Sar El II

The second week of Sar El was much different from the first. It rained a lot all week so we didn't go to the outpost too much. We mostly worked in the kitchen. Washing dishes and cutting thousands of tomatoes and cucmbers isn't too exciting but since we were all there doing it together, the time passed pretty quickly.

The third week was back to beautiful weather, so back to the outpost. We finished with the sand and rocks, and then put up camoflouge nets and these like reflective screens. After the week inside it was really nice to see and feel the sun again.  And after the week in the kitchen together we were also much closer as a group.

One other, kind of important,  thing about Sar El was the evening activities. Everyone night we did somthing. Either it was just for fun to get to know each other and play around or it was informative, like about history or about the IDF, or it was about "issues" relevant to Israel now, like Gilad Shalit or the image of Israel in the media. Most nights it was pretty interesting, especially because everyone in our group came from such different backgrounds that people had ideas that you had never heard of, or thought of, before. The last night we finished up with a Purim party and scavenger hunt. By then everyone was comfortable being stupid/silly so it was a lot of fun.

Overall, it was a good experience. Met cool people, did some different stuff, saw more of Israel.

Sar El I

After two weeks of nothing but relaxing and taking it easy, last week I started Sar-El. It's a volunteer program where you go and do some work for the army for 1,2 or 3 weeks. We have uniforms and stay at the base we are working on during the week.  Because we are staying on the base and working with regular soldiers, you also get a feeling for army life, that might be more realistic than Gadna (the week of the army we did during the ulpan).

There's all different kinds of jobs/projects that Sar-El groups do, but our group is young (17-45 yrs old), so we have a lot of physical work. Its a little bit hard to explain what we are doing but basically, we are filling these blocks with sand and using sand bags to make one of the outposts safer (hopefully) for the soldiers working in the bunkers and trenches there.  It feels good to doing some physical work and be outside. This project is also nice because we can see the soldiers we are helping and we can see the progress we make every day, as opposed to Sar-El  groups that are counting bullets or repacking medical kits. My group itself is pretty interesting too. There's 14 of us from all over the world. South Africa, Holland, Germany, Holland, England, Australia, Scotland, and 5 from the US.

By the end of the first week we were all starting to losen up and getting friendlier and getting into the routine of working together, so I'm looking forward to week 2.

Mom in Israel II

It was too hard to keep posting while Mom was here (plus, i think most people that read this were getting her emails about what we were doing anyway).  It was really nice to have her here and show her around. I really should have paid more attention to the tour guides when we took trips with the ulpan or on brithright because we went to a lot of the same places. It was fun though to point out the things that I liked or thought were interesting. It was funny to see the things that I have gotten used to in the past 5 months that were weird and different for her.

Unfortunately for her, she's back in the cold winter weather at work and I'm still here enjoying the sun and relaxing.

Mom in Israel I

Mom's here! It is great to see her. 

The past few days we have been driving all over the north of Israel. First day we went to Rosh HaNikra with my friend from the ulpan to see the grottos. The caves were really cool and the water was so blue there.

Rosh HaNikra

Mom and me at Rosh HaNikra

It was such a nice day that we decided to go take a walk on the beach and watch the sunset.

Then then today we drove around in the Golan Heights a little bit and then went to Tsfat.

Tsfat

Tomorrow we are going to the kibbutz. I think for Mom's whole trip, this is the day I am most looking forward to. I'm excited for her to see where I was all this time and meet some people that she has been hearing about.

London

Last week in London was a lot of fun. We walked around and went to all the major spots.  The last time I was in London we did a lot in like two days. This time I could go back to the places I liked and spend a little more time there and see some new things. The two best parts: The Churchill Museum and seeing Wicked. I was really surprised by the Churchill Museum but it was really interesting and really well done. I would definitely suggest going there. Going to shows is always a treat and it was fun to go to a big musical and I had been wanting to see Wicked for a while.  I haven't had a chance to get the pictures off of my camera but i'll put some up soon.

I had a great time in London but it was amazing how quickly I missed the kibbutz and everyone there. When I got back to Israel last night, I got the warmest homecoming from my friends here. I was really nice. I was only gone for four days but we treated it (and it felt) like I had been away for much longer.

Now on to the next phase of my post-ulpan plan...this afternoon I picked Mom up for the airport. It is great to see her! I'm excited to start doing/seeing stuff with her tomorrow.

It's Over...

It really hasn't sunk in yet that the ulpan is over. It was an amazing five months. Things got a little crazy somtimes but there was no other place I would have rather been. I learned a lot, met a lot of great people. Thanks to everyone who made this experience what it was.  It was definitely not what I expected it to be but I wouldn't change any of it.

I decided not to leave Israel right away, which says a lot how much I have enjoyed my time here so far. Here's the plan for the next couple of months...First I'm taking a quick trip to London with a friend from the ulpan. When he goes home to Brazil, I will come back to Israel. Then, Mom comes the next day to hang out and travel for a week. After that, I have some time to stay with friends and travel around Israel before I do Sar-El for three weeks. (Sar-El is a volunteer program on IDF bases.) Then Purim and packing up and heading back by the beginning of April.

Even though I am sad that the ulpan is over, I know there's a lot of people I will still see and there's a lot to look forward to in the next two months.

See you soon, Ramat Yohanan Ulpan 77

Tu B'Shevat, Evan, Preparing for the End

It's been a while and it feels like a lot has been going on. There was a couple times I meant to post something but just never got around to it.

So we had Tu B'Shevat...We took a trip to the Golan Heights. We went to Gamla, which is kind of like the Masada of the north.  I really liked it there, there was a little bit of everything...history, nature, a cool memorial .  Then we went to plant some trees with other olim hadashim (new immigrants to Israel). And then we went to Hamat Gader, a hot spring. I had never been to a real, working hot spring before but I was surprised at how huge it was and how it looked like a giant swimming pool. I imagined it to be more natural feeling.

Then I saw Evan in Tel Aviv. It was great to see him. It was fun to hear about his trip and the parts that he liked the best.  It was a quick visit but i'm really glad he came to Israel and that we were able to meet up.

At the ulpan we have been wrapping things up. We had our last days of work and school. Started to pack and clean up our rooms. Prepare for the test. We've been going through all the motions of finishing the program but it didn't hit me until last night, at our final cemermony, that we are really leaving.  I definitely have mixed feelings about it but it is definitely going to be sad to see everyone go their seperate ways.

Jerusalem

This week we went to Jerusalem.  I don't know what my deal was that day but I really didn't pay a lot of attention to the tour guides. I feel kind of bad about it now, like I kind of wasted the opportunity to hear cool things. 


On the way down we stopped at the IDF tank museum. We climbed up on the tanks.  (That's about all I can give you about that.)

First stop in Jerusalem was,  Jabal Mukabbir.  It's high up so it's a nice look out point.  From there we were able to see the dome of the rock and the old city, part of the Israeli West Bank barrier, the dead sea and into Jordan. The part I thought was most interesting was seeing the separation wall. Its one of those things that you know exists and you hear about but when you actually see it you think, "Oh shit, it's real."

You can see the separation wall on the right side of the photo.

After we took some pictures and talked a little bit about what we were looking at, we went to this "time elevator" ride/movie thing about the history of Jerusalem and walked around a little bit.

Then we went to the Kotel (Western Wall, Wailing Wall). We had some time to go to the wall, put in a note, pray, look around, do whatever you wanted to do there. That day there was going to be a ceremony for soldiers who had just finished basic training and were going into Golani, one of the more well known combat units in the IDF. We didn't see the actual ceremony but everything was set up, the new guns were lined up, all the soldiers and their families were there.  It definitely added a different element to being at the wall, especially because soon that will be some of our guys from the ulpan. 

Evan is in Israel on Birthright and was in Jerusalem the same day so we thought we might be able to see each other. Actually, I was arriving to the Kotel area, just as he was leaving that but we weren't able to meet up because of the schedules of our groups.  Kind of weird (and a little frustrating) to be so close but not see each other.  We'll catch up with each other when he is in Tel Aviv though.

From there we went into these tunnels under the Kotel. (This is the part I wish i was paying more attention to.) We walked down along the wall but underground. The wall actual continues several stories below what is now ground level. Down there is supposed to be where the most holy spot is, that we can get to.  One pretty cool thing that the tour guide pointed out is that the Jewish world in the diaspora prays towards Israel, if you are in Israel you pray toward Jerusalem, if you are in Jerusalem you pray toward the Kotel, if you are at the Kotel you pray toward the place that we were standing.

We finished the day walking around on Ben Yehuda Street.

It was a pretty long day, we saw/did a lot of things.
It was fun, but next time I'll pay better attention

Final Test Part I: Oral Test

This morning we had the oral part of the test for the end of the ulpan. We have been preparing for it for weeks, so of course I have been obsessing and worrying about it for about that long. We wrote stories to tell and practiced the questions that they might ask. The silly thing is that while I am nervous and going over my story a million times, this doesn't mean anything. It's not even like I am an olim (someone who moved here), so it's not so so important that I know Hebrew well. But still, I can't help getting worked up.

So, it's test morning and I'm all good until the women giving the test shows up. Now my heart starts racing. The first girl to finish, came running out, jumped on my teacher and was so excited. I think that made me more nervous. Finally its my turn. I walk into the office and it's hot! In case you weren't sweating before, now you will be. They start asking questions. It's going ok but I need to ask them to repeat something. I start to tell my story but I messed up some places, need to go back and say one line again. I leave feeling like eh, it's ok but I could have done better. I had that feeling in my stomach after a test where you start to prepare for the worst and are scared to know the score. 

In a couple minutes though that wore off and i had so much energy. Like bouncing off the walls, running around in circles, talking really fast... Six months without a test (probably the longest of my life), I kind of forgot what it does to your head. 

This afternoon we got our scores.  I'm relieved that it's over and want to forget the story and never think about it again. But now I feel like i have no excuse not to speak Hebrew more...which is good, maybe that's what i needed to get me talking.

Part II: Written Test in two weeks...

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.