Happy New Year

One year ago today I arrived in Israel for the first time.  Feels like that was a lifetime ago. If you had asked me on New Year's Eve 2009, I would never have thought I would be here again for New Year's Eve 2010.  I guess you really never know where the year is going to take you..

Happy 2011!

Gadna

This week the ulpan went to Gadna. It is a 5 day army training camp that is really meant for 16 year old kids to give them an idea of what they will be getting into in the army. For the people in our group joining the army, they also got to see what was coming, and for those not going, it let us take a small look into something that is a big part of the culture here (Everyone goes to the army when they are 18, boys for 3 years, girls for 2 years).

It was a really, really interesting experience. When you first get there you meet your mefakedet, commander, and get uniforms that you have to wear all week. As soon as you change out of your own clothes, line up and start answering, "ken hamefakedet", "yes commander," everything changes. Even though you know you will only be there for a week, you lose a little bit of your own attitude. I give in easily to any kind of authority but even for those people that don't normally, they (pretty much) fell right in line.

My tsevet, team, was all of the girls in the ulpan. That was challenge number one: be with each other all day and all night (literally) and not kill each other. As a group we learned about guns, talked about the army and Israel and what they mean, wars, urban warfare, power...we did a lot of touchy feely talking for the army. We also did some physical activities, had a day in the field were we learned different ways to crawl and walk quietly, had some tekas, ceremonies, like flag raising in the morning.

We did all these things in army style of course. In order to get places the mefakedet would show us a place 20 meters away and give us a certain amount of time to get there. You run there, make two lines, all while counting down in Hebrew and when you got to echad, one, stand at attention and shout, "hakshev hamefakedet!", "attention commander!"  Then we would move 20 more meters, until we got all the way to the place. It was hard sometimes to remember to answer with ken or lo hamefakedet or to say hakshev hamefakedet before speaking. Very quickly though you got used to standing at attention and found yourself doing it even when you were standing casually during breaks.  And of course, if you do something wrong they correct you and make you say it again or make you do push ups.

The last day of Gadna we all got to shoot guns. It was my first time even holding a real gun. I was really excited to try it but a little nervous too. I wasn't sure how it was going to feel about it, either really pumped up or kind of freaked out. Hearing the first shot around me and then pulling the trigger for the first time myself was really intense, but after a couple more it was fun.

Before we got on the bus, our mefakedet sat down with us and told us her name and stopped being our commander and became a normal person. She was 19! I knew she was younger than me but 19? I just ran around for and was nervous to get yelled at by this kid all week? It was really fun to see her laugh and smile and be a little nervous with us.

Like I said, it was an interesting experience. For me the army is a mystery and I have always been curious about what it's really like (not that this is exactly what it's like, but it's closer than I've gotten so far). Its fun to see how you will respond and behave in this kind of situation.

Tel Aviv Weekend

I really like being on the kibbutz. It's nice, quiet, there's trees, everything you need is right here, you can just throw on whatever clothes are comfortable or you don't need to think about where/what to eat, we can just go to the pub on Thurs and Friday night.

This weekend I went with a friend to Tel Aviv.  I forgot about all the things I like about cities. So much to do and look at and different kinds of people and things to eat and places to go.  We didn't do anything special. It was just really fun to dress up like a normal person and go to different bars on Friday night. Then Saturday we took a long walk all around the city. This is true of any city on a coast in a warm place but I love that you can be in the city and the beach all in the same place.  I have been to Tel Aviv a few times but never got the chance to really walk around and get the feeling of the it.

It was a great weekend and really nice to get out. Now we are heading to Gadna--4 days of "army training" to give us an taste of the army.

Trip to the Desert

We just came back from two days of seeing and doing a lot of cool things in the desert.
(I usually try not to have pictures with people in them on here but...it was too hard to find good ones this time.)

For the first stop we pretty much just pulled off the highway.  Looking out at it, it looked like nothing really but underneath there was a big network of tunnels and caves, Tel Goded. We all crawled down through this little doorway opening that went down under the ground into a tunnel that was even smaller and more narrow. The whole way was stretches of skinny tunnels connecting bigger open rooms. I was definitely a little nervous at first. Once you were in there, there was not a lot of room and the only way out was to go forward and hope that no one ahead of you got stuck.  There were a couple of time where you looked at the opening you had to go through and thought, "there is no way I'm fitting through there!"

Next we went to the desert for a hike at Sanafir Katan.  In Israel every hike I have taken is straight up hill, look at the view, then straight down. That's how this one was too.  We climbed pretty much straight up and then stopped at the top to enjoy the view and talk about the geological features at this site and then made our way down.

View from the top of the hike

From there we went to Holot Tzivonim, an area where the sand is all different colors. By different colors I don't mean just different shades of tan. There was  red, orange, yellow, white, deep purple...

From the top of the hike, you can kind of see the different color sands.

Then we drove to the Bedouin camp to stay for the night. Learned about them, had some dinner, made a fire.  When I was at the Bedouin camp on Birthright, there were so many stars out it was amazing so i was really excited to see them again this time.  After sitting at the fire for a bit I went out, away from the light, to try to see the stars. Unfortunately it was kind of cloudy and I wasn't able to see nearly as many as last time, but it was nice to sit out in the open at night and just enjoy the quiet. 

Our tent at the Bedouin camp

The next morning we had some breakfast and went for a camel ride before we left the Bedouins.  From there we went to Ein Gedi, an oasis in the Judean Desert right by the Dead Sea. We went on a hike, again straight up and then straight down.  It was really amazing to see the difference between the desert with no plants and very few animals to the waterfalls and rivers and green in Ein Gedi. We stopped during the hike to go in a small pool at the bottom of a waterfall along one of the streams, Nahal David. 

Ein Gedi

Final stop was the Dead Sea. This time, as opposed to when i went with Birthright, you were able to swim really far out from the shore, which is a little tricky when you float so high and you don't want water on our face. The picture I posted here is not the best for the  Dead Sea but it's pretty cool, I think.  The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth.  If you look closely, there are four planes in the picture that are flying below sea level.

It was a great trip...I had a lot of fun. The desert is amazing...its so open and empty and quiet.  It's also nothing like anything we have at home, which always makes it seem cooler.

Happy Hanukah!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't believe Thanksgiving is a couple of days away. The weather here is still like August or September back home. It kind of feels like the summer that never ends!  But, because it still feels like summer, it definitely doesn't seem like the holiday season.  And because it doesn't feel like the holiday season, I don't really feel like I am missing out on anything. If I don't really pay attention to the calender, which I really have no reason to do, I think I could easily just skip right over Thanksgiving day without even noticing.  It's kind of weird.  But, enjoy the food and each other and have a little extra for me.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This weekend 5 of us from the ulpan went camping. We went to Achziv, which is very far north on the coast. There is a lot of history there...you can read about it if you want.

By the letter "A"...Don't freak out about how far north it is.

The camping there was a lot different from any camping I've done at home. It was not like in the wild. It was in and around some ruins. So it was like half built walls and then some grassy areas.  You have to bring a grill because you can't make an open fire. It was really beautiful though because we were set up on a cliff looking right out over the Mediterranean.

 

Our camp site

We had a great time. It was my first night sleeping away from the ulpan and it was really nice.  Especially without a fire, it got dark early so we started drinking and eating early, so we went to sleep early too.  We could see some military ships patrolling the border, shinning their spot light on small boats in the area. At home you need to keep food away because of the bears. Here, like everywhere in Israel, there were cats. They are much less dangerous but very annoying.

Between going to sleep early and the sun rise we were up early. It was relaxing. We got up, fell back asleep, the boys went in the water. By lunch time we had been up for so long that we decided to pack it in and head home.

It was nice to get out, to be away a little bit, to have some quiet, to see a different place. Hopefully we can go somewhere else soon.

Balagon!

Balagon is a Hebrew word that means disorder or mess, according to the dictionary. But it really means so much more than that. Like if everyone is loud and talking in the classroom--balagon. If your room is a mess--balagon. If there is a lot of drama going on and no one knows what is happening--balagon.  It's a great word and we use it a lot because it can be used perfectly for so many situations. At this point, I am not even sure how we used to explain or describe these situations in English.

Golan Heights

We took a trip Tuesday to the Golan Height. (They call it Ramat HaGolan here.)  It was an interesting trip because they wanted to make really specific points so that took us to certain spots that would help make that point.

So first we went on a short hike through a river. It was cool. We just kind of strolled through the water for a bit. Some places it barely covered your feet and other places it was like mid thigh. This was supposed to make us feel the water and think about how important it is here because there is so little.

Next we went to a place were we could look out over the Sea of Galilee (the Kinneret) and we talked more about the water problems, took some pictures.

Then we drove to some other places and talked about the different wars.  It really showed how important it is that Israel keeps this area.  There is nothing here really. Some small towns, some kibbutzim but there is a lot of nothing. But the whole area is a plateau, and on top of the plateau there are hills and mountains. You can see far into Israel and Syria from here and who ever controls this area definitely has an advantage over the other in case of an attack.

View of the Kinneret

BBQ

It's raining here right now.  It rained some last night too. This is a very big deal around here.  Even though it doesn't look like a desert where I live, it's still really really dry. The entire state of Israel has serious water shortage problems.  The only naturally fresh water is a few some rivers, which are more like streams, and the sea of galilee, all of which are drying up.  So, great! It's raining!

We had that barbecue last week that I mentioned in the last post.  It was a lot of fun. There was the usual big fire, a grill, food, but then we also has some planned activities/entertainment.  (I think that this whole event was planned to be most entertaining for the staff.) All the boys were given a girl that they either don't always get along with or don't know very well and vise-versa for the girls.  We were told to prepare something to read to them in front of everyone. Something about them, something nice, whatever you wanted really.  Some people's were letters, some poems, some song lyrics, a rap, an original song. Some were funny, some were serious.  So then we also had little group performances. The Brazilian boys, plus one American guy, sang Brazilian songs. A group of boys did a dance and a group of girls did a dance. The dances were very funny.  I posted some videos I took on youtube: Ulpan BBQ Videos

But the most impressive thing, I thought, was that everyone took it seriously. Everyone played along, wrote something or sang and danced.  No one was too cool to just be a little goofy and have fun. It was nice.

(I don't have any pictures without people in them to post with this)

Learning and Doing New Things

Just as I am saying there that new things aren't happening here...I try something new.

Last night we had a barbecue (different post about that) so at work in the morning we had to prepare the food for later.  I was told we would have to "clean up" the chicken wings. I assumed that meant cut off the pieces of extra fat or little extra pieces, rinse them off a little. Oh no! "Clean up" the chicken means pull out all the extra feathers that still in  the skin.  You only need to worry about the big ones, the ones that look like feathers. The little ones are alright to leave, because they will just burn off in the fire. It's a pretty tedious job when you are making wings for 40 people.  Needless to say, plucking feathers out of chicken wings was an exciting new experience for me.

I feel like I am neglecting the blog but I don't have a lot to report lately.  We are pretty much set into our schedule of work and school. Hang out after that. Eat dinner. Hang out. Sleep. But it's great. I love it. I don't that I would be able to maintain this lifestyle forever but for right now...it's amazing. No pressure, no stress, no hurrying.  It's slow and uneventful, but it's light and easy. 

I'm having company!

It's been a while, but there's not too much to update you on. It's mostly been business as usual. We went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, on Monday. Of course the content of the museum is amazing and disturbing but the actual, physical museum building itself is very interesting.  There's a lot of symbolism in the architecture of the building, the location, the way you are forced to walk through the museum. There was a lot of thought put into and you can feel it.   In other museums you passively see and read about what happened to other people some time in history. Here, it's more of an experience. You learn the facts about what happened but you also feel a little bit of the weight of it all as well.

On a much lighter note, and more exciting at the moment, Evan (my brother) is coming to Israel on Birthright in January! I'm really excited, for him and for myself. It will be really nice to see family, especially in January, 4-5 months after I left the US. Since I was on my trip last year I have been looking forward to him coming here. I had an great time and I kept thinking to myself "This is awesome! Evan would really like this!" It will be cool that he's here while I am too. I would love to be able to show him where I am living a little because it's hard to explain exactly what its like on a kibbutz.  (Speaking of, my friend here has a blog also and he took some pics/videos of the kibbutz in general, like off the ulpan, if you are interested:  http://jakesexcursion.blogspot.com/2010/10/kibbutz-life.html .) Even if he cant come here, I'll definitely meet up with his group somewhere along the way. It kind of feels like I am having company!

Starting Hebrew

We are finally getting into the routine of school and work. Before now we have only had a few Hebrew classes and there's a few things that are interesting but pretty confusing for an English speaker learning Hebrew:

1. Writing...in script the letter mem looks like a capital N but it makes an "em" sound. And you write it backwards. So instead of going from bottom left to top right, you go from top right to bottom left...try it, you have to concentrate on it.  You write everything backwards actually. To make an "O" shape goes around clockwise, instead of counter-clockwise and to make a lamed you start at the bottom of the letter and go up, not down.  It makes sense that they make the letters this way because you read and write right to left but it's very hard to force your hand to do that after making the shapes left to right for 20 years.
2. He in hebrew = she in english.
3. There are no vowels a lot of times.  We learn with the vowels so we know how to pronounce the words but on worksheets they are often left off. (In normal contexts, books, newspapers, signs, there are no vowels so we need to learn to read without them anyway.) Bt prtnd y d nt knw nglsh nd try t rd wtht vwls...hrd!
4.  All words having a gender. That effects how you conjugate verbs or adjectives...It seems like a lot of other languages do this, but in English we don't really. We can say I/they(referring to men or women or both)/you (singular or plural for men or women) go to the store.  In Hebrew you would need a different version of go for all of those different subjects, for each tense, plus the infinitive, which is a concept we don't have at all.  And in English a pencil is just a pencil, gender neutral because it is clearly not a man or women or related to either. In Hebrew, a pencil is feminine versus a notebook that's masculine. 

Anyway...it's fun to learn about all these little things but then be able to put them together to make (very simple, for now) sentences.   Learning a new language makes you appreciate how crazy your own language is and notice the quirky things about it. Its pretty amazing actually, that whatever language you speak, you barely have to think about what you want to say or how to say it...whatever it is (usually) just comes right out of your mouth.

Kibbutznik Life

A lot of people have been asking about how the Kibbutz works and what it's like to really live here so I did some research.  This is what I've put together from talking to some people (so don't quote me)...

Theoretically a kibbutz is community where people live a communal lifestyle and work for the good of the group.  Originally most kibbutzim were based on agriculture but now most have other industries as well.  They also used to be completely socialist but now they are mostly privatized.

If you are born on a kibbutz today, you would stay with your parents most of the time until you were about four.  It seems that there is day care for kids under four but I am not sure how much time they spend there.  So then once you enter kindergarten, you are there all day, like 7am to 4 pm or so. But then you go home to your family, not like in the old days where you stayed there and slept there.  So, you grow up keep going to school. There's no high school here...I don't know where the high school kids go to school actually.  So this whole time you live with your parents until you are 17. Then you live with other 17 year olds.  When you are 18 or are done with high school you go to the army, but you still have a place here with kids your age.  Then you can live here and work if you want but you are not a member of the kibbutz.  In that situation you get a place to live (which includes all utilities) and get a certain amount of money per month (about 2500 NIS = $690).  The amount you get paid is not at all based on your job, just your age and your situation, i.e. married/single, kids, etc. The only thing you pay for is food. You either buy your own or eat at the dining room and they charge you but very little (like a lunch is maybe 15 NIS = $3.75).  Its definitely possible then to save a fair amount of money. So after the army you can do whatever you want, school, work, bum around, live somewhere else. At age 29 you have to decide if you want to become a member or not.  (I don't know how you become a member if you weren't born here and don't marry in, but it is possible.)  If you stay, you get a job and a house here if not then, you leave and your parents live here.  Your house size is based on how long you have been a member of the kibbutz. (I don't 100% understand that because then the old people have the biggest houses, instead of the families).  Jobs, houses, laundry, sports facilities, are all open to everyone. 

The industries here are the plastic factory Palram, agriculture (avacados, grapefruit, lychee, there's more stuff but i don't remember), dairy products (yogurt, labeneh, cheeses).  Then you can also work in the places that just keep the kibbutz running--schools, dining room, laundry, store, bank, etc.  You can work outside the kibbutz but you have to give them a certain portion of what you make.  I have no idea how it is all organized or who oversees what's happening but everything seems to run pretty smoothly.  If you live on a kibbutz, you will work but you will always be taken care of no matter what happens to you.  If you need medical care or something else similar and expensive that you can't afford out of pocket, it will be taken care of (somehow--not sure how that works).  It sounds like its possible too to get stuff like braces for your kids or money towards a family vacation.  You will never be rich here but you will be really safe and secure. Apparently even if something happens to the kibbutz (like it gets bombed and blown off the map or goes bankrupt or who knows what) there is something in place so that the members are given enough money to restart their lives on their own.

I am sure there is a lot more to it but I think that's enough for now.  If you have more questions ask me, I'll ask them.  Its pretty amazing though how well it works (but maybe I have been raised in the US to always be skeptical of anything communistic).  Its a pretty slow and uneventful life but that's exactly what some people are looking for, especially when you are raising a family or getting older.  If you don't mind that, and seeing the same people all the time (which again some people like), it's a pretty good deal.

Tour of the Ulpan

 Here's a tour of the ulpan area to give you an idea of what it looks like where we live, eat, sleep, study, work, hangout...

 This is the main entrance (if you can call it that) to the ulpan area

 Porch area.  Most of the time there are people sitting here hanging out and talking.  Door on the right goes into the moadon. On the left, up the stairs, are the class rooms.

 Inside the moadon (means club in hebrew).  This is where we eat dinner, use the internet, hang out in the AC.

 Up here are the classrooms and the Ulpan director's office.

 My classroom

If you walk down the stairs from the moadon, there is this open area.  We don't use it too much except for holidays...our Sukkah is there now.

 

 Keep walking down toward the rooms, past one of our bomb shelters.

 This is one row of rooms. Each one is a different room (bedroom for 2 or 3 roommates and a bathroom).

This is kind of the end of ulpan area.  There's two rows of rooms facing each other and another behind the one of the left.  The pool is behind the right row of rooms. 

Sukkot Hofesh Part II

The second part of the break was all about the beach.

On Friday we went with some friends to a beach just south of Haifa.  It was really nice and quite, not built up or commercial at all.  We basically just pulled off the highway and drove down a dirt road to get there.  There were tons of kite surfers on this beach.  I really want to try it now!  We just hung out, walked, slept. There was a huge sand bar just off the shore so we could wade out there and walk along the beach in the water.  It was a little windy and hazy but the water was warm so it felt nice to walk through it with your feet in.

All of those things in the sky are kite surfing kites, not birds

Right before we left the beach for the night

Saturday we decided to go to Tel Aviv.  As usual we didn't really have a plan of what we wanted to do there.  We just kind of walked around a little before stopping to get lunch.  We ate at one of those restaurants right on the beach, like where you sit down on the sand.  It was a beautiful day so we took our time with lunch, just sat enjoying the food, the weather, the view.  It was so relaxing.  Finally we got up and walked along the beach again for a while.  It was packed! They play this game here Matkot, it's like paddle ball kind of but with a smaller harder ball.  Everyone stands down at the edge of the water and hits back and forth.  Just trying to walk down there is kind of a game by itself--try not to get whacked by a stray ball or swinging paddle.

The two guys on the left are playing Matkot.

Eventually we made our way back home. We cleaned up and had Shabbat dinner and then went back to the beach with some friends.  We really wanted to go at night when there aren't many people there, it's quiet, you can't tell the difference between the water and sky because it's all so dark.  There was some folk dancing on the boardwalk so we had some nice background music to just sit and talk for a while.

Then Sunday we had to give the car back. It felt like I was giving up my freedom.  I'm really glad we decided to rent the car. It worked out great for these few days and now we know how it works so we can do it again just for a weekend.  Two great things about driving in Israel:  (1) there are almost no stop signs, lots of traffic circles and yielding, but almost no stop signs and (2) the parking...there are parking spaces but you can pretty much park wherever you want, just pull over and stop. 

Our little Hyundai

Now, a couple days of just work and then the real routine begins...

Sukkot Hofesh Part I

For Sukkot we have about 5 days in a row off of school and work.  My friend and I decided to rent a car so that we can go wherever, whenever and to places that the buses and trains don't go.  I was a little nervous about driving around Israel...the people here drive very fast and very aggressively and it's a new place with a new car.  But as soon as we pulled out of the parking lot, it was great!  I felt like a real, normal person again. For about 4 weeks now the only ways to get around are kind of a hassle so I don't do it much.  I had only been off the kibbutz to go to the beach 2 times and with the whole group to Tsfat (so i don't even think that counts). To go from that to having a car and free reign to go anywhere (within Israel)...it was amazing!  And with my NJ driving skills, I could definitely hold my own with the Israelis.

Since we were already in Haifa, our first stop was the Baha'i Gardens.  It is really beautiful (and really steep!) but I really don't know anything about the religion or culture so I couldn't appreciate why anything was the way it was.  On the street that runs above the gardens is this sort of terrace thing.  It looks out over the gardens and Haifa and behind it is like wooded park kind of thing. I really liked that better.  It was just calm and peaceful and had a great view. 

After that we went back to the kibbutz so that we could get our bearings and make sure we knew how to get home. Next we took a little road trip to Nazareth.  We didn't see much there.  We were trying to follow the signs but we missed all of the biblical sights.

Then on Thursday we headed out early with some friends to Tiberius.  We didn't really have a plan but one thing that was definitely on the agenda was to visit this old temple ruins that had a mosaic floor because one of my friends had written her undergraduate thesis on it and wanted to see it up close.  It was pretty cool to hear about all of the symbolism in the designs and the background story of when and how it was built. 

From there we drove north around the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) to the Jordan River.  We rented some kayaks and kayaked down.  The "river" was more like a stream where we were. It couldn't have been more than 25 feet wide for most of it.  The river was moving pretty fast so you really didn't need to paddle too much, except to keep yourself out of the weeds on the sides. 

After that was the highlight of the day in my opinion (which is the only one that counts on here I guess).  We kept driving around the Kinneret to this restaurant that I am not even sure how we found.  It was a really cute place on the top of a mountain.  Just like I hadn't left the kibbutz too much until now, I hadn't eaten any non-kibbutz food since I arrived in Israel. Just reading the menus and looking at all the options was slightly overwhelming. The whole meal was great but that first bite of bread....I think it was the slowest I ever ate one bite of food because it was so good.  I am pretty sure that the food was actually good, although it's hard to know if it just seemed so good because of what I am used to now.  Two people shared desert, a molten lava cake like mom makes with ice cream.  I only took one taste but it definitely reminded me of home. 

Once we were full, we finished circling the sea and went back to the beach and just hung out for the rest of the day.  No one went in the water even though it was about 100F (there was a lot of litter).  We just sat on the rocky beach and talked until after the sun had gone down.  Got some dinner and took the long way home. 

So its been a good break so far.  Part II when it's over...

Tsfat

Last night (We left the kibbutz at 9pm Thursday and came back 3:30pm Friday.) we went to the city of Tsfat (or Safed).  It is one of the four holy cities in Judaism and the center for Kabbalah.  They say that for Yom Kippur the two places the really religious go are to Tsfat and Jerusalem.

When we first got to Tsfat we listened to kind of an overview of Tsfat and Kabbalah and the connection with Yom Kippur.  The speaker was so enthusiastic that I didn't hear a lot of what he was saying because I was distracted by him yelling and waving his arms all over the place.   One thing he said that I liked was what a hug symbolizes in Kabbalah.  He said that we present ourselves to the world with our front and that is where we put superficial things that give certain impressions, make up, ties, facial expressions.  When we hug someone we reach around their front to touch their back.  This says to them that you want to know, will accept and embrace all of them...the part that they share with everyone else as well as the parts that they don't, good or bad. 

Alley in Tsfat

Then we walked around the city with a tour guide who told us a lot of stories about Yom Kippur and about Tsfat. As we were walking there was a man selling chickens for Kapparot.  Kapparot is a tradition where a person grabs a chicken in one hand (by the wing or the legs or wherever) and swings the chicken around over their head and say a prayer.  The idea is that you are releasing your sins through the chicken and throwing them away.  Then the chicken is killed and donated to to feed the hungry.  I'm glad I saw it done once, but I never want to see it again.  The chicken screams and you can practically hear it crying as it is swung around.  It was a terrible sound.  Then they bent the head back and touched the neck with a sharp knife to kill it kosherly (not a word I don't think).  I don't usually get too sensitive about animals but this was pretty awful. They say that people don't really do that too much anymore for that reason.

Kapparot

After Tsfat we went to the grave of a famous Rabbi.  There were many people there that were very religious and really deep in prayer, like how people are at the Kotel (Wailing Wall), but then there were people who has commercialized the area and were selling tourist junk.  I completely respect however anyone wants to pray and feel close to G-d, but why were they (there was a lot of people, it was pretty crowded) there at 2:00am?  Why were we there at 2:00am?  Why do they pray to a particular person? I don't think of that as a very "Jewish" thing to do...I thought you only prayed to G-d?

I learned some interesting things and i'm glad we went, but I'm not 100% clear on a lot of what was going on...which just means now i have a lot more questions

Kindergarten's "Playground"

I just took a ride over to the kindergarten with Nava (the ulpan house mother).  We had to bring the leftovers from dinner last night to feed the animals that they keep there--rabbits, guinea pigs, ducks, chickens.  While we were there she showed me their "playground."  It's not really a playground, more like a play area with stuff in it.  If you (someone from the US who played on jungle gyms and toys from the store) you would think it looked like a junk yard and a really dangerous place for kids, kindergarten age kids, to play.  There's old couches, kitchen appliances, tractors, boxes, pretty much just any old crap you can think of. She said that when something breaks or is too old in her house she brings it there.  The idea is that the kids don't always need toys that they have to play with a certain way.  With all this random junk they can be more imaginative and creative and play however they want.  Nava pointed out a little living room that the kids had made and a pretend farm, when i looked around it looked like there was no order at all, just stuff thrown all over. Maybe i need to work on my imagination...

Nightly walks

We go for a walk pretty often after dinner.  By then it's dark out and cool enough so that you don't sweat immediately...and there's not a lot else to do.  On last night's walk first we walked over to the cows.  The adult cows are nothing special to us anymore because we found the calves.  They will let you pet them and play with you a little.  There were some there that had just been born the day before.  Then we went over to the horse stable.  I think we stood outside one horses stall for a good 15 minutes.  From there we went up into the orchards.  There were different things (a fort from the tree limbs, new kinds of fruit trees) that we had each found walking around in there that we wanted to show each other.  It was dark so we stumbled around with our flashlight for a while until we decided to head back.  We stopped to take a look at the view of the lights from the towns/cities between us and the Mediterranean then walked back home to the ulpan.  A lot different than walking around PA or NJ...

Shana Tova

Happy new year everyone! 

It's Rosh Hashana and then Shabbat so lots of time off this week.  We've just been trying to keep busy with not much to do...so I don't have anything really exciting to tell.  I'm looking forward to next week... more than one day of class in one week and then we are going to Tsfat for Yom Kippur. 

I need some feedback.  What I've been writing so far, is it what you want to hear? Interesting enough?I don't really want to write too much about my feelings about things or about things that have to do specifically with other people, but is it too boring? Is there something you want to know that i am not saying? Let me know.

Pictures

These pictures are borrowed from my roommate.  She was smarter and actually brought her camera on the walk yesterday.

There's lots of cows because they make cheese and yogurt here.  The cows are pretty close to where we live so we walk by them at night often.

 

 

Avocado fields.  They'll be ripe in one month...I think there will be a lot of ulpanists hiding in the trees snacking.

One of those clearings I mentioned.  It's kind of hard to tell from a picture, but it's a really beautiful spot.

This is what I was trying to describe at the end of the last blog.  Up on the hill (just under the sun) is Haifa and way in the distance on the right is the Mediterranean Sea. 

I have a couple of pictures from our living area but i didn't want to ruin this post with them. I'll add them soon.

The Orchards

Tonight we took a "tour" through the orchards on the kibbutz.  Now I promise i will work on pictures.  A lot of people got some great ones.  There are avacados, lychees, guava, passion fruit, pomegranate, clementines, oranges, lemons,... (not all of those are crops, but they grow there)  We didn't see all of the different types but not at least we know where to wander and look for them. For the most part you can just pick and have whatever you want.  And they have these areas for you to sit and hang out, eat your fruit, read, enjoy the view.  Some of these spots are beautiful. They are hidden by bushes and flowers and looks so calm and peaceful.  From the top of the of the mountain you can see Haifa and the Mediterranean Sea.  We were there at sunset and you could see the sun rays streaming through the clouds over Haifa with the bay just to the north and the fields of the kibbutz right below us. It was pretty awesome. 

This is the life!

This is how my past two days went...

Thurs: Work in the morning until about 11:30.  Hang out. Go to lunch. Hang out some more, maybe check my email. Take a nap. Dinner. Play tennis. Pub.

Fri: Run and work out at one of those out door gyms...it's so nice to work out outside instead of in a gym. School! Lunch. Beach. Dinner.  Maybe tennis? Maybe pub? Maybe scrabble?
  
This may not be exactly the experience I thought it was going to be but I really can't complain.

Food

The food here is pretty different than at home.  Not the actual food but the way that they eat. It takes some getting used to but, I think today I finally started to do it right. 
First, salad for breakfast.  Tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, sprouts, carrots, onion just whole on the salad bar and you do whatever you want with them.  But, no salad dressing.  You eat it with cottage cheese and/or this white cheese, that's kind of between Greek yogurt and sour cream. Some eggs and toast too if you want.  There's some cereal but no one really eats it.
Then, lunch.  This is supposed to be the big meal of the day.  Hot meats, rice/couscous, hot veggies.  Then lots (like maybe 12 different kinds) of different chopped salads. Always hummus. And bread.
Dinner is really light.  Rarely any meat. More hummus and bread. Fruit for desert. 
No snacks in between but that could be because of our situation.
Number one thing to get over is salad at breakfast.  (Now) I like that though...start the day out healthy, keeps you full but not stuffed.  Then you need to make sure you eat enough at lunch, otherwise dinner is very far away and unsatisfying.  Like I said, I'm starting to get the hang of it. Tonight is the first time I'm not starving for dinner.  They also seem to not think as much about what/how much they eat as we do but they seem much healthier.

Tomorrow starts work...

Got a Job

It looks like starting Thursday things will start to get on a regular schedule.  I found out that I will be working in the moadon, which is like the ulpan common area.  There's a dinning room where we eat dinner every night but we hang out there too because that's where the internet is and a patio area right outside.  Then the classrooms are attached to that but you have to walk outside to get to them. I guess we (me and who ever else i work with, not sure who it is yet) are in charge of cleaning up that area in the morning and then getting dinner ready for the ulpan at night.    The other choices of girls jobs were laundry or kitchen (which i think means cleaning dishes and tables in the main dining hall).  Apparently I got the best job.  One of the Kibbutzniks was saying that the other day and Nava, the Ulpan house mother said she likes to pick people she likes for this one because you work with her.  She also emphasised that nothing we do is a rush just like you know take your time, do some stuff, take a 20 min break, do some stuff.  Also seems like we get a break every two hours.  Break when the classes have a break, break for lunch, long break in the afternoon.  We'll see how it actually is in two days. 
So the way the whole system works is that there are two groups for school alef (me), and bet/gimmel.  Alpha goes to school sun, tues, thurs and works mon, wed, fri and the other group does the opposite. I don't know if that means you don't really see the other group a lot or what but there's a lot of time in afternoon/night to see everyone i guess too.  Going to enjoy the last couple days of relaxing before the real work starts...

Day at the Beach

This morning was more of the same kind of hanging out but we all had to be here to take our hebrew placement test. After lunch we went to Camel Beach in Hof HaKarmel.  It was really really sunny and the water was incredibly warm.  It was fun and nice to get out a little.
When we got back a whole bunch of new people had come, including my other roommate.  Now we have people from Russia, Hungry, and Canada too.  There are supposed to be more Russian people coming tomorrow to finish up the group.
After dinner tonight a small group of us walked around the Kibbutz a bit.  There were lots and lots of cows, some horses, some little clusters of houses...we'll have to check it out better in the day light.

Shabbat Shalom

Sorry I don't have more exciting things to say but we are just hanging out today.  We tried to go into town but nothing was open so we just stopped at a convenience store for some water and snacks (Matt and Allie, i got those things that we ate a lot that are like wafer tubes with chocolate in the middle!).  These lazy Saturdays will be really nice I think once we are busy all week and get used to this more calm lifestyle.  It does feel pretty good though to have absolutely nothing that I need to be doing.

Other than the store, the main event of the day has been putting my things away in my room.  They were not kidding about limited space.  One (large) suitcase and a half packed gym bag's worth of clothes didn't even fit.  I had to keep all of the cold weather stuff in the suitcase under the bed.  My roommate is from Montville, NJ. She was to be a Rabbi but her Hebrew is not good enough to go right to Rabbinic school yet. So she'll learn here and then go back home to go to school.  We are supposed to get another one so i guess we will meet her tomorrow.

It's been interesting to get to know the other people at the Ulpan.  Everyone is here for really different reasons and comes from really different backgrounds.  Most people are from the US but some from other places (France, Holland, Brazil so far) and most people are staying here after this.  I can't believe that the number of people is going to double tomorrow. 

I'll try to take some pictures soon so you can see what it looks like here.

Made It

I'm here! I got to Ramat Yohanan this afternoon, checked in, got my room, met a lot of people.  It's all kind of a blur.  There's a lot to take in and the jet lag is not helping.  Tomorrow we have nothing to do so I'm hoping we can explore a little and get our bearings. But the nerves are gone.  I'm just excited to get to know everyone and get things started.  It's really hot and sunny and humid.  About half of the people (20) are here so far and the rest come on Sunday.  There's a pretty good mix of people just here for the 5 months and people moving here for good.  The girls seem to be like 23-25 and the guys are more like 20-22 (the ones that are staying will be going to the army after this). 

That's about all i know right now.  We are really just hanging out not doing too much. 

I'm Off!

It seems like we've been talking about it for a long time but it's finally here...tomorrow I'm off to Israel!  Five months of learning Hebrew and kibbutz life. I have no idea what to expect (which is kind of fun and kind of scary) but I am sure it will be an adventure and an amazing experience. Just a few more things to pack up and I'm ready to go.

Next time from holy land...