Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah everyone! The holidays here, for me, are both good and bad. They are great because, duh, everyone celebrates Hanukkah! It’s really cool to see all the streets lit up with Menorah’s decorating all the street lights and Menorah’s lit in every window, with donuts EVERYWHERE. But for me, someone who LOVES Christmas, it’s hard to be here. The last 3 years I’ve missed Christmas (sorry Aunt Karen…last one I promise!) for USY’s International Convention. But even when I missed actual Christmas day, I always still got the holiday season – lights and decorations, carols on the radio, and Christmas specials on TV. Here, none of that exists. I have yet to see a single Christmas tree or Christmas decoration in Jerusalem. And Hanukkah, while a great holiday, is not as big in Israel as it is in America, so I’ve really been feeling the absence of the holiday season.
I have to back-track a little bit since it’s been so long since I’ve written: I’m going to use the excuse of finals season and having several 10-page papers to write. The weekend after I went to Netanya, that Thursday night I went with Kesha and Misha to Tel Aviv where we went to the Couchsurfer’s meet up dinner. We had hoped to meet some people involved in couchsurfing who live in various places in Israel so we would have places to stay when we wanted to travel second semester, but, disappointingly, most of the people there were from Tel Aviv. However, it was in a really funky Indian restaurant with mismatched couches and board games everywhere, so that was really cool. We then went out with Kesha’s Israeli friend from camp. He took us to a few funky bars in the artsy district of Tel Aviv and then we stayed at his house. He was really hilarious so it was a very fun evening.
That Shabbat was a closed one, so we all stayed on base, prayed, and relaxed. It was a very restful weekend and one that was greatly appreciated.
Last weekend I went with a friend of mine, Becca, to Haifa, where we stayed with her family friends. I hadn’t been to Haifa yet so I was really happy to finally be going, since it’s one of the largest cities in Israel and I hadn’t yet had a chance to experience it. The family friends we stayed with were so nice. Over the whole weekend, we watched three Disney movies with the daughter and they totally spoiled us. On Friday morning Becca and I woke up early to go into town to see the Bahai Gardens, which are these beautifully sculpted gardens that overlook the Bahai Temple. We then all went to Zichron Ya’akov, which is this adorable little town in the North, about an hour outside of Haifa. It’s Israel’s ‘little Europa,’ and it’s filled with little coffee shops and cobblestone streets. We stopped and had some delicious cheesecake and hot chocolate at an adorable little coffeeshop/chocolaterie called “Motek,” which means ‘sweetie’ in Hebrew. All the chairs were pink and it was very cute, and everything was excellent. We also walked around and window-shopped in all the stores.
That evening they had invited two Israelis who they know whose parents were out of town over for Shabbat dinner, and it was really fun talking to them. We had a delicious Shabbat dinner and spend the night relaxing. The next morning, since the family we stayed with, as well as most of the city of Haifa, was not Shabbat observant, we woke up early to go to a street festival. They have this festival once a year, on every Saturday in December. We got an traditional Israeli breakfast of hummus, tehina, pita, and Israeli salad (chopped up onions, cucumbers, and tomatoes with some seasonings). We then walked over to the street fair and wandered up and down the street and looked at all the stands and all the food. We tasted Turkish delight and roasted Chestnuts. It was really interesting to see all the different kinds of people that came to sell their goods and to shop at this street festival.
On Tuesday night Nativ had a Hanukkah party where we watched the Holiday Armadillo episode of Friends, ate latkes and gelt, and had a sufganiyot (donut) eating contest – I did not participate, but it was a very fun evening.
Since all of my friends are coming next week (by all I’m not exaggerating – Jenna, Touger, Rachel, Jeff, Jake, Todd, and Rob are all coming to visit), this week has been really busy. I’ve done a good job (for once) of not procrastinating and finished all my final papers early so that I wouldn’t have to do it when my friends are here. I’ve also started(ish) cleaning my room so that my friends will have some room to breathe and hang out when they come over. Additionally, my friend Ginsburg, who I know from USY and who now goes to Emory, is here this week on an Emory program. I hung out with him and his friends from Emory two nights this week, and they were SO great. They were really friendly and super excited to talk to me when they found out I was going to Emory, and it made me really happy and less nervous for school next year.
On a final note, I have to wish a happy birthday to my friend Billy, who turned TWENTY (I really can’t believe it) today!
Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you’re all enjoying the season!
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Road Rally and Netanya
Hello!
The week following Tzfat was fairly uneventful, and consisted mostly of finishing up my midterms. Following sushi Wednesday, our beer pong team had yet ANOTHER win! Although we are no longer playing, as this week starts the tournament and (surprise!) we didn’t make that, it was really great to end our glorious beer pong career with another win.
On Thursday night was something called Road Rally. Basically it was a huge scavenger hunt around
Tasks on the list ranged from just silly (trade clothes with someone of the opposite sex and walk down Ben Yehuda like that), to selfish (buy the judges blowpops), to things that I can’t write here. Our team was really great and we all participated. Ariella came out to a cab driver (“Can I tell you something? I LIKE GIRLS!”), Jake swam in the fountain in front of our building, Emily asked some guy if she could get on the back of his moped and put on his helmet for a picture, Jordan washed his face with toilet water, and I drank a cup of olive oil (not one of my best decisions – it was way more disgusting than I was prepared for). We also got piggyback rides from strangers, proposed to people we didn’t know, took a video of the Arab guy at the liquor store saying ‘skeet skeet skeet,’ and wrote “Nativ 28” on our foreheads for the whole night (it took 2 days to get that off). Overall we just ran around the city and had a great time – and our team came in 5th place, which I thought was totally admirable. It was definitely a lot of fun.
This weekend I again decided I wanted to try and travel up north – the fact that my time in
We got back to their apartment, which was a beautiful penthouse because Rachell (who was in her early 20s) lived with her parents, although they were away for the weekend. We all hung out and watched some TV for a while, and then Kesha stayed there to nap while Misha and I went and read on the beach for an hour or so. That night, Rachell and her sister went to
Saturday morning we all accidentally slept until noon (see
Overall it was a great, inexpensive, relaxing weekend – way better than staying in a hostel.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Chanaton, Winning, Thanksgiving, and Tzfat
Hello loved ones! In this blog I have a lot to say considering I've been a huge bum and not updated in quite some time. So, let's begin.
Last Shabbat (as in a week from yesterday) I went to a Shabbaton at Kibbutz Chanaton (yes I know that rhymes). The Shabbaton was organized in part by a girl on Nativ and there were HebrewU students, Yeshiva students, and Nativers there. I went with my friends Michelle and Misha. On the way up to the Kibbutz, we stopped for lunch in the Druze village. I'd been there once before on pilgrimage but it was really nice to see it again. We perused the shops and I bought some scarves. It was quite lovely.
Once on the Kibbutz, we had some of the usual Shabbaton activities - meals, icebreakers, and services. Kibbutz Chanaton is in the North, and it is really gorgeous up there. The Kibbutz itself is really small, with only about 6 families, as it is the only Masorti Conservative Kibbutz currently in Israel. Mostly the Kibbutz hosts visiting groups like ours, but in order to attract more families to the Kibbutz they are privitizing everything and abandoning the socialist way of life, as are many Kibbutzim in Israel today.
Michelle and Misha and I mostly kept to ourselves all weekend - we had a very relaxing time sleeping, reading, and talking. Sometimes it's nice to get away from base just to do nothing in a different setting. All in all it was a great weekend, exactly what I needed.
Sunday morning was a volunteer carnival for a local school that one of the Nativers had organized with a family friend of his who works for a non-profit here in Jerusalem. We spent the morning playing with kids in a neighborhood called Talpiyot, where many of the families are poor immigrants. It was really a lot of fun, and I've really missed being around kids so I had an especially good time.
Last week was also midterms (which is partly why I wasn't able to write here last week). Everyone was pretty frazzled running around trying to study for exams and keep up with all the regular school work - it was the first time I actually felt like I was in real college. I had my Church Midterm last Monday (which I got back already - my first college A!), and my paper for Holocaust class due Wednesday. This week continues Midterms, with my Mysticism paper due Wednesday and my Hebrew test in two parts on Tuesday and Wednesday. Hopefully all of those will go well.
So while I was home writing my Holocaust paper last Monday night, Nativ girls' football had their first win of the season! And in fact, since Nativ didn't win a single girls' football game last year, it was actually Nativ's first win ever, which was really exciting, and I'm very sorry I missed it - although glad I didn't have to worry about working on my paper late Tuesday night.
To celebrate the completion of half of my midterms, I of course played in beer pong on Wednesday night (after sushi Wednesday dinner - after my full day of school on Wednesday I really need my sushi). In ANOTHER spectacular underdog win, Kesha and I (Becky was home writing her Holocaust paper) WON OUR FIRST BEERPONG GAME. It was all glory and rainbows and sunshine, with everyone cheering for us and the commissioner of the league yelling 'those are my girls! those are my girls!,' while the boys we beat had to hang their heads in shame. Overall it was a spectacular win as we only had 3 cups left, and then I made one shot, and then Kesha made it in the same cup, which means that the boys had to drink all 3 cups (when both partners make it in the same cup it counts for three cups) and we won the game. No matter how great the feeling of winning was, the best part is still the fact that now my father, Mr. Fraternity Present Man, no longer has to hide inside the house in shame of his eldest child.
Thanksgiving on Thursday was a spectacular event. The entire dining room was decorated in orange with confetti on the tables (just like home) and drawings of turkeys on the walls. There were over 250 people there, as all the past Nativers who now live in Israel are invited to come for Thanksgiving dinner with their families - and many of them do. Before dinner we all gathered to watch the new Nativ promo video (which was amazing) and to hear the Nativ acapella group perform (which was even more amazing). When we walked into dinner, I got the biggest surprise of all. Nativ had e-mailed home and arranged that every single Nativer would get a packet of letters from home, and then when all the e-mails came back our staff sat there and individually copied and pasted each e-mail into a word document and then printed them all out and organized them for us. If there was any doubt in my mind that Nativ was the best Israel program out there, it totally disappeared after this. It was just so nice and so unexpected to have this connection to home on Thanksgiving, even if it did make me cry a little (okay, a lot). Thank you SO much to all of you who wrote to me - it made my Thanksgiving really really wonderful.
After dinner, all the Bogrei Nativers (that's what we call people who went on Nativ in past years - don't ask me why) left, and all the current Nativers gathered in the auditorium. There we watched a very funny video of all of us and life on Nativ that the Thanksgiving Committee put together. Then our staff listed all the reasons why they're thankful to be our staff, which was really really sweet. After all of this, there was a marathon of all the Thanksgiving Friends episodes; I couldn't have asked for better programming. All in all, although it was sad to not be home, it was a really great Thanksgiving.
This weekend I decided that I wanted to take advantage of being able to travel from Jerusalem up north before we go down south for second semester. One of my favorite places that we visited on pilgrimage was a town in the north called Tzfat, known for it's candle factory and as a center for Jewish mysticism. So I asked my friend David Bocarsly (who's always up for anything), and we formed a group to go to Tzfat. It ended up being me, David Bocarsly, David Beizer, and my friends Sara and Emily (not the same Emily I'm going away with over winter break).
I made the reservations for us at the youth hostel, so Friday morning we set off bright and early, leaving at 6 AM to catch a 7 AM bus. Only problem was, somehow I had gotten the wrong bus times (I swear the lady from the bus station that I called told me that there was a 7 AM bus to Tzfat), so the first bus wasn't until 9. After sleeping in the bus station like hobos for an hour and a half, we walked across the street to the bus stop and waited for our bus. And waited, and waited. When the bus finally rolled up at 9:30, we were about 10 minutes away from abandoning the trip all together.
We got on the crowded bus, and a mere three and a half hours later we arrived in Tzfat. Hurray! We checked into our youth hostel, which was pretty cute. It was dorm style rooms, so the guys and girls were split up, the guys having two other roommates and the three of us girls having one other roommate. Then we basically said goodbye to the guys for the weekend. They went out and toured around the city with someone from the youth hostel, while the three of us went snack shopping for the weekend and walked around, exploring the town for ourselves. It is a really cute and beautiful place, with gorgeous views of mountains and other scenery.
The hostel we stayed at is a Chabad (orthodox) run organization, and so they set us up for Friday night dinner and Saturday lunch. After Friday night services (in which the men and women were separated, so we didn't see the boys), we went to dinner (in which the girls and guys had been split up when assigned a host home). Dinner for the three girls on Friday night was interesting, to say the least. We were in an orthodox home where there were at least 13 people, all related, and it was very difficult to tell who was married to whom and who each child belonged to. It was about ten minutes after entering the home that we were even acknowledged (besides the young boy who pointed to the couch and commanded that we "sit down," which we obeyed), and then it was only by the women. The men (with the exception of the father, who explained this week's Torah portion to us in English before going back to speaking only Hebrew) didn't acknowledge us all night, except for the one man who snapped at Emily to get her attention and then pointed to the Coke, signaling that she should pass the bottle. Sara and I were both asked to button up our cardigans, although I can assure you my top was far less low-cut than usual. The mother was very nice to us, to be fair, but it was clear that in the hierarchy of the family her opinion towards us mattered very little. We soon decided it was best to just remain engaged in our own conversation and enjoy the food.
The next day we slept late (we really needed it after midterms week) and then got up, warily, to go to lunch. After about forty minutes of wandering around and asking several people for directions, we finally got to where we were supposed to be. This family was great - a mother and father and about seven or eight children, some of whom did not belong to the parents. The food and apartment were modest, but the children were sweet and adorable and the parents made us feel extremely welcome - the mother even sent us home with leftover desserts and walked us all the way back to our hostel, which was totally unnecessary.
We spent most of the rest of the afternoon resting and laying around, and then Saturday night after Shabbat we all made our way back to Jerusalem. Overall it was a really wonderful weekend and I'm so glad I took advantage of the opportunity to do some traveling.
Pictures of the carnival, Thanksgiving, and Tzfat can be found in my new google pictures album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kaleibowitz/ThanksgivingAndTzfat02#
Hope you all had great holiday weekends, talk to you again soon!
Last Shabbat (as in a week from yesterday) I went to a Shabbaton at Kibbutz Chanaton (yes I know that rhymes). The Shabbaton was organized in part by a girl on Nativ and there were HebrewU students, Yeshiva students, and Nativers there. I went with my friends Michelle and Misha. On the way up to the Kibbutz, we stopped for lunch in the Druze village. I'd been there once before on pilgrimage but it was really nice to see it again. We perused the shops and I bought some scarves. It was quite lovely.
Once on the Kibbutz, we had some of the usual Shabbaton activities - meals, icebreakers, and services. Kibbutz Chanaton is in the North, and it is really gorgeous up there. The Kibbutz itself is really small, with only about 6 families, as it is the only Masorti Conservative Kibbutz currently in Israel. Mostly the Kibbutz hosts visiting groups like ours, but in order to attract more families to the Kibbutz they are privitizing everything and abandoning the socialist way of life, as are many Kibbutzim in Israel today.
Michelle and Misha and I mostly kept to ourselves all weekend - we had a very relaxing time sleeping, reading, and talking. Sometimes it's nice to get away from base just to do nothing in a different setting. All in all it was a great weekend, exactly what I needed.
Sunday morning was a volunteer carnival for a local school that one of the Nativers had organized with a family friend of his who works for a non-profit here in Jerusalem. We spent the morning playing with kids in a neighborhood called Talpiyot, where many of the families are poor immigrants. It was really a lot of fun, and I've really missed being around kids so I had an especially good time.
Last week was also midterms (which is partly why I wasn't able to write here last week). Everyone was pretty frazzled running around trying to study for exams and keep up with all the regular school work - it was the first time I actually felt like I was in real college. I had my Church Midterm last Monday (which I got back already - my first college A!), and my paper for Holocaust class due Wednesday. This week continues Midterms, with my Mysticism paper due Wednesday and my Hebrew test in two parts on Tuesday and Wednesday. Hopefully all of those will go well.
So while I was home writing my Holocaust paper last Monday night, Nativ girls' football had their first win of the season! And in fact, since Nativ didn't win a single girls' football game last year, it was actually Nativ's first win ever, which was really exciting, and I'm very sorry I missed it - although glad I didn't have to worry about working on my paper late Tuesday night.
To celebrate the completion of half of my midterms, I of course played in beer pong on Wednesday night (after sushi Wednesday dinner - after my full day of school on Wednesday I really need my sushi). In ANOTHER spectacular underdog win, Kesha and I (Becky was home writing her Holocaust paper) WON OUR FIRST BEERPONG GAME. It was all glory and rainbows and sunshine, with everyone cheering for us and the commissioner of the league yelling 'those are my girls! those are my girls!,' while the boys we beat had to hang their heads in shame. Overall it was a spectacular win as we only had 3 cups left, and then I made one shot, and then Kesha made it in the same cup, which means that the boys had to drink all 3 cups (when both partners make it in the same cup it counts for three cups) and we won the game. No matter how great the feeling of winning was, the best part is still the fact that now my father, Mr. Fraternity Present Man, no longer has to hide inside the house in shame of his eldest child.
Thanksgiving on Thursday was a spectacular event. The entire dining room was decorated in orange with confetti on the tables (just like home) and drawings of turkeys on the walls. There were over 250 people there, as all the past Nativers who now live in Israel are invited to come for Thanksgiving dinner with their families - and many of them do. Before dinner we all gathered to watch the new Nativ promo video (which was amazing) and to hear the Nativ acapella group perform (which was even more amazing). When we walked into dinner, I got the biggest surprise of all. Nativ had e-mailed home and arranged that every single Nativer would get a packet of letters from home, and then when all the e-mails came back our staff sat there and individually copied and pasted each e-mail into a word document and then printed them all out and organized them for us. If there was any doubt in my mind that Nativ was the best Israel program out there, it totally disappeared after this. It was just so nice and so unexpected to have this connection to home on Thanksgiving, even if it did make me cry a little (okay, a lot). Thank you SO much to all of you who wrote to me - it made my Thanksgiving really really wonderful.
After dinner, all the Bogrei Nativers (that's what we call people who went on Nativ in past years - don't ask me why) left, and all the current Nativers gathered in the auditorium. There we watched a very funny video of all of us and life on Nativ that the Thanksgiving Committee put together. Then our staff listed all the reasons why they're thankful to be our staff, which was really really sweet. After all of this, there was a marathon of all the Thanksgiving Friends episodes; I couldn't have asked for better programming. All in all, although it was sad to not be home, it was a really great Thanksgiving.
This weekend I decided that I wanted to take advantage of being able to travel from Jerusalem up north before we go down south for second semester. One of my favorite places that we visited on pilgrimage was a town in the north called Tzfat, known for it's candle factory and as a center for Jewish mysticism. So I asked my friend David Bocarsly (who's always up for anything), and we formed a group to go to Tzfat. It ended up being me, David Bocarsly, David Beizer, and my friends Sara and Emily (not the same Emily I'm going away with over winter break).
I made the reservations for us at the youth hostel, so Friday morning we set off bright and early, leaving at 6 AM to catch a 7 AM bus. Only problem was, somehow I had gotten the wrong bus times (I swear the lady from the bus station that I called told me that there was a 7 AM bus to Tzfat), so the first bus wasn't until 9. After sleeping in the bus station like hobos for an hour and a half, we walked across the street to the bus stop and waited for our bus. And waited, and waited. When the bus finally rolled up at 9:30, we were about 10 minutes away from abandoning the trip all together.
We got on the crowded bus, and a mere three and a half hours later we arrived in Tzfat. Hurray! We checked into our youth hostel, which was pretty cute. It was dorm style rooms, so the guys and girls were split up, the guys having two other roommates and the three of us girls having one other roommate. Then we basically said goodbye to the guys for the weekend. They went out and toured around the city with someone from the youth hostel, while the three of us went snack shopping for the weekend and walked around, exploring the town for ourselves. It is a really cute and beautiful place, with gorgeous views of mountains and other scenery.
The hostel we stayed at is a Chabad (orthodox) run organization, and so they set us up for Friday night dinner and Saturday lunch. After Friday night services (in which the men and women were separated, so we didn't see the boys), we went to dinner (in which the girls and guys had been split up when assigned a host home). Dinner for the three girls on Friday night was interesting, to say the least. We were in an orthodox home where there were at least 13 people, all related, and it was very difficult to tell who was married to whom and who each child belonged to. It was about ten minutes after entering the home that we were even acknowledged (besides the young boy who pointed to the couch and commanded that we "sit down," which we obeyed), and then it was only by the women. The men (with the exception of the father, who explained this week's Torah portion to us in English before going back to speaking only Hebrew) didn't acknowledge us all night, except for the one man who snapped at Emily to get her attention and then pointed to the Coke, signaling that she should pass the bottle. Sara and I were both asked to button up our cardigans, although I can assure you my top was far less low-cut than usual. The mother was very nice to us, to be fair, but it was clear that in the hierarchy of the family her opinion towards us mattered very little. We soon decided it was best to just remain engaged in our own conversation and enjoy the food.
The next day we slept late (we really needed it after midterms week) and then got up, warily, to go to lunch. After about forty minutes of wandering around and asking several people for directions, we finally got to where we were supposed to be. This family was great - a mother and father and about seven or eight children, some of whom did not belong to the parents. The food and apartment were modest, but the children were sweet and adorable and the parents made us feel extremely welcome - the mother even sent us home with leftover desserts and walked us all the way back to our hostel, which was totally unnecessary.
We spent most of the rest of the afternoon resting and laying around, and then Saturday night after Shabbat we all made our way back to Jerusalem. Overall it was a really wonderful weekend and I'm so glad I took advantage of the opportunity to do some traveling.
Pictures of the carnival, Thanksgiving, and Tzfat can be found in my new google pictures album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kaleibowitz/ThanksgivingAndTzfat02#
Hope you all had great holiday weekends, talk to you again soon!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Yerucham!
Hello!
Last Shabbat was closed, meaning we all stayed with our groups. My group went to Yerucham - the place where I'll be living and volunteering second semester. Now it should be noted here that if I ever tell anyone who knows of the town that I'll be living there, the general reaction is "Why would you ever want to do that?"
The town itself is small, with only one main road with all the shops, grocery store, and restaurants. The town has one school, one grocery store, one falafel stand, etc etc. We took a walking tour of Yerucham that lasted about 15 minutes, and at the edge of the town you can see miles and miles of the Negev desert, because there's absolutely nothing else around.
On the walking tour, our guide, a resident of Yerucham, told us all how it was a great place to live because there was a real sense of community - one time at the grocery store he was short 200 shekels, and a man who he had barely ever spoken to before gave him his credit card to finish his shopping. He also told us how Yerucham got started. Apparently, no one comes to Yerucham voluntarily. Years ago, when the town was getting started, the Israeli government wanted people to move there to help populate the Negev. However, when immigrants came to Israel they generally wanted to live in the big cities - and they definitely didn't want to live in the middle of the desert without so much as a grocery store. So in order to get people to move there, the Israeli government would fill buses with new immigrants to take them to their destinations. the bus would drive to Yerucham, stop and say "Jerusalem." Then all the immigrants for Jerusalem would get off. The bus would drive around the desert for an hour or so, stop again in Yerucham, and say "Tel Aviv," and all the immigrants for Tel Aviv would get off. It did this for every major city in Israel. By the time the immigrants realized where they were, they had already bought apartments, and many were forced to stay. There are many stories of people accidentally and inadvertently ending up in Yerucham, and not many of people who really wanted to move there.
The good news is that we will definitely be able to make a difference in Yerucham. As one speaker eloquently put it "all the successful Yeruchamites move away to try and make it outside of Yerucham, leaving their retarded brothers." Many of the people living in Yerucham are unable to care for themselves in one way or another, because many of those who can choose to move away.
Believe it or not, I had a great weekend in Yerucham. I think that for 4 months, I really don't need more than one grocery store or falafel place, and the town has a library, a gym, a rec center, and several beautiful parks. I had a great time just being with my group; we all get along really well. I think that Yerucham will be an interesting experience and I'm sure that as a group we'll find ways to keep ourselves entertained. All in all, I can't wait!
Last Shabbat was closed, meaning we all stayed with our groups. My group went to Yerucham - the place where I'll be living and volunteering second semester. Now it should be noted here that if I ever tell anyone who knows of the town that I'll be living there, the general reaction is "Why would you ever want to do that?"
The town itself is small, with only one main road with all the shops, grocery store, and restaurants. The town has one school, one grocery store, one falafel stand, etc etc. We took a walking tour of Yerucham that lasted about 15 minutes, and at the edge of the town you can see miles and miles of the Negev desert, because there's absolutely nothing else around.
On the walking tour, our guide, a resident of Yerucham, told us all how it was a great place to live because there was a real sense of community - one time at the grocery store he was short 200 shekels, and a man who he had barely ever spoken to before gave him his credit card to finish his shopping. He also told us how Yerucham got started. Apparently, no one comes to Yerucham voluntarily. Years ago, when the town was getting started, the Israeli government wanted people to move there to help populate the Negev. However, when immigrants came to Israel they generally wanted to live in the big cities - and they definitely didn't want to live in the middle of the desert without so much as a grocery store. So in order to get people to move there, the Israeli government would fill buses with new immigrants to take them to their destinations. the bus would drive to Yerucham, stop and say "Jerusalem." Then all the immigrants for Jerusalem would get off. The bus would drive around the desert for an hour or so, stop again in Yerucham, and say "Tel Aviv," and all the immigrants for Tel Aviv would get off. It did this for every major city in Israel. By the time the immigrants realized where they were, they had already bought apartments, and many were forced to stay. There are many stories of people accidentally and inadvertently ending up in Yerucham, and not many of people who really wanted to move there.
The good news is that we will definitely be able to make a difference in Yerucham. As one speaker eloquently put it "all the successful Yeruchamites move away to try and make it outside of Yerucham, leaving their retarded brothers." Many of the people living in Yerucham are unable to care for themselves in one way or another, because many of those who can choose to move away.
Believe it or not, I had a great weekend in Yerucham. I think that for 4 months, I really don't need more than one grocery store or falafel place, and the town has a library, a gym, a rec center, and several beautiful parks. I had a great time just being with my group; we all get along really well. I think that Yerucham will be an interesting experience and I'm sure that as a group we'll find ways to keep ourselves entertained. All in all, I can't wait!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Football and Shabbat in Rehovot
Hello again! It's been a while since I've written (oops), but now that I'm back at HebrewU full time it's very easy to get sucked into the routine. Get up, go to class (and I always get up with just enough time to get to class...whether my class starts at 8:30 or 2:30), come home, eat, go to activity, go out, go to sleep, do it all over again. I love to be busy but it doesn't leave a lot of down time.
Last Monday we had a football scrimmage, which we lost, but to be fair we played against girls who had played on the Israeli national flag football team - so they were really good. This Monday, we had our first game, which we also lost, to seminary girls - not such an honorable loss. It's very hard when our team has 38 girls (Nativ doesn't want to split us up because they don't want us to play against each other) and every other team only has about 10. In trying to get everyone, regardless of skill level, a fair amount of playing time, we sometimes end up sacrificing our chances of winning. But we do have fun and we ALWAYS have the loudest cheering section =).
This weekend my friend Kesha and I went with Keren to visit her family in Rehovot. As usual, it was a lot of fun. We were fed well and allowed to nap, and Friday night we stayed with Keren's younger cousin and his wife. At about 12:30 we left and went to a club, and returned home at about 5:30. It was a lot of fun, and really cool to experience a real Israeli club (the clubs we have near us in Jerusalem are located in a place that Nativ affectionately refers to as 'the armpit' - needless to say it's not the nicest place to hang out).
Saturday we went back to Keren's aunts house and had a wonderful lunch with all her cousins, including all 6 of her little boy cousins. That house is never quiet when they're all there, that's for sure.
On Saturday night in Tel Aviv there was a memorial concert for Yitzhak Rabin (one of Israel's best prime ministers who was assasinated 13 years ago), so we met up with the rest of Nativ there. It was amazing to see all these Israelis (and also quite a few Americans) who came out to support the memory of Rabin and all that he stood for.
I just finished reading my book for book club, called Someone To Run With. It was AMAZING and I highly recommend it. Also it was really interesting to read a book by an Israeli author, because a lot of it took place in the park across the street from my dorm building (which is where lots of Nativers and hang out) and there was even a time when the book mentioned Agron street, which was the street that I live on. I'm really excited for our discussion on Sunday night.
Finally, the most exciting news of the week by far, is that yesterday I bought my plane tickets for winter break. My friends Carmie (who's from Colorado) and Emily (who's from Texas) and I decided we wanted to travel together over winter break. I'm really excited about the group of the three of us, because I really like these girls and we click really well together. We only have a 13ish day vacation, so we won't get a chance to do everything we would have liked to, but as of now, our itinerary is this: 3 days and 3 nights in Rome, 2 days and 1 night in Sienna, 2 days 2 nights in Florence, 1 day and 1 night in Milan, 4 days and 4 nights in Paris, and 1 day and 1 night in Germany with Emily's cousins, who will take us back to the airport in Frankfurt. I'm VERY excited and it should be a wonderful trip!
That's all for now, thanks for reading!
Last Monday we had a football scrimmage, which we lost, but to be fair we played against girls who had played on the Israeli national flag football team - so they were really good. This Monday, we had our first game, which we also lost, to seminary girls - not such an honorable loss. It's very hard when our team has 38 girls (Nativ doesn't want to split us up because they don't want us to play against each other) and every other team only has about 10. In trying to get everyone, regardless of skill level, a fair amount of playing time, we sometimes end up sacrificing our chances of winning. But we do have fun and we ALWAYS have the loudest cheering section =).
This weekend my friend Kesha and I went with Keren to visit her family in Rehovot. As usual, it was a lot of fun. We were fed well and allowed to nap, and Friday night we stayed with Keren's younger cousin and his wife. At about 12:30 we left and went to a club, and returned home at about 5:30. It was a lot of fun, and really cool to experience a real Israeli club (the clubs we have near us in Jerusalem are located in a place that Nativ affectionately refers to as 'the armpit' - needless to say it's not the nicest place to hang out).
Saturday we went back to Keren's aunts house and had a wonderful lunch with all her cousins, including all 6 of her little boy cousins. That house is never quiet when they're all there, that's for sure.
On Saturday night in Tel Aviv there was a memorial concert for Yitzhak Rabin (one of Israel's best prime ministers who was assasinated 13 years ago), so we met up with the rest of Nativ there. It was amazing to see all these Israelis (and also quite a few Americans) who came out to support the memory of Rabin and all that he stood for.
I just finished reading my book for book club, called Someone To Run With. It was AMAZING and I highly recommend it. Also it was really interesting to read a book by an Israeli author, because a lot of it took place in the park across the street from my dorm building (which is where lots of Nativers and hang out) and there was even a time when the book mentioned Agron street, which was the street that I live on. I'm really excited for our discussion on Sunday night.
Finally, the most exciting news of the week by far, is that yesterday I bought my plane tickets for winter break. My friends Carmie (who's from Colorado) and Emily (who's from Texas) and I decided we wanted to travel together over winter break. I'm really excited about the group of the three of us, because I really like these girls and we click really well together. We only have a 13ish day vacation, so we won't get a chance to do everything we would have liked to, but as of now, our itinerary is this: 3 days and 3 nights in Rome, 2 days and 1 night in Sienna, 2 days 2 nights in Florence, 1 day and 1 night in Milan, 4 days and 4 nights in Paris, and 1 day and 1 night in Germany with Emily's cousins, who will take us back to the airport in Frankfurt. I'm VERY excited and it should be a wonderful trip!
That's all for now, thanks for reading!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Simchas Torah, A Memorable Shabbat, and Halloween
Hello again!
I think that last time I wrote I left off at Simchas Torah - which was an amazing holiday to experience here in Jerusalem. At all the shuls there is a part of the service where everyone leaves the sanctuary to go outside and sing and dance around with the Torah; it was a lot of fun. On Tuesday night, after the holiday ended, all the Nativers were taken to a big park where there was a continuing celebration, like a mini carnival, complete with food stands selling cotton candy and popcorn. There, the entire park went CRAZY dancing around and singing for several hours. It was really a great time.
On Friday night I decided I was sick of eating all my meals on base, so I resolved to have a meal out. There's a man named Jeff Seidel who will set anyone up for Shabbat or Holiday meals. The only catch is that he sets you up with very orthodox families in an attempt to convert you to orthodoxy. Not so worried about being converted (I enjoy bacon too much), I decided to try it out - he advertises through Facebook and HebrewU, so a few Nativ kids have used him to get meals before and I'd heard good things. If you don't call ahead of time, you can simply go to the Western Wall on Friday night, meet him by the water fountains, and be set up for dinner. So I got my friend Carmie to go with me and that's what we did.
Once at the wall, there were a lot of people standing around waiting to be set up. We introduced ourselves to Jeff, and told him we were from Nativ, and he immediately put us with a group. We then walked back to the house of Alan and Bonnie Cohen. It was me and my friend Carmie, two boys our age who were in Yeshiva, two tourists from America, and two other friends of the Cohens. Apparently the Cohens do this every Friday night, hosting anywhere from 8-15 people for a given meal.
When we arrived at the Cohens home, it was spectacular. Not only was the home itself gorgeous, but from my seat at the dinner table I had a view through the sliding glass door onto the patio - and behind that I could see the walls of the old city lit up. It was really incredible. The Cohens housekeepers served us four excellent courses, and we ate with fancy silverware. Between courses, we had shots of chocolate liquor to 'cleanse our palates.' It was a meal that was much needed and greatly appreciated considering the food I'm used to on base.
The Cohens have a tradition of going around the table and telling a little about yourself and how you were raised Jewishly. And although it was clear that they were orthodox and that their beliefs differed from my own, it was nice to have a discussion and I had gone into the dinner with the right mindset: ready to possibly be judged. Even though they were pushy at times, they were still very nice and obviously very generous. My personal feeling is if religion can inspire you to share and invite people into your homes and be hospitable, then that's what works for you - although I do believe you don't need Torah to do any of those things.
After dinner more people showed up, perhaps about 20, for oneg (snacks and singing after the meal), and snacks and wine were offered to all as songs were sung around the table. Apparently, because it had been raining very hard, that was a 'slow' night, and on some Friday nights up to 150 people enter their house for oneg.
At the end of the night we were given business cards with contact information and invited to join the facebook group "I did Shabbat with Alan & Bonnie Cohen in Jerusalem." Apparently this home is a tourist destination. Overall, it was a very memorable experience and a much-needed wonderful meal.
Normal classes at HebrewU resumed on Sunday, and I must say, I really missed it. I love being on campus and feeling like a real college kid, and I also enjoy being busy and having a routine. Between classes I get lunch and go to the gym, and I've started trying to talk to some of the kids in my classes who aren't on Nativ. I do enjoy all of my classes, and all of my professors are really nice. On Wednesday, it was pouring while I was in Mysticism class, and through the window I could see a rainbow. I excused myself from class to go look, and it was the most spectacular rainbow I've ever seen - it was a double, with one of them perfect with all the colors easily discernable, over the white stone houses and buildings of Jerusalem. I grabbed anyone who was around me and made them come look; it was incredible.
Additionally, Nativ offers activities for us at nights. There's a girls flag football league in Jerusalem, so Nativ has a team and we compete against Israeli high schools and Yeshiva girls' teams. We practice on Sundays or Thursdays, and the games are on Monday nights. This Monday will be our first scrimmage. The coaches assigned me to offense, center position (don't laugh, I'm not TERRIBLE), and last night at practice we learned some new plays for the scrimmage. On Sunday nights I also have book club where we're reading Israeli literature. Every other week we also have Disney B'Evreet, the club I started, where we watch Disney movies in Hebrew with English subtitles. Beauty and the Beast was a huge success, and I think next we might do The Jungle Book. Wednesday nights is the Beer Pong League that someone on Nativ started at a local bar, and if you want to see my standings you can view them at israelbeerpong.blogspot.com. Although my team (me, my friend Kesha, and my roommate Becky) have yet to win a game, we play really well and usually give the boys a run for their money. And we always have fun regardless.
Last night Nativ had its own Halloween party - even though no one in Israel recognizes the holiday. I dressed up as a tree, and coincedentally Adam and Eve made a guest appearance at the party and so I put on my glasses and became The Tree Of Knowledge. There were Britney Spearses, street signs, ninjas, and the Joker. We got a couple of funny looks from Israelis when we went out to get food, but it was a lot of fun anyway, although I do miss candy corn and pumpkins and trick-or-treating!
Thanks for reading, Shabbat Shalom and Happy Halloween!
I think that last time I wrote I left off at Simchas Torah - which was an amazing holiday to experience here in Jerusalem. At all the shuls there is a part of the service where everyone leaves the sanctuary to go outside and sing and dance around with the Torah; it was a lot of fun. On Tuesday night, after the holiday ended, all the Nativers were taken to a big park where there was a continuing celebration, like a mini carnival, complete with food stands selling cotton candy and popcorn. There, the entire park went CRAZY dancing around and singing for several hours. It was really a great time.
On Friday night I decided I was sick of eating all my meals on base, so I resolved to have a meal out. There's a man named Jeff Seidel who will set anyone up for Shabbat or Holiday meals. The only catch is that he sets you up with very orthodox families in an attempt to convert you to orthodoxy. Not so worried about being converted (I enjoy bacon too much), I decided to try it out - he advertises through Facebook and HebrewU, so a few Nativ kids have used him to get meals before and I'd heard good things. If you don't call ahead of time, you can simply go to the Western Wall on Friday night, meet him by the water fountains, and be set up for dinner. So I got my friend Carmie to go with me and that's what we did.
Once at the wall, there were a lot of people standing around waiting to be set up. We introduced ourselves to Jeff, and told him we were from Nativ, and he immediately put us with a group. We then walked back to the house of Alan and Bonnie Cohen. It was me and my friend Carmie, two boys our age who were in Yeshiva, two tourists from America, and two other friends of the Cohens. Apparently the Cohens do this every Friday night, hosting anywhere from 8-15 people for a given meal.
When we arrived at the Cohens home, it was spectacular. Not only was the home itself gorgeous, but from my seat at the dinner table I had a view through the sliding glass door onto the patio - and behind that I could see the walls of the old city lit up. It was really incredible. The Cohens housekeepers served us four excellent courses, and we ate with fancy silverware. Between courses, we had shots of chocolate liquor to 'cleanse our palates.' It was a meal that was much needed and greatly appreciated considering the food I'm used to on base.
The Cohens have a tradition of going around the table and telling a little about yourself and how you were raised Jewishly. And although it was clear that they were orthodox and that their beliefs differed from my own, it was nice to have a discussion and I had gone into the dinner with the right mindset: ready to possibly be judged. Even though they were pushy at times, they were still very nice and obviously very generous. My personal feeling is if religion can inspire you to share and invite people into your homes and be hospitable, then that's what works for you - although I do believe you don't need Torah to do any of those things.
After dinner more people showed up, perhaps about 20, for oneg (snacks and singing after the meal), and snacks and wine were offered to all as songs were sung around the table. Apparently, because it had been raining very hard, that was a 'slow' night, and on some Friday nights up to 150 people enter their house for oneg.
At the end of the night we were given business cards with contact information and invited to join the facebook group "I did Shabbat with Alan & Bonnie Cohen in Jerusalem." Apparently this home is a tourist destination. Overall, it was a very memorable experience and a much-needed wonderful meal.
Normal classes at HebrewU resumed on Sunday, and I must say, I really missed it. I love being on campus and feeling like a real college kid, and I also enjoy being busy and having a routine. Between classes I get lunch and go to the gym, and I've started trying to talk to some of the kids in my classes who aren't on Nativ. I do enjoy all of my classes, and all of my professors are really nice. On Wednesday, it was pouring while I was in Mysticism class, and through the window I could see a rainbow. I excused myself from class to go look, and it was the most spectacular rainbow I've ever seen - it was a double, with one of them perfect with all the colors easily discernable, over the white stone houses and buildings of Jerusalem. I grabbed anyone who was around me and made them come look; it was incredible.
Additionally, Nativ offers activities for us at nights. There's a girls flag football league in Jerusalem, so Nativ has a team and we compete against Israeli high schools and Yeshiva girls' teams. We practice on Sundays or Thursdays, and the games are on Monday nights. This Monday will be our first scrimmage. The coaches assigned me to offense, center position (don't laugh, I'm not TERRIBLE), and last night at practice we learned some new plays for the scrimmage. On Sunday nights I also have book club where we're reading Israeli literature. Every other week we also have Disney B'Evreet, the club I started, where we watch Disney movies in Hebrew with English subtitles. Beauty and the Beast was a huge success, and I think next we might do The Jungle Book. Wednesday nights is the Beer Pong League that someone on Nativ started at a local bar, and if you want to see my standings you can view them at israelbeerpong.blogspot.com. Although my team (me, my friend Kesha, and my roommate Becky) have yet to win a game, we play really well and usually give the boys a run for their money. And we always have fun regardless.
Last night Nativ had its own Halloween party - even though no one in Israel recognizes the holiday. I dressed up as a tree, and coincedentally Adam and Eve made a guest appearance at the party and so I put on my glasses and became The Tree Of Knowledge. There were Britney Spearses, street signs, ninjas, and the Joker. We got a couple of funny looks from Israelis when we went out to get food, but it was a lot of fun anyway, although I do miss candy corn and pumpkins and trick-or-treating!
Thanks for reading, Shabbat Shalom and Happy Halloween!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Birthday Celebrations and Desert Survival
nShalom! In my first blog as a 19-year-old I hope you all take notice of the additional maturity with which I will tell my chronicles.
Tuesday night I went out for a lovely birthday dinner at the local Italian restaurant, Luigi's, with Keren, Ashley, Matan, Josh, Jason, and Eli. The food was excellent, I had bruschetta and sweet potato ravioli. Everyone toasted to my birthday and gave some funny speeches about favorite "Kari memories." It was a really nice night.
Wednesday morning I was up bright and early as we had to meet downstairs at 5 AM to leave for our 3-day desert survival tiyul (trip). We were to spend 3 days hiking and camping in the Negev in our groups (so I was with Yerucham). The morning started off a little sleepy, as we took a two hour bus ride to a small town near the Negev called Ein Gedi. There we had services and ate breakfast, after which we had a jeep ride to where we would begin the hike. The jeep ride was a LOT of fun over the bumpy dirt road, a lot like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.
Wednesday we hiked for about six or seven hours, stopping for an hour to eat lunch on the plateau on the top of a mountain that had a great view. It was fairly cloudy, so although the walk was tiring, it wasn't unbearably hot. Wednesday night we got to camp around six or seven o'clock. Although the hiking was pretty intense, the 'survival' part of the trip wasn't nearly as challenging. A company was in charge of all the logistics for our group, so when we arrived at camp our overnight bags were neatly laid out, there was running water so we could wash our faces and hands (no bathrooms though), there were mats around a bonfire, and there was hot soup waiting for us. The food we ate that night was WAY better than the food we get on base, and although I'm sure it tasted better because we'd been hiking all day, it actually was delicious. At night we did some bonding activities around the campfire, including a game where we all got into our sleeping bags, lined up, and rolled over each other to the end of the line. The temperature at night was a little cool but perfect when bundled up in a sleeping back, and the moon provided ample light to see by. Sleeping outside was definitely amazing.
Thursday morning we woke up at 5:30 for services and breakfast, and then we were off for nine hours of hiking. Although Thursday was a long day, filled with challenging uphills and downhills, it was my favorite. We were hiking on a path that only about 2,000 people see a year - in three days, we saw only three or four other hikers. It was a really unique experience to be the only people around for miles and miles. At some times, the path was clear, but at other times we were literally climbing uphill over boulders with no clear path in sight. And although it was a long hike, we found ways to entertain ourselves, like singing songs and playing games. It was also a great bonding experience with the rest of Yerucham. I talked to a lot of people that I hadn't had a chance to really interact with before, so that was really exciting. Thursday night we again had a fantastic dinner and campfire activities.
Friday morning I woke up bright and early at 4:30 to a chorus of 'Happy Birthday's. Although waking up at 4:30 AM is not what I would like to do on my birthday, it was really great to be able to wake up in a place where our whole group was together. I got lots of morning birthday hugs and kisses, and after services there was cake and the whole group sang to me. Then we had our final hike - only five hours - and we made it to the bus that drove us back to Jerusalem.
When we (finally!) arrived back in Jerusalem, I walked into my room to find that Keren and Ashley had decorated it with balloons and streamers for my birthday. Mom sent them a package with supplies to continue the family tradition she started years ago, and they had managed to decorate it at 5 AM Wednesday morning before we left. Since I was a little sad to not be home for the first time ever on my birthday, it was really nice to have some familiarity. I also got to finally open my birthday package from home, and that had lots of wonderful goodies in it. I also got lots of cards for my birthday (thanks everyone!) all of which are now hanging on the wall in my room. And for a GREAT birthday present I got to take a shower after 3 days in the desert, which was WONDERFUL. Then I settled in for a much needed relaxing Shabbat.
All in all it was an amazing 19th birthday and a wonderful Tiyul. =) If you'd like to see pictures, I uploaded a new album that can be found here:
Tuesday night I went out for a lovely birthday dinner at the local Italian restaurant, Luigi's, with Keren, Ashley, Matan, Josh, Jason, and Eli. The food was excellent, I had bruschetta and sweet potato ravioli. Everyone toasted to my birthday and gave some funny speeches about favorite "Kari memories." It was a really nice night.
Wednesday morning I was up bright and early as we had to meet downstairs at 5 AM to leave for our 3-day desert survival tiyul (trip). We were to spend 3 days hiking and camping in the Negev in our groups (so I was with Yerucham). The morning started off a little sleepy, as we took a two hour bus ride to a small town near the Negev called Ein Gedi. There we had services and ate breakfast, after which we had a jeep ride to where we would begin the hike. The jeep ride was a LOT of fun over the bumpy dirt road, a lot like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.
Wednesday we hiked for about six or seven hours, stopping for an hour to eat lunch on the plateau on the top of a mountain that had a great view. It was fairly cloudy, so although the walk was tiring, it wasn't unbearably hot. Wednesday night we got to camp around six or seven o'clock. Although the hiking was pretty intense, the 'survival' part of the trip wasn't nearly as challenging. A company was in charge of all the logistics for our group, so when we arrived at camp our overnight bags were neatly laid out, there was running water so we could wash our faces and hands (no bathrooms though), there were mats around a bonfire, and there was hot soup waiting for us. The food we ate that night was WAY better than the food we get on base, and although I'm sure it tasted better because we'd been hiking all day, it actually was delicious. At night we did some bonding activities around the campfire, including a game where we all got into our sleeping bags, lined up, and rolled over each other to the end of the line. The temperature at night was a little cool but perfect when bundled up in a sleeping back, and the moon provided ample light to see by. Sleeping outside was definitely amazing.
Thursday morning we woke up at 5:30 for services and breakfast, and then we were off for nine hours of hiking. Although Thursday was a long day, filled with challenging uphills and downhills, it was my favorite. We were hiking on a path that only about 2,000 people see a year - in three days, we saw only three or four other hikers. It was a really unique experience to be the only people around for miles and miles. At some times, the path was clear, but at other times we were literally climbing uphill over boulders with no clear path in sight. And although it was a long hike, we found ways to entertain ourselves, like singing songs and playing games. It was also a great bonding experience with the rest of Yerucham. I talked to a lot of people that I hadn't had a chance to really interact with before, so that was really exciting. Thursday night we again had a fantastic dinner and campfire activities.
Friday morning I woke up bright and early at 4:30 to a chorus of 'Happy Birthday's. Although waking up at 4:30 AM is not what I would like to do on my birthday, it was really great to be able to wake up in a place where our whole group was together. I got lots of morning birthday hugs and kisses, and after services there was cake and the whole group sang to me. Then we had our final hike - only five hours - and we made it to the bus that drove us back to Jerusalem.
When we (finally!) arrived back in Jerusalem, I walked into my room to find that Keren and Ashley had decorated it with balloons and streamers for my birthday. Mom sent them a package with supplies to continue the family tradition she started years ago, and they had managed to decorate it at 5 AM Wednesday morning before we left. Since I was a little sad to not be home for the first time ever on my birthday, it was really nice to have some familiarity. I also got to finally open my birthday package from home, and that had lots of wonderful goodies in it. I also got lots of cards for my birthday (thanks everyone!) all of which are now hanging on the wall in my room. And for a GREAT birthday present I got to take a shower after 3 days in the desert, which was WONDERFUL. Then I settled in for a much needed relaxing Shabbat.
All in all it was an amazing 19th birthday and a wonderful Tiyul. =) If you'd like to see pictures, I uploaded a new album that can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kaleibowitz/BirthdayCelebrationsAndDesertSurvival#
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Yom Kippur and the Fall Semester
Hi everybody! Hope you are all well.
I'm going to have to start this post by backtracking a little since I've let myself get behind on my updates. With Beit Nativ shutting off the internet for all the holidays, it gets even more difficult to keep up on here.
Last Shabbat (not the one that just passed, the one before Yom Kippur) was an open one, so a couple of girls and I decided to go away for the weekend. And by a couple, I mean 11 others. 12 of us spend Shabbat in Tiberias - which was an experience to say the least. I'm glad I went, just because I'm always glad to be travelling and grateful to be seeing new places and things, but it's an experience I probably will not repeat. We stayed in 3 rooms of 4 people each in a real live youth hostel - complete with a shower that was just a showerhead on the ceiling and a drain in the floor, no lights in the bathroom, and four beds that touched each other. Friday night we tried to go out, but we severly overestimated how many places would remain open for Shabbat. We ate at a very tourist-y restaurant and on the boardwalk it looked like we were the only Jews there. Saturday was much better, although a little expensive. We paid 40 shekels each to get on to a private beach, but it was definitely worth it. I've really missed the beach since I've been here. The beach was gorgeous, with lounge chairs and palm trees and music, and I spent the day reading in the sun and swimming in the Kineret. We all shared a very economical lunch of pita, pretzels, humus, and almonds. Although I loved going to the beach for a day, overall the trip was not worth the three hours there and three hours back. Next I'm just going to go to the free beaches in Tel Aviv.
The day after we returned from that adventure was the start of the fall semester at HebrewU. However, October is a very jumbled month because of all the holidays - I think we have something like 7 days of class total in the entire month. Besides the required Hebrew and Freshman Writing, I'm also taking Intro to Jewish Mysticism, Issues in the Study of the Holocaust, and Intro to Early Church History. I really like all of them, and I'm happy that I got to take all classes that are religion or Judaism based, because I figure here is the place to do it. We can only take freshman level courses, so our options are limited, and as a result there are quite a few Nativers in all of my classes. However, there are also Americans from other programs and a couple people from other places, such as Germany, England, and Australia. I've only had one or two meetings of each class so far, so I haven't made any friends yet, but I completely intend on making enough friends from all over the world so that I can travel around staying places for free =).
Yom Kippur was definitely one of my best experiences in Israel thus far. Although I wasn't used to the intense 26 hour fast (I did get a little cranky at the end - but Marcus at home was far worse), or the 7 hours of shul at a time (for those of you who don't know, that's not really how we do it in my family...) it was still amazing. The ENTIRE city shuts down - like someone flipped the 'off' switch - far more than on Yom Kippur. It's the only day of the year where there is no radio or television broadcast and no flights allowed in or out of the country. Jerusalem especially shuts down. There was not a single store open, and all the streets are closed to traffic: the traffic lights merely flash yellow. Kids take advantage of the empty roads to ride bikes and scooters down the city's giant hills.
After synagogue on Friday night, I went with a few other people to Emek Rafayim, a popular street that has many shops and restaurants, and is usually very busy. The entire street looked like it had turned into a street fair, with tons of people just walking around talking to each other. Then when we walked back up the hill to Beit Nativ, we heard singing. When we got to the top, there were dozens of Nativers, sitting in the middle of what is normally an EXTREMELY busy intersection, singing songs while a huge crowd of people stood around, sang, and watched. We immediately joined the circle in the middle of the road. It was a very unique experience to be sitting down in the middle of a major street, one we have to wait for the light to cross every day for fear of being hit by a crazy Israeli driver, just singing songs.
Although a lot of what I did this Yom Kippur I will probably never do again (including sitting through the entire service), I was really happy to be able to experience the true observance of Yom Kippur in the place where it was truly meant to be observed.
One final word, I just want to say a HUGE Mazel Tov to Dale and Ira on their wedding today! It made me very sad that I couldn't be there with them, but I heard Dale looked beautiful and I can't wait to see pictures. And I'm sure Sabrina looked adorable as always =).
Bye for now!
I'm going to have to start this post by backtracking a little since I've let myself get behind on my updates. With Beit Nativ shutting off the internet for all the holidays, it gets even more difficult to keep up on here.
Last Shabbat (not the one that just passed, the one before Yom Kippur) was an open one, so a couple of girls and I decided to go away for the weekend. And by a couple, I mean 11 others. 12 of us spend Shabbat in Tiberias - which was an experience to say the least. I'm glad I went, just because I'm always glad to be travelling and grateful to be seeing new places and things, but it's an experience I probably will not repeat. We stayed in 3 rooms of 4 people each in a real live youth hostel - complete with a shower that was just a showerhead on the ceiling and a drain in the floor, no lights in the bathroom, and four beds that touched each other. Friday night we tried to go out, but we severly overestimated how many places would remain open for Shabbat. We ate at a very tourist-y restaurant and on the boardwalk it looked like we were the only Jews there. Saturday was much better, although a little expensive. We paid 40 shekels each to get on to a private beach, but it was definitely worth it. I've really missed the beach since I've been here. The beach was gorgeous, with lounge chairs and palm trees and music, and I spent the day reading in the sun and swimming in the Kineret. We all shared a very economical lunch of pita, pretzels, humus, and almonds. Although I loved going to the beach for a day, overall the trip was not worth the three hours there and three hours back. Next I'm just going to go to the free beaches in Tel Aviv.
The day after we returned from that adventure was the start of the fall semester at HebrewU. However, October is a very jumbled month because of all the holidays - I think we have something like 7 days of class total in the entire month. Besides the required Hebrew and Freshman Writing, I'm also taking Intro to Jewish Mysticism, Issues in the Study of the Holocaust, and Intro to Early Church History. I really like all of them, and I'm happy that I got to take all classes that are religion or Judaism based, because I figure here is the place to do it. We can only take freshman level courses, so our options are limited, and as a result there are quite a few Nativers in all of my classes. However, there are also Americans from other programs and a couple people from other places, such as Germany, England, and Australia. I've only had one or two meetings of each class so far, so I haven't made any friends yet, but I completely intend on making enough friends from all over the world so that I can travel around staying places for free =).
Yom Kippur was definitely one of my best experiences in Israel thus far. Although I wasn't used to the intense 26 hour fast (I did get a little cranky at the end - but Marcus at home was far worse), or the 7 hours of shul at a time (for those of you who don't know, that's not really how we do it in my family...) it was still amazing. The ENTIRE city shuts down - like someone flipped the 'off' switch - far more than on Yom Kippur. It's the only day of the year where there is no radio or television broadcast and no flights allowed in or out of the country. Jerusalem especially shuts down. There was not a single store open, and all the streets are closed to traffic: the traffic lights merely flash yellow. Kids take advantage of the empty roads to ride bikes and scooters down the city's giant hills.
After synagogue on Friday night, I went with a few other people to Emek Rafayim, a popular street that has many shops and restaurants, and is usually very busy. The entire street looked like it had turned into a street fair, with tons of people just walking around talking to each other. Then when we walked back up the hill to Beit Nativ, we heard singing. When we got to the top, there were dozens of Nativers, sitting in the middle of what is normally an EXTREMELY busy intersection, singing songs while a huge crowd of people stood around, sang, and watched. We immediately joined the circle in the middle of the road. It was a very unique experience to be sitting down in the middle of a major street, one we have to wait for the light to cross every day for fear of being hit by a crazy Israeli driver, just singing songs.
Although a lot of what I did this Yom Kippur I will probably never do again (including sitting through the entire service), I was really happy to be able to experience the true observance of Yom Kippur in the place where it was truly meant to be observed.
One final word, I just want to say a HUGE Mazel Tov to Dale and Ira on their wedding today! It made me very sad that I couldn't be there with them, but I heard Dale looked beautiful and I can't wait to see pictures. And I'm sure Sabrina looked adorable as always =).
Bye for now!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Shana Tova!
שנה תובה
Shana Tova everyone! I hope that you all had a happy holiday. As the weeks get busier it gets harder to update this frequently, so I'm currently a little backed up.
The mini-semester ended last week with finals in Hebrew and Jerusalem class, both of which I feel really good about. The real semester starts on Sunday, so I'm looking forward to my classes, both for the content and for the fact that I will be having class with some students outside of Nativ for the first time. Additionally, I joined the gym at HebrewU, which is gorgeous, so I've really been enjoying going to exercise when I get the chance.
Last Shabbat Keren, Ashley, and I went to Rehovot, a town outside of Tel Aviv, to stay with Keren's family. Keren, for those of you who don't know, is one of my best friends from USY, and I've known her for about three years now. Her father is Israeli so she has a ton of family here, and speaks Hebrew - which is very useful when we go out places. Her family was really nice, and I ate really well, which is always a welcome change from Agron (our youth hostel) food. She has several little cousins, so I got to use my child-like Hebrew while I played with them. For example, her little cousin Shachar had a toy bug, so in Hebrew I could take it from him and say 'My bug! Not your bug! Mine! Mine!' (That sounds a lot meaner than it really was, he actually thought it was really funny.) That was about the extent of the Hebrew I could use with her family. It was nice to have some sort of family around but it also made me really homesick for my own family to be taking care of me. It was nice to go away though because when I came back to base it really felt like home and I realized that I had really missed it.
Rosh Hashanah in Jerusalem was amazing. First of all, it was really the first time that I'd gone to synagogue both days, sat through services the whole time, and celebrated with several large meals. Second of all, the entire city of Jerusalem shuts down. There are a few cars on the road, but not very many at all considering it's a big city. Almost all of the stores are closed, and the streets are filled with people walking everywhere dressed in their best. The first night all of Nativ prayed and ate together, which was really great, and the food here was good for the first time. The first day I walked very far to shul with my Yerucham group in order to attend services at the shul where my host family would be. All the Nativers were paired with host families to have us over for lunch. I went to lunch with my friend Jordan and our host family was very nice. The host mom even had a sister who is a professor at Emory and a brother who teaches in Neptune, so that was really cool. Plus they made us pumpkin pie =).
That night we had an open dinner, so Matan, Jason, Josh, Ashley, Keren and I all went to Matan's mom's apartment for dinner. She recently made Aaliyah and lives not far from us. It was most of our first time meeting her. She was SO sweet and reminded me of my mom, which made me miss her very much. Overall though it was a really fun dinner to just be relaxed in a home setting with my closest friends here.
The second day of Rosh Hashanah we went to a shul close by since we were all sick of walking, and then just came back to base for lunch and relaxed. I was really glad that I bought my Machsor since I read the English during a lot of the service to keep me occupied. All in all it was definitely my best Rosh Hashanah yet.
Happy new year!
Shana Tova everyone! I hope that you all had a happy holiday. As the weeks get busier it gets harder to update this frequently, so I'm currently a little backed up.
The mini-semester ended last week with finals in Hebrew and Jerusalem class, both of which I feel really good about. The real semester starts on Sunday, so I'm looking forward to my classes, both for the content and for the fact that I will be having class with some students outside of Nativ for the first time. Additionally, I joined the gym at HebrewU, which is gorgeous, so I've really been enjoying going to exercise when I get the chance.
Last Shabbat Keren, Ashley, and I went to Rehovot, a town outside of Tel Aviv, to stay with Keren's family. Keren, for those of you who don't know, is one of my best friends from USY, and I've known her for about three years now. Her father is Israeli so she has a ton of family here, and speaks Hebrew - which is very useful when we go out places. Her family was really nice, and I ate really well, which is always a welcome change from Agron (our youth hostel) food. She has several little cousins, so I got to use my child-like Hebrew while I played with them. For example, her little cousin Shachar had a toy bug, so in Hebrew I could take it from him and say 'My bug! Not your bug! Mine! Mine!' (That sounds a lot meaner than it really was, he actually thought it was really funny.) That was about the extent of the Hebrew I could use with her family. It was nice to have some sort of family around but it also made me really homesick for my own family to be taking care of me. It was nice to go away though because when I came back to base it really felt like home and I realized that I had really missed it.
Rosh Hashanah in Jerusalem was amazing. First of all, it was really the first time that I'd gone to synagogue both days, sat through services the whole time, and celebrated with several large meals. Second of all, the entire city of Jerusalem shuts down. There are a few cars on the road, but not very many at all considering it's a big city. Almost all of the stores are closed, and the streets are filled with people walking everywhere dressed in their best. The first night all of Nativ prayed and ate together, which was really great, and the food here was good for the first time. The first day I walked very far to shul with my Yerucham group in order to attend services at the shul where my host family would be. All the Nativers were paired with host families to have us over for lunch. I went to lunch with my friend Jordan and our host family was very nice. The host mom even had a sister who is a professor at Emory and a brother who teaches in Neptune, so that was really cool. Plus they made us pumpkin pie =).
That night we had an open dinner, so Matan, Jason, Josh, Ashley, Keren and I all went to Matan's mom's apartment for dinner. She recently made Aaliyah and lives not far from us. It was most of our first time meeting her. She was SO sweet and reminded me of my mom, which made me miss her very much. Overall though it was a really fun dinner to just be relaxed in a home setting with my closest friends here.
The second day of Rosh Hashanah we went to a shul close by since we were all sick of walking, and then just came back to base for lunch and relaxed. I was really glad that I bought my Machsor since I read the English during a lot of the service to keep me occupied. All in all it was definitely my best Rosh Hashanah yet.
Happy new year!
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Pictures
If you would like to see the pictures from the slideshow on the right larger and with captions, they can be found in my Google Pictures album here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kaleibowitz/Nativ28#
http://picasaweb.google.com/kaleibowitz/Nativ28#
Friday, September 19, 2008
Shabbat Shalom! 3rd Shabbos
Hello everybody! It's been another wonderful week here in Jerusalem and right now all is quiet at Beit Nativ as everyone is napping to prepare for Shabbos.
This week I feel like I really was able to experience a lot. On Tuesday afternoon our Jerusalem class learned about Jesus, and so we went to the room where it is believed that the last supper was held, as well as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was incredible, and hands down one of the coolest places I've ever been in my life. In the church there's the stone where Jesus was laid down after being crucified, as well as the actual spots of his undressing and crucifixion. There were people there from all over the world kissing the stone and lining up to pray in the spot of crucifixion. The entire church is divided into dozens of sections so that each denomination has its own place to pray in the church. At one time, there was so much disunity between the different denominations that no one could decide who would get to be in charge of holding the key to the church. As a result, there's a Muslim family that lives up the street that has been in charge of holding the key to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for years now - which I thought was pretty funny. We saw Franciscan Monks chanting and waving around incense and the Armenian Priests chanting and holding candles. I'd definitely never been exposed to anything like this before, so to me it looked like something out of Da Vinci Code, and it all seemed very foreign, which made me wonder what someone who'd never seen a Jew before would think while looking into the services that we have every morning. Being in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was so cool to me because whether or not anything that is believed to happen there actually happened there doesn't matter, what matters is that where I was standing and what I was seeing was the cause of innumerable events throughout history. It felt very significant.
Tuesday night some of us went to the Taste of Jerusalem Food Festival in town, where we walked around and ate all different kinds of foods from the stands that were set up. There were also some little shops and live music. It was really lovely.
Wednesday in Jerusalem Class we learned about Islam, which was also very interesting. We then toured the Islam section of the Jerusalem Museum at the Tower of David and climbed up to the top of one of the towers for an incredible view of the city.
Last night, Thursday, a bunch of Nativers went to the Jerusalem Philarmonic Symphony. I'd never been to a symphony concert before, and it was a lot cooler than I was expecting it to be. They opened with a single oboe player playing "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav," and they also played HaTikvah. It was really a great evening, seeing everyone dressed up to go out and experience the culture of Jerusalem. I couldn't believe the tickets were free.
This morning I did the usual trip to the shuk and the grocery store to prepare for Shabbos. As much as things are becoming a little more routine now, I'm still so happy to be here and I'm really looking forward to picking my classes for the upcoming semester at HebrewU. I'll be putting up more pictures for everyone soon.
Kari
This week I feel like I really was able to experience a lot. On Tuesday afternoon our Jerusalem class learned about Jesus, and so we went to the room where it is believed that the last supper was held, as well as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was incredible, and hands down one of the coolest places I've ever been in my life. In the church there's the stone where Jesus was laid down after being crucified, as well as the actual spots of his undressing and crucifixion. There were people there from all over the world kissing the stone and lining up to pray in the spot of crucifixion. The entire church is divided into dozens of sections so that each denomination has its own place to pray in the church. At one time, there was so much disunity between the different denominations that no one could decide who would get to be in charge of holding the key to the church. As a result, there's a Muslim family that lives up the street that has been in charge of holding the key to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for years now - which I thought was pretty funny. We saw Franciscan Monks chanting and waving around incense and the Armenian Priests chanting and holding candles. I'd definitely never been exposed to anything like this before, so to me it looked like something out of Da Vinci Code, and it all seemed very foreign, which made me wonder what someone who'd never seen a Jew before would think while looking into the services that we have every morning. Being in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was so cool to me because whether or not anything that is believed to happen there actually happened there doesn't matter, what matters is that where I was standing and what I was seeing was the cause of innumerable events throughout history. It felt very significant.
Tuesday night some of us went to the Taste of Jerusalem Food Festival in town, where we walked around and ate all different kinds of foods from the stands that were set up. There were also some little shops and live music. It was really lovely.
Wednesday in Jerusalem Class we learned about Islam, which was also very interesting. We then toured the Islam section of the Jerusalem Museum at the Tower of David and climbed up to the top of one of the towers for an incredible view of the city.
Last night, Thursday, a bunch of Nativers went to the Jerusalem Philarmonic Symphony. I'd never been to a symphony concert before, and it was a lot cooler than I was expecting it to be. They opened with a single oboe player playing "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav," and they also played HaTikvah. It was really a great evening, seeing everyone dressed up to go out and experience the culture of Jerusalem. I couldn't believe the tickets were free.
This morning I did the usual trip to the shuk and the grocery store to prepare for Shabbos. As much as things are becoming a little more routine now, I'm still so happy to be here and I'm really looking forward to picking my classes for the upcoming semester at HebrewU. I'll be putting up more pictures for everyone soon.
Kari
Monday, September 15, 2008
Week 1 of Mini-Mester
Shalom everybody!
To pick up where I left off last time, after Shabbos ended last Saturday night all the Nativ kids went to the Israel/Switzerland World Cup Qualifying Game outside of Tel Aviv. This was my first ever professional sporting event and it was SO cool. Switzerland was beating Israel 2 to 0, and there were about ten minutes left in the game when Israel scored. Everybody went NUTS and all the Israelis in the crowd were screaming and chanting and just going crazy. Then, in the four minutes of overtime, Israel scored again to tie the game, which was absolutely unbelievable. So overall my first sporting event was very exciting.
Last Sunday morning I started my classes at Hebrew University. Today was my 7th day of class, and I feel like I know SO much more Hebrew than I started with. I learned all the cursive letters and wrote an entire letter in Hebrew (with only a few revisions). Hebrew is a very easy language, because all the spelling is phonetical and there aren't any linking verbs like is/are/etc. My friends in my Ulpan class and I have started using little Hebrew phrases in every day language and I can really feel that I'm learning a lot. We have two different teachers, each of which teach 2.5 days every week, because here they believe that for learning a language it's better to be exposed to two different teaching styles and accents, which I found really interesting and also helps to break up the monotony of having twenty hours of a single class every week.
Three days last week I also had my Jerusalem class, which consists of a one hour lecture and two hour field trip every time. Although the lectures can be a little bit confusing, the touring is always incredibly interesting. So far we've toured the old city and the city of David. During the tour of the city of David, we hiked through Hezekiah's tunnels, which I did last year on pilgrimage. These tunnels were used during the First Temple Period to bring water into the old city. Hiking through them consists of walking through a pitch black, very narrow tunnel that's filled knee high with water for about thirty minutes. It's a really cool experience even though we had to sing the whole way to keep me from freaking out. The touring around Jerusalem is always amazing to me, because in America when you see historical sites they're old if they've been around for 300 years. Here buildings are 1000 and 2000 years old. And although we all know not to take the Bible as an actual historical document, it's very interesting to look around and be able to point and say "This is where King David did such-and-such" or "This verse of the Bible took place here."
On Thursday we had a ceremony and watched United 93 in honor of September 11th. We were all really happy to be honoring that day even though we're not in America at the moment.
Later Thursday night, since there's no class on Friday and you can't go out on Friday night, we had a party on the roof of one of our dorm buildings hosted by the Nativ kids that live up there. It was a lot of fun to just hang out on base with each other. I really think we have a great group of people on Nativ 28.
This Shabbat was the first open Shabbat, so many Nativers went away for the weekend. However I, with a few of my friends, elected to stay on base for a relaxing Shabbos instead. On Friday I went to the shuk, a sort of outdoor market, and bought all sorts of good food for Shabbat, including amazing freshly made chocolate rugaleh, a pomegranate, my favorite Israeli mint lemonade, and delicious guacamole. There weren't very many people left on base for Shabbat, so we went to Friday night services and then slept in on Saturday. Saturday we were invited to the apartment of one of our former USY staff members for lunch, which was SO nice because it was the best food I've had since arriving in Israel. It was also nice to just spend a Shabbat relaxing and eating and catching up on sleep.
Lastly, I want to say a huge Mazel Tov to Emmy and the Jeffreys on Emily's Bat Mitzvah! I was very sad I couldn't be there but I know she was amazing and everyone had a great time, and everyone looked gorgeous in the pictures I saw.
Love you all!
Kari
To pick up where I left off last time, after Shabbos ended last Saturday night all the Nativ kids went to the Israel/Switzerland World Cup Qualifying Game outside of Tel Aviv. This was my first ever professional sporting event and it was SO cool. Switzerland was beating Israel 2 to 0, and there were about ten minutes left in the game when Israel scored. Everybody went NUTS and all the Israelis in the crowd were screaming and chanting and just going crazy. Then, in the four minutes of overtime, Israel scored again to tie the game, which was absolutely unbelievable. So overall my first sporting event was very exciting.
Last Sunday morning I started my classes at Hebrew University. Today was my 7th day of class, and I feel like I know SO much more Hebrew than I started with. I learned all the cursive letters and wrote an entire letter in Hebrew (with only a few revisions). Hebrew is a very easy language, because all the spelling is phonetical and there aren't any linking verbs like is/are/etc. My friends in my Ulpan class and I have started using little Hebrew phrases in every day language and I can really feel that I'm learning a lot. We have two different teachers, each of which teach 2.5 days every week, because here they believe that for learning a language it's better to be exposed to two different teaching styles and accents, which I found really interesting and also helps to break up the monotony of having twenty hours of a single class every week.
Three days last week I also had my Jerusalem class, which consists of a one hour lecture and two hour field trip every time. Although the lectures can be a little bit confusing, the touring is always incredibly interesting. So far we've toured the old city and the city of David. During the tour of the city of David, we hiked through Hezekiah's tunnels, which I did last year on pilgrimage. These tunnels were used during the First Temple Period to bring water into the old city. Hiking through them consists of walking through a pitch black, very narrow tunnel that's filled knee high with water for about thirty minutes. It's a really cool experience even though we had to sing the whole way to keep me from freaking out. The touring around Jerusalem is always amazing to me, because in America when you see historical sites they're old if they've been around for 300 years. Here buildings are 1000 and 2000 years old. And although we all know not to take the Bible as an actual historical document, it's very interesting to look around and be able to point and say "This is where King David did such-and-such" or "This verse of the Bible took place here."
On Thursday we had a ceremony and watched United 93 in honor of September 11th. We were all really happy to be honoring that day even though we're not in America at the moment.
Later Thursday night, since there's no class on Friday and you can't go out on Friday night, we had a party on the roof of one of our dorm buildings hosted by the Nativ kids that live up there. It was a lot of fun to just hang out on base with each other. I really think we have a great group of people on Nativ 28.
This Shabbat was the first open Shabbat, so many Nativers went away for the weekend. However I, with a few of my friends, elected to stay on base for a relaxing Shabbos instead. On Friday I went to the shuk, a sort of outdoor market, and bought all sorts of good food for Shabbat, including amazing freshly made chocolate rugaleh, a pomegranate, my favorite Israeli mint lemonade, and delicious guacamole. There weren't very many people left on base for Shabbat, so we went to Friday night services and then slept in on Saturday. Saturday we were invited to the apartment of one of our former USY staff members for lunch, which was SO nice because it was the best food I've had since arriving in Israel. It was also nice to just spend a Shabbat relaxing and eating and catching up on sleep.
Lastly, I want to say a huge Mazel Tov to Emmy and the Jeffreys on Emily's Bat Mitzvah! I was very sad I couldn't be there but I know she was amazing and everyone had a great time, and everyone looked gorgeous in the pictures I saw.
Love you all!
Kari
Friday, September 5, 2008
First Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom! It's day four of my experience on Nativ 28 and I'm just overwhelmed with loving it. It's been very busy so far, thus the lack of posts, but although I'm keeping Shabbat by not using my cell phone, skyping, or iming, this is the perfect rest period for me to update all of you.
The flight was good, I slept the whole way. The first night in Jerusalem we weren't allowed to go out, so we all took the time to go to sleep early and get rid of our jet lag. On Wednesday we had ice breakers with our groups, as well as services, meals, and a tour of Jerusalem. The groups are based on what tracks you're doing (of which there are three choices) and my group is Yerucham, since that's where I'll be volunteering next semester. I really love all of the people in my group, and it's a good mix of friends I already had (like Ashley) and people I'd never met before. Wednesday night was our first night out, and I went to a bar and a dance club with some of my friends; it was an amazing time. On Thursday we had our Hebrew University orientation, during which we received our student IDs and our mini-mester schedules.
The mini-mester is strictly for Nativ students and goes from this Sunday to the end of September. It was designed to give Nativ students more transfer credit. My schedule is Ulpan, or Hebrew language, Sunday through Thursday from 9 AM to 1 PM, and then three days a week I also have a history of Jerusalem course that goes from 2 PM to 5 PM. For the mini-mester, Nativ provides buses to and from HebrewU since we all begin and end class at the same time, although not everyone takes the same classes. On Thursday we also took a tour of the campus, and HebrewU is much prettier than I expected. There are a lot of open lawn areas and gardens surrounded by buildings, and the entire campus sits on top of a mountain overlooking Jerusalem.
Last night we went out again, although I took a break from drinking, and I had another awesome time. Although I was in Israel last summer, we weren't even allowed to go to the supermarket across the street without a staff member, so being able to walk around by ourselves and do whatever we want is an amazing feeling. I also had my first frozen yogurt, shoko bisakeet (chocolate milk in a bag - delicious!) and falafel yesterday, all of which I had been looking forward to for some time.
As far as my dorm room goes, it's pretty small compared to others here, but still bigger than many that I've seen at colleges in America. My roommate is from Chicago and her name is Becky, and she's a great roommate - we both stay out late and sleep late, and we also agree on many other roommate issues, such as drinking and using the computer on Shabbos. We lofted our beds to give ourselves more room, so we both sleep on top bunks. We left one bottom bunk so we could sit and relax while using the computer and so we could have guests sleep over, and we hope to buy some plastic shelving units to go under the other lofted bed, since we have very limited closet/drawer space.
Today was our first Shabbat, something we have all really been looking forward to. It definitely lived up to our expectations. We walked to a random patio that overlooked the old city, and we prayed, sang, and danced as a group. We also then had a wonderful dinner on base and afterwards a lot of us hung out on the roof and played board games.
More than once during each day, I feel totally overwhelmed with happiness. And as much as I miss everyone at home and wish they were here, it doesn't make me sad because I'm just too busy being so completely happy. I know 100% that coming to Israel this year was the right choice for me and that everything else can wait til I come home. It feels like I've already been here for months. I'm excited to start classes on Sunday and continue meeting new people. I know that the next nine months are going to be some of the most amazing times of my life.
Love you all!
Kari
The flight was good, I slept the whole way. The first night in Jerusalem we weren't allowed to go out, so we all took the time to go to sleep early and get rid of our jet lag. On Wednesday we had ice breakers with our groups, as well as services, meals, and a tour of Jerusalem. The groups are based on what tracks you're doing (of which there are three choices) and my group is Yerucham, since that's where I'll be volunteering next semester. I really love all of the people in my group, and it's a good mix of friends I already had (like Ashley) and people I'd never met before. Wednesday night was our first night out, and I went to a bar and a dance club with some of my friends; it was an amazing time. On Thursday we had our Hebrew University orientation, during which we received our student IDs and our mini-mester schedules.
The mini-mester is strictly for Nativ students and goes from this Sunday to the end of September. It was designed to give Nativ students more transfer credit. My schedule is Ulpan, or Hebrew language, Sunday through Thursday from 9 AM to 1 PM, and then three days a week I also have a history of Jerusalem course that goes from 2 PM to 5 PM. For the mini-mester, Nativ provides buses to and from HebrewU since we all begin and end class at the same time, although not everyone takes the same classes. On Thursday we also took a tour of the campus, and HebrewU is much prettier than I expected. There are a lot of open lawn areas and gardens surrounded by buildings, and the entire campus sits on top of a mountain overlooking Jerusalem.
Last night we went out again, although I took a break from drinking, and I had another awesome time. Although I was in Israel last summer, we weren't even allowed to go to the supermarket across the street without a staff member, so being able to walk around by ourselves and do whatever we want is an amazing feeling. I also had my first frozen yogurt, shoko bisakeet (chocolate milk in a bag - delicious!) and falafel yesterday, all of which I had been looking forward to for some time.
As far as my dorm room goes, it's pretty small compared to others here, but still bigger than many that I've seen at colleges in America. My roommate is from Chicago and her name is Becky, and she's a great roommate - we both stay out late and sleep late, and we also agree on many other roommate issues, such as drinking and using the computer on Shabbos. We lofted our beds to give ourselves more room, so we both sleep on top bunks. We left one bottom bunk so we could sit and relax while using the computer and so we could have guests sleep over, and we hope to buy some plastic shelving units to go under the other lofted bed, since we have very limited closet/drawer space.
Today was our first Shabbat, something we have all really been looking forward to. It definitely lived up to our expectations. We walked to a random patio that overlooked the old city, and we prayed, sang, and danced as a group. We also then had a wonderful dinner on base and afterwards a lot of us hung out on the roof and played board games.
More than once during each day, I feel totally overwhelmed with happiness. And as much as I miss everyone at home and wish they were here, it doesn't make me sad because I'm just too busy being so completely happy. I know 100% that coming to Israel this year was the right choice for me and that everything else can wait til I come home. It feels like I've already been here for months. I'm excited to start classes on Sunday and continue meeting new people. I know that the next nine months are going to be some of the most amazing times of my life.
Love you all!
Kari
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Pre-Israel Post
Friends and Family: Welcome to my blog! Over the next year, I hope to document my adventures here in order to satisfy all of your curiosities regarding what exactly I'll be doing in Israel. For those of you who aren't sure, the program I'm doing is called the Nativ College Leadership Program in Israel, and it's run by United Synagogue Youth, the Conservative youth movement. There are 116 kids going on this program with me, plus staff, and I do have quite a few friends going with me as well, which makes leaving home much easier. For the first half of the year I will be living in Jerusalem in the Fuchsberg Center dorms while taking classes at the Rothberg International School at Hebrew University. For the second half of the year I will be living in a small village called Yerucham and volunteering. I've arranged so my credits will transfer, and with those credits plus the AP credits I have, I'll be able to graduate Emory in three years after entering as a freshman in the fall of 2009.
I want to thank all the family that came to see us this morning, it definitely meant a lot to me to be able to spend one last day with my whole family before I leave. My family, immediate and extended, has been outstanding in supporting me and the decision I've made. There's no way I would be able to go without them. And a big happy sixteenth birthday to Marcus!
I can't believe I'm already leaving tomorrow, but I'm sure in the blink of an eye I'll be saying "I can't believe I'm going home already." I'm a little scared and definitely sad about leaving home, but overall I'm just excited and I do know that it's going to be a great year. I'm infinitely lucky to be able to have such amazing opportunities.
Talk to you from the Holy Land!
Love,
Kari
I want to thank all the family that came to see us this morning, it definitely meant a lot to me to be able to spend one last day with my whole family before I leave. My family, immediate and extended, has been outstanding in supporting me and the decision I've made. There's no way I would be able to go without them. And a big happy sixteenth birthday to Marcus!
I can't believe I'm already leaving tomorrow, but I'm sure in the blink of an eye I'll be saying "I can't believe I'm going home already." I'm a little scared and definitely sad about leaving home, but overall I'm just excited and I do know that it's going to be a great year. I'm infinitely lucky to be able to have such amazing opportunities.
Talk to you from the Holy Land!
Love,
Kari
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