More changes in my life (as if anyone really needs to know about them)

As the title says, I really don't know why anyone is still reading this, being as the posts are most likely going to diminish slowly over the next year, but then will pick up again near summer of next year (stay tuned for "I'm Baaaaaaaccckkk...  Part II, coming next summer to this blog near wherever you read it!).
I forgot to mention in the last blog that I also had my name changed to Eitan over Pesach, so that's cool.  I don't really have much to say in terms of stuff I'm doing in school, being as next week is finals week and we've had study hall for this week so far, so that's that.  But, the boarding house stories?  In abundance.
Everyone has heard the stories of boarders who have had terrible experiences at their temporary homes: moldy food all the time (or no food), mean, crotchety people living with them - that's the hosts, and even taking the boarders' clothing when its left in the boarders hallway, where the hosts don't really have any reason to go into.  I've heard the stories, too.  But, what I didn't know going into this year, was that these guys?  They could have written the textbook.
These people are really old, and can be very crotchety at times.  Not to say that their mean people, but they have a tendency to be annoying.  Before winter break of this year, the house had three boarders.  Now it has two, because of the straw that broke the camel's back.  This guy wasn't the neatest person in the world, but he also wasn't as messy as I am.  When he did laundry, sometimes things fell out of the big pile he had to carry from the dryer onto the floor, and he didn't have time to pick the stuff up.  They saw that as a baaaad sign (sarcasm), and they decided - well, she decided - to take all his clothes that were left on the floor from now on.  This got him mad, and he got even madder when she refused to give him his clothes back.  So, he and his parents came to a mutual decision: he wouldn't come back after winter break.  When he told the hosts this, and asked for his clothes back, she still wouldn't give them to him!  He eventually did get his clothes back, though.
Another one of the more famous stories of this house comes form last year's boarders.  Every Sunday, she makes French Toast with the challah left over from shabbos, and sometimes uses other bread.  One time, the boarders saw that the French Toast was blue - it was moldy.
Well, I have to go now - class is about to start
As always, thanks for reading, even though the stories are bound to stop coming at some point.
BH, BH, BTTY, and don't forget to be awesome.
Bye.

I'm Baaaaack...

So...  been a long time, hasn't it?  Well, I haven't really had the time to blog (at all) recently, and a multitude of things have happened since my last blog a little over one year ago.  I turned 16 (and I still don't have my permit...  yet), I began to learn computer coding, and I began to write a book!  Yes, I can already hear the accusations building up:  "Wait, you had time to write a book, but you didn't have time to blog and let us, the readers, know what is going on in your extremely interesting and danger-filled life?"  Well, to those accusations, I say shut up, because I have my reasons for not writing.  I only get access to a computer whenever the General Studies principal - remember her? - lets the teachers take us into the computer lab.
So, not that often.
A lot of things have come up, and are still coming up - my cousin having a baby in Washington, D.C., my sister's Bas Mitzvah coming up in a few weeks, and I've been learning more and more Yiddish.  But other than that, nothing really big has happened recently.
Oh, I found out that the guy from the Mivtzoyim story actually got engaged to someone, and she's undergoing conversion, so that means that he is going to have to start keeping kosher and wearing tefillin, whether he likes it or not!  (Someone remind me to use that argument on him this Friday, please)
So, yeah.  General Studies principal still not smart, hosts being weird, and roommates actually being funny - I switched boarder houses this year.
I don't really know how much time we have left in the computer lab for the year, being as we end on the 17th of June, and have Shavuot in between, so I'll try to write as much as possible, but again, I don't know.
Thanks for taking the time of day to read my blog, and I'll write ya later.
Bye.

Last post for a while

So, some things have recently happened that have opened my eyes.  I'd rather not say those things, so all I'll say is is that it could have been really bad for me physically, and thank G-d it wasn't.  But, I've realized: why are we here?  What is man's purpose on this earth?  We're not here to do whatever we want, to make "social ladders", and then climb them, but we're here for a reason: to do G-d's will.  After some much-needed reflecting, and the bad memories of a certain roommate busting me with movies on my iPod, I have come to a decision: I am giving up wifi.  I find that I'm beginning to lose people's trust, and more importantly, my own trust.  Anyone who knows me well will know how monumental of a choice this is for me personally, but I'm only doing what I feel needs to be done.  But, because of this choice, I will no longer be able to blog from school, and will iy"h continue from home.  Farewell, and thanks for reading.

Postscript: I just want to say thank you to everyone who helped me through these past few hours, starting with my parents. You guys are the light to my dark room.  I love you so much.  Next are the Ben-Lapids, who I'm staying with while my hosts are out of town.  Thank you for understanding when we accidentally set off the alarm trying to get in.  After them is Mendel Andrusier, who talked me through everything.  And, last but not least, everyone else who told me how stupid what I was thinking of doing was.  You guys have all helped me tremendously, and to all the unmentioned people (you know who you are-but I don't) I'm sorry for not mentioning you, but I can't really remember who else helped me.  Again, farewell, and thanks for reading.

The Final Countdown (part 3)

The next story is one that has a long history behind it, and I really don't want to get too deep into it.  So, all I'll say is that my roommate and I have had a pretty rocky year.  So, he ended up getting kicked out of our host's home, and I have a room all to myself!  But that was supposed to be an entire post...  I guess I can try to fit another story in here...

Ooh, there is the time I lent my friend my copy of The Hunger Games...  So, basically, I lent my friend my copy of The Hunger Games to read, and he didn't really end up doing that.  He had it over the ski trip, and apparently, his host had gone into the rooms over the trip, and cleaned the rooms of any food that they didn't approve of.  During cleaning, my copy of the book was found. Needless to say, it got taken away, and I thought I wouldn't get it back at all. Well, now I know to never underestimate the power of begging.  I didn't really beg as much as I asked, but regardless, I did make a request to have it given back.  I got it back, and took it home, where it is now.

The Final Countdown (part 2)

So...  The story about Nesanel cutting his leg open...  

We were walking home from school a bit later than normal because of a farbrengen (Hasidic mini-party).  Nesanel liked to do parkour, which is also known as free-running- it involves using everything around a person as a kind-of obstacle course, and just jump off of things.  On the way home, Nesanel was doing a somersault on the lawn of an apartment building, while I was on the phone with my mother.  All of a sudden, Nesanel stands up and starts limping back to the school.  He said something along the lines of "I cut myself, it hurts so bad, owowowow."  I ran ahead of him,  throwing my backpack down on the ground.  I ran into the building, and yelled "Nesanel tripped and cut his leg or something, and it looks really bad."  He hobbled in, howling in pain, and I was debating wether I (or someone) should call 911, because at first it didn't look all that bad.  Then he sat on the floor.

Once he sat on the floor, we could all see ("we" being myself and a rabbi or two) that it was all that bad.  On our way in, Nesanel and I nearly ran a woman who was holding flowers over.  She started getting really mad at us, and I just yelled "Can't you see he's bleeding!" at her, and she just took one look, and immediately took over.  She was there to help set up for the principal's son's bar mitzvah, and when she yelled for someone to get a tablecloth and they went to get one of the colored ones to be used for the party, she yelled "Not those!!!"  So, someone got a plain, white tablecloth, and we elevated his leg under the tablecloth.  Someone had called the paramedics, and I was instructed to go direct them where to go.  As I was doing so, I was trying to call our host family, but no one was answering.  Needless to say, I left multiple messages.  

Eventually, he got taken to the hospital, and I was left standing outside with a group of people.  One of them looked at me, almost hyperventilating, and asked if I wanted a hug.  I didn't.  He said "No, I think you need a hug", and then began hugging me.  Well, this set off a chain reaction of multiple people dog-piling me and trying to hug me.  They finally got off of me, right as the firemen finished giving my friend a ride in the fire truck. (Another story for another time.). I told him what had just occurred, and guess what he did?  He hugged me.  It began all over again... 

Nesanel is now fine, but he had to get 32 stitches in his right leg, and is still gaining feeling in his kneecap.  One of the paramedics had told us that the cut was about an inch deep, and about (I think) 7 inches long, and that it had almost hit an artery.  We later went back to look for what had cut him and we found it-a rusty old nail.

The Final Countdown (part 1)

So...  This is it. The final stretch. Those last few game-changing seconds of the Blackhawks game (GO HAWKS!!!). The last lap. And any other last-minute-metaphors that I don't know. This is my last month as a freshman.

Well, I can't really say its gone by slow, but I also can't say it's gone by fast.  So many things have happened that have made this first, crucial year of high school unique to me and probably many other people around me.  For starters, there's the time that one of the people I board with, Nesanel, cut his leg wide open and I saw it happen...  And then there's the time that my roommate got kicked out of my room (and how I now have an entire room to myself).  Oh, and there's also that one time I lent a friend my copy of The Hunger Games and it got taken away...  But, to save all the readers the trouble of having to read one long post about the hundreds of things I neglected to mention before, I'll post each story separately later today.

My latest break had so much happening, it's hard to fit it all into one post, but I'll try.  I flew in on Tuesday morning, at about 9 am.  Straight from there, my father took me to get my haircut, and to visit my Bubbe.  Then we ran some errands, and by the time I got in the door, I had so much pent up energy that I had to run to get changed and get on my bike and just ride.  When I returned, I found a new Wii-U game sitting on my bed, one that I had been asking my father to get for me for a very long time!  I played that for a few hours, and then Skyped with my birth-family for a while (hey guys!) and before I knew it, it was time to get ready for shavuos.  

Over those next two days, I just... Slept.  I think I caught up on those lost hours of sleep caused by not going to sleep until about 12:30 am...  So I slept most of yontif (sorry I wasn't there to daven ma'ariv on Tuesday night, Mr. Weiss!).  Then, on Friday, I had multiple appointments, and then I had arranged for my counselor from camp (GO KAYITZ!!!  KAYITZ 2012 ROCKED!!!), who said he was supposed to leave by 5, but he really left at about 5:45. 

 Over shabbos, I met up with a friend who said he was going to be out of town, but came in to see me (thanks, by the way).  And that was my break!  Stories to follow...

On Mivtzoyim

So, remember how we had Josh, the guy who didn't want to put on tefillin at all? I'm standing in his store right now, and his partner said that he put tefillin on with his dad yesterday! That is making huge progress for him, since he was adamantly opposed to it about one month ago! Anyways, have to go put tefillin on people now! Have a good שבת!