My birthday & Santa hats

So my 25th birthday came and went a week and a half ago. I had a party Friday night (the 14th) at my apartment and scared my roommates by inviting 80+ people on Facebook. However, I reassured them that I had thrown many parties before and if you wanted a good number of people there, you had to invite a lot more than you could ever want. Sure enough, we had the perfect amount of people coming and going throughout the night. There was definitely a strong camp representation from both the Israelis and Americans here. TASP and related folks were not so proportionately represented and so it turned out to a big GFC reunion of sorts. Absolutely no complaints here! There was some dancing, a few "it's a small world/country" incidents and a lot of new friendships formed or old friendships strengthened. It was a very successful and fun night. :)
The next day, some Israeli friends asked what I wanted to do and I responded with "not make decisions." So they planned for me! These friends: Idan, Meir, Doron and Noam, also happen to be my favorite Israeli guys. They took me to lunch and embarrassed me with the whole singing and dessert bit. As weird as it sounds, even with all the people tell me "Happy birthday" the night before, it didn't really feel like my birthday until that moment.
After lunch, I went to get a massage. Back at home, my wonderful roommates had made me a cake, complete with Reese's Cups, which I still have not seen in this country. They swear they exist at certain stores, but even after eating them, I am not convinced. They even bought me a fun apron (I cook a lot here.) with the statue of David on it, with the head missing. It's really funny to wear!
Since then, I've been working hard and keeping more than busy with grad school work and learning Hebrew. I've started to force myself to use the language more. I now write text messages and emails in Hebrew (when I can) to Idan. He responds in either Hebrew (to help me) or Spanish (to help himself). Also, many people are visiting the country in the next month on various programs. I'm meeting one of my best camp friends in J-town tomorrow night for dinner and another will be in TA this weekend. That's just the beginning of 9 visitors! I can't express how excited I am to get to see friends from home!
Oh, and Thursday night, I'm going to a $25 Christmas Party, with unlimited drinks and sushi. Apparently, it's pretty VIP-- should be celebrities there, too, though I will be shocked if I know who they are! The concept of Christmas here is really skewed. My students had trouble understanding why we weren't celebrating it like we did Halloween or Thanksgiving. I feel like this idea of it being an American holiday instead of a Christian one has permeated throughout the country. There are security guards sitting outside of bars wearing Santa hats. I suppose I can accept their embrace of the "Hallmark" aspects of the holiday, as long as I don't see a nativity scene outside of Bethlehem.
There are full albums on http://picasaweb.google.com/cpasses of my unexpected trip/layover in Paris, the beach hike I mentioned before, random trips to J-town and my recent trip to Greece. Check them out and let me know if you would like to pictures of other things I've written about.
From all of my students here in Israel, "Merry Christmas!"