Graduation trip?

My parents took me away for two days as a graduation gift, and I have to say it was a lot of fun.
We stayed at this place called Amirey Hagalil outside of Tzfat. It was really adorable! I felt like I was in the Dragonfly Inn from Gilmore Girls. The hotel is also a spa, and I discovered that whoever invented terry robes is a genius, though I was kinda self conscious wearing it through the lobby to my first ever spa treatment... I don't like massages, but I got a facial and it was actually pretty cool. Very relaxing...
For dinner last night we went to this quaint place on the outskirts of Tzfat. It was a bit confusing to find, but it was worth it. It had a cute, Tzfat-like ambiance and the food was really good. (I was impressed that my ravioli was natural-colored on one side and pink on the other.) We left the place completely stuffed, and then crashed back at the hotel.
After my facial, we went to Zichron Yaakov and walked around there. We read some of the signs about the history of the Moshava (Moshava means colony or settlement and there are only 2 or 3 places in Israel that are still referred to like that) and called this number they have where you can listen to recordings with explanations, but that kind of flopped. This is one of the oldest settlements in Israel and is named after the Baron Rothschild's father, because of the Baron's help. It's also one of the cutest places I've been to in awhile. We walked along the main street, going into random art stores and such. We had lunch at the most charming (and one of the few Kosher) place in that very charming area.
I've been trying to find a Stars Hollow in Israel that I can actually live in. Zichron may actually be it. It's so cute, there may be enough people there that are my type, but I'm not sure if it's too big. Oh, well. It's not like I need to decide now.
On a completely unrelated note (I always say that, don't I?), I got the results of the third and last WOMBAT back and I got the highest grade possible. I got the same grade on the second one, yet I just passed the first, which, ironically, was the easiest. What I thought was cool was that along with my award I got a recommendation to apply for a teaching job at Hogwarts. If only I could...

Wow.

How many times can you hear the song "Mamma Mia" in one night? I thought about that a bit last night, as I was leaving the basketball stadium in Tel Aviv that was transformed into a theater for the international touring company of Mamma Mia!
This musical is based on the music of ABBA. I've been thinking that I actually like their music more than I think I do, and I certainly don't listen to it enough. We listened to their CD on the way to the stadium, to get into the mood, and it certainly worked.
I was very curious about how they'd work the ABBA songs into the storyline of the musical, and I was so surprised at the result. The plot was completely built around the songs. I've heard it said that the storyline is kind of thin, but I really loved it. It's just the cute, fairy tale-like thing that makes me smile. And some of the best ABBA songs, from "Mamma Mia" to "Dancing Queen" really fit in, as well as any song fits into the musical it was written for.
I'd heard the audience was invited to sing along, and I have to say I thought that was a little weird. What's the point of a Broadway-level musical, if you can't hear the cast's awesome voices? But the singing actually turned out to be really nice, and the voices were quite audible.
So, the musical is about Sophie, who was raised on a Greek island by her single mother, Donna. Sophie is about to get married and wants her father to give her away. She therefore invites three men Donna mentioned in her hidden diary, who may be her father. She does this without telling Donna, and in the hopes that when she meets the men, she'll know instantly which is her father. Needless to say, things don't happen exactly as she plans... and I think I'll stop there.
It's so much more fun to see a musical when you know the songs. I saw The Lion King on Broadway three years ago, and it was great knowing the music, as I'm sure most of the audience did. But in Mamma Mia! everyone knew the songs, but nobody knew when they would come. So every time someone started singing, you feel this collective smile or cheer among the audience. It was really cool.
One last thing, apparently Mamma Mia!'s being made into a movie! That's one I'll be looking forward to seeing.

I graduated!

What can I say? It was wonderful. Not that the ceremony was really anything special, just that it was my graduation. I'm done. I've already updated my status on Facebook to say that I'm a high school graduate. Because I am.
I'm really tired, so we'll leave this here for now.

Titanic

I saw this movie for the second time last night. I'd been telling my friend Adina that she has to see it, for a very long time. She'd been telling me I need to see the Pirates of the Carribean movies for just as long. We eventually decided to watch all 3 of those movies (the 3rd Pirates isn't available on DVD yet) and Titanic was the first of the three, so we watched it last night.
So I saw Titanic for the first time two years ago. I remembered most of it, but it just does something to you. It's just so sad, seeing that huge unsinkable ship falling apart and going down, not to mention all the people on it. I love the acting in the movie, it's just... wow.
Actually, now that I think about it, I think I appreciated it more the 2nd time. Possibly because now I know how it ends, or maybe because now I can pay more attention to the details. And get very frustrated at all those snobby rich people. Anyway, I just loved it.
BTW, I'm graduating tonight. More on that later...
EDIT: I should also mention that two years ago, I wouldn't have thought to say, "Why don't they just brake it?" Yes, I really did say that.

Wow, summer.

Today was one of those days that makes you realize how summery it actually is. Actually, scratch that. The word "summery" has a positive connotation, and that's not what I meant.

First of all, I had a driving lesson, and the heat combined with the bad night's sleep I got last night made me really tired. Then I made the mistake of going shopping in town, out of an urgent need for skirts. That heat was disgusting, I wasnt very successful in shopping (where can you get skirts in this city except in Chor BaKir?) and I had a repeat of my tendency to make mistakes in figuring out the best way to get home, so I got home 2 hours after I finished shopping. And it's so hot outside, which made waiting for buses even worse!

On a completely unrelated note, I'm still re-listening to all of the old Muggle- and PotterCasts. I'm now up to the episodes from the time of the announcement of the release date, and I'm remembering how depressed I was when I first heard it. I remember calling my friend Adina, and saying, "Did you see MuggleNet today?" in the saddest voice you can imagine. I remember being in very desperate need of a hug.

And speaking of my friend Harry, look at this beautiful cover art for the deluxe edition of Deathly Hallows. I just get the feeling something awesome is happening in that picture. It has a good feeling.

The summer syndrome...

...for lack of a better word...
So my summer basically started today. Now, today wasn't the best of days, because it involved a lot of time in the sun (and not sun as in fun in the sun, sun as in disgustingly hot) and I'm a "turn up the AC and I'll wear 3 sweatshirts" girl.
But seriously, don't those days go by so fast, and you just don't do anything, even though you have a massive to-do list? Is it the heat, that just makes us move slowly? Or is it the mentality that I have the whole summer to do it?
In any case, I had a driving lesson this morning, sat in the sun for an hour waiting for the very late bus home, ended up davening only when I got home at 12, and then didn't do much else. Just a little bit. On the plus side, I filled in all but nine words in today's Quick Crossword in the Jerusalem Post. BTW, crosswords are my new thing.

It's all over!!!!

So. I had a chemistry bagrut today. Actually, I had my last bagrut today. (Almost. We'll ignore that little detail for now.) So I'm freeee! The bagrut went well, and unless I undergo a massive change of mind, I'm never going to study chemistry again.
After the bagrut, we had a party with my chemistry class at my teacher's house. That was a lot of fun. My teacher is such a cutie! For the most part, we just said our goodbyes... but it was fun. We ordered chemistry T-shirts, and took a lot of pictures. And we bought thank-you gifts for the teacher- a basketball, which we all signed, because she plays, and a lava lamp, which she gave us an explanation as to how it works.
Going home, I wore this shirt, which says, in Hebrew, "So now we know that proteins are made up of amino acids." I felt like I could have worn this shirt to my audition for Beauty and the Geek, if only I were a guy. That, and in my bag I had a paper cup with the periodic table on it that my teacher had brought back from Toronto. So nerdy, but I didn't mind. Mainly because I knew most of my classmates were wearing the same shirt all over the city...
On the way home, I had a short phase of being very sad that school is over. Basically, life as I know it is really over, although not officially yet, because I haven't graduated. I haven't not gone to school since I was 3, and I haven't worked for more than a summer... in this lifetime. Oh, and I really loved high school. (And things got slightly worse when I saw the word "last" in the show notes for this week's PotterCast, because this is the last episode before they go on tour, which will be fun, but after that, there's no more Potter...)
OK, now I need an abrupt change of subject, because I like to post on here whenever I see a good movie. And this week's subject is none other than The Princess Bride! I saw a tiny snippet of it, years ago, and I thought it looked either stupid or scary- I don't remember which one it was. Anyway, I had always been told that "you have to see this movie, it's a classic!" but that first impression had stuck with me and I just had no desire to see it. Anyway my teacher said she loves that movie, and she had it in the house, so we watched it. Let me tell you, that movie is really a classic. It's funny, it's a fairy tale, and I've heard a lot of praise for that duel- and it completely deserves it! I'm not a big fan of action, but that was so cool. So, that was a lot of fun.
One last note: I finally caved in and got Facebook... and that's all for now.