Sports

Swimming at the olympic size swimming pool during Harvard Summer School 2007.

Swimming -- Every day, I swim 64 laps listening to my favorite music with my beloved swimp3 goggles. It is by far the most relaxing part of my day, and the music makes it even more enjoyable. I recently started counting my laps in binary since I do 64 laps, or 111111 laps in binary. Swimming makes you good at arithmatic like calculating percentages of how much you have left to do!

Biking 101 km for the American Cancer Society Bike-a-thon.

Biking -- I love biking and I love the feeling of the air rushing past me as I fly by. I biked about 10 miles a day this summer (2008), which I enjoy both for the pleasure and the environmental-friendliness as compared to driving. Since 2006, I have been participating in the annual American Cancer Society Bike-a-thon (I ride for my grandmother who died of cancer). This 101 km ride from Philadelphia’s Ben Franklin Bridge to the shore is amazing; all along the ride, people cheer bikers on from the side, and there truly is a sense of devotion with bikers and volunteers of all ages and races coming together to fight cancer.

My jazz dance recital in 2006.

Dancing -- Since 2004, I have been taking Jazz once a week and performing at an annual recital in May. My first two years I took Jazz at Napoli, and then when our teacher switched studios  in 2006 to the Philadelphia School of Ballet, so I along with all of her other students. In addition to Jazz, I often do Israeli Dancing as well at Temple Beth Hillel Beth El.

Waterskiing at Club Med in Florida

Water Skiing -- In the summer of 2007, I went with my family to the Club Med in Sandpiper, Florida, where I learned to waterski on the bar. After many tries and I finally succeeded on the rope behind the boat, and it was an incredible experience. The sensation of flying with the air swishing past at 20 miles an hour, the splash of water, the roar of the boat - I absolutely loved it!

Hiking in the negev in Israel while on TRY.

Hiking -- Although I do not hike too often in the U.S, while on the semester TRY program in Israel, we hiked quite often all over the country:  through desert and forest, in the middle of the night and the middle of the day, and ranging from just a couple hours to an entire week on Yam El Yam. The thing I love most about hiking is being able to take the time to appreciate nature, see animals in their natural habitats (I have see ibex, bald eagles, cows, and more in the wild), and bond with Israel.

Trapeze in Sandpiper, Florida .

Trapeze -- Again at the Club Med in Sandpiper, Florida, I learned to do the trapeze. I am terrified of heights and just going up the ladder scared me. Although the picture does not show it, I screamed the whole time the first time I did it, as well as the next three times. Eventually, I realized why I could not here the instructions as to the timing while I was swinging - I was screaming! When I finally realized that and controlled myself, I was able to do a perfect kneehang and backflip within a week of my first try, despite still being terrified as I did it. Every time I came back, they were surprised to see that I had returned, seeing as I had seemed scared out of my mind. But for me, if I am scared of something, then I have all the more reason to do it!

Before scuba diving in Eilat, Israel.

Scuba Diving -- In July 2005,  I went with my family to Israel, where we had a gigantic family reunion with over 100 people, coming from France, the United States, Israel, and more. We traveled down to Eilat, where we went scuba diving. A dolphin brushed my arm as it swam past, and I also saw a clown fish, many sea anenomes which shrunk back when I approached, a sea snake, and a fish that blows up to scare predators. It was absolutely amazing to breath and explore underwater, and to see all of those incredible sights outside of an aquarium in a natural habitat. It also made me think about how little of the world we know, with the deep sea still so mysterious even to marine biologists.

Spelunking in the Bar Kochba Caves.

Spelunking -- I admit I have only gone spelunking several times - in the Bar Kochba caves in Israel (where Bar Kochba led his rebellion against the Romans before they were defeated) and several others. Although I do not go often, I absolutely love it, and it makes my height (4 feet 11.75 inches, the doctor will never give me that quarter inch to reach 5 feet!) come in handy for once. Besides, isn't spelunking one of the coolest sounding words?