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