oh how I loved the look of, "is this for real?" on their faces during the seventh inning stretch! They did point out one thing though - why is the baseball championship a world series when the US is the only country in the world who participates?  A bit narcissistic... And then to top it off, the next morning, Jeff's brother, Johnnie, drove the boys down to my grandparents house in the OC! Marcus loves the show OC (he also loves Gossip Girl...)  It's not really my adventure at this point, but we've been getting really fun reports from my grandparents about their stay.  Marcus was a sous chef and insisted on cooking a big dinner for them that my grandparents sound over the moon about, they got a picture I'm dying to see of my Grandpa (Poppy) sprawled out on a surfboard, my grandparents told them where to go one night when the were going OUT (and didn't get home until 3am!)  Tomorrow my grandparents put the Germans on a train to San Diego (my grandmother is uneasy about the fact that they have no where to stay there) and from there they have an action packed week - Las Vegas AND San Francisco!

It's been fun seeing my part of the US as an adventure through their eyes... le sigh, I miss traveling...

An historic event...

A true blog worthy adventure - Missoni launches it's line for Target, September 13, 2011. Stores open at 8 am. Morgan and I were there at 7:05am.

Anticipating a line that might wrap around the building (we'd heard of such things happening on the east coast) imagine my surprise when this is what I was met with:



Yup. ONE lone super hardcore fan ready with a chair, chatting away on the phone, on the Internet. Morgan and I were shoppers two and three. Chrystal (our new shopping mentor) was really there for the bike (there were only two in the store and she was going to get it - the last designer bike target had sold she had narrowly missed out on). Just in case she was unsuccessful in her endeavor, her parents were in line up at a store in the bay area and ready to pounce as well. She instructed Morgan and I (total amateurs) and our new friends right behind us, Emily and Harry (also amateurs), that what we needed was a plan of attack.

By 7:50 the line looked like this:



Emotions were beginning to run high. A few people tried to cut the line (us hardcore folk were stunned that a person would bring such bad juju upon themselves). Morgan was a genius and insisted we go to a Target off the beaten path (I won't say which for fear that another super sale will happen and our hidden gem will be hidden no longer) and OH MY GOD was that the right choice. We wouldn't have standee a chance at say, the Hollywood location.

8am the doors opened. I made a mad dash for my designated point - SHOES. We ALL had our eyes on the flats so I had A TON to grab. Then I headed for the accessories and hair stuff, the homeware, and the clothes.

By 8:30am everything, and I mean really, ALL of it, was gone.



One of the many empty racks.

Our team had a powwow and trade off. Lasting friendships were made. And excessive shopping was had by all.

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Home sweet home...

Sadly, this chapter of my big adventure has come to a close. I cannot say enough how happy and fortunate I feel to have had the support and the ability to do what I have just come back from. It's amazing how big the world is and how despite how much ground I've covered, there is SO much more to see and do. The biggest thing I've learned about myself on this adventure is how much I do enjoy doing and trying new things and yet how lucky I feel to come from where I do. I'll post a longer "reflection" at some point.

As for the blog- I've really enjoyed keeping this and find that I am a lot better at putting something online than I am at holding myself to a journal. As you can tell though from my posts getting less and less frequent, when I'm doing less frequent "out of the norm" stuff, it is harder to motivate to write every day. It's also less interesting to read something when it just turns into a "dear diary" situation. So my plan is to update every once in awhile, especially with something blogworthy, so if you want to check in sporadically to see what I'm up to, feel free, if not, don't read!