זה נראה לי כמו הר

Well, more of a salsa, really.

So far, every present I got was perfect in every way. I got an mp3 from my parents, "Last Chance" from Achiad (which I got stopped at the airport for XD), I got a rogatka from a Georgian (gruzini) guy named George that I've never talked to previous of recieving the gift - at least not that I remember, I got a little notepad with a pretty pencil from Olga, and I got a book of pretty pictures of Romania. LovelY! I couldn't be more greatful ^^

And the parties! I'm getting so much tsumi ^^ and you all know how much I love attention. We taught about 60 or 70 people qua qua dela oma... Now, after a few rounds, they learned the words. You have no idea how funny it is to see an American Chinese girl from New York singing as loud as we are "aba shcha kofiko, ima shcha hipopotam veata chamor katan" XDDD
It got really competitive, all of the Israeli's wouldn't loose. It was hillarious, we made a really big deal out of it.

And then there was a dancing party, and I danced. Of course, I'm a disaster at dancing, and I was wearing a tank top which I never ever do so my self confidence was at the floor, but the room where the party was was bellow the floor in the basement and the lights were off so I was counting on the fact that no one was looking :P

Those Mongolians are amazing @_@ they're so so shy when you talk to them but they really, really, really loosen up when they dance. And they dance amazing. Really. :D Me and Noar agree that they're the cutest team in the whole competition, they're on the top of our "Favorite Team" list.

And there was also a thunder storm here yesterday. It was amazing, it didn't rain until later (when I'm pretty sure it hailed) but there was beautiful lightning very very very clear and bright hitting the mountains in the view and roaring thunder like I've never heard before. Natures work of art.

Nmm, I wish I could celebrate my birthday with all of you - but like Noar said when I told him I miss you guys - "Not everyone gets to celebrate their birthday from people from all corners of the globe, be thankful". So I am thankful. People here are really really nice, but I still wish that I could celebrate my birthday with all of you.

So, so so. I'm officially 16 now, eh?

A lot has happened, I don't have time to really go into details but a lot of amusing things. I think I'll just leave some of the things for stories when I come back ^^

We walked down to town yesterday, about 5 km there and 5 back. We were barely there for half an hour. I'm not sure we were allowed to go.

And then there was the expo. Where everyone presented their countries. So much wine! Every other country brought wine. We had a really colorful presentation.

We won two debates 3-0, one against the Ukraine and one against the Koreans (which were really really good and I was so, so so shocked when we won). But that means we have only 6 points out of 9, and you need 7 to go to the octafinals, so we didn't get there. oh well.

And there's a restraunt across the street, sort of a mix between a pizzaria and a bar and a restraunt really, and it's so so so amusing to buy there because not only is the family who owns the restarunt really sweet, but they also don't speak English. So I drew a pizza and I drew a mushroom and I mimed an onion (yes, I mimed an onion) and they still got it all wrong. Oh well.

That's really all I feel like writing right now, and I'm also short on time, so I'll just finish here.

We were up as negative against Bosnia and they crushed us completely.

Wah.

;_;

On the other hand, I met a really nice girl named Olga and she's got magical cold hands. They're always cold. It's like Solar Hands only the other way around! It's so cool! She hangs out with the Israeli team (she doesn't have a team because she isn't a debator, she's a young journalist) even though we speak in Hebrew. We make jokes about how she should just laugh and pretend she knows what we're talking about and eventually we'll really forget that she doesn't know Hebrew. I dunno, I feel like she's already one of us ^^ she's really cool.

edit:

we lost our second debate as well, but it wasn't really fair. We deserved to win, definitely - our case was strong, we had all of the information, there was no information that they asked us for and we couldn't provide, and there were very few flaws with our plan.

The negative did a pretty weak job in my opinion, their points were really weak, we clashed them the right way, everything. The third speaker actually went up and said that we didn't mention things I actually elaborated on in my speech.

And then when we were judged, it was as though the judges mentioned every single mistake we made - most of them not really mistakes, and if they gave us a chance to show them that we didn't make those mistakes and that we did say such and such, they'd see they were wrong. They didn't mention ANY of the mistakes the negative team made. And it was just - ugh.

I don't really feel comfortable being a sore loser, especially because the opposing team (from America) were really really nice and really really sweet and it was a pretty good debate,

But we definately deserved to win.

It's almost as though the judges are really against us.

My roomate got here at 5 AM.

HE is from kosovo.

XD

The poor thing didn't get any sleep.

Can't write in Hebrew :(

People! Write in your blogs tons and send me tons and tons of email to [email protected] so I won't be lonely! I have computer access here.


Last goodbyes at the airports was hard for me. Two entire weeks without my parents, without any connection to them. Two entire weeks in Romania.

First security checkup - you have to put your suitcase in this big scary looking machine. Righty oh. I put mine in. "Put your handbag in too" the lady there tells me. I look at her confused - no one else put their handbag and that was alright. Whatever. I put my handbag in the machine. I wait for my bags on the other side of the machine, take them, and continue towards my group.

"No no no" the lady, which by now I'm pretty positive was being really mean to me, "go stand in that line over there."

"What?! Why?"

"There's a reason. Go stand."

What can I do? I go stand in the line, feeling extra criminal. After about 5 minutes of wondering exactly why she put me in line, it was my turn. A man comes up to me, his expression half terrified, half terrifying.

"Do you have..." he swallows hard "books in your bag?"

*blink blink*

"Uhmm... yeah. I've got two."

The man looks at me in a look of pure disbelief.

"Show me."

I show him.

"Alright, released."

Well, I suppose they do have a point - a fifteen year old walking around with books really is a pretty suspicious thing nowadays.

Other than one person who looked in my passport and scribbled something in there, saw that it's almost my birthday, and started wishing me a happy birthday, and one of the people who signed Daniel for no specific reason down as Bruce, nothing really special or noteworthy happened until we got on the plane.

The plane itself was small, and most of the people in it were prettyy old. The flight wasn't very interesting - I slept through most of it's 2 hours and 20 minutes.

(And let me take this opportunity to thank Achiad for the wonderful gift ^^ I miss you and I love you!)

Either way, the plane landed at 3:00 AM, and till 12 PM we just took over some seats in the airports. We took out guitars and a flute and started making music. Eventually we found that the Mongolian team was also already there; Those people are so beautiful. Really. They are simply beautiful people. I think we kind of traumatized them with our Israeli friendliness and un-lawful attempts to get close. At first they were absolutely frightened, but after a while they came down with us and sang along with the guitars - no ice breaker like music - and one of them has a voice that can beat Shakira.

We burned some more time, and some more, and some more, until the bus arrived at noon. I talked to Or aboujt fanats of some show that I don't remember what its name is, and we slept a bit (until we found out that it makes time go by much, much slower). we did more or less everything we could do during the given circumstanced, including officially insulting the Bosnians by asking them if they're Servians, except from working on our cases or the likes. Eyal and idiot Daniel (Carrot and Bruce) want to conspirize against me and invent our team a new teamline - they wanted to define "This House Would adopt a policy to promote global compliance with the Childrens Rights Convention" to a policy against brit mila's.

><


Mmm... Now we're on the bus (when this was written). The view is one I want to feel with my feet. It's amazing.

That's it, for now. We're driving for another 4 good hours at least, until we reach our hotel.

I miss all of you guys so much, and even though I've got here great guys, I'd trade them with you guys without blinking. I love all of you.

There's something about the Israeli sachbakiyut that you just can't find in any other people in here. Especially not the mongolians, who were really intimidated by our Dugri. While there is something charming about being so calculated and thinking about every word you're saying, about manners high as the trees here, I'd take the Israeli dugriyut without reconcidering.

Hmm, that's it. We reached the hotel. I'm going to be in a room with a girl from South Africa but she hasn't arrived yet. The view here is amazing - huge mountains. Really close by is one mountain that has a really really high cliff, I think it's the highest one, and on the highest point there's a gigantic cross. I tried to take a picture of it but it didn't exactly work.

I took a shower, got dressed (pretty, too, even though we don't need to and everyone's dressed normal. It just feels cool). I'm on the first floor, which is a bit of a bummer, but I've already explored the hotel of course (Nama the explorer :P( and I found out that on the fifth floor, in the end of the hall, there's a balcony. In the edge of the balcony there's a ladder, and it leads to a place with a beautiful view, from the roof. Yay! 1:0 Nama!

We're not exactly abandoned on the top of a mountain; first of all, we're on the slope. Second of all, we're at the edge of the town, but we're still inside town.

So far, I haven't been questioned at all. We are keeping too high a profile in my opinion - we're undoubtedly the loudest, rudest, team there.

Nobody I've spoken to so far seemed to show any interest in asking me question, in blaming me, or in calling me a rotten Jew.

Still, too high profile in my opinion. Well, what can we do, we've got idiot Daniel.

People!
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