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.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
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!
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!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
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
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
Sunday, April 5, 2009
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!
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!
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