Northern Tiyul

Once we arrived home from Jacob’s Ladder, we showered, did some last minute packing, slept for about 5 hours, and then were on the bus at 7:15 the following morning to leave for Northern Tiyul. Because Yerucham is very far south, it took us a very long time to get up north – which was fine by me, because I slept for most of the bus ride.

When we arrived up north, we split into groups based on a survey we had filled out the week before in which we selected which activities we’d like to do that day. My group headed off to the Druze village for lunch. Druze are an Arab minority in Israel, but they’re their own religion and actually a very interesting people. They believe strongly in reincarnation, and at the age of 15 young Druze have to choose between a religious life and a secular life. If they choose religious, they are allowed no fun – no music, DVDs, drinking, or parties, ever. If they choose secular, they are never allowed to pray or step foot into a house of worship again. Also, the price for marrying a non-Druze is strict excommunication, where you’re cut off from your family and community for life. While we learned about this, we were served a traditional, delicious Druze lunch, consisting of flavored pita and many small dishes served family-style on a huge tray for groups of five.

After lunch our visit at the Druze village was over and we headed over to Caesaria for a tour. Caesaria is an ancient port city that today is home to a wealth of luxurious vacation homes and fancy restaurants. We had a tour that was fairly boring but we all enjoyed the sunshine and being next to the water, and we even got a little bit of free time to play on the beach.

We got back to our youth hostel where we would be spending the night, ate dinner, and settled down. I roomed with Ashley, Becky, and Sarah – as much as we try and branch out sometimes our apartment can’t help but end up together. We played a few rounds of taboo and then got to bed fairly early, since we would be starting in the wee hours of the morn the following day.

The next day started off with a hike that was really more of an easy walk that only took an hour or two. After that the girls donned sleeves and skirts in preparation for our tour of Tzfat. Tzfat is one of my favorite cities in Israel, and is an extremely religious town famous for an especially large population of Kabbalistic mystics. Much of what we talked about in my first semester class “Intro to Jewish Mysticism” centered around writings or prophets that originated in Tzfat. We had a brief tour of the city and then we had free time, during which I explored the artists’ quarter. I also took this time to buy myself something special (Dad doesn’t actually know about this part yet…), since living here for so long means that we rarely make touristy purchases anymore. Those of you that know me probably know that I always wear the same gold necklace, never taking it off. It just has a simple gold Jewish star, and Grandma and Grandpa gave it to me who knows how long ago, and I haven’t taken it off since before my Bat Mitzvah. I decided it might be nice to find something else to go on that necklace from my year in Israel, especially from Tzfat. So after hunting awhile I found a very pretty gold filigree “Chai” (life in Hebrew) charm that I bought and put on my necklace…for me it was just very appropriate to have something from Israel to wear all the time with my Jewish star.

That night we went to our new youth hostel, where we would be staying for the remainder of the week. This hostel was GORGEOUS – all white stone, right on the Kinneret, with an open-air courtyard in the center. I roomed with Misha, Emily, and my friend Ilana, and we all enjoyed leaving the windows open and looking outside at the Kinneret. That night, after dinner, we had a bonfire for Lag B’Omer (the day in the middle of the holiday the omer on which you can do all sorts of things, like shave and have a wedding, that you can’t do during the Omer). It was really fun and we all enjoyed just hanging out with each other and relaxing after our day.

The next morning started off with a choice of hikes. I chose the hard one, and it was a really nice hike that had a lot of climbing over boulders and navigating through a dry riverbed, which is always fun. Misha and I enjoyed hiking up front with Yossi and playing one of our favorite hikings games: ‘would you rather’ (example: “Yossi, would you rather be covered in birdseed in a park with a lot of pigeons or have to eat pudding with every meal for the rest of your life?”). Yossi is surprisingly good at thinking up questions for that game. The hard hike truthfully wasn’t that hard, there was only about ten minutes of uphill at the end, and after Yam L’Yam nothing looks too hard anymore, especially not when you couple it with the fact that at the end of the hike there’s a lovely air-conditioned bus waiting for me, and I never have to try and figure out where I’m supposed to go next and how I’m going to get there.

After the hike, we had a quick lunch and then went to the Golan Winery, where we got a tour of the building, a lesson on wine-making, and a wine-tasting session, which we all enjoyed very much. After that we jumped back on the bus and drove over to the Jordan river for rafting. There were four to six people in a raft, and the rules were very carefully explained to us at the beginning: no getting out and swimming, no standing up, no splashing other people with the paddles, no jumping from raft to raft. It only took about thirty seconds of being on the river unsupervised before war broke out. I was thrown in the water trying to stop another boat from taking Emily, I watched Misha brutally jump on another boat and pick up a girl much smaller then her and chuck her overboard, and I watched Ashley jump in another raft, grab the paddle, and yell “GUYS I’VE GOT ANOTHER RAFT, NOW WE’RE A FLEET!!!” Everyone was being splashed, thrown overboard, or jumping from boat to boat. It was only minimally dangerous and a TON of fun.

After everyone had a chance to dry off a little bit it was back on the bus to our hostel, where we had a quick dinner and then promptly left again for the hot springs in Tiberias. We arrived at the spa, which had both an indoor and an outdoor full sized swimming pool filled with warm, green sulphur water. After lounging around in those for a little while, we would jump out and run over to the regular swimming pool to cool down. At this point in the year we really just enjoy all being together, so we had a good time just splashing around and alternating between the sulphur pools, the regular pool, and the sauna. After that it was the end of a very long, but very fun, day.
The following day was the hike that most of us had been waiting for all week – the water hike. We didn’t know very much about it, except that we could only take things that we didn’t mind getting wet, since all of our stuff would be soaking by the end of the day. The majority of people chose this hike, even though it was the hard one, so we had quite a large group, but Misha and I vowed to stay in front the whole time regardless. The hike began with a steep descent into a valley, where we were met right away by a tumbling waterfall that fed into a clear stream. The hike was extremely beautiful, and Misha and I played our various hiking games as we walked along. After a short while, the group came to a stop as we had reached our first ladder. Being near the front, Misha and I were somewhere around the fourth and fifth people to descend. The ladder was metal and was connected directly to the side of a steep cliff, and about 25 rungs down was nothing but water. We descended, backpacks and all, jumped into the cold water, and swam across the large pool to reach the rocks and the continuation of the hiking trail on the other side – there was no other way to get across. For the entire group to do this took a little under two hours, so we had plenty of time to lay in the sun and dry off while we waited for the rest of the group to descend and swim. We then continued hiking for a little while (luckily it was sunny and the perfect amount of warm so we dried quickly) before we came to the next pool. At this pool there were handles inserted into the rock wall and you had to maneuver yourself around the edge of a cliff, with a huge pounding waterfall below you to your right. Being right up front, Misha and I were the first Nativers to navigate the rock and come out by the pools on the other side, which were appropriately named the “Pools of Paradise.” In addition to a large waterfall that led into the pool, one side of the pool was flanked by a steep rock wall, from which dripped large droplets of water, rather like a shower spray. There was moss everywhere, and you could go stand on the rocks under this shower or even behind it. When Misha and I first arrived there, I immediately said “Let’s go swimming!” It was at this point that Yossi pointed to a rock some twenty feet above the water and said “jump.” I looked at him nervously, hesitated for a second, and then before I could think about it too much, I jumped. It was SO MUCH FUN! Soon everyone else was coming around the bend and jumping into the water, and we spent about two hours there swimming, jumping in, standing under the spray, and lounging on rocks in the sun. It really made sense to me why it was called the Pools of Paradise. After that there was just one more pool we had to swim through, although this time most of us opted for jumping in rather than using the ladder. The hike then finished with a steep uphill out of the valley that left us all tired but feeling accomplished. I can easily say that this was the coolest, most fun hike I ever did.

That night, sick of hostel food, we were given stipend for dinner and two free hours in Tiberias. Since that day was Keren’s birthday, about 14 girls ended up going out for dinner to celebrate at a Thai restaurant on the pier of the Kinneret. The food was delicious, and we ordered Keren cheesecake complete with a sparkler. I think that she had a really nice evening, and it was great that all the groups were together so that we could all celebrate with her.

The next morning started off with a meeting with Yossi in which we discussed some of the logistics for packing and leaving our respective locations for Jerusalem, which was nothing but depressing for me. Although sometimes I can’t wait to go home and see my family and friends (and eat pancakes at the diner), it’s always sad for me to think about leaving Israel, especially since I don’t know when I’ll be coming back next. After the talk we gathered our things and boarded the buses for our final activity of tiyul – swimming in the Sachne pools. These pools were GORGEOUS, a huge park with giant pools of sparkling blue, warm water, complete with stone steps, ledges, caves, and even a few waterfalls. It was perfect weather out, and we all enjoyed eating outdoors, swimming, and relaxing. It was a perfect ending to what had been a really amazing tiyul: something I will definitely remember as one of the highlights of my Nativ experience.

Jacob's Ladder

After the week of Israel Advocacy, it was our last free weekend (I know, your brain is exploding that this year is already almost over...don't worry, mine is too). As all the Nativers vowed to make the most of it, Misha, Kesha and I had already had our plans figured out for quite some time. Misha's cousins, including Raya, together form "The Epstein Family Singers." This Jewish VonTrapp quintet consists of Misha's uncle, her cousin Yoni who is 28, Raya, her cousin Rina who is 22, and her cousin Avital who is 10. They sing some traditional Hebrew songs and a little bit of folk music. When we found out, months ago, that they were to be performing at a 3-day music festival in the north, we decided we simply had to go see them.

The festival at which they were to perform was called Jacob's Ladder, and is a folk music festival that attracts mostly English-speakers and is held north of Tiberias on the Kinneret. We were all really excited to go, until we found out that the cost of the three day pass was about 350 shekels - over $75, which was money we definitely didn't have. However, Misha's aunt told us that there are volunteers who work there and get free admission. We quickly called the people in charge and signed up to be volunteers - we were to work two six hour shifts each in exchange for a free ticket, two free meals, and a free t-shirt.

Loaded up with a tent, sleeping bags, clothes, and food for the weekend, we left bright and early Thursday morning - we caught a bus to Be'er Sheva that left Yerucham at 5:30 AM to be exact. We had to be up north by 1:00, since that was when our shift started, so we had no choice but to leave at that ungodly hour. After switching buses in Be'er Sheva and again in Jerusalem, we finally made it to Tiberias around noon. By that time, Misha had made a friend on the bus: an old lady who was also going to Jacob's Ladder. The four of us shared a cab to the camp site and then said goodbye, as we had to go report for duty. While we had hoped to be working together, our minimal Hebrew skills ensured that we had to be split up and paired with Hebrew-speaking strangers. We were each given neon vests that made us look very official, like security. I was given the job of gatekeeper, meaning I had to stand at one of the gates that cars could go through. Only guests of the hotel or people with certain privileges could go through this gate, so the girl I was working with and I were in charge of making sure that the people attempting to pass through the gate had the right documents, and turning them around if they didn't. However, with my limited Hebrew, I was unable to ask most drivers for their information or why they were attempting to park in the hotel parking lot, so I was in charge of lifting and lowering the gate while the girl I worked with spoke to all the drivers. Although I did get a nice tan, and the girl I was working with was really sweet, I was pretty much over working after about two hours, despite the fact that I had four hours after that. Needless to say, it was a very long day, especially considering what time we had woken up that morning.

When our shift FINALLY ended, we decided to walk around and check out the festival. There was a pool, a beach that led into the Kinneret, a main stage, a smaller side stage, and a lot of various places where people were selling food or crafts. There were also tents EVERYWHERE, so we were glad that we got there early and claimed a good spot. After we did some exploring and used our food coupons to get dinner, Misha's cousins arrived, so we helped them set up their tents next to ours, and we actually had a very nice area with a mat in the middle for all of us to hang out on. That night the actual concerts started, so we laid down our blankets - Misha's cousins, old pros at this, managed to get us a spot right up front. There was strawberry red wine and snacks, and after our long day of work it was really nice to just be able to lay down and relax in the middle of the huge crowd and listen to the music. A lot of the music there isn't what I'd normally listen to, but there were a lot of talented musicians and performers so it was really interesting to see them from so close up.

One of the coolest things about the festival is that everyone was really friendly. It's definitely an open community of like minded people who just want to celebrate for a weekend, and there are a lot of impromptu jam sessions that take place in random spots. Knowing this, when Kesha and I were sitting outside of our tents and smelled some coffee, we decided to follow our noses and invite ourselves to partake. The tent ended up being right next to ours, and we introduced ourselves, told them our story and were invited to sit down. There were three guys a little older than us, all soldiers in the army, and one of them even knew Misha's cousin. We sat around and drank coffee while one of them played the guitar, and it was really nice. What always shocks me about kids like this is that I'll be talking to them for a while, and they're just like me, totally normal, really nice, and then we'll start talking about the army. And when I asked one of the guys what he did in the army, his answer was "Oh, I'm an engineering commander and I'm in charge of all the mine fields from here to the Golan." It's just so crazy to me that this nondescript kid my age is a huge hotshot in the army...I was just like, "Oh. I'm intimidated."

So after a lovely night of falling asleep in our tent to the sounds of the concert that drifted our way from the main stage, we woke up fairly early so that we would have time to hang out before our next shift, which was again at 1:00. After a light breakfast we immediately changed into our bathing suits and headed down to the Kinneret to get some swim and sun time in. We put our chairs in the water and all three of us enjoyed some time just reading our books in the sun with our feet in the Kinneret. Sadly, before we knew it, it was time to go back to work. None of us were particularly looking forward to it. I was assigned the same job, however today I was working with two other girls instead of just one, so we rotated so that every three hours we got a one hour break, which was really nice, especially since on my break I got to spend some time by the pool. However, even though it was much less busy than on Thursday so I even got to read during my shift, it was a lot harder to be at work with all of Misha's cousins there hanging out and the festival in full swing. We were all very grateful by the time 6:00 rolled around. 6:30 was when The Epstein Family Singers were set to perform, so we quickly rushed over to the performance area and took our seats near the front. Misha's family was performing the Kabbalat Shabbat session, which is the service that ushers in Shabbat on Friday afternoon. They sang a bunch of really nice songs and encouraged the audience to sing along, which most people did gladly. They then made Kiddush over the wine and said Motzi over the bread and their set was finished. The best part of it was that you could tell they were really having fun performing.

After the performance we set up some tables and chairs by the stage and pulled out everyone's random assortment of food for Shabbat dinner. It was a simple, lovely meal just because everyone was so obviously happy to be there and enjoying themselves, and toasts were given all around. After dinner we spent some more time laying on the blankets by the stage, and I was so exhausted from my day in the sun that I even managed to fall asleep there in the middle of the crowd while the concert was going on, which caused me to get made fun of by my friends.

The next morning we woke up extremely happy to be done with work and completely free for the day. We spent most of our time swimming in the Kinneret or reading on its bank, but we also did some looking around at all the crafts for sale and listening to the music on our blankets. However, the day was soon over as we had to take the first bus that left Tiberias after Shabbat in the hopes of getting to Yerucham at a semi-reasonable hour. Thus we had to start packing up around 4:00. Usually at the end of trips like this I'm really ready to leave, but at the end of Jacob's Ladder I definitely felt like I could've stayed for another day or two. Regardless, it was definitely the best way I could've imagined spending my last free weekend.

Shabbat in Modi'in, Gan Dinner, and Israel Advocacy

The weekend after all the holidays came quickly, since we only had one day of volunteering in between. Kesha, Misha and I made our way back to Jerusalem where we had a lovely Shabbos dinner at Raya’s with Raya, her brother, her boyfriend, her mother, and her stepdad. Additionally, on Raya’s weekend in Yerucham she ended up adopting the MOST adorable little puppy that we found on the street, so it was great to be able to play with Mushy (yes that is his name) some more. Dinner was, as usual, excellent and filled with great company. After dinner we hopped in the car with Misha’s aunt and step-uncle, and they took us back to Modi’in, where we were to spend the remainder of Shabbat. Modi’in is a really cute town, and very America-like, which is probably why I, and Misha’s aunt, who is originally from the States, felt so comfortable there. Misha’s aunt’s apartment was really beautiful and very comfortable to stay in. The next day we woke up fairly late, ate a leisurely breakfast, and then left for lunch.

We had arranged to eat lunch at Yossi’s house (he’s our director), since he also lives in Modi’in and is well known for being great about letting Nativers have meals or even spend entire Shabbats at his house. It was about a half hour’s walk from Misha’s aunt’s house, and when we got there we were met by three other Nativers, two of whom were staying at his house for Shabbat and one of whom was in Modi’in with family, like us. Lunch was a LOT of fun – Yossi has three adorable little boys and his wife Jen (who was also a Nativer once) is so sweet. We ate a ton of great food (Yossi is a great cook and the Nativers who were staying there had made cookies and a cake with the kids the day before) and talked all about this year’s Nativ and even about what next year’s Nativ is looking like. It was a great meal and I was really glad that we had a chance to visit Yossi at his home and spend some time with him and his family before the end of the year.

We then headed back to Misha’s aunt’s for some relaxed reading and nap time. Before we knew it, the afternoon was over and Shabbat had ended. We made a quick trip to the local ice cream shop and then caught a bus home, where we prepared ourselves to go back to work – at least for a day or two.

The following day, Sunday, was Kesha’s birthday, so after a celebratory dinner with all the Yerucham girls we headed over to Be’er Sheva, since Yerucham is distinctly lacking in any place to celebrate a birthday. There we met up with some of the Be’er Sheva Nativers and all went out to a bar, where the live performer ended up singing happy birthday to Kesha from onstage, which was really silly.

That week was the last week of volunteering, so Monday night all the gan teachers of the thirteen gans in Yerucham had a dinner to thank all of us for volunteering. Unfortunately, Buruyah couldn’t make it that night because she had a family obligation, but she told me how sorry she was that she couldn’t make it and Etie came and sat next to me the whole time. It started with a presentation in which every gannenet called up her gan’s volunteer and gave a little speech about them. We were all presented with Yerucham keychains and pins, and it was really really nice – you could tell that they were very appreciative of all of our help and that every kid loved their gan and every gan loved their Nativer. That was followed by a hodgepodge of deliciousness – the potluck dinner that had been prepared by all the gannenets. After that we went into the auditorium to watch a movie that we all thought would be a five-minute powerpoint about the gans in Yerucham, but which ended up being a full-length feature film about one of those inexperienced teachers that comes in to teach the hopeless hooligans and ends up changing all of their lives and his own, which was only slightly ridiculous because even though we got the point none of us really did anything like that in Yerucham. Despite the very lengthy movie, it was a great evening and it made us all feel really good about the work we’ve done here – even though for most of us it never felt like we did that much in the first place. Because even though I know that my gannenets were extremely thankful I was there to help out I always felt like the gan gave more to me than I could ever give back in return.

The following day, Tuesday, began our two day Israel Advocacy Seminar. The first day was spent together with the Be’er Sheva group in Dimona, while the second day took place by ourselves in Yerucham. Nativ hired a group called “The David Project” to come in and lecture and do activities with us for two days. The David Project specializes in helping kids learn how to combat anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian attitudes and activities on college campuses throughout the states. We had several lectures on how Israel is portrayed in the media, a debate, and even a mock case study where we were broken into groups and given a scenario in which we had to plan a pro-Israel program. Although at times we felt that the clear bias bordered on propaganda, it was still extremely useful and gave us a lot of good information that we all will be able to use on our campuses next year. Additionally, we watched a documentary about the disengagement which was really good and really interesting. The disengagement was in the summer of 2005 and stemmed from the Prime Minister’s decision to withdraw from Gaza, a place where the Arab to Jewish population ratio made it clear that Jews would never be in the majority there. In doing so, thousands of Jews were forcefully pulled from their homes and forced to relocate. Israeli soldiers were instructed to remove by force all those who were not willing to leave their homes, and this process of Jews fighting Jews caused a lot of controversy all over the country, and the prime minister’s decision still sparks debate to this day. The documentary, called “Unsettled,” did an excellent job portraying both sides of the issue and helped me to understand the disengagement much better than I had before.

Yom HaZicharon and Yom Ha'Atzmaout

Going back to work was, as usual, a ton of fun – it’s always nice to feel missed, and 32 five year olds will certainly do a good job of saying hello after a three-week absence. After break, things soon fell into their business-as-usual routine. After our work week ended on Thursday, a few of us from my apartment decided to head over to Be’er Sheva for the evening. I had told Ava and her friends that I would meet her at a club there that night, so after going over and hanging out at the Nativ apartments for a little a whole group of us headed out to “The Forum.” It was a pretty big, pretty crazy dance club, and there were so many people there that I ended up only seeing Ava for a little. But all the Nativ kids stuck together and we had a really good time just dancing with each other.

The Shabbat following Pesach break I had really wanted to go away but couldn’t find anywhere to go, which was the same situation as four of my other roommates, so the five of us ended up just spending Shabbat in Yerucham. Becky’s younger brother, who is in Israel on a high school program for a few months, came with a friend for the weekend, as did Misha’s cousin Raya (the one I’m constantly staying with in Jerusalem), so we had a very full house. On Friday night a few of us went to an Indian shul – there’s actually a pretty large Jewish Indian population in Yerucham – where there was a really beautiful service. Following that, most of the people who were in town for the weekend were meeting for dinner at the girls’ house, so I headed over there for a lovely Shabbat meal. There were about twenty of us there – this weekend had originally been scheduled as a closed Shabbat and then changed last minute, which is perhaps why there were so many people in Yerucham. And although I had wanted to go away, sometimes it’s really nice to just have a relaxed Shabbat at home, especially when there are so many people around for company. The following day, for Saturday lunch, Kesha and I went to my gannenet’s house – Etie, not the one that had us over for Pesach. Etie lives in a really cute house with her daughter and two of her grandkids – one of whom is in Sarah’s gan and one of whom is one of the nicest most adorable little girls I’ve ever met. Lunch was really nice, although it was quite a challenge with mine and Kesha’s limited Hebrew. But Etie’s grandson, Nachman, asked us a lot of simple questions that luckily we were able to answer. Etie is Moroccan, so the food was delicious, and I spent the latter half of the meal with her granddaughter, Malka, on my lap, drinking tea while she played with my hair. It was a great meal and I had a lot of fun, and I was really glad that I got a chance to go over there for a meal before I leave Yerucham – especially since Etie invited me at least once a week.

That week, the week following Yom HaShoah, brought two very different, back to back holidays: Yom HaZicharon and Yom Ha’Atzmaout. Yom HaZicharon is Israel’s Memorial Day, but it couldn’t be more different than Memorial Day in America. There’s no 3 day weekend or big sales. Yom HaZicharon is absolutely the most difficult day of the year for Israeli society – described by our director Yossi as “An open wound in the heart of Israel.” Those we are remembering aren’t long-gone soldiers from the days of WWII – they’re bright eyed kids my age who were killed in battle recently, and whose peers continue to fight and die in the never-ending struggle that is the existence of the state of Israel. This is a day when parents mourn their lost children and children mourn their lost friends. Monday night was ushered in with another two minutes of silence sounded by a siren all over the country, and then we had a small service, just Nativ, outside in Yerucham. We saw pictures of all the fallen soldiers who were from Yerucham, and Nativers read poems and stories. We also heard from Eyal and Elkana, our Israeli staff who have served in the army. The Israeli mindset continues to amaze me, for many reasons, but especially just because it’s so far removed from the American mindset. Here, people just know how to prioritize. Nobody takes the land and the homes that we have here for granted, because our youth is still fighting and dying for it, all the time. In Israel, people know how to celebrate life, and to fight for what’s really worth fighting for. When I was in Arad, I met a kid my age who has been in the army for a few months now. And we had a conversation about how much he hates it – about how he hates waking up, and running miles, and always being cold and never sleeping and only going home once every three weeks. And yet he chooses to be in that combat unit, when he could easily be doing a desk job because of his asthma, a job that would let him go home every weekend and would be much less physically grueling. But even though he’s totally miserable and hates it so much, he still chooses to be in the combat unit, because he really believes what he’s fighting for – and that kind of overpowering belief that would compel someone to do something that makes them completely miserable is just so foreign to me as an American teenager. And hearing from our staff, they all say the same thing – that you hate the army while you’re in it, but when you’re finished you’re just so unbelievably proud and you know that with your unit is where you belong.

For the next day, all of Nativ went together to Jerusalem and in the morning we all met at Har Hertzel, the national cemetery of Israel’s fallen soldiers. It was absolutely swarming with people – like Disneyland on the 4th of July or something. It’s a really huge and slightly confusing cemetery as is, so it was pretty overwhelming with all those people there. At the front entrance they give out water bottles and flowers for everyone to lay on the graves. Ashley, Emily and I just walked around and each tried to find a grave without any other flowers on it in an attempt to salvage some meaning out of the confusion around us. There was also a ceremony there that morning with another siren-moment of silence. Even though it was hard for me to find it meaningful, I was still really glad to be there that day with thousands of other Israelis. After the cemetery we all went back to Agron for lunch, and after lunch we had some programming. Our main part of the program was hearing the mother of Michael Levin speak. Michael Levin is a kid who was very much in my Jewish circle – he went to Ramah Day Camp and was on Nativ before he made Aaliyah and joined the Israeli Army. My female staff, Ariel, was even friends with him at camp. In the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, he was killed while on a mission. His story is a very sad, very moving one that is well known within the USY/Ramah camp circle. The part that always gets to me the most is that when his parents flew to Israel for his funeral, they were concerned that they wouldn’t have a minyan (the group of ten Jews necessary to perform services such as a funeral) since they didn’t know anyone in Israel. When they arrived at the cemetery that day, they were really upset to see thousands of people there because it meant that there were a bunch of funerals going on that day. They soon found out, however, that all of those people were there for Michael’s funeral – he had simply touched that many lives during his short time in Israel. Hearing from his mom was difficult, but Michael’s story is a really important one and we were lucky to have the opportunity to speak with her.

One of the most interesting things about Yom HaZicharon is what happens at sundown on that day, as the holiday transitions from that day of mourning to Yom Ha’Atzmaout – Israel’s independence day. The entire mood of the country shifts radically from one of sorrow to one of the utmost celebration and joy. Nativ was free for the holiday, so I decided to stay in Jerusalem at Misha’s cousin’s apartment. A handful of us went to services together at a beautiful shul located, like many in Jerusalem, in an underground bomb shelter. The whole shul was decked out in blue and white decorations for the holiday, and the service is possible the most fun service I’ve ever been to – tons of singing, dancing, and instruments, with everyone just generally celebrating and having a good time. By the time we emerged from the underground synagogue the city around us had gone from day to night and totally transformed. The roads downtown were blocked off by buses parked horizontally across the street and every few blocks huge stages were set up for the concerts that would start taking place in a few hours. The whole city was in festival mode, with street vendors everywhere, music playing from anywhere, and people in droves swarming around. We went to a sushi dinner (delicious as usual) and emerged an hour later to begin drinking as much as the rest of the city. The whole night was a complete blur of dancing in the streets to concerts that were set up in the middle of the road, running around, buying and eating cotton candy, and just generally enjoying the ruckus.

The next day we woke up around noon and moseyed over to the park across from Agron, where Nativ was having a barbeque, since that’s the traditional Israeli activity for Yom Ha’Atzmaout day. It was gorgeous weather, so we all just spent the day laying out and enjoying a real barbeque along with all the other Israelis in the park who were doing the same exact thing as us.

I really think that when I look back on my year in Israel, these three holidays, Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZicharon, and Yom Ha’Atzmaout will be something I remember the most. It was one of the times where I felt like I got the true Israeli experience, and it’s definitely unlike anything I’ve ever felt in America.

Pesach: Jerusalem and Arad

So after yam lyam the original plan was to camp out and go to the beach the next day, but by the time we were done hiking we OBVIOUSLY didn't want to do that anymore, so while Kesha decided to go back to Yerucham and David went to Tel Aviv to stay with friends Ashley and I opted to stay in Jerusalem at Misha's cousin's apartment, since I really wanted to experience Pesach in the holy city. We met up with some friends who were also in Jerusalem and went out to our favorite sushi restaurant (as is the norm when we go to Jerusalem) for dinner. The vast majority of restaurants that are open in Jerusalem during the holiday are Kosher for Pesach - which is REALLY cool, because you would never experience something like that in America, and koshering a kitchen for Passover is not an easy process. Although many Ashkenazi (descending from Eastern Europe) Jews do not eat what is called 'keniyot' (legumes such as corn and beans), Sephardic (descending from Spain and Morocco and places like that) Jews do, and almost all Israelis do, which makes keeping Kosher in Israel a little bit easier. I even went to a Kosher for Passover McDonald's - complete with Kosher for Pesach hamburger buns made out of cornmeal. We then slept for many hours (it was WONDERFUL), and woke up sometime the next day in the early afternoon.

After we woke up, we decided to go to Coffeeshop, one of our favorite places for drinks and breakfast-y type foods. Coffeeshop also had a Kosher for Passover menu, complete with baskets of matzah instead of bread. We ate outside on the sidewalk, and soon we witnessed a curious incident down the street. Outside of a restaurant called 'Meat Burger,' which isn't Kosher at all so obviously wasn't Kosher for Passover, a group of ultra-religious men, donned in long black coats and black furry hats, were standing outside protesting. Every time someone would walk out with the un-Kosher-for-Passover food, they would all chant 'eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil.' It was actually quite hilarious, and quite a crowd gathered to witness the spectacle. Only in Jerusalem =). We spent many hours just sitting outside and enjoying the day...in Israel, they will never bring the check unless you ask for it because they never want to be kicking you out and they want you to know you can take your time, which is something I both love and hate about dining in Israel.

After that we went to the shuk (it might be the thing I miss most about living in Jerusalem) and spent the rest of the afternoon just walking around and enjoying the city we love so much. Ashley and I then went back to Yerucham for the night, even though we would be spending the next day, yuntif, in Jerusalem - all we had with us were the (very) dirty clothes from Yam Lyam, so we had to make the trip and we even convinced some other friends in Jerusalem to come with us for the night. Even though most of the Yerucham Nativers were gone for the entire break, I really liked touching back on home base every few days.

The next day Ashley, the boys, and I traveled back to Jerusalem for Yuntif. Part of the standard Passover seder includes the phrase "next year in Jerusalem," so it was really important to us to be able to celebrate one of the religious holidays in the city. We spent the night in Matan's mom's apartment, where we had a lovely holiday meal. The next day we went back over to Misha's cousin's for lunch, which was wonderful as usual, and then we went to Agron to hang out for a little since there were quite a few Nativers staying there. That night officially ended Passover, and around 9:00 all the falafel restaurants in the city had lines out the door. We all ate our first bites of bread and made our way back to Yerucham for another restful evening.

The following day Ashley and I went to Arad to see our friend Eva. Eva came on an exchange program last winter and stayed with Ashley, so Ashley and I spent the whole week taking her around and out to dinner and whatnot, so she was very excited that we were finally coming to visit her. She took us out for dinner at the local Chinese restaurant (run by her friend's family) and that night we went to the local pub (one of only about two or three in arad) and hung out with her friends. Everyone there was so nice and SO excited to finally meet her 'American friends.' After 8 months of living in Israel it really made me feel like a tourist again, especially since all her friends wanted to talk about was prom and whether or not we really have cheerleaders like in the movies. Ashley left but I also ended up staying for Shabbat, and we had two lovely meals at Eva's best friends house. Overall it was SO nice to see Eva, she is really sweet, and to meet all of her friends.

And just like that...break was over.

Yom HaShoah

I'm sorry that my blog is going to be out of order because of this post. But I wrote it and I didn't want it to have to wait, so even though this is all taking place after Pesach break, the Pesach break post will come next.

Following the week of Pesach, in which we remember and re-tell the story of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt, comes Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. Yom HaShoah began Tuesday night, when the Nativers in Yerucham went to a community-wide ceremony. The ceremony, which was attended also by many residents of Yerucham, included a play performed by some of the girls I teach at the religious school. Although the entire ceremony was in Hebrew, and thus hard for me to follow, I made some sense of it and afterward was informed that the play depicted the real-life events of a righteous gentile who lives in Yerucham. This woman's family risked their lives to hide Jews in their home during the Holocaust, all of whom ended up surviving the war thanks to them.

After the play Yerucham watched a movie entitled 'Counterfeiters,' which told the true story of Operation Bernhard. Operation Barnhard, in short, was a large-scale counterfeit operation by the Nazis in order to duplicate the pound and the dollar so that they could be used to sabotage the economies of England and the U.S. Jewish inmates in a labor camp were forced to do this counterfeiting, and for this they received privileges that were nothing short of luxuries during the war - showers, enough food to eat, cigarettes, and clean beds to name a few. They successfully replicated the pound and produced millions of them, but thanks to the sabotage efforts of a few of the prisoners, the dollar was never counterfeited. Had they not sabotaged the operation, the dollar could have been used not only to gain more supplies for the Nazis but also to hurt the economy of the Allies and seriously change the outcome or timing of the end of the war.

The morning of Yom HaShoah Yerucham's Nativers held a short memorial service just for us, using the Yom HaShoah service book put out recently by the Conservative movement. After that we went to another ceremony (again, all in Hebrew) put on by one of the elementary schools in Yerucham. This ceremony coincided with what was for me the most meaningful part of the holiday. At 10 AM we observed a 2-minute silence in remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust. But it wasn't just us who observed this - it was the entire country of Israel. By law, the entire country is forced to stop for these 2 minutes once a year, where sirens sound everywhere in Israel. Cars driving on the highway are obligated to pull over, and absolutely everyone is standing at attention. It's amazing to think that for those two minutes, every single person in an entire country was thinking about the same thing and mourning and commemorating the same atrocity. Additionally, all radio and TV programming in Israel for the entire 25 hours of Yom HaShoah must be dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, as must any activities that take place in any public spot, and on Erev (the night before) Yom HaShoah all entertainment facilities must be closed.

I think that is especially appropriate that this year Erev Yom HaShoah fell on Hitler's birthday. On the day of his birth, thousands were doing the last thing he ever wanted - honoring the deaths of all who were murdered by him and his Nazi party. On the day of his birth, thousands of Jews - of whom there were ideally supposed to have been none left - took time out of their lives all over the world, including in Israel - a Jewish state, something I think it's safe to say he never would have wanted - in order to remember those who were lost, when all Hitler ever wanted was for all of the Jews to be forgotten. When I went to Poland two summers ago, one of my staff members said something to my group that I don't know if I'll ever forget. He told us that when he hears Jews who are angry about the Holocaust, or at Nazis, or still at Germany, he tells them: We are proud, and we survived. We are the revenge. And nothing is more true to me. Every time I am able to laugh, and enjoy something, and eat lunch, and brush my teeth, and spend a year living in Israel, I am exacting revenge on Hitler, the Nazis, and their ideology. And I really think there's no better way to do it than to continue living, breathing, practicing Judaism, and coming to Israel.

I really believe that Israel sends such an important message by enforcing the aforementioned laws on Yom HaShoah. In the next decade or two or three, almost all of the Holocaust survivors will have disappeared, along with all of our firsthand accounts of it. Even today, when these people still live, Holocaust deniers seem to be popping up everywhere, claiming that the Jews simply fabricated or exaggerated the whole event. But, to be frank, anyone with half a brain knows that's not true. There's too much evidence to the contrary, and absolutely no evidence to support those claims. Anyone who cares about the history of the Jewish people, or of the human race, needs to remember this event. Over and over again, it must be talked about, taught to children, commemorated. I don't know when or how this happened to me, since my personal connection to the Holocaust is minimal, but somehow this concept is deeply personal to me. I'm so frustrated right now trying to put into words how important this is to me. How it doesn't even make any sense that I am so so lucky to be born in an age where I can not only be free to practice my Judaism in the country I was born in, but I can live in the Jewish homeland. I can live in Israel, this thousands-of-years-old-dream. In all of human history, the times in which the Jews had their own nation are brief and few. I could just have easily been born in an age where Israel didn't exist, or in an age where my wanting to wear the Jewish star necklace given to me by my grandparents could have me killed. And I just don't know what I did to get this lucky, but I know that the very least I can do for all those who didn't have the privileges or opportunities or freedoms I did is take advantage of them, and come to Israel and live here and celebrate all the holidays and be surrounded by Kosher restaurants and other Jews and synagogues and holiness. And this day reminded me of why, when I was fighting so hard to be able to spend this year in Israel, I did fight so hard. And it reminded me of the feeling I couldn't articulate when people asked me "Why is it so important for you to take this year in Israel?" And it reminded me why, even though this year is fun, even though it's all adventures and experiences and friendship and I'm enjoying every minute of it, it's still important. It reminded me how strongly I believe that my being here is important - even if I'm not doing anything extraordinary here, my just being here is important. To support the Jewish homeland. To simply acknowledge that it exists and enjoy it, for all those who were never given that chance. And beyond everything else that I've gotten out of this year, that's why I'm glad I'm here.

Pesach: Seder and Yam L'Yam

Passover this year was certainly the most exciting and interesting and adventure-filled Passover I've ever had.

Seder was on Wednesday night, and as far as I know, Ashley, Kesha, and I were the only Nativers to stay in Yerucham for it. Ashley went to her host family, while Kesha and I went to Buruyah's, my gan teacher. It was so sweet of her to invite me, and even nicer of her to allow me to bring a friend...she's really taken care of me. Kesha and I showed up and sat down at a huge table set for somewhere around 30 people. Buruyah's daughter, who is about my age and (luckily) speaks English, sat next to me...I'm pretty sure she was under clear instructions to make sure I was okay that night. The whole Seder was in Hebrew, so although Kesha and I could follow along and look at the few pictures there were in the Haggadah (the story that is traditionally read on Passover telling of the Jews' exodus from Egypt) we couldn't really understand what was going on. Most of the food was very good, but there was no matzoh ball soup, and there were some foods that I wasn't used to on my seder table - including lungs, which I was told are traditional Passover fare in Israel, although I opted not to try them. The Seder was over fairly quickly, with the second half being done by only a few men at the far end of the table while everyone else talked and played with the kids. Overall, everyone was really sweet and it was definitely a cool experience to see what Seder was like in a home full of native Israelis.

The following day was still part of the yuntif (a religious holiday that is similar to Shabbat observance-wise) and so the three of us went to Ashley's (American) host home for lunch. I was happy to be going back there, since I've been there for dinner before and I love the family - the parents are really sweet and the kids are adorable, and it's also comforting to be surrounded by a family that speaks English and serves foods that I can recognize easily. They are really wonderful and it was a lovely last meal before my Pesach break adventure began.

That night we left for Yam L'Yam - literally translated as Sea To Sea - which is a hike from the Mediterranean to the Kinneret, or for those of you who aren't familiar with the geography of Israel, from the Northwest side of Israel to the Northeast side of Israel. The adventurers partaking in this insanity were me, Ashley, Kesha, Misha, David...and Shai, our dog. We had been preparing for sometime, each of us equipped with a sleeping back and a backpack filled with the food we would need for the 4-day trip, a minimal amount of toiletries, and a minimal amount of extra clothes. We knew hiking with everything on our backs was going to be difficult to say the least, and Dad and I did have a small altercation about my lack of space for rope (or my lack of rope, period), among a few other things (I also didn't have room for the hunting rifle he wanted me to bring). But we were prepared to rough it...so just the bare necessities. Also, Dad's head would have exploded had he known that we only went with a road map, since Misha couldn't find a hiking map of the track we were doing.

Kesha, Ashley, and I left Thursday night, taking a bus to Be'er Sheva and then a train from there to Haifa, where we met Misha and David and all of us slept on the beach. The next morning we were up at 5 to catch a 6 AM train to Nahariya and the Mediterranean, which is where the trail started. After taking a sheirut from the train station to the Mediterranean, we commenced looking for the trail, which, as the name of the very famous hike done by thousands of people every year, implies, is where we thought it would start. We spent about an hour walking back and forth up on strip of highway looking for the path. We asked several people, a few of whom told us that it was just up the road, and a few of whom told us that we were crazy and that there was no such thing as this hike and that they'd never heard of anyone doing this before, and one of whom offered to drive us to the Kinneret in her car, since it was 'way too far to walk.' Finally, we called our staff (thank goodness we have wonderful Nativ staff who have nothing better to do than field our questions all morning...). We were informed by the staff that we could start hiking there, through fields and brambles and wilderness, but the actual trail started about six kilometers inland. After spending 20 unsuccessful minutes trying to hike through the wilderness, we gave up, found another sheirut, and put our staff on the phone with the driver to tell him exactly where we needed to go. The sheirut took us the the start of the trail (a completely nondescript dirt path in the middle of a field, unmarked by anything...how were we ever supposed to have known to go there? why wouldn't the sea to sea hike start at the sea? excellent questions.) and finally, 4 hours after we started, we were off!

The first morning of hiking was beautiful. The trail we were doing was through a lot of shady woods and flowing streams. It was perfect weather, sunny but not too hot, and there were tons of people on the trail - almost all of whom wished us a 'Boker tov' (good morning) and a few of whom even offered us coffee. We stopped fairly frequently to sit in the sun by the water, rest, and eat. Shai LOVED it - she ran around without her leash, following us and generally just enjoying being in the outdoors - although we did find out that she is not a water dog, as she did not like crossing the streams. I did like crossing the streams, however I wasn't as good at it as Shai was - there was an incident in the stream that ended in me and most of my belongings getting wet. Thankfully it was sunny and warm enough out that everything was soon dry. Parts of the trail were close to parking lots, so there were tons of people on the path, with little children swimming and playing in the stream and everyone picnicking. We stopped and rested for a leisurely lunch, and it was altogether a lovely day.

Soon after lunch the path led out onto a road, and the road led up a huuuuge hill, at the top of which was the town where we would (theoretically) be spending the night camping by a lake. Tired from an entire day of hiking and encouraged by the friendly Israelis who stopped to ask if we wanted water, we decided to try hitch-hiking - my first ever time. Although in America I would never even think of hitch-hiking, in Israel it's a legitimate way to travel, used by many, especially soldiers. So we soon bummed a ride (in two separate shifts) up the mountain. I think that out of all of us, Shai was the most grateful - she was pretty hot and tired. Once at the top of the mountain we had to play another round of the 'let's figure out where we're going now' game. We stopped several cars to ask where the lake was where we were supposed to be camping for the night (we had received instructions from our staff that this was the best thing to do), but with little luck. Finally, we stopped a car with 3 English speakers, and they were very helpful. They offered to drive us a little ways down the road, since they said that the lake was a very far walk. But there were only two spots in the car, so we politely declined and told them we didn't mind walking (lies). However, they insisted, and soon, somehow or another, five of us, our luggage, and a dog, piled into the space where only two people were meant to be sitting. They dropped us off a good ways down the road (we were glad to not be walking) and even after that it was still another forty minutes walk to the lake. After resting at the lake a while, we decided it would be best to try and find where the trail started for the next day so that we wouldn't have to do it in the morning. After several more phone calls to staff, two separate rounds of hitch-hiking, and asking directions at a gas station, someone who pulled over to help us was finally able to direct us to the trail. If we had walked, it would have probably taken about four hours up and down a huge mountain, so needless to say we were more than thankful we hadn't put it off until the morning. When we started yam lyam, we sort of figured that as a very famous hike the trail would be one nice continuous path, and would be clearly marked. Obviously, we were wrong.

We decided to walk up the trail a little and try and find a spot to camp. Unfortunately for us, most of the trail was already occupied - by huge cows, including some very intimidating bulls. We eventually found a spot that was relatively cow, and cow-pie, free, so we ate dinner and settled in for the night.

We all had a pretty rough night. It was VERY cold, so I snuggled as far as I could into my sleeping bag. I do remember waking up every hour, and alternating between being warm by snuggling down, and being able to breathe by sticking my head out of the opening. We were all counting the hours until morning, when we could get up and start hiking - at least we would be warm. I woke up to my alarm at six, and found David already standing up in his sleeping bag, just waiting for the rest of us to get up. Additionally, during the night, everything we owned had been covered in a layer of moisture - backpacks, shoes, sleeping bags. So that didn't help. We all discussed the fact that if we could find a hostel to stay in at the town where we were supposed to be camping that night, we should definitely stay there.

That morning of hiking was different, but also beautiful. We were surrounded by hills of green trees that went forever in all directions, and everything was beautifully bathed in morning light. We soon warmed up and as soon as we got to a place in the valley where the sun could shine on us, we stopped for breakfast.

We knew the second day was going to be both the hardest and the longest. For one thing, we started hiking by 6:45, so by the time we reached a parking lot in the middle of the trail at about 12, we had already been hiking for quite some time. Luckily (because I had finished about 2/3 of my water already), this parking lot had a place to refill. While the girls rested, David, always charming, had struck up a conversation with some girls who had a table set up to help hikers with directions and trails. And that's when he came back over to us and said the most beautiful thing that any of us had heard on the whole trip: "These girls live on a kibbutz next to the town we're going to and they wanted to know if we wanted to stay with them for the night." Um...YES!

After that, we resumed our hiking with restored energy - even though this was a very steep climb to the top of the second tallest mountain in Israel, and I had to rest frequently (I know you're all shocked to hear that I'm not really much of a hiker). But we eventually made it to the town, which, on Shabbat, was completely shut down. We got more than a few judgemental stares as we were inappropriately dressed in an obviously very observant community. Needless to say, we would have been absolutely out of luck finding anywhere to stay there that night. We walked through the town and were able to hitchhike to the Kibbutz of our new friends, where, as we tried to find their apartment, two other girls who eventually gave us directions offered us a home for the night - Israeli hospitality never ceases to amaze me. We successfully found their apartment, and their key (yes, these complete strangers told us where they hid their key so we could enter their house while they were still at work), and thankfully shed our backpacks and sat down.

The girls soon arrived home, and we spent a wonderful evening with them. We soon found out they were our age, even though we had thought they were much older - Israelis are far more mature than Americans. For their army service, they served as trail guides for hikers, which was extremely convenient for us as they were able to give us exactly the directions we needed for the following day. There were three of them that lived in two separate apartments on the kibbutz (which was no longer a functioning kibbutz but only a place where people lived), and one of them even slept in the other's apartment so we could have a room to ourselves - complete with enough mattresses for all of us. The girls fed us dinner and were overall just really fun and sweet. One of them said to us 'we thought you guys were crazy, because if some strangers invited us to stay the night in their house we wouldn't want to go,' which was funny because we had all agreed that they were crazy because we would never invite strangers to stay in our house. We really couldn't thank them enough, because I honestly don't know what we would have done if we had had to spend another night out of doors.

The next morning some of us hitchhiked while others were driven by our new friends, and we headed out bright and early towards the start of the day's trail. Our friend made us tea and then sent us on our way, although we were all pretty tired and sore by day 3. This day's hike wasn't as exciting as the other days, and I started to get a little cranky...so did Shai. The end of the hike, however, consisted of field after field of colorful flowers. There were daisies as far as your eye could see, and we definitely had fun taking pictures in them. We trudged through the day as best as we could, but we were all thankful to finally reach the highway. From there we took a bus to Tiberias, which is where we met the second yam - the Kinneret. There, we all did a little victory dance, took some pictures, and put our feet in the water to soothe our blisters.

Although hiking isn't really my thing, and doing yam lyam once was more than enough for me, I'm SO glad we did it - we had a really great group and we had a wonderful time together. Also, part of this year means doing things outside my comfort zone that I wouldn't normally do, so I really felt like I accomplished something special. And this, no one can argue: it was definitely an adventure.

Preparing for Pesach

The Yom Nativ before Passover was 'Yom Mayim' (Yom Water), and the day was spent to talking about water conservation in Israel. We walked down to the Yerucham lake (a huge man-made lake that is actually really nice) and learned all about water in Israel and the problems that come with trying to make inhabitable the 70% of Israel that is the Negev Desert. The afternoon was then spent enjoying the water by going to a beach in Ashkelon, which was absolutely amazing and gorgeous, and being able to sit in a bathing suit on the beach on April 1st is a luxury I definitely am not used to from home.

Passover in Israel is a very big deal - so much so that schools have 3 entire weeks off for break, which include not only the 8 days of Passover but also a week before hand to prepare. Thus, I was done with volunteering on April 1st, even though technically my break (according to Nativ) didn't start until the 8th. So for that entire week, we were set up with alternative volunteering around the community along with a little bit of programming.


The day after Yom Mayim was dedicated to the Negev, and we visited Ben Gurion's (Israel's first Prime Minister, and a man whose vision was to see the Negev inhabited) grave and his home on a Kibbutz, where he lived and worked to cultivate the Negev during the last years of his life. I've been to these places before, so mostly I was just enjoying a day outside in the sun.

The following day was our first day of alternative volunteering. We were put to work making packages of Kosher for Passover food that would be given out to the needy residents of Yerucham to ensure that everyone had something to eat over the holiday. We spent all morning unloading huge boxes of fruit and vegetables and breaking them down into smaller amounts, and then packing them all together into different boxes to be delivered. It was a lot of fun, with all of us working together in a huge assembly line to get everything done. That afternoon, each Nativer was paired up with a volunteer from Yerucham who had a car, and we drove to the appropriate houses to deliver the packages. During this delivery, 2 significant things happened to me:
1. While I was unloading a package in an old woman's house, my favorite little girl from gan appeared behind me in the kitchen, and all she could do was look at me and smile and follow me around. When I explained to the woman that I work in her gan, she explained that that was her granddaughter. I was so happy and excited to see her, and I picked her up and played with her for a few minutes. About 10 minutes later, I was delivering a package at a different house in a different neighborhood, and the same girl was sitting on the front porch of the door next door, WEARING A DIFFERENT OUTFIT. I swear, I thought that this girl had a twin that I didn't know about or something. But after confirming her identity I just asked her 'HOW did you do that?' So the significance of this incident is that I discovered my favorite girl from gan is magical.
2. I met Uri. Uri was the man who I delivered packages with. We talked a little bit while we were delivering - he had lived in Boston for a few years so his English was good. He's married with a young kid, and he was really nice but we were only together for about forty minutes total. As I'm about to leave, he asks me for my phone number so he can invite me over for Shabbat dinners, which I really appreciated since having a place to go for a free meal is always nice. He then proceeded to ask if I had anywhere to go for Seder. After telling him I did, he asked if I had anywhere to go for Yuntif - the holy day that marks the last day of Passover. When I told him that no, I didn't know yet where I was going, he invited me to come with him, his family, and the families of his two brothers to his parents house outside of Jerusalem. Although I didn't end up there for Yuntif, this incident reminded me why I love Israel so much and what made me want to come here in the first place. The fact that I had talked to this man so briefly, yet he had invited me to come with him to celebrate the holiday with his entire family, is so typical of Israeli hospitality that it's reminders like these that constantly force me to appreciate how special it is to be able to live in a country where that is the norm.

That weekend Ashley and I went with some other friends to Tel Aviv. It was a really nice weekend - we went out to eat and spent two lovely days relaxing on the beach.

The following week began with more alternative volunteering - I spent one morning tutoring English students at the secular high school, and one afternoon completely scrubbing down, inside and out, the synagogue across the street to prepare it for Pesach.

Tuesday was Yom Passover, our Yom Nativ for the week. Most of that day was devoted to cleaning our apartments and Kashering them for Passover - which is not a simple process. In order to have an apartment be Kosher for Pesach, all chametz (all bread products and things that have come in contact with bread products) needs to be removed. This means that not only does all the chametz need to be put away (it all needed to be locked into a special cabinet, which was then ritually 'sold,' so that technically we didn't own it anymore), but all our regular dishes needed to be put away, and the entire apartment had to be cleaned, including the refrigerator, oven, and microwave. This is a process that I've never experienced before, so a lot of the rules and regulations regarding what was allowed and what wasn't were totally new to me. Our whole apartment worked really hard, scrubbing down everything and making sure everything was ready for the holiday, and we bought a few Kosher for Passover foods (most of us would be out of the apartment for most of break, so we didn't need to entirely re-stock our kitchen) and plastic plates and utensils.

Up next...the Seder and Pesach break!

Going Home and Coming Back

I have to admit, as I was getting on the airplane to go home, I was freaking out a little bit. Even though it sort of feels like no time at all has passed since I left in September, and I've definitely done a good job keeping in touch (at least I think so), I was still gone for seven months, which is a REALLY long time to be away from home. So it was just so weird to be FINALLY going home again and I was going a little bit crazy.

A 12 hour flight later, 11 hours of which I was fast asleep for, I landed back at good old Newark. Mom cried when we finally saw each other (big surprise), although Marcus made me pull out the hug voucher he sent me months ago before he would hug me. I don't know anyone else on Nativ who talks to his or her parents as much as I do, so needless to say I was really really really happy to see them again. And (almost) even happier to go straight to blue swan and get chocolate chip pancakes (I won't write here about what non-Kosher not-available-in-Israel side dish I got).

I was home at a really good time, because a lot of my friends from home were still on spring break. The next week was a flurry of eating at all the places I'd missed (Applebee's, blue swan again, Marcus and my favorite sushi place, and P F Chang's), sleeping in my own bed and showering without shoes, watching TV (man I miss TV), and seeing all the people I missed - I got time with all of Dad's family on Sunday, as well as a night at Aunt Karen's with Nanny, both of which were wonderful. All of my friends who live far away came to see me, and I even got to spend a night visiting friends at Penn and a day in New York seeing my friends at NYU and Barnard. Overall, I, somehow, was able to fit in almost everything I wanted to.

Going home was strange for only about 5 minutes, and then it felt like I had never been gone. Possibly my favorite thing about being home was being back in my car and just driving around. I don't think I've ever offered to drive Marcus so many places as I did that week, simply because I loved being back behind the wheel. When I first got in my car I told Mom that I thought I missed driving more than I missed her - and I was only half joking. Also just being able to know my way around and being in a place that is so familiar to me was extremely comforting.

As fast as being home came, it went. Mom cried again upon my leaving, even though I'd be home 8 weeks later, which is just a drop in the bucket compared to the 7 months I'd been gone before.

I was really sad to leave home - it was much harder than I had expected to only be home for a short time and then have to say goodbye again. But once I landed in Israel again, I was really glad to be back. I got a hero's welcome at my apartment, where all my roommates had made signs for me and told me that they all really missed me. Coming back made me realize that I had missed everyone, and Yerucham, way more than I had realized when I was preoccupied at home.

I spent my Shabbat back in Yerucham with most of my apartment, and it was wonderful just to eat together again at our kitchen table and catch up on sleep (even though nothing compares to my bed at home). That Sunday, however, was what I had really been waiting for...going back to my gan. I had been away from my kids for two weeks, and I REALLY missed them (so much so that when I was sad about leaving home I simply had to tell myself that i would soon be seeing my kids again). At gan I got another hero's welcome, and it appeared that my kids had missed me as much as I'd missed them. I brought them all back fun-sized pots of play-dough, since I thought that would be a good gift from America as I've never seen play-dough in Israel. Buruyah and Etie were also really happy to see me. All in all, it was good to be back, although unfortunately I only had two days of work at gan before Passover break started.

Up next: The Passover Saga

Purim and Leadership Week

I hope you're not all scorning me for my lack of blog-posts, you should all know better than to expect more than this from me by now. I do have QUITE a lot to tell you about though.

Soooo, to back it up like, 4 weeks, Purim was the second week in March. For those of you who don't know what Purim is, it's a Jewish holiday (big surprise) celebrating someone (Haman) who wanted to kill all the Jews...he couldn't (another big surprise, you'd think all these guys who want to kill us would see a pattern eventually), we killed him, and now we have parties. Purim is a very happy holiday, and in Israel it's treated like Halloween, with everyone dressing up and parading around (although without the candy and trick-or-treating and with a lot of wine for the adults). While in America Jews often celebrate Purim as a rather minor holiday, in Israel it is a week long affair. We started preparing for Purim the week before the actual holiday, as a custom that goes along with Purim is the exchanging of 'Mishloach Manot,' which are essentially gift baskets that usually include a drink, fruit, snacks, candy, and hamentashen, the traditional three-cornered jelly or chocolate filled cookie that represents Haman's hat. Rather than putting together huge mishloach manot, my apartment decided to just make hamentashen for everyone - neighbors, host familys, and gan teachers. So for an entire day and a half our apartment operated as a smooth-running, hamentashen-baking machine, and we ended up making about 150 of them from scratch to deliver around town. And they were excellent, if I do say so myself, and enjoyed by all.

The actual Purim celebrations first started on Sunday, which was my last day of gan, as everyone has off for the week. I went to gan in full costume (as Peter Pan) and all the ganim (gans) in Yerucham were all dressed up and celebrating. I had tons of princesses in class (complete with fake nails and lots of make-up), as well as policemen, Israeli soldiers, bunnies, lions, pirates, and superheroes. My gannenets, Buruyah and Etie, were dressed up fabulously as a giant Sunflower and Bunny. The whole day consisted of parading around to visit other gans, eating cookies, and dancing around. All my kids looked absolutely ADORABLE, and my gannenets even gave me a huge mishloach manot basket after I gave them my homemade hamentashen.

The following night all of Nativ went to Kibbutz for a Purim party. Everyone was in costume - our apartment had a Peter Pan, a rastafarian, Abu (the monkey from Aladdin), a devil, and one half of a Siamese twin. On Kibbutz we read the Megillah (the scroll that tells the story of Purim), had a barbeque dinner, and a dance. My friend Ari, who I know from USY at home and who lives in New York, was visiting, so it was a great night that I got to spend with him.

Yom Nativ for that week was Yom Purim, which basically consisted of us all baking hamentashen while in costume (which my apartment had already done). The following day was a free day, since it's technically still Purim, but only in walled cities like Jerusalem. Nativ offered a day of optional programming, and Misha, Kesha, and I went. In the morning we toured around some of the crop growing areas of the Dead Sea Region, and we even got to eat peppers fresh off the vine at a pepper farm. That afternoon we were treated to a wonderful lunch and spa day at Ein Gedi spa. We went in the sulfur baths, which stunk and stung but which make your skin SO soft (although they will turn all your silver jewelry green) and then in the dead sea. Even though I'd been in the dead sea before on pilgrimage, I was still glad to go again - I definitely think that the dead sea is one of the coolest places in Israel. Even though you go in expecting and knowing that you'll float, it's still amazing to be able to stand vertically without sinking or touching the bottom, or to be able to sit indian-style and just float there. The dead sea has been shrinking at a really alarming rate, and walking up to it the land is barren and salt-covered, as it used to be the bottom of the dead sea, and everywhere you look there are giant chunks of salt.

The end of that week, sadly, brought me to my last day at gan for two weeks. I told all my kids, as well as Buruyah and Etie, not to forget about me, and left for Jerusalem and leadership week. Thursday night I met some of my friends in Jerusalem, since Ashley's sister was visiting from America. We stayed at Agron, which was really strange since it was inhabited by other youth groups visiting from Israel and was no longer 'Nativ turf.' We took Sara (Ashley's sister) out for a nice dinner on Emek Refayim, and Friday morning we showed her the shuk and introduced her to Marzipan ruggelah. Shabbat brought the start of leadership week, which consisted of a week of programming for all of Nativ. We had a closed Shabbat where we stayed in a hotel in the hills outside of Jerusalem. The view of the valleys surrounding Jerusalem was gorgeous, and it was really nice to be together again as all of Nativ. Plus, since we were staying at an actual hotel, the food was AMAZING, which caused the Nativers to attack the buffet like we'd never seen food before. The weekend basically reverted us all to our USY years, since it was structured very similarly to a USY convention, with mandatory prayers and a lot of lectures and discussion groups. Saturday night was complete with kareoke, which actually ended up being way more fun than any of us had anticipated.

Sunday brought us back to Agron for a few more nights. We were assigned rooms at random, and purely by coincidence, I was given my old room, 311. It was so weird to be back there, except this time the room was packed as I had 3 roommates instead of just one. I didn't sleep in my old bed, but I did sleep on my side of the room: sleeping on Becky's side would have just been too weird. Even though it's a little strange to return to Jerusalem, it's nice to be back in a place that 1. has more than one grocery store and 2. was home to us for so long that we know our way around easily. We all went out for sushi at our favorite restaurant, and for drinks at our favorite bar, and it was just really nice to be back in familiar territory.

After our time in Jerusalem was up, we traveled to the North and stayed at Kibbutz Chanaton (where I spent a Shabbat earlier in the year, if you recall) for a few more days. On the way to Chanaton we stopped in the forest and spent the day doing 'team building' exercises, which included a ropes course and a 'navigation run,' which many of us opted out of. The next day we went to the only kibbutz in Israel founded by Holocaust survivors, which is a very interesting place, even thought I'd already been there.

That day, I got on a train, hung out at the airport for about 7 hours, and then was on my way home for the first time in 7 months!

3 Shabbatot and 2 Yamai Nativ

As promised: two weekends ago Misha really wanted to get out of Yerucham, and since I’m always up for traveling anywhere we decided to go to Tel Aviv for the weekend. At the last minute our friend David decided to come too, so we left around one in the afternoon. We got to Tel Aviv no problem, and our hostel was pretty nice. We walked along the beach and although it was a little chilly the sunset over the water was absolutely gorgeous, and we were all really happy to be there. We then went to dinner, and the weekend took a turn for the worse. I started feeling not so great, and my stomach hurt a lot. I told my friends that I needed to go back to the hostel, and fast forward an hour and I’m throwing up every fifteen minutes, unable to keep down even a few sips of water. After another hour and a half of this, I was really dizzy and had sharp stomach pains, and the three of us were beginning to worry about my possibly getting dehydrated. We played the ‘better safe than sorry’ game and after another round of puking we took a cab to the hospital. By the time I got there I was dry-heaving, and really dizzy, so we were all glad that we had made the decision to go. They admitted me to the ER pretty quickly (thankfully) and soon gave me an IV. I was finally able to stop throwing up and sleep for a while. Long story short, I was in the hospital from 10 pm until 6 am the next morning, when they shakily released me. I spent all day Saturday back at the hostel, sleeping mostly, drinking a lot of seltzer and eating a few crackers, and we made it back pretty easily Saturday night. But my sickness wasn’t really the significant part of this. The significant part was I realized how wonderful the friends that I’ve made on Nativ are. Misha (who, by the way, informed me just the week before that she refuses to ‘wait on people,’ even when they’re sick) and David took unbelievable care of me. The only people who could have taken any better care of me are my actual mother and father. They ran out and bought me crackers and drinks and anything I needed, doted on me constantly, and while they could have easily gone back to sleep at the hostel for the interim of at least six hours, they stayed all night in the hospital waiting room, checking up on me whenever I woke up. They helped me in and out of cabs, carried my stuff around, and called my parents to keep them updated on my situation. I am so unbelievably lucky that they were there with me, or else I don’t know what I would have done.

Two weeks ago the theme for Yom Nativ was Top Chef, and I just happened to be on that planning committee. The morning consisted of a scavenger hunt around Yerucham, and the in the afternoon each apartment was assigned a culture within Israel (Moroccan, Polish, Yemenite, Indian, etc.) and given a budget of 70 shekels to cook some authentic dishes. Each apartment then had to present their food along with some background information on their culture. Although I did miss some of the day because I was still recovering from Friday night’s fiasco, I was able to attend the Top Chef part of the day. My apartment made malawach (a sort of fried dough) and had a really funny Yemenite powerpoint presentation (courtesy of Sarah), and overall the day’s programming was a success.

Last weekend I went with Misha and Kesha to stay at her cousin Raya’s in Jerusalem, since Misha’s dad was coming in that weekend. It was all of our first time back in Jerusalem since we moved to Yerucham. One of my favorite things about living in Israel, and Jerusalem, is the bus ride to and from the city. I wish I could describe it adequately here. Jerusalem is surrounded by three valleys, so when leaving the city the view is incredible. The city sits atop the hill and is flanked by valleys that are covered in white stone buildings. In the day time, the white rock of the cliffs that matches the Jerusalem stone houses makes it hard to tell what is mountain and what is man made, and at night all of the houses are lit up and the valley is glowing. I love that bus ride. It always manages to remind me 1. that I actually do live in Israel and 2. why I came here. Returning to Jerusalem, it really felt like we had never left – except for when we walked past Agron and realized that we no longer lived there, and that strangers were staying in our rooms. Raya lives only about seven minutes down the street from Agron, in an apartment across from Ben Yehuda Street. We got there on Thursday night and went to our favorite restaurant, Japanika, for sushi. It was wonderful to not only be back in a city again, but in a city where we knew our way around and that was so familiar to us. After dinner, we went out for frozen yogurt and then to our favorite bar – two things that don’t exist at all in Yerucham. As much as I love living in Yerucham now, it’s very hard not to miss Jerusalem.

Friday morning, despite some unusually heavy rain, we went to the shuk to get the necessary ingredients for Shabbat dinner. I knew I loved the shuk when I lived in Jerusalem, but it’s being in Yerucham that has made me truly appreciate it. The produce is fresher, and cheaper, and the variety is infinitely greater than anything you can find in Yerucham. After gathering supplies, the three of us spent the day inside cozily napping, reading, and cooking dinner, which included hamentashen made from scratch and challah made from scratch – two things I’d never made before, and both of which came out surprisingly well. We went to Friday night services at a local synagogue, which was also an old comfort. While Yerucham is a religious town, and thus has no shortage of synagogues, they all leave much to be desired. The shul that we usually go to sequesters the women in a small corner and does most of the service silently, which defeats the whole point of going to get a community feeling and to hear everyone singing together. Additionally, most of the shuls in Yerucham (maybe all of them, I’m not really sure) are Sephardic, and thus they do things differently than we’re used to in our Ashkenazi shuls. Then it was dinner time, which was delicious, as was the company: Raya and her boyfriend are very sweet and also hilarious.

Saturday morning we opted to skip services and woke up just in time to leave for lunch at Misha’s uncle’s house. Her uncle lives in Abu Tor, which is about a half hour walk from Raya’s, which normally isn’t too bad, but because it was VERY cold (not compared to at home maybe, but definitely compared to the rest of the year in Jerusalem…it even snowed there later that week) and windy, the walk was a little bit miserable. But lunch was lovely; Kesha and I got to meet Misha’s family, including her father. It’s always nice to be around family here, and so I definitely enjoyed it. Saturday afternoon brought more relaxing and Saturday night brought Kesha and me back to Yerucham while Misha stayed in Jerusalem to hang out with her dad.

Last week’s Yom Nativ was ‘Yom Tiyul,’ so we went on a small hike through the hills around Yerucham. After the spectacular hikes of desert tiyul, most hikes for me are anticlimactic. However, in the afternoon we had a session where we met with the mayor of Yerucham, Mitzne. This was a big deal because not only did he used to be the mayor of Haifa, he also used to head the Labor party, which makes him a very well-recognized political figure in Israel. Unlike many people in Yerucham, he very much chooses to be here (rather than ‘ending up’ here) and he’s done a lot over the past few years to really try to turn Yerucham around. He was appointed after a big scandal with the last mayor that involved a lot of corruption, and he has been a really great change for the town. It was awesome to be able to sit down and talk with him and ask him questions, and it was easy to tell that he really appreciated us being here.

Last Thursday night was the Idan Raichel concert in Jerusalem. Apparently, Idan Raichel is a very famous Israeli singer. I’d never heard of him – I haven’t been exposed to that much Israeli music. But Nativ was heavily subsidizing the concert and providing buses, and tons of people were going, so I decided to go to. He was really great and it was a lot of fun, especially because it was the first time I was seeing a lot of Nativers from Kibbutz and Be’er Sheva since moving to Yerucham. That night I went with Keren back to Kibbutz because I was spending Shabbat with her at her family’s. On Kibbutz they live in caravans, and Keren’s caravan is really nice, as is the whole Kibbutz. But despite their living conditions being a little bit nicer than ours in Yerucham, I know Kibbutz was never for me. I’m not a farm girl, and the whole communal dining thing every day really gets on my nerves. Keren and I then went to Rehovot to spend Shabbat at her cousin’s. We mostly just hung out and relaxed, but it was a great weekend especially since I hadn’t seen Keren in so long and we had a lot of catching up to do.

*Before I finish this blog I’d like to make an amendment to my last blog post. My blog is never meant to offend anyone – least of all our famous cousin Morris, the family historian on my paternal grandmother’s side, the Greenbergs. I must make a correction to Bururyah’s warm introduction: I do indeed have cousins in Israel (who I AM looking up, I promise!), and what she meant to say was that the gan is my family now because I don’t have any family in Yerucham. There. Thanks for keeping me on my toes cousin Morris =).

Volunteering in Yerucham

Okayyyyyyyy! Here we go again. I know it’s been a little while, I have been doing a pretty good job with procrastinating my writing, so I have a LOT to say! And don’t even start nagging me about my Europe blog, because there’s a voice in the back of my head that already nags me just fine. Ah well, life is tough.

So life in Yerucham has commenced full swing. First I have to tell you about what I know you’ve been dying to hear: our apartment’s puppy. Her name is Shai, and she’s a cute little yellow mutt. She was living on the street and following us everywhere, and the boys were feeding her, but then Kesha decided that she wanted to adopt Shai full time and bring her home at the end of Nativ (which is what the kids in Yerucham did with their dog last year). So while Shai does live in our apartment, she is mostly the responsibility of Kesha and Misha (mostly because no one else, myself included, really wants to be responsible). The vet came (yes, this vet makes house calls) and gave her her first vaccine last week, and we bought some toys for her. She’s not exactly potty trained yet, and there was an incident with her peeing in my bed (my fault, I shouldn’t have brought a puppy up to the top bunk to Skype), but she’s learning to go out on our little balcony that Kesha lined with dirt and sand…it’s hard to potty train a puppy to go outside right away when you live on the top floor of an apartment building. Overall, she’s cute but is making me recognize that Mom was right, I do NOT want to be responsible for a dog (I still think I could’ve managed a cat though).

Volunteering is finally settled – it took a good week and a half to figure out everyone’s schedules, with people switching all around after realizing what they did and didn’t like. We work four days a week, since we get Friday and Saturday off and Tuesday is ‘Yom Nativ’: an entire day devoted to our group and an activity, with every Tuesday having a different theme. Sunday I’m in my gan (kindergarten) all day, Monday I’m at my gan in the morning and at Kama (the girls religious school) in the afternoon, Wednesday I’m at Kama in the morning and then in the afternoon I tutor a girl one-on-one in English, and Thursday I’m at the gan all day again. I absolutely love my jobs. The gan is wonderful, my kids are adorable and they love me. My favorite part of Mondays is when I leave early and the kids say ‘Don’t go now!’ and when I tell them I have to, they ask when I’m coming back. The biggest issue with gan is that no one, teachers and kids included, speaks English. My Hebrew is improving, but that isn’t really saying much since it was so poor to begin with. With the teachers I can usually communicate fine, because I use a lot of hand motions and even with my terrible grammar they can sometimes understand what I’m trying to say – and they’re very patient and correct me when I say something wrong, which I really need. With the kids it’s harder, because sometimes I’ll say something to them and they’ll just stare at me, or they’ll mimic me because I’m sure I have a ridiculous accent. Often times the kids will ask me questions, and depending on how I’m feeling I’ll just say yes or no. More than once after doing this, a kid has dragged me over to do some activity or sit with him or her at which point I realize that I’ve agreed to do something I didn’t necessarily want to do. Luckily these kids are young enough to cuddle and tickle and run around with, so a lot of our communication is also non-verbal. And once or twice after a long day without going outside, when the kids get a little crazy, I have been known to yell at them in English out of frustration, but they always just laugh at that. I’m still learning all the kids names, even after two weeks, because A) there are 32 of them and B) they all have really hard Israeli names like ‘Niveeveh’ and ‘Mivaseret’ that I can’t understand until I see it written or hear the teacher say it.

The teachers in the gan are absolutely wonderful. The system there is a little crazy – there’s always a main teacher and an assistant, but on Sundays and Mondays two of them (my favorite two – Buruyah (I just made up how to spell that because I have no idea) and Etie) are there in the morning and then two different teachers come and switch with them for the afternoon. On Thursday when I’m there it’s a whole different teacher and the helper from Sunday and Monday afternoons that stay there together all day. And there’s also several other people that come in at random times during the week to do music or aerobics or whatnot. It’s pretty ridiculous. But for the most part I love all of the teachers. For the first few days they would ask if I wanted anything to eat or drink, and I always told them no thank you, I’m fine, and so finally they just stopped asking and started handing me food whether I wanted it or not. And after finding out how much sugar I like in my tea, they stopped asking if I wanted that, too, and just started making it for me every morning. On the first day, after talking to me and asking me a little bit about myself, Buruyah introduced me to the class and told them all that since I don’t have any family here in Israel, they’re my family now. It was really sweet. And Buruyah has already invited me for Shabbos dinner (unfortunately I try to travel on most Shabbatot, but if I stay I will definitely go there for dinner) and Etie has told me all about her four kids and five grandkids who I will get to meet when I come over to her house. These people are very much the reason I love Israel so much, because as harsh as Israelis can often be, Americans rarely welcome you into their homes and families with the ease and sincerity that Israelis do.

A few anecdotes that I’d like to share about my gan: the first is that the other day there was a really intense desert sandstorm, which apparently had blown in from Egypt and even reached Tel Aviv. You couldn’t see more than ten feet in front of you because the air was orange. On this day, I noticed that a bunch of my kids were crowded around the window. I walked over to see what they were looking at, and saw three camels just hanging out in front of our gan. That was when it REALLY hit me that I live IN THE DESERT now. You don’t see that in New Jersey. My second story occurred yesterday. It was a regular morning, we had services (sidenote: I work in a religious gan, so every morning we have services, with one student who is chosen to lead and all the boys blessing their prayer shawls…it’s very cute), and regular playtime. Then a little while into playtime, the teacher puts on this one CD, and immediately all the kids start SCREAMING, like they knew something was about to happen. So the teacher leaves the room and returns with a HUGE bag of dress up clothes, and all the kids, the teachers, and I get dressed up, wigs and everything. The kids are literally running around in circles, everyone’s screaming and dancing, and it was reallllyyyy crazy. Then, the teacher gets this vat of what looks like mud, and starts spooning in into the kids’ hands. So the kids are all dressed up, screaming and running around, and holding out handfuls of mud. I asked the teacher what it was and she told me it was “Heena.” When I still looked confused, she explained that it was for celebrations and wedding ceremonies. I then realized it was HENNA and all the kids were running around with handfuls of henna so that their palms would turn orange. I went home with completely orange hands yesterday and I still have no idea why they did that at all.

My volunteering at Kama, while the kids are not as cute, is much more relaxed. Mostly we just help the girls with their English exercises. Also, most of their English is pretty good, so sometimes we just talk about ourselves (they want to know all about where we live in America, and what our school was like, and what music we listen to), and by just forcing them to have a conversation in English the teachers tell us we are really helping. Plus, the girls openly adore us. I wore a black t-shirt my first day and a girl told me that I was ‘so cute’ and that my shirt was ‘very, very beautiful.’ I mean, what’s bad about that? I work with girls aged 7th-9th grades. My biggest challenge at Kama is my personal tutoring. The girl is really sweet, but her English is very limited and she’s hesitant to try to speak. Coupled with my abysmal Hebrew, I often cannot even understand her questions, much less answer them. I’ve only met with her once so far, and it was very frustrating, so I think this personal tutoring will be my biggest challenge while I’m here, and both of us are going to have to work extremely hard.

Dad likes me to break up my blogs, so that’s it for this one…coming up next: an exciting Shabbat in Tel Aviv, a relaxed one in Jerusalem, and Yom Nativ. =)

Yerucham, Part 1

SO! I live in Yerucham now. Basically it is a tiny little Podunk (why Microsoft Word just automatically capitalized the word ‘podunk’ for me, I will never know) town in the middle of the Negev desert.

We moved in last Wednesday afternoon, all seven of us girls in a four-room apartment. My room is made up of four girls: Me, Kesha, Misha, and Beth. Beth was in Hagalil before she moved to Chicago. Kesha is from LA, and Misha is from Cherry Hill. A word about these girls: Kesha and Misha are two of my closest friends on Nativ, and both of them are really funny and really great friends to me. That being said, Kesha doesn’t really like to show her feelings, and Misha doesn’t like people to touch her or show her any displays of affection. How I, the world-champion of feelings, hugging, cuddling, and all things touchy-feely, ended up with these friends on Nativ is a mystery to everyone, including the three of us. But we have a really great time together and I’m really happy to be living with them. In the other room is Ashley (one of my best friends from home who lives down the street from me, for those of you who didn’t know), Sarah who is from outside of Philadelphia and is HILARIOUS and always making outrageous statements like “Let’s use all our stipend to build an apartment boat and just not eat anything!” or “Guys we NEED to make an apartment seal!” and Becky, my roommate from first semester who is from Chicago. Overall, our apartment really got what we wanted and we’re all very excited to be living together.

About the actual apartment…well…Toto, we’re not in Jerusalem anymore. It took over a week for our shower to get hot water (we’ve had to shower in the boys apartment) and about four days for them to replace our broken refrigerator (we had to store all our food in our staff’s apartment across the hall). And our toilet leaks water all over the floor from time to time, and when we do shower we will have to shower quickly and then squeegee so that the water doesn’t seep into the hallway. But we unpacked and started organizing quickly. All of our bedrooms are already decorated with tons of pictures, and in my case, cards from Nanny (Ashley wondered aloud today why I have so many pictures of birds and flowers on my wall). Additionally, the bathroom (in our apartment in the middle of the desert, mind you) has a sort of winter-wonderland theme, thanks to Aunt Karen’s many snowflake decorations – sparkly blue ones on the door, cling ones in the shower, and scented holiday candles with snowmen on them. We arranged all the furniture and got organized much faster than any of the other apartments, and it’s even starting to feel like home, despite the fact that the floors are too cold to walk around on barefoot. And our second day here we even went to the hardware store to get some additional shelves, towel hangers, etc etc…which, as our first Yerucham experience, was quite a production. I don’t think the tiny hardware store ever had seven teenage girls in it before, never mind seven who spoke very little Hebrew and wanted to split the bill on seven different credit cards. It ended up in a ride home from one of the non-English-speaking guys who worked in the store, so we wouldn’t have to carry everything. We’re definitely settling into the small town life now.

The first three days were mostly devoted to unpacking and getting organized, with a few introductory meetings with Yoram, who will be our coordinator while we’re here. Last Thursday night was the first night that we really cooked dinner for ourselves and sat down as an apartment to eat together. It was really adorable. Kesha and Misha made delicious stir fry, and there was a huge salad, and we all played grown-ups for a little bit. It’s definitely a huge adjustment to live with six other girls – we have to work out things like groceries, cooking, doing dishes, and learning to clean up after ourselves in an apartment where we’re solely in charge of cleaning. It’s a lot of fun but also a definite challenge, and needless to say I don’t have a ton of space for all my toiletries. Plus all of our clothes live in the hallway, so that’s where all seven of us get dressed – in front of one mirror. Every time I get cranky about this (which is fairly often), I have to remind myself that 1. I signed up for this and 2. it’s all part of the learning and growing experience.

Last Shabbat, our first in Yerucham, was closed, which meant no one was allowed to leave. We all went to services at the synagogue across the street, and then we all went to dinner at our host families’. I was really looking forward to this, because host families were the reason I chose Yerucham over one of the other options on Nativ, volunteering in Be’er-Sheva. My host family consisted of one man named Shlomo. This is where the story gets slightly complicated – Shlomo’s wife and two of his children live in the states, because (I think I’m remembering this right), his wife teaches at University of Washington. His third child, a son age 15, lives with him here but was away this weekend so I didn’t get to meet him. Basically the whole family has been moving back and forth from Israel to the States every few years because they just can’t make up their minds, and so now for work or whatever reason, the family is split across the continents. They do get to visit each other quite frequently though. So my friend Ryan and I were paired with Shlomo as our host family, and he was really great. Although I was sad there weren’t little kids for me to play with like at some of the other host homes, Shlomo was an excellent cook and a really great guy. He’s also in charge of running a discussion group for Nativ on Wednesday nights, so he asked Ryan and I our opinions about what we would like to talk about and how he should go about doing it. He even offered to let us borrow some books from his collection (the Yerucham library is definitely lacking in English books for adults) and even some of his cookbooks. It was overall a really nice night and I hope that Ryan and I will end up spending time with him regularly.

Next blog post: updates on my new jobs. Brace yourselves!