Today our endlessly amusing program director, Roi, gave us a tour of the city. He seems to be a mini-celebrity, and everywhere he goes in the city people know him. He told us he was famous because he was a news-anchor on local TV, but we learned later that he meant he was one of the people working on the computers who sometimes gets into the background of the shot. He is one of the silliest people I have ever met. He howls at every dog we passed, inciting a chorus of barking up and down every street we passed. He also meows at all the cats. I expected us to have a whole entourage of animals following us by the end of the tour. When he passes by street vendors, he pretends to be a European tourist with a poor command of Hebrew and asks how much things cost. He likes to do Jim Carey impressions, and makes a lot of puns that only work if you are speaking with a thick Israeli accent. He brought his super undisciplined dog with him everywhere, and interpreted its dog poop as if he was reading tea leaves. I am endlessly entertained.

I got my host family and school placements today. I will be in a religious school, which means long skirts and shirts that cover the elbows. The school is a few blocks from my house, and I will meet the principal soon. All the host moms are enthusiastically welcoming. One of the host moms has invited us all to her house tomorrow to teach us to prepare a traditional Israeli dish. When I introduced myself to her, she belted out a sad love song that went something like this: "REBECCA REBECCA REBECCA REBECCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA." And then pretended to sob as she explained how moving and beautiful this song was. How did she know that would make me feel right at home?

The mayor gave us a warm welcome, with a ridiculous amount of gifts. When we walked into the room the first thing we saw was projected onto the wall an enormous photograph of ourselves that we had taken the previous night and posted to facebook. The mayor had found our facebook group, seen the picture, and inserted it into pretty much every single slide of his powerpoint. We were fed all kinds of delicious food, and then toasted with wine and doughnuts. Then each of us was given a backpack and a towel individually monogrammed with our hebrew names, and then as parting gifts we were all given loaves of honey bread for a sweet new year. I was overwhelmed! Everywhere we went people, people offered gifts and especially food. If this city keeps it up, I may be rolling my way to class.

Everything here is a little bit off. We tested out our bikes today, and all of the seats are rusted in a position so low our knees hit our chins when we try to bike. We looked so silly, a group of knees and elbows jostling down the street. Other things are surprising too, like a door with no handle, a toilet seat that tilts so that you have to sit on it sideways, a freezer that doesn't freeze, a shower with no stall. The most surprising however was the bathroom door. It got stuck a few times, leaving the panicked person stuck inside the stall banging and shouting on the door for a few minutes until the door finally opened. It happened first to Kevin, and then to me, but luckily we both got out ok. When KT got stuck though, she couldn't get out! At first we sat there laughing, knowing how frustrating it was and imagining that the door would eventually give. But after 5 or 10 minutes of constant banging, we started to worry. We all took turns trying to ram the door open to no avail. We used knives and keys and all sorts of odd things to try to open the lock. We even tried to climb through the windows! Finally, we called Roi, who came with friends to break down the door. It was all very exciting. I cannot wait to see how the rest of our journey goes. One thing is for certain- we have all sworn to never close another door inside of our flat!